Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

Raptors bridge the gap between winning now and player development

The level of flexibility the Raptors have to develop from within while winning now is rivalled by only a few teams.

The Toronto Raptors are a sparkling example of what a modern NBA team should be.

The core of their roster consists of versatile players in their primes. That group includes Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, both of whom are playing the best basketball of their respective careers, as well as DeMarre Carroll, who’s been in and out of the rotation due to injury for much of the season, but looks to be a major piece of the Raptors’ core for years to come.

Rounding out the rotation is a group of relatively young players, each with the potential to develop into an above average rotation player. Jonas Valanciunas, Terrence Ross, Cory Joseph, and Patrick Patterson look to be solid players at worst, and if the last couple seasons have been any indication, each of them will continue to blossom with more reps. Valanciunas and Ross in particular have star potential, though they’re still a ways away from being anything close to marquee players.

Filling in the gaps is a duo of relatively easy-to-replace veterans, each with a skill set that addresses specific weaknesses the core might have. James Johnson provides the Raptors with a big, mobile defender for the NBA’s stronger wings, and Luis Scola gives them veteran savvy and a reliable scoring punch from just about anywhere inside of 15 feet, with a decent corner three to boot.

But what’s perhaps most interesting is the bottom of the roster. Bruno Caboclo, Bismack Biyombo, Lucas Nogueira, Delon Wright, Norman Powell, and Anthony Bennett aren’t worth much at face value. The average NBA fan outside of Toronto probably hasn’t even heard of them. It’s what those players symbolize that has many Raptors fans, myself included, salivating. They represent a new style of development that up until recently was seldom seen in professional basketball, at least in North America.

About a decade ago, I enrolled in the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP). It opened my eyes to new ways of approaching player development, and a dichotomy that was highlighted early and often was how North American organizations train players in comparison to European organizations. In North America, players are taught to value winning above all else. Coaches of elementary school teams, high school teams, and AAU teams seek the best players right now, and spend the majority of their time working on sets and skills that will maximize the current team’s ability to win games. In Europe, the focus is more on player development, with winning games being more of a bonus than an actual goal.

This can be most easily seen in the number of games clubs play. Young players in North America often play upwards of 100 games in a single year for several different squads. That’s seldom the case overseas, where more time is devoted to practice in game-like (but not actual games!) settings. This way of thinking is a major reason American big men had next to zero skills outside of dunking and rebounding until about 15 years ago. When they were young, they weren’t expected to develop; they were expected to stand under the rim and help the team win.

While big men are far more skilled today than they were a few decades ago, remnants of this philosophy can still be seen today. Look at how the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers built teams until a few years ago. Heck, look at what the Brooklyn Nets tried to do when Mikhail Prokhorov became owner. They sought to buy the best talent available by whatever means necessary, with little regard for their future or the development of the few youngsters they might have. Smarter NBA teams recognized the value in player development earlier than others, which led to the rise of teams like the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder.

Over the last several years, most NBA teams have begun to build the infrastructure necessary to truly invest in their players’ development. Daryl Morey’s Houston Rockets were the first team to secure a single-affiliate partnership with an NBA D-League team when they buddied up with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in 2009. Several teams followed suit over the next few seasons. The Raptors, though late to the process, founded Raptors 905 this season after sharing the Fort Wayne Mad Ants with 10 other teams.

Despite being one of the later teams to acquire its own D-League affiliate, the Raptors’ use of 905 has been nothing short of masterful. The aforementioned group of youngsters — Caboclo, Nogueira, Wright, Powell, and Bennett — are regularly sent to Mississauga for one-game stints before being called back for games in Toronto the following night. There’s a fluidity to how the two teams are run, too. Jesse Murmuys, originally an assistant coach under Dwane Casey, was selected as head coach of 905. As a result, the two teams employ many of the same sets and defensive principles, which only helps the youngsters become acclimated to what Casey and the Raptors do on a nightly basis. Front offices asking coaches to give run to young players at the expense of wins was a contentious topic among fans and analysts a few years ago. Now, the Raptors have the luxury of trying to win while developing their young talent at the same time.

And now with the Raptors’ new practice facility finally built, there’s a whole new set of resources available to the Raptors in regards to player development. Most media organizations focused on the Raptors’ “war room” as the highlight of the BioSteel Centre, but for me, the new tools and toys were far more interesting. If you’re interested in seeing some of them, watch a few videos of the new facility carefully. Here’s one. Here’s another. And here’s one more. The level of interconnectedness between the two squads increases exponentially assuming both the Raptors and 905 have access to the BioSteel Centre (I haven’t been able to confirm this yet).

A few days ago I re-watched the most recent episode of Open Gym. In it, James Johnson was working out with Bruno, first by playing one-on-one, and then by teaching him a few new tricks. It’s this type of environment — one that fosters learning and encourages cohesion and development — that makes good organizations great. The level of flexibility the Raptors have to develop from within while winning now is rivalled by only a few teams, and it’s a huge step forward in ensuring the Raptors remain relevant in not just the present, but the future.

And really, that’s all you can ask for in the modern NBA.