Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Tyler Hansbrough was taking his talents to the Toronto Raptors:https://twitter.com/SpearsNBAYahoo/status/354762179922239488
After a short time, Doug Smith of the Toronto Star broke that the deal was for two years long:
https://twitter.com/SmithRaps/status/354762554536509440
Hansbrough, also known as "Psycho T", last played for the Indiana Pacers, who decided not to extend a qualifying offer which would have been worth about $4.1 million. Because the Pacers did not extend the qualifying offer, Hansbrough became an unrestricted free agent.
Hansbrough, who will enter his fifth season in the NBA, played all of his four seasons in the NBA with the Pacers. He was a key energy player off the bench for Indiana in their playoff run, who ended in the Eastern Conference Finals, losing to the eventual NBA champion Miami Heat.
During the regular season, Hansbrough averaged about seven points and five rebounds in 17 minutes per game. However, his impact was not shown on the box score. He plays scrappy, meaning he goes for loose balls and isn't afraid to play very physical defense.
He will help the Raptors front court, who were 28th in the league in rebounds averaged per game. Trading Andrea Bargnani to the New York Knicks didn't help the team either. With Amir Johnson playing most of the power forward minutes last season, the addition of Hansbrough will definitely provide some relief for him.
Expect the Raptors' rebounds and blocks average to be higher this season than last. With an injured Bargnani, the team didn't have much defense in the frontcourt. Hansbrough will also help with that. After playing backup power forward for a contending team for the last few seasons, expect him to fill the same hole in the Toronto lineup.
What does this mean for other players on the Raptors roster?
They have a few big men in Jonas Valanciunas, Aaron Gray and Johnson. While it may not happen, look for one of them to be on their way out of Toronto. I honestly don't find it sensible to keep all four, unless they plan on finding one to mentor Valanciunas, who was a rookie last season.
