Raptors Roster Almost Set

Colangelo’s signing of Nesterovic and trading for Belinelli this week have the Raptors down to one roster spot to fill before training camp.

The Nesterovic signing makes complete sense for the team. Rasho is a true professional and brings the team an experienced backup for Bargnani. He will also be able to mentor Bargnani on the nuances of playing center and it will help Bargnani develop by practicing against Nesterovic every day. Rasho will only be asked to contribute 6 to 12 minutes a game and at this point of his career this is a role that he will be very comfortable with. The fact that Rasho loves the city is a positive as well.

The trading of George for Belinelli makes sense in that you are trading an older player that will be leaving after the year for a young player with potential. It does however worry me in that we now have to find a back up for Turkoglu at small forward. I liked George as a chance of pace defensive presence to sub in for Turkoglu. With his departure we no longer have that.

One thing that I have heard talked about in the media is that Bargnani may see some minutes at the small forward spot. I think would be a terrible mistake. Bargnani succeeded last year when he was finally cemented into the lineup as a center. He needs to learn that position and develop that mindset. Jerking him around by sliding him into the three spot on occasion would be a major step back in his development.

What I do like is that I believe Colangelo sees the need for a tough back up three and will try to fill it instead of trying to bring Delfino back. Delfino would have been excess depth for the team and with Belinelli on board that is even more the case now.

Belinelli is an interesting addition to the team. The Raptors now have a glut of depth at the two spot with DeRozan, Wright and Belinelli. Jack is also expected to play some minutes there so it will be interesting to see if DeRozan or Wright will be looked at for minutes at the three.

Belinelli has been a target of Colangelo for the past year so I am sure that he has plans for how the team will use him. At the very least he will give the team a shooter that will change the look of the offense when he subs in for DeRozan. Wright is also on the last year of his contract so the plan may be for Belinelli to be the backup two once he leaves. That would leave the team with Calderon, Jack, DeRozan and Belinelli to share the minutes at the guard positions once Wright is gone and that looks like a pretty solid and deep backcourt.

My worry for this year is how Triano works out the rotation, but having too much depth is better then being short as the Raptors were last year. Let’s see what the final piece of the puzzle is and then we can start trying to figure out the rotation.