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When last season ended with the Raptors winning just 33 games and missing the playoffs, I was convinced that this team was doomed to remain in a spin cycle of medocrity if they signed Chris Bosh to a max contract in 2010. Signing Hedo Turkoglu to a $53 million contract didn't change that opinion. But I didn't anticipate that Bryan Colangelo had several more tricks up his sleeves this off-season.
First, he significantly upgraded the backup point guard situation by signing Jarrett Jack. Next, he brought back Raptors fan favourite Rasho Nesterovic with a cheap contract. Then, he traded Devean George (who was temporarily a Raptor after the complicated four-way deal that facilitated the Turkoglu signing) to Golden State for promising young two-guard Marco Belinelli. Finally, he traded Carlos Delfino and Roko Ukic to Milwaukee for big man prospect Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems.
None of these post-Hedo-signing moves would seem, taken on their own, to be particularly impactful to the Raptors' fortunes. However, when you step back and compare this roster to the one that closed out last season, it's easy to see that Colangelo has taken steps to address and improve upon several team weaknesses. Such as...
Athleticism — DeMar DeRozan, Johnson and Weems (the 2008 NCAA slam dunk champion) are each more athletic than anyone who was on last year's team — with the arguable exception of Pops Mensah-Bonsu. We can't know how much playing time these three high-flyers are going to get next season, but there is certainly no shortage of athletic options.
Rebounding — Chris Bosh has averaged 8.9 rebounds per 36 minutes in his career. Reggie Evans, Johnson and Rasho have career figures of 12.6, 9.9 and 8.3 in that category, respectively. I don't know if they'll turn the Raptors into a good rebounding team while Andrea Bargnani (5.8 boards per 36) is their starting center, but they might rise to "average" — which would be better than they've been in a long time.
Defence — Antoine Wright, Rasho, Jack, Evans and Johnson are all widely considered to be above-average defenders. Jay Triano will now have the ability to mix-and-match them with the offensively-minded starters to enhance the Raptors' ability to make those crucial stops that can win close games in the fourth quarter.
Toughness — Reggie Evans is a dirty bastard, but he's a tough dirty bastard. Rest assured that if he's on the court when an opponent messes with one of the Raptors' star players, he won't be afraid to "send a message" to the perpetrator that he should avoid repeating such careless actions in the future. He's not Charles Oakley, but Oak ain't walkin' through that door so he might be the next best thing.
This brings us to Mr. Bosh, who is entering a contract year and has been, by all accounts, working his ass off the past couple of months to get stronger and improve his defensive ability. Bosh has undoubtedly heard the criticisms from doubters who say that he's already peaked as a player and he's never going to be the type of player than can lead a championship contender. Whether he's motivated by maximizing his next contract, by proving the doubters wrong, or by some combination of the two, I now believe that we probably will see him break through his four-season pattern of stagnancy and have a career-best season in 2009-10.
While it's unfair to compare Bosh to Kevin Garnett, it's worth noting that K.G. had Player Efficiency Ratings (PER) of 23.6, 23.9 and 23.8 from 1999-2000 through 2001-02 — before rising to a PER of 26.4 in 2002-03 at the age of 26 and an NBA-best 29.4 the season after that. Bosh's PER figures from 2005-06 through last season were 23.2, 22.6, 23.8 and 22.1. He'll enter the 2009-10 season as a 25-year-old trying to prove to the world that he's a superstar worthy of being paid the maximum amount allowable in the NBA. Do any of you really think we won't see some kind of performance leap?
If this sudden outburst of optimism is making you wonder if I'm delusional enough to think this team has instantly been converted into a contender, allow me to clarify. I still assume that a best-case scenario for this team in 2009-10 is probably a fourth seed in the East and a journey ending in the second round of the playoffs. Still, for a franchise that has only made it that far once in its 14-season history, this is nothing to scoff at. Furthermore, the arrival of intriguing young prospects like DeRozan, Belinelli and Johnson means that there could still be room for substantial improvement from within. So even if we think that Bosh, Turkoglu and Jose Calderon have already reached their level of peak performance, that doesn't necessarily mean that next season's team will be as good as they're likely to be in the near future.
Of course, one thing that hasn't changed from each of the post three off-seasons is that the development of Andrea Bargnani is probably still the most important determinant of whether this team can eventually join the ranks of the NBA elite. If he can continue and build upon his impressive performance in the second half of last season, then perhaps he can be the top-notch second banana that any serious contender needs.
The architect of my newfound optimism is Raptors President "Dr. Colangelo" — who has made me realize that I should never assume that he's incapable of acquiring potentially valuable assets with seemingly useless hunks of meat like Jason Kapono and Devean George. Any depressed Raptors fan who laments "We're stuck with this shitty team!" at any low point in the Colangelo regime needs to be given a shake by one of his more sensible compatriots. I feel like Colangelo must wear out BlackBerries several times a year from all the calling and texing he has to do to be this active.
Gradually, I've come to realize that sports franchises are like airplanes and fans are the passengers. Some of these planes take a seemingly infinite number of detours and stopovers until the passengers feel like they're dying from hunger. Then there are the pilots who simply crash the plane into a mountain. (No, Isiah, no!) With Bryan Colangelo as our pilot, I may not know how long it will take to arrive at our destination, but I finally feel like I can tilt back my first-class chair and enjoy the flight — with plenty of snacks and refreshments to keep me comfortable during the journey. 
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