Don't get me wrong—Andrea Bargnani is a great basketball player. Blessed with the rare gifts of height and the ability to knock down a long range shot, which for some reason, seem to have an inverse relationship in basketball, the Raptors thought they knew what they were getting in to when they took Bargnani 1st overall in 2006.
Over the next few years, Bargnani's offence progressed slowly, until he finally had his breakout campaign in 2008-2009, where he averaged a respectable 17.2 points per game.
Unfortunately, for a centre, he didn't do much else.
Andrea averaged 6.3 rebounds per game for the season, good for 63rd in the league. Considering the minutes he played, most of which were at centre, this number is unacceptable. He averaged 9.3 rebounds per 40 minutes, for a whopping 147th in the league. A couple spots behind flipping Patrick O'Bryant.
In his first year, his R/40 was 7.5. In his second year, it was 7.8. And then came the 9.3.
Now over the years, the Raptors thought Andrea would continue to progress, like any 1st overall pick worth his salt. However, his defence barely improved over this time.
Let ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Vishaal Gupta
Andrea Bargnani is the Origin of the Toronto Raptors’ Issues
December 3rd, 2009 by Vishaal Gupta Leave a reply »
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