Malachi Flynn is ready to be the Raptors’ little brother – The Athletic
Flynn is essentially a parody of recent Raptors draft picks: somewhat undersized, not heavily scouted, not notably dynamic from an athletic perspective. Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman noted on draft night that Flynn is “just like Freddy, he’s just like Kyle.” The narrative seems too easy, but nobody can manage to successfully puncture it.
“He’s gonna learn from Kyle Lowry and VanVleet,” says Thomas, himself an undersized guard at 5-foot-9. “That’s only gonna help him. He’s in the pedigree of those players. He’s in that space. He can be those players. He’s just gonna piggyback on what they bring to the table and learn from them. I’m excited about the situation, more than anything.
“I’ve had a lot of friends and younger players I’ve worked with make the NBA, get drafted out of the state of Washington,” adds Thomas. “This is by far the most proud I’ve been just because I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it from him being a little boy at the YMCA, and nobody really counting on him to be nothing. I’ve seen the hard work and dedication he put into his game. It’s been tremendous. You can ask anybody in Tacoma. I think everyone is proud of him because he wasn’t the one who was the chosen one. It wasn’t, like, ‘OK, he’s gonna be the one.’ He had to work for that ever since he was a little boy. That’s what made this that much more special for him and his family.”
Isaiah and Malachi grew up dreaming of where they’d go to college. When Isaiah heard Adam Silver announce his brother’s name on draft night on Nov. 18, “it blew my mind.” He distinctly remembers when the big brother/little-brother dynamic changed. Malachi was in his sophomore year at Bellarmine, while Isaiah was a freshman at Tacoma Community College.
As had been the case since they were kids, Malachi was tagging along, looking to test himself against older kids.
“He was giving some of my teammates work,” recalls Isaiah. “He was still small at that point. But he was very skilled. We were just talking about it the other day. It’s crazy remembering when I brought him through, he was just a little guy, giving us buckets. Now he’s doing it in the NBA, so I don’t feel too bad.”
Raptors’ 3 positive COVID-19 cases bring a dose of reality – The Athletic
With the numbers still trending in the wrong direction all over the continent, this will only continue. The NBA was able to navigate the completion of its 2019-20 schedule because it created a bubble environment that served to block out the virus. For a maximum of three months, which is about how long the Lakers and Heat, the league’s two finalists, were in Disney, that was doable. On the other hand, the 2020-21 season started with training camp in home markets at the beginning of December, and the Finals are currently scheduled to wrap up late in July. Housing that many people in such strict conditions and for such a long time for the upcoming season was simply not logistically feasible, not to mention advisable from a mental-health perspective.
Still, the NBA is determined to (a) play as many games as possible and (b) get the league back on track for a return to its traditional October-June schedule for 2021-22, so here we are. It is a risk-reward calculation, and everything that is being done had to be agreed to by the league and the players’ association.
A ton of money is at stake. That is not to minimize the other reasons the NBA is trying to make this work, from allowing team employees to continue earning a living to using the game as a platform to promote social justice to providing a welcome distraction to fans, many of whom are facing a long winter spent largely indoors. It’s just that none of that would matter without the money.
That means there will be many more days like Monday. It’s not clear what would cause the cancellation of the season, or even a brief, unplanned hiatus, but it’s much more than this. There is a non-monetary cost to that approach, though: On many days, the type of news the league usually creates will seem profoundly unimportant. In fact, the notion of trying to approximate a normal season at all could be deemed a net negative for society. There are potential disasters everywhere, whether they come in the public health or public relations departments.
“We’ve always said sports are an outlet, sports are a distraction, and I like to believe we’re providing entertainment,” Webster said. “We’re providing things for the greater good of the public. … I think (because of) the nature of our positive tests, we feel comfortable there are not further (positive cases). But it’s not to say a week from now or two weeks from now or in the middle of the season when we’re on the road in Brooklyn that we’re not going to have this again. And so we’ll continue to confront those challenges. But I do think from a professional manner, basketball is our livelihood, it’s the livelihood of these players, coaches, and a number of staff. So we think (by) following the protocols, we can get through this.”
NBA’s fantasy bubble has burst and Raptors face real-world problems – Sportsnet
The NBA announced that during testing from Nov. 24 to Nov. 30 as players returned to their local markets to prepare for training camp, 48 out of 546 players tested were positive for the virus, or about 8.8 per cent.
To put that into perspective, if the NBA was one of the 50 U.S. states, that rate would rank it 36th, nestled between Florida and West Virginia, which isn’t all that comforting given that the country as a whole is in the midst of second wave that has already surpassed by almost any measure the peak of the first in March and April. That was the one that prompted the league to shut down for four months in the first place and only resume play in an antiseptic bubble.
But now here they are trying to play through it.
By that crude math the Raptors have done pretty well to have only three positive tests, which translates into about a five per cent positivity rate, which would make them the sixth-best state, just behind New York and ahead of Massachusetts.
But even three cases aren’t nothing and the virus has shown there is likely plenty more where those came from. Figuring out how to navigate will be – it is eminently clear – an ongoing issue that won’t go away until vaccines are widely available which is, who knows when?
Until then, the league will be forced to figure things out on the trot, with each situation just a little different. The Portland Trail Blazers had three positive tests on Sunday. And they closed their practice facility for a deep clean out of – you guessed it – “an abundance of caution.”
The Raptors had three positive tests and they haven’t missed a beat, with the second day of training camp moving along without interruption.
“We had full training camp (Monday),” said Webster. “We’re comfortable that the three cases were isolated. … (After) contact tracing went through, there’s been no further positive tests. So we’re confident that we can continue with basketball.”
