Raptors season will crumble if kids don’t step up
By Brian Boake
The Raptors have allowed their young players time and space to develop. This season, several of them must emerge if the team is to succeed.
The last time the The Toronto Raptors had a Rookie of the Year was 1999, when one Vincent Lamar Carter won a landslide victory. Morris Peterson finished a badly beaten fifth two years later; Chris Bosh got a little love in LeBron James’ first year; Charlie Villanueva finished a healthy second behind Chris Paul in 2006, then promptly disappeared; Andrea Bargnani got the only first-place vote not awarded Brandon Roy in 2007; Jamario Moon received some end-of-the-ballot attention in 2008, as did Jonas Valanciunas in 2013.
Since then, nada. The voters haven’t liked our kids for a long time, but we Raptors fans hope our young players put their rookie also-ran status behind them. This season’s squad needs people to develop.
The RoY is a respectable, though hardly impeccable, predictor of future success. For every winner like King James (2004) or Kevin Durant (2008), there’s a Michael Carter-Williams (2014) or Tyreke Evans (2010). Two guys who received one miserable point each behind Carter-Williams’s 569 were Giannis Antetokounompo and Steven Adams. Their teams (Milwaukee and OKC) wouldn’t trade either of them today for 3 Carter-Williamses. Guess who finished a badly beaten second behind Evans? Stephen Curry.
A cloudy crystal ball
I happen to think this past season’s RoY winner, the Bucks’ Malcolm Brogdon, will never be more than a useful rotation player. I’d much rather have the Philly guys, Dario Saric and Joel Embiid, or Jaylen Brown or Jamal Murray. Time will tell.
The Raptors have a bunch of players whose path to significant playing time is much smoother than before. The dumping of DeMarre Carroll’s contract was more than an escape from the luxury tax. Now there’s the possibility of a serious battle at small forward, with Norman Powell having a chance to grab the starting spot from career backup C.J. Miles.
Pascal Siakam started several games last year at Power Forward. If he shows enough at training camp, he might be able to hold the spot. That assumes Serge Ibaka pushes JV to the bench. If third-stringer center Lucas Nogueira is finally ready to assume larger duties, JV’s expensive presence will no longer be required.
The big picture
We can play “What if…?” till next week with no conclusion. However, here’s one thing that’s certain. The Raptors have a top-heavy payroll, and JV is the one player in the middle class (i.e., between $10 and 20 million, in his case, 15+). If at least three of the youngsters don’t make significant advances this season, the team will be in serious trouble. There’s insufficient financial flexibility to make a serious mid-season move.
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