Lowry is a G | Siakam is paid like a G | Ibaka calls feeds Durant a snake | Rankings | CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE IS BEING DEFENDED STARTING TONIGHT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr1OXx2AeP4
Ibaka is having the best podium session of his career right now. Funny, insightful, deep.
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) October 21, 2019
Serge Ibaka on work-life balance: pic.twitter.com/Ct8VRcLg0n
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) October 21, 2019
Not an Underdog Story | By Kyle Lowry
People throw it out there a lot, but I’ve never really liked being described as an underdog.
It kind of makes it sound like I got where I am just because I’m lucky.
Make no mistake — there’s definitely some luck involved. But that’s true of every single guy in the league — really every person who has achieved a dream they had as a kid. But when it comes to sticking in the league, competing, growing as a player to get where I am today – none of that was luck. That’s been a process.
Want to hear a real underdog story? A kid from one of the most dangerous places in America getting a four-year scholarship to Villanova.
That’s not just an underdog story, that’s a borderline miracle where I’m from.
No matter how big the stage or the moment, basketball is a fantasy. No matter what the result or how I play, there’s no actual pressure when it comes to basketball.
Real life is pressure.
Pressure is walking through the snow for miles just grinding it out because it’s the only way you can get around. Pressure is waiting around for your cousin who has the WIC program so you can grab free milk, and maybe some Juicy Juices if you’re lucky. Pressure is your mom working two jobs while also trying to put in enough time as a parent so her child isn’t one of the many who end up dead or in jail.
That’s real life.
But basketball? That’s always been a sanctuary. No matter how intense the game is.
When we handicapped the five-man race for the final three roster spots at the beginning of camp, Chris Boucher and Dewan Hernandez were favourites. Miller was seen as a longer shot because of the team’s lack of depth at point guard. Two out of three isn’t bad, I suppose – Boucher, Hernandez and Miller secured the final three roster spots.
Boucher showed continued growth after an elite G League season with a strong summer and solid preseason. His deal will guarantee in full Tuesday, and when the Raptors open their season later that night, he could find himself in a rotation spot. He will likely work as the de facto third-string centre — as well as one of the backup forwards — filling in when Marc Gasol or Serge Ibaka need a night off. Boucher had a stronger camp than Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Stanley Johnson, though his unique strengths and limitations may make him more of a match-up based option as the third forward in the rotation.
Behind Boucher in the frontcourt rotation is Hernandez, who should see ample time with Raptors 905 once their season begins Nov. 8. Hernandez continued to show promise in the preseason with his ball skill, open-court play and floater-range game. He’ll get every opportunity to solidify and grow his game as a focal point of the 905. Nurse described Hernandez as someone the team views as a potential mid-season contributor after he’s spent time in the 905 incubator. His path to playing time in Toronto could depend on the health of the team’s centres and Boucher’s own progress.
Miller was in the somewhat strange position of competing for a final roster spot and a rotation spot simultaneously. With several new pieces underwhelming Nurse in camp, Miller made early appearances in several preseason games and was mentioned at Sunday’s practice as one of the match-up based options for the open rotation spots beyond the established top seven. With Matt Thomas struggling on defence and Johnson on offence, Miller might offer a nice in-between option – he’s hit 43 percent on a small sample of career NBA threes, 38.3 percent during his G League career and he went five-of-12 in the preseason, all while profiling as a solid multi-position perimeter defender.
What’s noteworthy about Boucher and Miller both making the team is how it highlights the Raptors’ continued emphasis on development. Not only were they the best two options at their positions, but they also offer familiarity and stability as a second wave of talent emerges from 905.
Leroux: Siakam extension demonstrates power of downside risk for both sides – The Athletic
While he was the league’s Most Improved Player last season, Siakam played four years in college before the Raptors took him late in the first round, so on the rookie scale he has made $6.4 million over four years. The most extreme potential best-case scenarios Siakam could have created by waiting were getting a 3+1 offer sheet or securing an even larger offer from the Raptors through a fifth season or qualifying for the 30 percent max by making an All-NBA team. Those were absolutely possible in his case but securing life-changing money a year early from a great organization is the much better call.
