The Toronto Raptors continued to fill the glaring hole in their front court, signing free-agent center Menk Bateer on Thursday.

The six-foot-11, 290-pound Menk, the second Chinese player to join the NBA, played just 39 games over two seasons in Denver and San Antonio.

He averaged less than one point and one rebound in 12 games with the Spurs last season, but the Raptors are banking on his potential, and his experience with China's national team.

"Bateer is an established international player who hasn't had an opportunity to prove himself at the NBA level," Raptors GM Glen Grunwald said. "We feel he can provide our team with needed size and strength in the middle."

Menk, the second Chinese player to join the NBA after Wang Zhizhi, joined the Chinese national team in 1993, when he was just 18. He was China's starting centre at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.

Menk, from Mongolia, reportedly signed a two-year deal and is expected to make about $650,000 US next season.

Menk's signing comes a day after the Raptors signed forward-centre Jerome Moiso. Add in Chris Bosh, the No. 4 pick in the NBA draft last month, and the trio of big men adds instant size to a team sorely lacking a forceful front court last season.

"I think we've added some good depth and good size, and length in particular," said Grunwald. "Moiso and Bosh are both long players, and so I think we'll be able to compete a little bit better with this roster."

The six-foot-10 Moiso, a member of the French national team, played sparingly for the New Orleans Hornets the past two seasons, averaging 4.0 points and 3.5 rebounds in 12.6 minutes per game last year, and just 5.1 minutes per game the previous season.

"Up and down situations, a trade, wondering what was going on, not knowing at first how to act or react to it," Moiso said of his young but tumultuous NBA career. "I just came out of that slump last year, but still, you could still see that I wasn't being used in a consistent way, so I think it's a lot of things."

Moiso signed a two-year deal at a starting salary expected to be around $1 million US. The Raptors also signed point guard Milt Palacio to a two-year deal on Wednesday, filling another glaring hole in the roster - a guard to spell off workhorse Alvin Williams and aging Lindsey Hunter.

Grunwald said Moiso is another player loaded with potential.

"Jerome Moiso is a big guy, he's got some good experience now in the NBA," said Grunwald. "Hasn't had a great opportunity to play, but he's an excellent athlete, he's got some good skills and we're hopeful that given the chance to play, that he'll blossom into a good player for us."

The Raptors don't expect to have centre Eric Montross back soon - at least in the early part of the upcoming season. Montross missed all of last season with a broken bone in his foot.

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