The Raptors Show Promise and Holes In Pre-Season Play
By RaptorTalk:Had a chance to watch the Raptors live and in person this week. The visit to the ACC to watch the Raps and T-Wolves, combined with a string of RapsTV games gave us a solid glimpse at the 2008-09 Raptors.
To be honest, I still don't know what to think of this club. One second I look at the Bosh/O'Neal combo and I'm convinced this team could win 55 games or more.
The next second, I see Will Solomon and Roko Ukic struggling at the point and all of a sudden the Raptors look like they could finish with a sub-500 record.
But before we really get started, I have to say that the new ACC scoreboard is spectacular. The HD quality of the big screen is amazing. Quite the upgrade from the old screen.
Things that jumped out at us early
Here are a few observations regarding what we've seen so far.
Jermaine O'Neal: To start with, we still have not seen enough of Jermaine O'Neal. I assume Sam is bringing him along slowly, but these extremely limited minutes make me wonder why? Is Jermaine not fully healthy? Has he lost a step? Hopefully, Sam provides major minutes to O'Neal so he and Chris can develop some chemistry before the season starts and not during. How Jermaine plays will largely determine how this team performs. Contender or pretender?
Behind Jose Calderon is ????: No doubt, the back-up point guard position is a concern after years of the Jose/TJ combo delivering high quality minutes at the one. Jose Calderon must remain healthy for the Raptors to succeed. He also needs to play 35 to 40 minutes per game.
Will Solomon admits that he finds the NBA much quicker than he was used to in Europe. He has a bad of habit of reacting to defensive pressure by picking up his dribble and stalling the offence. Plus, his propensity to turnover the ball is not something you want out of your point guard.
Roko Ukic shows a lot of raw talent, but it is way to early for him to be a meaningful contributor. His jump shot needs a ton of work and his defence is not very good. On the other hand, he is an eager learner who will become a solid NBA player someday. Just not now.
Il Mago Shows Promise: Andrea Bargnani looks like he's an all new man. While its too early to start printing his name on All-Star ballots, there is a definite improvement in Andrea this year. He is more aggressive on defence and is willing to contest shots on the perimeter instead of settling for an occassional hand wave while his man nails a virtually uncontested 3 ball.
Bargnani is fighting for boards under the basket and is mastering the old Rasho tap-out as a way to retain offensive possessions when a clear board is not available. The 'deer in the headlights' look is gone and he has much better overall court awareness.
Having said that, Andrea still needs to improve in many facets fo his game. However, he certainly seems to have arrived in camp with an improved mindset and a stronger, more aggressive frame.
All in all, its still not possible to get an accurate read on this year's Raptors. No doubt, the lack of depth is an area that will hurt the Raptors at times this season, particularly if they are hit by the injury bug.
Nonetheless, I am cautiously optimistic that all goes well and that the Raptors could reach the 50 win plateau for the first time in franchise history.
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