12-30-2011, 03:10 PM
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#2
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Rookie
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Re: Bringing The Ring North of the Border
Depth Chart
Overall Look: The Toronto Raptors are coming into the season finishing with a terrible 22 and 60 record under the helm of Jay Triano. Fortunately this year, the Raptors have a new coach by the name of Dwane Casey and a new president by the name of Jerome Williams. They’re a rather young team at just 26 years old and go in with a team salary of $53.44M and $4.56M in cap room. Furthermore, they’ve got 7 expiring contracts by the end of the season bringing in much more cap space for the squad. They are ranked as the 28th worst team on the offensive ball, and 24th worst team on the defensive side of the ball (thanks mainly to Dwane Casey) yet as the 30th worst team in the NBA overall which means they only go up from here.
Point Guard: Jose Calderon [69 OVR] will be the starting point guard going into this season. He’s getting old of course and his $9.78M contract eats up a lot of cap room so he could easily be sent over to a team in need of a point guard in the goal of getting some cap room for a better player in the off-season. Until then, Jose is pretty good on the inside; he’s scorching hot at the three point line and has pretty good D to go along with his tremendous handles. Backing him up will be Jerryd Bayless [65 OVR] who has the ability to finish on the inside, can shoot from the outside as well and can defend just as good. What separates him from Jose is his lower ball handling ability, tendency to try and do it on his own but his athleticism and high potential as well. He’s a keeper for the squad and JYD might attempt to get him on a contract extension as he’s one of the many expiring contracts. Then there’s the 36 year old veteran Anthony Carter [53 OVR] who’s only plus side is his perimeter defense and ball handling skills. He won’t be seeing any playing time this season most likely and fortunately for JYD, he’s one of the expiring contracts on the squad.
Shooting Guard: DeMar DeRozan [69 OVR] will be the starting shooting guard for the Raptors. He averaged 18 points last year and the Raptors are hoping that goes up to 20+ this season as they’ll look for him to be their main scorer on the offensive side of the ball. He’s an amazing inside scorer but will have to work on his outside scoring ability. His defense is all right but he has to work on his whole game overall, not merely his driving game. He still has two years on a small contract so he’s likely here to stay for now but could be a nice trading piece to deal while his potential is still high. LeAndro Barbosa [71] is playing sixth man on this team and back up to DeRozan. Where DeMar lacks in outside shooting and handles, Barbosa has. He’s another nice trading piece for the squad and one of their many expiring contract.
Small Forward: At the Small Forward position, James Johnson [62 OVR] will be starting. He is far from spectacular but his hustle and defensive awareness simply makes him the best of the squad, especially now that Sonny Weems is playing overseas for the rest of the season. Other than that, Gary Forbes [65 OVR] will be playing back up Small Forward with his nice shooting touch along with Linas Kleiza [62]. Rasual Butler [58 OVR] will be warming up the bench for his small forward friends. Each come in cheap for about two years and other than James Johnson, JYD has no plan on using any of these guys for the future, let’s face it, these guys aren’t gonna win you any NBA Championship nor will they get you into the playoffs, if they aren’t gotten rid of first, they will likely be let go when their contract expires. While this is the most packed position, it is also the weakest and will cost them dearly against the likes of Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder.
Power Forward: At Power Forward, Amir Johnson [68 OVR] will be starting for the squad. They’ll be looking to ship him off as soon as possible with his 4 year $25.00M contract. He doesn’t have much upside to him either other than his good rebounding, this was one of Brian Colangelo’s many mistakes as President of the Toronto Raptors. Ed Davis [66 OVR] will be playing back-up power forward, with plenty of time to grow, Ed Davis has heaps of potential and is a featured attraction for trading deals, then again, Toronto don’t want to risk him becoming a star somewhere else and thus fear letting him go. Nonetheless, he’s going to get heavy minutes on the squad and will look to impress enough for a starting deal.
Center: Andrea Bargnani [68 OVR] is perhaps Brian’s biggest mistake. Perhaps the laziest player on the team, and the most unmotivated, Jerome Williams was quoted saying “Like it or not, Andrea is on the trading block and if I have my way, he’ll be gone by the end of the season. No way in hell am I letting this guy steal $9.00M from us every year for four years!” Andrea can shoot from the outside and has decent post defense but for a 7 footer, he’s a terrible rebounder and can’t score well on the inside. Backing him up are Aaron Gray [54 OVR], Solomon Alabi [51 OVR] , Jamaal Magloire [50 OVR] who oddly enough, can only rebound. Each have expiring contracts and are expected to leave the team next season, unless Raptors chose to pick up Alabi’s player option, which is doubtful… extremely doubtful.
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