http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/ Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1086473412018&call_pageid= 969907729483&col=970081562040 Jun. 6, 2004. 01:00 AM Almost as many Raptor bosses as losses Beware, new GM, of your 'surroundings' DAVE FESCHUK Congratulations, Rob Babcock. You've just landed your first gig as an NBA general manager. Best wishes as you begin your attempt to run the Raptors. We use "attempt" not because your qualifications suggest incompetence. It's hard to blame you for the sins of your bosses in Minnesota and Denver, where success has been recent and mediocrity the general rule. Bringing mediocrity to Hogtown will earn you a hero's welcome. But be prepared to take the rap for both your bosses' sins and your own, because chief among your bosses' sins is a shameless habit for shifting blame in the name of preserving names. In short, beware your superiors N湶f, that is, you can keep them all straight. Beware Richard Peddie, the CEO who hired you more than nine weeks after his oft-mocked GM search began. He thinks you've got a second-round playoff team on your hands. It's about time someone tells him you don't. So enjoy that conversation. Then again, working for Peddie could be easy. Peddie wants quiet subservience, something your predecessor Glen Grunwald personified. But here's what Grunwald got for staying mum. He got Kevin O'Neill, Peddie's choice for coach, with whom he shared a mutual dislike. Then he got fired. Alas, even if you succeed in placating Peddie, keep your head up for Larry Tanenbaum. Tanenbaum, the minority owner and chairman of the board, is widely perceived as the rare board member who actually cares about winning. But it was clear Tanenbaum didn't care for you when he sat in on your interview back in early May. From that moment on, the GM search stalled and a desperate search for something better ensued. Nothing better surfaced, so don't blame the media for calling you a consolation hire. On the upside, Tanenbaum has the right idea about the place of upper management in hoop-wise chatter. "Guys like Peddie and I, we should be in the background," Tanenbaum was saying the other day. So hold him to it and the team is yours. Except, of course, when you're talking to the financial gurus at the teachers' pension fund that owns the majority of the club. Don't expect those guys to emulate a Minnesota club that went to the Western final this year by spending $74 million (all figures U.S.) on salaries, fourth highest in the league. The pension boys, who saw the eighth-highest payroll in the league ($64 million) yield the seventh-worst record, aren't convinced spending wins. Not that it matters; Grunwald has left you capped out and undermanned. Things are grim. So here's hoping you clean house. You're inheriting a roster with holes at the most important positions, with no viable point guard, with one credible big man in Chris Bosh. You're also inheriting a scouting staff that has performed woefully. You should rebuild this team from the bird dogs up. Jack McCloskey, the guy who hired you in Minnesota and recommended you for this job, did you a favour. Don't do McCloskey a half-dozen favours by keeping his buddies from the Grunwald era employed. Start fresh or stagnate. Be ruthless or be sorry. Doubtless, you're facing many big decisions. You've got to decide whether to re-sign Morris Peterson, who admitted last week that he lost 10 pounds after his dismal season, effectively sprinting down the pier after missing the boat. You've got to expose a player to the expansion draft. You've got the eighth pick in a needle-in-a-haystack entry draft. You need to add value to your eight-player roster with about $6 million at your cap-mandated disposal. And you've got to answer the phone that's been ringing since you've been hired. That's probably Michelle Carter, Vince's mother, on the line. She and her all-star son wish Julius (Dr. J) Erving was in your chair. So enjoy that conversation, too. Enjoy getting to know yet another of your many bosses. --

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