The Toronto Raptors have assigned Bruno Caboclo and Delon Wright to Raptors 905 of the D-League, the team announced Thursday.
Both players were recalled following the 905’s game on Sunday, and their stay with the parent club always seemed likely to be short. The Raptors are trying to maximize practice and playing time for the youngsters, and with the 905 off on Tuesday, the early part of this week made for a good opportunity for both to practice on the NBA side while allowing the coaching staff to check in on their progress. Neither was likely to play in Thursday’s game against Denver, barring a blowout, and with the Raptors likely off from practice Friday following a back-to-back, the assignments keep both practicing daily.
The 905 play Saturday at 2 p.m., and it seems likely they’ll remain with the D-League club to receive minutes rather than being recalled for the Raptors’ 5 p.m. tip-off down the highway against the Golden State Warriors.
Here’s a look at how the schedule for Caboclo and Wright (tentatively) looks this week compared to how it would look had they spent the entire time in one place:
The path the Raptors have chosen for them is maximizing not only their practice time but their playing time, too. This isn’t exactly rocket science, but it once again speaks to the benefit of having an exclusive affiliate that’s close in geographic proximity.
You can read more about the individual performance of each in the D-League here and take a closer look at the areas Wright is still working on here. I won’t rehash those things in this space, because nothing has changed in three days with the NBA team. It’s worth pointing out – probably to Wright, too, actually – that Lucas Nogueira had his best game as a pro on Wednesday. He was unhappy to be spending time in the D-League earlier this year but needed work on a few of the finer points of the team’s new defensive scheme, and the early returns at the NBA level are encouraging.
“That’s a great learning experience for him to get it out of the way now, down here in the D-League, where he won’t make that mistake hopefully up in the NBA,” head coach Jesse Murmuys said of some minor Wright mistakes last week, a similar sentiment to what he shared about Nogueira’s time there.
There’s nothing wrong with a few more days or weeks for Wright to work on the little things, especially with no path to playing time with the Raptors.
