The Raptors will start Rasho Nesterovic at center this season.  Rasho is a big body inside that should help with the rebounding and the defense.  Nesterovic has averaged 7.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.4 blocks per game over his NBA career.

The #1 pick in the NBA draft, Andrea Bargnani will be the back-up center to start the season.  Bargnani is an offensive player first, and he’s a good shooter for a center.  Bargnani will have problems on defense at least at the start of his career.

Pape Sow still hasn’t fully recovered from a broken neck.  Sow is an active player when on the court, as he has career averages of 3.0 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.

The Raptors are hoping that Morris Peterson can repeat the season that he had last year.  Last year Mo-Pete averaged 16.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.  Peterson is the second option on offense for the Raptors and he is a fine three-point shooter (37.3%) for his career.  Peterson has averaged 12.5 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.1 steals per game over his NBA career.

Joey Graham had a good rookie season last year, and he’s the perfect back-up to Peterson.  Graham averaged 6.7 points & 3.1 rebounds in his rookie year.  Graham could improve on those numbers if he gets a little more playing time this season. 

Draft picks P.J. Tucker and Jorge Garbajosa will pick up the scrap minutes that are left over from Peterson and Graham.

The Raptors looked flat last night as they didn’t defend or rebound well.  Chris Bosh led the Raptors with 19 points & 7 rebounds.  Morris Peterson (18 points) & Anthony Parker (14 points) each added to the offense.  T.J. Ford filled up the boxscore with 12 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists.

The Raptors fell to 2-4 and they just don’t look like that good of a team this year.

The Raptors allowed the Hawks to shoot 50% from the floor and the Hawks out-rebounded the Raptors 49-40.  Those were the two biggest factors in Toronto’s loss last night.  Can’t blame Chris Bosh for the loss as he scored 19 points, grabbed 17 rebounds and dished out 6 assists.  Morris Peterson scored 18 points and grabbed 6 rebounds.  T.J. Ford had a good game with 17 points, 3 rebounds and 11 assists.  Fred Jones came off of the bench firing as he scored 17 points.  Reserve point guard Jose Calderon had a good game with 13 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists.

The Raptors need to defend their home court if they are to improve this season.  The Raptors record fell to 2-3 last night.

The Raptors were out-shot and out-rebounded by the Sixers, but they still won the game.  Chris Bosh had another fantastic game with 29 points, 14 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.  Reserve forward Joey Graham came off of the bench and scored 16 points.  Morris Peterson tossed in 11 points.  TJ Ford had a good game with 11 points, 7 assists and 2 steals.

This was a great home win for the Raptors and evened their record at 2-2 for the season.