TORONTO - It appears the Toronto Raptors will have Jay Triano back as coach next season.
Ticking off his wish list for next season, GM Bryan Colangelo would also like to have Chris Bosh back playing under a new contract extension and some experienced help at point guard for Jose Calderon.
Colangelo addressed the media Monday for the first time since his team finished the season a disappointing 33-49 and 13th in the Eastern Conference, missing the playoffs for the first time in three years.
One of the biggest decisions facing the GM as the team heads into the off-season is the future of Triano, the Niagara Falls, Ont., native who took over on an interim basis when Sam Mitchell was fired 17 games into the season.
"I thought Jay did a very solid job under the circumstances, he never stopped coaching, he never stopped preparing," Colangelo said in a wide-ranging hour-long news conference at the Air Canada Centre. "Coming out of all the player exit interviews, the players have a lot of respect for Jay, they respect his basketball acumen, they respect his professionalism, they respect his means of communication, and they respect generally the way he leads this team.
"As much digging as I could try to do, I couldn't find anything negative about Jay and the job that he did and their feelings toward him. That says a lot. Those characteristics . . . certainly would lend favourably toward Jay as a coach that has a very good shot at maintaining the job."
Colangelo says he's received calls from other coaches interested in the position, but he hasn't interviewed anyone and isn't sure he will.
As for the future of Bosh, Colangelo scoffed at suggestions the team consider trading its captain simply because he'll become a free agent at the end of the 2009-10 season.
"It would be foolish to decide to trade him because there's a possibility he might leave a year from now," he said. "Chris is still the best player on this team and thus will remain the cornerstone of the franchise until some other time when that decision is made."
Colangelo plans to meet with the all-star forward and his agent this summer to discuss a contract extension that could potentially add another three seasons to Bosh's time in Toronto.
Bosh was noncommittal about his future with the team when he met with the media last week, to which Colangelo said uncertainty is part of the business.
"Clearly you want to hear him say, 'I'm here longterm, don't worry about me, I'm not going anywhere,' take that blood oath together," Colangelo said. "It's not going to happen. I think Chris has made it clear that that's not going to happen at any time in the near future.
"But it remains the intention of this organization to keep Chris as a part of this entity and to remain a fixture here at the ACC," he added.
The GM had high hopes heading into the season, saying the team, on paper at least, was the best Raptors squad ever assembled. But the season quickly unravelled, with Colangelo calling Calderon's lingering hamstring injury the team's "biggest obstacle."
"If there was a glaring weakness, it was the depth at the point guard spot," he said. "We simply did not put the experience behind Jose."
The void at point guard came after Colangelo traded away T.J. Ford to Indiana for Jermaine O'Neal, a personnel move that didn't pan out. O'Neal and Bosh never meshed and Colangelo sent the veteran forward to Miami in February for Shawn Marion.
Colangelo said the "jury is still out" on whether backup point guard Roko Ukic can develop into a solid NBA player, but that "the kid needs a chance."
Colangelo turned around a struggling franchise upon his arrival in Toronto in 2006, winning NBA executive of the year in 2007 after the team won its first ever division title.
Three years later, on the heels of a horrible season, some fans are calling for his dismissal and the GM admitted the criticism hurts to hear.
"It drives me," he said. "I should have thicker skin after all these years but I wouldn't be human and I wouldn't have the same kind of passion if it didn't bother me. Take the good with the bad, there's moments when you're a genius and moments when you're a goat ..."
