2015-16 NBA preview: Toronto Raptors forecast | ESPN [Insider]
For all the new faces, the most unfamiliar one at Raptors media day might have been Lowry, who slimmed down after adding bike riding and extreme Pilates to his offseason regimen. The results in preseason have been stunning. Lowry leads all players in exhibition scoring and has been getting to the paint at will. Even if Lowry merely can play at the same level he did between the 2014 and 2015 All-Star breaks for a full season, Toronto will have a much better chance of postseason success. Beyond that, the Raptors must get back to where they were defensively in 2013-14. In addition to the defensive upgrade on the wing with Carroll, Toronto has also made tactical changes. Former Chicago Bulls assistant Andy Greer was added to Casey’s staff with an eye toward adjusting how the Raptors defend pick-and-rolls to force them to the baseline — something no team in the league did better than Chicago under Tom Thibodeau. If the Raptors can marry a top-10 defense with a top-10 offense as they did in 2013-14, they could emerge as the leading threat to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East. But if Toronto is unable to improve defensively and is no longer as potent offensively without Williams’ bench scoring, the Raptors might slide out of the top four spots in the East. If that happens, more changes will be in store next summer, when DeRozan can become an unrestricted free agent.
Raptors’ Bruno Caboclo becoming a full-time GTAer | Toronto Sun
A 20-year-old athletic freak too raw for full-time big-league duty, Caboclo could evolve into a main attraction for the Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment-owned farm club based in Mississauga. “He’s the perfect case study for the D-League,” Raptors director of player personnel Dan Tolzman, who doubles as Raptors 905 GM, said Wednesday following a public practice at Mississauga’s Hershey Centre, which drew a few thousand fans. “We’ve already seen him make big strides since we drafted him last year, and that was without a lot of game experience. That’s what the D-League will do, it’ll add to his potential. Getting minutes in a game is so much more valuable than practising over and over.”
Raptors 905 team will have intriguing list of prospects | Toronto Star
There will be players there every now and then who have NBA contracts — Bruno Caboclo, Lucas Nogueira, Delon Wright, Norman Powell and perhaps Anthony Bennett — but the others are just as intriguing. Axel Toupane, Shannon Scott, Ronald Roberts and Michale Kyser are intriguing prospects the Raptors hope to keep around. D-League roster rules allow NBA teams to place up to four players who’ve been in the main camp as “affiliate players” to their D-League team, if the players sign D-League contracts. That’s likely the fate of Toupane, Scott, Roberts and Kyser, although some team officials fear Toupane will be snapped up by another NBA team when he’s placed on waivers sometime on the weekend.
Dunc’d On Pod: Toronto Raptors Season Preview With Eric Koreen | RealGM Wiretap
Eric Koreen (@EKoreen) of the National Post joins Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) to preview the Toronto Raptors season. Topics include: Whether Kyle Lowry can get back to where he was the first half of last year, if Jonas Valanciunas can take the next step (especially defensively), which of the young players on the roster can emerge, and his grade for Masai Ujiri’s regime as GM.
Lewenberg: Raptors will live or die based upon Lowry | TSN
Naylor and Feschuk spoke to TSN Raptors Insider Josh Lewenberg, who says Kyle Lowry is playing at a fantastic level, and despite his weight loss, his added quickness has not sacrificed his ability to attack the basket with strength and get to the free throw line.
What are NBA scouts saying about the Toronto Raptors? | Raptors HQ
They basically have been a half-court team, grinding it out, playing inside-out. Now they want to play that small four, run it up and down, space the floor, use fewer sets and attack the rim…
Bismack Biyombo Will Be At His Best With Toronto Raptors | RantSports
The constant worry about Biyombo is that his weaknesses are all basic. All of his offense (as rare as it is) comes on putbacks, he struggles to finish at the rim and he turns the ball over — a lot. Sometimes he has trouble even catching it. Oh, and he has never made a shot outside of 17 feet in his entire career. So yes, he is extremely limited on offense. And no, he won’t be able to play at the same time as Jonas Valanciunas, but he will be an asset in spelling him. Calling a free agent underrated has become such a tedious trend that it almost seems like any player who doesn’t sign an enormous contract was a bargain. So I won’t call Biyombo underrated. I will say that the Raptors picked up an extremely valuable defensive addition.
