The Saturday Morning Post: What’s next for the Raptors?

Let’s look at the changes to our roster so far:

Additions: Roko Ukic, Jermaine O’Neal, Nathan Jawai
Subtractions: TJ Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, Maceo Baston, Carlos Delfino

Bryan Colangelo is working towards having a “nice, lean roster” for next year which sounds like a good enough idea. What he doesn’t mention is having an athletic roster that is capable of providing consistent defensive stops and can play man-defense out on the perimeter without needing help from the paint. As you recall against the Magic, we got undone because of guard and small forward penetration. And as you might also recall, we were poor at close-outs and interior and perimeter rotations all season long. None of that has been addressed yet and granted the summer is long, however, we don’t have the resources to fix this team.

Good defensive news first: There is a defensive silver-lining to the Jermaine O’Neal trade and its his ability to play help defense. Consider this scenario: The opposing guard just beat Calderon to the paint. Pause. Last year Bosh came and helped out leaving the weak side wide open for any opposing player to step in for a layup or foul. Next year Bosh can actually come out and help his guards whilst feeling confident that Jermaine O’Neal is there to back him up and not leaving him out to dry (shake head at Bargnani). So see, the trade actually helped us on both ends of the floor.

Back to the issue at hand though, what do we need to do to become lean, athletic and a better defensive team in a strong East. The bad news is that we’ll only have about $5-$6 million to spend after paying all our existing players, this of course assuming that we want to stay under the salary cap which is going to be known in July. Speaking realistically and glancing at the 2008 NBA Free Agent list, you’ll notice that there aren’t any quick fixes to this problem. Sure there’s Mickael Pietrus, Josh Childress and J.R. Smith but throwing the MLE at them is hardly going to prevent their teams from matching the offer (assuming they sign the offer-sheet). There’s also Bonzi Wells who happens to be an unrestricted free agent but I’d rather have Jamario Moon.

There’s also Ron Artest who might opt out of his contract with the Kings. But unless him and Jermaine O’Neal shared the same bed on road-trips, I hardly see him picking the Raptors over other suitors like the Lakers. This one’s a no-brainer. This leaves us with fulfilling our needs via trade and now that TJ Ford and Rasho’s expiring contract are no more, we’re left with the likes of Jason Kapono, Joey Graham, Anthony Parker and Kris Humphries as trade bait. Aside from Jason Kapono there isn’t anything here to get excited about and frankly, I’d rather keep Kapono here and see what he can do with two double-team threats on the team. A contending team or two might be interested in Parker for his veteran presence and mid-range game but that’s about it. That’s all the ammunition we have. All that’s left is to figure out who is desperate enough to take our 5M MLE and run with it. Don’t you get the feeling we didn’t get enough out of this draft?

The more and more you think about it the more you’ll realize that next season, much like last season, will be dependent on what Andrea Bargnani can do for us and how well he can guard his position. If he’s able to play the SF effectively for 15-20 minutes a game, it’ll change the entire dynamics of the Raptors. If he can become more of a slashing type player, our problems will decrease because he has the ability to create off the dribble and get opponents into foul trouble. If he can have a Toni Kukoc type impact on this team, we can aim for home court in the first round.

There’s also the issue of guard defense. I haven’t seen nearly enough of Roko Ukic to say whether he can effectively spell Calderon through the course of a season. At 6′ 5″, I am hoping his defense is better than Calderon’s and that he can remedy some of our penetration issues. I thought Keyon Dooling would’ve been a nice signing for us because of his hounding defensive play and ability to knock down shots. Then again you have to give Ukic a shot and see just exactly what he can do, he’s 24 and not getting any younger.

There is one player that I haven’t give up on yet: Joey Graham. Before you close the window, consider this: When has Graham gotten any consistent playing time under Sam Mitchell? Never. Has he been afforded the same leeway has Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker, Andrea Bargnani or even Carlos Delfino? No. His trade value is practically zero so you’re not going to get anything for him on the market but he can still give us something. We tend to forget that he’s a strong, athletic player that when playing with confidence, can slash to the rim, grab rebounds, play hard and when the lighting is right, knock mid-range jumpers down. I’m not even looking at him for offense, I think he can help us defensively and needs to be given a fair shot in training cap and at the start of the season. Call me crazy.

Note to those of you who would’ve loved to see Gerald Wallace on the Raptors, here’s the game tally for his career: 54, 47, 37, 70, 55, 72 and 62. Sure he puts up good numbers but its while playing for a terrible team. You can’t expect him to replicate those numbers here and for what its worth, defensively, I’ll take Moon over him any day.

The Raptors get a 8/10 for their draft according to Yahoo Sports. Figure that one out.

Have a nice weekend.