Per Michael Grange, Siakam also picked up part of that best-case scenario by negotiating that if he makes first or second-team All-NBA this season, he gets the 30 percent max as a Designated Rookie, so he left even less on the table than originally understood.
While Gordon Hayward came up above as a story for why teams should be proactive, he is also a cautionary tale for Siakam. The 27-year old blossomed on the Jazz and became an unambiguous max free agent with offers from at least the Jazz, Celtics and Heat. Five minutes and fifteen seconds into that contract, Hayward suffered a horrifying injury and is still not 100 percent two years later. Even if catastrophic or even less extreme value-altering injuries are unlikely, that possibility makes securing the massive contract the right call.
While players are individuals who can see their situation differently than we do from the outside, the Raptors being a well-run and competitive organization made extending an even easier decision. This was not Siakam committing his prime to a bad owner with a weak roster and poor track record, as Ujiri, ownership and the coaching staff proved themselves even before the championship. Who knows, maybe the 2021 flexibility the front office retained with Lowry’s extension gives Ujiri a chance to make a major splash that summer.
That 2021 possibility leads to one other interesting note: while Siakam is functionally untradeable this season due to a CBA artifact, he has no ability to stop a trade from July 2020 on and could be both matching salary and a desirable trade target in a megadeal if Ujiri yet again preferred to acquire a star instead of trying to sign one as a free agent.
Siakam’s Razor: The Future of the Raptors Is in Pascal Siakam’s Hands – The Ringer
In that case, well, Ujiri’s course is clear: canvass the league, gauge the value on everybody, and see what sort of draft capital/young talent/reclamation projects you can recoup as you look to build a new core around Siakam. Making those sorts of moves would be painful—especially if it means moving on from Lowry, the heartbeat of the franchise for nearly a decade. But having already secured Siakam’s signature lessens the emotional blow, giving Ujiri cover to undertake the sort of down-to-the-studs rebuild that we expected way back when he traded Rudy Gay in December 2013, only to be saved from it by James Dolan’s reported refusal to engage Ujiri on a Lowry-to-the-Knicks deal.
And if the Raptors fall somewhere between those poles, floating in the middle of the pack in the East, Ujiri could float in the middle, too. There’s a lot of room between “keep everybody” and “trade everybody,” and with the Larry O’B already on the mantel and Siakam’s deal already set in stone, Toronto could comfortably live in it—until or unless somebody puts something on the table that makes Ujiri stand up and take notice.
Like most other teams, the Raptors are operating with their sights set firmly on the 2021 offseason, when a star-studded free-agent class to rival last summer’s could once again tip the scales of competitive balance in the NBA. And, like most other teams, you’d expect Toronto’s shopping list to start with Giannis Antetokounmpo, with whom Ujiri has had a relationship since the reigning MVP’s days as a reed-thin prospect playing in Greece’s second division. Even after accounting for Siakam’s extension, Toronto “could have $80 million” in salary cap space in 2021 with which to hunt max free agents like Antetokounmpo, according to ESPN’s Marks; every move the Raptors make over the next two seasons will be weighed against how it might impact the pursuit of such a landscape-shifting superstar to pair with Siakam. (How two huge, shaky-shooting wing creators who are often at their best with the ball in their hands would fit together is an open question, though one imagines it’s precisely the sort of problem that head coach Nick Nurse would love to have to solve.)
That might make this season something of a frustrating exercise for Raptors fans, who barely got a moment to celebrate the title their team just won before feeling compelled to think about how Ujiri and Co. might best build a bridge to another. It could also, though, augur a surprisingly exciting campaign for the champs. Asked what he’d learned about his team during the preseason, Ibaka told reporters, “We’re still good, man. People are sleeping on us.” That might be less because the post-Kawhi Raptors are boring, though, and more because what comes next could once again be the stuff dreams are made of.
Raptors Notebook: Pascal Siakam fulfills personal vision with max deal – Sportsnet.ca
For Siakam, the deal was a milestone. He became the first player taken 27th overall or later in the draft to get a max extension out of his rookie contract. It represents the fulfilment of a personal vision for the rangy forward from Cameroon.
“From the first time I got in the league, I always used to tell Masai that I wanted to change how Africans were viewed, it wasn’t just about running and dunking and being an energy player, it was about trying to change a generation behind me,” Siakam said.
