Raptors’ eyes on prospects
Young threesome off to compete at Euro hoops championships Point guard Calderon will run offence for powerful Spaniards
Raptor fans never had much reason to care greatly about the European basketball championships.
Until today, that is. When the 16- team tournament begins this morning in Serbia and Montenegro, three players seen as keys to Toronto’s long- term future will be taking part in the world qualification event.
Jose Calderon, the point guard who is likely to start the season as the primary Raptor backup to Rafer Alston, will be playing for Spain, while a pair of longerterm prospects — Croatia’s Roko Ukic and Slovenia’s Uros Slokar — will also be playing.
“ We’ve got a lot of interest in how they do,” said Raptor general manager Rob Babcock.
Babcock is sending his chief lieutenant, director of player personnel Scott Howard, to the tournament instead of scouting it himself. The sometimes dicey relationships between national teams and professional clubs preclude any close contact with players.
“ You don’t want to distract them because they are there playing for another team,” said Babcock. “ The last thing you want to do is distract them from what they want to do.
“ It’s more the kind of thing where you just keep progress on them.” But how the three handle themselves in the tournament will be worth watching, at least from afar. There is nothing quite like the intensity and pressure that comes with a European basketball tournament, where hugely nationalistic fans treat every game as if it’s the seventh game of an NBA final. And it’ll be important for Howard, and Babcock, to see how their young charges stand up.
Calderon, in particular, will bear close watching. As the starting point guard with a team considered a legitimate contender for the championship, he’ll be under the gun from the start. Neither Ukic nor Slokar will play as significant a role with their teams as Calderon does with his.
For years, the tournament unfolded in relative obscurity for North American fans, who only saw or cared about European teams at events like the Olympics or world championships. However, with so many NBA stars in action — like Tony Parker of France, Dirk Nowitzki of Germany, Russian’s Andrei Kirilenko and Spain’s Pau Gasol — interest is piqued for even casual fans. Not to mention NBA scouts.
“ Ten years ago, there might have been five teams represented at it; now I think there’ll be 20 teams at least, probably even more than that,” said Babcock. But the teams won’t be there scouring the games for untapped prospects. With berths in next year’s world championships at stake, to say nothing of bragging rights on the continent, the teams taking part are stacked with veterans who are already familiar to NBA general managers and scouts.
“ Teams are going to play their older guys,” said Babcock. “ It’s not like going to the world under- 21 championships. For future scouting, we’d think that was a much more important tournament.”