Toronto Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo spoke to the media in Los Angeles on Saturday and, with his team struggling, he is not happy.
“It’s not a comfortable situation for anybody,” Colangelo told the Toronto Sun’s Mike Ganter. “We are obviously mired in a funk. The team took some pretty devastating blows early and often in the season. It has resulted in this situation, but this situation is, I have to think from all standards, unacceptable. It’s disappointing. It’s embarrassing, but this is where we find ourselves.”
The Raptors have lost nine of their last 10 starts and were thrashed by the Utah Jazz 131-99 on Friday night.
Colangelo believes there is more talent on the roster than the record indicates and seemed in no hurry to made a deal.
“I don’t believe this is a talent issue,” he said. “I think it’s a lack of focus, attention to detail, consistency of competing. We have shown flashes of very good basketball, just not good enough to pull out games when we need to pull them out.
“On paper we have improved this basketball team. So I think you have to look at this and say that we have to look internally and make this right with what we have. It’s not necessarily going to be solved with a trade or another acquisition.”
While it had been reported that the Raptors were in talks with the Lakers earlier this week about a trade, Colangelo was not in Los Angeles for trade talks. This is a scouting trip where he is expected to watch some college games, but the team’s G.M. is also expected to meet with Coach Dwane Casey and players to try and figure out what the issues are.
“There has been a lot of dialogue,” he said with respect to Casey. “A lot of discussion. We are going to meet again today and talk about a few things. I will meet individually with some players today, get some feedback. But this is constant evaluation of what we are doing and how we’re doing and why we’re doing it.
“We are all under a microscope right now, as should be the case including myself,” he said, “but we clearly have to make this right.”
