Raptors’ Depth Reason For Optimism
Unlike last season, when Jay Triano was forced to look down his bench and pick from fringe NBA players like Quincy Douby, Nathan Jawai, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Patrick O’Bryant, Roko Ukic and Jake Voskuhl, this coming season he’ll have a lot of options at his disposal.
In fact, the team is loaded with so much depth this season it marks one of the few times in the history of the franchise where the team is 12-deep with backups at each position that can easily step in and start if the injury bug strikes.
“We’ll have a little bit higher intensity, a little bit quicker turnover of players coming in and out of the game,” Triano told the media earlier this summer at the Raptors Basketball Academy at Humber College. “We’ll give everyone a fair chance at camp (in October in Ottawa). Injuries happen throughout the year and you have to be ready to play. I like the fact we have so many diverse players. The biggest thing will be trying to find enough guys the opportunity to stay on the floor.”
This year when Triano wants a big, he will likely turn to Andrea Bargnani, Chris Bosh, Reggie Evans, Amir Johnson or Rasho Nesterovic. The team also has Patrick O’Bryant to further add to the depth and help make practices a little more interesting when the injury bug hits or Triano needs to give a player a day off late in the season. Remember last year when the players complained they couldn’t even practice their sets due a lack of healthy bigs? That clearly won’t be the case again this season.
When Triano needs a wing he can look to Marco Belinelli, DeMar DeRozan, Hedo Turkoglu or Antoine Wright. Both Wright and Turkoglu started for teams that made the playoffs last season, while Belinelli is having an impressive summer starting for the Italian national team and DeRozan is a lottery pick that impressed a lot of people in Las Vegas in July.
Contrast this with last season where the Raptors gave significant minutes at various stages of the season to four players who had logged time in the D-League and it becomes obvious their starting rotation and bench have undergone a serious upgrade this summer
“Depth was one of our issues (last season),” Triano recently told the media. “We had a lot of money tied up in Jermaine O’Neal. When (Colangelo) made that trade, he addressed that we’re going to have cap space to bring new players. We’ve been able to keep the core with Jose Calderon, Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani and we’ve built around that.
“Antoine Wright, Jarrett Jack, Reggie Evans and Rasho Nesterovic (the 7-foot free agent centre re-signed as expected yesterday) are guys who are going to make the (starters) work hard every day. If they don’t, they’re going to get embarrassed.”
While the added depth among his bigs and wings is impressive, what might be the biggest improvement is found at the point guard position. Jose Calderon attempted to play through some injuries last season and it effected his ability to defend and his ability to cut to the rim. Plus, having inexperienced players behind him meant Calderon had to log heavier minutes than the coaching staff would have liked. With the addition of Jarrett Jack, Calderon can see his minutes settle between 30 to 35 per game, while Jack can play alongside Calderon for stretches or confidently run the offense while Calderon is on the bench of sitting out a game.
Unlike last season where there was pressure on Triano to bring together a rag-tag group of basketball vagabonds taking up space at the end of his bench, this season the pressure will be the second-year coach to keep players happy with their minutes and role within the team.
That sounds like a problem any coach would be happy to have.
7 Comments on “Raptors’ Depth Reason For Optimism”.
Have Your Say:
very much agree our depth is way better than last year or probably ever. But the one thing i havent seen anyone speak of since this overhaul is chemistry. We likely will not have chemistry on this team untill well into december.JUst a point i thought should be talked about when thinking of the chances of the raps this year.
August 31, 2009 » 10:27 AM »
CCM – Great point, but I don’t think it will be too large of a hurdle for this squad to overcome. While there are a lot of new pieces, some of those players have already played together. For instance, Marco and Andrea played together this summer on the Italian national team while Bosh and Jack played together in college. I also think a group of these guys (Jack, Bosh and DeRozan) have been spending time together this summer.
I feel confident that having six weeks during training camp will suffice to allow this crew to have a strong start to the season.
August 31, 2009 » 11:06 AM »
I agree that the team is a lot deeper than last year. The fact that they kept the MLE and LLE to sign Jack and Nesterovic was huge. I wouldn’t say they’re deep with good wing talent, though.
Calling Antoine Wright a “starter” is misleading – he played about 24 minutes a game last year for the Mavs and that went down to 16 in the playoffs. Belinelli is very unproven after last season with GS – yeah, he’s a good international player, but there remain serious doubts about whether his game can translate into the NBA. DeRozan is only 20 years old, so as much as we love him here in Toronto for his potential, we should be careful to temper our expectations of him for this season. The way I see it, the Raps don’t really have a starting 2-guard and Jarrett Jack will probably end up spending a lot of time playing that position. If Turkoglu gets injured, this team probably won’t be very well-equipped to deal with it.
August 31, 2009 » 1:28 PM »
Nice article, one of the best I’ve read! It seems like so long ago since we had that horrible bench. I agree with the comment on chemistry, it shouldnt take too long. A lot of the guys we brought in are good character players (hopefully Carroll as well when locker room cancer Banks is dealt away), and that should help the off-court and on-court chemistry. Triano also needs to demand respect, and listening to everything he has to say, I’m confident things will piece together!
August 31, 2009 » 1:29 PM »
RapsFan55 – Whoa, easy there. Who said Banks was a cancer in the locker room? Based on what I saw during his time in Toronto last season he had a great personality and was a good fit with his new teammates. If he’s still around this season I don’t see him being a negative distraction.
VDZ – I agree keeping the MLE was a key part of the teams success this summer. Without adding Jack and/or Nesterovic I wouldn’t feel nearly as comfortable about the team heading into this season.
Are the wings ideal? No. Are they greatly improved over last season? You bet! I would much rather take Hedo, Wright, Marco and DeRozan over Parker, Moon, Graham and … I can’t even figure out who the fourth option would be.
I agree with you about how scary an injury to Turk would be…
August 31, 2009 » 2:23 PM »
our wing rotation was parker, moon, kapono, graham. with parker backing up calderon for awhile. this new team is way better in every facet of the game. and after the top 3 in the east, it is pretty par and pretty wide open. i expect alot of close and fun games to watch next year.
August 31, 2009 » 3:26 PM »
Ryan,
FYI …
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re: “Are the wings ideal? No. Are they greatly improved over last season? You bet! I would much rather take Hedo, Wright, Marco and DeRozan over Parker, Moon, Graham and … I can’t even figure out who the fourth option would be.“
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The 4th option would be … the same DeMar DeRozan [2009, 1st Rd Draft Pick].
Btw … I disagree with your take on the specific comparison which you made, given their cumulative salary & PER.
Please see: YOU MAKE THE CALL: Best possible group of wing players for the 2009-2010 Raptors?
August 31, 2009 » 10:08 PM »