MVN - Most Valuable Network

Olympics Update: Calderon Injured

Jose Calderon was injured in Spain’s 72-59 victory over Croatia in the quarterfinals of the Olympics.  Calderon suffered a slight tear of the adductor muscle in his right thigh, an injury that usually requires only 7-10 days of recovery.  The problem is that if Calderon were to play again he could cause a larger tear, which meant he could be out for a significantly longer amount of time, say past the start of NBA training camps in late September.

The injury came in an unfortunate game, as it was actually Calderon’s most impressive performance so far in these Olympics.  He scored 10 points and dished out a couple of assists while being one of the keys to the 12-0 Spain run in the first quarter that ended up being the distance in an otherwise close contest.

Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo has already stated that Calderon is out of today’s gold medal game because of the risk for further injury, and it appears this time he and the Spanish Basketball Federation are on the same page, as Calderon didn’t play in Spain’s close 91-86 victory over Lithuania in the semi-final round.

This really was Toronto and any other NBA club’s worst nightmare: their player getting hurt in the Olympics, but this doesn’t appear to be a major injury at all- which is a very lucky thing for the Raptors.  Honestly, I’m unsure how I feel about Calderon being forced to sit out the gold medal game for his country.  I know he can be further injured, but even that would only force Calderon to miss the start of training camp and not any regular season NBA action.

The only question I have is whether this is injury has been lingering throughout the whole Olympics, something that could definitely explain Calderon’s poor play throughout.  If this is the case then I would say that Calderon should in fact sit out the finale against Team U.S.A, but otherwise I wouldn’t mind Calderon playing in a gold medal game, risking a slightly further injury, but only if it was a Hollywood-ending and Team Espana were to actually upset Team U.S.A.

But I don’t see that happening, so let’s just have Jose sit out the blowout and get rested and ready for training camp.

Meanwhile, Calderon’s back-up for next season, Roko-Leni Ukic, again struggled shooting from the floor in his team’s loss to Spain, going 2-for-7 from the field, including 0-for-4 from behind the arch, on his way to 7 points, 2 steals and 2 rebounds in 20 minutes of play.  Overall Ukic had a decent tournament beyond shooting- where he struggled mightily, especially from 3-point range, where he went 4-for-20 for the tournament.

Meanwhile, Chris Bosh would have two of his better games in the quarter-and semi-finals, scoring 10 points and grabbing 6 rebounds in 19 minutes in Team U.S.A’s 116-85 victory over Australia in the quarter-final round.  Then, in their 101-81 victory over Argentina to get into the gold medal game, Bosh scored 11 points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds in 20 minutes.

Now let’s talk about the former two Raptors, as Jorge Garbajosa added 8 points and not much else in Spain’s two victories to get into the gold medal game.  Meanwhile, Carlos Delfino played his two best games of the Olympics in the quarter- and semi-final rounds, scoring 23 points (on 9/14 shooting) and grabbing 5 rebounds in Argentina’s 80-78 quarterfinal victory over Greece.

Delfino then scored 17 points (albeit on 6/18 shooting) and grabbed 8 rebounds in Argentina’s quarterfinal defeat against Team U.S.A.as Argentina was simply no match for Team Redeem without star Manu Ginobili, who left and didn’t return in the first quarter with an ankle injury.  Argentina did put up a valiant effort behind Luis Scola’s monster game (28 points, 11 rebounds) and gave Team U.S.A. the closest thing to a scare they’ve had in these Olympics.

But now it’s down to the medal round games, with Spain and U.S.A. going at it for gold and Argentina and Lithuania battling it out for bronze, but overall it’s been a pretty successful Olympics for Toronto’s players, as no less than three (and potentially four) of the aforementioned current/former Raptors players will medal.

Raptors at the Olympics

Being that the Raptors are the NBA’s lone international team it truly is fitting that they are very well represented in this year’s Olympics.  In fact, there are five Toronto connections in this year’s Olympics: three current players in Chris Bosh (USA), Jose Calderon (Spain) and Roko-Leni Ukic (Croatia) and two other players on last season’s roster in Carlos Delfino (Argentina) and Jorge Garbajosa (Spain). 

So now I thought I would give a breakdown of each current and former Toronto player’s Olympics so far through the just completed pool play.

Chris Bosh (Team USA): Bosh is one of the players involved in coach Mike Krzyzewski’s eight-man rotation and is really the only big man other than Dwight Howard getting significant minutes on Team USA.  So far Bosh has posted very solid numbers: as in the just over 15 minutes of playing time Bosh is averaging, he is putting up just under 9 points and just over 5 rebounds a game.  Bosh’s best game was Team USA’s first real test of the tournament against Greece, where Bosh led the team with 18 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals in the 92-69 victory. 

Bosh is an intricate member of Team USA because he is really the back-up center and only other big man on the team other than starter Dwight Howard.  Behind Bosh and Howard, Carlos Boozer and Tayshaun Prince (both 6′9″) are the only other big men on Team USA and they are power forwards at best.  This means that if Howard were to get into foul trouble Bosh would really be the only thing between Team USA and big trouble.

