Lots of questions lately about who might start for the locals this year and while it’s foolish to try and guess since camp hasn’t even started, we do some foolish around here so why not.
Without having spoken about it at length with Sam, or any member of the coaching staff for that matter, the feeling I got from brief conversations is that they’ll take a very long look at Kapono at the small forward rather than Moon.
The thinking, as far as I can tell, is that Kapono’s play in the playoffs – where the three-point ace actually took three-pointers – was exactly the kind of shooting they’ll need with both Bosh and O’Neal commanding so much attention inside.
Speaking of Sam this trade helps him out as well. We have heard Sam preach about defense for the past few seasons. I think it is clear he would have liked to have gotten a lot more out of his team on that end of the floor. Well now he has Jermaine O’Neal to send his message through. O’Neal will make this team better on defense. That should make Sam Mitchell smile. We all know the tremendous amount of respect Mitchell has for Kevin Garnett who he played with in Minnesota. Many credit Garnett with the much improved defense of the World Champion Boston Celtics. There is no reason not to think that addition of O’Neal in Toronto can not have a great impact on the Raptor defense in the same way. I am sure that was in the thought process behind this trade for Bryan Colangelo and the Raptor brain trust.
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I would be shocked if Kapono did not have a far superior season this year. I think he’ll have a lot more space with the Toronto Towers in the middle, which should enable him to get his shot off more frequently.
The frequency was the problem last year, not the accuracy.
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For sure. O’Neal provides us with a new dimension to the offense. If Kapono doesn’t have a vastly better year, it will have been because Mitchell decided he no longer wanted to be an NBA coach.