The Official Raptors 905 Thread Part II: THE CHAMPS!

[UnbelievablyRAW]

Bruno just needs to bulk up and he can fit in as an Otto Porter for the Raptors maybe

He already looks bulked up. Just get stronger while getting quicker.

He looks like rookie Giannis in terms of size. I mean bulk up to where Giannis is now. If he gets that strong he'll be able to blow by guys that try to close out on him, and also be able to play the 4 as a stretch forward that can defend

[tecumseh18]

Again, I'm not saying he's got starter potential, that remains to be seen, but there is going to be a place for him on a 15-man roster where it is nice to have someone with a unique set of skills and physical characteristics, and the versatility to play up to 3 positions.

There are formulae in baseball for converting minor league stats to MLB expectations. We're obviously not there with the D-League. But Norm was putting up 30 points a game last year with the 905, so I would say once you consistently cross that threshold, you might be an NBA rotation piece.

Stackhouse's PG interview was interesting for saying that he (Stack) had been sent to the 905 specifically to help Bruno. Masai is continuing to invest - to the point of doubling down - so much in this kid's development, and finally we're starting to see results. After experiencing the Bucks' octopus arms for six games, I'm ready to see the Raptors have the same capability next season. I expect Bruno will be Rowdy Tellezed by the organization. Coming up sometime mid-season.

[UnbelievablyRAW]

Lol I don't see the point of being pessimistic about Bruno. Wouldn't you want him to get better so we have a cheap young player to replace the aging Patterson or have a guy that gives us an out on Carroll if we find a trade partner?

[Fairview4Life]

Again, I'm not saying he's got starter potential, that remains to be seen, but there is going to be a place for him on a 15-man roster where it is nice to have someone with a unique set of skills and physical characteristics, and the versatility to play up to 3 positions.

There are formulae in baseball for converting minor league stats to MLB expectations. We're obviously not there with the D-League. But Norm was putting up 30 points a game last year with the 905, so I would say once you consistently cross that threshold, you might be an NBA rotation piece.

Stackhouse's PG interview was interesting for saying that he (Stack) had been sent to the 905 specifically to help Bruno. Masai is continuing to invest - to the point of doubling down - so much in this kid's development, and finally we're starting to see results. After experiencing the Bucks' octopus arms for six games, I'm ready to see the Raptors have the same capability next season. I expect Bruno will be Rowdy Tellezed by the organization. Coming up sometime mid-season.

Reporter: "Why are you still so invested in Bruno?"
Masai: *lazily waves hand in direction of Giannis* "Imagine him with a 3 point shot."

[bokbok]

so i have a question, if raptors didn't have a d-league team what would Siakam and Bruno be doing? Could they still be sent to the d-league on another team , or would they be rotting on Raptors bench?

If you don't have a D-League team, you have the right to assign a player to another D-League team, but that other team has no obligation to actually play the player or contribute to his development. Bruno already experienced that in his rookie season when he was assigned a couple of times to Fort Wayne

ok so having your own d-league is extremely beneficial to developing your young players.

[CoachJReturns]

Again, I'm not saying he's got starter potential, that remains to be seen, but there is going to be a place for him on a 15-man roster where it is nice to have someone with a unique set of skills and physical characteristics, and the versatility to play up to 3 positions.

There are formulae in baseball for converting minor league stats to MLB expectations. We're obviously not there with the D-League. But Norm was putting up 30 points a game last year with the 905, so I would say once you consistently cross that threshold, you might be an NBA rotation piece.

Stackhouse's PG interview was interesting for saying that he (Stack) had been sent to the 905 specifically to help Bruno. Masai is continuing to invest - to the point of doubling down - so much in this kid's development, and finally we're starting to see results. After experiencing the Bucks' octopus arms for six games, I'm ready to see the Raptors have the same capability next season. I expect Bruno will be Rowdy Tellezed by the organization. Coming up sometime mid-season.

Bruno's not quite there yet, but It's nice to see there's still some hope with the guy.

