Is Toronto A Small Market Team?

Posted on | July 31, 2009 | 5 Comments

Austin Burton, of Slam Magazine, just wrote an article where he says that, despite the size of the city, when it comes to professional sports, Toronto is a small market city.  He talks about the number of times the Raptors have been on US television and how popular the franchise player, Chris Bosh is, as proof.  I agree and disagree with him.

The main ammunition for some Toronto fans when calling the owners cheap, is that they don’t spend like they are the 4th largest market in the league, which they technically are (behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago). A few problems with that. The first is the exchange rate and corporate tax. The Raptors pay out mostly in American dollars, but get most of their money in Canadian. When the exchange rate is at par, it’s no problem, but for the 99.9999% of the time it isn’t, that means the Raptors are essentially paying more on the dollar than every other team. The high Canadian corporate tax rate also hurts the bottom line.

As for the population base, Toronto is technically the fourth largest market, but that’s only when the actual city population is looked at.  When looking at the metropolitan population, Toronto suddenly drops to 7th, behind Dallas, Philadelphia and Houston, and just ahead of Miami, Atlanta and Washington.

Of course, the writer wasn’t talking about economics or population bases.  He was talking about something else. And this is where I have the problem. See, the writer, I’m guessing, is American. And without getting into any American bashing, some Americans tend not to see the big picture a lot of times. The writer talks about how Bosh is less popular than Chris Paul and Ray Allen only because he plays for the Raptors. In Canada. Flawed logic, to say the least. Firstly, it’s debatable whether Ray Allen, who’s been in a Spike Lee movie, has a championship ring and played in way more playoff games than Bosh, is even more popular.

Only once, since Bosh became an All-Star, has Ray Allen gotten more votes than him, and that was the Celtics Championship season when they were the talk of the league. Yes, Allen sells more jerseys, but that also probably has to do with his Championship ring than where he plays. Boston is not a large market team, but they have a vaunted history behind them. The Raptors do not.

Chris Paul has been on the NBA 1st and 2nd team the last two years, and finished second in MVP voting two years ago. He’s a 6 foot-nothing point guard who is exciting to watch, partially because he is so small, yet rebounds and plays much bigger. He’s a better player than Bosh and had a huge playoffs during his best season, two seasons ago, when his team pushed San Antonio to the brink in the second round. Playoffs make a player, in the NBA. Ask Trevor Ariza.

Secondly, if Chris Bosh is less popular than the writer perceives he should be, it might have to do with Bosh himself. Yes, Bosh is friendly, accessible and tries to make himself as visible as possible through the internet, but his game, or image, is not typical of a popular player. He doesn’t have an edge and fire of an Iverson or Garnett. He isn’t a high flying skywalker like Dwight Howard, LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. And he does not have an exciting, small guy playing with the big boys, game like Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade or even Nate Robinson. Bosh is a relatively skinny, jumpshooting big man who, despite being quick and athletic, doesn’t play above the rim much. Plus, he’s not an overly emotional player on the court, which fans love to see. Even Raptors fans have talked about how boring the guy is. If even your own team’s fans aren’t thrilled about watching a player, why would other team’s fans be?

The problem here, however, is that the writer of the article is looking through his very narrow American view of things.  The Raptors and Chris Bosh are not popular in the US, so they are not popular. Many Americans might be surprised that an entire world goes on outside of the US. Colangelo, despite being an American, has figured this out. He’s figured out that Americans, in general, don’t particularly like anything that’s not American, and have trouble seeing outside of their borders, so he has taken a global view. Will it make the Raptors more popular in the US? No. And no one should really care. When the Raptors make the playoffs this year, as they will hopefully and should do, it’s a good bet the Raptors popularity in Europe will skyrocket. Already, Bargnani jerseys are apparently the 10th best selling jersey in Europe. The Raptors are currently `Canada’s team’, and are soon to be `Europe’s team’, too. I wouldn’t particularly call that small market.

All that doesn’t necessarily mean that writers like Austin Burton will get his head out of his ass long enough to realize the world doesn’t end at the US border, but since he’s a writer in another country, I guess I shouldn’t care.

Category: International, NBA, Raptors

News Bulletin: Colangelo Wanted for Rape!

