Lowry’s legacy on the line | Load management still a thing | Starting five not set; nor will it be
Load Management II
Boucher’s opportunity will be borne of a need to see what he can offer as well as a desire to bring Marc Gasol along slowly. Gasol is only two weeks removed from winning the FIBA World Cup with Spain on the heels of an NBA championship with the Raptors. Gasol estimates he only had three or four weeks all offseason when he wasn’t playing or in camp, racking up 111 games played among the World Cup, the NBA regular season and the NBA playoffs.At 34, it makes sense to give Gasol some low-intensity reps so he doesn’t burn out toward the end of the year. Right now, that means Gasol is essentially a spectator during live sessions, sitting out any contact portions. Nurse made it sound as if Gasol will play in the team’s exhibitions in Japan next week, but his minutes figure to be modest. (The Raptors’ preseason game on Oct. 13, after the Japan trip, projects as a reserve-heavy affair.)
“He has to do some stuff if he’s going to play in the exhibitions in Tokyo. He has to make sure he’s right and ready and healthy and can withstand that,” Nurse said. “So, there’s a balance there a little bit, but I’m really in no hurry to see him hit the floor, especially in any of our contact stuff right now. But I know him. I already wandered past him one time today and he was like, ‘I wish I was out there,’ so I don’t think it will be much of an issue with him.”
Nurse also said the strategy could extend into the regular season. With Gasol backed up by Serge Ibaka, and with Boucher, Dewan Hernandez and a handful of forwards who can play a little bigger, there’s little incentive to overdo it with any player early, especially Gasol. The term “load management” might not be as buzzwordy this season, but the general idea is the same — the season is too long not to heed warning signs and manage a player’s body, and there’s value in elevating depth on occasion, anyway.
“I think you have to trust the medical team,” Gasol said. “Obviously, as a player, you always want to play, you know, your competitive nature. But you have to protect yourself from yourself a little bit. Let the guys who are professionals make those decisions.”
Kyle Lowry is also sitting out contact portions of practice following offseason thumb surgery. That sounds precautionary as Lowry is participating in all non-contact aspects.
Like with Gasol, there’s no reason to push Lowry and there’s value in seeing what others can do with expanded minutes here in the preseason. Powell, Fred VanVleet, Cam Payne, Isaiah Taylor, Terence Davis, Patrick McCaw and Pascal Siakam are all players who could theoretically get reps as a lead ball-handler in camp, if not actually as point guards.
Raptors going easy on vets Marc Gasol, Kyle Lowry at training camp – Yahoo!
Gasol played 79 regular season games split between Memphis and Toronto, followed by another 24 appearances in the Raptors’ championship run. Shortly thereafter, Gasol was assigned to training camp with the Spanish national team, who scheduled seven exhibition games including one in Las Vegas against the United States, followed by the tournament itself which featured eight contests set across various cities throughout China. The night after the gold medal game in Beijing, Gasol flew to Madrid for his second parade of the summer, before reporting to Media Day in Toronto less than two weeks later. Now he is in Quebec City for a week before the Raptors fly halfway around the world to Tokyo for two showcases against the Houston Rockets.
Nurse also hinted that Gasol’s workload would also be carefully managed at the outset of the regular season. Presumably, that means Gasol may be on a load management plan, although that was not officially announced.
In Lowry’s case, he is still recovering from surgery. Lowry did shoot around privately at training camp on Sunday, but by his own admission, he is a month away from where he would like to be. Lowry played through his thumb injury during the postseason — he was assured that he could not damage it any further and he kept his injured hand in a protective glove as much as possible — and finally underwent surgery in late-July. In some regards, the injury might have been a blessing in disguise as it kept Lowry from further taxing himself while playing for Team USA at the World Cup.
“He’s still coming out of his thumb injury rehab. He’ll be out of contact for a bit,” Nurse said of Lowry.
Raptors’ Kyle Lowry gives update on contract negotiations – Yahoo!
It was speculated that the Raptors could trade Lowry, Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka in an effort to accelerate a rebuilding effort — an idea that president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri flatly rejected Saturday.
Ujiri told reporters that Lowry earned legacy status with the franchise, which ought to factor into the contract discussions.
A championship run is certainly draining and Lowry admitted he’s not at 100 per cent, with the Raptors opening the regular season in less than a month against the New Orleans Pelicans on Oct. 22.
“I’m not where I want to be physically or mentally yet,” Lowry said.
