"I’m pretty much set," Triano said after practice yesterday.
"You guys only get to see the pre-season games, but I get to see these guys every day in practice.
"And guys have played themselves in and out of positions.
"I feel pretty comfortable where we are rotation-wise."
While calling an eight-or nine-man rotation ideal, Triano isn’t about to put a ceiling on the number of players he may call on regularly.
"It will change depending on fatigue, injury and foul trouble," Triano said.
"Eight, nine guys is an ideal rotation.
"But at the same time, our bench this year will be very powerful and there will be times I can go to the bench.
"I have been very pleased with Patrick (O’Bryant) and Amir (Johnson) in (the Washington game).
"I think they changed the whole dynamic of the game having two big guys out there that took away all sorts of layups."
As much as he has learned watching his new teammates in practice and in four pre-season games, he has to be on the floor with them to get a real feel for their game.
"Just playing with them I will see what they do, where they like to get the ball and that will make my job easier," Turkolglu said.
"When we do start playing pick and roll I will know he will be there and all I have to do is get him the basketball."
The emphasis now, though, has to be on getting acclimated with his new teammates. If he is concerned about having only two weeks to learn his new teammates, Turkoglu was doing a fine job yesterday of disguising it.
"I don’t think it will take too long because I’ve been watching them and following the practices," Turkolglu said. "We have two weeks. It should be enough."
"Does he deserve to (start) because of the amount he’s practised?" Triano asked Tuesday. "No. But, you know what, we only have four more pre-season games and I need to put him on the floor with guys that he’s going to be playing with for the majority of the time."
Turkoglu will play alongside Jose Calderon, Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani and, likely, rookie DeMar DeRozan, which right now looks like the starting five for opening night against Cleveland.
"If he’s restricted to 12 minutes, I’m going to try to keep him on the floor with Chris and Jose and Andrea for the majority of those 12 minutes just so he gets used to playing with those guys as fast as possible and Chris gets used to playing with him," Triano said of Turkoglu.
“Right now, all of our offence is continuity-based,” Triano said. “We haven’t put in our screen-roll stuff yet. … We need to get everyone involved right now, just because if we can sacrifice and make one or two more passes in the preseason, I think that will expedite how fast these guys learn about each other, rather than having three guys watch two guys play.
“Will we get into screen and rolls? Absolutely. But right now the idea of our training camp and our long-term project throughout this month is to get these guys acclimated to each other.”
So, what exactly was it that was keeping Turkoglu on the sideline? Was he tired? Or had the action taken a toll on his right knee, as general manager Bryan Colangelo suggested on the first day of training camp?
"I was overloaded and it gave me a lot of pain in my knee," Turkoglu said. "On the other hand, I wanted to get away from basketball. In that time, I rested my knee."
The resting period, for now, is done. Turkoglu will suit up tonight in Hartford as the Raptors play the Celtics in a pre-season game. Finally, head coach Jay Triano will get to see the club’s four biggest offensive threats – Turkoglu, Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon – on the floor at the same time.
Although Wallace wasn’t worried about the ankle sprain, it’s unlikely he’ll play tonight against the Toronto Raptors.
“He was one of the guys I was thinking of sitting out (tonight) anyway,” coach Doc Rivers said. “But he’s fine. I was asking him if he had twisted his lungs or his ankle.”
Wallace said he rolled his foot on one of the Nets.
“It’s up to Doc,” Wallace said of his availability for tonight. “If he wants me to get a couple in, that’s fine. It’s just a regular tweak.”
7) Toronto Raptors (2nd in the Atlantic Division)- Every year, Toronto is a trendy pick to sneak into the postseason based on talent development and a healthy Chris Bosh. This offseason, the Canadian franchise added a proven scorer in Hedo Turkoglu who should provide more than enough firepower to get the fighting dinos into April.
Brothersteve’s Green & Red Raptor Blog
Who would start at the 2? The rookie, DeRozan; the European scorer, Belinelli; the 5th year defensive specialist, Wright; or Colangelo’s new $5 million combo guard, Jarrett Jack? Also, who could effectively backup Hedo Turkoglu at the 3?
Watching second year player Sonny Weems, who spent almost all of last year in the D-league, fight for minutes this preseason has been an inspiration to Raptors’ fans. Add another potential player to the Raptors’ rotation and ask who’s minutes could Weems be taking?
No less inspiring have been the efforts of Amir Johnson who has to beat out 1 of 2 solid veterans in Evans and Nesterovic for playing time. And Johnson has given it everything he’s got so far this preseason.
Another preseason game and another opportunity for the Raps to continue to work and improve on their team game. Taking a peak at what to look for tonight in match number 5.
