The New and Improved Toronto Raptors

So once again we are dawning upon a new NBA season, and once again alot of changes have been made league wide. But noone else has made more changes than the Toronto Raptors. Fresh off a disapointing 33-49 season, (good enough for third last in the Eastern Conference) they have overhauled their roster, solidified a solid coaching staff and have renewed hope in raptorland.

All these changes of course are due to the dedication and hardwork of two time executive of the year, Bryan Coangelo. He has worked his magic, found all the loopholes and used the system to his advantage to take his team from the cellar back into playoff contention. Coming into the offseason, there were so many issues one could not possibly imagine all of them being adressed in one summer. I mean the team lacked toughness, rebounding, athletisism, and depth. It seemed like an impossible task...

But right off the bat, he traded Jason Kapono, (a scarcly used backup) for Reggie Evans, someone who could rebound and bring some more toughness to the team. Such toughness has not been in a raptors uniform since the days of Charles Oakley. Then he drafted USC superstar Demar Derozan, a RIDICULOUS athelete who has potential to go to the moon and back. So not even a month had passed and he seemingly had addressed three areas of weakness, toughness, rebounding and atlethisism. But this guy wasnt done yet.

A little while later, it was reported that the Raptors were to sign veteran Hedo Turkaglu a well known fourth quarter go-to guy, something the raptors also direly needed. But if they signed him, then they would have to giveup all their other freeagents. But somehow he pulled it off again, in a three way sign and trade sending marion to the mavericks and hedo to the raptors, which allowed them to keep their rights to their own players AND their midlevel exception. Not only that but he added extra depth in the additions of Devean George and Antoine Wright. So he added a go-to guy and some needed depth, but even then this guy was not done.

Later on he used his mid-level exception to sign Jarett Jack, a dirty-nosed defender and a good distributor. As well a friend to Raptors superstar Chris Bosh, a factor that may play a huge part in the resigning of Bosh. This gave the Raptors a strong backup PG, an blatent issue in the past season when Calderon went down for long stretches. He then used his bi-level exception to sign fan favorite veteran Rasho Nesterovic. Which added some more depth at the Center position. Then he went on to trade newly aquired devean george for up and coming prospect Marco Belinelli, a sharp shooter from Italy. Finally just when we thought he couldnt do much better he traded rights for Carlos Delfino for Amir Johnson to add some more depth and a safety net incase Bosh decides to leave.

So overall the Raptors have three players left from the training camp last year, and a bunch of new faces. They added Hedo Turkaglu, Demar Derozan, Jarett Jack, Antoine Wright, Marco Belinelli, Rasho Nesterovic, Amir Johnson, Reggie Evans and kept their core of Andrea Bargnani, Jose Calderon and Chris Bosh. Now thats what I call an offseason.

So lets break down a predicted depth chart here,

PG: Jose Calderon, Jarett Jack, Quincy Douby, Marcus Banks                               

SG: Demar Derozan, Marco Belinelli

SF:Hedo Turkaglu, Antoine Wright

PF:Chris Bosh, Reggie Evans, Amir Johnson

C:Andrea Bargnani, Rasho Nesterovic

Now that ladies and gentleman is a playoff team. My prediction 4th place in the East and ATLEAST 2nd round playoffs if not more.

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