https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdN8Ovhm9cE&ab_channel=Tony%27sPicks
Champagnie using his NBA experience to lead Raptors 905 | The Star
Raptors 905 coach Patrick Mutombo said Champagnie might have been a bit reluctant to speak much when he was being shuffled between Toronto and Mississauga but once the six-foot-six native of New York got comfortable, he took off.
“When he first came to us, I thought he didn’t want to big-time people but … when he committed to it and he gave his all to it, now people were able to listen to what he had to say because he would say things because he cared about the team, he cared about winning and he was believable,” Mutombo said.
“I always tell these guys, leadership is hard. A lot of people don’t want to lead because leadership will expose fraudulent behaviour. You can’t preach going hard if you’re not going hard, you can’t preach integrity if you lack it yourself.”
Having a solid G League season only solidified Champagnie as an intriguing prospect in Toronto’s developmental system. He’s an energetic rebounder with an innate knack for finding the ball (he averaged 8.3 rebounds a game in the G League) who needed to develop his offensive game.
That was not going to happen in the NBA — the Raptors had more than enough proven NBAers who were going to get all the shots — but Champagnie’s going to get a ton of G League shots.
He made seven three-pointers as the 905 finished with a 119-113 win over Greensboro on Saturday and had a 45-point explosion in a late March win over Wisconsin.
“Obviously down here is completely different than the NBA, there’s a bunch of monsters up there,” Champagnie said. “Just getting the feel for it, a couple of these shots here maybe leads to a couple of shots up there so just got to continue to work on it, continue to keep my speed up, my pace up.”
The Raptors 905 go into the 12-team G League playoffs as the top seed. After getting a bye in the first round, they will need to win two sudden-death games to advance to the best-of-three final in search of the franchise’s second G League championship in five years.
In a season that included a COVID outbreak that cost the franchise a chance to even play in the G League Showcase and a series of typical roster moves that had players shuttling in and out, it’s a testament to Mutombo that things turned out as well as they did.
This Week: 8
Last Week: 11The Raptors won four more games this week, as they’ve now been victorious in 10 of their last 12.They’re only getting stronger too, as OG Anunoby played in his first four games since February this week, averaging 16.5 points and 4.5 rebounds on 59 percent 3-point shooting. The Toronto defense has also been on point recently, allowing just 106.6 points per 100 possessions this week.
NBA Power Rankings, Week 25 – Risers and fallers as seeding battles heat up – ESPN
This Week: 10
Last Week: 10Kyle Lowry was given a well-deserved night of celebration by the Raptors on Sunday night, then he proceeded to do to them what he did countless times to Toronto’s opponents during his nine years with the franchise. The Raptors head into the final week of the season tied with the Bulls, who own the tiebreaker in the race for fifth. — Bontemps
Handing Out Awards for Every NBA Team This Season | Bleacher Report
MVP: Fred VanVleet
The Toronto Raptors spent the season cramming as many positionless, statuesque 6’8″ athletes onto the floor as they could. But it was the little guy who led them.
VanVleet amassed twice the RAPTOR WAR of any teammate, led Toronto in assists and made more clutch threes than anybody in the league.
A deserving first-time All-Star, the Raptors point guard also leads the league in minutes per game.
DPOY: Precious Achiuwa
OG Anunoby can look like the best defender in the league a few times per night, VanVleet spends entire games inside the jersey of the opponent’s best ball-handler, Scottie Barnes guards everybody, Chris Boucher blocks everything, Gary Trent Jr. hoards steals and Pascal Siakam’s arms erase passing lanes.
This could defensibly be a six-way tie, but we’re going with Achiuwa on the strength of his team-best rim defense, mobility on the perimeter and remarkable ability to hold his ground against the league’s burliest centers. And yes, Achiuwa’s No. 1 team ranks in D-EPM and Defensive RAPTOR helped break the deadlock.
Best Newcomer: Scottie Barnes
Any other first-year Raptors put up a tidy 15-7-3 line, go the length of the floor for a dunk in three dribbles and make intuitive passing decisions you typically see from veteran point guards?
He’s All the Way Back Award: Pascal Siakam
Siakam made All-NBA Second Team in 2019-20, and by many measures—assists per game, rebounds per game, field-goal percentage, PER and Box Plus/Minus—he’s playing better now than he did then.
A meteoric rise, which led to a Most Improved Player award in 2018-19, a championship and that All-NBA nod might have set expectations too high. Siakam was solid last season, but it felt like a disappointment relative to this upward trajectory in the prior two years.
He’s back on track now, and we’re going to look back and wonder how he wasn’t an All-Star in 2021-22.
Kyle Lowry’s returns to Toronto Raptors with Miami Heat, tribute video a special moment – Raptors HQ
As the game opened, Kyle almost immediately forced Gary Trent Jr. into a tough shot, and then tried to draw a charge on Siakam the next time down — but Pascal wan’t falling for it.
Lowry then drew a 3-point shooting foul on Khem Birch, perhaps selling the contact just a little bit — but what else did you expect from the Grift King?
When Fred VanVleet did the same thing on Adebayo three minutes later, it was the perfect mirror image, and boy, did that theme keep coming back tonight. It was very weird watching Freddy guard Kyle — not just because we’re used to seeing them on the same side, but because matched up one-on-one, you really see the similarities — and also, how incredibly frustrating it must be to play against either one!
When Freddy knocked the ball away from Kyle on an early first quarter possession, the crowd loved it, and that’s when I knew how much Lowry had rubbed off on us all — he’s (I mean this in the nicest way) a bastard of a competitor. As much as everyone in the building loves Kyle, Raptors fans have clearly taken on his competitiveness – we love him, and we want the best for him — but we don’t want to see him succeed against us!
After the game, Nick Nurse said he didn’t think the pair had gone at it like that since VanVleet’s rookie year; Nurse said he used to put them on the same team in practice to prevent them atom going at each other with that much intensity.
Lowry spent the second timeout arguing with the officials, which of course, is perfect. Also perfect? A couple plays later, Lowry barrelled into Scottie Barnes, drawing the foul in a moment of perfect grift. A true “welcome to Kyle Lowry’s House” moment for Scottie (but in true Kyle Lowry’s House fashion, Lowry didn’t get continuation on the play.)
When Lowry came back in the second, Scottie took him onto the post — and although Kyle held his ground and forced him into a tough shot, Scottie still drained it. That was a cool moment to see, another “pass the torch” moment — we all know how incredible Lowry is defending the post against bigger players, so to see Scottie still score, that cements that hope that we have of Barnes leading us into a post-Lowry future.
Back to VanVleet, the Raptors All-Star managed to score on a drive right into the lane, where Kyle met him at the rim (well, below the rim); Fred took a good bump from Kyle, absorbed it, and still scored — prompting a good laugh between the former teammates. If nothing else it was an incredibly Kyle bucket for VanVleet.
