With 8:02 to play in the third quarter on Tuesday, Anthony Bennett heard his name called.
It was the first time Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey had tapped his shoulder in over a week, and the first time he had done so outside of garbage time since Nov. 10. Here was Bennett, 48 minutes to his name on the season so far, checking in for his first meaningful run in over a month, tasked with guarding Dirk Nowitzki, the 37-year-old Dallas Mavericks star with the unblockable jump shot. That’s a nigh impossible task for even the most ready player, and Bennett hadn’t guarded an opposing starter in weeks.
But Bennett wasn’t as rusty as his five minutes in a 38-day stretch may have suggested. On Sunday, Bennett requested to become the first ever No. 1 pick to be assigned to the D-League. The assignment allowed him to play 24 minutes of live action, rediscover a feel for the speed of the game, and ensure the work he’s been putting in during practices could carry over when opponents were actually trying to stop him. The results of the assignment hardly matter in this case, though Bennett struggled to a 5-of-16 shooting night with Raptors 905.
What’s important is that he was able to play, and when Casey was forced into using him – Patrick Patterson had left the game with an illness and James Johnson turned his ankle in warmups, leaving the Raptors with just nine healthy bodies – Bennett seemed comfortable. He quickly missed a three and watched Nowitzki make one, but then helped contest a Nowitzki mid-range miss and, later, canned a corner three to the delight of the crowd. He’d finish with five points on 2-of-5 shooting in 10 minutes, grabbing two rebounds and playing to a minus-12 as the Mavericks made a run against some funky Raptors five-somes. Nowitzki scored nine points in five minutes opposite Bennett, but the Canadian did well to make Nowitzki’s barrage of triples shots of the high-difficulty type.
“I think Dirk thought he had something good to eat but AB, I thought he held his own and hit a couple shots and did his job,” Casey said after the game.
All told, Bennett played as well as Casey could have hoped for someone used so sparingly, thrown to the wolves opposite one of the greatest of all time (Nowitzki will pass Shaquille O’Neal for sixth on the NBA’s career scoring list with 10 points on Wednesday). Were it not for the availability of the D-League and the quick conditioning stint that allowed Bennett to shake any rust off two days earlier, there’s no telling what his outing would have looked like.
“Going out there and playing with all those guys, trying to get back to what I’ve been doing, it helped out a lot,” Bennett said. “I just feel like I wasn’t really getting enough cardio over here. I’m learning a lot, that’s definitely great, but at the same time I just want to play. Having the 905 team in the backyard is a great opportunity.”
Bennett’s willingness to be assigned says a lot about not only his desire to get better but also the shrinking stigma of a D-League assignment. Had a No. 1 pick, even Bennett, been assigned in recent years, it could have looked like an admission of the player not being as good or as ready as hoped. On his third team and second contract, Bennett doesn’t have to worry about such things, but he’d still likely be among a small group of players asking for the chance. Teammate Cory Joseph did the same thing in San Antonio, and Canadian national team frontcourt-mate Dwight Powell spoke highly to Bennett of his time in the D-League.
With so many voices in and outside of the organization expressing the benefits, none of the team’s five potential assignees should worry about any ignominy over a trip down. Not when five players from the main roster are showing up to root them on after a late-night flight from Miami, and not when Bennett and Delon Wright, and Lucas Nogueira before them, are turning short D-League stints into NBA-readiness when injuries strike.
“I think the great thing is, the Raptors did it this year, is buy the D-League franchise,” Nogueira told Raptors Republic after the game (once we filled him in on how Bruno Caboclo, Norman Powell, and the 905 did Tuesday). “It gives us a chance to develop our game there, develop our conditioning. This makes you feel ready when the coach calls your name here. That happened to Delon and AB tonight. Probably if they don’t have that playing time, it’s going to be hard to show something here because it’s important to have 5-on-5 with contact, playing defense and playing offense. I think the D-League experience is very important for everybody.”
Nogueira has changed his tune some after being less than thrilled with getting assigned earlier in the season, and Wright initially had trepidations about it, too.
“Definitely. I wouldn’t say I wasn’t happy but I was a little sketchy about going down there,” Wright told RR before Tuesday’s game. “Now that I’ve actually got to go, now I’m happy that they sent me there to get some run.”
Wright played seven minutes Tuesday, as well, nearly doubling his NBA workload for the season to date. He grabbed a rebound, dished a nice pass to Bismack Biyombo for a dunk, expertly split a double-team only to miss the resultant layup, and generally looked the part of a capable reserve guard. Wright’s spent most of the last few weeks with Raptors 905, averaging 16.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 7.3 assists, and 1.6 steals while shooting 53.8 percent from the floor and expanding his use of the 3-point shot. Like with Bennett, there was a comfort level that may not have existed without court time in Mississauga.
“If I was to get into a game earlier in the year before I went to the D-League, I probably would have been a little nervous,” Wright said. “Now that I got some time to play an actual game, I think my confidence is up a little bit more.”
None of this is to say that Bennett, Wright, or even Nogueira are now bonafide rotation pieces that Casey can rely on. All three were steady, if unspectacular Tuesday, and that’s all Casey needs when he has to go that deep on his bench. Ironically, their performances reinforce the value of the D-League, which may actually serve to keep them down there even more in the weeks to come, at least once the team returns to health.
The Raptors can assign up to three players at a time and shuttle them back and forth as much as they desire. The plan appears to be to have one player on assignment alongside Caboclo, with a third getting the up-and-down as the schedule allows The NBA team needs bodies, and there remains value in young players being around the NBA team, even if they’re not playing. “I learn a lot from them, defensively and offensively, how they run a team,” Wright says of shadowing Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. At the same time, players need reps.
“There’s a rhythm to this game and you need to be able to feel it, experience it, and go through it. The only way you can do that is in-game,” 905 head coach Jesse Mermuys said when Nogueira was first recalled. “This thing works.”
When the Raptors installed the 905 this offseason, much of the focus went toward the long-term impact, particularly on a player not close to NBA production in Caboclo. But the banged-up Raptors, who have managed their assignments expertly through two months, are showing just how important the short-term benefits can be, too.
“Those guys did an excellent job coming in,” Casey said. “That’s why you have the D-League.”
