6 rivalries that will define the Toronto Raptors’ season – Sportsnet.ca
BOSTON CELTICS
All-time H2H: Boston leads 52-37.
2017-18 season series: 2-2.
2018-19 dates: Oct. 19 (H), Nov. 16 (A), Jan. 16 (A), Feb. 26 (H)After a couple of years of scratching and clawing, both teams appear ready to take full-blooded swings at each other until, as many expect, someone lands the knockout blow in the Conference Finals. There’s a long way to go before that, though, and the four games these two sides play against each other will be packed with intrigue.
The Raptors and Celtics already know each other inside-out, but Leonard, Gordon Hayward and Danny Green are all new characters added to the mix, making things quite a bit different this season. For one, the Raptors will go into every game with the best player across both rosters. Leonard has already shown flashes of his old self in pre-season and as long as he maintains his upward trajectory, he looks every bit the player that was firmly entrenched in the running for MVP in 2016-17.
If Hayward can return to the player he was for Utah as well, Boston’s starting five may just be second only to Golden State. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown will look to build on the success of last year, and their ceiling — despite the impressive Bench Mob of Toronto — could be the difference in the series.
The Celtics also figure to have the coaching edge. Brad Stevens has established himself as one of the best in the business while rookie Nick Nurse will have his work cut out for him to show he’s ready to spar on that level.
Best Case, Worst Case: Toronto Raptors – The Ringer
Worst-Case Scenario: It could be as simple as Leonard wanting to go home to Southern California, even if all breaks right during the season. But even if that happens, at least the Raptors would have an appealing young roster. It can be much, much worse. Leonard could struggle to stay on the floor and quickly show that he is no longer the player he once was, giving the Raptors immediate buyer’s remorse. As mentioned, Leonard’s quadriceps issue isn’t new. It first bothered him in 2012, then reappeared in 2016, all before the shenanigans last season. What if it doesn’t go away?
Lowry and Ibaka could also continue to regress, and the team collectively may not be able to cover for Valanciunas as a defensive liability. Toronto’s defense dominated average and bad teams last season, but they may not have as much luck should Leonard be unable to sustain his All-Defense quality play (or stay on the floor), and his teammates fail to pick up the slack. The Raptors lost Poeltl, which can’t go overlooked, since he was the team’s best big man defender for stretches of last season.
Norman Powell’s new contract kicks in this season. It’s time for him to get back on track after a dismal 2017-18. Anunoby, VanVleet, Wright, and Siakam are already contributors geared for long careers. But one of them needs to show they can be more than that. It’ll probably be Anunoby, if any of them; he needs to show more regular glimpses, like he did late last season and this summer. There’s no rushing his development—he’s only 21. But the Raptors only have this season to convince Leonard to stay, and any progress Anunoby shows would be a bonus in that recruitment.
The Raptors must avoid a collapse that mirrors their 2014 defeat at the hands of the old Nets, or the Wizards sweep in 2015. LeBron made the Raptors his playoff doormat over the past three seasons, but now the King has moved west. The Celtics and Sixers should both be better, but there are no more excuses. The Raptors need to, at least, make a valiant run in the Eastern Conference finals. Anything less would be a disappointment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io3uVxWYxh4
Lowry/Leonard tandem will ultimately write the story of this Raptors’ team | Toronto Sun
Lowry warned media types early in camp that this was not going to be a quick process. The Raptors are incorporating a new superstar in Leonard, playing under a new coach for the first time in six years, and another potential starter, Danny Green, has to find his comfort zone, too.
But even Green will tell you everything starts with Lowry and Leonard.
“They’re all-stars, they are our two all-stars,” Green said in case anyone was unaware. “You have two leaders – if not vocally then in action – and they’re going to lead this team with how they play and they’ve been great, figuring out how each other plays, how to interact with each other, how to communicate on or off the court and how to make it work, with me, with each other, with the rest of the guys on the team. It starts with them two first and it trickles down from there.”
Despite playing just 57 minutes total in the pre-season, Lowry is among the least of Nurse’s worries.
“He has been really good, you know, similar,” Nurse said. “Really been locked in from the learning standpoint and the competing standpoint. I really admire the way he competes. He has been a good source of information as far as ‘when are we going to get to this?’ or ‘when are we going to get to that?’
“He’s making sure it’s on our radar and coming and we assure him it is and all those things.”
Lowry for his part reiterated the need for patience, but said he’s right where he needs to be from a health standpoint.
