November 27 – Dr. Anklesnap
Unless you are a die hard Toronto Raptors fan you probably have never heard of the rookie point guard “Roko Ukic.” Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo and his staff are well on their way to being known league wide as the executive scouting team who find diamonds in the rough internationally. While the management of many NBA teams heavily scout internationally, specifically Europe these days, most teams don’t pull the trigger as quickly or as frequently on draftees from Europe as the Raptors.
And for good reason, there are risks involved. If you draft a player from Europe he won’t necessarily come to play in the NBA right away….or EVER for that matter. Croatian born, Roko Ukic is the perfect example of this as he was originally drafted to the NBA by the Toronto Raptors back in 2005 out of Croatia. For fear he wouldn’t see much playing time and develop properly, Ukic decided to stay in Europe to play in the Spanish League. He changed teams three times since 2005 before finally signing a 3-year contract this summer with the Toronto Raptors.
Technically this is his first year in the NBA so he is considered to be a rookie. However he is a fairly experienced rookie with plenty of professional experience overseas. He has started this season a bit slow due to the fact he was playing behind point guards Jose Calderon and Will Solomon. Roko has seen his playing time increase the last couple games due to the slight hamstring strain of Jose Calderon and poor play out of backup Solomon. Personally, i’ve been fairly impressed with the play of Roko Ukic thus far. He has long arms and a great wingspan for his size, great foot speed, excellent court vision and already is showing he can bring a bit of flair and energy off the bench. He may not have put a huge stamp on the box scores as of yet, but as those that have been watching will know he’s certainly made his mark on the past couple of games for the Raps.
This video sequence is an example from last night’s game between the Toronto Raptors and the Charlotte Bobcats of the type of energy Roko Ukic has been bringing off the bench the last couple of games.
