Raptors Season Preview Part 2: The Good, The Bad and The Iffy.

Did I mention that I’m very exciting about the Raptors possibilities this coming season, well I am. This season has the potential to be the best in Raptors history. Expectations are high; anything less then the second round of the playoffs would be seen as a disappointment. With the relative parity of the eastern conference, who knows what the ceiling is… finals maybe? But, before I go proclaiming them Eastern Conference champions, when training camp hasn’t even started yet, we should probably take a look at the factor that will affect their success.

The Good:

Let’s start with their most obvious strength, their depth. The Raptors have multiple quality players at every position, except perhaps center, which gives them several advantages. First, it means that they can weather most injuries without suffering too much of a decline in play, even Chris Bosh could miss a few games and they would survive. This also lets them play an up-tempo game without wearing their players out, which will be really helpful in back-to-back situation, especially late in the season.

Another key strength is the attitude and chemistry of the team. Pretty much every Raptors player has a team-first attitude and they all seem to like each other. This makes it very easy for the coach to make decision on playing time, based solely on who is going to help the team most. Sam Mitchell won’t have to worry about bruising someone’s ego because they didn’t get as much playing time as they thought they should have.

The last major strength is that the Raptors have some very talented young players. Chris Bosh is obviously the star of the team, he is one of the best power forwards in the league and he’s only 23. Last season he finally started to complement his already impressive physical skills with some developing leadership. Behind Bosh, the Raptors boast the best young point guard tandem in the league in T.J. Ford and Jose Calderon. Forward Andrea Bargnani is a 7 footer with legitimate three point, who is well on his way to becoming unguardable.

The bad:

Last season, one of Toronto’s biggest problems was their rebounding. It was a rare game in which they out-rebounded their opponent, many times losing the battle of the boards by ten or more. They really haven’t done anything over the off-season that would suggest any significant improvement in this area, so we can expect more of the same this season.

Aside from Chris Bosh, there are no players on the Raptors that can really be considered elite. This proved to be a problem last year in the playoffs, when they couldn’t really answer the challenge of New Jersey’s Kidd, Carter and Jefferson. This will probably continue to hold the Raptors back until some off their young talent takes the next step. Of course, there is no guarantee that they ever will.

The Raptors really don’t have much at center. I have heard that Bargnani is bulking up this summer, so that he can play the position. If this doesn’t work out the next option in Rasho Nesterovic, who is a decent player, but can’t really keep up with the pace the Raptors like to set. The other options would be to go small and have one of their power forwards play inside, probably either Jorge Garbajosa or Maceo Baston, but neither of them has the size or the post game to really be effective.

The Iffy:

Chris Bosh still has Plantar Fasciitis. If he can’t find a way to beat this nagging injury, it will hurt both his long term development and the team’s chances this year.

There are a lot of players on the roster who should legitimately be expecting significant playing time and there simply aren’t enough minutes to go around. You know Bosh will get the majority of the minutes at the 4 spot, leaving very little for the other 3 power forwards on the roster. The small forward position is similarly crowded, but the minutes will probably be distributed more evenly. It’s really not that bad from the teams point of view, especially if they are hit hard by the injury bug (knock on wood or something), but it will be disappointing for the players who end up riding the pine all season.