Posted on | July 30, 2009 | 5 Comments

I was waiting to write a summary of what Raptors GM, Bryan Colangelo, has done with the Raptors this summer, but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. I was minding my own business this evening when I go to Doug Smith’s blog to discover that Colangelo has somehow convinced Warriors GM, Larry Riley, that what the Warriors really need is not a 23 year old athletic shooting guard who can hit from range and has the potential to be a legit starting shooting guard in the league, but an over the hill 31 year old SF, who has never even come close to averaging double digits in scoring, probably because his CAREER average shooting percentage is .390.  In ten seasons, Devean George has played an average of 57 games a season, but to be fair, a lot of those missed games this past season were DNP-Coaches Decisions.  Although, I don’t know if that’s really  better than being injured.  It’s kind of like discovering that your teenage daughter isn’t having sex with her boyfriend because he’s having a herpes outbreak.

This is one of those trades that guys suggest on forums and get shot down because it’s so stupid.  Unfortunately, it’s also ammunition for future lopsided trade proposals.  They can say “Hey, Colangelo was able to get Marco Belinelli for Devean George, so why wouldn’t  Danny Ferry trade LeBron James for Chris Bosh?”

I don’t know if Colangelo showed Larry Riley clips of Devean George when he was still with the Lakers, and only overrated, rather than just washed up.  Or maybe he just kept telling him that George was an expiring contract, which EVERYONE wants.  Really!

Seriously, though, I really have trouble figuring out this trade from Golden State’s perspective.  The expiring contract doesn’t really do it because Marco Belinelli has a team option for next season they could have simply not exercised if they wanted to get rid of him that badly.  And while the Warriors have a bunch of shooting guards on the roster, which meant Belinelli might have trouble getting minutes, they have even more small forwards.  George might not even see the floor this season.

Even during George’s peak, he wasn’t as talented as Belinelli is right now.  I mean, despite fighting for playing time in a crowded Warrior backcourt last season, Belinelli had a better year, statistically, than George EVER had.  He shot better both from the field and behind the three point line, his scoring average was higher than George’s ever was and he had more assists per game than George ever had.  And George actually costs a few hundred thousand dollars more than Belinelli.

It’s mind boggling to me, and yet another reason why Colangelo is a favourite to win Executive of the Year Award (although San Antonio’s R.C. Buford has to be up there, too).  The Raptors now have two very different young SG’s, both with loads of potential.  And on a side note, they can actually put on the floor an All-Euro team that is actually pretty damn good.  Would anyone be really shocked if the Raptors had all European players in five years?  Is Colangelo trying to pull a trade for Ricky Rubio?

On a side note, I’m guessing this might be the end of the Carlos Delfino saga.  With Belinelli on board, Delfino becomes a lot less needed.  Belinelli can begin the season as the starter at the SG position, as he started 23 games last season for the Warriors, which means draft pick DeMar DeRozan has very little pressure on him and can ease into things slowly, if he needs to.

The only pressing need for the Raptors now is a backup SF.  However past his prime Devean George was, he was the only true SF on the roster besides Turkoglu.  Both Antoine Wright and DeRozan can play SF, but they would both be a little undersized.  Looking at the players available, who might take the veteran’s minimum- which is all the Raptors have to offer- I wouldn’t be shocked to see Joey Graham back next season.  He knows the system, showed some improvement last season, and could easily fill in for 10-15 minutes per game.

Of course, after tonight’s surprise, and what he did to get Turkoglu, I wouldn’t be completely shocked if Colangelo somehow convinced Linas Kleiza to accept the minimum to play with the Raptors.

*UPDATE*

I’ve discovered that the Raptors threw in enough money in the deal to essentially cover Devean George’s contract.  This, and only this, seems to be the only possible reason the Warriors would do this deal.  I read this blog and, to me, it sounds like an excuse.  Belinelli did have a horrible rookie year, but his sophomore season was much better and he showed a lot of promise, especially when he was able to step into the starting lineup for 23 games due to the various injuries of the other 392 Golden State wing players.  The blog mentions that Belinelli was a bust, which is incredibly laughable, considering that he was drafted 18th, has been in the league only 2 seasons, had decent numbers despite a surplus at his position.  More than likely, Belinelli was in Don Nelson’s doghouse (as countless other talented players have been), ownership needed to save money and Colangelo kept calling to try and get him.

Category: NBA, Raptors, Trades, Warriors