The Toronto Raptors have assigned Lucas Nogueira, Delon Wright, and Bruno Caboclo to Raptors 905 of the D-League, the team announced.
The 905 are set to take on the Fort Wayne Mad Ants at the Air Canada Centre on Monday, with a 12 p.m. tip-off time to take advantage of March Break. The organization is expecting the fourth-largest crowd in D-League history, one that could push into five figures (Game 2 of the 2011 finals has the record with 14,036 coming out in Des Moines, Iowa).
Caboclo getting assigned was always expected, as the sophomore is rarely active for the parent club and there’s no cost to him suiting up. In the case of Nogueira and Wright, though, the Raptors are taking on a bit of a risk to their depth for their own Monday game, at 7:30 against the Chicago Bulls. It’s not a major risk – even if all three players got hurt, the Raptors would have 11 healthy bodies – but it does put those two in a position to potentially play twice in one day. Their minutes would be limited for the night-cap, anyway, barring blowout or disaster, so maybe their assignment should have been the expectation all along. After all, the 905 season is almost complete (April 1), and with the Raptors’ seven-game home-stand coming to a close Monday, assignments will grow a little trickier.
The hoards of families on-hand will get a long look at Wright, who has been spending some time off the ball on his most recent assignments, starting alongside Shannon Scott in a dual-point guard attack. That’s due to the 905 being a little thin on the wing relative to the point, and while it means fewer reps in the pick-and-roll on defense, Wright still has the ball in his hands plenty. His offensive game remains steady – and often too clever for D-League competition – and he’s done a better job of late cracking back on the defensive glass to help out the bigs when the 905 go small.
Odd though it may seem, the 905 have been going small despite having Nogueira to pair alongside Sim Bhullar. The duo was a disaster defensively, and so head coach Jesse Mermuys has opted to use Nogueira off the bench in a role similar to what his assignment with the Raptors could be next year. Nogueira’s been fine, but a run of stretchy opponents has really put a strain on the team’s centers at the defensive end.
Fort Wayne was one of those opponents, with Shayne Whittington, in particular, proving a difficult cover as a stretch-five, so Monday will be a good test once again for Nogueira.
I believe tickets are still available for the game, by the way, if you want to ditch out of work on this rainy Monday morning. Mondays, amiright? lmao.