Lowry submitted a defining performance in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, with an opening first-quarter barrage that set the tone, finishing the contest with 26 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Winning is addictive, and Lowry is dead-set on defending the Larry O’B.
There is a notion that the Raptors haven’t earned the respect that most defending champions usually gain. Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green left in free agency and most analysts believe that the reigning Finals MVP’s departure rules out the Raptors’ viability of defending the title.
Lowry couldn’t care less.
How Raptors, Lowry handle contract talks could be tone-setter for Toronto – Sportsnet.ca
Both Lowry — the franchise’s living, breathing icon — and Ujiri, the Raptors’ president, are NBA lifers and know the deal. When the rubber hits the wood, the business of the league leaves little room for sentimentality or reflecting.
Stand still and you get run over.
That point was driven home when within weeks of ‘here for a good time, not a long-time’ Kawhi Leonard bringing the house down at the Raptors championship parade, Toronto’s one-year wonder was orchestrating his way back home to the Los Angeles Clippers — precipitating Danny Green’s signing with the Los Angeles Lakers and leaving two gaping holes in the Raptors starting lineup alongside Lowry.
“Obviously, Kawhi decided to go to the Clippers and our team moves on,” said Ujiri. “[But] I’ll say it off the bat: I can’t sit here and trade DeMar [DeRozan for Leonard in the summer of 2018] and then Kawhi leaves us and be upset. Because that’s just the nature of the business and we understand it and we move on as an organization.”
Ujiri has little choice. His roster features four pending free agents – Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Fred VanVleet and Lowry. It will be a subplot all season.
But only Lowry is certain to have his number retired and be acknowledged with any other honour the franchise can come up with when the time comes: statue, street-naming, whatever.
Watching how Ujiri deals with Lowry and Lowry – battle hardened in the ways of NBA negotiating after 14 seasons in the league – deals with Ujiri could very well set the tone for the season to come and even beyond.
Ujiri allowed that dealing with the franchise’s transformative player as he approaches his 34th birthday will require careful handling.
“Kyle has an incredible legacy here that I think we all have underrated [it]. We’ve had our ups and downs and bumps and grinds, but the inner core of who he is as a player and what he’s done with this franchise, he definitely deserves [special consideration],” said Ujiri. “There’s legacy status for him in my opinion. Someone who has given it his all: five-time All-Star while we’ve been here — could have been a six-time All-Star … We can say whatever we want about Kyle: He comes and he gives it his all on the court. He’ll give me a headache once a month, but that’s fine. That’s our relationship. I really respect him for that.
Raptors’ Gasol plays it smart after summer like no other | The Star
Gasol’s probably anxious to get out on the court mostly because, historically, good things tend to happen when he’s played in the last seven months.
After being obtained from going-nowhere Memphis at the February NBA trade deadline, Gasol was credited with helping a resurgence by the Raptors offence that led to Toronto becoming the best three-point shooting team in the league, thanks to his prescient passing skills. He followed that up by playing the role of sage old veteran with the Spanish team, leading an unheralded group to its second World Cup title since 2006. With Spain he moved between playmaker and primary scorer, and his epic 33-point effort in a double-overtime semifinal win over Australia instantly became part of Spanish basketball lore.
It was a physical and mental grind — exhilarating, but a grind nonetheless — and getting some down time now just makes sense. He may not feel tired, but his body might just be tricking him.
“If I do (feel tired), mentally I’m getting through it,” he said. “I’m not allowing it to prevent me from getting motivated and attacking this season with everything. I’m very excited, I’m working with the guys and I’m looking forward.”
Nurse and Gasol talk load management plan – Video – TSN
With NBA veteran Marc Gasol coming into camp fresh off of a full FIBA World Cup tournament with Spain, both he and Raptors head coach Nick Nurse discussed the load management plan being put in place for Gasol this season.
Anunoby has put the work in and now it’s time to reap the rewards | Toronto Sun
It wasn’t until about mid-July that Anunoby started feeling like he had all his energy back. An infection following the ruptured appendix not only sapped his energy but caused him to lose weight and strength as well.
“I lost weight and then it was just matter of getting my strength back and running and conditioning and getting it all back,” he said of a summer workout program that has him looking as ripped as he has ever been and with bounce back in his step that went missing there for parts of last season.
Good thing too because there is plenty to be gained by a motivated young man with a nice combination of defensive toughness and offensive touch from behind the three-point line.
