Ok, maybe I jynxed the Jays yesterday by talking too much about the win streak. I guess all good things come to an end! Lets pivot to summer league where the Raptors kick off in Vegas tomorrow night. The Raps team is actually pretty solid this year! Summer league doesn't really matter so I am not going to belabor this, I mostly wanted to go over some guys I'm excited to see on the court and some thoughts on what they can do.
Notable Raptors Summer League Players:
Starting off lets just list the guys who have the best chance of being on the Raptors roster come October. Anything can happen, remember Jamison Battle was a random dude on the summer league team until he fought his way into a role on the team and now has a contract for this season. I am not going to be the guy who predicts the next Jamison Battle so lets list the obvious ones:
Guards:
- Jamal Shead
- Ja'Kobe Walter
- Alijah Martin
- Chucky Hepburn
- AJ Lawson
Forwards:
- Collin Murray-Boyles
- Jamison Battle
- Jonathan Mogbo
Centers:
I think there's a real good chance that all the guys listed above are on the Raptors in October, and that's pretty cool! Most of the time summer league is full of guys fighting to make it, maybe 3 dudes make the roster, the Raptors have 6 guys who are essentially locks for the team and 9 who I think have a great shot. Here are some of the guys I'm most excited to see:
Jamal Shead
My favorite rookie from last year! Jamal showed so much improvement as the season went on, particularly in honing his aggressiveness and making fewer mistakes. Shead is an awesome playmaker on defense. He blows up plays with his strong hands and good instincts and is able to turn those into fast breaks going the other way. On offense he's a crafty finisher with deceptive speed going downhill, I want to see him continue to leverage those advantages against lesser competition in summer league. Mostly though, the Raptors have brought in now 2 new guards with defensive reputations in Alijah Martin and Chucky Hepburn. Jamal has the most experience out of these guys so I want him to show that he's definitively better. I have big expectations for Jamal taking the backup point guard role and running with it, it starts with him beating his competition internally first and summer league is the first step.
Collin Murray-Boyles
I'm just excited to see this guy on the court for the first time in a Raptors uniform! Given that summer league doesn't matter, I want to see CMB launch some 3s. People's big concern with him is that the 3 point shooting will never come, maybe it won't but there's not many better places to experiment than summer league. Otherwise I want to see what made him such an effective college player, defense and smart play. If CMB can be the best defender on the court in every game he's in, and show that he can get to the rim off cuts and in transition then he will have shown me that he should be in the rotation.
Ja'Kobe Walter
Ja'Kobe is a guy that I'm really high on. I think if his handle doesn't improve, he'll be a crafty 3&D guard that's useful on any team. If his handle does improve though then we could be looking at upside that nobody expected coming into this season. For summer league, I want to see him take the #1 option mantra and run with it. I want him shooting 15 shots a game and scoring at least 20 points on good efficiency. He's a creative player on offense but doesn't have the handle or burst to create consistent separation just yet, I want to see that he's worked a bit on that and maybe has a go to move in isolation. Summer league is the chance to experiment so lets see what Ja'Kobe's added to his bag!
That's that! Really quick one today because I'm feeling lazy and lets be real, who is going that deep into summer league. Still though, it'll be fun to see guys in a Raps uniform again!
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