Raptors Current Roster

“The main criticism about his game is his lack of rebounding and defense. If we look at the PF position in the NBA there are only 6 players who averaged over 7 rebounds/game and only 3 who averaged over 1blk/game. While Bargnani did not meet those levels of production his 5.6/rpg and .9blk/game isn’t far below.”

well according to this -

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/rebounds/sort/avgRebounds/position/power-forwards

Thats not true. There are 15 PF that grabbed more than 8 rebounds a game.

Then if we look at Rebs Per 48 Bargnani would be dead last among ‘qualified’ PFs at 7 per 48 (Jeff Green at 7.1 was last among PFs).

Now lets get to the real meat… Reb%

Bargnani had a reb% of 8.6%, which would rank him as 87th among ‘qualified’ PFs, just ahead of non-PFs Gallinari and Gary Forbes. In fact his rebound %, for all player at all positions in the NBA was 234th.

So Bargnani would still rank nearly last in the league in rebounding even if he was a PF last year.

As for blocks…. there were 9 PFs who had 1 or more blocks per game.

ESPN has Bargnani at 0.7 per game, or 38th among Cs. Among PFs that would have ranked him 20th.

His BLKs per 48 we 0.94… which would rank him at 29th among ‘qualified’ PFs.

So again… Bargnani isn’t just below the top PFs in blks. He is significantly below them

It would also be nice if people could talk about Bargnani without mentioning Dirk. Its like brining up Michael Jordan when talking about Demar.

He has good range and proved he could hit the outside shot last season. Not a three point shooter but not many PFs are, but he could stretch the floor. Davis has very limited range but is longer and may have more upside. I wouldn’t trade either one of them. And JV is very exciting to consider in a Raptors uniform. I have no problem having 3 young big men who can all rebound and play defence on the roster. Let’s see how these three pan out.

Plus, we have a big man we can use as trade bait and he has “great” range and he has plenty of height.

We need Demar to step up and JJ to somehow blossom, albeit very late and for Bayless to do the same. Then we have something to talk about. Then we have a young exciting team. Plus we get to add a top (hopefully) draft pick next year and JV. No other pieces are crucial to our future. Jose is a nice piece but too expensive currently. If you could sign him for less as a backup PG, it would be worth considering because he is loyal and very efficient offensively which would be great to run the second unit which often stalls offensively. I have an open mind on Jose when you lower his salary considerably and his role…but no one else on the roster is part of our championship run in 2015.

As I lost all credibility by taking the wrong numbers, I’ll just say that is the last time I use yahoo sports.

Just to re-iterate my point of the value of the stretch 4, if we look at the past NBA champions since, MJ retired, each team has had a stretch 4 or twin towers.

1999-Spurs-Duncan/Robinson
2000-2002-Lakers-Shaq/Horry
2003-Spurs-Duncan/Robinson
2004-Pistons-Wallace/Wallace
2005-Spurs-Duncan/Horry
2006-Heat-Shaq/Haslem
2007-Spurs-Duncan/Horry/Oberto (I believe they started Oberto but not positive)
2008-Celtics-Perkins/Garnett
2009-2010-Lakers-Gasol/Bynum
2011-Mavs-Dirk/Chandler

I will conceed that the Pistons team did not have true bigs, Ben Wallace was the baddest man in the NBA and played like a real big and dominated the paint, and Wallace was the stretch 4. While not every team had a stretch 4 each team had either two true bigs or a stretch 4, now the current Raptors Amir/Davis fit neither category, and while both are great role players they can’t be counted on to be starters on competitive teams. As much as everyone talks about Johnson as a great hustle player and his contract is a bargain, remember he will be making 7million! in 3 years. The current dispute is around contracts just like this one, where to keep a player you give him a midlevel and in 3 years it is too much.

Ed Davis is getting paid 2.2 million next year while Amir Johnson gets 6 million, and they have a duplicate set of skills and can’t play on the floor at the same time for extensive periods. Any arguments on that point?

Bargnani however, while he does have many flaws is a matchup nightmare and really needs a partner down low who compliments him well, instead of someone who has the same weaknesses. i.e. Bosh. Hopefully JV can be that player, but if not they have to move him but we need to give it a chance. Very few players have his skill set and we should try and use it properly instead of complaining abotu what he can’t do. While I think that so many raptor fans just want to see this team make the playoffs, I would rather see them be a top dog and to do that we have to aim high and not just on guys who try really really hard.

If we can bring over JV and he is what we all hope he will significantly cover up Bargnani’s short comings, while hopefully they can make each other better. The key word is synergy and right now we have players who do not compliment each other, hopefully that high draft pick can turn into a player who compliments our current roster instead of another clone. If the Raptors got the number 1 pick Bargnani needs to be shipped out of town very quickly to make room for Drummond, but if (as they should) get a top 5 pick they could grab, Gilcrest, Davis, Barnes, Teague, hopefully they don’t draft someone like Sullinger who would not compliment our current roster.

By moving a player I meant Bargnani and not JV

He can be a difficult cover at times but I would not describe him as a matchup nightmare by any means.

TheTruth is SImple
We need to change the culture of the team and it starts with Casey. If Andrea adopts the new culture and plays the way he must to fit into Casey’s system, then he can stay. If not he must go. No hard feelings, it’s just the goals of the team far outweigh any one player’s importance, especially a player that can’t play at a high level on both sides of the floor. If Andrea steps up, great. If he doesn’t, goodbye. Simple.

I don’t know if it needs to be a high level, but a competent one with good defenders around him. He also needs to rebound more aggressively, does not need to get 10 a game, but be a factor on the boards. Reggie Evans averaged 14rpg adn probably 6 were taken from his teammates hands, thats culture and agressiveness. But like you said it starts with Casey, and holding people accountable.

Instead of frowning on what Bargnani can’t do, we need to either accept he is part of the future and bring it pieces that compliment or ship him out, but we can’t blame him when to be realistic the entire team just does not fit together.