Today it was announced that the Raptors exercised the fourth year option on Andrea Bargnani's contract. We now have Andrea in a Raptor uniform through the 2009 - 10 season.
Why keep Andrea?
- Being our first overall draft pick in 2006, we should not give up on Andrea simply because his growth into a superstar has not been at lightning speed. It is easy to draw parallels to Dirk Nowitzki, another talented seven-foot forward who can shoot. But even Dirk took time to mature. His breakout season came in his third year when he was getting 38 minutes a game. Andrea is now entering his third season and now has less pressure on his shoulders coming off the bench.
- It is sometimes easy to forget that Andrea is just 23 years old and is still learning the game. He has a strong work ethic and over the summer has put on some much needed muscle. The added strength should help him defend (and hopefully stay out of foul trouble) as well as finishing in traffic, and with any luck, Andrea can now move to the 4 or 5-spot to provide some help on the boards should any of the bigs get into foul trouble.
This year the Raptors will rely on Andrea to give them scoring, rebounding and play significant (hopefully foul-free) minutes off of the bench. He must be able to relieve Chris and Jermaine and be able to produce while doing so.
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