Bob Roberts
As I sit here now, less than 48 hours before the official opening of Raptor’s training camp, I’m considering some of the players and events I’m interested in seeing this season. Of course most of the team has been in town for some time now based on the photos on popular basketball forums these days. Most if not all of the lads have been spotted out and about lately and the ubiquitous cell phone cameras have captured their every move. I’m not sure how well I would have done as a young, strong -rich- young man in his early 20s with cameras on my every move. Let’s just say I’m glad we’ll never know.
But as has been stated recently in this space, the Raptors aren’t expected to make much noise in the Eastern conference this season. So what is there to be interested in this year? A good year to avoid Jurassic Park and find a new hobby? I say no and Jim does as well. We believe there are many good story lines to follow this year not just on the team but around the association in general. Today we’re going to talk about 5 good young players.
Locally, Scotty Barnes is the highest draft pick the Raptors have had since Andrea Bargnani. Now I understand if that sounds like I’m shooting myself in the foot before taking my first step, but hear me out. Scotty Barnes is not Andrea Bargnani. We’re talking about the difference between 1972 Jaguar – Bargnani – and a Porsche 911 – Barnes. The Jaguar was a car that looked like it had everything you wanted in a car, just like Bargs seemed to have everything one could want in a basketball player. He was tall but could shot from range, had a big body but graceful movements. However, the 72 Jag was a car that simply did not want to get driven. It wanted to take up space in your garage and be admired simply because it was a Jag. And that was Bargs. He wanted the life of a professional basketball player but he didn’t want to be a professional basketball player. Too hard. Too difficult.
Scotty Barnes on the other hand is like that 911. A little bit under the radar but as willing and capable on the road -the court- as many high profile bejewelled super sports cars. Maybe more than willing, and that’s our number 1 observation target for this season: just who is Scotty Barnes? There had to be a very, very solid reason for Masai and Bobby to take Barnes over the consensus Suggs and Jim and I wonder if it was all Barnes, all Suggs or a combination of the 2. Did Suggs underperform and Barnes overperform in the workouts? So second on our young player priority list to watch is Jalen Suggs. Will he have a chip on his shoulder against the Raptors this season? Will it push him to overperform in search of ROY honours? Who is Jalen Suggs.
That leads us to our next 3 young players to watch this season and, perhaps not surprisingly, they are Green, Mobley and Cunningham. And perhaps no surprise that our top 5 young players are the top 5 draft picks of the 2022 but seriously, this is a very interesting top 5 draft picks. I can’t recall the last time the top 5 represented so much potential. They could all 5 of them be hall of famers and perennial all-stars. I’m not sure there has been any draft this century – or perhaps ever – when you could say that.
Of course this is just their first year against the best competition in the world. We’re not going to see career performances from any of these young men during the upcoming season. But what we will see? Will any of them make the all-star game? Who will get the most burn on their team? Will any of them step up young though they be to take a leadership role? The questions around this young group of rookies are many and varied and while neither Jim or I have any answers, we can assure you that following these young careers closely this year will be very, very enjoyable experience.