The most surprising player from each NBA team this season

Toronto Raptors: Lucas ‘Bebe’ Nogueira

The Toronto Raptors had the best season in franchise history last season and are seeking to build on that this season. They retained nearly the same roster from last year into this year, save for the departure of reserve center Bismack Biyombo. Biyombo had broken out in the previous year’s playoffs and complemented starter Jonas Valanciunas well throughout the year. Toronto drafted center Jakob Poeltl high in the draft; a possible sign that they didn’t expect much from their other reserve bigs.

Bebe Nogueira, also nicknamed “Long Weeknd”, was the 16th overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks. The Brazilian’s rights were traded by the Hawks over a year later as an afterthought in a move to drop Lou Williams’ salary. Toronto chose to bring Nogueira over for the 2014 season to develop the 7-footer on their own. He played in just 35 games for the Raptors over his first two seasons.

Little was expected of Nogueira this season. He had tools to become a good defensive center but was a relative unknown. He earned the backup center role in camp and has impressed thus far this season. His defensive game has been as good as advertised and he’s exceeded expectations on the offensive end. Nogueira has made 68.5 percent of his field goals and showed a good finishing ability in the pick-and-roll game. Nogueira has answered one of the Raptors team question marks emphatically this season.