Toronto Raptors on European shopping tour?
March 18, 2008 by Tobias
This past weekend as the first time I watched an Italian league game live. I thought: “Hey, Gallinari is coming to Rome, lets see if he will really be in the 08 draft as many expect him to be”. Well Danilo did not have his best game and also the guy he was guarding, Roberto Gabini won the game in the end for Roma.
But I don’t want to write a scouting report - you can find that here. Let’s take a look who was sitting in the VIP section at that game between Roma and Milano:
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Who do you see? Of course you can see the Lottomatica president in the first row on the right side - ah yes in the back we have a women that looks - well funny? but who is that in the third row with that white shirt? Bryan Colangelo - President and General Manager of the Toronto Raptors.
What is Bryan doing in Rome? The NBA Europe is over - and I promise the picture was taken this past Sunday :). Here is another one:
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As we know the Raptors do have the rights for Roko Ukic, so this might have been a reason, but as I was following Bryan’s eyes for a while he was really following Danilo Gallinari. Of course everything is just “speculating”, but for me it was a pretty big deal to see a NBA GM in Europe while the NBA season is still going on - not too well for the Raptors right now though.
I was also wondering if Bryan told his coach about his trip - I am not sure if Sam Mitchell, who let us know he isn’t into European Basketball at all, would come here, so Bryan did the job for him.
Nice scouting, Sir! Your thoughts on Roko?
Your title is correct Tobias. He will be in Piraeus on Thursday to watch Yiorgos Pridezis of Oylmpiakos…
Raptors will draft European players, so they can make money !!!
They are going to suit the Spanish Federation for 14M$.
Toronto went with euros because black american players dont like to travel to a foreign country that speaks the same language, that has the same food and culture (there is no canadian culture just american TV and music).
As for Michell, 0 for 5 on this road trip, first round exit and hopefully he will be gone.
Calderon was playing at all star level and Mitchell still went with Ford.
The Raps have to sign Calderon this summer and why would he come back to Toronto if teams like NY and Miami give him big bucks and the reigns to the team?
To sit behind Ford?
And if they sign Calderon, then they have to trade Ford because you can not have to PG making big money. Except trading him then will garner less return because the teams will know that Toronto is desperate.
If BC is really interested in Danilo, then chances are one of TJ, Jose or Andrea will be good as gone at the draft…probably either TJ or Andrea. The normally homer-ish Toronto pbp guys have been slagging TJ and Andrea like crazy. They don’t do that unless they know somebody is on the outs.
Brian - TJ? Maybe. Andrea? Not likely. This only AB’s second year, fer cryin’ out loud. I think BC said he’d give him 4 years to show his worth.
[...] * Ball In Europe snapped a picture of Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo scouting games in Europe this past week. [...]
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