The Raptors’ offense has been pretty putrid while 26-year old center Andrea Bargnani has been out of action due to a calf strain. He has played in 11 games (all starts) for the Raptors so far this year and he is averaging 35.2 minutes, 22.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. The Raptors have decent players to replace Bargnani but they are banger types, that don’t have much of an offensive game. With that in mind, defenses have been ganging up on DeMar DeRozan.

24-year old power forward Amir Johnson has stepped up this game early this year for the Raptors. Johnson has played in 2 games (both starts) for the Raptors so far this year and he is averaging 30.5 minutes, 7.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocked shots per game. He is also shooting 66.7% from the floor so far this year, with most of his shots coming close to the basket. The Raptors have been known as a pretty soft team, but Johnson could be starting to change to image of the team. They hope he can keep up the good work.

25-year old center Andrea Bargnani stepped up his game offensively for the Raptors last year. He played in 66 games (all starts) for the Raptors last year and he averaged 35.7 minutes, 21.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. Bargnani has now played in 367 games (260 starts) in his first five years with the Raptors and he is averaging 30.2 minutes, 15.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. Bargnani is already the Raptors #4 all-time scorer with 5,535 points. He is also #6 in games played (367), #3 in three-pointers made (507), #5 in rebounds (1,795) and he’s #5 in blocked shots (344) in Raptors’ history. It would be nice if Bargnani decided to add rebounding and defense as his next two tricks starting in 2011-12.

The Raptors needed someone to step up to make up the points they were going to lose because of Chris Bosh’s defection, and 21-year old shooting guard DeMar DeRozan was that guy. DeRozan played in 82 games (all starts) for the Raptors last year and he averaged 34.8 minutes, 17.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.0 steal per game. He has now played in 159 games (147 starts) in his first two years with the Raptors and he is averaging 28.4 minutes, 13.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. The next thing the Raptors need DeRozan to do is to improve his long range shooting as he has only hit 9 of 68 (13.2%) three pointers in his first two years with the team.

22-year old point guard Jerryd Bayless is starting to take off for the Raptors. He has played in 4 games so far this April and he’s averaging 33.8 minutes, 24.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game. He is shooting 52.5% from the floor, 50% from three point range (8 of 16) and 82.8% from the free throw line so far this month as Bayless has been outstanding! He has now played in 55 games (10 starts) for the Raptors this year after coming over from the Hornets in the Jarrett Jack deal and he is averaging 20.9 minutes, 8.9 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. He’s pushing Jose Calderon for P.T. right now.