With the 7th pick, the Toronto Raptors select Charlie Villenuva...

Who knows if it will be even 2 seasons... the kid is flat out raw. And he has an attitude problem... along with not wanting to be in the city of Toronto, probably because he doens't want to be in Canada... then you have a deadly threesome of problems attacking us. He'd probably leave after his rookie contract if we drafted him...

P.S Vinkanaddy Love your comment about J-Train in your sig

 

To me it just seems like a lot of people are giving it to the raptors because espn blew this thing up from the minute babcock picked charlie. But if anyone ever listens to espn they know that steven a. smith says tons of stupid stuff (although he can be smart at times), and the same goes for vitale. I mean this was a guy who insisted that carmello should be the #1 pick and not lebron (nice dry dick). He often makes predictions on how people will do in the pros based on college, a lot of the time they just don't come true.

I think as much we hate to admit it, the raptors had problems finding talent that wanted to play here. Frye was clearly out (denying the raptors a workout), and the same has been said about Green. I don't really buy into the whole argument of "well draft him and i don't care if he wants to play here or not." Because then we could get steve francis'd and babcock would look much stupider than he does now.

Although backing up the position that our star player is stupid in some ways, in others it could help. Bosh logs more minutes than anyone else on the raptors and when he is off the floor there are often significant drop offs for the team. At the same time i think he's probably tired during stretches of the game because he seems to get beat defensively or just not demand the ball so much on offence. Also there are nights where he just doesn't show up (fatigue possibly?). Before we had pape near the end of the season just start to show up, our front line had zero athleticism without bosh on the floor.

So.... while i rather would have drafted sg or another sf, having charlie v. does give the raptors more versatility, athleticism up front and allows bosh to log some rest and stay more effective. Babs move isn't actally getting top marks from me but i think to completely blow it up is a bit harsh.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting a13x:</div><div class="quote_post">To me it just seems like a lot of people are giving it to the raptors because espn blew this thing up from the minute babcock picked charlie. But if anyone ever listens to espn they know that steven a. smith says tons of stupid stuff (although he can be smart at times), and the same goes for vitale. I mean this was a guy who insisted that carmello should be the #1 pick and not lebron (nice dry dick). He often makes predictions on how people will do in the pros based on college, a lot of the time they just don't come true.

I think as much we hate to admit it, the raptors had problems finding talent that wanted to play here. Frye was clearly out (denying the raptors a workout), and the same has been said about Green. I don't really buy into the whole argument of "well draft him and i don't care if he wants to play here or not." Because then we could get steve francis'd and babcock would look much stupider than he does now.

Although backing up the position that our star player is stupid in some ways, in others it could help. Bosh logs more minutes than anyone else on the raptors and when he is off the floor there are often significant drop offs for the team. At the same time i think he's probably tired during stretches of the game because he seems to get beat defensively or just not demand the ball so much on offence. Also there are nights where he just doesn't show up (fatigue possibly?). Before we had pape near the end of the season just start to show up, our front line had zero athleticism without bosh on the floor.

So.... while i rather would have drafted sg or another sf, having charlie v. does give the raptors more versatility, athleticism up front and allows bosh to log some rest and stay more effective. Babs move isn't actally getting top marks from me but i think to completely blow it up is a bit harsh.</div>

Excellent point of view. Steven Smith isn't a GM or a scout and he will probably never be one. On the Bosh situation, I think it will be most likely that Villanueva start at centre, which would cause so much problems for the opposing teams. The guy is like a bigger and taller version of Donyell Marshall with Derrick Coleman-like potential. He can play inside, using the baby-hook and he can step outside and hit the 20-footer. He can also rebound, but just needs to be more aggressive. I think Joey Graham's aggressiveness will rub off on the other players so that won't be a problem.

 

I think I know what Babcock was trying to do with this pick. Even with Bosh, our major need is rebounding. I think we finished 27th last year which is pretty horrible. Our bench players didn't rebound that well and our Centers didn't either. Now there were a few players who could rebound and still be able to play around Bosh. Frye, Granger, Graham, Diogu, Vasquez. He chose one of Granger or Graham, but he didn't choose both because they have limited potential. They're not going to improve drastically. In Villanueva, you get a player who can rebound with the rest of them and be flexible enough to work around Bosh. And he's got a lot more potential than most of the other bigmen (without taking such a huge gamble on Bynum).
As far as playing them together, I think it could work. On offense, it would be like the pairing of Wallace and Wallace in Detroit. You put them on opposite ends of the key, run picks through them for the wing players, play isolations and always have one of them ready for drop pass in the lane or an offensive rebound.
On defense, you could play a zone to disguize the fact that they don't have much weight to them. It all depends on the team. But with most of the teams in the East, you can afford to play 2 versatile and long 4's instead of a 4 and a 5, even on man to man.

