The Toronto Raptors will have a different-looking squad come opening night this year.
However, there are some definite question marks surrounding their new acquisition, Jermaine O'Neal.
O'Neal has suffered the injury bug for the last few seasons, but when he is healthy he has proven to be one of the NBA's elite big men.
Another area of concern is whether or not third-year F Andrea Bargnani is going to come out of his shell and emerge into the player everyone expects him to be. This seems to be very unlikely, given that the acquisition of O'Neal means reduced playing time for Il Mago.
The question concerning Jose Calderon, while not a big one, regards the belief that he may not be able to run this offense full-time. This can be regarded as an illegitimate concern, as he arguably could have been put among the league's top ten point guards last year, given his play when T.J. Ford was out.
The Raptors are a very iffy team this year, and I still do not believe they are ready to contend for the NBA title.
5 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment
Gerald Flemming 11 months ago
Jacob,
You just wrote an article that has the headline of every news article in the last three months. Nothing about how and where Bargnani is working this summer (the same elite Basketball camp that JO, Anthony Parker and soon to be Jamario Moon are at). These men have five months to significantly change who they are and who they could be. Every truly great player in this league didn't see the summer as the time 'CHILL', that's when they got hardcore and added to the arsenal. By all accounts, that's what a significant portion of the Raptors are doing this summer.
This will translate in to X's and O's. We all know that we are one extended injury away from being a dubious choice for the playoffs. But if we get sixty games out of the full compliment of players, we'll be sitting pretty come April.
I'm just saying...maybe dig a little deeper next time.
Gerald
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George Tanev 11 months ago
The Raptors are a team full of potential. JO has the potential of being his old dominant self. Andrea has the potential to come into his own and finally meet the expecations set for him for being a 1st pick in the draft. Moon, Parker and Kapono have to come in and make some improvements to their hame and have the potential of being a very strong supporting cast. One of the other potentials is the new point guard acquired by the Raptors, Roko Ukic. He has the size and the skill to break through in the NBA and has potential to become a very strong point guard in this league. If all this potential, or maybe most of it, can be realized then you are looking at a very dangerous team. The only thing Raptors fans can hope for is that all of the work put in by the players pays off in the regular season.
George
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b b 10 months ago
Raps arsenal next seaon will be revamped by the addition of J.O but we also lost a good back up point guard and centre so i hope someone else can step in while bosh and j.O are on the bench. Aswell i would like to see how the point guard situation goes, im not really a pessimist but im not sure Rocko Ukic will be able to back up Jose on a consistent basis for the 82 game NBA schedule but ive been watching the Summer Leauge this year and i noticed john lucas running the team with poise so I hope we can make a run this year.. i wouldnt mind to see a new SG because Parker is getting old and is in the last year of his contract. Raptors could use a shooter/scorer that could consistently preform unlike the under achieving and over-paid J.Kapono
2008-2009 Atlantic Division Champions Torobto Raptors
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roshneesh arakubea 9 months ago
well i think the raps will a tought contender this year, when they make the playoffs, every team they will play they are gonna have a hard time to take them out
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Fred Johnstone 9 months ago
Can't blame Kapono if he is not given much playing time. Blame the coach for that one. Raptors need good shooters and they have one of the best in Kapono but coach Mitchell prefers to let Moon play more minutes for his defensive capability. Unfortunately he is not a good shooter and the opposition know that so they prefer to take their chances and leave him open and guard the others particularly CB4. Moon has to guard the other team's superstar on most nights like Kobe, Lebron, Pierce, etc and they are going to get their points anyway no matter who is guarding them. So why not use Kapono instead? Moon or Kapono can't guard them but the difference is Kapono will get you 25-30 points on the other end whereas Moon only averages 8 pts per game on 40 minutes playing time.
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