The Toronto Raptors acquired Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks from the Miami Heat in exchange for Jermaine O’Neal and Jamario Moon. Bryan Colangelo has made his team much more like the Phoenix Suns, obtaining an upgrade in speed and scoring at the expense of defense and rebounding.
On Wednesday, the Raptors beat the San Antonio Spurs with above-average half-court execution and satisfactory defence. Led by Roko Ukic, Toronto was much less predictable; although they mostly alternated Flex-Ball Screen-High Rub, it seemed that the ball ended up in different hands and that there was more penetration. I’m not a fan of Chris Bosh holding the ball as the shot clock winds down before shot-faking thrice and shooting a fifteen foot jumper so I that that this was a positive development. Another difference between O’Neal and Bosh is that screens were set more solidly and post defence against Tim Duncan appeared tougher.
Now, the team will certainly run more and play more athletically. Marion’s numbers have continued to decline this year although he is an above-average rebounder from the wing. Down the stretch, the team will likely put the ball in Bosh’s hands and I’m not sure how that will work out. The Raptors don’t need to put the ball in Parker’s hands as much so he can focus more on creating his own offence. As a corollary of that, I suppose Jason Kapono will get less run unless his shooting heats up.
Post defence has improved – which is good because it was previously horrendous – but post defence is very shallow and soft. The Raptors have some options to prevent players like Manu Ginobli from dropping 37 points on them. Instead of size, the defence has more speed. Hopefully Bosh and Bargnani never foul anyone and never injure themselves.
The Raptors have some cap flexibility to get a free agent this summer and convince Chris Bosh to stay. Banks’s contract is as bad as his point guard play but it’s only five million a year, which is manageable. Moon was gone for sure anyways and needed to be moved to clear minutes for Marion. In a perfect world, it would be good if Kapono started shooting well; maybe he could be moved for a back-up post.
Potential Rotation: there are a lot of guys to whom Jay Triano can turn to for contributions. Not that there are a lot of great players but there are a lot of players with similar PERs on the bench. They are very much a European-style team. These guys should help Triano run more of his sets.
PG: Calderon/Ukic
SG: Parker/Kapono/Banks
SF: Marion/Graham/Kapono
PF: Bosh/Humphries
C/F: Bargnani/Voskuhl
The Raptors better start scoring about 85 point in the first three quarters because they will be holding on for dear life down the stretch. And fans need no longer fret whilst nervously awaiting the imminent explosion of Jermaine O’Neal’s knee.