“[To] Make sure I go out there and be someone that people can look at and see my story and strive to want more. That’s something I’ve always done from the first day I got here. Obviously understanding my role but also striving for more and I’ve done that and I’m going to continue to do that, work hard to be the best player that I can be.”
For Siakam there’s a bigger mission at work.
“I think just doing something like that is definitely going to change the minds of a lot of kids from Africa that look up to me and don’t think that things like that are possible,” he said. “They can look at my story and see the journey and how there were a lot of ups and a lot of downs and I just stuck to whatever I believed and continued to work hard to be able to be in this position.
“It’s a blessing, man, there’s nothing more I can say. It’s amazing for my family, for myself.”
What message does signing of Siakam and Lowry send to league? – Video – TSN
The Raptors lost Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green in the off-season, but awarded Pascal Siakam with a max deal, and signed Kyle Lowry to an extension. The NBA on TSN panel have more on what kind of impact the signings will have this season and beyond.
More of the load means more of the dough for Raptors’ Siakam | Toronto Sun
“Life happens to an extent, and I think it’s hard to predict what would happen over the course of the year,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said. “I think, ultimately, the success of last year, Pascal’s hugely important role on that team, Pascal’s ascension to potentially being a foundational piece for us carried the day.”
And that’s exactly what Siakam is — a foundational piece whose role a year ago, as big and important as it was, only gets bigger this year with Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green no longer in the fold — as the Raptors begin defence of their NBA title Tuesday night.
No one player is going to handle all the touches and scoring opportunities the Raptors sent Kawhi Leonard’s way a year ago, but the betting money is the majority of those opportunities find their way into Siakam’s hands.
Some might view that as pressure; others might see the level of expectation that would come with this and not want the added responsibility.
Siakam neither feels any added pressure nor has any concerns about the extra responsibility.
“To be honest, the thing I was really worried about today was getting to the practice facility and signing the contract,” Siakam said laughing along with the assembled reporters. “That was a way bigger worry. But I think for me I always take pleasure playing the game of basketball and I’m always at my best when I’m having fun and playing the game the right way.
“I just believe that me doing the things that got me here and continuing to work hard, being that same person who is going to be in the gym before anyone else and stay later, I will continue to work and improve and get to that level,” Siakam said. “There is no pressure at all. I am going to work hard and I know that I’m at the level I’m at and I deserve to be here and I believe there is more to come. Obviously I’m not at my best yet but I’m going to get there and I think it’s going to be a great season. I’m just excited about it. I can’t wait to go out there and play with these guys.”
NBA Power Rankings, training camp edition – Breakout candidates for all 30 teams – ESPN
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
The Athletic’s NBA Power Rankings: Training camp opens with the league up for grabs – The Athletic
11. Toronto Raptors (Previously 13th)
Who is going to help Pascal Siakam score?
The Raptors should have an elite defense. A defense featuring Siakam, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, OG Anunoby, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Stanley Johnson and even Kyle Lowry should be clamping down on everybody. Assuming this team is healthy, I would be shocked if they finished outside the top 5 in defensive rating this season. But the help Siakam will need on offense isn’t easy to just pinpoint as we project their season. Is Kyle Lowry willing to go back to more of a scorer’s mentality than he flashed last season? Is Fred VanVleet’s late playoff run emblematic of what we can expect from him this season? Will Gasol and Ibaka be reliable scorers in the frontcourt?
Siakam has a bit of a rude awakening coming for him on offense. Yes, the Raptors more than survived when Kawhi Leonard load managed his work last season. They went 17-5 and Siakam played great. But there’s a difference between the few and far between games and having to do it with a target on your back all season. The Raptors don’t plan on just rolling over and not trying to defend their championship now that Leonard is in Los Angeles. They just may need to ugly up all of these games moving forward. Maintaining that top 5 offense — or anything close to it — will take some true brilliance from Nick Nurse and his players.
13 Raptors
Kyle Lowry got on the floor for the team’s last preseason game, so it looks like he’ll be good to go for opening night. Toronto has sped up its pace considerably from last year — which makes sense with Kawhi Leonard’s iso-heavy offense now in Los Angeles. The Raptors locked up Pascal Siakam with an extension, and he’ll lead the next wave for the defending champs.
