2010 Summer League Rosters: Toronto Raptors

July 11th, 2010

Solomon Alabi

If you read my draft recap, you’ll know how I feel about the Alabi pick. I’m pretty much all for it, and believe he has a chance to be a good contributor in the NBA. At #50, I think he was a steal. Even with hepatitis.

If you haven’t read my draft recap, go do so. But you might want to book a day off work in advance. It’s a bit long.

Bobby Brown

Brown just completed a two year guaranteed minimum salary contract, initially given to him by the Sacramento Kings. He won that contract because of his play in summer league 2008, where he scored a lot of points in a variety of different ways. The Kings didn’t play Brown much in any regular season games, and later included him in the trade that brought over Shelden Williams from Minnesota, as was their perogative. Minnesota forwarded him on last summer to New Orleans as a throw-in to the Darius Songaila trade, as was their perogative.

Once in New Orleans, Bobby started to get regular minutes. Byron Scott played him as the primary backup guard, often ahead of Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton, but it really did not go well. Brown shot the ball every time he touched it, taking 152 field goals in only 328 minutes, and attempting only 8 foul shots. To put it bluntly, he chucked. (Byron Scott was later fired, Collison and Thornton started to play more, and the Hornets’ season was salvaged. These things are alll related.)

Brown was traded to the Clippers in a salary dump later in the season, where he did more of the same; 191 minutes, 85 field goals, 7 foul shots. Brown took a three pointer every 5 minutes last year, and didn’t seem to mind that he hit only 27% of them. He’s a scorer, of course, and scorers need to shoot.

But he just…..won’t……..stop……….shooting.

Ed Davis

If he wants to be, Davis should become what Tyrus Thomas should have been but never wanted to become. Did that makes sense? Probably not. What I’m trying to say is, he won’t be Amar’e, and it might take a while, but he should be a good player. More in-depth analysis later.

DeMar DeRozan

Speaking of taking a while, we knew it would take a while with DeMar Derozan, too. But the early returns were not good. Despite 65 starts in his rookie season, Derozan demonstrated little offensive ability outside of athleticism and the occasional drive to the basket (normally without the ball). He projects well defensively, and had his moments on that end, but he also hit four threes all year and still can’t dribble. You can’t be a star if you can’t do those things, and nor can you really be a shooting guard. Especially if your point guard is Jose Calderon.

Joey Dorsey

Apart from threes and free throw percentage – that is to say, guard stuff – Joey Dorsey is a D-League stat whore. In 16 games on assignment down there last year, Dorsey averaged 14.9 points, 13.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.4 blocks in only 31 minutes per game, shooting 65% from the field. Those rebounding numbers are ridiculous, and they are the reason why Toronto weren’t deterred from signing a player waived by Sacramento for being “too immature.” (The fact that he’s 26 makes that a worrying statement.)

Problematically, Dorsey also stuffs the bad stats. He averaged a whopping 3.8 turnovers in those 30 minutes per game, despite not taking a single dribble. He had two and a half turnovers for every one field goal attempt, which is quite an amazingly bad ratio, and the only shot he can really make is the dunk. Dorsey also averaged 4 fouls per game and is a 6’8 centre. The rebounding keeps him in the NBA; the offence keeps him out the rotation.

Ronald Dupree

This is the 29-year-old Dupree’s 8th attempt at summer league. He has made NBA training camp rosters in every year prior to this one, from 2003 until 2009. He hasn’t made the regular season roster every time, rustling up only 154 games played over five of those seasons, yet for seven straight years, Dupree has made it to training camp. Impressive.

Of course, a lot of players have made it to training camp seven times in a row; Derek Fisher, for example, is about to attend his fifteenth. But those players are rotation calibre players, and Dupree is not. He played more minutes in his rookie season for the dreadful 2003-04 Bulls season (893) than in his entire NBA career after that (852) – he is perhaps the very definitely of the man on the cusp. Yet despite only one guaranteed contract in his life, and with only 115 NBA minutes played in the last four and a bit years, Dupree has made it back seven straight times, going for eight. So the obvious question is, does he have a legitimate shot at making it eight here in Toronto?

He just might do.

James Mays

Clemson forward Mays was covered in the Pacers SL roster breakdown. Like many players, Mays was set to play in both summer leagues, in the Orlando one first and the Vegas one second. He did not appear in any games for Indiana, however.

Michael Roll

Roll led UCLA in points and assists last year. Normally, that makes a player draft calibre. And Michael Roll would have been, were it 1972. However, despite his good looking jump shot, despite his decent passing skills, despite his very smart and mistake-free style of play, Roll just isn’t athletic enough to play at the elite levels. He doesn’t even have J.J. Redick-calibre athleticism. It’s a shame, because he’s a very nice player.

Roll has already signed for next season, agreeing to join Turkish team Bornova. Fitting, he replaces his former UCLA team mate Josh Shipp, who has moved on to fellow Turkish team Galatasaray.

Cheikh Samb

Former Pistons draft pick Samb was drafted in 2006 as a long term project. He joined the Pistons one year later on a two year contract, and played 31 minutes in his rookie season. In his second season, Samb started a long journey, starting out with the Pistons, he was sent to Denver as salary filler in the Allen Iverson trade, salary dumped by the Nuggets onto the Clippers a few weeks later, then waived by the Clippers to open up a roster spot for the similarly salary dumped Alex Acker, and finally picked up by the Knicks for a few days at the end of the season.

In his time across those four teams, Samb had a true shooting percentage of .214%. Not important, just interesting.

Samb started this year unsigned, then went to Real Madrid on a one month contract as emergency injury cover. He played in only one game, recording only two minutes, before leaving when his contract expired. He then did not play again; while he went for a tryout in Latvia with VEF Riga in early February, they couldn’t get him a work visa, and Samb left without playing. He was drafted out of the LEB Gold as a rail thin athlete and shot blocker with a fledgling jump shot, whom Detroit were hoping could quickly develop every other facet of the game. But he didn’t, and he turns 26 in October.

Curtis Stinson

Stinson was covered in the Magic’s SL roster breakdown. In the Orlando Summer Pro League, Stinson averaged 5.5 points, 5.0 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and only 1 turnover per game. Considering how turnover heavy summer league tends to be, that’s pretty impressive.

Sonny Weems

Weems started as a throw-in in the Carlos Delfino/Amir Johnson trade last eyar, and went on to be a key contributor. He became a key offensive contributor for the Raptors, and a rare bright spot on a dark dark season. On the season, Weems scored 7.5 points per game on .515% FG; however, he also became the least efficient 52% shooter you ever did see. Weems made only two three pointers all season, and took less foul shots (64) than games played (69). His field goal percentage of .515% was damn near identical to his eFG of .517%, and that’s something that is basically impossible to do. Not even Malik Allen (.397 to .401) was quite that bad.

So even with his decent season, he’s still projecting to be a lifelong backup.