Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Bruno Caboclo
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Caboclo was among the Grizzlies who took advantage of the opportunities afforded to younger players in a losing season, posting career-high averages in points (8.3), rebounds (4.6), assists (1.5), threes (1.4), blocks (1.0), steals (0.4) and minutes (23.5) through 34 appearances, including 19 starts. He also finished with career-best field goal (42.7) and free throw (84.0) percentages. With Memphis still rebuilding, Caboclo could crack the regular rotation along the wing. But it may prove difficult for him to earn as many minutes as he did during the latter half of last season, as there's no longer a dearth of options along the wing thanks to the presence of Kyle Anderson, the return of Dillon Brooks (toe) from injury, and the offseason additions of Jae Crowder, Josh Jackson, De'Anthony Melton and Grayson Allen.
Caboclo will be entering his fourth full season in Toronto and the Raptors are still hoping the 6-foot-9 big man will develop into a reliable bench piece. However, the fact that he's played in just 23 games throughout his entire three-year career, including just nine during the 2016-17 campaign, doesn't provide much optimism. During those nine games, Caboclo averaged a meager 1.6 points and 1.1 rebounds across 4.4 minutes. While the Raptors lost P.J. Tucker in free agency and traded away DeMarre Carroll, they did bring in C.J. Miles as a replacement, so Caboclo will be no higher than third in the pecking order at small forward. Both Miles and Norman Powell are slated to be ahead of him right away, while rookie OG Anunoby is also a candidate to pass him up once he's over a lingering knee injury. Caboclo should be off the Fantasy radar for the upcoming campaign.
The Raptors drafted Caboclo in the first round of the 2014 NBA Draft knowing that he was a long-term project, but they may not have anticipated that his development would proceed this slowly. In his two seasons with the Raptors, Caboclo has appeared in just 14 games, instead spending the bulk of both campaigns in the D-League. Even against low-level competition, the 21-year-old struggled mightily with Raptors 905 last season, averaging 14.7 points (on 40.3% shooting), 6.5 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.7 assists in 33.9 minutes per game. The 6-foot-9 swingman remains an athletic marvel, but he has yet to turn into a reliable shooter from the field or the three-point line. He remains on a guaranteed contract for the 2016-17 season, but Caboclo might need to provide real evidence that he's an NBA-caliber player if the Raptors are to exercise his fourth-year option.
One year after Raptors GM Masai Ujiri caused jaws to drop all over the basketball world when he made Caboclo a first-round pick, the jury is still very much out on whether Ujiri's gamble will pay off. There's no doubting Caboclo's physical gifts, and the Brazilian (who turns 20 in September) has already added 20 pounds of muscle to his six-foot-nine frame since the end of last season, but his basketball skills still lag behind his raw talent. He played in eight NBA games as a rookie last season, averaging three garbage time minutes a night, and in seven games in the D-League, he averaged just nine minutes, 3.4 points, 1.9 rebounds, 0.1 steals, 0.7 blocks and 0.6 three-pointers. That lack of court time with Ft. Wayne, in fact, was probably the biggest motivating factor behind the organization adding their own D-League franchise in Mississauga (a Toronto suburb) this year, as Caboclo figures to get plenty of run with the minor league squad in 2015-16 instead of sitting on an NBA bench. If he develops as the Raptors hope with extensive D-League minutes, a spot in the team's wing rotation next season seems likely.
Raptors' general manager Masai Ujiri shocked the basketball world when he made an unknown Brazilian teenager the 20th-overall pick in this year's draft, but one look at Caboclo's highlight videos on Youtube makes it obvious what Ujiri sees in the kid. Standing a skinny 6-9 with a monster 7-7 wingspan, Caboclo's athleticism and measurables are almost off the charts, and his ability to make opponents back home look foolish has already earned him the ridiculously premature nickname "the Brazilian Kevin Durant". Much as the Bucks did last season with the similarly gifted Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Raps will bring Caboclo to the NBA right away to monitor his development first hand, but the 18-year-old Brazilian is even rawer than the Greek Freak was last season, and it will likely be some time before he's able to make an impact in the pros. If everything falls into place for Caboclo though, he could eventually be a dominating presence at both ends of the court. He's a lottery ticket, but if he hits, Caboclo will be the talent equivalent of a nine-digit Powerball jackpot.