Nurse, asked why Flynn isn't playing: "There's a Fred and there's a Goran and we've given Dalano a run. And Dalano's the one you should probably be asking me about. He's played outstanding every minute he's been out there.. You guys should be all over me for not playing him more"
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) October 26, 2021
Pascal Siakam and Yuta Watanabe both practiced in full today, per Nick Nurse, which would indicate that Siakam has been cleared for full contact. Plan is for both of them to make the trip to Mississauga tomorrow and practice with the 905, who are holding camp this week.
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) October 26, 2021
Scottie Barnes with 17 pts, 8 reb, 2 ast on Sat. His court awareness on both ends is just special.
Barnes and Evan Mobley’s ceilings are eventual “Top 10 player in the NBA” high https://t.co/zo9hGgMfVZ
— NBA Big Board (@chadfordinsider) October 24, 2021
Raptors doing ‘an interesting dance’ at point guard early in season – Sportsnet
Dalano Banton has gotten Nurse’s attention as well. The second-round pick from Rexdale has seen action in all four games. He was part of the Raptors’ second-half surge in their opener, where he got nearly 13 minutes of action. It’s been spotty since but Nurse did find five minutes for him with Toronto down by 15 late in the third quarter and was rewarded with a quick burst that helped the Raptors cut the Bulls’ lead to 10.
Which brings up the topic of Flynn, the second-year guard taken 29th overall in the 2020 draft. He struggled for playing time last season but as the Raptors began positioning for the draft and prioritizing development, he had some good outings, averaging 14.9 points and 5.5 assists on 37.4 three-point shooting in 14 late-season starts.
With Lowry having moved on, the expectation was Flynn would find his way into a three-guard rotation with VanVleet and Dragic. Instead, he has averaged just three minutes in four games. He was last seen putting up jumpers on the court at Scotiabank Arena in a late-night workout well after the final horn had sounded.
Why has he been the odd man out?
“Well, there’s a Fred VanVleet and there’s a Goran and we’ve given Dalano a run,” Nurse said. “And Dalano – he’s the one you should probably be asking me about. He’s come out and played outstanding every minute he’s been out there and the offence gets really easy when he’s out there and he’s played like eight minutes a night. You should be all over me for not playing him more. So that’s part of the issue.
“And again, I think Malachi is a good player, right? It’s just a matter of timing and numbers and all that kind of stuff right now but he’s not, like, out of the discussion. He almost went in the game last night, he almost went (in) the game (against) Dallas, like, it’ll happen one of these days and then it’s gonna be up to see what he looks like out there.”
Fred VanVleet is now nothing less than the most important player on the Raptors | The Star
VanVleet played a whopping 43 minutes in Monday night’s 111-108 loss to the Chicago Bulls, which head coach Nick Nurse described as “probably a little high.” But the playing time doesn’t begin to describe the workload. Four games into the campaign he’s covering an average of 3.0 miles a game — up from the 2.76 miles a game that led the league last season.
That VanVleet managed to rack up a career-high 17 assists on Monday night, this while he also coughed up a career-high eight turnovers, tells you how often the ball has been in his hands — all night, more or less, including Monday’s final possession. It says something about Toronto’s limited late-clock options that, with the Raptors down three in the dying seconds, it seemed like the best available option, both to VanVleet and anybody watching, for VanVleet to dribble into a step-back three-ball at the buzzer, a shot that missed long.
Fred VanVleet said he came into the season looking forward to the challenge of being the Raptors’ primary option. Four games into the season, he’s already logged big minutes and taken a ball-dominant role on a young team lacking a prototypical NBA scorer.
It’s a kind of necessary ball dominance that’s relatively new to him. Before Monday, VanVleet had never had more than 14 assists in a game. He’d never committed more than five turnovers in a single contest.
“I don’t care about (the 17 assists) … I couldn’t believe I had eight turnovers. I still can’t believe that. (College coach) Gregg Marshall is probably somewhere throwing a fit,” VanVleet said.
Such are the occupational hazards of running an offence that’s being described by Nurse as very much a work in progress. While the point guard spoke of studying film so as not to repeat Monday’s mistakes, he wasn’t exactly dwelling on the negative.
“It’s still two-to-one — two-to-one assist-turnover ratio. I’ll take it,” he said.
As much as VanVleet said he came into this season looking forward to the challenge of being a primary option — “one of those guys” is how he described the role — there’s no doubt he’d be happy to delegate some of his on-ball responsibilities to teammates in the weeks ahead. At least, that’s the plan. It’s promising that Siakam’s return date, though it’s not yet clear, appears to be approaching; Nurse said Siakam participated in a full-speed practice on Tuesday and looked “good.”
And it speaks to the veteran buy-in around the team’s developmental focus that VanVleet sounds more than willing to patiently play through the inevitable growing pains of players like 22-year-old Precious Achiuwa and 20-year-old rookie Scottie Barnes.
“We’re learning each other,” VanVleet said. “Scottie’s had the ball a lot — for better or for worse at times. But he’s shown some incredible talent and decision-making at times. And he’ll continue to grow and get better. So I’ve been trying to not focus on just dribbling the ball for 23 seconds. I’ve been trying to let the offence work, and it doesn’t always work. But I think we’ll be better for it in the long run.”
Fred VanVleet is convinced there is an entire other change to the way the game is being called in 2021 that didn’t come with the same warnings.
“They forgot to tell us (some other) things were changing,” VanVleet said Tuesday in response to a question about why the Raptors were turning the ball over at such an alarming rate. VanVleet himself had a career high eight in Monday’s loss to Chicago and was still blushing at the thought of it more than 12 hours later.
“I know we heard the point of emphasis about the pump fakes and jumping into guys, but it’s a completely different game out there,” VanVleet said. “I’ve noticed it. I can’t speak for anybody else, but I’ve certainly noticed it. I’m watching a ton of games every day. The league looks a lot different from an officiating standpoint.”
This observation came about the same 11 or 12 hours after Raptors head coach Nick Nurse marvelled at the amount of physicality being allowed these days.
“I’m not complaining about that, you guys have noticed, you’ve watched all the games this year, it’s very, very physical out there,” he said.
And to be clear VanVleet is not saying the Raptors are getting singled out for this kind of treatment either. It’s league-wide.
“It’s across the board and it’s both ways,” VanVleet said. “I think both teams are equally unhappy in all the games I’ve played in. I’m watching games and, like I said, I’m seeing the same things (in those games).”
This is not a complaint, more an observation and part explanation for some very uncharacteristic giveaways committed by himself and his teammates.
“You just got to adjust,” VanVleet said …. “Early on in the season you could tell the difference and it’s very physical. Certain things are being called that weren’t before and certain things aren’t being called that were called before. You just got to find a way to feel it out and that will probably take some time, but our guys have been staying together, communicating. We will continue to build trust. It’s hard to grow without failing sometime. But I would like to learn by winning as well.”
