While it’s not the regular season yet, the Kawhi Leonard era has begun with the Raptors. Seeing him in a Raptors uniform was strange, but in a good way. It took about five minutes after the tip-off for Kawhi to look like he belonged on the team. While he’s not in mid-season form, he didn’t look like he’s only played a handful of games in the last year and a half.
He missed his first attempt (a jumper) but hit his second one to the delight of the sellout crowd in Vancouver. He also showed great footwork down low with a beautiful shot from the post, and got to the line 11 times. He was disruptive on the defensive end, although didn’t quite look like the dominant defender hasnt been in the past, but it’s still early.
Most importantly, Kawhi looks like he’s fitting in nicely with the team and seemed to be enjoying his teammates. He actually was laughing on the bench…
The game was not just about Kawhi, though. As this was a preseason game, you can’t read a whole lot into what you see just yet. I took a whole bunch of photos, so I will break down the game through what I saw in pictures.
Kawhi had some very nice drives to the basket and was heavily involved in the offense. In fact, Nick Nurse commented after the game that it was not their intention for Kawhi to get the ball as much as he did, that’s just the way the game naturally went.
Kawhi wasn’t tentative and was able to get to the hoop on a number of occasions.
When Kawhi had a hard fall, all his teammates rushed to his aid to help him up. The respect for him was obvious.
Despite not starting, Valanciunas played well on the offense end, although spent most of his time outside of the paint and rarely posted up.
A lot of eyes were on Kyle Lowry to see how he would play (and react to Kawhi). He had the makings of some chemistry with Kawhi and the two even shared a laugh after a nifty play between the two of them got broken up.
Pascal Siakam handled the ball a lot, even bringing it up after scored baskets a number of times. According to Coach Nurse this is the plan. Look for Siakam to be a secondary (or even primary) ball handler more and more this season. The Raptors obviously like what they see in him a lot and it will be interesting to see how that progresses.
Fred VanVleet seems to have picked up where he left off last season. Interestingly, he was one of the three players made available to the press after the game (along with Kawhi and Lowry).
The team chemistry is palpable even this early in the season.
I was a little worried that Greg Monroe didn’t even make an appearance until the second half, but it appears they want him to anchor the second unit and he played very well once he finally got in the game. He could be a big boost to the bench.
Other notes:
– Former Raptors (in one way or another) Isiah Thomas, Shawn Marion and Morris Peterson were all at the game and got big ovations from the fans.
– The game was a sellout and the Vancouver fans were very loud and boisterous. And there were A LOT of Grizzlies gear in the stands. These fans miss having an NBA team.
– Jonas Valanciunas was easily the most accessible to the fans, signing autographs and posing for pictures endlessly before the game.
I also was able to get into a bit of training camp (although didn’t get to see any actual training, this time) and will be putting together a video of the training camp and game later this week, so stay tuned.