We've got no chance In a frank and rather stunning assessment, Raptors General Manager Rob Babcock told the Toronto Sun yesterday he does not expect his club to improve on its 33-49 record from last season, given the influx of young players on the roster. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Basketball/NBA/T...205586-sun.html Personally I think it is a smart move, rather than have the fans and the media jump all over a young team this buys them some time and with everybody expecting the worst if the team does surprize it will be all the more rewarding! what do you guys think?
However, he wants a mulligan with this remark. The media looked at this thing the wrong way; in order words, Babcock is practically saying "The Raps have no chance this year," which is understandable but I don't think it's right to say that out to the media. The Raps players are probably pressured to do well now, which in a sense, is a good thing but at the same time, their enthusiasm and spirit to play is cut down. The Raps will not make the playoffs this year, but I think they'll have a better record. They just got to keep their heads up and contend every single game.
Babcock has reached a new level of stupidity with those comments. Imagine how the current players and head coach must feel with remarks like that? Their own GM is not giving them a chance to improve from last season, despite some upgrades to their depth, plus a year of experience from last year's group. This is professional basketball, anything is possible. You don't plant the seed of doubt in your team before the season has even started.
Not a good move. This gives the players no motivation to improve on last year. Expectations are low so why put in the extra effort? What does this say to Bosh? The team isn't even trying to improve themselves, so why should he stick around? With the amount of our payroll, frankly a sub 33 win season is unacceptable.
What the hell was Babcock thinking? I wouldn't say he's the best GM at media-tatics. In the middle of last season, he publicly said one thing while Mitchell was saying another. Now this. The players were going to play with chips on their shoulders before, but now they have absolutely no pressure because even their GM said "We've got no chance". What's Babcock going to say now? "Araujo was a total bust"?
"We more or less have the same team back with the exception of Donyell Marshall, who was an integral part of our team last year. We're replacing him with rookies." And whose fault is that?!?@#
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Eclipse:</div><div class="quote_post">"We more or less have the same team back with the exception of Donyell Marshall, who was an integral part of our team last year. We're replacing him with rookies." And whose fault is that?!?@# </div> exactly and also what messege does this send to the fans? A lot of people would interuprt this as Babock not even trying to improve the team (even though thats not the case, but you know how some people are).
Someone blow a load on this guy. If they hired Julius Erving for GM, Vince wouldn't have left and maybe the direction of the Raps would've been up instead of a downward spiral.
MLSE won't be very happy about this one. Who's going to pay their hard-earned money to see a team that's even worse than last year? I'm guessing that they're not paying him to make the team even worse, but I could be wrong. I hope they hand him his a** on a plate.
This is not good. Not gooooooooood. We need a saviour, but I hear the Raptor mascot has already cut up his wrists after what he's heard.
If Babcock thinks we are going to re-establish our selves as a winner by waiting on rookies to develop he's got his head up his ass. Because until we can actually be serious team no one will want to stay.... Grunwald gave out some terrible contracts but he was pretty much right when he said that you have to pay FA's a premium to come to toronto.
Glen Grunwald was the right dude who put the Raps in the post-season, even if he put the franchise in some very bad debt...hehe giving "The Dream" a nightmare of a contract. At least, he tried to bring some excitement to the city and made some player movement that helped the team a lot. I don't know what Babcock is waiting for exactly. Sam Mitchell should give him a powerbomb through a table or something.
Nowhere in the article did Babcock say we have "no chance" at winning more games than last season. I think this is just another case of media exaggeration. He did, in another interview, state that he doesn't <u>expect</u> us to win more games than last season due to our inexperienced roster, but I don't think he was out of line for saying that. It's no secret that on paper, we're not as good a team as last season so I can't blame him for saying that he doesn't expect us to be better..... Yes he's being negative, but it's not that big of a deal. The reporter (in the other interview) asked him if he believes we'd win more games than last season, so he just gave an honest answer.
Yes, but that's also saying that you're not giving the team a chance to do better. If anything, a GM is always out to do better every season.
Babcock already stated that we're building for the future, so expectations for this coming up season will obviously be low. What matters most is that we have direction, and it looks as though Babcock has that covered (hopefully). He also didn't say that he's not giving them a chance to do better. It was just an opinion and I assume most people have that exact opinion too.
Obviously, I don't disagree with what Babcock said: the Raptors are going to be a worse team this year. But the fact is, as head of the team, he has to be much more careful with his words. Anyone that is affiliated with the Raptors shouldn't be dishing out negative comments like that; That's the media's job. I've always appreciated Babcock's honesty, but there are certain situations where you are best left to not say anything at all.
I think people are blowing this out of proportion. He's just trying to say we probably won't win more than 33 games, which is understandable. Lot's of people think Toronto won't win more than 35-40 games, and they are probably right. Basically, there will be growing pains. Some nights Villanueva could put up 20 points and the Raptors will win, and others the Raptors will lose or get blown out. Also, nowhere does he say 'we have no chance'. Just the media (aka the puckheads who know nothing about basketball, and drool all over hockey) putting words in Babs' mouth.
Babcock still could of conveyed the same message in better words. He could of said something, like "it might not show in the record, but the team will be in a better shape than last year," which is true, because of the young talent he's bringing in. However, Babcock stated it in a very pessimistic tone and that's definitely not good for the team's morale, heading into training camp. I just feel it was a bad judgement call on Babcock's part: when put in a situation like that, its best just to not say anything at all.