Power Rankings, Week 1: Bucks, Clippers lead wide-open field | NBA.com
8 Last week:10
Toronto Raptors
2018-19 record: 58-24
Pace: 100.6 (15) OffRtg: 112.5 (5) DefRtg: 106.8 (5) NetRtg: +5.8 (3)The contract extensions for Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam were both a little surprising, though neither necessarily affects the next six months of basketball, because Siakam wasn’t going anywhere anyway and Lowry’s one-year extension doesn’t necessarily mean that he can’t (or won’t) be traded before the Feb. 6 deadline. But the Raptors looked pretty darn good (draining 24 3-pointers and assisting on 31 of their 44 buckets) in the one preseason game (Friday in Brooklyn) in which Lowry played, with Fred VanVleet starting at the other guard spot. It might be tough to start two 6-foot guys against the Celtics (who start 6-foot-7 Jaylen Brown at the two) on Friday, though coach Nick Nurse doesn’t lack the requisite swag.
With Siakam and Lowry secured, what is Masai and the Raptors’ next focus? – Video – TSN
After extending contracts with both Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry, the Raptors are now looking to the future. What is Masai Ujiri and the Raptors next best move? Catch the full Raptors’ season preview show, tonight on TSN 4 at 7:30 pm/ET.
The NBA champion Raptors relaunch with a crossroads to bear | The Star
“I’m ready for the challenge again,” says Lowry. “Got to do what’s best for the team and get back to the promised land.”
They still talk like champs. They will, at times, still play like them.
Still, when Kawhi left it led to what is a crossroads season, and there is more than one possible road. That chemistry and fit should result in a top-three finish in the unimposing East. But is that enough to keep Gasol and Serge Ibaka’s expiring contracts? As it stands, this franchise doesn’t think it is scared of Milwaukee without Malcolm Brogdon, or Philadelphia without Jimmy Butler and J.J. Redick, even if those teams have more talent. That could, of course, change with experience.
But if the team somehow flops — if Lowry’s off-season thumb surgery leads to a slow start, if OG Anunoby and Norm Powell and VanVleet can’t fill the void left by Kawhi and Green, and most of all if injuries play a role — then it’s an obvious play to send Gasol and Ibaka and maybe even Lowry somewhere else, to maximize them as assets. Gasol’s ability to fit in anywhere, on and off the court, is exceptional. Ibaka sounds ready for the best season of his Raptors tenure. The extra year on Lowry’s deal makes him easier, not harder, to deal. Short-term certainty.
So what’s winning now with a limited ceiling worth, versus gathering assets for the future? And the answer is probably, whatever sets you up best for the free agency gold mine of 2021, headlined by Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Raptors considered chasing Washington’s Bradley Beal in a trade if he became available, since his contract was up in the holy year of 2021, but a two-year extension scotched that. There aren’t a lot of other obvious trade targets to bolster Toronto, which is funny since they’re a team that is one special player away, again.
With Ujiri anything is possible, except taking on salary past 2021. As colleague Dave Feschuk writes, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment probably should have gotten him a contract extension this past summer, just to be sure.
Where can the Raptors realistically finish this year? – Video – TSN
Are the Raptors a playoff team this year? Are they good enough to finish in the top three in the East? The NBA on TSN panel predict where Toronto will finish and who will win the NBA Championship.
Called Out: Raptors Edition – Video – TSN
Which Raptor has the worst taste in music? Who partied the most after their first NBA Championship? The Raptors weigh in during ‘Called Out’.
Nick Nurse: How the NBA’s champion coach was made in Britain – Yahoo!
Nurse had obviously seen first-hand the growth of basketball in England at both elite and grass roots level. By 2012, he had coached five BBL teams, winning the championship with Birmingham Bullets (1996) and Manchester Giants (2000). But despite being tempted back by the allure of an Olympics, he was now firmly embedded in the NBA G League as head coach of Texas-based team Rio Grand Valley Vipers.
Twenty three players on his rosters got called up to the NBA during a six-year G League spell that also saw him coach Iowa Energy. That record was enough to pique the interest of Casey who brought Nurse to Toronto as his assistant in 2013. The pair slowly laid foundations before masterminding a franchise-high 59-win season in 2017-2018 that earned Casey the NBA’s Coach of the Year award.
