One of the most spirited players in the league is coming back to the roster of the Toronto Raptors: Tyler Hansbrough for the 2014/2015 NBA season. He is reportedly going to be given 3.3M.
This is a great pick up for the Raptors. First of all, it’s a good pointer to note that Tyler is a team player. He’s picked up the Raptors system quite well, and proved that by playing pretty huge minutes for them before the Rudy Gay trade. When Patrick Patterson came in, he came in the role of bench warmer, barely seeing playing time in the regular season, and lost his role to the former Kings big men.
Welcome back, Tyler! The Toronto Raptors have picked up the team option on his contract, having him on the roster for the upcoming 2014/2015 season!
The addition of Tyler (or bringing him back simply) is good enough to add stability and security to the roster. He is a very capable bench player than can log big minutes if given, and financially, saves Masai a fair amount of cap space to work with for the likes of bringing back other the other guys like Lowry, Vasquez and Patterson. This does not mean Patterson should not come back. He is a stretch four, and compliments Tyler very well.
Dwane Casey must be very happy because it fits perfectly into the persona of the Raps franchise today, and that is blue-collar, pounding the rock players that are willing to be humble and work hard. This also saves a ton of time for the Raptors building process, knowing Tyler already is familiar with the system, and has a team bond with the returning players as well. He definitely fits into the category of “I love him if he’s on my team, but hate playing against him” type player.
He plays hard, works hard, and will give you what he’s got. Don’t be surprised seeing Bruno Caboclo, DeAndre Daniels, Lou Williams, and Lucas Nogueira settling for jumpers if he’s down low waiting for them; but, then again, he has toned down his intensity after playing the Knicks last year (ahem Metta World Peace)! It will be great having his physicality against players and in practice to get the NBA feel on how physical the game is, particularly for the incoming new players and rookies.
Welcome back, Tyler!
Raptor Land 