Good morning/afternoon/evening,
In my first attempt at this medium they call blog (you'd think they could come up with a better name) I would like to outline a couple things so we can all start this Raptors Today journey on the same page.
I am not, nor will I pretend to be an insider, expert, professional journalist or professional pundit. So I apologize for that now if you are disappointed... I am however, a Toronto Raptors fan that has followed the team since its inception with a strong knowledge of the game, the team, it's history and the inter-workings of the NBA. I am not going to bore you with goofy fantasy trades aka Kobe for Banks/Wright/and filler, or come up with getting Bill Walton as our big man coach to provide national exposure and providing the coaching acumen that will put "us" over the top!
What I hope to do is throw out a couple facts, give some analysis, some opinion, wrap it in some attempted humor from time to time and you can let me know how I'm doing, deal?
Now I may have picked a poor time to get started on this blog considering that for the most part, barring and Colangelo-ian shenanigans, which after this offseason we know could happen at any time, the Raptors offseason is over. The one exception being the final roster spot.
There seems to be two unique and passionate factions of the Raptors populace that have distinct opinions about this final spot. Part of the population, for the most part we'll call them, the "fans", are drumming up the many possibilities in their heads on who this final spot should go too to improve our roster. The other faction, lets call them the "media" do not seem to care because they feel the final player will be in civvies most nights and make no impact on the roster.
Now while for the most part I do agree that the final player to be added will have little impact on the court I do believe there is some value in this last player and that he could provide dividends down the road.
If we look at the balance of the roster, there are:
- 4 Point Guards- Calderon/Jack/Ukic/Banks
- 5 Wings- Turkoglu/Derozen/Belinelli/Wright/Douby
- 5 Bigs- Bosh/Bargnani/Evans/Nesterovic/O'Bryant
It is clear that there is an imbalance from the backcourt to the frontcourt. If we also take into account the deficiencies on our roster have and will likely continue to be perimeter defense and rebounding the likely direction would be to obtain a small forward or power forward.
My opinion for some time would be to pick up a hybrid or stretch four (a power forward that can stretch the defense with his shot, usually also being able to guard small forwards). While names such as Carney, Udoka, Singleton and even Joey Graham have been brought up, isn't the awkward elephant in the room Pops Mensah-Bonsu? Is he not like that ex-boyfriend/girlfriend that all your friends like and is really great but your just not feeling it anymore? There is no doubt that he wants to be back with the Raptors, the fans all seem to want him back but Colangelo and his MLSE brass seem to be playing the field until they settle.
While there is no doubt that those other four players would provide something Pops cannot (any shooting ability) and seem to be a better positional fit, Pops just seems to be the destined player to fill out our roster. He can rebound, run the floor, and provide energy which is key because considering Nesterovic and Evans (primary back up big men) have the combined age of 96, youth and energy are some important traits if one of them were to suffer an injury. The man they call Pops would be much better then Patrick O'Bryant whose main contributions would seem to be the fact that he has a cool Irish name for our Saint Patty's Day game.
Listen, in the end, the "media" is probably right, the last roster move will probably mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, but really at the very least throw the fans a frickin bone here...
- J.Moore
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