The recent additions of centers Khem Birch and Freddie Gillespie seem to have fixed the depth trouble at center that has plagued the Raptors all season, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN. At 6’9″, both are nominally a bit undersized for the position, but compensate in strength and awareness.
“It’s definitely a good fit,” Gillespie, on his second 10-day deal with the club, said. “I think the Raptors looked at my skill set and said that’s something we could use. When a team brings you in clearly you offer something that they need.”
There’s more out of Toronto-by-way-of-Tampa:
- Raptors head coach Nick Nurse noted that the club had considered converting Yuta Watanabe‘s contract to a standard deal for a while, tweets Blake Murphy of The Athletic. “We thought he deserved it,” Nurse said. “We had the roster spot to do it with… He’s certainly under consideration to be part of this team going forward.” Watanabe’s new deal covers next season as well as this one, but isn’t fully guaranteed for 2021/22.
- New Raptors guard Gary Trent Jr. is enjoy his tenure with his new team, as he recently told reporters (video link via The Toronto Star). “It’s an amazing fit,” Trent said. “Everybody comes in and works hard, so you know this is the perfect place for me. This is the perfect fit for me.”
- The Raptors expect to examine the sprained left knee of forward Chris Boucher via an MRI scan tonight, and to have more information on his health going forward tomorrow, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.
What am I saying here? Birch was 11for50 career on 3s, 188 games, a non-factor, but post-waive is now is 3for6 on the Raptors in 6 games.
He has started 4 of those games, making his on/off of +10 more relevant than his near-zero in Orlando where he started only 30 of 188. He is a so-so rebounder but blocks are up. Minutes have only increased from ~ 20′ to 25′ but TOR has won all of their games, despite the inside talk of tanking!
Birch may have given up in has off year 2019/20, put at an automatic third string behind Vooch and high pick sophomore Bamba who many thought should be forced started. I would say most people thought Bamba should get more minutes, but Bamba rarely showed as well as the FO wanted, even as trade bait. Birch is undersized but can get active.
Activity level matters in a center beyond what the activity gets directly, as opposed to activity from a perimeter player. This latter could mean just •pounding the ball, •confusing teammates, •throwing off team timing, •giving too much credit to youthful instincts, or •general chicken with his head cut off stuff.
But center activity can •confuse the other team’s drivers, •take up space in the paint, •tire or distract the opponent, • find yourself open… anyway… long post
What are you saying here? Things went off the rails in that last paragraph.
Sleep is your friend.
Yes I changed subjects basically, then ran out of gas and just quit. Just felt like old coaching stuff. Retry…
Birch can “win the day” at the 5 with activity, and the chances of that increased by moving to Toronto where a spot was open.
The big centers (wide or tall) can be in whatever kind of mood they want to get their work done… Maybe to a fault.
Anyone who knows ball knows Birch is a decent big to have on your team. He does the little things(sets good screens, moves to the best spots for spacing, cuts fast to the rim, finishes around the rim,blocks shots and added the 3 pointer to his game). Baynes was like the walking dead on the court. No energy, no movement, always late to react and already looks like a shell of himself as last year he has his best season with the suns.
Would Raptors take on Wiggins’horrific contract with Wiseman for OG and Bucher?
GS would definitely benefit from this trade
That’s a horrible trade.
Well, 110% of fake trades on the web are terrible, so
And only GS would benefit
Heck no!
Raptors Management Should Have Kept Len, Fans Hated Len Too.