Raptors veterans happy to be bridge between coaches, young teammates
“Obviously it takes time (for) new guys, young guys in this league. The defence is different in the NBA for sure and they’ve got to learn how fast things happen and where those rotations are and that just takes time of daily practice, the games, the film and back to practice over and over.
“Then, of course, our guys that know it will always be out there coaching ’em, telling (them) this is how we do it and this is what we do and this is how it goes.”
“It’s Fred, it’s me, it’s OG, it’s Nick. We are the voices,” said Siakam. “And (we) pick our spots and make sure the message is clear, whatever the message is we have from Nick or the organization on how we want to play as a team, just continue to convey it to the team.”
It might be counterintuitive, but in this way it probably helps that Lowry — well known for making his views heard when it comes to tactics and strategy — has moved on. It was a great attribute to have around a veteran team, but with a younger group maybe not as much.
“We can actually get through a practice now,” said VanVleet, only half-joking. “We can get through practices, meetings, shootarounds without (Lowry) messing everything up. Nick can actually get stuff done…”
Now it’s the responsibility of VanVleet and Siakam and Anunoby to help get Nurse’s message across.
“I’m translating it right? You know what I mean?” says VanVleet. “I’m just trying to relate it and make it relatable and when you go in a locker room or we’re in a huddle and guys are not sure… I think it’s our job to just let them know that we trust Nick, that Pascal trusts Nick, OG trusts Nick and the coaching staff.”
Lewenberg: Fred VanVleet ready to lead Toronto Raptors back to prominence – TSN.ca
VanVleet and the Raptors are getting set to open a new season. They’re back in Toronto, where they’ll host the Washington Wizards to kick things off on Wednesday, exactly 600 days since their last meaningful game of basketball in front of a full capacity crowd at Scotiabank Arena.
Finally, they’ll have a chance to turn the page and put their ill-fated 2020-21 campaign behind them. The best way to do that is to get back to where they were before it happened.
This team isn’t competing for a championship, not yet anyway, but they can hope to emulate the group of pesky overachievers that defended their title so admirably before the pandemic hit and the 2019-20 campaign was put on hold.
The notable difference between that team and this team is about 20 or so years of NBA experience. That was a team made up of veterans, basketball savants and champions. That team had Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol.
This is a team made up of kids. Barnes was four years old when Lowry broke into the league. Toronto-native Dalano Banton grew up watching Andrea Bargnani’s Raptors, not Chris Bosh or Vince Carter – he was born three months before Carter’s iconic 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest performance.
The average age of the 17 players on the Raptors’ opening night roster is 24.5, making them the seventh-youngest team in the NBA. If you subtract 35-year-old Goran Dragic, and at some point this season they might, they would be the fourth youngest. Eight seasons of NBA experience separate Dragic, a 13-year vet, from the team’s next most senior players, VanVleet and Pascal Siakam.
If the hope is to flush what happened last season, this is the group to do it with. They’re a blank canvas, a ball of clay ready to be moulded. What shape will they take? Much of that will fall on the people tasked with doing the moulding: Nick Nurse and his coaching staff, as well as the club’s young leaders.
With more experience on the roster in previous years, Nurse would often opt for rest over practice time. Full team practices were few and far between as the season progressed. The young guys would get their reps in with the assistant coaches in the morning. The vets would come in for a short film session, maintenance and maybe some individual on-court work.
But with a much younger and greener group, and without Lowry’s influence over the team’s practice schedule, Nurse is planning to spend a lot more time in the gym this year.
“Without Kyle messing everything up Nick can actually get stuff done,” VanVleet joked.
Make no mistake: Siakam has to be a better and more consistent player this season than he’s been in the last year and a half if this version of the Raptors is going to be as good as it expects to be. He struggled at times last season — a bout of COVID, an uncharacteristically bad team and a full month without a win — and is now coming off shoulder surgery and is not likely to play for at least a couple of weeks.
He doesn’t, though, have to eclipse everyone else like Lowry did at times, like Kawhi Leonard did in his one magical season with the Raptors. If he’s a very good player on a team with several very good players on it, that’s going to be good enough.
The manner in which Pascal Siakam’s influence on the Raptors will be most felt will be hidden from fans and the media and handled in the confines of team.
