We’re going to handle preseason player profiles differently this year on RaptorBlog. For each player on the 2012-13 Raptors’ active roster, Joseph Casciaro and I are going to email our thoughts back and forth and then post the resulting conversation on the blog. It’s an edgy new form of journalism! Or something…
Qunincy Acy, PF, 6’7″, 224 lbs.
2011-12 NCAA stats: 38 games, 29.7 MPG, 12.0 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 1.0 APG, 1.8 BPG, 0.9 SPG, 57.7 FG%, 60.0 3P%, 78.2 FT%, 23.5 PER
It’s late August, player movement is virtually at a standstill, we’re still six weeks away from the start of training camp and we’ve already milked the glorious photographs of Jonas Valanciunas in a Raptors uniform for all they’re worth.
So with little else to discuss right now, let’s take a look at the obviously meaningful results of the NBA.com rookie survey.
39 players from this year’s rookie class were polled. They weren’t allowed to vote for themselves, their NBA teammates or a college teammate. Here’s how the Raptors fared:
Since the Toronto Raptors drafted Jonas Valanciunas fifth overall in 2011, the big Lithuanian has been the talking point for fans of the much maligned franchise.
Whether it was naive and uninformed Raptors fans practically rioting on Draft night over the Raps drafting “another soft Euro big man,” or fans later drooling and following the 19-year-old’s every move, Valanciunas quickly became the main attraction of Canada’s lone NBA franchise despite still plying his trade halfway across the globe.
Other than seeing him rock a Raptors cap at the Draft or hold up a Raptors jersey with his name and number on it at a post-Draft presser in Toronto, envisioning Valanciunas in actual Raptors game gear was more of a temporary fantasy than anything else.
But alas, the NBA’s official 2012 Rookie Photo Shoot arrived to save the day and to supply us with a Raptors fan’s equivalent of online erotica.
Here’s Jonas Valanciunas, now 20, looking like the saviour that he obviously is in glorious Raptors red:
I’ll save our “Fouling Out with Six Thoughts” posts for the regular season, but here’s an informal take on the Raptors’ first Summer League game against the Rockets.
A player like Ben Uzoh could earn himself an NBA contract with a good Summer League showing
In an off-season that has given Raptors fans more discussion and excitement than usual, it seems that intrigue is carrying over to the Las Vegas Summer League. I can’t remember the last time, if ever, I’ve heard Raps fans sound genuinely excited about the July portion of the schedule.
Maybe it’s the fact that last year’s lockout makes this the first summer league action in two years, maybe it’s the fact that the Raptors’ summer league roster actually has a decent group of players to keep an eye on in Vegas, but whatever the reason, there definitely seems to be more interest than usual in the week long event.
Here’s a quick preview:
