Lowry hasn’t practised yet | VanVleet still betting on himself | Everyone is more relaxed this time around
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd1UtJMUIps
Raptors training camp: Jumbo lineups, Davis as a point guard, Lowry status and more – The Athletic
When asked this summer to put together a hypothetical Raptors rotation, I went with a fairly typical approach. That approach, however, came with the caveat that it was a rotation on an average day and a projection, not a preference. One of the preferences I noted within was for Nick Nurse to use jumbo lineups; the Raptors have had success in recent years bucking the discourse of the day and playing larger at times, and their personnel better suits an antithesis to small-ball.
Nurse is playing along so far in training camp. After mentioning Pascal Siakam as a potential small forward (or point-forward, even) most of the summer, Nurse has also talked about using Serge Ibaka at power forward more.
“Probably, just because of need. I think the gap right now is in the two-three hole, losing Danny (Green) and Kawhi (Leonard), right? Where do we plug it from?” Nurse said. “Obviously we plug it from bumping Kyle (Lowry) up, and Norm (Powell) will sit in the two-three and OG (Anunoby) will probably play two and three, and maybe bumping Pascal down. Last year I was trying to open up those four minutes for guys like Pascal and OG, well, now we’re trying to fill those three minutes.”
The Ibaka side of that makes sense, as he is one of the team’s six or seven best players and limiting both him and Marc Gasol to keep them both at centre means playing lesser players more often. Ibaka is better cast as a centre at this point in his career, but he’s shown capable of defending the four for stints, where he can help with rebounding (a potential weakness of this team) and offer some dynamic dual-big options on offence with Gasol.
Hearing Anunoby mentioned as a possible shooting guard is a little more eyebrow-raising. The Raptors’ system almost necessitates an abandoning of traditional positions (save for maybe Gasol and the point guards), with defensive versatility looking like a major strength. If the next step in the post-Leonard offence is to spread touches and play-making around to be leaner and more dynamic, malleable positional definitions is warranted again. Anunoby might not offer the traditional skills a shooting guard needs — reliable knock-down shooting and secondary ball-handling — but Siakam’s offensive tool kit makes a lot of that offensive fit easier. If Anunoby winds up establishing himself as one of the team’s best and most important players, as they hope, then limiting his minutes because of old-school depth charts is counterproductive; most of this just comes down to finding ways to get the team’s best players on the floor.
These probably aren’t going to be high-minute considerations. They might be matchup- or injury-dependent, or something Nurse turns to when more typical lineups are ineffective. The openness and creativity are appreciated, though. I’m here for some supersized lineups.
Timeline of Lowry’s return another wrinkle in Raptors contract talks – Sportsnet.ca
Lowry signalled that he wasn’t going to be in any rush back to the floor when he spoke at media day:
“I’m not where I want to be, that’ll take a long time. It’s a long season when you go that far,” he said. ” … I’m not where I want to be, physically, mentally … it’s going to be a process, I’m not going to be balls to the wall, I’m gonna slow roll it a little bit …make sure I’m fully ready to go when the time comes.”
But the timing of his return and what will it take him to deem himself ‘ready’ could very well be a moving target.
Lowry had his procedure done on July 18th and at the time ESPN insider Adrien Wojnarowski tweeted that the Olympic gold medal winner’s goal was to be ready to play for Team USA at the World Cup of basketball in China which tipped off August 31st.
Towards that aim Lowry was at Team USA’s training camp in Las Vegas in early August – albeit with a splint on — but eventually pulled himself out of consideration for the team that headed to China.
That was understandable. Leaving to play internationally barely a month removed from surgery and after playing well into June with the Raptors seemed like an ambitious timeline.
So why is Lowry’s thumb relevant now?
Fast forward a few weeks and Lowry – as he implied on Saturday — has yet to take the floor with his Raptors teammates at training camp, with Thursday (Oct.3) marking 11 weeks since he had his operation — or more than twice as long as VanVleet was out, as a point of reference.
And to be clear: it’s not as if his thumb was reconstructed.
The avid golfer told TSN’s Kate Beirness in an interview this past Saturday that he hit the links before his surgery and has played golf since.
Oh, and Lowry also had this to say: “I just got cleared to play contact basketball about a week ago.”
Kyle Lowry hasn’t been cleared to practise yet, but the Raptors aren’t worried | The Star
Kyle Lowry has yet to take part in a full practice at Toronto Raptors training camp, and there’s no firm indication when he will. Raptors coach Nick Nurse said the veteran point guard still has to be cleared by a surgeon in New York before he can practise or play.
It has become a much longer rehabilitation process that was originally expected. Lowry had surgery on his left thumb on July 18 in New York and, when the operation was announced, he had hoped to be back to play for the United States in September’s World Cup. He missed that deadline.
Even if Lowry is able to travel and play with the Raptors next week when they visit Japan, it will have been 12 weeks between the operation and his return to the court.
“It’s coming soon,” Nurse said Wednesday. “I think it will be shortly. He has to go to New York City. The operating surgeon has to clear him. But everything is really positive.”
Lowry hasn’t spoken to the media since Saturday in Toronto. He’s been at every practice and sits in on off-the-court sessions but he has yet to do any substantial work on the court.
How the Toronto Raptors can repeat successes of championship season – Yahoo!
The Raptors scored a league-best 1.19 points per transition possession and got out on the break at the third-most frequent rate in the league. It accounted for just under a quarter of their offense and Nick Nurse’s preferred style of play on the defensive end lends to this being a major success factor once again this season.
A big part of transition offense is creating fast break opportunities with great defense, and the Raptors — at their best last season — were organized chaos on that end of the floor: maniacally scrambling yet thoroughly recovering to suffocate opponents. They forced 15 percent of opponent’s possessions into turnovers during the regular season, good for ninth best, before ratcheting things up a notch in the playoffs to a second-best 16.1 percent, behind only an Indiana Pacers team that played four games.
Even when the Raptors didn’t get stops, they did a tremendous job of pushing the pace and throwing the ball ahead to teammates leaking out. Just over a fifth of their offense came within the first six seconds of the shot clock, a mark bettered by just four other teams. The Los Angeles Lakers showed last season that faster isn’t necessarily better, but the Raptors have the tools to make it work at a high clip.
Kawhi Leonard led the Raptors in transition scoring last season but Pascal Siakam’s five transition points per game were only a half-point behind the 2019 Finals MVP. Kyle Lowry’s pull-up three-point shooting is certainly an area where the Raptors could look for a boost after a down season last year, especially in the absence of Danny Green’s transition triples. After shooting a remarkable 41.2 percent on pull-up threes on 524 attempts in the two seasons prior, Lowry only made 50 of his 171 attempts (29.2 percent) last year. The two years where he was lights out, Lowry snatching rebounds and putting the defense on its heels before pulling up for a triple became a trademark. There was less of that with all the weapons he had at his disposal in 2018-19, so consistency in him looking for those opportunities once again could potentially bring back the success he’s had in the past.
Ultimately, Siakam holds the key to maximizing this aspect of Toronto’s offense as his ability to defend the perimeter and break ahead of the pack in general had been a tremendous asset to the team well before his breakout campaign. He’ll likely see most of his minutes at the four once again, but how he fares with his minutes at the three could be an X-factor in Toronto’s transition efficiency.
Amazing how Raptors’ successful year together can take most of the edge off | Toronto Sun
“When you come to play for a good organization like the Toronto Raptors, they have a good culture of basketball, you have to try to adapt to the way they do things here,” he said. “I had to try to learn things here, how to be doing things. Now it’s like home here. Now I know the rules. Now I know how things go. That’s one of the reasons we are champions. It’s not because of our talent, it’s because of how we do things on and off the court.”
Ibaka believes it has all combined to make him a better basketball player.
“I think I’m a lot better, I’m a lot better a basketball player,” he said Wednesday. “Not only skill-wise, but understanding the game, playing as a team, helping a team, helping your teammates to get better, and then doing all the little things to help your team without scoring.
“Of course, you have to score, but just understanding the game, positioning myself where it can not only be good for me, but for my teammates,” Ibaka said. “And also being a great teammate, too. Since I’ve been here, since my first year and now, I’ve been getting better and better to be a good teammate on and off the court.”
There was a moment during the frenzied Larry O’Brien Trophy presentation where that shone through plainly.
The trophy had just been passed to team owner Larry Tanenbaum and appeared like it might go to another front-office type next when Ibaka, who at 6-foot-9 towers over most people, leaned forward and plucked the trophy from the Raptors team owners’ hands. He then turned and handed it to Kyle Lowry. It was a small gesture that spoke volumes about Ibaka and the distance he has come since joining the Raptors.
Fred VanVleet ‘reaching for the stars’ – Yahoo!
VanVleet is a legend in Toronto — even his newborn is heralded — but it doesn’t stop there. When you neutralize Curry and score 12 points in the fourth on the road to close out the Finals in lieu of a labored Leonard, people tend to notice.
“I think the respect I’ve been getting from my peers and from opposing teams and franchises and GMs around the league over the last few years has grown, I think that people are starting to see it a little bit,” VanVleet said.
Take incoming rookie guard Terence Davis Jr., who drew immediate comparisons to VanVleet as another undrafted guard hoping to make waves. Davis was miserable on draft night, but he was inspired by a video of VanVleet from his own draft night in 2016 where he assured a crowd of friends and family that he would still crack the league. Since Davis signed with the Raptors, VanVleet has made an effort to take him under his wing and show him the ropes, as the two shared tips on how to create offense in the NBA over a recent dinner. VanVleet has always shown great leadership, and it’s appreciated by his teammates.
VanVleet is exactly the type that lottery teams swing for. He’s young enough to fit a rebuilding timeline, yet experienced enough to deliver consistency and contribute as a tone-setter. Next year’s free agency figures to be fairly tame as compared to the high-stakes game of musical chairs that was this past summer, but there should be a robust market for VanVleet. The Knicks, for example, have upwards of $70 million in cap room and have no long-term solution at point guard. Minnesota is also a sensible fit, as they’re barren at point guard and have roughly $20 million to spend. With some minor maneuvering, the Bulls can also open $20 million in cap room to bring VanVleet home and solve their issues at the point.
All things equal, VanVleet would prefer if the Raptors just came correct. Speaking at a promotional event a few weeks back, VanVleet gushed about the bond he shares with the city of Toronto, and spoke of the city and organization as somewhere he can call home for a “long time.”
“It’s just good energy both ways. And it was a fit that just worked. I found this to be somewhere that I can live for a long time, and I think that this city has embraced me and my family, and those things don’t go unnoticed,” VanVleet said with a smile. “It’s been a great fit since Day 1.”
For all the awesomeness VanVleet delivered over the final nine games of the playoffs, we can’t forget how sub-par he was in the first 15 games, where he averaged 4 ppg (!) on .256 shooting. While his play in the Philadelphia series is an outlier and largely based on that specific matchup, we’ve seen such streakiness throughout VanVleet’s career. After a slow start to last season, for example (8.6 ppg, 36% FG, -2.7+/-) Fred bounced back in the middle of November (11.1 ppg, 53% FG, +9.9 +/-); although the swings became less pronounced, he had up-and-down weeks all season (6 ppg on 28% shooting over five games at the beginning of December, 12.5 ppg on 45% the next five, for example).
While his size isn’t a skill he can work on, that reliability and consistent game-to-game performance on the offensive end is something Fred needs to improve.
Beyond that, VanVleet has room to improve as a playmaker as well. He still has a habit of over dribbling in the half court, and all-too-often misses his roll man on pick-and-rolls; I’m not sure if this is a lack of confidence in his ability to thread those passes or a lack of vision, but either way, it’s clear he still has plenty to learn from his mentor Kyle Lowry.
Handicapping the race for the Raptors’ final roster spots – The Athletic
This subheading is a holdover from recent years in which luxury tax considerations were a factor in the Raptors’ decisions. For example, on merit alone, Malachi Richardson or Lorenzo Brown could have been possible cuts last year but the tax implications of waiving their guarantees and replacing them on the roster would have been significant. It also dictated that the Raptors would probably only keep 14 players on the roster.
The Raptors face no such restrictions this time around. Even if they waived multiple players with fully guaranteed deals, they would project to avoid the luxury tax. Guarantees may still play a factor when it comes to making difficult, marginal decisions, but they won’t be given enormous weight. The Raptors have the financial flexibility to take the best 15 players.
The Raptors only carry 14 players – 2 percent
There is almost no incentive to keep a shorter roster this year. The team is well below the tax line, three of the roster candidates don’t have full-guarantee dates until January and there’s enough flexibility to waive a guarantee later if necessary. Carrying 14 would be an uncharacteristic sign of indecision or frugality.
A guaranteed player is waived – 2 percent
In this case, the following group would have a fourth roster spot for which to compete. The 12 players with guaranteed deals seem pretty safe. The team is high on Terence Davis, they gave Matt Thomas guaranteed money beyond this season, Patrick McCaw received a two-year investment and so on. We’ll allow a small percentage chance for one of the 12 guaranteed contracts to be waived to be thorough exploring the possibilities. It would be very surprising.
These two small possibilities cancel each other out in terms of the percentage chance the next group is competing for.
Hungrier than ever, Ibaka impresses at Raptors camp – TSN.ca
Ibaka took about a month off after the championship parade in mid-June – a well-deserved and much-needed break coming off a long and emotionally exhausting season. It wasn’t hard for him to reset and get back to work in July, though.
It took him 10 NBA seasons to get the championship that, at one point, he thought he’d have after three or four. Ibaka went to the Finals with Oklahoma City in 2012, losing to the Miami Heat – LeBron’s first title. With a core that included Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, Ibaka figured it was only a matter of time before that Thunder team won the trophy.
What followed turned out to be a valuable lesson for the Congolese big man: professional sports, like life, can be fickle. Don’t take anything for granted.
He’s an NBA champion now, but he wants more. He’s tasted what it’s like to win and he’s hungrier than ever.
“Man, it took me so long,” Ibaka told TSN last week. “I tell my family, I tell my friends, this is one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life, to win a championship. When I think about it, it’s not only the last 10 years, it’s since I was in Congo, all the hard work I put in when I was back home, to move to Spain, get drafted, got here. It’s everything. It’s not just the 10 years I’ve been in the league. It took me many years of hard work, of sacrifice to be here. So I’m so thankful.”
“But I’m the kind of person that always wants more. I always want more. Because I know anything is possible.”
One thing Nurse has noticed is how comfortable Ibaka’s looked going into his third full season with Toronto – “like light years more comfortable,” according to the head coach.
The 30-year-old really came out of his shell last year and Raptors fans got to know him better through social media and his cooking show, “How Hungry Are You?” He also developed close bonds with many of his teammates, most notably Leonard, who uncharacteristically guested on his web series.
It wasn’t an easy season, though. Ibaka’s role fluctuated throughout the campaign. For the first time in his career he had to get used to coming off the bench and playing predominately at centre. It required personal sacrifice and a level of buy-in that he probably wouldn’t have accepted as a younger player.
2019-20 Toronto Raptors Player Preview: Chris Boucher – Raptors HQ
In a perfect world, Boucher would ride that combination of shooting, and length to a spot in the Raptors’ big man rotation. The first three spots — Pascal Siakam, Serge Ibaka, and Marc Gasol are locked up — but with the latter two both due to become free agents, there is an organizational need to see what they have in the former Oregon Duck.
Boucher’s greatest strength is his ability to alter shots. He led the G League with 4.1 a game last year, set an Oregon single season record in college, and led the Pac-10 in blocks in another.
The other intriguing part of his game is that long-range shooting. Boucher hit 34.4 percent of his threes in college, and 32.4 percent last year for the Raptors. Those aren’t great numbers, even for a centre, but if Boucher can refine his shot further, he provides the Raptors with an opportunity to play inverted “four out” lineups.
Coach Nick Nurse has also talked up Boucher’s ability to grab a rebound and lead a break, Siakam-style. While we haven’t seen much of it in real life, if it’s true, it would fit into Toronto’s ethos of trying to be as position-agnostic as possible.
Realistically though, Boucher will be in a dog-fight for minutes. In addition to the three guys I’ve already named, OG Anunoby, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and Stanley Johnson could all soak up minutes at the power forward position — which is most likely the spot Boucher should fill. And what if Dewan Hernandez, or even Sagaba Konate blow-up?
Boucher’s most realistic path to minutes might be in getting rotation time during Gasol’s (assumed) load management days, and anytime Ibaka sits, or is hurt.
Raptors forward Stanley Johnson searches for consistency | The Star
Johnson knows his reputation is as a streaky shooter but he points to his all-around offensive game as the reason his shot should become more consistent. If he can beat his man off the dribble and get to the rim, defenders may play off him more and then all he has to do is knock down open shots.
Sounds easier than it is, but it’s a logical assumption.
“In Detroit (where he played for 31/2 seasons before being dealt to New Orleans), I remember there (were) seven or eight games I’m shooting like 42 per cent and then there’s other games where I’m shooting like 23 per cent, like 12 of them. How does that average out? Not well, you know?
“I can’t go 2-for-4 three nights in a row and then go 1-for-8. That doesn’t average out well. So it’s not about not being able to make the shot. It’s choosing the right shots to shoot and then making those shots that are open.”
Raptors’ McCaw in line for huge minutes boost | Toronto Sun
A year ago, Ibaka led the Raptors in rebounds and blocks. He was also the third leading scorer on the team in the regular season behind only Kawhi Leonard and Siakam.
But what has jumped out to coach Nurse already this year when it comes to Ibaka’s game is how much more he is sharing the basketball.
“First of all, he’s in great shape, he had a good summer conditioning-wise so he’s in great shape, he’s putting in a lot of long sessions here (at camp), lot of minutes, a lot of runs,” Nurse said. “He’s really doing a good job and his conditioning is letting him do that but mostly it’s his passing.
“He’s been really good at facilitating, he’s taking it in there and kicked it out quite a few times, he’s taken it in and dumped it off to Pascal a few times,” Nurse said. “So that’s probably been the single-most impressive (thing).”
Sharing the basketball and giving up a good shot for a better shot is a major tenant of any Nick Nurse coached team and Ibaka’s willingness to amp up that part of his game should only further endear him to his head coach.
Nurse is also looking at playing Ibaka primarily at his natural power forward position. A year ago he split time between power forward and centre, but that’s no longer necessary.
“Probably just because of need,” he said explaining the return to the four for Ibaka. “I think the gap right now is in the 2-3 hole losing Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard, right? Where do we plug it from? Obviously we plug it from bumping Kyle (Lowry) up and Norm (Powell) will sit in the two-three and OG (Anunoby) will probably play two and three and maybe bumping Pascal Siakam down (to small forward).
“Last year I was trying to open up those four minutes for guys like Pascal and OG. Well, now we’re trying to fill those three minutes.”
Thoughts on Raptors training camp, Beal’s future and more – TSN.ca
OG ANUNOBY (Raptors): I’m looking forward to watching him on the floor consistently this season after a challenging run last year for him. He really impressed in his rookie year, and is now back in good health and ready to go. There are plenty of minutes available at the wing positions with the departures of Danny Green and Kawai Leonard. This is a really good opportunity for him to re-establish himself, which he’s more than capable of doing.
“I see where people think he is insane in the way he thinks but he’s really like that. It was amazing to see that high level of thinking.”
That’s Powell reflecting on his time spent with Kobe and, really, it sums up both what makes Bryant one of the league’s more noteworthy players, and what makes him a textbook case of the old adage: don’t get high on your own supply. This is where we find the on-court problem with attempting to model one’s game after that of Kobe Bryant.
As Norm notes in the piece, watching Kobe work allowed him to get super in-depth, breaking down plays into their smallest parts and really making sense of what makes them tick one way or the other. For a player like Powell, who still spends much of his time on the court going at one (often out of control) speed, this kind of slow review could be helpful.
But there’s a reason why “Kobe Brain” is a thing. And that thing is this: for all of Kobe’s supposed all-world basketball intelligence, it certainly seems like he only played the “right” way when he absolutely had to. Even Raptors coach Nick Nurse knew enough to joke about it, saying “I’m not so sure there was a lot of passing at that camp.” Now, this is all being relayed third-hand to me from Lewenberg’s reporting, but it fits in with how many have taken to view Kobe’s supposed awesomeness. To my mind, he became the best by pure attrition. He was willing to do more, to accumulate more, to grind more than any other player — and pointedly refused to comprise, even when it cost him a chance at even more accolades. When you look at Kobe’s accomplishments free of any broader context they are indeed impressive. In fact, when you go into the minituia of his on-court play, as it sounds like Norm did this past summer, it is indeed impressive too.
A broader view though, one taken at a few steps’ remove from the myth Kobe has constructed for himself, exposes all of that to be sort of empty. The Raptors should hope that Norm doesn’t try too hard to become Kobe, is my point.
NBA Power Rankings, training camp edition – Breakout candidates for all 30 teams
12. Toronto Raptors
2018-19 record: 58-24
2020 title odds: +5000
Previous rank: No. 10Breakout candidate: OG Anunoby
The combination of personal issues and injuries turned 2018-19 into a lost season for Anunoby — something that wound up not mattering for Toronto, as Kawhi Leonard led the Raptors to their first championship. But now that Anunoby has had a whole summer to get his body right, and with both Leonard and Danny Green leaving via free agency, Toronto really needs Anunoby to become the player it appeared he could be after his impressive rookie year. If that happens, the Raptors will be sitting pretty with Anunoby and Pascal Siakam to build around in the years to come. — Bontemps
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