The Hershey Centre rims made a big acquisition on Tuesday, and they should now have a good deal more protection.
Raptors 905 have activated Edy Tavares and waived J.T. Terrell, the team announced. Tavares was claimed off of waivers using the team’s top waiver priority more than a week ago, but sorting out paperwork for the Cape Verde native to play in Canada took a bit of time. He’s now ready to go, and while he may be inactive as he learns the team’s system, he’ll at the very least be in attendance for Wednesday’s 11 a.m. tip-off in Mississauga.
Terrell, a fourth-round pick in this year’s D-League Draft, was a natural choice to be cut unless the 905 didn’t want to keep three natural centers. Yanick Moreira and Goodluck Okonoboh can both play some power forward, though (Moreira even suggested as much when he heard the news, and his defense can definitely play there, even if it stands to gum up spacing a bit), and Negus Webster-Chan, one of the other players to make it from open tryouts and then training camp, has really impressed with his length, defense, and shooting. The 905 got Terrell nine minutes of run in the opener, and it seems likely that since the 905 knew Tavares was a possibility, Terrell was aware all along that his stint would be rather short.
Someone had to go, is what it comes down to, because Tavares is a really intriguing talent the team couldn’t pass up the opportunity to claim.
Here’s some of what I wrote about him when the news first came down:
Still just 24, the 7-foot-3 Tavares has 12 games of NBA experience with the Hawks and more than half a season of D-League experience across three teams a season ago. In 29 D-League games, he averaged 9.2 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 3.3 blocks while shooting65.2 percent, all in just 21.6 minutes. He could be a major factor for the 905 both on the defensive end and on the glass, and he and Yanick Moreira could stand as quite the defensive platoon at the five.
…
Prior to joining the NBA, Tavares spent several seasons in the Spanish ACB league, even earning All-Eurocup First Team honors in 2014-15. Still quite raw at the offensive end, the Cape Verde native boasts a 7-foot-9 wingspan and looked to have improved at least a little bit in Summer League, averaging nine points on 63.6-percent shooting over six games.
The rotation will now look something like this, though as always, it’s worth noting that John Jordan and Tavares are really the only players on this team who play a single position (Bruno Caboclo and Antwaine Wiggins have each played three so far this year, and Axel Toupane’s guarded across four spots, as examples).
PG: Fred VanVleet, Brady Heslip, John Jordan
SG: Axel Toupane, Negus Webster-Chan
SF: E.J. Singler, Will Sheehey, Antwaine Wiggins
PF: Bruno Caboclo, Jarrod Uthoff, C.J. Leslie
C: Yanick Moreira, Edy Tavares, Goodluck Okonoboh
I tweaked this for a while and it still doesn’t look right. Let’s try it a different way.
Guards: Fred VanVleet, Brady Heslip, John Jordan
Wings: Axel Toupane, E.J. Singler, Will Sheehey, Negus Webster-Chan
Forwards: Bruno Caboclo, Jarrod Uthoff, Antwaine Wiggins
Bigs: Yanick Moreira, C.J. Leslie, Edy Tavares, Goodluck Okonoboh
Even that doesn’t necessarily feel right for Leslie and Webster-Chan. It must be so much fun from a defensive standpoint to get to coach a team with so much positional fluidity. The beauty of the D-League, man.
