Question: Can Juan Toscano-Anderson play backup wing next season?
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Question: Can Juan Toscano-Anderson play backup wing next season?
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Current Depth Chart
PG. Stephen Curry / Jordan Poole / Ky Bowman
SG. Klay Thompson / Damion Lee / Mychal Mulder
PF. Draymond Green / Eric Paschall / Kevon Looney
C. Marquese Chriss / / Alen Smailagić / Dragan Bender
This is an approximate guess by me. Your depth chart might look different.
Plenty of players could flex into the backup SF spot, so I am imagining JTA might be the third SF.
Juan Toscano-Anderson
JTA is the only Mexican player in the NBA and he has a huge following in Mexico.
He is a huge hustle and energy guy. He looks like he’s playing twice as hard as everyone else on the court. He was a long shot to even make the team, but he impressed in preseason, then got called up, then hustled (in a wholesome way) his way into a team role. Initially, we expected he would be a defense-only guy, a kind of mini-Andre Roberson, but Kerr had him slowly expanding his role. JTA even poured in 16 points late in the (cut) season.
ESPN RPM has him at Offensive RPM of -1.37 and Defensive RPM of +0.29 (#28 out of 99 SFs), making him overall #57 out of 99. Middle of a large pack is not bad for a walk-on.
Cleaning The Glass stats say: JTA was not at all scoring, but he was above-average at assisting. He was excellent at blocks, steals and rebounds, though he fouled too often.
Basketball-Reference advanced stats say JTA was really negative at offense but a slight positive on defense.
So what do we think of JTA’s future with the Warriors?
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Question: Can Juan Toscano-Anderson play backup wing next season?
Been on the JTA fan-wagon for a while now. Love his hustle, grit, length and rebounding. Contract/financials and his D alone should keep him on the team, IMO. Any offense is a bonus.
Toscano played like a canny older veteran player by comparison with all the young guys on the squad: stable, smart plays, good assists, not trying to do more than he's capable of while taking the shots he was given.
Clearly he's not a starting caliber player, but I think he's the kind of player who you can be happy to have on the bench: someone you can count on to come in if there's an injury or when someone needs a breather, and play a role. I'm betting his offensive game gets a lot better alongside Steph in particular.
The only concern is fouls. If he fouls out, that negates a lot of his value, plus you can't count on him in desperate crunch time situations (i.e. if someone that would normally be there in crunch time has been ejected or injured) because you really don't want to give up extra fouls when the opponent is in the bonus.
I'm sure there are other guys out there who fill a similar role at similar bargain prices: in the past couple years we've had McKinnie, Casspi, etc. But I like Toscano-Anderson's effort, and I don't think he's an automatic cut when they have a whole off-season to find replacements. Sure, he got his chance under unusual circumstances this season, which were: "quick, we need players to fill out the roster NOW because we just dumped all our salary!" But of all the randos filling minutes for the Dubs towards the end of this abbreviated season, Juan was one where I felt a little more reassured when he was on the court. And that should count for something.