Know Your Raptors: Hansbrough wins shot put

Tyler Hansbrough was named National Player of the Year in 2008 and remains the ACC's all-time leading scorer. (Photo: Ron Turenne/Getty)

Who would win a Raptors-only track-and-field day? How good is Amir Johnson’s Celine Dion impression? When was the last time Dwane Casey cried at the movies? Every day until the season starts, we throw a Raptor in front of a green screen and ask him the tough questions. Today, Tyler Hansbrough crushes a BLT, slips on his Jordans and takes gold in the shot put.

Know Your Raptors: Lou Williams | Kyle Lowry | Bruno Caboclo | Chuck Hayes | Jonas Valanciunas | Amir Johnson | Tyler Hansbrough | Landry Fields | Terrence Ross | James Johnson | Patrick Patterson | Lucas Nogueira | DeMar DeRozan | Greivis Vasquez | Dwane Casey

DeMarcus Cousins, Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard, Kevin Love, Kevin Durant, Nene, Brook Lopez, LeBron James, Tyler Hansbrough and James Harden.

When thinking of Hansbrough, those other names may not be the first associations that come to mind. But compile yourself a list of the NBA’s top 10 players in fouls drawn per 48 minutes and you’ll find the Raptors reserve big in some pretty elite company.

Hansbrough likely won’t see much more court than the 15.3 minutes per game Dwane Casey dished out last season, and his offensive production shouldn’t be expected to climb much above last year’s 4.9 points per (though he did put in work to extend his range in the off-season). But when it comes to mixing it up under the basket and getting under opponents’ skin, few players in the NBA are better.

2013–14 Stats: 4.9 Pts/G, 4.5 Reb/G, 0.3 Ast/G, 0.3 Blk/G, 47.4 FG%, 15.3 Min/G

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.