The first ever home game of Raptors 905 played out much the same as their first exhibition game and their first two regular season games, and probably much like most of their games this season will: They lost, in this case 109-104 to the Maine Red Claws, but it was a lot of fun and there were plenty of positives to draw on.
The 905 played hard, employed an exciting brand of basketball, and were ultimately found wanting in terms of overall talent, cohesion, and readiness. This is an expansion franchise born into existence on somewhat short notice. Their roster is patched together from the expansion draft, the actual draft (their first-round pick has already been cut), Raptors affiliate players, training camp invites who impressed at open tryouts, and, of course, Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Nogueira on assignment from the Toronto Raptors. Training camp was less than two weeks long and included a lone exhibition game against a D-League opponent, and it operated without the ability to integrate Ronald Roberts and the two assignees.
If any team were built to struggle, it’s this young, raw, unacquainted Raptors 905 squad.
That was on display Thursday, but some poor late-game execution and a lack of ball control couldn’t detract from what was a really entertaining night. The Hershey Centre was a little slow to fill but by the time Caboclo was announced with the starters, it was clear that the crowd was ready to welcome the 905 to Mississauga properly. With an announced attendance of 6,007, the Hershey Centre quickly acquired an intimate intensity, the acoustics of the smaller facility helping the 905 (and 416, as a dueling chant in the crowd would remind) faithful impact the game like a much bigger crowd. The smile on Caboclo’s face was infectious, Nogueira’s personal cheering section (fans he met at a Toronto FC game who wanted to show him love) set the tone, and a frenetic fourth quarter left the impression that 905 games are going to be well worth the trip to Hurontario and the 401.
That crowd helped lift the 905 early, as the home side opened up an 18-9 lead a little over six minutes in. Caboclo hit a corner three, Nogueira showed of his value as a help defender at the rim, and Scott Suggs worked quickly to back me up that he may become everyone’s favorite 905er by year’s end. If that’s not Axel Toupane, who made his season debut and grabbed six first-quarter rebounds en route to a 17-10-4 line.
The Red Claws closed the lead to four by the end of the first quarter, and after the 905’s bench unit held serve in the second, they took a six-point lead into half-time. Half-time included dog races, and if they promise to have puppy-related half-time shows every game, I’ll commit to going to all of them right now. Sim Bhullar saw most of his action in the first half, scoring eight points and blocking a pair of shots in 9:30 (he’d finish with those same totals and three rebounds in 14:12), and he kept the crowd hot with some alley-oop finishes. He’s not the most mobile, but his immense size makes him a deterrent against drives and a laughably easy target as a dive man in the pick-and-roll.
It wasn’t just Bhullar the 905 found easily – the team had 15 first-half assists on 22 field goals and 25 on 40 for the game, with Nogueira providing nine of them in a near-triple-double performance (13 points, nine rebounds, nine assists, and four blocks). Nogueira was probably the biggest story at the individual level, reinforcing the encouraging progress he showed at summer league. He’s a great passer as far as big men go, especially on a high-low feed, and he can step out almost as far as the 3-point line. Those things make him a dangerous screener, because he can pop, dive, or facilitate a give-and-go, something the team used several times Thursday. He wasn’t at his best defensively despite his length making him a natural weak-side rim-protector, as his pick-and-roll coverages were a bit sloppy and his switches a little hesitant. Still, this was a statement performance from a player who openly doesn’t want to be in the D-League but is embracing his role there nonetheless.
“I don’t have to prove anything for anybody,” Nogueira said after the game. “Of course it’s a great opportunity to show scouts, GMs, the coach that I can play, pass, rebound, whatever. But it’s not enough if the team doesn’t have the win. The reason I’m here is to help Coach Jess, to have success in the D-League, and have a chance in the NBA, and help my teammates have a better contract in the future. I’m not here to be selfish and try to triple-double, double-double if we don’t win the game. Because when we win, everybody has a chance to have a better future.”
