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It seems that almost since the day Raptors President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo selected Italian big man Andrea Bargnani with the first overall pick in 2006, Bargnani has been a polarizing figure on the Toronto sports scene.  At least he has been in the media and on the internet.  

Bargnani is not the traditional big man most people imagine playing at the center position.  He arrived in the NBA with nickname "Il Mago" - the magician - because of his ability to score the ball in a variety of ways.  The traditional view of the seven-footer in basketball as someone who gobbles up more rebounds than baskets has never been Bargnani’s game.

"I am a scorer, that’s what I do," said Bargnani.  "My first nature is to score the ball no matter what.  That’s my job, score the ball.

"I am going to keep playing, playing my game.  I am not going to give up shots, I am just going to keep going."

Coming off a month where the Raptors won just two games in 17 tries and Bargnani shot an uncharacteristically low 40.9% from the field and 27.9% from three-point range, the negative comments about Bargnani’s game undoubtedly felt a little sharper than usual and at least some of his teammates were prepared to admit they noticed.

The Raptors passionate big man Reggie Evans recently let the world know his feelings (spelling issues aside) about Bargnani’s place on the team using his twitter account @ReggieEvans30.

"If people do not have nothing good to say about @AdrianoBargnani can kiss your the sun do not shine cause he our best player."

Evans did send out two tweets about what people are saying about Bargnani and this second one was the more colorful, but even this sounds like Evans was holding back.  Because of his passion, Evans is an easy player to like.

Amir Johnson also has Bargnani’s back on the importance of the Raptors starting center.

"On the court people have different jobs," said Johnson.  "Some people rebound, some people can pass, and some people can score.  Andrea is our franchise player, his job is to score.  My job is to get rebounds and pass them out and if I have an open shot I might take it.  We all work together as a team.

"He is our man.  His job on the floor is to score, that’s what we need him to do."

This season Bargnani’s role on the Raptors changed.  The team’s All-Star and leading scorer Chris Bosh took his talents to South Beach and Bargnani was left with the task of learning to become a go-to guy on a team with limited obvious scoring options.

"He was going to be a much more important point of reference for the team in terms of both personality and numbers," said Raptors Senior Vice-President, Basketball Operations Maurizio Gherardini.  "That was something we all shared and he was the first one to realize that he was in a position to be able to deliver."

Bargnani has delivered as a scoring option for the Raptors by averaging better than 20 points per game this season, putting up 28 points or more 10 times, and a career-high 41 against the Knicks in December.

"That was our dream and he is delivering that," said Gherardini.  "We can’t complain about him providing 21, 22 points a night."

However the Raptors plan for developing Bargnani and his young teammates has not gone as the team expected.

"Unfortunately, you have to be careful reading seasons and numbers," said Gherardini.  "Our season has been not only a season of transition because of the things that happened during the summer but has become a season of transition because of what happened after the season started.  

"Especially with a young team, losing basically all of our veteran players for one reason or another doesn’t really help the growth of the team or the maturing of the players during the season.  Sometimes different factors all kick in at the same time and I think that it’s just a matter with young players that the support is there, people have patience and they understand what’s wrong."

The multiple and overlapping injury situations on the Raptors has put the team and Head Coach Jay Triano in a situation where it has become difficult to evaluate progress based on wins and losses.  Throughout January the Raptors have been forced to go deep into their bench and play D-League call ups significant minutes as their guards and wings Jose Calderon, Jerryd Bayless, Leandro Barbosa, Linas Kleiza, and Sonny Weems all missed important stretches of games.  Kleiza is finished for the season after undergoing microfracture surgery and probably won’t be ready for opening night 2011.

"We have had to make adjustments since day one because of one injury or another," said Gherardini.  "There is no game that is the same (lineup) as another.  That’s not easy particularly when you hit the down part of a season as you are missing too many pieces for a team like ours."

Those injury problems have negatively affected both individual and team performances as players have felt obligated to play even when it looked like they should be on the bench.  There just wasn’t anyone else to put in the games.  Amir Johnson has played with a sore back, Barbosa has played through a sore shoulder and a wrist injury that will likely require offseason surgery, Jerryd Bayless started one game on a sprained ankle that was painful for the people watching as he hobbled up and down the court, and Jose Calderon has been playing on a sore feet for weeks now.

"Sometimes it is being forced to play certain players out of position or too many minutes so they are not given the time to recover," said Gherardini.  "With Andrea maybe there have been times that we took him by the neck and forced him probably more than he actually (should) when he needed to rest.

"The quality of his season changed when he had those physical issues and he tried to play with them and they got worse.  That somehow got him out of sync."

Gherardini is reluctant to make excuses for the Raptors performance this season, but it is obvious the unexpected breadth of this season’s injury issues have been taking their toll across the organization.

{AUTHOR_BOX}Perhaps Bargnani’s critics can take some comfort from the fact Gherardini also recognizes the importance of Bargnani being more than just a scorer and there are other things his young center can and must bring to the game.

"He has to deliver more of the other numbers," said Gherardini.  "You have the feeling about his potential and sometimes the delivery in those departments is not what you are expecting because he could be at least an average rebounder and he could be a good shot blocker because he has timing and long arms and he can really bother people so those are the areas he should be more consistent."

Bargnani is averaging just 5.6 rebounds and 0.9 blocks, both down from last season, however the team knows why he has not progressed as far as expected in those other areas this season and the reason is obvious.

"He is a finesse player who needs physicality close to him," said Gherardini.  "Losing Reggie who was the second-best rebounder in the league at that point was a key loss for us. It is never wise to find excuses because everybody has their own but our team is a young team with a lot of things that were put in place to develop in a certain way and losing key players for long periods of time has been critical.

"(Then) we lost another tough guy.  We do not have the luxury to put another guy on the perimeter who is as tough as Kleiza.  He is not afraid to bang with anybody, not just outside players.  Plus he was just coming off probably the greatest summer of his career with his national team.  Losing him for so long is frustrating.

"Bargnani is a certain kind of player.  He has been here almost five years.  He has shown what his qualities are.  I think everyone understands that he needs a certain kind of physicality nearby and don’t think that we haven’t tried to acquire that physicality.  Sometimes it is just not easy.  We see what we need but that doesn’t translate necessarily into a chance to get it and you start the season making plans trying to acquire players but at the end of the day, you have to work with what you have."

Things have not gone as planned for the Raptors this season, but don’t blame Bargnani.

"He makes a big difference," said DeMar DeRozan.  "Teams focus in on him mainly and that opens up a lot of stuff for us and we definitely take advantage of it.

"(He is) one of the top scoring bigs in the league.  He can take you outside on the wing or he can post you up and its tough playing against someone who is 7′ 1" who can shoot the ball and post up.

"The coach stresses that everybody needs to rebound, not just the bigs.  We have to come back and help the bigs rebound as well."  

If it wasn’t for all the injuries to the Raptors handful of veterans this season, maybe the focus would be more on what Bargnani has brought to the team instead of what he has struggled with.