Andrea Bargnani

Bargnani didn’t waste any time showing us why he was drafted with the 1st overall pick. In the first three minutes of the game he hit one mid-range jumper, one NBA three and two free throws. Bargnani drew quite a few fouls in the first half with his excellent first step and ball-handling skills, so when his defender sagged off him a bit he showed absolutely no hesitation getting off a lightning quick jumper even when off-balance. On one occasion he wowed the crowd with a pretty crossover before pulling up and draining a mid-range jumper off the dribble. Bargnani struggled a bit defensively and on the glass, but all in all he left a very nice impression with what he showed in the first half. He finished with around 14-16 points. If you want to nitpick you might say he settled for the 3-ball a bit too much, but its not like there is much else available for a player his size in a setting like this.

Bargnani’s little show ended with the first half it appears. He actually tried to post up a bit and move without the ball, but his teammates (Humphries and Graham mostly) are doing their best to pretend like they just can’t see him, looking for their own offense instead. Bargnani is still passing the ball nicely and not forcing the issue.

Bargnani came back in the 4th quarter and looked a little bit more lively. He got on the board early after a series of unselfish passes between the Raptor starters that saw him end up with the ball in a tough spot under the rim in traffic. Bargnani went up and finished without hesitation using a surprising underhanded flip that caught the defense entirely by surprise. A minute later he continued his good momentum by hitting the offensive glass and coming up with a nice putback dunk. A number of traveling calls (one questionable, two not) ruined his mojo a bit and prevented us from seeing him in the 1 on 1 iso situations the coaching staff set up for him. With 3+ minutes to go, Bargnani went to the bench despite the fact that the game was extremely close at that point. Once his team fell down by 3 (with 2 minutes to go), the coaches decided its time to bring him back. The Raptors ended up pulling it out, but not really because of anything the pretty tired Bargnani did.

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LaMarcus Aldridge

Aldridge surprisingly was brought off the bench and came out quite rusty to start things off. He refused to do any kind of work inside the paint, settling for weak turnaround jumpers repeatedly, facing up and spotting up for the 16 footer, and generally taking the ball up softly in almost everything he did. Somewhere in the 2nd quarter things started falling for him more, and the turnaround jumpers he continued to settle for went down for him at a very nice rate. Defensively he did a great job moving his feet out on the perimeter and hedging the pick and roll, using his quickness and length to challenge shots and showing a lot of potential in this part of his game.

Aldridge’s rebounding was a bit of a concern today. On numerous occasions he just stood around as the ball came off the rim and refused to go after it, possibly expecting PJ Tucker or Brad Buckman to come and do the dirty work for him. Offensively, he wasn’t very active either and really didn’t get too many touches. It didn’t seem to bother him all that much.

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Brandon Roy

Roy warmed the bench for the first 8 minutes of the game, and then played for the rest of the first half. He was played strictly at the point and did not look out of place doing so, moving the ball around unselfishly, finding the open man, keeping all of his teammates happy and getting to the rim at will. His ball-handling skills looked especially sweet, but he was a little bit too aggressive at times and was called for a couple of questionable charges. One extremely pretty pull-up jumper floating left from 14 feet out showed everyone in the building exactly how large the gap is talent-wise between him and everyone else on the floor.

Roy continued to play the point in the 2nd half and did not look as comfortable as he did in the first. Portland’s offense looked very stagnant and Roy didn’t do a great job initiating things. It would have been nice to see him do some work off the ball as well, but the Trailblazers didn’t want to use Sean Dockery at all. Defensively, Roy really struggled trying to stay in front of the much smaller and quicker John Lucas. Lucas got to wherever he wanted on the floor and there wasn’t much Roy could do to stop him.

Good looking DJ!

Thats a good report. It will be interesting to see what the Raptors do this year. And to think people were laughing at them for their draft pick.