Toronto Raptors Preseason: What have we seen so far?
Oct 13, 2014; New York, NY, USA; Toronto Raptors shooting guard Louis Williams (23) controls the ball against New York Knicks shooting guard Iman Shumpert (21) during the second quarter at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Toronto Raptors Preseason is on its way, and this week is going to be a tough one regarding the quantity and frequency of away games: The Raptors played the New York Knicks at MSG on Canada’s Thanksgiving Day, then they go to Portland to play against Boston Celtics and finish this week against Oklahoma City Thunder at Wichita. They already had 4 games, against Sacramento Kings (2) the Celtics and the Knicks that just ended. Their current record is 3-1, a record that is not so important at this stage but on the other hand, it’s always better to build a winning mentality to the team.
So, what have we seen so far from our team?
Offence seems very strong. The leaders will be the same (Demar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry) but they will have huge help from the bench. Patrick Patterson and Lou Williams are two examples of players that will come from the bench and help the team a lot.
DeMar has improved his 3 point percentage a lot. During the last 3 games, he tried 8 shots beyond the arc, scoring on 5 of them (current percentage 62.5%) At least, these numbers show that he worked on this part of his game too, and the future looks promising.
The team keeps having defensive ups and downs. They start strong, they become “lazy” during the second and third quarter, letting the opponents to score many points, and they bounce back during the last quarter. This “tempo” reminds me a lot last season. We’ve experienced many games with this type of defensive awareness. Consistency is important in order to achieve great things, so they have to be focused on this part.
Lou Williams is still trying to find his “mojo”. He may score above 10 points per game but his stats were very low during the first 3 games. He bounced back although tonight, scoring 21 points against the Knicks with 6-9 Field goal attempts. When he feels more confident and comfortable with his new role in this team, he will be an offensive threat.
James Johnson seems to have matured. He’s impressed everybody so far, he knows his role and he’s OK with this (at least for now). He will be an important player coming from the bench, more defensively but also offensively.
Greg Stiemsma is still the first candidate to get the 15th and final roster spot. Even he didn’t played a lot, fouled out on during the first game and committed 4 fouls in only 9.43 minutes during his second pre-season game against the Celtics, he seems the best guy to help Jonas Valanciunas right now. The rest of the players fighting for the last spot in this roster, even if they play hard and they try to get the final spot, are facing major difficulties. Jordan Hamilton plays SF, a spot that is more than full in this roster with Ross, James Johnson, Fields (inevitably) and Caboclo (even if the last two will not play a lot), and Will Cherry is having the obstacles of Greivis Vasquez and Lou Williams (even if the latter is more SG than PG). Stiemsma has to compete with Chuck Hayes for the bench Center (Bebe Nogueira is currently injured but probably he’s going to be a Mad Ant or a…bust).
Tyler Hansbrough is trying to put another aspect in his (limited to be honest) playbook; the 3 point shot. It’s a promising try from the ex-Tar Heel player. He knows by himself that in order to grab more minutes of play, and why not, a better contract next year, he needs to improve offensively.
Landry Fields is still struggling.
Bruno Caboclo will have his chance during this week, but he’s considered a long term project of this team. He is a very good 3 point shooter though, and this is a very good start for the young Brazilian. The only thing he needs is patience and hard work. I believe in him. He can be much better than his Greek “alter ego”, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!