"Recapping The 2012-2013 Season" - RapIsPower's Blog

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"Recapping The 2012-2013 Season"

Posted on December 8, 2012 at 12:15 PM.

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Recapping The 2012-2013 Season

Even though it was a yet another dismal season record-wise(ending 33-49 and ranked #25), I'm sure most fans would agree that the 2012-2013 season was the most exciting year since 2007. That was the year we drafted Bargnani, and last year we traded him....

After starting the season 5-17, Colangelo was finally fired and replaced by Ed Stevenson. Knowing he had to make an incredible impact early, he caved into the demands of angry fans screaming "Trade him" during the Raptors first home game under his watch, and made a make/or break deal with the Knicks:

Bargnani/Calderon/2ndRd->Stoudemire/Kidd

Many analysts argued that the trade wouldn't do Toronto any good, as they still acquired considerable age, with one announcing retirement(Kidd) and the other with health issues, but Stevenson was powerful in his defense of Amare' telling the press:

"I know you can't see it now, he hasn't played a game all season, he hasn't even had a full practice, but if he wasn't healthy, the trade would've been denied. It's time for us as a team to stop looking at this as a burden and begin to see it as the first move towards competing in the playoffs. (Amare's) a great asset and I'm behind him one hundred percent."

And an asset he was, posting 17PPG and 8REB along with 1BLK a game. And I'm still a firm believer in his ability to be MORE dominant this year.

Another highlight was Jonas Valanciunas making the First All-Rookie Team, but other then that, the team struggled through chemistry issues and a lack of perimeter scoring all season-long.

But, we were rewarded for our patience in the end when the suns took interest in a much improved Landry Fields who had played well, but been disappoint from the arc and didn't fit in to Stevenson's vision:

Fields/FirstRound#7->FirstRound#3

The draft this year was weak, with seldom decent players, but one may have fallen our way in Shabazz Mahammad....
The prior teams already had their back court in order, where we were interested in taking on this hot-headed rook, hoping he would become a diamond in a 7-year rough....

Our Core
#	NAME	POS	AGE	HT	WT	SALARY
3	Kyle Lowry	PG	26	6'0	205	$5,750,000
12	Shabazz Mahammad	SG	19	6'6	225	$3,110,000
10	Demar Derozan	SF	23	6'7	216	$3,344,250
33	Amare' Stoudemire	PF	30	6'11	245	$21,000,000
17	Jonas Valanciunas	C	20	7'1	231	$3,374,640
32	Ed Davis	6th	23	6'10	232	$2,207,040