Raptors Add Bayno to Coaching Staff, on Verge of Signing Guard Dwight Buycks

Masai Ujiri continues to fill out the Toronto Raptors organization in preparation for the 2013-14 season.

But he's not exactly doing it with big name acquisitions.

Yesterday the Raps added Bill Bayno to the club's coaching staff in an Assistant role, and is reportedly signing former Marquette point guard Dwight Buycks.

As we've said before during this off-season...

...who? And WHO?

Bayno was an assistant with Rick Adelman in Minnesota since 2011 and was an assistant with the Portland Trailblazers prior to that. He apparently will be having input on the Raptors' defensive schemes next season, which is indeed intriguing considering that's long been the specialty of head coach Dwane Casey.

Bayno joins Nick Nurse as an assistant to Casey, and the team is reportedly adding one more name, Jesse Mermuys to the staff too, although neither Bayno or Mermuys have yet been confirmed by the team.

We'll be doing some homework on both Bayno and Mermuys once confirmed to bring a little insight into the hirings, and will do the same regarding Dwight Buycks.

Buycks has to be the most out-of-nowhere signing yet, easily taking the crown from Julyan Stone. Buycks apparently has been asked to be Kyle Lowry's back-up but who knows how this will play out as we heard the same thing regarding Stone earlier this summer.

One thing's for certain, the Raps likely will lead the league in "lack of NBA back-up PG experience" next season barring some other moves. Signing Buycks puts the Raps over the NBA's roster limit of 15 so it looks like indeed, a buyout of Marcus Camby or amnestying of Linas Kleiza is on the way.

And just who is Buycks?

Quite frankly I barely remembered him from his time at Marquette and that was only after looking back at the club during his senior season when he played with the likes of Jimmy Butler (then a senior) and Juniors, Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder. Canadian Junior Cadougan was a soph at the time and ended up sharing the PG spot with Buycks, who averaged about 9 points and 3 assists that year.

That hardly lit up the Big East but he did prove quite able to knock down shots shooting 46 per cent from the field and a blistering 41 per cent from downtown.

The 6-3 Buycks went undrafted, but has had a nice little run since then both in the D League, and winning Foreign MVP of the LNB last season. He also played quite well in the Orlando Summer League for the Oklahoma City Thunder's squad. He averaged just under 10 points a game for OKC but shot 48 per cent from the field, and best of all, averaged six assists per game, the third-best mark in Orlando.

Here are some highlights from his time in Europe.

Of course, none of this means he, or Stone for that matter, can hang in the NBA. I vividly recall a similar experiment during the Bryan Colangelo era where BC decided that Will Solomon and Roko Ukic would be a fine back-up to the hardly durable Jose Calderon. I vehemently objected to this course of action but...well...we all know how that worked out.

For some reason though I have more faith in Ujiri's decision-making here, and regardless, we'll just have to wait to see how this plays out.

We won't have to wait too long either. Stone and the Raptors make their Vegas Summer League debut later tonight against the Miami Heat.