OK, the Raptors have a busy midweek ahead with player workouts scheduled on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
June 3rd – Tuesday:
G – Wayne Ellington – North Carolina
G – Shan Foster – Vanderbilt
G – Jamont Gordon – Mississippi State
F – Danny Green – North Carolina
G – Malik Hairston – Oregon
G – Courtney Lee – Western Kentucky
June 4th – Wednesday:
F – Ryan Anderson – California
F/C – Kosta Koufos – Ohio State
F/C – Robin Lopez – Stanford
G – Drew Neitzel – Michigan State
G – Jeremy Pargo – Gonzaga
G – Jason Thompson – Rider
June 5th – Thursday
F/C – Alexis Ajinca – Hyeres-Toulon
G – Chris Douglas-Roberts – Memphis
C – DeVon Hardin – California
G – Mykal Riley – Alabama
G/F – Brandon Rush – Kansas
G/F – Bill Walker – Kansas State
I find it very hard to get excited. These kids will come here put out an effort which will equal the interest they have in the Raptors. There’s always the incentive to get drafted higher and get paid more but players have known to target teams and obviously vice-versa is true too. Toronto would be a good place for a swingman to get drafted because of our wide open starting 3 spot. Jamario Moon is no lock to get that spot back and there will be open competition for it come training camp leaving room for a talented rookie to make his mark.
Brandon Rush doesn’t get talked about much with respect to the Raptors and its surprising because we’re also in the market for a shooting guard. Currently, we have Anthony Parker and backing him up is…..er…..nobody! Delfino and Moon end up taking Parker’s minutes when he goes to the bench and neither of them is a good mid-range shooter, something which is mandatory for a SG. Wow, when you actually sit down on paper and work it out, we got holes in every spot save the 4. We have a plethora of threes, albeit very average. We have Humphries, Rasho and Bargnani playing musical chairs with the center spot and we got TJ/Jose/Ukic all competing for PG minutes. There’s Chris Bosh who owns the PF spot leaving us with the SG position, arguably our weakest link!
Robin Lopez who might be the best bet for providing immediate help is being projected to go 25th to Houston by Draft Express and HoopsHype. Is picking him at #17 jumping the gun? I don’t think so. Lets face it, the mock drafts don’t mean shit and if you look back at every single year’s mock draft by the “expert” sites, they’ve always managed to overrate and underrate players, its just too tough to make these calls beforehand. As long as Sam Mitchell is aware that he’s likely to get zero offense out of him and sees his rebounding/Varejao-like potential, take him. He’s got a chance to sneak up in the draft and gets a favorable little review from the Sac Bee. Although as said on yesterday’s blog, I do hope he’s not the only addition to the front-court.
Remember Kenny Anderson? Yeah, that little cunt that threatened to chain himself to his locker if he got traded to Toronto in the Damon Stoudamire trade. He always struck me as a selfish type of player that had a lot of talent in him but never got his head right (kinda what TJ Ford might become if he doesn’t watch out). Well, he’s interested in coaching because he thinks its his “calling”. Maybe he’s found the basketball equivalent of Jesus but I hardly think his NBA playing career comes close to coach material. Just found it odd, that’s all.
I’ll end with a shocker: Jordan Farmar had a higher vertical leap than Rudy Gay back in the 2006 pre-draft camp. I get a feeling Farmar was wearing those shoes George was sporting in the “Jimmy” episode of Seinfeld.
