Sunday Thought – Just How Pressing Is the Need for a Back-Up PG?

I think Roko can be quite useful for the Raptors but it will not be at the PG position, I think he would be much better suited for the SG position because he has the ability to drive to the basket. All of his scouting reports say that he is good at beating his man off the dribble and getting to the basket. His shot is not that consistent but his skillset is not made for PG. I would much rather have Anthony Parker play at PG (as he's done at times during last season and in Europe).

He would also change both the offensive and defensive look of the team because of his size. At last I think Parker should be working on post moves this off season, he would be able to beat (almost) every PG in the post with a fade-away jumpshot.

If Triano can see this quickly enough, BC will know to focus on positions SG, SF, and C

.... and if Nash decides to retire in a Raptor uniform........

Its a depressed marketplace, pick up a half decent backup pg on a one or two year deal. I'm comfortable risking having this vet pg on the bench should Roko surprise. An extra pg is a good asset to have come trade deadline time.

I'm also not willing to entertain the notion that one could just trade for a pg mid-season should the need arise. I'd rather the pg was with us from the beginning, and not do a sloppy job learning the offense and our players tendencies. We don't have any shot-creators period, let alone on the bench. Therefore we need a backup pg that can actually RUN the offense, not just walk the ball up, pass it off and spot up for a perimeter shot.

Of the things Colangelo has done, his handling of the point guard situation is the only one I did not see any logic to. Even the giving up of draft picks seemed to have a logic to it and bringing in JO was a shot at something special. Failed, but he took a shot.
But having an injured Calderon who could not practice continually play - and lose- made no sense. He should have been sat down and we should have lost with what we had. At least we could get a little development out of Roko.
I strongly disagree with Childlike who does not think that Roko has the skills to play the point. He has amazing handles and can get into the paint very well. He showed a definite improvement in finishing, especially developing a runner that is all the better because he's a tall guy. He needs a decent shot to really take the next step, as did Jose.
Defensively, he's pretty strong. He neutralized Rondo because he has the lateral quickness and a slight height advantage.
We need to develop players. Roko will be fine. However, if he can improve his shot like Jose did, he could become a pretty good SG, like Childlike suggests.

I think we'd all like for Roko to morph into Jose version 2.0, but the real decision is whether this team is supposed to win NOW or build towards a promising future. If it's the latter then this team should keep Roko and allow him to develop, but if it's the former then I think the team needs to mak a push and grab Curry in the draft. He would solve the back-up PG issue and give you a solid scoring punch off the bench.

My personal opinion, however, is that this team needs to build for the future, move Bosh and develop its young players (including those acquired in any Bosh deal) so that we can make a championship run in a few years. This team doesn't have the talent to do that now, and doesn't have the cap space to bring in the talent necessary; so there's only one option left.

Rob

It falls to Jose's health, again. When healthy we have one of the best. Write off last year cause he was maybe healthy for 20-25 games.
Saw too much that I like about Ukic to not give him the opportunity. Bet you he's working on his shot as we speak.
And has someone mentioned Parker can handle the role, probably better than anyone we got.

I'd like to see Marcus Williams on our summer league team. I think he still has a future in the NBA and could do the job as back up PG.

The latest rumor out of Raptor land is that Bosh is not going to be traded this summer and that there is a high probability Marion will be back as long as they can agree on for how much. Apparently Bosh will receive an offer from BC but even if he rejects, he still isn’t going to be traded. I heard this news 4 days ago from someone in the organization who isn’t close to the situation but close enough to hear things. I just finally read it in an article so now I’m starting to believe it. It looks like BC is going to improve the PF/C,SG & back up PG positions and go into next season with a core of Bargs, Bosh, Marion & Calderon. Delfino will apparently be option #2 if they are unable to pick up a SG via draft or FA.

COULD IT BE TRUE!

I HEAR THE TSN2 FIASCO IS FINALLY OVER!

I don't think Howland anticipated this in his 'off-season game of dominoes'....

So far he is 1 for 2... ha ha

I find this article lacking.

Why assume that Banks or Roko are the only options on the roster?

Let me say, I agree that Banks is a complete write off and that Ukic is only viable if he makes a quantum leap. I also agree that bringing in other "pure" point guards like a Marcus Williams, or a rookie like Flynn or Lawson, is also a luxury that cannot be afforded due to roster spots and other glaring weaknesses.

However, is it not evidently clear that Colangelo is about to assign the backup point guard minutes to combo guards? His end of the year press conference seemed to be the moment in time he annointed his man crush Anthony Parker and his saviour Carlos Delfino would be the backups of Calderon next year.

I am not saying this is a good idea or that I support this plan. (Cause I don't!) I am just saying that this is the most likely scenario.

At least that's what it looks like unless a big trade goes down.

Carlos

A few days back Danny Granger was awarded the "Most Improved" in the NBA. In the anouncement, it was pointed out that he had improved his scoring in each of the last three years by 5 points per year. It is interesting that in this past year, had just 4 of the Raptors scored two more points per game, they would have won at least 17 more games. Do you think that Kapono (9ppg),Anthony Parker (11ppg), Joey Grahm (8 ppg)or even Calderon(13ppg) could step it up by 2 points per game? Add into that mix, a little more effort on defence and it shows how close they were.