The balance between individual performance, player development, and winning games is going to be a common theme with the 905, and really, any D-League team. Murmuys would prefer to win than to lose, but he also has to be willing to let young players take their lumps and play through their mistakes. Nogueira wants to lift his teammates, and there was a great sequence in the second quarter where Caboclo was bullied on the block and Nogueira came over to erase the resultant field-goal attempt that stands not only as a nice opening clip for their eventual buddy cop movie but also as an explanation of where the two Raptors are at on their development curves.
Caboclo is going to be the focus of most fans most nights and Murmuys is going to give him the latitude to learn. To a person, everyone in the organization keeps talking about the need for Caboclo to get regular minutes, and the nice thing about the D-League is that Murmuys doesn’t have to look over his shoulder if the team’s record is poor so long as Caboclo and others are improving, and the system and the culture are strong. Some cold shooting made for a tough night for Caboclo, much as the crowd tried to will him to a better performance. He finished 4-of-12 from the floor and 1-of-7 from outside, scoring nine points with four rebounds and a pair of turnovers in 35 minutes.
He particularly struggled in the third quarter as the 905 watched a six-point lead turn into a seven-point deficit. The offense got sticky, the team couldn’t buy a three, and the primary issue the team has had in earlier games reared it’s head again: Turnovers. The 905 finished the game with 20 miscues that led to 26 Red Claws points (six and seven, respectively, came in the third), with some combination of inexperience, over-excitement, and comfort level conspiring to make this team incredibly turnover-prone so far. It’s a weakness that was entirely expected entering the year, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating in the moment.
“The guys fought to get us back and give us a chance and get us a win,” Mermuys said. “Turnovers has been a problem for us throughout the preseason, this whole time, and it got us again. We gave up 26 points off turns. The fact that we were in that game and had a chance is amazing and that’s a credit to our guys.”
And fight back they did. Taking a cue from their parent club, the 905 refused to give up, rallied on by a crowd that wouldn’t let them. The fourth-quarter deficit was quickly erased by the 905 forcing turnovers and getting out in transition. That’s the blueprint manager Dan Tolzman and Mermuys laid out for this club, and their comeback leveraged the athleticism and defensive aggression they sought out in building the roster.
Taking another cue from their parent club, the 905 couldn’t execute on offense down the stretch, even getting whistled for a five-second inbounding violation with under a minute to play. A tie with 2:29 to go unraveled, and Boston Celtics assignee Terry Rozier helped settle the Red Claws offense to pull back ahead.
“There’s just no excuse for that,” Mermuys said of the late miscues. “We’re better than that, we have better talent on the floor. I’m fully aware that we’re very young and we’re going to make mistakes, and that’s part of the process. Just obviously a little disappointed to lose this one.”
The disappointment is understandable. A victory, especially of the comeback variety, would have been a perfect wrap on a great home opener, one that had everyone with the team, the Raptors, the D-League, and even the NBA excited. The loss doesn’t change the importance of the evening, though. The 905 are here, and as much as there will be growing pains, Thursday marked the beginning of a very important new chapter for the Raptors organization and basketball in the GTA.
Notes
*The Hershey Centre needs a nickname. Kiss Court? That’s bad. Help me out.
*Ronald Roberts told me after the game that his sprained ankle is feeling better and that he expects to play next week some time. He didn’t offer me one of his Reese peanut butter cups, though.
*I’m not sure if Axel Toupane’s visa issues allow him to travel yet. We’ll find out tomorrow, I guess (the 905 play at 7 in Maine).
*Suggs and Toupane are a ton of fun up close.
*I asked Murmuys about the team’s decision to waive first-round pick Mike Anderson. He said that unlike with the NBA draft, you don’t get a ton of information on a player in the D-League draft process (the draft is only a couple of days after the deadline to declare for the player pool). When Anderson got to camp, he was struggling through what had the potential to be a nagging long-term injury. With a 12-man non-NBA roster limit and the heavy turnover the D-League is known for, waiving a player with injury concerns, especially one buried a bit on the wing depth chart, is a reasonable move, even if he was the franchise’s first ever draft pick just weeks ago.
