Bryan Bizarro

Master Shake · Feb 16, 2009

'Bizarro World," is how one observer described Bryan Colangelo's post-trade conference call on Friday night. And a day later, the more you think about the way Colangelo characterized his vision of the Toronto Raptors after dealing Jermaine O'Neal and Jamario Moon and a conditional draft pick to the Miami Heat for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks, the more apt the descriptor.

Raptorland might as well be the new Bizarro World, the old cartoon planet where bad is good and ugly is beautiful. The GM once heralded as a saviour suddenly needs saving.

It was not the crux of the O'Neal deal that was unnerving; bringing in the aging big man was a bad idea from the get-go and this corner backed his shipment.

But when the trade was originally leaked to the media, it didn't include the Raptors sending away Moon or a conditional first-round draft pick, add-ons which seemed to make the taking back of Banks's contract all the more punitive.

And more to the point, Colangelo, until Friday night, hadn't made it clear that he's leaning toward maintaining the status quo this summer, of re-signing players from the list of Toronto's free-agents-to-be, among them Marion, Anthony Parker, Joey Graham and Carlos Delfino. Suddenly, the same-old is new again.

What of the chemistry issues that might crop up if the soon-to-be-31-year-old Marion, who is making $17 million (U.S.) this season, signs for far less this summer?

If he was unhappy being a top-three, top-dollar player on a championship contender in sunny Phoenix a few years back, which he reportedly was, what are the odds he's a happy camper for fewer dollars on a worse team in his first cold-weather home? Grumblers are the new glue guys.
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