A WNBA preseason game in Canada! Very cool stuff. Raptors Republic had both Samson Folk and Cathryn Naiker credentialed for the event. Samson already spoke about the experience and its importance, and we have more coming about the game.
For the Raptors, not a whole lot in the works right now. Monty Williams has been fired since the last Countdown to Change, and he is another accomplished and highly regarded coach. His offense in Phoenix was the opposite of Nurse’s in Toronto: Very scripted. Is that what the Raptors need? He is supposed to be a great manager of personalities, but the thing about coaches is that unless you’re someone like Caitlin Cooper or Evin Gualberto (who actually know the playbooks and the differences between individual coaches) or someone like Ramona Shelburne (who knows the coaches personally and so can gauge for herself their vibes and leadership qualities), you’re kind of guessing in the dark in trying to say who’s better or worse.
Still, it can be fun to speculate! And there are a lot of coaches with tons of experience on the market right now, as well as untested assistants with tons of accolades, so it’s a wide-open market for Toronto. Don’t expect things to happen suddenly. The deadline Masai Ujiri gave himself was the draft, and as you can see, we’re only on day 22 of 59 counting down there, so we could have much more waiting in store.