Early positive tests could be sign of what’s to come for Raptors, NBA – TSN.ca
What we do know is that Monday’s previously scheduled media availabilities with Nurse and were promptly cancelled but, per Webster, the Raptors’ training camp facility at Saint Leo University – just north of downtown Tampa – remained open and the team was able to hold practice, as planned.
“We’re comfortable that the three cases were isolated,” Webster said. “There was no contact. [After] contact tracing went through, there’s been no further positive tests, so we’re confident that we can continue with basketball.”
The show goes on, but it’s not exactly business as usual. It’s the new normal in professional sports and the reality that the Raptors and basketball’s other 29 teams face as they get set to tip off what promises to be an unusual 2020-21 campaign later this month.
What the NBA is hoping to pull off – navigating its way through a 72-game season, and postseason, amid a global pandemic – will be a unique challenge. They can plan and prepare, they can do their due diligence and implement thorough health and safety protocols, they can even try to learn from the other leagues that have attempted something similar in recent months, but there’s no real blueprint for this. There are going to be bumps in the road. That was inevitable.
“It’s an enormous challenge,” Webster said. “It’s a logistical challenge, it’s a health challenge, and it’s a human challenge that we’re all going through. It’s constantly on our mind but at the same time, we’re trying to prepare for an NBA season. As I’m sure most of us are seeing around the sports landscape, this was bound to happen, so we just wanted to make sure we had everything kind of tied up – continuing to review, continuing to educate, continuing to have awareness with our players, coaches and staff, almost on a daily basis.”
Three members of the organization have tested positive for the virus and have been isolated away from the team’s training camp in Central Florida. The positive tests were returned despite extensive and exhaustive testing, and NBA protocols governing everything from mask-wearing to physical distancing to food preparation and near constant sanitization.
It speaks to the insidious nature of the virus and the dangers inherent in trying to start an NBA season with the world still gripped by a once-a-century pandemic.
“It’s a logistical challenge, it’s a health challenge, it’s a human challenge that we’re all going through,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said Monday. “It’s constantly on our mind. At the same time we’re trying to prepare for an NBA season …
“This was bound to happen so we just wanted to make sure we had everything kind of tied up and (we are) continuing to review, continuing to educate, continuing to have awareness with our players, coaches and staff, almost on a daily basis.”
Citing privacy concerns, the Raptors would not say specifically who tested positive, nor when those tests were taken or the results provided.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse said Sunday that all 20 players on the training camp roster took part in the first full-team workout and Webster said the team held a practice “at a high level of intensity” on Monday without disclosing how many team members took part.
The Raptors are scheduled to have their first of three exhibition games Sunday in Charlotte and Webster sees no reason that won’t go on as planned.
“I don’t think that will be affected,” he said.
Raptors say three positive COVID-19 tests at camp, but it has not spread | Toronto Sun
“The nature of our positive tests, we feel comfortable there’s not further (positives) but that’s not to say in a week or in the middle of the season we’re not gonna have this again,” Webster said.
“We’ll continue to confront those challenges. We think following the protocols we can get through this,” Webster said.
Webster cited the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for what comes next for the three people in question in terms of when they will be allowed to rejoin the contingent in Tampa.
“I believe for us it’s the 10-to-14 day period, so I’m not sure if that’s from the first positive test or asymptomatic and then you need to return two negative tests before you return to the group or the Tier 1 or Tier 2 status,” Webster said.
He added that protocols are being followed.
“I think the nature of the protocols was to essentially create little bubbles around each team, right. So you have, basically to get in the bubble or around a team you need to follow a bunch of protocols or continually test negative,” he said. “So we’re all in the habits of waking up in the morning, going down and getting tested, wearing your mask, grabbing your food to go, eating in your room, jumping on a bus, being socially distanced, coming to practice is obviously the one where we’re all together, where the players are not wearing masks. But yeah, I think it’s become pretty normal and routine for us now.”
Outside the Bubble, there’s an entirely next level of adapting awaiting NBA players | Toronto Sun
On Saturday, the league released a whole slew of protocols for the players going into this season to keep them as safe as possible, complete with possible discipline should these protocols be ignored.
The testing that they got so accustomed to in the Bubble will again become part of their daily routine. But testing alone can’t keep the players from contracting the virus. As for the rest of the protocols, VanVleet said they’re all part and parcel of what everyone in the world is coping with.
“Just gotta roll with the punches,” he said. “I’m not really a complainer and I try to keep a good perspective on things so for better or for worse I think I’m just going to roll with it and see how it goes. Obviously put the safety of everybody first, myself included and my family and try to stay as safe and healthy as possible but realizing the world is kind of moving on and we have to find a way to kind of live with it and still follow all the guidelines the best we can.”
That said VanVleet is too much of a realist to just believe it will all go off without a hitch. There are going to be some bumps.
“I think the NBA is definitely trying to cover all its bases and make sure it’s a safe environment for us,” he said of the new measures. “I don’t have great expectations about that, I think it’s going to be tough to do but this is what it is and we’ve got to try to do the best we can.”
So VanVleet isn’t going to get bent out of shape by the league advising him of places he can safely eat when he’s on the road or telling him and his teammates that they can’t hit the bars either at home or on the road until the coronavirus is brought under control either through widespread vaccine distribution or some other means.
In truth, he doesn’t believe his teammates will put him or his family’s health at risk by doing anything reckless the same way he wouldn’t put his teammates at risk with his own actions.
But VanVleet knows adapting to the current circumstances as they are is just part of what has to happen if we’re all going to get back to anything approaching normal.
Send me any Raptors related stuff that I may have missed: rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com
