Dino Nation Blog

(Photo From One Of Our Readers From Ottawa)

Matt Devlin fresh off his debut on Raptors TV took the time to come and visit the Dino Nation Blog. We talked about a number of things about himself  and early impressions of the Toronto Raptors. Like we did with Jack Armstrong recently Matt was happy to be the second guest of what we here at the Dino Nation Blog are calling the starting 5. It is designed to allow you to hear the first five minutes of our conversations with our guests when that is possible to hook up with them on the phone. This Starting 5 begins with Matt’s thoughts on his first broadcast with the Raptors…have a listen in the link below:

Starting 5- The Guest…Matt Devlin Raptors T.V Play by Play Man

As always the conversation continued. We started with some talk about the guys from the bench that have been seeing some time in these first two games. Will Solomon and Kris Humphries, Matt shares his thought on these two Raptors reserves:

Matt Devlin- I think they are going to be extremely important once we get to the regular season. You look at someone like Kris Humphries, and his time already in the league, he is still extremely young, and he is somebody that can provide some energy and spark off the bench. Last night he came flying in on a Jose miss on a lay-up and had an unbelievable follow dunk. I think those are the things that their going to need. Get on the offensive glass and get second chances. As far as Will Solomon, there has been no question ever about what he can do offensively. He can score and I think that was a great signing over the summer time. He has the experience now, he was in a tough spot in Memphis, on a team that wasn’t that good and he was thrown into the fire a little bit. You want to see him cut down on turnovers a bit which he did. He told me from game one he said “listen I had 4 turnovers in the first half, I’m not gonna lie to you I was a little gittery out there it was my first NBA game in six years. So I was kind of feeling it a little bit”. But defensively he has such long arms and wingspan that I think he can do an excellent job guarding not only the 1 but also the 2 spot depending upon the match-up.

The Toronto Raptors also have some expectations for Roko Ukic. He has been dealing with some bumps from camp so far. But he has seen time on the floor but always with another point guard playing along side him at the 2 spot. I asked Matt for his thoughts about this and his overall opinions on Roko and where he is at.

Matt Devlin-Well I think that is what you want to do. Everyone that I have spoken with from the Raptors compare Roko to where Jose was as a rookie. He is extremely quick with th ball and now he is learning the system and that takes time, Along with Nathan they are the two rookies on the team and you look for there progression. Even for the great European that come over, very few have just made sensational impacts in year one. It takes time and for roko at the point guard it will take time your extension of the coach on the floor and that growth process does take time.

As for this idea of Roko being out their with a second point guard to watch is back. Matt mentioned he felt it was more a case of the Raptors lack of numbers at this point in combination with the fact that the Knicks were going small that lead us to seeing the combinations of Roko with Will Solomon and at time Jose Calderon on the floor with him. So this may be something that Mitchell could consider vs. small line-ups if he wants to get Roko out on the floor. But it may just be the fact of numbers and it being pre-season as Matt said. We move from the reserves to the main two guys. Jermaine O’Neal and CB4 together.  What has it looked like early on. Have we learned anything yet?

Matt Devlin- I think at this time of the year everybody is trying to feel each other out and nobody is really going to show their hand. Everybody is bluffing, it’s like poker. The Raptors are not doing anything special with those two guys. This isn’t the time for that. It is for everybody to get comfortable on the floor, everybody to remain healthy. Last night though there was a sequence when the double came to Bosh who delivered a pass to O’Neal that was a little low. O’Neal was unable to handle it but he was wide open. You know there is going to be a ton of those opportunities that one of these two guys is going to be open because of the double team. They are going to make teams pay for it. I am personally not concerned with Bosh and O’Neal and how they play together. I think they are going to be a perfect compliment to each other.

The person everyone is focused on this preseason beyond Bosh and O’Neal is Andrea Bargnani. He has had what most would say is a nice first two games of the pre-season.  So what is Matt’s take on Andrea and where he is heading at this point?

Matt Devlin- I think the big question is if he can keep it up. He did have his surgery in the off-season to clear up his sinuses. I think that is important for anyone that has had to deal with something like that in the past. Certainly for a professional athlete that can be hindrance. He’s young, I think he now understands what it takes. I think the fact that he put in the time that he did in the summertime shows that. Also, I think it was a great idea by Sam Mitchell to say hey we know you can shoot a three but I don’t want to see you shoot a three. You can’t shoot a three. For the first three days of camp he wouldn’t allow Bargnani to take a three point shot. How to the change that mentality of a guy saying this is what I do. You say well hey you can’t do that anymore you got to go in the box you have to go down low and I think that is a positive.

