Contrary to the reports yesterday, Bryan Colangelo will remain president of the Toronto Raptors. So this means Woj was wrong. Wow.
“Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment President
and CEO Tim Leiweke announced Tuesday that he has revamped the senior leadership
of the Toronto Raptors in preparation for next season. Bryan Colangelo has had
his contract extended as the team’s President and will report directly to Mr.
Leiweke. The club has also created a new position of General Manager that will
have final authority on all basketball-related decisions. At this time, with
input from Colangelo, Leiweke is conducting a search to identify candidates and
expects to name the new GM in the next 30 days.“After thorough evaluation and considering all the options, we have concluded
that these changes will be in the best interest of the organization,” said
Leiweke. “By splitting the roles and having both men report directly to me, we
are adding depth to the basketball operations group and giving the Toronto
Raptors the best chance of competing for championships in the future.The new GM
will inherit a great situation in Toronto, as all of my due diligence around the
League indicates that we have a fine, young core and a few key moves will make
us a playoff contender next season.”While the General Manager will have autonomy over basketball decisions,
Colangelo will continue to advise Leiweke on basketball-related matters while
also broadening his involvement with the business side of the franchise.“The
future of this team and this organization excites me more than ever, and I am
looking forward to being part of our future success,” said Colangelo. “I will
add whatever is necessary to help improve our basketball team while also
expanding my efforts to increase brand awareness and influence growth of the
game across this great country.”“Bryan is skilled, knowledgeable and respected across the NBA and will be a resource that we count on to help build the Raptors into Canada’s team,” said Leiweke.
“We like being able to have the best of both worlds”. – Tim Leiweke on extending BC as President, while still in search for GM.
“He’s going to have to live with that. I hope he can. If he can’t, I’m fairly certain we’re not going to fire the Toronto Raptors.”
“Bryan’s probably ticked off at me. There’s no probably. He’s ticked off at me.”
“Toronto is not bidding on the 2016 ASG. Canada is.”
MLSE also announced that Leiweke would move up his official start date from July 1 to June 3 at the suggestion of the Board.”
So, let’s dissect this big block of text, and calm down for a minute. It seems that Colangelo will still have some input with what’s going on, which is not necessarily a bad thing because he is well known and respected around the league. However, he won’t have the final say in throwing Landry Fields a huge contract, but will be able to see his final plan come to fruition. The new likely GM won’t change the direction of the franchise significantly, or in other words, ‘blow it up’.
This is something that is a huge positive, because there is no telling how effective a misguided new general manager would be. A proper chain of command along with keeping Colangelo under control without cutting ties seems to be the motive for Leiweke here.
Colangelo will work with the new GM who Leiweke hires, and a team of Colangelo + Masai Ujiri would not be bad at all. As much as I hate to admit it, it looks like MLSE has made the right decision here. Good job, Tim.
