So, hey, who likes rookies? Good, because the Toronto Raptors stand to be featuring both of theirs prominently in Wednesday’s season opener.
Head coach Dwane Casey revealed at practice Tuesday that it’s unlikely presumed backup center Lucas Nogueira will be able to play when the team hosts the Detroit Pistons tomorrow. Nogueira suffered a sprained left ankle in Friday’s preseason finale and has been undergoing around-the-clock treatment, but he’s still yet to return to the practice floor, and swelling and soreness persists. Casey wouldn’t go as far as to rule Nogueira out just yet, but it sounds as close to a certainty as the team would let on, anyway.
The loss of Nogueira, coupled with the absence of Jared Sullinger, stands to put a ton of pressure on the team’s two first-round picks, both of who figure to be in Wednesday’s rotation. Short of the Raptors going exceptionally small and tasking Patrick Patterson and Jonas Valanciunas with heavy workloads out of the gate, Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl are going to make their NBA debuts against Andre Drummond and company.
As things currently stand, here’s how the Raptors rotation may look:
PG: Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, Fred VanVleet
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: DeMarre Carroll, Terrence Ross
PF: Patrick Patterson, Pascal Siakam, Bruno Caboclo
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl
INJ: Delon Wright, Jared Sullinger, Lucas Nogueira
And yes, that means Terrence Ross will play Wednesday, which was mostly assumed to be the case after he played 10 minutes in the team’s final dress rehearsal. Bruno Caboclo probably won’t be used except in the event of an emergency or blowout, but if the team called his name, it would likely be at the four, where he’s shown more progress defensively. Expect DeMarre Carroll to see steady time at power forward, too, allowing the team to paper over their thin frontcourt with additional guards.
However it shakes out, there’s a lot of pressure on Siakam and Poeltl out of the gate now. It’s been a while since the Raptors had to task a rookie with a prominent role immediately, but one of the last player’s to be leaned on from Day One can share some advice for the freshmen.
“Just play hard,” DeMar DeRozan said. “You can try to give all of the advice you can, but it’s different when you get out there and feel that intensity. You really can’t duplicate that in a conversation. Stay calm, don’t overthink it, go out there and play and do what you’ve been doing all summer, all training camp and all preseason and go do what your job is to do. It’s OK to mess up. Don’t overthink it and go out there and try to be perfect, because that’s when you’ll go out there and look more crazy.”
As far as trial-by-fires go, Drummond and the Pistons present a pretty tough test for the youngsters, as well as for Valanciunas. The Raptors got a good look at Detroit nearly a week ago in the preseason, and even without Aron Baynes, they proved a good litmus at that point. Toronto emerged victorious, but Valanciunas struggled from the floor and on defense and Poeltl didn’t play until garbage time.
“They want to physically beat you up,” Casey said. “So if you’re not coming in mentally prepared to go against that then they’re going to have the advantage that night. So that’s going to have to be our whole mindset going into tomorrow night, is physically being ready for a battle. If not it’s going to be a long night.
“For Jakob and JV and Lucas, if he’s healthy, it’s going to be huge.”
Casey somewhat surprisingly conceded that Valanciunas is yet to find his rhythm in camp and isn’t quite where he was before spraining his ankle in the postseason. Getting him back to that point now appears to be a priority, because the Raptors will need Valanciunas to eat 30-plus minutes a night in the short-term, and maybe all season long. DeRozan and Kyle Lowry know they can look to him, Cory Joseph will lean on him when the units overlap, and the Raptors simply don’t have the bodies to go away from Valanciunas, even if he continues to play at something less than his peak.
For his part, Valanciunas is eager to soak up some of the responsibility and he isn’t concerned about his somewhat shaky preseason.
“Right now? Sky’s the limit,” he said when asked about his game. “You can get better every day, that’s why I’m working. I’m working every day, with Jack, with other coaches, just doing my offensive moves, trying to learn something on defense. I’m never satisfied with where I am right now…It (his playoff performance) felt really good. I wanna start what I left off. I’m gonna do everything to play the same level or better.
“You know, just give me time, I’m ready. I’m ready to step on the court and do some things.”
The Raptors now find themselves in a position where they need Valanciunas to do a lot of things, or at least a few things for long stretches of time. DeRozan is “getting to old to try to score 30 a night,” anyway, he says, and now would be the perfect time for Valanciunas’ long-awaited breakout. They’ll be asking more from their rookies than they may have expected in June, too, which has the potential to be a major positive in the long-run but painful for the time being.