Interestingly enough, given your point about D League scoring translation to the pros, Bruno was scoring at a high rate consistently toward the end of last season. Last night he tied a high he accomplished last season when he was playing a bigger role offensively after the team suffered some injuries. I was actually expecting him to be ready for NBA minutes some part this season because he was making big clutch shots last year. He looked ready to take the next step. Then he sucked in summer league and I sort of gave up on him. I'm thrilled he was able to rise to the occasion last night. All I want is for him to be a guy off the bench. Anything more than that is gravy, but knowing we didn't totally throw away the pick would be enough.

[LLJ]

Larry Tanenbaum finally got that championship team he's been coveting for so long.

[CoachJReturns]

Bruno just needs to bulk up and he can fit in as an Otto Porter for the Raptors maybe

He already looks bulked up. Just get stronger while getting quicker.

He looks like rookie Giannis in terms of size. I mean bulk up to where Giannis is now. If he gets that strong he'll be able to blow by guys that try to close out on him, and also be able to play the 4 as a stretch forward that can defend

I think you're both right. Strength and size aren't mutually exclusive. It's a matter of training volume, intensity and diet. If you do enough volume(sets and reps) and eat enough, you gain size. If you train with enough intensity(heavy weight) you gain strength. Bruno should be training primarily for strength/power but size will come with it as well unless he's not eating and doing very limited volume.

He's not naturally quick enough to defend guards, so he'll be sticking with forwards and some small ball centers occasionally. That means he needs a little more muscle/size to handle the physical play. Bruno is currently listed at 6'9 and 218 lbs, which is extremely thin for an NBA player at that height. I don't know if he's going to get to where Giannis is. I think that may be setting the bar too high, but Bruno can probably add another 5+ lbs before he would start seeing diminishing returns. After that I would think the focus would be to continue getting stronger. In sports relative strength is more important than limit strength(basically means lifting a higher percentage of your body weight is better than just lifting more because you're getting heavier), but there can also be positional size requirements. The most obvious case is a lineman in football. They have to be able to push horizontally and the most you can possibly press horizontally from a standing position is 50% of bodyweight. So the only way to increase the amount of force they can produce is to gain weight so it's 50% of a higher weight.
In basketball the size requirements are obviously not anywhere near the same as NFL football, but I think it would be safe to say you're likely better off if you are at least close to the size of your competition. For Bruno, that means the size to take some physical play with small forwards, power forwards and small ball centers. I'm not sure what the average lbs per inch of height works out to, but Tristan Thompson and Draymond Green(small ball centers of the 2 of the top 3 teams in the league) seem a good place to start. Draymond is 6'7 and 230lbs. Triston is 6'9 and 238 lbs. They're fairly close in lbs per inch of height with Draymond being a little bigger and stronger, so let's say Bruno needs to be at least where Tristan is to defend both frontcourt positions and small ball center. That gets him to 240lbs which I think is asking too much of a guy who started so skinny. However, Chris Bosh played small ball center with no difficulty, before his health troubles, and he's a more likely target weight. Bosh was last listed at 6'11 and 235 lbs. So I would say Bruno should be fine at somewhere around 230lbs, assuming he's still lean at such a weight. That would be a 12 lb increase in mass, which is quite a lot frankly given how skinny he started out. However, it is quite possible for a 21 year old to gain that amount of size. I would think it would take 2 more off seasons to reach that number with a lean build. Given how long we've waited for Bruno to be able to play NBA minutes, I can wait.
After he gets to around 230, the emphasis would be strictly on strength while maintaining the same size. I would imagine that's part of almost any pro athletes regimen. Of course, to say he would be always working on individual and team basketball skills during this period of time goes without saying.

[UnbelievablyRAW]

He already looks bulked up. Just get stronger while getting quicker.

He looks like rookie Giannis in terms of size. I mean bulk up to where Giannis is now. If he gets that strong he'll be able to blow by guys that try to close out on him, and also be able to play the 4 as a stretch forward that can defend

I think you're both right. Strength and size aren't mutually exclusive. It's a matter of training volume, intensity and diet. If you do enough volume(sets and reps) and eat enough, you gain size. If you train with enough intensity(heavy weight) you gain strength. Bruno should be training primarily for strength/power but size will come with it as well unless he's not eating and doing very limited volume.
.