 

The roster would probably look like this come the start of the 05-06 season:

Starting 5

C: Charlie Villanueva
PF: Chris Bosh
SF: Joey Graham
SG: Morris Peterson / Jalen Rose
PG: Rafer Alston / Roko Ukic

Bench

6: Jalen Rose / Morris Peterson
7: Roko Ukic / Rafer Alston
8: Matt Bonner
9: Alvin Williams
10: Pape Sow
11: Rafael Araujo
12: Loren Woods

Reserves

13: Lamond Murray
14: Eric Williams
15: Aaron Williams

Question marks: Uros Slokar? Omar Cook?

- With the starting five, we'll have a good mixture of offense / defense and will be able to play the running game.

- With the bench, regardless of who starts (in between Rose / Peterson and Ukic / Alston) We'll have a complete 5-player rotation that will be ready to step in and contribute. Mind you, we do have the $5 million MLE to spend on the FA so we'll see what happens with that.

 

i dont see the raptors signing omar cook though i would much rather them sign the come back kid in Jay williams or see what he is like first with maybe a 10 day contract

 

You cna't sign a player to a 10 day contract in the off-season. That's only allowed during a season, and I doubt Jay Williams will sign to a 10-day contract..

 

I would love to bring back Omar Cook. He played good defense, and ran the offense very well at the end of the season when he got more playing time. I could see him averging 5-6 APG if he got the minutes.

 

Raptors aren't bringing back Omar Cook unless there are some problems with Roku Ukic's Europe team wanting a buy out or what not... so it may cause many problems

 

I'd love for the Raptors to get Ukic here, but in the other thread posted by Bobcats it says he's not too happy because they had a promise for him at 16 but they didnt go through with it and they're gonna have to overpay to get him. If he's half the player he hyped up to be i'm willing to throw 1.5mil or so at him to bring him in. This would be my ideal lineup for the raptors next season:

PG: Rafer Alston/Roko Ukic/Jalen Rose
SG: Jalen Rose/Morris Peterson/Lamond Murray
SF: Joey Graham/Matt Bonner/Morris Peterson/Lamond Murray
PF: Chris Bosh/Matt Bonner/Pape Sow/Joey Graham/Charlie Villanueva
C: Charlie Villanueva/Rafael Araujo/Pape Sow/Chris Bosh

 

I hope we can smooth over this Ukic thing. I would love to have him, and he is sure to get considerable minutes even as a rookie. Rafer is bound to have another feud with Mitchell, to give Ukic a few starts. I hope Rafer can be more open to Mitchell this year.

 

Ukic would definitely be in a Raptors uniform. There's even rumours going around that the Raptors provided Ukic with a Canadian VISA so that he could live in Canada.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Buckets:</div><div class="quote_post">

PG: /Jalen Rose
</div>

I dont think Jalen can play point, when he first came to Toronto they tried him at point which wasn't very good.

 

Has everyone forgotten about Alvin? I kind of have, but anyways he should be returning and he is a good locker room presence. So he can be the back-up point or 3rd pg at the start of the season.

 

I don't think that Villanueva should be in our starting 5...
Maybe Araujo will step-up in his sophomore season.
I realy don't think that Villanueva can play the Center position.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting SkiptoMyLue11:</div><div class="quote_post">Has everyone forgotten about Alvin? I kind of have, but anyways he should be returning and he is a good locker room presence. So he can be the back-up point or 3rd pg at the start of the season.</div>

Nah,, he's a Raptor 4 life Ukic / Alston would be the backup point and Alvin would be the backup shooting guard. So essentially, we'll have two point guards running the show off the bench. It'll be exciting to watch for sure.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Reserves

13: Lamond Murray
14: Eric Williams
15: Aaron Williams</div>
You do know that the active roster has been increased to 14 players as opposed to 12 before, so we'll only be having on guy on the IR.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting og15:</div><div class="quote_post">You do know that the active roster has been increased to 14 players as opposed to 12 before, so we'll only be having on guy on the IR.</div>

Are you serious?? I didn't know that was in the new CBA. So we're now allowed to have 17 players as opposed to 15? Or the same 15 but 14 active players instead of 12? Either way, that helps considerably.

 

This considerably helps the Raptors out, we meet the requirements of the CBA and we probably won't have to waive anyone.

 

I'd still rather let Lamond Murray go.. I feel almost bad for him having to sit on the bench for yet another season if nothing happens.