Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

10 Things We Learned About Bruno Caboclo on Saturday

Bruno Caboclo and Masai Ujiri met the media after a workout session - this is what came out of it.

There was a workout and a brief media availability session for Bruno Caboclo and Masai Ujiri, some titbits that came out of it:

  1. He can throw down dunks (albeit with no defenders around) and shoot FTs (alt video)
  2. He’ll be on the Toronto Raptors roster next season, with D-League stints a distinct possibility
  3. He started playing basketball when he was 13
  4. The rumours of his lack of dribble are unfounded
  5. His English is poor enough that he needs a translator to communicate
  6. He has a good follow-through
  7. He was drafted purely on the eye-test and not based on any statistical data/analysis
  8. He found out he was being drafted through a tweet from a journalist, in a taxi, and got a call at 2am from Masai Ujiri
  9. He’s aware of the “2 years from being 2 years away” comment and will work to shorten that
  10. His selection was confirmed as a gamble by Ujiri

Overall thoughts: The Raptors drafted a great athlete and hope to turn him into a basketball player.  He’s got the physical attributes to be one and enjoys strong organizational support.  Ujiri’s going to be patient with him and will go through the development process with Caboclo.  I like the idea of developing a peripheral player rather than a starter, which is what the Raptors had to do with Valanciunas, Ross and DeRozan thus far.  At the very least, it should be entertaining.  The worst-case for Caboclo is Darius Miles, the best a combination of Nicolas Batum and Serge Ibaka.

Here’s the Bruno interview and here’s Masai Ujiri.