Toronto Raptors Summer League Roster

In continuing the series of spending way too much time telling you more than you need to know about players that don't have NBA contracts, I present the Toronto Raptors Summer League roster in excruciating detail.

For a breakdown of other NBA Summer League rosters, check these out: New Jersey Nets, Utah Jazz,Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic, Indiana Pacers,Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors.

For the rest of the Vegas Summer League rosters, refer to this post.

Bobby Brown, PG, Cal State Fullerton - I actually thought Brown was beyond Summer League after having such a standout performance in 2008 with the New Orleans Hornets, but if this is what he has to do to appear on an NBA roster for the third consecutive season I'm all for it.

Since averaging 15.2 points and 6.3 assists fin the 2008 version of the NBA Summer League (along with prompting more than one play of this classic), Brown has played for the Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Hornets and Los Angeles Clippers (where he unceremoniously replaced JamesOn Curry).

In his NBA time (which consists of two starts in 113 games), Brown has shot just 38% from the field and 31% from beyond the arc.  I assume he'll have to get those numbers if he's going to make an NBA roster, but as a Summer League legend, I think he can handle it.

Curtis Stinson, PG, Iowa State - I've been known to waver on my stance with Stinson, going all the way from being his biggest critic to his biggest fan - and everywhere in between.

The best reason to like Stinson is that he's a near-triple-double machine in the D-League, a task that is difficult regardless of the competition (and, for the record, the D-League competition is probably better than the Orlando Magic are led to believe).  He's also a great leader and will do whatever it takes for his team to win.

The reason's to dislike Stinson are that he's a bit of a hot head, doesn't have range on his jump shot and miraculously has excelled in Nick Nurse's offense after bouncing around with four different teams in his first two D-League seasons.

He's been pretty good with the Orlando Magic in the Orlando Summer League and I think he has a pretty good chance of sneaking onto an NBA roster next year.

Michael Roll, SG, UCLA - Roll is probably one of the most unheralded First-Team All-Conference selections this year, but I assume he's okay with that.

I'll defer to my pals over at Bruins Nation to give you a brief rundown of his game:

"If ever a guy spent his entire career just trying hard and trying to do what the coaches asked of him, it's Roll. That he will forever be known as an all conference first teamer is a fitting tribute to his tenacity and to the value of doing the little things well.

One of the great "what ifs" of the Howland era is "What if Mike Roll had played with Kevin Love?" Remember, Roll got hurt during Love's only season in Westwood and he and Love never really played together. It's unfortunate, because Mike was/is very good on the entry pass and the constant double-teaming of Love in the post would have created many open shots for Michael."

The 6-foot-5 shooter averaged 14.1 points while shooting 43% from beyond the arc this season for the Bruins.

Wings

Ronald Dupree, SF, LSU - I'm happy to see Dupree getting a shot this summer - and with DeRozan being the only other wing on the roster, I assume he'll get decent playing time.

Dupree was a pretty good player in his four seasons at LSU, culminating with 15.8 points and 7.8 rebounds as a senior in 2003, but he hasn't stuck anywhere for long since then.  He has played five seasons in the NBA (with five different teams) and his per-36 averages are pretty good: 11.4 points and 6.9 rebounds over 154 games including eight starts with the Chicago Bulls as a rookie.

At 29 years of age, Dupree unfortunately doesn't have much upside left. Still it seems he proved the "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" adage wrong this past season as he shot a healthy 41% from beyond the arc while playing in Germany this past season - The long range shot had sort of been his bugaboo throughout his career.

I don't know if he'll make an NBA roster this season, but it's good to see he hasn't given up yet.

Bigs

James Mays, PF, Clemson - Mays is one of my favorite players, but he hasn't played a single minute through three games in the Orlando Summer League with the Pacers - that worries me.

Mays was a solid, but unspectacular, power forward for three of his four seasons at Clemson before nearly making the Denver Nuggets as an undrafted free agent in 2008.

After being cut by the Nuggets, Mays was drafted with the second overall pick in the D-League draft by the Nuggets D-League affiliate - showing that the Nuggets obviously still had a strong interest in the 6-foot-9 banger.

Mays started out great for the Colorado 14ers by averaging 18.7 points and 8.7 rebounds, but a torn ACL ended his rookie season just 12 games after it started.  Judging by his numbers in China this past season, however, he seems to have recovered quite well.

Mays averaged 26 points and 13.2 rebounds while shooting 57% from the field and an unfounded 44% from beyond the arc before being randomly released in January after 16 games (he had 35 points and 11 rebounds in his last game, so on-the-floor productivity obviously wasn't the issue).

In 25 games in Puerto Rico, James averaged 17.6 points and 8.6 rebounds - though his three-point shot apparently fell back to earth as he made just 34 of his 115 attempts from beyond the arc.

Cheikh Samb, C, Senegal -Samb was drafted by the Lakers in the second round back in 2006, but was quickly traded to the Pistons for Maurice Evans before heading overseas before his NBA career could begin.

He came back over to play for the Pistons in the 2007 Summer League again, and after starting four games, he wound up with an NBA contract. That season was spent mostly in the D-League with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants where he'd put up good, but not great, numbers.

Samb was involved in the Nuggets-Pistons Allen Iverson-Chauncey Billups swap the following Summer, but after failing to impress in Denver he was traded to the Clippers halfway through the season. The Clippers weren't impressed either, though, and he was released a month and a half in before ending his season on a couple of 10-day contracts with the Knicks.

 

Samb signed a one-month contract in October with Real Madrid, played two minutes in one game, and was released when the contract was up in November.

 

I have no idea what he's been doing since, but he's lengthy!