What's Wrong With The Raptors?: When's Reggie Evans Getting Back?

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You can never have too much rebounding on a basketball team. Otherwise, just when you think you have your rebounding under control, one of your best rebounders goes down with an injury -- and you have a problem. A big problem if it is a significant injury.

Like most of my fellow Raptor fans, I love Reggie Evans game. Just last week different writers were honouring Charles Oakley, saying there will never be another Charles Oakley, saying this team needs a Charles Oakley...and so on...

Well, lest we forget, we have the closest player we are going to get to Charles Oakley still trying to recover from an ankle injury. There games are remarkably similar. Yes, Oakley had a better 15 foot jump shot but when we are talking about the respective games of Charles Oakley and Reggie Evans, the first focal point of attention is not their respective jump shots. It is their similar energy level, similar willingness to get 'down and dirty', similar willingness to dive for a ball despite their size, similar willingness to keep opposing players off the glass, and similar all round competitive spirit and will to win... In those areas, the respective games of Charles Oakley and Reggie Evans are remarkably similar. Now it could be argued that Oakley had the best all round game between the two, whereas I would argue that Reggie Evans -- at least comparing his game to the years I saw Charles Oakley in Toronto which were probably 'post-prime years' -- was actually the better of the two rebounders....

But perhaps we are starting to splitting hairs here...Maybe you could even throw 'Popeye' Jones into this mix and comparison as well...and come up with a third similar 'board combatant'...

All of this is to say that when The Raptors had Reggie Evans on the floor in the pre-season games that he played, they usually won...There were a lot of things going right back in these pre-season games. Firstly, The Raptors were cleaning up the boards properly. And secondly, they were getting a lot of good, fast 'wing-play' from both Demar DeRozan and Sonny Weems. 

With all due respect -- and I like Turkoglu but he is still not at the top of his game yet -- when the Raptors changed to Turkoglu the team got slower on the wing. And Calderon still wasn't back to the top of his game yet -- indeed, he still isn't. Calderon, without even harping on his shared defensive deficiencies with the rest of the team, isn't making his jump shots with the same frequency that he was making them last year. We need both Calderon and Turkoglu to step up there game a bit further from where they are right now. 

Bosh has been at the top of his game to start the season as he was last year before he got hurt -- and his added weight has not slowed him down at all; indeed, the extra weight has made him bigger, stronger, and better. If Bosh continues to play at this level, he is a legitimate MVP candidate -- even if he is not being talked about in this circle yet. But compare his game with the Big Three -- Wade, Bryant, and James -- and Bosh's game is probably better than all three of them right now. You can put Carmelo Anthony in that category as well.

But no -- The Raptors lost the game last night to The Spurs on the boards. They were outrebounded, indeed, killed on the boards, 41-29, killed on second chance points, (I don't have that stat handy), and killed at the free throw line (33-23 in free throws make, 44-29 in free throw attempts).  

 Chris Bosh can't be doing all the rebounding -- and this team expect to win. 

When is Reggie Evans coming back? 

Amir Johnson has played well. But Colangelo still made at least one mistake last summer and it still could be a critical one. 

He didn't re-sign Pops. 

I lamented that fact in several of my previous articles written in the pre-season. 

I mean, Reggie Evans is getting older, and he does have a track record of getting hurt -- probably connected to his all out hustle and style of play. 

Amir Johnson was a good pickup. But BC should have re-signed Pops. You can never have enough rebounding. And if you don't have rebounders on the bench when either your starters are resting -- or worse -- they get hurt, then your team is trouble for its lack of depth in rebounding -- and toughness. 

BC's forte has always been getting 'The Europeon finesse player'. He addressed the team's 'lack of toughness and rebounding' issue by trading for Reggie Evans. But how easy we overlook the fact that the Raptors at the end of last season had good rebounding with both Marion and Pops in the mix.

Now I could start a Marion vs. Turkoglu debate all over again. But I won't go there. I like Turkoglu even if he is still not at the top of his game yet (speed it up, Hedo, speed it up!). But suffice is to say that when we had Marion coming off the small forward wing we had top notch rebounding from that position. I would even be tempted to put Amir Johnson at the small forward position -- and slide Hedo back to shooting guard. 

Or I would be tempted to start both Jack and Belinelli at the guard positions with Calderon and Wright coming off the bench.

Sorry, Demar, but you need to slide back a bit on the depth chart.

So based on what I saw last night, how about this starting lineup:

Bosh, Bargnani, Johnson, Bellinelli, and Jack. 

With Evans when he is finally healthy, Rasho, Turkoglu, Wright, and Calderon coming off the bench. 

How about that to shake things up a bit? 

With Weems becoming the 11th man, and DeRozan the 12th man. 

That is what I would do based on what I saw last night. 

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