Luis Scola Fits What Toronto Raptors Needed At PF

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The Toronto Raptors signed Luis Scola to add a power forward to their lineup, they and finally pulled the trigger on the grizzled veteran for a one year, $3 million deal.

I recently recommended the Raptors pursue Carlos Boozer in free agency, and GM Masai Ujiri may well have done so. Boozer and Scola are almost identical players at this point in their careers, with 2014-15 PERs of 16.8 and 16.4, respectively. They’re both entering their mid-30s and use their veteran savvy to get buckets at middling efficiency. They’re also very slow players who don’t offer much help at all on the defensive end.

That turns out to be exactly what the Raps needed after this offseason’s massive influx of defense-first players. They needed a player to stabilize things off the bench, and Scola should be able to do just that. He’s also a good locker room guy, by most accounts, and could perhaps serve as a mentor for fellow South Americans Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Nogueira.

Like Boozer, Scola is not my favorite player in the world. He doesn’t have much in the way of a shot, and his offensive game delicately toes the line between “crafty” and “gimmicky”. But at this point in free agency, you can’t ask for everything.

Meanwhile, losing Scola is just another chapter in the Indiana Pacers‘ quietly disastrous offseason. Their frontcourt is now as thin as anyone’s, meaning Paul George might return to the court with quite a bit more work to do than he bargained for. It’ll be interesting to see how much Summer League standout Myles Turner can do for them in his rookie season.

For the Raptors, it’s a low-risk, low-reward signing. Ujiri is clearly happy with the core of the team as it stands and is content to round out the offseason dealing with end-of-the-rotation guys.

Casey Sherman is the Toronto Raptors Beat Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @shermham

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