Giannis was 196lbs when he came into the league. Now he's at 222lbs 4 years later and jacked af. We aren't talking about regular joes, these guys have state of the art equipment at trainers at their disposal. All he needs to do is bulk up and gain strength. I swear JV did that within 1 summer and he's the guy we have today. He used to be way skinnier when we first drafted him.

Heck, if Bruno can be Patterson that can play D and actually score 3's consistently then I'm more than fine with that

[dagger]

Bruno is currently listed at 6'9 and 218 lbs

I don''t know about the 218 pounds, but he's now close to 7 foot. So that weight figure is likely dated, too.

[dagger]

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[CoachJReturns]

I don''t know about the 218 pounds, but he's now close to 7 foot. So that weight figure is likely dated, too.

So instead of around 230, we should think closer to 235. Basically, get to a very similar strength and size to Bosh and that'd be great.

[CoachJReturns]

He looks like rookie Giannis in terms of size. I mean bulk up to where Giannis is now. If he gets that strong he'll be able to blow by guys that try to close out on him, and also be able to play the 4 as a stretch forward that can defend

I think you're both right. Strength and size aren't mutually exclusive. It's a matter of training volume, intensity and diet. If you do enough volume(sets and reps) and eat enough, you gain size. If you train with enough intensity(heavy weight) you gain strength. Bruno should be training primarily for strength/power but size will come with it as well unless he's not eating and doing very limited volume.
.

Giannis was 196lbs when he came into the league. Now he's at 222lbs 4 years later and jacked af. We aren't talking about regular joes, these guys have state of the art equipment at trainers at their disposal. All he needs to do is bulk up and gain strength. I swear JV did that within 1 summer and he's the guy we have today. He used to be way skinnier when we first drafted him.

Heck, if Bruno can be Patterson that can play D and actually score 3's consistently then I'm more than fine with that

Think of it this way. Some guys gain a great deal of size and strength and some don't. DeMar is strong as hell for a shooting guard and has put on very noticeable muscle since he was drafted. On the other side of things, T Ross came in skinny and weak and never got much stronger. Of course Bruno is 21, so it really shouldn't be difficult to hit 230. His anabolic hormone levels should make it pretty easy. That being said, he's put on weight slowly since he arrived, so I'm trying not to expect him to become a beast. Patience fellas. Patience.

[VanWest82]

I would rank our prospects as follows:

Siakam
Poeltl
DWright
FVV
Brady Heslip
Stackhouse (comes out of retirement for one glorious game of horse)
...
...
...
Choker (based off GIF potential)
Bruno

Well every player you have above him has at least 2 yrs of d1 experience lol and Heslip is not the better prospect get out of here...id put Bruno ahead of Heslip and on par with FVV (in terms of a prospect due to age and measurements). The other 3 have proven they can play in the NBA.

Sent from my LG-H915 using RealGM mobile app

That's probably fair. My list was a little tongue-in-cheek in response to essentially being called an idiot for not being high on Bruno.

In many ways, Bruno and Heslip represent a dichotomy of nba prospects. One player grew up with the game and made the most out of what (limited) natural attributes and abilty that mother nature offered; the other came to game late, has struggled mightily to pick up the subtle nuances of basketball despite tremendous natural gifts. IMO it's very unlikely either player makes it.

[10giz]

Can't wait for us to have even more control come next year with additional roster spots and 2 way contracts.

I wonder if its possible to offer Stackhouse some really good money to head up our player development with a couple of more years with the 905/spot assistant duty with a pretty much assured chance of taking Casey's job should something happen in the future.

[Mikistan]

I think you're both right. Strength and size aren't mutually exclusive. It's a matter of training volume, intensity and diet. If you do enough volume(sets and reps) and eat enough, you gain size. If you train with enough intensity(heavy weight) you gain strength. Bruno should be training primarily for strength/power but size will come with it as well unless he's not eating and doing very limited volume.
.

