Sunday Thought - Is Leandro Barbosa Simply Marco Belinelli 2.0?

To me, the most important thing about having Barbosa in the lineup, is that his name is not Hedo Turkaglu. The number one thing on my list for the raptors to do this offseason was unload the useless Turk for anything, (which includes a slice of pizza pizza and a 7up). I think many people share that sentiment. So yes, its nice to look at what Barbosa can bring to the table, but I think we need to realize that we replaced nothing for something. Lets be happy!

age and experience. colangelo’s familiar with barbosa, who should have a far greater impact on this raptors team than marco ever did.

the other difference could be playmaking. it’s unfortunate triano didn’t have the foresight to further develop marco’s skill as a playmaker. with hedo’s down year last season, i think marco could have spent more time as his backup.

I put in the swap (not trade) of Belinelli for Barbosa which in what this article is about.

It shows a + 3.8 wins for the Raptors with Barbosa rather than Belinelli

http://www.queencityhoops.com/playerSwapPage.php

Sure Marco put up comparable numbers to Barbosa. Marco’s numbers were in line with his career (albeit only a few years). Point is, he has yet to show he can do more. Barbosa’s numbers were way down across the board (minutes, points, shooting percentages, etc). Based on the FIBA tournament, he is healthy again and should put up better numbers than what we could have expected from Marco.

People need to look at Leandro’s career and realize he is a much better player than Marco. And no one has mentioned the biggest difference between the two; Barbosa is faster. He is one of the quickest players in transition in the NBA and FIBA. Last year was a horrible year for Leandro with injury and other hardships but it is reasonable to expect him to return to his previous career stats this year.

With the young guns and Leandro, Jack , Kleiza and even Andrea can run the floor well for a big man, the Raptors should have a good transition game this season.

Last year we thought we could win with height in a half court offence with Jose running the show and Bosh being our centre piece. We had three guys at 6’10" or bigger and we thought that would work well. It didn’t. We couldn’t play effective defence.

This year we should be quicker and better on defence. If for no other reason than the changing of Jack for Jose and Linas for Hedo. Jose does not keep his man in front of him and for that reason he is a liability on defence. The help defenders have to come and the D collapses. Hedo was lazy and showed no toughness or grit.

The last reason our defence will be better is Demar and Sonny’s continued development in all aspects of the game. I think they can both become good players in the NBA over the next few years. Gotta love their upside. Go Raps

just off topic but linas again had a nice game to win bronze today for lithuania with 33 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists…linas had such a amazing tournment hopefully this carries into the season for the raps.

I think leandro and belli are the same type of player but barbosa is of higher quality

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At first, I could see the similarities (between Belli & Barbie) – through your numbers, and a bit their styles. On second thought though, I decided that the Brazilian was more a Belinelli +1. Older maybe, but a step up, and maybe more.
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That second perspective came about over a comment “analyzing” Kleiza’s falter against the Americans. Apparently they have the only NBA players, and that`s how real basketball is played. Of course, flipping that thought around, it would only be fair to look at Barbosa with a little more credit. And at a quick glance, Barbosa has decent numbers in that U.S. – Brazil match. 14 Pts. 4 Rbs. 4 St. and 4 Assists. Not bad.
 
Unfortunately, there`s more. And that would be the 3rd way I looked at this.
In their match-up (August 30th), the final spread was only 2 points. Close enough. But had it not been for Barbosa’s shooting woes, the South American boys might’ve been the ones celebrating. .
In the end, Brazil loss because 1 of their 3 point shots did not go in. Taking 13 shots & making only 3 is not good. It does happen. Hopefully, not too much.

Barbosa has to know that his playing time – like Belinelli – could be affected if his shot selections start impacting the new kids (and their necessary “training”). However, unlike Belli, there’s a pretty decent history behind the Brazilian, to warrant more of an opportunity. Being a career 400 (3 pt%), does give one a certain latitude – especially with this brand of Raptors. If Barbosa can exceed that 400 average, things could look better for Toronto.
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Not long ago, there was a topic that discussed our future Perimeter shooting – wondering how the Raps will deal with their 3 point situation. If the game plan is to have Andrea forgo some 3 point shots (so he can hang out in the Post area more often), Toronto will need to make up for the loss of Belly, Wright & Turk. Add a little bit of Bargnani loss (to the 3 point shot total), and the Raps really need to sort this one out. This is where Barbosa comes in.
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Hopefully it won’t be too much (negatively) – that could be tough. Could help Andrea with the rebound thing if he misses a lot. My worst Barbosa nightmare envisions an anti-Kapono style. Isn’t afraid to shoot 3 pointers – just can’t make them.

If it works out right, it could be another good thing. Besides a TPE, and expiring contracts, we’d have Barbosa’s trade value increase to a point, where a team making a run, is willing to cough up some future for a solid addition. One can only dream.
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Then again, maybe I need to see through the eyes of FAQ, and just fugetaboutit.
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