“I think it’s there. The opportunity is there for me. I just have to grab it, do what I know I can do and help the team win,” Anunoby said.
As with most of today’s NBA players, Anunoby’s off-season consisted of time working within the structure of what the team had set out for him in the summer and the rest working with his own team of trainers. The two are not always in synch which can create problems for either the team or the player but there was none of that where Anunoby was concerned.
“That’s one of the biggest things out of the summer we want to evaluate and he’s done a great job of that,” Nurse said of Anunoby making sure he was physically prepared for the grind of the upcoming season.
“He came to all our group workouts and all those kind of things. He did have some time away on his own and I actually kind of get that, I’m actually OK with it. If there is an outside trainer, I know several players have them, we try to communicate with them and talk to them about what we see is where they need to go. We try to talk to them about some of the drills we’d like to have done. To me, like, it’s that they don’t necessarily want our eyeballs on them every single day of their whole life. I get it, I understand it. We’ve got our eyeballs on them a lot. So I think it’s okay.”
Anunoby said it was never a concern for him.
“Getting better is the end goal,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how.”
Raptors to monitor workloads of Lowry and Gasol in camp – TSN.ca
Gasol had about a week off after winning his first NBA title with Toronto – and then winning the parade celebration – before he joined the Spanish national team ahead of this summer’s FIBA World Cup. Following the tournament, which he and Spain won, he had roughly 10 days off before reporting to the Raptors for camp. He’s played more than 110 games in less than a year and had almost no time to rest over the summer.
As you might expect, Gasol was mostly a spectator for Toronto’s first practice on Sunday. The Raptors will closely monitor his workload throughout camp and even early in the season, being mindful of all the miles he’s accumulated recently.
“I just think A) he just finished a long run and B) it’s a long way to go to get to the summertime,” head coach Nick Nurse said following the team’s first session at Laval University. “So initially here we start out with holding him out for a while and then it’s just a matter of making sure [he’s ready]. I mean he has to do some stuff if he’s going to play in the exhibitions in Tokyo. He has to make sure he’s right and ready and healthy and can withstand that. So there’s a balance there a little bit but I’m really in no hurry to see him hit the floor, especially in any of our contact stuff right now.”
That said, Gasol – like Lowry – is a competitor. Both veterans have been in this long enough to understand the importance of taking care of their bodies, and for that they’ll defer to the team’s medical staff. However, it’s only a matter of time before they get that itch and want to be out there with their teammates, if they don’t have it already.
“I think you have to trust the medical team,” said Gasol. “Obviously as a player, you always want to play, you know, your competitive nature. But you have to protect yourself from yourself a little bit. Let the guys who are professionals make those decisions.”
“If I [am worn down], mentally I’m getting through it. I’m not allowing it to prevent me from getting motivated and attacking this season with everything. I’m very excited, I’m working with the guys, and I’m looking forward.”
Raptors will likely have a fluid starting five | Toronto Sun
Because he played, as Nurse joked some 150 games over the course of a calendar year, Gasol is not taking part in many contact drills this early in camp and won’t for some time if Nurse has his way.
The load management made famous by the Raptors as they nursed Leonard back to full activity after a mostly lost season the year before will be loosely applied to Gasol throughout the pre-season and even into the regular season according to Nurse.
“I just think A) he just finished a long run and B) it’s a long way to go to get to the summer time really,” Nurse said of easing Gasol back into the fray. “ So initially here we start out with holding him out for a while and then it’s just a matter of making sure — I mean he has to do some stuff if he’s going to play in the exhibitions in Tokyo. He has to make sure he’s right and ready and healthy and can withstand that. So there’s a balance there a little bit but I’m really in no hurry to see him hit the floor, especially in any of our contact stuff right now. But I know him. I already wandered past him one time today and he was like ‘I wish I was out there.’”
Kyle Lowry will also be eased into the every day work as he’s coming off a thumb surgery that kept him out of the U.S. lineup for the FIBA World Cup this past summer.
“He’ll be out of contact for a bit,” Nurse said. “After that the only other guy we’ll keep a little bit of an eye on is (Ibaka) but right now he is four guns blazing. He was outstanding (Sunday) in practice.”
Nurse: ‘There’s a big group of guys that could start a number of games’ – Video – TSN
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse shared his thoughts on which players could crack the starting lineup this season, saying that a lot of players on the roster will get opportunities to start in different situations.
Gasol stands tall, on and off the court – The Globe and Mail
“Marc, as you know, is not somebody who is leading by scoring. He is doing so many things off the court, on the court, helping the new guys. And then when it was time to step up and score, like in the semi-final against Australia, he did it,” Scariolo said. “Don’t let anybody say you aren’t one of the possible winners and that you have no chance to end up winning. Last year with the Raptors, we were probably not one of the top three teams in the initial rankings. But we worked hard, we stuck together, we built up a pretty solid defensive system and offensively we were pretty effective. So you can definitely recognize the similarities between the two.”
After five days of camp at Laval, the Raptors’ preseason will tip off in Japan with two games against the Houston Rockets in Tokyo. The Raps will return to North America for exhibition games in Brooklyn and Chicago before unfurling their championship banner on opening night of the regular season in Toronto on Oct. 22 against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Nurse said the Raptors are holding Kyle Lowry out of contact drills for now, too. Toronto’s all-star point guard had a surgery in July to repair ligaments in his left thumb, which had been injured during the playoffs.
After just a single practice on Sunday, reporters were already pressing Nurse to speculate on what the Raptors’ starting lineup may look like once the season is in full tilt.
“I would say I think there’s a big group of guys that could start a number of games,” Nurse said. “I could see Kyle, Pascal [Siakam] and Marc, obviously. Serge [Ibaka], I could see Fred [VanVleet], Norm [Powell], OG [Anunoby], Pat McCaw. … I see all those guys starting at times, different times, and that’s kind of what I’m planning on doing.”
Raptors going easy on vets Marc Gasol and Kyle Lowry at training camp – Yahoo!
Gasol played 79 regular season games split between Memphis and Toronto, followed by another 24 appearances in the Raptors’ championship run. Shortly thereafter, Gasol was assigned to training camp with the Spanish national team, who scheduled seven exhibition games including one in Las Vegas against the United States, followed by the tournament itself which featured eight contests set across various cities throughout China. The night after the gold medal game in Beijing, Gasol flew to Madrid for his second parade of the summer, before reporting to Media Day in Toronto less than two weeks later. Now he is in Quebec City for a week before the Raptors fly halfway around the world to Tokyo for two showcases against the Houston Rockets.
Nurse also hinted that Gasol’s workload would also be carefully managed at the outset of the regular season. Presumably, that means Gasol may be on a load management plan, although that was not officially announced.
In Lowry’s case, he is still recovering from surgery. Lowry did shoot around privately at training camp on Sunday, but by his own admission, he is a month away from where he would like to be. Lowry played through his thumb injury during the postseason — he was assured that he could not damage it any further and he kept his injured hand in a protective glove as much as possible — and finally underwent surgery in late-July. In some regards, the injury might have been a blessing in disguise as it kept Lowry from further taxing himself while playing for Team USA at the World Cup.
“He’s still coming out of his thumb injury rehab. He’ll be out of contact for a bit,” Nurse said of Lowry.
Toronto Raptors: 3 bold predictions for 2019-20 NBA season – Hoops Habit
2. Pascal Siakam will be a first-time All-Star
Following a breakout 2018-19 campaign, ascension to All-Star status feels predetermined for Pascal Siakam. Only 12 players from the Eastern Conference make the All-Star team in a traditional year, however. More improvement will be needed from him to make the cut in February.
Siakam earned Most Improved Player honors in 2018-19. In his third NBA season, the forward emerges as a full-time starter, averaging a robust 16.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game, all career-highs. His scoring and rebounding improve further in the postseason as he handled the highest minute load (37.1 per game) of his career.
The other end of the court is where Spicy P can stand to improve further. Siakam’s defense is better than league average, contributing 3.6 Defensive Win Shares last season, per Basketball-Reference. His Defensive Box Plus/Minus took a step back from the previous season, though, when he ranked in the top 20 of the NBA despite coming off the bench.
Siakam also needs to be careful with his physicality. His 241 personal fouls in 2018-19 ranked second in the Eastern Conference.
As for a path to an All-Star nod, it exists. Of the 14 players who were named All-Stars in the Eastern Conference last season, two have left for the Western Conference (Leonard, D’Angelo Russell). Health will keep Kevin Durant off the roster and may do the same for Victor Oladipo.
An All-Star trip would be a big development for Pascal Siakam. It would certainly pressure the Raptors front office to offer their young star a max contract while also giving them a prized piece in their upcoming rebuild.
Send me any Raptors content to rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com
