The AltRaps Blog

“This is my last season under contract and if I don’t do things well, next year I won’t clinch a good contract and will have to return to Europe”

So said Carlos Delfino, in an interview with Argentina newspaper Ole, at the beginning of October, three weeks before the Raptors season opened. Guess what Carlos, you’re staying in the NBA.

It’s been quite a trip for Carlos. As a young basketball mad fan in Argentina, he dreamed of someday making his father proud. Carlos senior was a celebrated player and coach in his own right. One of his proudest moments was when the father and his 15 year old son combined to lead the venerable “El Club Atlético Unión” (Union Athletic Club, started in 1907 by fourteen teenaged boys) to its first victory in 15 years, in 1997.

(Okay, I need someone to check this out for me. I think I am stretching the Babel Fish translation machine beyond it’s capability, but this made such a neat story, I had to include it, even if it turns out to be true. Can I get a Spanish speaker to tell me what it REALLY says at http://www.union-basket.com.ar/Historia.htm ? Two references to Carlos Delfino on the page).

Just one year later he was playing professionally in Argentina. By 2000 he had moved to Europe, and played four seasons for two different teams in the Italian league. In 2003, while playing for Skipper Bologna, he was selected at the 25 spot, by the Detroit Pistons, the first Argentinean to be drafted in the first round.

In 2004, after recovering from separate knee surgeries in both the US and Argentina, and rehabbing for 3 months, he was in Detroit, being stifled under Larry Brown’s system. He averaged 15 minutes a game for 30 games, putting up 4 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist. He was offensively limited in what he was allowed to do, and struggled somewhat, working his way back from injury and also working his way into the NBA games. The Pistons left him off the playoff roster.

The next year he was getting even less minutes, behind Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton. He continued to get almost exactly the same stats in only 10 minutes a game, but was starting to make a name for himself with his defensive abilities, being used by Flip Saunders to keep players like Darius Miles, Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, and Dwyane Wade in check.

Despite his disappointing NBA career to the end of the 2006/2007 season, he was buoyed by his membership on Argentina’s gold medal-winning 2004 Olympic basketball team. After being traded to the Raptors in the early summer of 2007, Carlos was a member of his national team again in the FIBA Americas Tournament and helped Argentina secure another Olympic berth. In a similar way that the World Championships seemed to energize Jose Calderon, and Jorge Garbajosa, Delfino’s play after representing Argentina at the FIBA Tournament seemed to move to a new level.

After a slow start this season, Carlos has emerged as one of the rocks Sam depends on to help anchor the good ship “Raptor” whenever stormy seas are around. Where last season Anthony Parker was drawing many of the toughest defensive assignments, this season it is as likely to be Delfino fighting through screens to stay in front of Toronto’s opponents best scorers. Second in steals on the team, third in rebounding, fourth in assists, fifth in scoring while sixth in minutes, Carlos is much more than a role player. Sam Mitchell is counting on Carlos, more and more, to be a tempo changer. He has started using him when he needs to turn the team around, stop a slide, get some stops, or make some fast baskets. Partially as a result of his work when Bosh, Bargnani and Ford were out of the line-up, Carlos has seen his minutes climb, despite these players being back (well, Ford is out again now, but you get my drift). Sneaky, skilled, fundamentally sound and (okay Leo, here it comes) tough, Carlos has quickly become one of my favourite players to watch on the floor. Everything he does is sooo smoothly done, it’s hard to tell when he is really trying hard. But every once in a while, you see the grin or the moderated fist pump. Truth is, I think this guy is trying hard all the time, he’s just so good, it doesn’t look like it.

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