“I feel great, amazing,” Lowry said. “As a team we’ll continue to get better. We’re not going to be clicking on all cylinders right away. There’s a lot of work we need to do. But we’ll be fine. It’s a long process. Everything is going to take time — new players, a new offence, new defence, new head coach. Everything is going to take patience and time. We want things to go fast, but we understand it’s going to be a process.”
As for his impressions of Leonard, Lowry said the man has come as advertised.
“He is a regular guy like everybody else,” Lowry said. “I don’t judge a book by its cover. I think he’s still gonna be Kawhi Leonard, still gonna be a heck of a player. This is the first time since like, what, January, for him playing the NBA game? I’m sure we’ll see the same player.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUGww9CVL0k
Lowry ready to get down to business as new era dawns for Raptors | The Star [subscription]
“We’re not going to be clicking on all cylinders right away,” Lowry admitted after practice Monday. “There’s a lot of work we need to do, but we’ll be fine. It’s a long process. Everything is going to take time — new players, a new offence, new defence, new head coach. Everything is going to take patience and time. We want things to go fast, but we understand it’s going to be a process.
“Yeah, this is my first year since I’ve been here with a new head coach — new system, different assistants — and everything is going to be different.”
But maybe different will be good. The Raptors have been successful ever since Lowry arrived — playoff participants each of the last five springs, Eastern Conference finalists three seasons ago — but unable to get over the formidable hump presented by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Through it all, Lowry has proven to be an intense competitor, a demanding teammate and, every now and then, a bullheaded thorn in the side of his coaches.
Now he’s got a new one to deal with — and break in — but Lowry also has a new all-star teammate in Leonard and that pairing will be fascinating to watch as the season progresses.
It’s worked out well so far, at least in practice. The two have barely played together in pre-season games — Leonard sat out two, Lowry sat out two and was ejected from another — so the majority of their work has come in practice sessions.
“He just wants to win,” Lowry said of Leonard. “I think that’s why he’s going help us. He wants to win at a high level and I think that’s the one thing that makes it easier for everyone to come together. He wants to win and we all want to win, too.”
2018-19 Toronto Raptors Preview: A Championship Is Closer Than Ever – Uproxx
Best Case Scenario:
Masai Ujiri traded for Leonard because he wanted a superstar who can help the team compete for a title, so that’s the best case scenario. Leonard reminds everyone that he a potential MVP, which leads to him becoming the clear-cut No. 1 option in his new dig. Between himself, the leadership of guys like Lowry, Danny Green, Serge Ibaka, and Jonas Valanciunas, and Toronto’s second unit that very well might be the best in the league, the Raptors have perhaps the deepest roster in the NBA.
Behind all of those strengths, a versatile defense that should be among the best in the league, and the creative offensive mind of new head coach Nick Nurse, the Raptors has the top record in the Eastern Conference. They ride this wave to a conference title crown and challenge for Toronto’s first championship since 1993. Winning it might be a stretch, but they show they’re close enough that Leonard agrees to a max extension once the clock hits midnight on July 1, 2019.
Worst Case Scenario:
Leonard is either rusty, gets hurt, or is very obviously ready to head somewhere else after this season comes to an end. If it’s obvious the Leonard experiment never goes beyond being an experiment, whether it’s by the trade deadline or at the end of the season, Toronto has to hit reset. That means guys like Lowry and Ibaka — should teams want their contracts — play out their deals elsewhere. The same goes for Valanciunas, who has the ability to opt into the final year of his deal and make $17.6 million next season.
A rebuild isn’t the worst thing in the world, and a team like Toronto can pull one of pretty easily due to the fact that they have young players to build around like OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet. The issue is that the Raptors are heading into this season with legitimate Eastern Conference and NBA championship aspirations, and there might not be a more painful way to end a season with those expectations than by having to press the reset button.
11. You’ve been considered this young, up-and-coming coaching prospect for a while, but you’re actually the oldest first-time head coach in the NBA since David Blatt in 2014. Did you ever lose faith that you’d get this opportunity?
NN: Not really. I never walked around saying, “I want to be an NBA head coach. I need to be an NBA head coach.” I was really more walking around trying to improve myself as a coach every year. I know how that sounds — ‘Yeah right.’ But especially in the D-League, I knew I was getting better and better and better. That’s a really tough league to coach in. Back then, there were players coming and going all over the place. It’s a little bit more stringent now with your roster. It was almost eight different teams you were coaching then, you know what I mean? You were having to redevelop chemistry, reteach plays, reteach principles, re-manage the guys that you’d already had managed. I knew I was getting a lot of experience as a head coach there. A lot of people said, “How come you’re not in the NBA?” I said, “I don’t know. I hope I get there someday. But I really like doing this.” I’ve tried to approach all the jobs that way.
