Gameday: Nuggets @ Raptors in Calgary, Oct. 3

It’s good to have basketball back. This was the shortest offseason in Raptors history due to the long playoff run, the Raptors had two first round picks, there was the excitement of Summer League, and two Raptors won gold medals in the Olympics…and yet this summer lasted forever.

Raptors basketball returned on Saturday night in Vancouver, and I couldn’t care less that it was just pre-season. To see the roster taking shape and get a first look at players like Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl made this weekend great.

And we’re back again tonight in Calgary as the Denver Nuggets hit the floor for their first game of the pre-season.

So what can we expect? Unlike Saturday where the Raptors faced a fellow super team (am I doing that right, Derrick?), Toronto now faces a young team on the rise in the Nuggets. And yes, the one certainty for tonight is that each team’s real roster will have little impact on the outcome, as both are very much in the experimental stage of their minute distribution.

Starters will get some minutes to try and build unity, the real bench players get a chance to contribute and get a feel for the game, and then the deep bench/youth/D-League talent get to fight for the remaining minutes.

The second game of the pre-season last year saw a decrease in minutes from game one for DeMar DeRozan, Patrick Patterson, DeMarre Carroll, Jonas Valanciunas, Bismack Biyombo, Terrence Ross, Kyle Lowry (who sat game two due to a sore groin), and Luis Scola. The one regular from the team’s top nine players who saw more minutes in game two was Cory Joseph, who played an additional two minutes due with Lowry sitting.

It’s entirely possible that we may, like last year, see even fewer minutes from the team’s big guns than we saw on Saturday night against Golden State. Which I’m fine with. I know what to expect from Lowry, DeRozan, and the like. What I want is plenty of Norm Powell (my spirit animal). I want to see Siakam show again that he belongs in the rotation. And I want everyone to remain healthy. Simple goals.

But with that said, here are three specific things I’ll be looking for tonight:

The Other Deep Bench Players

The Raptors are currently carrying the pre-season maximum of 20 players, six of which are fighting for the 15^th and final spot on the roster on either partial or fully non-guaranteed contracts: Drew Crawford, Fred VanVleet, Jarrod Uthoff, E.J. Singler, Brady Heslip, and Yanick Moreira. Saturday night saw only two from this group see time on the floor, with VanVleet getting 14 minutes and Crawford getting 15.

This leaves substantial minutes still to come for the remaining four hopeful prospects, with each a possibility to get an extended run tonight in Calgary. If the pattern carries forward from game one, it’s possible that not all four will see the floor tonight. This depends almost entirely on the number of minutes that Casey gives regular rotations players.

Jamal in Calgary

We all loved Jamal Murray during the draft process. Some didn’t like the fit for Toronto, but based on his performances at Kentucky and as part of Team Canada, Murray is bound to be entertaining as part of the Nuggets.

It’s got to be a thrill for Murray to make his NBA debut in Canada, and based on his Twitter account he is looking forward to it.

Counting the days until my first game in Calgary against Toronto on Monday #Nuggets #NBACanadaSeries
— Jamal Murray (@BeMore27) October 1, 2016

He’s someone I’m cheering for and who I’d like to see succeed.

Back-up Centre Rotation

This is likely the biggest question mark for the Raptors during the pre-season. With Bismack Biyombo as the one key rotation piece leaving the team this past summer (and yes, I’m not counting Luis Scola or James Johnson here) the Raptors are left with a large void to fill, and many unproven options to choose from.

Casey used Saturday night to give Valanciunas a quick pull, replacing him with Patrick Patterson, allowing Jared Sullinger to move from power forward to centre. The first player off the bench to get a crack at centre was Siakam (who performed admirably), with Poeltl and Lucas Nogueira both getting an opportunity as well.

The only option that we didn’t seem to see was Patrick Patterson moving to centre as part of a small-ball unit. Casey is clearly experimenting with players to see who could fit.

Based on one pre-season game, with all of the caveats that come with it, Siakam stood out among the options. He was active on the glass, capably defended both on the interior and exterior (track Durant on a drive to the basket for a big block), and blew me away with how fast he is on the court. Pascal was also the inspiration for what might have been the tweet of the game on Saturday, coming to us from Matt Moore at CBS: