Just how far will the Raptors' depth take them?
Tuesday, December 4, 2007 | 07:30 PM ET
No Bosh, no Bargnani, no Ford - no problem. Without their big three, the Raptors cruised to an easy 98-79 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats last night. It’s a testament to the depth of the team that general manager Bryan Colangelo, assistant GM Maurizio Gherardini and senior basketball advisor Wayne Embry have put together.
But before people fall in love with the Raptors depth, you have to see how that depth stacks up against a better quality opponent than the Bobcats.
After a starting the season 2-0, Charlotte (with a 6-10 record) has been one of the worst teams in the NBA. And like the Raptors, Charlotte is wracked with injuries. Two of the cornerstones of their franchise, Sean May (micro-fracture knee surgery) and Adam Morrison (torn ACL) are out for the season. So against Charlotte it wasn’t too surprising that Toronto’s depth was able to withstand the absence of Chris Bosh (strained right groin), Andrea Bargnani (hyper-extended left knee) and T.J. Ford (recovering from a stinger).
The real test comes the rest of this week when the Raptors take on the high-flying Phoenix Suns tomorrow (Dec. 5), the league-leading Boston Celtics on Friday (Dec. 7) and the always tough Houston Rockets on Sunday (Dec. 11). Will Toronto’s depth be able to compete with some of the NBA’s best talent?
The reason why some of Toronto’s bench players are coming off the bench is because of a lack of consistency in their play. This is especially true for Joey Graham and Kris Humphries, who both had great games against Charlotte. But can they maintain that high level of play night in and night out? That’s the quality that superstars in the NBA have - the ability to bring their A-game every night.
Toronto’s Chris Bosh and T.J. Ford are two of the Raptors' A-gamers. I would be surprised if Ford didn’t play tomorrow night against Phoenix. The Raptors need his fast-paced style of play to keep Steve Nash busy on the defensive end of the court in hopes of slowing Nash down on offence. But I have no clue what they’re going to do about Phoenix phenom Amare Stoudemire. Without Bosh in the lineup it’s going to take a group effort to keep Stoudemire and the Matrix (Shawn Marion) off the scoresheet and off the glass.
You can ditto the previous sentence for Boston’s Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce and Houston’s Tracey McGrady and Yao Ming.
With three tough games ahead of them and the team still battling injuries, Raptor fans will soon have a real good idea of how deep this Toronto team really is.
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About the Author
Nick Davis is the senior producer of Metro Morning on CBC Radio One 99.1 FM. He's been involved in basketball since 1978 when he played the game for the first time as an eighth grader. He has covered basketball as a reporter from 1987 to 2001 including college and university basketball, the Canadian national team program and the Toronto Raptors.
An assistant with Sheridan College for the past 13 years, Davis still finds time to coach youth hoops in Toronto. Some of the players Nick has coached include NBAer Jamaal Magloire, European pro Wayne Smith, and Canadian national team members Sherman Douglas and Michael Meeks.
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Comments
nelson
kitchener
I agree with the previous comments. raptors do have a tremedous bench, but this bench is not expected to compete with the likes of phoenix through a full game due to injury. if this is the writer's definition of a "deep" bench then I'm not sure why he is writing a basketball article.
Posted December 10, 2007 02:25 AM
Matt
Toronto
I agree with Simon, the bench is not meant to take on teams like the Suns or Celtics on their own. I don't know how well the guy who wrote this article knows basketball but to say that we shouldn't be impressed by the Raps bench cause they can take out Nash and company is idiotic. Even though the bench can't routinely beat the best teams in the league you should still be impressed that we have arguably the best bench in the league.
Oh and I agree Calderon is the better pure point guard on the team but the scoring Ford brings to the table makes up for the few shortfalls he has playing point.
Posted December 6, 2007 09:17 PM
Richard
Toronto
I think we shuold really try to pick up anderson varejao.. he can be great for out team.
Posted December 6, 2007 02:45 PM
Simon
Toronto
If you ask the Raptors braintrust, they will tell you that TJ and Jose bring slightly different skills to the table. They favour TJ as their starter because of his superior quickness that allows him to break down defences off the dribble, defend on the perimeter and wear down opposing guards a little better than Jose over 30 to 40 minutes. TJ's shooting has also vastly improved over a year or two ago, so he has taken one of his main weaknesses out of his game.
However, I do take exception to the author's notion that the Raptor's depth has to beat (or at least "compete" with) the best teams in the league to justify itself as a team strength. You can't expect even the best bench in the league to beat the healthy Suns and Celtics in the same week. Team depth is about providing supporting minutes to starters, filling in gaps when someone has an off night and helping the team tread water by beating teams they are SUPPOSED to beat when there are injury problems, like the Bobcats. If you can kick in a win here and there against a tier 1 team, that's just gravy.
Posted December 5, 2007 09:31 PM
Oliver
Halifax
I agree with Rick. Ford is not the guy .period. Calderon is fast, he can pass and is overall just a bit brighter than the silly looking Ford. Plus, Calderon doesn't force nearly as many horrible shots are Ford does. Will the Raptors management realize the obvious and switch up the roles of Ford and Calderon. I hope so.
Posted December 5, 2007 07:26 PM
Rick
winnipeg
who ever wrote this article does not understand that ford is not the guy, calderone can run a fast paced attack with control and distribution, have you not noticed the assist to turnover ratio over the games he has started, as well as skill at the point the raps need every guy at their best and unless you have calderone keeping everyone in the game they will not get it. An A-gamer controls the ball
Posted December 5, 2007 05:32 AM