Ahmeduw: Nice analysis and break down, all your points are valid, but that doesnt mean the situation doesnt still SUCK :P Yeah you're right, the salary cap doesnt and never did allow steve nash to join the raps but he actually LIKES Canada and hey, a girl can dream can't she? Yeah the age factor sucks too. And umm I don't know about that Van Gundy idea, wouldn't bet on it.

Stockpicker & Spliffsta can't read your comments! Argh. Stupid lack of a premium membership.

F tha haters!! RAPTORS IN 2010!!

A few comments:

About the Team leaving:
-Its not going to happen. Toronto is the 4th largest city in North America.
-Its (last I read) not top 10 in attendence but it is in the top half of the league.
-It doesn't matter how poor attendence is because whats more important is the box suites the owners sell to businesses (or rich individuals). Which again relates to point #1
-MLSE owns the Raptors & Leafs, there is huge cross promotion and selling benefits there (at lower costs as well).
-MLSE owns the Air Canada centre which is a great facility. The raptors fill in 41 calendar dates in the building so another double benefit.
-The TV revenue is still great for the league overall.
-The Cdn dollar is doing great.

About the Raptors:
-We have 3 rookies, 2 2nd year players, 1 year player. Thats 6 rotation players on a 10 man rotation? We lack experience, but we have definite hope for the future. (Though we are FAR from having the brightest future in the league).
- Oh for more youth we have 2 picks this year and 2 players in Europe Roko and Slovar that look like they will be good contributors and coming aboard in 1-2 years.
-We have 18 Million+ stuck in Rose and Alvin. That comes off in 2 years.
-We had no money to go after Steve Nash at the time. Nor would he be a good fit at his age compared to the rest of the team. A short term fix. (Though yes, any talent is good cause its a tradeable asset, again we had no way of getting him though).
-Hoffa, Babcock keeps getting blamed for him but he was on the job for? 2weeks-1month before the draft? Since then his scounting has been great.

What we need is to try (though its easier said than done) trade some players and wait it out.
We have:
Alvin
Jalen
Eric
Aaron
Martin
(Mourning, 1 more year?) on our books. Thats 5 roster spots but players that contribute little to nothing and take up over 20million dollars.

As much as I liked Grunwald for taking us to the playoffs, he left our roster a mess and it takes time to fix it.

Sam Mitchell though...I'm iffy on him....Stan Van Gundy for the 2006/2007 season! :P

Yeah I agree, no doubt Bosh is amazing, but it's going to take way more than him to turn this team around. All raptors fans are waiting for that player to arrive, and we had our hopes on the draft picks this summer but with the addition of villanueva, our team is still 'under contruction'. Which is why I was really disappointed when they couldn't sign Steve Nash when he became a free agent, the season before Carter left.

There's obviously no quick solution so I'm just going to trust Chuck swirsky when he reminded us that Glen Grunwald had 7 years as GM to change the team around enough for a few playoff runs, so give Babcock time.

I think attendance is good because Toronto just loves basketball, moreso than the raptors. I'd rather have the option of watching a sucky team over nothing any day...

Yeah i know what you're saying Femme but honestly, i don't see light at the end of the tunnel. Really, this team is going nowhere fast and Bosh is not going to change that.

I'm surprised they're still drawing good attendance...

Daniel I hear ya, I feel your pain. Although I'm not a bandwagon jumper and am trying to stick by my team through their rougher years...it's definately tough watching your team lose consistently, especially when you know they could be so much more! I guess we'll just have to be patient.

STOCKPICKER HOW BOUT U GO AND SREW UR DAMN SELF, WE MIGHT HAVE A BAD RECORD RIGHT NOW BUT U KNOW WHAT WE ARE STILL IN THE TOP TEN IN ATTENDENCE, AND UR DISSIN CANADA COME ON DUDE UR FROM MICHIGAN I MEAN GIMME A DAMN BRAKE, I MEAN MICHIGAN IS CRAPOLA, ITS ONE OF THE NASTIEST GRIMMY PLACES I HAVE EVER BEEN TO IN MY LIFE, U NEED TO VISIT THE T-DOT, AND MAYBE U'LL REALIZE THAT MICHIGAN IS A SH*ITHOLE AND UR LIVIN IN IT, I'M KINDA ACTUALLY STARTIN TO FEEL BAD 4 YA WHILE I'M TYPING THIS, I'LL MAKE SURE I SPIT ON UR STATE THE NEXT TIME I'M DRIVIN THREW IT, SEE YA SUCKA

daniel, daniel, daniel first off this team has the brightest future in the nba, we got four young solid players in calderon, villaneava, graham, and bosh, charlie and bosh are gonna tear up the league in years to come, rob babcock is amazing u have to realize what hes tryin to do hear, hes building a team that will consistently be in the playoffs year after year, so jus wait it out, hes a smart gm hes not like isiah thomas who jus goes and gets these ole overrated so called stars with big contracts and screws himself over in years, to come

indeed...they do suck; but look on the brightside -----RUDY GAY!!!! i must admit, they are showing improvement, and bosh is tearin it up. and villanueva needs to relax with the duncan/robinson comparisons.