Raptors coach Jay Triano went with his instinct and now has decided to go with Will Solomon on a more regular basis when Jose Calderon needs a breather.
Solomon is the ultimate backcourt tweener, not big enough to defend shooting guards, but neither does he possess the proper ball handling skills to run an offence as a point guard. But when the Raptors emerged to begin the fourth quarter on Monday against the host L.A. Clippers, it was Solomon and not rookie Roko Ukic who was on the floor.
Triano wanted a shooter and Solomon, who is more shooter than distributor, did drain two three-pointers as the Raptors jumped on the Clippers en route to their 97-75 win.
At least for the foreseeable future, Triano says he'll call on Solomon instead of Ukic during stretches.
"It's not that Roko was doing anything wrong," the interim head coach said prior to last night's tip in Sacramento.
"I went with Will because I thought we needed a shooter on the floor."
When he's on the court with the ball in his hands, Triano wants Solomon to be selective when triggering the offence.
"Will's a scorer and we're going to play to his strength, as we do each of our players,'' Triano said.
BIG JAKE IMPRESSES
In another indictment of Toronto's lack of bigs, recently signed veteran Jake Voskuhl suddenly looms big in Triano's rotation.
On a team that is short on rebounding presence, at least Voskuhl isn't afraid to box out opponents, put a body on someone and actually haul down the occasional rebound.
"Jake has a grittiness, a chippiness,'' Triano said. "He'll get under someone's skin. It's a dimension we didn't have."
