I may be alone 'round these parts but I'm glad. I'd give BC the rest of this season to see what he can do. I question several of his major moves but I always wonder what the background is when it comes to this team. I'd prefer not to give MLSE another fall guy. If the problem is systemic (or rather, 'organic' lol) to the organization, I wouldn't want any fans fooled by simply bringing another pawn in the game. I'm wary of using anyone as a scapegoat at this point; I'm more worried by how Colangelo's efforts seem to parallel Babcock's and Grunwald's before him, than I am that he's
unqualified for the job per se.
Also, BC has proven to be relatively adept on the trade front. If this team is forced to move Bargnani now (arguably at his lowest point) due to immense public pressure, I do have some confidence in BC's ability to parlay value from him. You might question his strategy or vision, but he has on multiple occasions rescued his own errors. The community complains about Turkoglu to this day, for example, but Colangelo managed to get out from under that contract after just one season- and turned him into Barbosa, who was more than serviceable here. Why are we complaining about five years when we only 'suffered' for one? I don't know. But we do.
Likewise, he gets a bad rap for Kapono but... he ultimately flipped him for Reggie. Maybe he doesn't acquire the right players in the first place, that's certainly a point to be made since his FA record is atrocious, but he's skilled at moving them before they ultimately die here, which is equally important- if not more so... especially if you're talking about a player like Bargnani now, who finds himself immersed in a desperate situation, and fits the same category to a large extent.
I might as well keep popping and go out with a bang- or a thud
. I have no problems with the JO deal, either. TJ and Rasho were spent, so what are we really talking about here? Critics can berate Colangelo for Hibbert but it's a stretch to me- at worst it's not a
trade issue, but a
draft issue. You can complain about one, but not both. To say that he
traded away a future All-Star for Jermaine O'Neal is a fractured argument imo, since Hibbert was never on the table for them. JO was indeed a "swing and a miss" but the alternative was hardly better, so I can't justify the criticism- at least not on that basis.
And not to be forgotten, I strongly feel he engineered one of the most overlooked Ripley's Believe it or Not trades in history by dumping Hoffa for Hump. I don't understand how we got anything for Hoffa- there was basically just one suitor that would even consider taking a flier due to his Brigham Young ties, and not only did Colangelo consummate the deal, he managed to return a half-decent young piece from the same lottery (!). In fact, you could argue that BC got more for Rafael Araujo than Babcock got for Vince. Just saying. I mean, BC takes a lot of flack for bidding against himself at times, and rightfully so, but I should hope the same holds true in Utah with Kevin O'Connor and other GMs around the league when they take the same bait.
Either way, I want to give Colangelo a final chance to see what he can do on the trade market with Bargnani, and then judge him from there. This team can ill afford to lose Bargs for nothing and Colangelo, like it or not, has proven that he can sometimes make chicken salad under duress. But the clock is ticking, no doubt. Bargnani's injury- assuming it's legit- is not helping the cause.
peace