But when the Raptors crashed out of the post-season in emphatic style, losing 4-0 to Cleveland Cavaliers in the Conference Semifinals, Casey was fired and Nurse handed the biggest break of his career from Raptors president Masai Ujiri. Bournemouth-born Ujiri had also played for Derby and come up against Nurse’s Birmingham in 1997.
“He left an impression on me from our time in England,” said Ujiri at Nurse’s unveiling last year. “His teams were tough. As a coach he is unique. The appeal of Nick is that he is not afraid to try new stuff. We want a balance between a tactician and an innovator. That’s what makes Nick the ideal coach for us.”
Sizing up the Sixers’ threats in the 2019-20 Eastern Conference – The Athletic
The matchup: The Raptors still have the pieces to be a solid defensive team, and one that could cause the 76ers’ offense problems — if Toronto keeps the team together for the entire season.
At least so far, the Raptors kept Marc Gasol, Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka around for the start of the season as the organization celebrates its first championship.
But will they really keep all of those players past the trade deadline? The mix of veterans (Lowry, Gasol, Ibaka) and youth (Siakam, Anunoby, VanVleet) is interesting. But if you’re not a serious threat to compete for a championship, is it worth keeping them all around and lose out on the opportunity cost of what they could bring back in a trade? Would Lowry and Gasol want to be moved to teams that would give them another chance at a title? It feels like this roster has a short shelf-life together. Even if it doesn’t, I can’t see Toronto scoring enough to be a threat to knock the Sixers out in the playoffs. (The odds below include the expectation that trades will be made.)
Odds of beating the 76ers in a playoff series: 5 percent
Another Raptors title run on Nick Nurse’s bucket list | The Star
He doesn’t have Kawhi Leonard and doesn’t have Danny Green and doesn’t yet have an eighth, ninth or 10th man he feels comfortable relying on.
Is he worried? Not in the least. Not with the group around him and his own confidence.
“One thing I do know is that our guys know how hard we had to play in the NBA Finals,” he said weeks ago at media day.
“Two things: That is an invaluable thing that’s gonna take you a long way. There is a level of play for every possession for every game, home or away, that is super special that our guys experienced and have that knowledge in their pocket. The other thing is, we had two months of playoff basketball. That is a lot of practice, films, games, situations that we got to work on last year and most of those guys are back this year.”
Nurse did manage to savour the championship this summer on a bit of a bucket list tour. He played guitar on stage with Arkells, sang “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” during the seventh-inning stretch while watching his beloved Chicago Cubs play at Wrigley and was feted everywhere he went.
It was a whirlwind and he said the most relaxing time, quite unexpectedly, might have come when he coached Canada at the FIBA World Cup.
“It was pretty crazy but I would say — and I want to say this nicely — the Canada thing was probably more relaxing than if I wouldn’t have been there, with all the extra running around you probably would have done,” he said.
“Yeah, we did a lot, but it was OK. Just short.”
Masai Ujiri positions Raptors for life after Kawhi Leonard – The Washington Post
Ujiri is already returning to his old playbook in Toronto. This month, he inked Lowry to a one-year extension worth $31 million that should dampen trade speculation around the point guard. Then, he signed Siakam to a four-year, $130 million max extension this past weekend, locking in the Cameroonian forward and reigning Most Improved Player Award recipient as a foundational piece.
As in Denver, Ujiri’s first instinct when confronted by a franchise-shaking situation was to steady the ship. The Lowry and Siakam deals should remove some of the transition stress that is bound to hang over this season’s Raptors, given that Gasol, Ibaka and postseason hero Fred VanVleet are in contract years. The message to Toronto’s impending free agents is simple: Ujiri isn’t racing into a teardown.
Nevertheless, Ujiri has navigated himself to an incredibly flexible situation. He could cash out on Gasol and/or Ibaka at the trade deadline if the Raptors underperform early. He could spend next summer shopping Lowry rather than working through negotiations to re-sign him or losing him for nothing. And, in a worst-case scenario that doesn’t sound all that bad, he could even clear the decks and reshape the entire roster around Siakam.
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