68 Words or Less — Toronto Raptors – THE SHOCKER – Medium
Do you think it’s a coincidence that his interest started to wane enough, eventually leading to injury and sitting out for a season, not long after the lighthearted spoof was filmed? The shirt was brought to set by a production assistant named Bryce, who borrowed it from his burnout uncle, who, when he found out the shirt had been taken demanded it back because he “could give a shit about basketball.” Kawhi loved the shirt, though, and not wanting to return it, stashed it in Aron Baynes’s locker.
There’s a reason Kawhi isn’t wearing the shirt in the music video, and that’s because the coward Aron Baynes claimed he “lost” it.
If the Raptors have a hope in hell of keeping Kawhi, they’ll need to track down the shirt, or at least find him a new one in a country where everyone’s father is federally mandated to have one.
No deal for Raptors’ Wright by contract extension deadline | The Star [subscription]
It was not a surprising move. Wright is seen as a viable part of the team’s future but not having long-term money tied up leaves the luxury-tax-paying franchise with some measure of flexibility next summer.
They retain the right to match any offer Wright gets in July, so it’s not as if they are cutting him totally adrift after the season that begins on Wednesday night. Selected 20th overall in the 2015 draft, he’s in the final year of a rookie-scale contract that will pay him about $2.53 million U.S.
Wright is suffering from a thigh injury right now and could be listed as questionable for Wednesday’s season opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was hurt in an exhibition game in Montreal last Wednesday and has not played or practised since.
2018-19 NBA: Ten Questions That Will Define the Season | SI.com
4. WILL TORONTO SATISFY KAWHI LEONARD?
In a stunning twist, the Raptors took the summer’s biggest gamble, swinging for the fences to extract a disgruntled Leonard from San Antonio, saving everyone from his bizarre, quietly toxic exit saga and initiating what will be a season-long push to re-sign him. It cost them DeMar DeRozan, the franchise’s all-time leader in scoring, games and minutes played, and unfortunately left him blindsided. But given the distinct chance that the DeRozan/Kyle Lowry led core had plateaued together, the opportunity to introduce Leonard contained too great a potential reward. It’s not often an MVP-caliber talent moves over to the Eastern Conference. The catch will come in July, when we’ll find out if he plans to stick around.
Early reports strongly suggested Leonard had his eyes set on returning home to Southern California; the Lakers and Clippers will be among the teams taking steps to accommodate him. He’s still only 27 and will warrant max money somewhere. A happy union between Paul George and the Thunder offers precedent for the Raptors, who will angle to win big and sell Leonard on their culture, their city and their freezing winters. Trying to understand his motives has been a fool’s errand—what happened with San Antonio remains a mystery—and the league’s most stoic superstar is unlikely to offer much indication as to how he’s feeling. But if the Raptors are to keep him, winning big is critical.
Toronto returns nearly every piece from a 59-win team that won the conference, with in-house head coaching hire Nick Nurse taking over for Dwane Casey. Leonard’s presence will shore up their defense and should make them more offensively potent as well, replacing some of DeRozan’s long twos with his efficient distance shooting. The Raptors’ younger players stand to improve, and retain a bevy of reliable veteran role players bolstered by Danny Green, who also came over from the Spurs. Leonard’s mood will be a guessing game all season as his team begins a high-stakes quest to extend the marriage.
NBA season has tough act to follow after turbo-charged summer – Sportsnet.ca
A worthy question may be how new it all is, or has it always been the reality of life in a highly demanding, highly scrutinized profession that’s spilling out more now due to a social media savvy generation of fans and players alike.
Raptors sharpshooter C.J. Miles came into the NBA as a teenager, back when email was still in common use, and his head coach in Utah, Jerry Sloan, collected tractors.
Times have changed, or have they?
“Well, there were a lot of crazy guys in the league back then,” said Miles, who is beginning his 14th season. “People didn’t know about it because there was no social media, but there was so much stuff that went on that people will never know, and stories you heard through the grapevine even on my team that I would never repeat, but now they might get out there because of the social media age.”
