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Hill, Livingston, Olynyk and Rush

As we passed the halfway point of the season and approach the trade deadline, it's time to take a critical look at the makeup of the Toronto Raptors, and who's got a future in building this team back into the perennial playoff contender they used to be. GM CarlSpackler has already established that Jae Crowder, Gorgui Dieng and Kris Dunn are players that the Raptors are committed to (at least for the moment). So our last update started to look at the rest of the roster to determine which players are going to be the best fit for this system. So, picking up where we left off:

Solomon Hill - Hill was a recent acquisition so there hasn't been a whole lot of time to evaluate him.But this past week, he was able to play a chunk of minutes and put in some fairly impressive performances. In back to back games, he scored 12 points in just 18 minutes in each game. And with a couple steals and a blocked shot against the Pelicans, he's shown that he can contribute on the defensive side of the ball. The big question with Hill is consistency. He started off the season as a 75 overall and then a few updates took a big toll. But he seems to be putting it together in the NBA, seeing more minutes, scoring more points, and his shooting percentage has seen a big improvement. So we'll hopefully be seeing some 2k love at some point.

Shaun Livingston - Livingston did get an opportunity to start in the week that Kris Dunn was out. And he showed that there is no question that he is meant to be a backup, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. In the backup role, he's contributing five points, five assists and two rebounds on 45% shooting. In his 4 games as a starter, he was fairly underwhelming. He had a nice game against the Lakers with 14 points and 7 assists, but the other 3 games were mediocre at best. But to speak to his affinity for the backup role, he seems to thrive with limited minutes. Last night's game was a perfect example, where he scored 15 points on 6 of 9 shooting, along with 4 assists in 18 minutes. Of course, that's not a nightly thing for him, but if you're looking for a backup PG, you could do a lot worse.

Kelly Olynyk - Part of the recent trade along with Solomon Hill, it almost didn't happen because the GM was still bitter at Olynyk for jacking up Kevin Love's shoulder as Spackler's Kings were poised to make a deep playoff run. But he decided to forgive (but never forget) and see what Olynyk could offer the Raptors. And so far, he's been pretty damn good. So this week, he gets the start at PF. And in his first game as a starter last night, he poured in 20 points and 9 rebounds, on 8 of 15 shooting, including going 3 of 5 from three. Keep it up, Kelly, and you just may make us forget about the Love incident.

Brandon Rush - Picking up Rush was a move borne of necessity and a bit of opportunity. The Raptors were in desperate need of a SG after moving E'Twaun Moore and Joe Johnson. Then, in the NBA, Zach LaVine went down with an ACL and reports were that Brandon Rush was going to step into the starter role. So, perhaps he'll see a 2k bump, though his play in the NBA thus far hasn't yet seemed impressive enough to suggest he might be on the rise. But it's been a small sample size and Rush is still getting comfortable. So who knows, maybe there's some magic that's about to happen.

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