Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

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Gameday: Raptors @ Clippers, Oct. 1

It's finally here! Kind of.

Finally.

After months in the wilderness with only Summer League and EuroBasket to keep us going, the NBA is back. Kind of. Sure, it’s just the preseason getting underway. It was still very nice to have some ball to watch last night, to see NIkola Jokic flinging behind-the-back dimes, to see draft sleepers like Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Bell showing out early, and to finally shift our collective focus from the hypothetical to the tangible.

Tonight, we get to do the same for the 2017-18 Toronto Raptors, who draw the Los Angeles Clippers in Hawaii. The Raptors went from Toronto (Monday) to Victoria (Tuesday to Friday) to Hawaii (Saturday to Wednesday), and boy, has this trip made me a little jealous I’m not on someone’s full-time payroll to get to tag along. Victoria is a truly gorgeous place, and it looks like the Raptors are having a blast in Hawaii. Their Instagram stories have been filled with hilarity – OG Anunoby dancing with strangers on the beach, Alfonzo McKinnie hula dancing, Kennedy Meeks calling everyone “uglass,” Jakob Poeltl and Pascal Siakam continuing their heated FIFA rivalry, and more. Good wholesome fun, all around.

They’re probably also champing at the bit to get down to business. Five days of multi-practice days have probably grown a bit stale already, and there are jobs to win. And games – the Raptors don’t seem the type to take even a preseason meeting with their Western Conference spiritual brothers lightly.

The game tips off at 10 p.m (Eastern) on Sportsnet One.

To help set the stage, I reached out to Lucas Hann of Clips Nation.

Blake Murphy: Obviously, there’s been a lot of meaningful overhaul in L.A. this summer. Chris Paul and J.J. Redick are out, Danilo Gallinari, Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, and Milos Teodosic (!) are in, and along with some other tweaks at the margins, this should be a fundamentally different looking Clippers team despite two important holdovers. Now that things have settled some, where is your general confidence level with the Clippers repeating the regular-season success they’ve had during the Paul era in their first year without him?

Lucas Hann: I’m not sure that I’m overly confident that the Clippers can repeat their Chris Paul-era success, but I do think they’ll be relatively successful. Their 51 wins last season was their worst total of the Chris Paul era (56 was closer to the average), and I’d be pretty ecstatic to see a 51-31 record out of the Clippers this season. I think that the low 50s is near the best-case scenario for these Clippers, and there’s very few realities where they break into the 55+ range. I’m expecting 46-48 wins this season, which I think is reasonable because the roster remains incredibly talented and deep, despite obviously downgrading from last season. That’s not quite a continuation of recent success, but it’s a pretty strong campaign nonetheless.

Blake Murphy: A big part of the gameplan would seem to be putting the ball in Griffin’s hands more. One of the most talented frontcourt passers in the NBA, he’s rivaled by only Teodosic for playmaking skill on this roster. Gallinari should really help, too. How significant do you think the team’s stylistic changes will be as a result, and what’s going to be their biggest hurdle on the offensive end?

Lucas Hann: One common misconception about Chris Paul is that he plays up-tempo. This may be a result of his high assist totals, with fans assuming that that means he likes to push the pace. In reality, CP3 is a control freak in the best sense of the word–he doesn’t like up-tempo, transition basketball because it necessitates chaos, and he prefers a half-court style where he can control every detail of the offense. Built around Paul and Griffin, the Clippers frequently employed lineups where only those two were comfortable with the ball in their hands–Redick and Jordan simply finished plays with jumpshots and dunks, and Mbah a Moute hid from the ball whenever possible. The Clippers’ new lineups will feature offensive threats at almost every position, and they’re going to push the ball way more. This means there will be more mistakes, but a lot more ball movement and a higher tempo as well.

Blake Murphy: For the last few years, the Raptors and Clippers have had a kind of spiritual kinship, both firmly guarding the second tier in their respective conference with the specter of an elite team blocking their path to the finals. The Raptors are still mostly in that position, retaining Kyle Lowry where the Clippers saw Paul depart. Are our fanbses still united in this sense, or has the lens for Clippers fans shifted for the more or less optimistic? (A clunky way of asking: Are we still doomed together but ready to enjoy it for what it’s worth?)