Know Your Raptors episode 4: Norm Powell | Sportsnet.ca
Maybe slipping to the second round was the best career move that could’ve happened to Norman Powell. After all, it’s the only thing that could’ve made the chip on his shoulder grow bigger than it already was. A truly elite athlete with a coveted ability to get to the basket, scouts were concerned with Powell’s size (generously listed at 6’4”) and lack of an outside shot as reasons why he couldn’t hack it as an NBA shooting guard. Since then Powell has been converting skeptics with virtually every trip up and down the floor. His outstanding Summer League performance—earning All First-Team honours—set the stage for a strong preseason that will force Dwane Casey to reconsider his backcourt rotation this season.
Know Your Raptors episode 5: Patrick Patterson | Sportsnet.ca
The departure of Amir Johnson to Boston left the door open for Patterson to take over the starting power forward gig, with no real competition in sight. One pre-season later? Well, let’s just say things have changed. The job is still Patterson’s, but after straying from what earned him career-best playing time last season (it took four games before he attempted a three-pointer), his grip on the role is seemingly loosening each day. But it’s the pre-season. It’s not exactly always the best indicator of how a team or player will perform in the regular season. So Patterson will have every opportunity to put the weak exhibition stretch behind him and put together a strong campaign. This is the best opportunity Patterson has gotten in his career—to start on a potential playoff contender—but it remains to be seen if he’ll make the most of it.
Know Your Raptors episode 6: Anthony Bennett | Sportsnet.ca
t was a low-risk/high-reward move when the Raptors brought in Anthony Bennett just days before the start of training camp. The 1st overall pick just three years ago, Bennett arrived in Toronto after being released by the Minnesota Timberwolves and going unclaimed off waivers by the rest of the NBA. The Raptors signed the hometown kid at the league’s minimum salary in the hopes that his third team in as many years will be the best fit. Even if it doesn’t work out, if Bennett has yet another poor season, the risk will have been well worth it; while his role and conditioning have come under question over the years, his talent level never has. Fortunately for Bennett and the Raptors, their newest player has actually looked pretty good throughout the pre-season, earning minutes with both the starting and second-unit, and showing flashes of why the Cleveland Cavaliers took him first overall in the first place. Exhibit A:
Raptors Roundtable: How will the new Raptors impact the existing core? | Sportsnet.ca
It’s not so much the effect of the incoming players as the after effects of losing some players from last year’s team. As often as Lou Williams and Greivis Vasquez hit big shots and single-handedly ignited the offence, they hiked bad ones early in the clock and reduced the rest of the team to mere onlookers. Without those guys—who could at least ostensibly create their own shots—the team as a whole will have to move the ball more often to get good looks. They might even pass it into the post occasionally.
Johnson still on the outs in Raptors’ rotation | TSN
Nobody spent more time working with him than assistant coach Jama Mahlalela. After their disappointing playoff elimination, Toronto’s coaching staff sat down with each player to formulate an off-season workout plan. Johnson wanted to get better, wanted to add to his game, and asked for Mahlalela’s help. “James said, ‘Know what? I want to stay in Toronto and I want to work here and I want to work with you,’ ” Mahlalela told TSN.ca. “And ‘I want to get better; I want to commit to getting better over the course of the summer.’ ” Johnson, a Wyoming native, spent most of his summer in Toronto. He and Mahlalela would meet in the Raptors practice facility four-to-five times a week. “That was the commitment we made,” said the third-year assistant coach. “And then we basically tried to hold to it all the way through and he, to his credit, was here and he worked. I mean, he got better this summer. The amount of hours he spent was significant, more than a lot of other players.”
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