One of the great things about the current NBA blogosphere is what a community it’s become.
When we first started this site back in 2005, there were very few other blogs out there so when trades went down, or rumours were rumbling, it was tough to get much feedback from other knowledgeable basketball sources.
Now of course, that’s not a problem at all and whenever something in Raptorland comes up, you can always reach out to an educated source for further information.
To that point, in the wake of the Reggie Evans trade, we heard a lot about Evans bringing toughness and rebounding, blah, blah, blah.
But just who is Reggie Evans?
To get a better idea for fans, I turned to Jordan from Libertyballers.com, who’s been blogging about the Sixers for quite some time.
The following was his take:
Sixers fans have had a love/hate relationship with Reggie in his two-year tenure with the Sixers. Although, I'm a huge fan of the trade, Reggie will definitely be missed. As far as a night-to-night basis goes, he's one of my favorite players to watch.
Yes, his offense can be ugly at times. Yes, he tends to believe he's more of a scorer than he actually is. And yes, he gets carried away sometimes.
But it's hard to dislike what Reggie brings to an arena every night.
First and foremost, he's one the most energetic players I've ever seen.
He's the epitome of getting the most out of what God gave you. What he lacks in skill, he makes up for in everything else.
I'm not 100 percent sure what the Raptors are lacking, so I'll just get you a quick run-down of his positives and negatives.
Positives
-Fearless. Two years ago when the Sixers played the Pistons in the first round of the playoffs, the Sixers were young, inexperienced and intimidated. Reggie quickly changed that. A couple hard fouls on Rasheed Wallace here, a couple "put your head down and get to the free throw line" drives there -- next thing you know the Sixers aren't intimidated by the big, bad Pistons anymore. Reggie set the tone, and the Sixers never looked back.
-Energy. When you can get a Philly crowd to chant "REG-GIE, REG-GIE" in a intense playoff game, you know you're a special dude.
-One of the best floppers in the league.
-Gets under opposing bigs skin.
-Consonant professional. He does his job without complaining.
Negatives
-Over-rated rebounder. I'm not sure how his numbers are so good, but a lot of his o-rebs are on his own misses. Also, offensive rebounds aren't as good when you either miss or turn the ball over every time you grab one.
-Average defender.
-Makes the occasional stupid play.
-Horrible free throw shooter (although improved)
-Not a good finisher. He'll cost his teammates some assists.
Overall, he's a fun player to watch. He's tough. He can be a goon on the floor. And if he's surrounded by good offensive players, I think he'll help a lot more than he'll hurt. You'll rarely see him take a jump shot, so it's hard to get too mad at the occasional one.
And ironically, his best moment as a Sixer came on a jump shot.
With under a minute to play, he drilled a fadeaway to give the Sixers the lead or tie the game (I forget) in the playoffs against the Pistons.
A big thanks to Jordan for the feedback, some of which I found to be a bit eye-opening.
For instance my assumption of Evans was that he was much more of a "role player" than Jordan’s description, and it is a bit worrisome that Evans considers himself a better offensive player than he is. That's not to say he's Kobe Bryant in overtime last night (dude, PASS THE BALL), but it sounds like there will still be times when as Raptors fans Evans' will frustrate. It also may mean if Humphries isn’t dealt, the Raptors will have two very similar players in this respect, something obviously I'm not looking forward to.
On the flip side, the "getting under opposing bigs’ skins," and "fearless" are the EXACT type of traits this Raptor-club desperately needs and his grit against the Pistons already has me excited about his potential with our current group of softies.
I returned the favour for Jordan, giving him my thoughts on Jason Kapono which you can check out here, and again, this sounds like a win-win situation for both clubs.
Evans of course is just one part of what hopefully is a very successful makeover project by BC and co this summer.
The draft is less than two weeks away, and hopefully by that time we’ll see another piece of the puzzle laid into place.
FRANCHISE
PS - On a non-Raptors related note, the National Team's Senior Men's basketball camp is coming up next week. Our newest addition to the team, Ray Bala, will be providing coverage and we'll be taking a closer look at the squad over the next little while.