Bye Bye Babs...

(Editors Note: This was written a month ago, or whenever the heck Rob Babcock was fired, but Achanceyougottatake Sports' lazy editor, no names mentioned here... cough(jason)cough... couldn't bother to read through it until now... shameful, shameful, but what do we expect from the son of a bald man?)

And just like that it was over. The angst ridden, contentious, error stricken Rob Babcock era came to an abrupt, but merciful conclusion. Horribly unpopular amongst fans, media, and --- most importantly --- the coach he hired, Babcock was finally seen as hindering the Raptors’ progress. The proverbial straw which broke the camel’s back, came when Babcock recalled Pape Sow from the development league without first consulting coach Sam Mitchell. Of course, failing to consult Mitchell shouldn’t be surprising, given that Babcock and his coach rarely spoke any longer, but when the always verbose Mitchell took the discussion to the media, it became another black eye for a franchise in disarray. While ultimately blame for the Raptors current state rests with nobody more than Raptors’ President Richard Peddie (who hired Babcock for his youthful verve and then fired him for his lack of experience), Babcock was canned because he failed miserably in each segment of his job.

The Draft – Less than a month on the job, Babcock went to his first draft intent upon filling what he had identified as the Raptors largest hole. Unfortunately, their biggest hole is also the biggest hole for every team except Miami, Houston, and Detroit. Simply put, skilled pivots are harder to find than quarters on laundry day, which means teams get desperate for bigs and do crazy things like give Mark Blount long, rich contracts, but if you draft a guy with the 7th pick whom nobody else ranked above 20th, well he’d better provide something, anything. Instead, Rafael Araujo has posted numbers which even my Grandma could post. His Player Efficiency Rating this year is 4.26, which considering the league average is 15, looks kind of bad. In fact, it is the worst PER of any player who has started the majority of his teams games, but start he did. Repeatedly. Because Babcock had used (some might say wasted) such a high pick on Araujo, it became imperative that the Raptors get some value from him, so he started 30 of 38 games, and in all that time he has done little to justify a non roster training camp invitation, let alone an actual starting spot.

Babcock’s draft errors compounded this year, when he used that same 7th slot to select mercurial UConn forward Charlie Villaneuva. While the sweet shooting big man has been one of the league’s better rookies the importance of the fact that he plays the same position as Toronto’s sole star player cannot be overstated. Now, in the 7th spot there weren’t too many players better for the Raptors than Villaneuva, but Toronto had the chance to package that 7th pick, along with their 16th (used on Joey Graham) to the Hawks for the 2nd pick. Babcock, believed that the Raptors had too many holes to fill to get rid of two first round picks. Big mistake, HUGE. That second pick could have been point guard Chris Paul. Basketball isn’t football, there aren’t 60 roster spots where two good players and far more important than one great player. Villaneuva will be good, but Paul is already standing on the precipice of stardom. Paired with Bosh, the Raptors would have had their own tantalizing version of Nash - Stoudemire east.

Free Agency – Babcock’s second mistake actually was salvaged in perhaps the best move of his tenure, but before trading him for Mike James, the 36 million six year contract given to Rafer Alston looked terrible. Alston is certainly talented, but a free lancing, erratic street ball legend, is bound to clash with every professional coach he plays for, and given that the Babcock’s coach is particularly happy to oblige the media with a salacious quote, a year of public feuds between Alston, Mitchell, and Babcock was inevitable.

Getting Mike James from the Rockets (does Len Dawson not realize that his coach is Jeff Van Gundy?) was a mild stroke of genius, but given Babcock’s other free agent miscue, might ironically have sped up his inevitable dismissal. Last year --- perhaps gun shy after getting fleeced by Rod Thorn in the Vince Carter trade (see below) --- Babcock might have been leery of getting burned, or maybe he just didn’t think it necessary, but his myopic failure to move pending free agent Donyell Marshal hurt the franchise. It isn’t as though Marshal would have brought back Dwayne Wade, but he was a valued piece for contending teams, he was obviously leaving as a free agent, and the Raptors were clearly going nowhere. With Mike James having a career year, the opt out clause in his contract, and his apparent apathy towards playing in Canada he should probably be moved. Given Babcock’s botching of Marshal, Raptors’ management likely decided he shouldn’t be the man to make (or not make) that move.

Trades – Of course the move that will haunt Babcock for the rest of his career, and hurt his chances of getting another GM job, was the Carter trade. Vince had to go and trading superstars is notoriously hard, but here’s what Babcock didn’t get in return: Cap Space – actually, the Raptors ended up paying Alonzo Mourning 8 million to NEVER play for them; Starters – forget getting a player of Vince’s quality (given the way Vince was cakewalking through games, none were available), but Babcock didn’t even get a starting player in return. Eric and Aaron Williams are good role players (maybe), but this year they’ve started 4 of the 24 combined games they’ve played. They each have more DND – CD (Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision) than starts; Lottery Picks – Babcock apparently took this deal over one for Shareef Abdur Rahim’s expiring contract because it contained two draft picks, but the first pick was Philadelphia’s from last year (16th) and the second is Denver’s from this year (likely in the 20’s). Given how productive most players are when selected outside the lottery, Babcock’s draft picks are maybe worth one starter. Vince has miraculously recovered his all star form in New Jersey, Alonzo is giving Shaq breathers in Miami, Eric and Aaron Williams are pulling splinters out of there butts and all Toronto really has is Joey Graham, who in a few years might be a good rotation player, and the Nuggets pick in a generally uninspiring draft. Wow.

Hiring – In their minor power struggle, it seems as though Sam Mitchell beat out Babcock, which is ironic, because Mitchell’s hiring was a mistake even before their relationship became dependent on blaming one another for the team’s decrepit state. Right now Mitchell seems to have the support of Alan Embry, who as an adviser to Peddie has stepped into the interim GM job, but Mitchell’s poor record with his players and worse record in the standings make it a certainty that whomever is hired at season’s end will go looking for a new coach. Hiring the wrong guy is bad enough, but when their relationship turned bad and Mitchell was chosen to finish the year over Babcock, that must have hurt.

Looking Forward – The Raptors could have a young nucleus of Bosh, Chris Paul, and Andre Igoudala (chosen directly after Araujo in the 2004 draft), each an up tempo player, happy to play team oriented basketball. They could be in a better cap position, and they could be better coached. Still, Embry has moved quickly to refocus the franchise. Getting two second rounders for Aaron Williams is good if unexciting, and getting Jalen Rose off the books for that pick acquired in the Vince Carter deal actually makes the Vince deal a little --- not much --- but a little bit better. Moving forward they need to find an experienced GM, with Denver’s Kiki Vandeweghe’s at the front of the list. Obviously the new GM will decide what to do about the coaching, for now Mitchell seems safe, but in the offseason I would make a serious pitch towards Phoenix assistant Marc Ivaroni. His pedigree is impeccable and he favors the fast paced, team oriented style of play which puts bottoms in seats. They need to get something valuable for Mike James, or in a best case scenario convince him that playing with an unselfish superstar for another 3 years would be the best thing for his career. They also should move Eric Williams, even if it’s just for the cap space and a 2nd round pick. Finally, they need to find a big body to put beside Bosh, but lets be clear about this, just because they will be flush with cash, doesn’t necessitate that they HAVE to spend the money. Nene would be a good fit, but at eight million per, not ten and definitely not eleven. It’s a weak free agent year and if they over spend trying to get rid of their cap space (think Atlanta Hawks and Joe Johnson) then they will once again be in trouble, only without Rob Babcock to take the fall.