Photo credit:Â MattAzevedo.com
The official start to Bruno Caboclo’s career with the Brazilian senior men’s national team couldn’t have gone much better than it did late Friday night.
After a mixed bag of friendlies that mostly graded out as at least mildly encouraging, Caboclo looked like one of the best players on the floor for the Brazilians against host Colombia. With smart, quick decisions in the post, willing help-and-recover defense, and force on the glass that’s quickly become his biggest value to this squad, Caboclo looked every bit the part of higher-end player in the watered-down Americup, which is largely where expectations sat for him entering the tournament.
Primarily billed as a small forward to date, the Toronto Raptors’ prospect played a lot of power forward here and even spent some time at center, something he’s done on occasion with Raptors 905, too. At nearly 7 feet tall and with an obscene wingspan, Caboclo can provide some rim protection helping a shorter distance, and this tournament doesn’t have enough size to really punish Caboclo’s still-developing frame (he’s certainly put in the work in the gym to be considered a four, or at least a combo-forward).
All told, Caboclo was one of the team’s most important players, playing to a plus-9 in a 76-74 victory, the second-best mark on the team. That he played 37 of 40 minutes makes this stand out even more – Brazil was outscored by seven points in the three minutes he sat. Caboclo scored 11 points on just seven field-goal attempts thanks to hitting three triples, hauled in 11 rebounds, and perhaps most encouraging, dishes three assists. He also committed four fouls and four turnovers,
You can see highlights from the game here:
You can see the box score here. Brazil plays again tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET, though FIBA does not appear to be streaming full games on YouTube for this tournament, so you may have to get creative to find the action.