Lucas Hann: First of all, love you guys (hey Sean!). It really is true to say that in recent years we’ve been Clippers East and Raptors West, respectively. I think in a way, both teams’ situations have gotten worse in the last few months. The Clippers, despite their solid off-season considering the circumstances, got worse this summer. The Raptors, who were already notably short of competing with the Cavaliers, saw a strong summer from the Celtics knock them squarely back in the hierarchy. We’re absolutely doomed in the short term, but I’m going to enjoy both teams this season regardless. Going forward (in the next 3 years or so), both teams are pretty close to breaking through but will need a little bit of luck. In this respect, Lowry’s age is probably a significant negative for Toronto’s hopes.

Blake Murphy: Why didn’t the new CBA contain a clause that requires teams to fly bloggers to any exhibition games taking place in Hawaii?

Lucas Hann: Speak for yourself. The reason I needed three days to respond to this e-mail is because I’ve been on a Honolulu beach under an umbrella for 72 hours straight.

Blake Murphy: I hate you.

Raptors updates
It feels as if more is on the line in this year’s abbreviated training camp than in recent years. Not only are five players jockeying for two roster positions, but the team needs to figure out their preference between C.J. Miles and Norman Powell in the starting lineup, pairs of youngsters will be pushing each other for backup point guard and backup center minutes, and a trio of somewhat raw prospects may or may not be battling for the ninth- and tenth-man roles. The reality is that most of these situations will remain fluid into the regular season, particularly as you go further down the bench, but you’d think Dwane Casey would like to at least lock down his starting lineup and, by trickle-down, a key focal point of the second-unit offense.

The guess here is that Powell gets the first crack at starting. There are good arguments to be made for both players depending on your preferences for how best to support a starting lineup with four moderate-to-high usage offensive players with varying degrees of defensive utility. We’ll make those arguments another time. I wonder if they’ll each get a chance to start in the preseason or if whoever gets first dibs has the chance to run with it.

On the injury front, OG Anunoby participated in the team’s intrasquad game on Thursday and would seem to be available. Malcolm Miller (ankle surgery) still isn’t back to 5-on-5 play, at last update, and so it would seem doubtful he plays here. Everyone else is, as far as we know, good to go.

G: Kyle Lowry, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet, Lorenzo Brown
SG: DeMar DeRozan, C.J. Miles, K.J. McDaniels, Andy Rautins
SF: Norman Powell, OG Anunoby, Bruno Caboclo, Alfonzo McKinnie
PF: Serge Ibaka, Pascal Siakam, Kyle Wiltjer
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl, Lucas Nogueira, Kennedy Meeks
INJ: Malcolm Miller

As usual, we’ll track the minutes and battles in this space, noting how the playing time is breaking down over the five gamesL

Known commodities: Lowry, DeRozan, Ibaka, Valanciunas
Competition 1: Powell, Miles
Competition 2: Poeltl, Nogueira
Competition 3 (maybe?): Wright, VanVleet
Competition 4: McKinnie, McDaniels, Wiltjer, Rautins, Meeks
The LeBron Stoppers: Anunoby, Siakam, Caboclo
Two-Ways: Brown, Miller

Clippers updates
The Clippers have a fair number of questions to answer this preseason, and the rotation is chief among them. There’s probably a reasonably competitive battle brewing at each of the guard spots in terms of who starts and who mans the second unit, and you’ll see a bunch of hungry young players fighting for bench minutes. The three starting frontcourt spots are likely spoken for with Gallinari, Griffin, and Jordan, and Rivers will have to balance some offense-defense trade-offs around that trio, plus do a better job of staggering the minutes of Griffin and Gallinari than he did in the early years of Griffin and Paul, though our boy Lou Williams in the Jamal Crawford spot and the presence of Teodosic should ease the playmaking burden some regardless.

Here’s roughly how things look ahead of the season:

PG: Milos Teodosic, Patrick Beverley, Jawun Evans, Tyrone Wallace
SG:Austin Rivers, Lou Williams, Sindarius Thornwell, C.J. Williams
SF: Danilo Gallinari, Wesley Johnson, Sam Dekker, LaDontae Henton, Jamil Wilson
PF: Blake Griffin, Montrezl Harrell, Brice Johnson
C: DeAndre Jordan, Marshall Plumlee, Willie Reed

The line

You’re not going to believe this, but the line for a preseason opener is off the board.