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Early in the second quarter of the men's quarter-final basketball game between Spain and Croatia on Wednesday, a scene played out that is sure to be duplicated this coming NBA season on the Toronto Raptors' practice court.

There was Toronto's starting point guard, Jose Calderon of Spain, at the top of the key. Playing defence against him was Roko Ukic of Croatia, the Raptors' new backup point guard, set to join the team from the European professional ranks next month.

Calderon dribbled left, pulled up and sank a three-point shot over Ukic, one of several easy baskets for the world champions, who dispatched Croatia 72-59 to move into a semi-final game against Lithuania on Thursday. The United States will play Argentina in the other semi.

Call it Ukic's first in-house lesson. It came from a teacher with whom he has a history.

Welcome to the Raptors, rook.

"I've played against Jose many times," said Ukic, who was Calderon's backup at Tau Ceramica in Spain's professional league in 2005. "He's a great player and I hope he helps me a lot in the transition to the NBA."

Now that Croatia has been eliminated from the Olympics, Ukic's next game of consequence will come on Oct. 29, when the Raptors open their season against the Philadelphia 76ers. The 6-foot-5 guard agreed to a three-year contract with Canada's only NBA team in June and is expected to fill some of the minutes created when T.J. Ford was traded to Indiana this summer.

"For me, that would be perfect [filling Calderon's old role]," Ukic said. "I'll be a rookie and I'll take some time to adapt to the new game and a new team. For the first time last year, I had a pretty good season, and the Raptors, for the first time, they particularly wanted me. It wasn't just talk, it was really action.

"So I decided it was good for me because I had an opportunity to play, and not just be part of the team. I'm 23 years old. I don't have time to wait any more."

With Ford and Calderon, the Raptors were generally regarded as having the best 1-2 point-guard combination in the league. Without Ford, their regular starter over the past several seasons, the Raptors have Calderon, who is likely to play many minutes, and Ukic, an unknown commodity.

The team has also signed former Vancouver Grizzlies guard Will Solomon, who played in Turkey last season, to compete with Ukic for the No. 2 role.

"We need [Ukic] to play this year, and I think that's what made it enticing for him to come," said Raptors assistant coach Jay Triano, who is in Beijing as the CBC's basketball analyst. "You look back at Jose's first year and it wasn't anything really exciting. But he learned the league, and that's the most important for [Ukic]: learn the NBA."

Both Triano and Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo, who is also in Beijing, said Ukic had a good, but not great, Olympic tournament. He struggled with his shot and began passing up shots after his confidence waned.

Ukic played last season for the Italian club Lottomatica Roma. When the Raptors played Roma in an exhibition game, Ukic did not look overwhelmed against Ford and Calderon. The Raptors drafted him with a second-round pick in 2005, before Colangelo took the club's reins.

But Colangelo said that Phoenix Suns scouts were also impressed with the native of Split, and that he had been trying to sign him since joining the Raptors in February of 2006.

"I've had several unsolicited, favourable reports from people here who have been watching the whole tournament," Colangelo said. "If there is one weakness, it's his shot, but I don't think it is broken."