That could come into play in Team USA’s next game, as they face big man Andrew Bogut and a hot Australian team that just throttled the previously undefeated Lithuanian team 106-75, with Bogut leading the way with 23 points.

Jose Calderon (Team Espana): Calderon has had a rather disappointing Olympics so far, as even though his team is 4-1, he has not played that well at all.  The biggest sign of this is the fact that Calderon is averaging just 1 assist/game through pool play.  That’s right, Jose Calderon is averaging an assist so far in Olympic play.  He didn’t even have an assist in Spain’s loss to Team USA and put up only 4 points (1/5 shooting) and 4 rebounds in 22 minutes that game.

Overall, Calderon’s had only two solid games and even those had their downsides.  In Spain’s opening game against Greece Calderon scored 13 points, but turned the ball over 4 times.  Jose also added 15 points against Germany but added only 3 rebounds and a block in that contest.

These are surprisingly poor numbers for Calderon, who is one of the game’s best distributors and was just signed to a 5-year, $45 million extension this off-season by Toronto.  Conventional wisdom would say Calderon must improve for Spain to medal, but so far they have done a good job playing team basketball, with Pau Gasol and Rudy Fernandez both having solid, but not spectacular, Olympics to help lead their team to a solid 4-1 record in pool play.

Spain kicks off the quarterfinals by playing Croatia, which just happens to be the team that the final  current Raptors player is on…

Roko-Leni Ukic (Croatia): Ukic is Toronto’s 2nd round pick (41st overall) in the 2005 NBA Draft who is joining the team this season and is expected to be the team’s back-up point guard behind Calderon.  Ukic is 6′5″ and has played quite well for the surprising Croatian team in this Olympics.

Ukic has led the Croatian team in minutes, averaging just over 27 a game, and averaged 7.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.4 assists through pool play.  The best part of Ukic’s game so far in these Olympics is the fact that he just doesn’t turn the ball over, as he has had just 6 turnovers in 5 games- with 4 of those coming in the opening defeat of Australia.

One hole in Ukic’s game is his shooting, as he has also taken the most shots on the team and shot only 33% from the field (37.9% from 2-point range and 25% from beyond the arch).

The good news is that Ukic’s best two games were his team’s last two in pool play, as in Croatia’s 86-73 loss to Lithuania he led his team with 13 points, with the only flaw being his 1-for-6 shooting from the 3-point line.  Meanwhile, in Croatia’s 91-57 victory over Iran he scored 4 points, dished out 8 assists and had 2 steals.

But Ukic has done a good job leading the surprising Croatian team, ranked 20th in the world according to FIBA, past pool play and into the quarterfinal round, as they were expected by many to not reach pool play, with Russia favored to advance into the round of eight.  Now we will see how far the underdog Croatians can go, as they face the 3rd ranked Spanish team in the opening game of quarterfinal play.

Carlos Delfino (Argentina): Delfino is an intricate part of the 2nd ranked Argentinian team, averaging 10.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.4 steals through pool play.  Delfino averaged 23 minutes/game in pool play and served as the Argentinians’ sharpshooter from the outside, as 26 of his 36 shots have come from behind the arch, where he is shooting 46.2% through pool play.

Delfino is a great sharpshooter and it really is a shame Toronto didn’t resign him, as he was one of the Raptors best bench players all season and one of their best players overall in the playoffs.  But the salary cap really forced Toronto’s hands, as they simply didn’t have the same cash to spend as European teams and Carlos left for Russia to play for Khimki BC, where he signed a 3-year, $30 million deal.

Jorge Garbajosa (Spain): The Raptors actually bought out the final year of Garbajosa’s contract because of the Olympics and the fact that he and the Spanish Basketball Association wanted him to play in them.  That to go along with lingering concerns about Garbajosa’s leg injury led to the buy-out, and if these Olympics are any indication Toronto appears to have made a good decision, as Garbajosa is averaging just 4.2 points and 4.8 rebounds through pool play.

Those numbers have come in just over 17 minutes/game and Garbajosa has shot an abysmal 25.8% overall from the field so far.  Also, these numbers include Garbajosa’s best game, a 10 point, 8 rebound, 4 steal performance in Spain’s blowout of lowly Angola.

I was actually disappointed by the Garbajosa buy-out at the time, as I felt Toronto really missed his energy off the bench at the power forward position last season and a healthy Garbajosa would help bring added depth to the frontcourt.  Besides, I mean who wants to pay a guy to not play for them.

However, Garbajosa’s Olympic performance so far seems to indicate that he still hasn’t gotten over his leg injuries and still isn’t completely healthy.  His performance leads me to believe that Toronto made the right move in letting him go, as even if he would contribute it would be nowhere near the caliber of his rookie season.

Well that’s it for my first report on Toronto players at the Olympics, I’ll be back a little later with reports on their progress as it gets closer to the medal games.

Raptors Summer League Recap

I know it’s a couple of weeks late, but I’ll give my own little recap of how the Raptors summer league team fared.