I related it to when you have a kid just starting out in basketball. You make the child put there strong dribbling hand behind their back and force them to learn to dribble with the other. Matt agreed with that example as far as what we talking about in Bargnani. The goal is to force him out of his comfort zone to make the other aspects of his game stronger. So far so good for the Raptors in that regard. Matt will be working with Jack Armstrong on TSN when the season gets rolling. Jack as many of you may be aware made a prediction that the Raptors(if healthy) could win 48 games this season. I asked his broadcast partner for his thoughts on Jack’s prediction for the Raptors.

Matt Devlin- He has gone out there with a number already? I’m not a predictor because there are so many variables to that. Do I think they have the ability to get to that number? Absolutely they have that ability. But, everything has to fall into place. What I mean by that is they have the potential win more than 48 if everything falls into place. Can you stay away from injuries? Do you get a good start to the season? How do you handle the road trip at Christmas time out west? There are gonna be some key points to the season that determine if they are going to reach Jack’s number. But I like the fact that he is confident. He is willing to go on record to which is a good thing.

But it is not just Jack Armstrong making predictions of success for the Raptors. Bob McCown on the show Prime Time Sports said in a recent interview with Jack his number is in the 50’s. The Raptor fan base and various blogs have had their say as well. A lot of this can be put into one word “expectations”. So I asked Matt how he thinks the Raptors deal with that heading into this season.

Matt Devlin- I have been around a lot of teams in this league and they say we don’t care about what anyone else says, were just going to go out there and do what we can do. You know I do think as players they understand the expectations. Chris Bosh after last night’s game, talked about winning, and needing certain players. Is that a result of getting that gold and getting that hunger to go further after two disappointing first round exits,  to reach that next level. To me James, this is a team that doesn’t need anyone around them to say anything. They know, you don’t bring in a guy like Jermaine O’Neal, you don’t make the moves the Bryan Colangelo made without everybody totally getting the point. They are saying we are going move on from where we have been in the past. We are going bring in a 6-time all star and create this dynamic duo. By the way we already have the best 3-point shooter in the league, we have a versatile two in Anthony Parker, An athletic guy in Jamario Moon. Probably the most…No I am not even going to say probably. The most underrated in the NBA who is an all star point guard. That level of a player. So the parts are in place. Can Bargnani continue to show improvement and Can Humphries contribute. I think they all freely understand the expectations. Their expectations may be higher than the ones out there.

So what about the rest of this preseason? Can we expect to see more from the Raptors and what this team may look like come October 29th. I asked Matt about his thoughts on the progression of things as these pre-season games move forward.

Matt Devlin- Sam has said that he sees these games as an extension of practice and that is not going to change for him.  I think the progression you want to see is Jermaine O’Neal and his legs. Does he have his legs back? You want see progression from guys like Will, Andrea and Roko. But you know what your going to get from Jose. You know what your going to get from Chris Bosh. Same goes for Parker and Kapono. There are known entities for the Raptors. As the pre-season moves on your still going to see a lot of the bench. Your going to see Bargnani a lot. You will see a bunch of different combinations on the floor. Think that is more what you can expect to see as far as combinations that Sam is working with. Think this is a team that Sam already has a lot of the things in his mind made up. He is not going to share that with people at this stage. These are our 5 starters we know what we have coming off the bench. As I mentioned before can Andrea Bargnani keep producing what he has to this point. Do guys like Joey Graham and Hassan Adams get healthy and we get to see what they can do. Those are things I think we look at right now.

Like in the past Matt was very generous with his time. He is getting his house all set up in Toronto and getting things all set for the season on the home front. So I am grateful to him for taking the time to talk with us at the Dino Nation Blog.  So If Matt did not get everything done around the house today. I want to say to his wife it is my fault.  But on a serious note I wish Matt and his family a smooth transition into their new home and a new life in Canada. We always are grateful to the people who make time for us and we should also say thanks to their families that in a sense share them with us.  It is something we sometimes all forget that everyone from Chris Bosh, Matt Devlin and yours truly all have stuff we do away from the work that we love that is important too. Good Luck to Matt through this upcoming season and we look forward to his views in future editions of the Dino Nation Blog.