He’s a key player, sure. He doesn’t have to be the player.
“I’m super happy for OG (Anunoby), I want him to be the best player that he can be,” Siakam said. “If you see me out there, I try to help him, try to give him whatever little knowledge I have that could help him to the best level he can get to.
“ I don’t think it matters. Whoever can make the play makes the play. The more players you can have, the better it is for the team.”
The manner in which Siakam’s influence will be most felt will be hidden from fans and the media and handled in the confines of team. Only he, VanVleet and Anunoby remain as stalwarts of a great run for the franchise. Siakam’s voice within the team will have to be louder and likely will since it will never be eclipsed by Lowry or even Norm Powell.
It will take him out of his comfort zone a bit, he’s aware of that and has spoken to confidants and sports psychologists about the best manner in which he can grow.
“(It’s) just continuing to learn and just know that it’s going to take me being uncomfortable,” he said. “I’m a person that likes to be comfortable and some of the things I have to do is not comfortable for me because it’s not my nature.”
But, again, it’s being a voice, not the voice.
“It’s Fred, it’s me, OG, it’s (coach Nick Nurse),” Siakam said. “We are the voices and pick our spots and make sure the message is clear, whatever the message is we have from Nick or the organization, how we want to play as a team, just continue to convey it to the team.
“For me, I just feel like sometimes, I don’t want to bother them. Not bother them but everyone has their route and how they got here … I think I just want to sometimes encourage,” he added.
Spotlight firmly on Raptors’ Anunoby this season | Toronto Sun
It is Anunoby’s time and it’s not a secret.
It has long been the case that Nick Nurse has turned to Anunoby as his first line of defence against the opposing team’s best perimeter player. There have been times he has put him on the opposing team’s centre and asked him to limit his game.
That won’t change.
“He’s going to be guarding the best players in the league every night,” Nurse said, “because he can do it.”
What does change for Anunoby, both now and even after Pascal Siakam returns to the lineup in the coming weeks, is opportunity.
And even that may not be the change everyone is expecting. For all intents and purposes, Anunoby spent last season as the Raptors’ No. 1 and No. 2 option on offence — while dealing with injuries, the COVID issues, and on a team that was tanking towards the latter part of the schedule.
Nurse seemed to object to the use of the word adjustment when it came to Anunoby’s expected increased offensive role.
“Well, the reason you adjust those things usually is the ball’s going in,” Nurse said. “We don’t really care how right? So guys who are making the ball go in like he’s been doing in a variety of ways, the ball usually finds that person quite a bit and that, I guess just kind of works hand in hand that way.
“But as far as adjustments, I don’t know if there’s adjustments, I think it’s always kind of been the way that the guys with the ability to increase their chances because of their skills improving are able to do that.”
And make no mistake, Anunoby has improved his skills.
You can go all the way back to the games in the Bubble in Orlando following the four-month shutdown of the league for the start of Anunoby’s offensive coming-out party.
It was there that we first started noticing him putting the ball on the floor and attacking the rim in traffic with some regularity. And it was either there, or certainly last season, when the three-point shot became something he could rely on consistently. The heat-check days ended for good a year ago in Tampa when Anunoby finished the year a hair under the 40% plateau for long-distance gunning.
Toronto Raptors Player Preview: Justin Champagnie came to the right place – Raptors HQ
Unfortunately, it’s been a little bit of downhill for Champagnie since then, as his minutes and performance gradually went down as the preseason games went on. He managed to average 7.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game in the preseason. His PER 36 numbers looked good, too, a double-double average of 14.5 points and 11.3 rebounds. Not bad for a guard. But is he a guard?
For Champagnie to have staying power in the NBA, he would need to transition as a 3+D player. This corner of the internet won’t question whether he can do the “D” as there’s enough tape from his time in Pittsburgh that he fits the Raptors’ “crazy-running-around-like-a-headless-chicken” aggressive defense. It’s his shooting that he would need to work on offensively this season.