Let’s start off with Joey Graham, who led the team averaging 18 points on 46.2% shooting from the field.  Those are decent numbers, but there are a couple more telling categories he led Toronto in, first being that he averaged 6 personal fouls a game, showing he hasn’t exactly improved his defense.  The other was that Graham averaged 3.8 turnovers, which is not even close to the 1.8 assists he averaged.

Sure, Graham scored the most points but he also fouled and turned the ball over the most, which is not something a player entering his fourth NBA season should do in the summer league.

Graham’s main challenger for playing time next season, newly signed Hassan Adams, didn’t fare that much better, as he averaged a mediocre 10.6 points during his Summer League action.  Adams did have a lot less turnovers and fouls though, and the 2.4 steals he averaged were quite impressive.  My only knock on Adams, other than his limited offense skills, were the fact that he shot only 65% from the free throw line.  I can definitely see Adams being used as a defensive sub off the bench and taking minutes away from Graham.

The only other big name on the team was 2nd round pick C Nathan Jawai, who got into two games during the summer and showed his inexperience.  In the first game, he scored 8 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, and blocked 2 shots.  But Jawai also picked up 4 personal fouls in 24 minutes, and it took him a while to get to those 8 points, as he missed 6 of his 9 shoots from the floor, to go along with 5 of his 7 free throws.

There was really only one pleasant surprise on the Raptors summer league squad, as PG John Lucas III averaged 12.2 points, 4.6 assists, and 2 turnovers.  The only negative was that he shot only 39.6% from the field, but if you take out the first two games- in which he shot 6-for-25 from the field- he actually had much better numbers.

But it appears the Raptors turned elsewhere to fill their PG void, as they signed PG Will Solomon, who played the last two seasons in Istanbul for Fenerbahce Ulker.  Solomon averaged 17.8 points and 4.4 assists in regular season play last season and really picked it up in Euroleague Top 16 play, averaging 20.5 points and 3.5 assists.

Soloman has played the last six seasons overseas, after playing one season with the Vancouver Grizzlies in 2001-02, who selected him 33rd overall in the 2001 NBA Draft.  He averaged 5.2 points in just over 14 minutes a game during that season for the Grizzlies, but he then went overseas and has been there ever since.

Solomon has become one of the better overseas players in this time and he is now a 30-year-old European league veteran who will join the NBA’s international team in the Raptors.  Solomon also was a teammate of Anthony Parker on Tel Aviv during the 2005-06 season.

Solomon has a scouting report of being more of a score-first PG than a pass-first PG, as evidenced by his scoring numbers.  Solomon uses his size and length (6′2″ with a 6′9″ wingspan) to drive to the basket, which is how he gets the majority of his points.  That slashing attitude is certainly something the Raptors could use and really lack on this team, which could make Soloman an ideal back-up PG to the pass-first Calderon.

Solomon’s size and length also could be of great help defensively, as he could guard some of the bigger PGs in the Eastern Conference, such as Chauncey Billups, that have given Toronto trouble in the past.

Honestly, I’d never heard of Solomon, but the more I read about him the more I like him.  Besides, I also trust Toronto’s European scouts, as they have brought us some great players such as Parker and Calderon over the last few seasons.  Besides, his nickname is King Solomon, and that alone is something positive.

Raptors Keep Calderon, Add Ukic and Adams

Jose Calderon has reached an agreement to return to the Toronto Raptors next season, at least that is according to his website (http://www.josemanuelcalderon.com/indexEN.html). The Raptors also have a verbal agreement in place to bring over PG Roko Ukic, their 2nd round pick in the 2005 draft.

While neither of these is surprising, there was an intriguing name also included, that of G/F Hassan Adams, the former Arizona standout who played last season in the Italian League after playing one season with the New Jersey Nets, who drafted him with the 54th overall pick in the 2006 draft.

While Adams didn’t produce much in his one year in the NBA he was a pretty consistent scorer in college for the Arizona Wildcats, averaging 14 points and 5.3 rebounds over his four year college career. I also trust our European scouting department and they must have really seen something they like in Adams’ game to bring him over in a crowded battle for playing time at the SG/SF positions.

Now, having said this I don’t mind the Adams signing, but not at the expense of Carlos Delfino, as this would appear to be yet another sign that Delfino will not be returning to Toronto next season. Delfino was one of the best players off the bench last season for Toronto, averaging 9 points in 23.5 minutes. Delfino was a great sharpshooter off the bench, as he shoot 39.7% from the field and 38.2% from behind the arch. He also was one of a handful of players who actually stepped up their game in the playoff series against Orlando and is really someone I think the Raptors are overlooking, as I don’t see Adams being capable enough to take over Delfino’s role.  Overall, I’m really not liking Toronto’s depth headed into next season, and unless there are a couple of acquisitions of solid bench players, such as Delfino, I don’t see how next year’s team will be any better than this year’s, even with a healthy Jermaine O’Neal.

The oddest thing to me about surrounding the rumors that Delfino is leaving is the fact that they say he will return to Europe. It’s as if they’re implying that Delfino can’t hold a job in the NBA and, other than money or personal preference, I would see no reason why any NBa team couldn’t use Delfino, as he’s a great shooter who can be one of your first players off the bench.