Giannis was 196lbs when he came into the league. Now he's at 222lbs 4 years later and jacked af. We aren't talking about regular joes, these guys have state of the art equipment at trainers at their disposal. All he needs to do is bulk up and gain strength. I swear JV did that within 1 summer and he's the guy we have today. He used to be way skinnier when we first drafted him.

Heck, if Bruno can be Patterson that can play D and actually score 3's consistently then I'm more than fine with that

Think of it this way. Some guys gain a great deal of size and strength and some don't. DeMar is strong as hell for a shooting guard and has put on very noticeable muscle since he was drafted. On the other side of things, T Ross came in skinny and weak and never got much stronger. Of course Bruno is 21, so it really shouldn't be difficult to hit 230. His anabolic hormone levels should make it pretty easy. That being said, he's put on weight slowly since he arrived, so I'm trying not to expect him to become a beast. Patience fellas. Patience.

Anyone citing JV's "bulk" gain over 1 offseason as a positive example should reassess ... What you don't want is that much of a change in such a short period - especially at such a young age, he will naturally become a Man over time, he doesn't need to do it all right away, at the risk of getting even slower.

Remember this form?

Yeah, it couldn't handle Cell at all, a waste of 1 year in the hyperbolic time chamber.

[VanWest82]

I would rank our prospects as follows:

Siakam
Poeltl
DWright
FVV
Brady Heslip
Stackhouse (comes out of retirement for one glorious game of horse)
...
...
...
Choker (based off GIF potential)
Bruno

I like Siakam, but you're grossly overrating him.

Really? How? It's not like I'm predicting he'll be an all star or something, just that he arguably has a higher ceiling than the other guys on my list (which isn't totally on the level - Bruno is probably below FVV but above Brady Heslip). Poeltl is probably the best player right now followed by Delon, then Siakam.

But Siakam is the only one who has a chance to become a well rounded player without any real weaknesses. He's already a solid defender at the 4. He has good hands, and a nose for the ball. He can finish around the basket. Now that TRoss is gone, Siakam is probably pound for pound the most athletic guy on the team. And now he's also showing the abillity to shoot from distance, which was his main weakness earlier in the year and the reason why our offense died when we started him alongside JV (another non shooter).

Every other prospect has a glaring weakness that's unlikely to be fixed: DWright (shot - which is a killer as a PG), FVV and Poeltl (size/length), and Bruno (complete and total lack of basketball IQ and/or feel for the game).

[Joker]

Every other prospect has a glaring weakness that's unlikely to be fixed: DWright (shot - which is a killer as a PG), FVV and Poeltl (length), and Bruno (complete and total lack of basketball IQ and/or feel for the game).

Poeltl is 7'1" in shoes with a 7'3" wingspan. He's not freakish like Gobert or McGee, but his length is alright - more or less the same length as JV.

[VanWest82]

Every other prospect has a glaring weakness that's unlikely to be fixed: DWright (shot - which is a killer as a PG), FVV and Poeltl (length), and Bruno (complete and total lack of basketball IQ and/or feel for the game).

Poeltl is 7'1" in shoes with a 7'3" wingspan. He's not freakish like Gobert or McGee, but his length is alright - more or less the same length as JV.

I won't argue with that as I don't know, but JV seems to play bigger. Perhaps Poeltl just has a higher center of gravity so he's constantly having to dig down to match strength. Seemed like he got pushed around some this year, though most rookie bigs do.

Perhaps it's a combination of his average NBA length/strength (for a center) combined with his lack of lift, but he just isn't physically imposing like the more disruptive big men. So to me his ceiling is a little lower. But he's still a great pick IMO, just based on his feel for the game and his ability to guard PnR effectively on the perimeter. If he ever develops a three point shot he could start for us.

[Fairview4Life]

Should give the non NBA contract 905ers box seats to games 3 and 4. Announce them during or before the game or something. Give them some ACC recognition.