Miles’ wife, Lauren, a former Division 1 player herself, has one of the more slyly funny Twitter accounts out there and the three-point specialist realizes that even if – as he says – he doesn’t want to get drawn into the league’s never-ending storyboard, it’s a challenge.
“If it’s not affecting my team, I don’t even know about it,” he says.
What about Butler?
“Well, yeah. I heard about that. How could you not?”
Let the games begin.
What the Raptors did during the off-season – Toronto Life
This summer was one of the more eventful ones in Raptors history. Coach Dwane Casey was fired, replacement coach Nick Nurse was hired, and DeMar DeRozan, the team’s biggest star, was traded to San Antonio. In exchange for DeRozan, Toronto got Kawhi Leonard, a major talent who has recently been dogged by mysterious medical problems. Amidst all the upheaval, the Raps still managed to make the most of their downtime leading up to the start of the regular season on Wednesday. Here’s what they got up to.
11. Toronto will reach the NBA Finals.
The second part of this bold prediction is Fred VanVleet will win Sixth Man of the Year. VanVleet’s on-off numbers were outstanding last season. Only three players in the NBA had a better net rating during last year’s regular season than VanVleet’s 12.1 net rating: Steph Curry, Eric Gordon and Chris Paul. To a defense that ranked fifth in the NBA last season, the Raptors added the best perimeter defender of his generation in Kawhi Leonard (while subtracting a big minus on defense in DeMar DeRozan). Conventional wisdom says a healthy Boston ought to rule the East. But a healthy Kawhi in Toronto will be plugged into this well-oiled machine and will turn Toronto into an elite, top-three defense.
Raptors’ Valanciunas ready to fill whatever role Nurse requires – Sportsnet.ca
Valanciunas has started nearly 100 games alongside Serge Ibaka since the Congolese big man was acquired at the trade deadline in 2016. The pairing required Ibaka to play more on the perimeter than he was comfortable with. Through training camp and exhibition play, the two bigs flip-flopped starting assignments and were rarely on the floor together, leaving more minutes for Ibaka at centre. That decision has opened up a range of other options through the wing positions and it seems clear that Nurse is determined to use them.
“It’s more of a mix and match, he’s made that clear,” says reserve point guard Fred VanVleet, who led a very successful five-man bench unit that Casey was loathe to tinker with last season. “I think we all have brains here. We can assume Kyle and Kawhi’s spots are locked in and anything outside of that will be fluid depending on matchups and who’s playing well and who we’re playing. I think that kind of gives us a bit more continuity and more mix. Last year, it was like having two separate teams, it was like football almost where you had five in five out.”
In theory, it makes perfect sense. On a team of highly-paid professionals, a coach should have the freedom to manipulate and adjust his lineup by the minute if necessary. But athletes are creatures of habit, the thinking goes, and clear expectations and clear roles help them build their habits accordingly.
“Once you know individually where your rotation is and what kind of minutes you’ll be playing, the amount and your spots and when you’ll go in, it’s easier to get a rhythm and be mentally prepared for the game,” said VanVleet. “On the sideline, even knowing when to warm up, when to take your warmups off and things like that. You just get more mentally prepared.”
But what of getting your name called out with the TV cameras swooping in for a close-up?
It’s the kind of status symbol most players have worked for since they were kids and don’t necessarily want to give up. Players like it, don’t they?
“One-hundred per cent,” said Nurse. “I wish I was a starter.”
After a quiet camp, one task left for Raptors | The Star [subscription]
But, and this is the big but, the Raptors are going to be big into the tax area at the end of this season, if they do the unthinkable and re-up Leonard next summer at some super high number that tax burden will be much more serious and having Wright adding to it might not be financially reasonable.
And if, perchance, things go south and Leonard leaves and the rebuild continues with a trade of guys like Lowry and Serge Ibaka and maybe even Jonas Valanciunas next summer as expiring contracts, does a $13 million year deal for Wright make sense given where the team is?
Me? I’d try to get him signed because I like the certainty, I love is game and you can figure out next summer’s repercussions when next summer rolls around.
I’m not sure that Bobby and Masai share my thoughts – I think I missed their calls on the weekend seeking my advice – but getting a good player in the fold without having to worry about the vagaries of restricted free agency next summer would be the wisest course of action.
And if they could do it early this afternoon rather than close to a late-night deadline, I’d appreciate it. I’ve got a lot of typing to do and would like to get it all knocked off at reasonable hour.
Did I miss something? Send me any Raptors-related article/video to rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com
