OTTAWA -- Raptors training camp began yesterday, as expected, with Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu watching from the sidelines.
Bosh, who is nursing a strained hamstring, likely will not see any action this week.
Turkoglu, fatigued after a long playoff run and a long summer of commitments to the Turkish national team, is also being shut down for the early part of the week.
In addition to the fatigue, Turkoglu is dealing with a knee problem that needs some time according to head coach Jay Triano.
"It's his fatigue level right now," Triano said. "He's just going to work with (the training staff) and rehab his knee and get to the point where he can perform at 100%. The past four months he has played going back to June has been some pretty intense basketball so we are just going to ease him back in and make sure we don't wear him down."
Unlike Bosh, Turkoglu may be cleared to play before the team leaves Ottawa on Saturday.
"I don't know if I would say it will be the whole week, but I will say for the first part of the week he definitely won't be practising with us," Triano said.
Watch, don't text
A new policy during Raptors workouts and practises forbids the use of cell phones and Blackberry's by those in attendance. Apparently, the rule applies to all media and team personnel, including general manager Bryan Colangelo, whose blackberry, some believe, is surgically attached to his hand.
Colangelo admits he has been offered a little more leeway than most.
"I can check for messages and sneak a quick peek but if I have to reply to anything, I'm just like everyone else. I have to get (out of the gym)," he said.
Quote/unquote
"By the end of that first day, he was like a punch drunk prize fighter," Colangelo describes Andrea Bargnani, who had Reggie Evans all over him during workouts last week. To his credit, Bargnani came back the next day and held his own with Evans.
