Raptors' Focus Must Now Turn To Bringing Chemistry and Cohesion To The Rotation
By Peter D. WalkerThe Raptors' three game tour of Europe has ended, as has their training camp. Now the team moves back to the Air Canada Centre to finish up with four home pre-season games.
The team’s 1-2 record is of little or no concern. Anyone who thinks it’s easy to travel to Europe and hold a normal training camp is mistaken. Add in the off court distractions and commitments that the team dealt with and their overall performance was promising.
Did the Raptors look like Atlantic Division Champions? No. Were there many positive signs? Absolutely.
No doubt that the Raptors' rebounding and defence are unsatisfactory and two weeks of practice at the ACC should help. What must happen when the Raptors return to the ACC next Wednesday (to play Lituania’s Zalgiris Kaunas) is that Sam Mitchell needs to focus on setting the Raptors’ rotation.
Other than a few minutes in garbage time, we should not see any of these players on the floor over the final four pre-season tilts. Nothing, nada, zilch.
No Jamario Moon (nice cinderella story, but we've seen enough)
No Luke Jackson (makes a great 15th man)
No Maceo Baston (barring injury, he'll see a lot of DNP's)
No Darrick Martin (better coach than a player)
No Juan Dixon (best of the bunch - just no minutes available)
The final games need to build chemistry and bring a sense of flow and cohesion to the Raptors. With sixteen players, it is impossible to establish any sort of rhythm. Sam must now give meaningful minutes only to these core players:
Chris Bosh
Andrea Bargnani
Anthony Parker
T.J. Ford
Jose Calderon
Jorge Garbajosa
Then Sam needs to determine which two of these three will get the bulk of the minutes at the small forward position and play those two guys. I expect it to be Kapono starting with Delfino next in line.
Jason Kapono
Carlos Delfino
Joey Graham
There can't be many minutes for the odd man out, which will likely be Joey Graham. Joey’s on-floor impact has been minimal. Joey has done little to get my attention. Delfino looks solid and more promising to date than does Graham.
Kapono will come into form with regular minutes. Right now his shot is off and he's having trouble getting into the flow of the offence. Remember, last year it took Parker at least fifteen games to become comfortable and I expect Jason to need a similar acclimation period.
Finally, Sam must provide limited minutes to these two bigs:
Kris Humphries
Rasho Nesterovic
Rasho and Kris don’t need more than 10 to 12 minutes per game. Rasho provides a solid presence in the middle and Kris needs to play his usual hustle game.
Bosh and his sore knee does not concern me. When the season starts, CB4 will be ready.
Andrea Bargnani should have an excellent season based on what we’ve seen so far. There’s a firing burning inside the Big Rook Sophomore. The kid wants to be better and he is working hard to improve his play inside. Of course, his long range stroke may be the sweetest and most effortless in the NBA.
The point guard combo of TJ and Jose is looking good. Parker is solid and more confident. Garbajosa has played very well considering he’s still not at 100%.
My grade for the Toronto Raptors after three preseason games? Let’s say a C+.
However, the results of the European Tour really don’t matter. Those first three games meant very little, other than to prove that Luke, Jamario and Maceo are nothing more than spare parts.
What matters from this point forward is that each of the Raptors rotation guys receives significant court time over the next four games. If that happens, the team will build positive momentum going into the regular season.
Good job. Keep on posting. I wonder why Kapono needs time to get into shape?
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I think the Raptors need Nesterovic defensively, depending who they're matching up with. He does a better job of defending the bigs than Garba(and forget Bosh or Bargnani in that department). I like Kris Humphrey's energy, but he's forced to foul too often in the low post.
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