Champagnie shot just 1/6 from the perimeter during the combine scrimmage, 3/13 during the Vegas Summer League, and 3/11 during the preseason. The silver lining here is that it’s trending up, much like how his three-point shooting percentage improved from his freshman to sophomore year (26% -> 31%). Luckily for Champagnie, it looks like he went to the right organization. The Raptors have had success developing perimeter shots of their prospects like Pascal Siakam (17.6% at New Mexico State), Norman Powell (31.9% at UCLA), and Chris Boucher (34.4%). As you can see from the video below, Champagnie’s shot is not broken, so I expect him to be a decent three-point shooter (he shot 74.5% from the freethrow line despite shooting only 28% behind the arc at Pittsburgh).
Champagnie’s situation reminds me of former Raptor Oshae Brissett. He started the season with the Raptors 905 with an offensive game that was rough around the edges. His perimeter shot and overall shot creation were never there to start the season. Still, you can count on him with his energy, hustle, defense, and activity. Brissett got his number called midway through the season, leveraged the things he’s good at, and was given a chance to showcase his offensive progress. Long story short, Champagnie brings a lot of similar things to the table that makes him playable. If he develops a perimeter shot, he might be knocking on the back-end of the rotation. After all, the Raptors are thin on wings that can hit a perimeter shot.
For all of these to happen, expect Champagnie to stay with the Raptors 905 for this season, where he should have the green light to shoot at all times. Expect the occasional call-ups, especially on days where there’s a chance for Champagnie to dress up for both the Raptors 905 and the main club. We will be monitoring his progress through the Raptors Prospect Report every week.
How many games did it take you to score your first NBA bucket?
Oh, I don’t know that. My rookie season I didn’t play a lot. I don’t remember when I scored my first bucket.You have no memories of your first bucket at all?
Not at all. I don’t even know who it was against.That was my next question. So you scored in your second game, and it was on what is listed as a 9-foot jumper against New Orleans.
Nice. So it was not a layup?Nope, at least not according to the play-by-play. You didn’t hit a shot, but you had two assists in your first game. Who were you playing, and who scored on your first assist?
New Orleans, maybe?No, that was who the second game was against. I’ll give you a clue: It was the team that drafted you.
San Antonio. San Antonio. Who was it to? At that time I was in the second unit. Maybe Channing Frye? No? Lou Amundson?Nope. He’s a big wine drinker.
Big wine drinker? Damn.At least I think he is. There’s a famous picture of him on the Internet with him drinking wine.
Amar’e Stoudemire?Nope. Boris.
Boris Diaw? Boo-Boo, man. We call him Boo-Boo.What do you remember about playing with him?
He was awesome. I remember when I came to the team and he was the only (other) European (on the Suns) at that time. He took me under his wing and showed me around the city. I got close with his cousin. His cousin showed me around the town. We hung out a lot. That was something I was always going to cherish. I was new. Different culture, different language. (It was nice) to have someone a little closer to me than everyone else.
Atlantic Division Preview: Nets remain title contender despite Irving drama – Sportsnet
2020–21 finish: 27-45, fifth in the Atlantic, didn’t qualify for the post-season.
Major additions: Precious Achiuwa, Dalano Banton (R), Scottie Barnes (R), Goran Dragic.
Major subtractions: Aron Baynes, DeAndre’ Bembry, Kyle Lowry.
Best-case scenario: The Raptors are, perhaps, the hardest team to figure out this season. They appear to be a club that’s trying to thread the needle by simultaneously keeping a small competitive window open while also trying to re-tool and shoot back up to the top of the Eastern Conference standings. Given the championship-calibre talent on the roster, it’s feasible to think they’ll be able to do it, and No. 4 overall pick Scottie Barnes looks like the kind of high-ceiling talent who’ll be able to help push the Raptors towards that inevitable goal. For this season, if Toronto can reach the play-in tournament and even the post-season, proper it’ll be a successful season.
Worst-case scenario: Unfortunately, what the Raptors appear to be attempting is incredibly difficult and for all the optimism you can point to in regards to the roster, you can also find some worrying flaws and difficulties, such as how this team will score consistently – particularly with Pascal Siakam not expected to be in the lineup until closer to U.S. Thanksgiving – and whether this experiment of going all-in on “position-less” basketball will actually work. If things go awry it could lead to Toronto stuck in a no-man’s land position where they won’t be good enough to compete for a post-season spot, but not bad enough to get a high draft pick again – that is, unless Lady Luck decides to smile on them once again.
2021–22 season prediction: 38-44, 11th in the East.
