Rhubarb

Defensive posture is two-fold:

1 - Babcock was, in most minds, unfairly pinned as the scapegoat. Simply put, Babcock > Peddie. Never had the total support network of both the board or the team, which makes it bloody hard to swing a franchise around in 2 years.

2 - Alot of the 'defence' of Babcock arises when ignorance rears its ugly head. These people often fail to recognise, much like the media, the positives that Babcock brought to this franchise, instead choosing to focus predominantly on the VC deal and the Hoffa drafting. Whether or not these two landmark events in his tenure were ultimately destructive or not is secondary in the argument; the defence is not so much toward his definitive actions, but his tenure as a whole. Okay, recognise he may have stuffed up initially, but it seems that from then onward, everything he did was treated on the basis of Hoffa/VC. In summation: ignorance.

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Tim Duncan: "People should stop talking about Bosh as a future force. He's already a force, right here and now."

"I don't really look at guys and memorize players, but (Bosh) is very impressive. He can shoot, he has an inside game, physical at times, he's pretty good...he's more than holding his own." - Shaq

"I really like him...to me he's already pretty special," Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki said after continually getting beat to the basket by Bosh. "He's going to be a great player in this league."

"Chris Bosh really has emerged to be a star in this league. There are more than the top three (in the 2003 draft)." - Dwyane Wade

I love everything about him, I love his game, I love his work ethic. He definitely has my approval - Kobe Bryant"

Austin Kent

This thread is funny, not only is it just plain weird that Babcock's wife babysat Colangelo as a wee one, but because I too have 20/20 hindsight. I'm not saying you need to go egg Babcock's house right this second, but just know that I was going to pick Amare Stoudemire with the fifth pick in 2002, Gilbert Arenas in the first round and Dwyane Wade ahead of Darko Milicic...but I didn't.

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no_free_baskets

LOL someone sounds angry...ahahahaaa...

yes, i know mitchell never takes accountability for his action as ive said so in numerous previous posts. that comment was facetious but i guess you didnt catch on to that one...oh well, no big deal...

i think its grossly overblown that babcock didnt have adequate time to prepare..yes, it obviously true that he didnt, but ppl really make it seem as if he never saw aruajo play before he was hired or had very little information on him...thats nonsense...he was head of player personnel at minny...if you look at pritchard in portland who holds a similar if not exact job title as babcock did, he describes his job as having to have an in depth knowledge of all nba personnel as well as top collegiate prospects in order to give intel on prospective trades, fa signing etc, etc...im sure guys in similar position as pritchard and babcock have detailed scouting reports for every even remotely possible 1st round pick....really, it was his job in min. to know about aruajo beforehand for exactly those reasons (e.g possible future trades, future fa etc, etc...) so to think babcock drafted this guy sight unseen is quite clearly wrong...what exactly do you think babcock was doing in min. if he wasnt scouting guys like aruajo? twiddling his thumbs?!?

oh yes, and i would absolutely tell management off if they told me to take someone i didnt want...your argument make it seem as if babcock was hired as some entry level grunt that he cant take a stand against management...please... his job is akin to being hired as a ceo in a normal company structure...hes supposed to be in charge and be able to lead and direct as he sees fit (or else why bother hiring him in the 1st place??) and what exactly do u think mlse or peddie said to him in this hypothetical e.g that "forced" babcock to take aruajo??? "we're going to fire you if you dont pick aruajo"??! LOL, give me a break...

fact of the matter is, he either made a bad pick out of his own volition or as you say was "pressured" into taking aruajo...neither is excusable...in fact, the latter of the two might even be worse...i mean who really wants someone to lead that has no backbone....cant believe ppl still want to argue about this, but really, good riddance to babcock...

tobybennett

I agree Babcock was put in a tough situation, but he made his situation worse. Only good move was Alston for James.

pmac34

see, Babcock was too inconsistent for toronto.
he had either catastrophiv things or amazing things.
he was a risk taker.

horrible:
-hoffa
-VC trade

great:
-Mike James for big hairy coca-cola guy's but ugly Rafer and his uglier contract
-Charlie V

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babcock_sux

Nice to say that now, nearly 2 years after the draft. If you had the manhood, you would've stood up to the scouts and said, "I WANT IGOUDALA".

As far as the VC trade, that's even worse, yet he LIKES the trade. Just shows you what kind of idiot he really is.

narrator

Babcock was hired to be a stooge for Peddie hence he was the fallguy when Peddie's moves fell through. This is not to excuse Babcock (I think he's a terrible GM and am surprised he is gainfully employed. Although he is in the employ of the equally stupid Kevin McHale so perhaps that says something in and of itself. But I digress). Babcock bears the responsibility for all the moves even the ones that, miraculously, worked out. If he had a spine, he would have stood up for what he believed. But he didn't so that's his legacy.

To no_free_baskets: excellent post, great points. Just so you know.

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