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The Toronto Raptures lost Shawn Marion but have no fear Raptor fans because they picked up Hedo Turkoglu along the way. Turkoglu, who helped Dwight Howard lead the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals last season was a great pick up for the Raptures and will play better along Chris Bosh. Turkoglu came at a pretty steep price for the Raptures but he proved that he may very well be worth it last season. During the NBA Finals last season when it seemed at times that Dwight Howard had disappeared it was Turkoglu who would take charge of his team.

With the acquisition of Turkoglu the Raptors are taking the right steps in trying to keep Chris Bosh happy. Toronto will try to make all the right moves they can to keep Bosh from leaving the team at the end of the upcoming season. The team of course, revolves around Bosh who averaged 22.7 PPG last season and 10.0 rebounds.

Bargnani will have to continue to produce points but probably won’t have to be relied on in that department as much anymore now that Turkoglu is on the team. Bargnani was second on the team last season behind Bosh as he averaged 15.4 points per game. Bargnani may want to work on his rebound game though as he averaged only 5.3 per game last season which can’t be to good when you are a seven footer.

The Spaniard Jose Calderon will run the team again next season. Last season he started all 68 games he played in averaging 12.8 points per game and 8.9 assist per game (most by any player in the Eastern Conference). Despite being criticized sometimes for his lack of defense Calderon really blossomed last season. He set an all time record for best free throw percentage in a season shooting 98.1% from the line. He made 151-154 free throws in the season.

Devean George and Antoine Wright are a couple of nice swingman that were picked up from Dallas but the Raptors are still small up front.

The Raptors may not be done yet as they have roughly $12 million that they can spend under the luxury tax threshold. That’s more than any team in the league. Do I hear Jarrett Jack?

The Raptures will be a greatly improved team in the 2009-2010 season than the 33-49 squad of last season. They should with out a doubt make the playoffs but still may not have what it takes to battle the Boston’s, Cleveland’s and Los Angelenos.

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