OG Anunoby pranked Dame, texting him "Welcome to Toronto" before he was traded 😂
via @ChrisBHaynes pic.twitter.com/pIVufnF2RO
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) October 3, 2023
Darko Rajaković needs to prove players can change to spark Raptors offence – The Athletic
“Everybody can change,” Rajaković said after the Raptors’ first full practice on training camp on Tuesday, “if there is a willingness to change.”
That belief needs to be proven true, at least in the context of this specific basketball team, for Ujiri’s patience to be rewarded. If the Raptors play a good chunk of the season and this roster still seems like it is missing too many pieces, Ujiri will head into the trade deadline with less leverage than ever and three pending free agents, assuming neither Siakam nor Gary Trent Jr. signs an extension. If it clicks, Ujiri will at least have a stronger hand from which to deal, and maybe something more tangible than that.
If the offence, which Rajaković also said will feature Poeltl more as a passing hub out of the high post than a pick-and-roll screener, is going to coalesce, he will need ample buy-in from his most important players. Fortunately, if anything about Rajaković is established, it is that he is excellent at communicating with modern players.
“What I love about coach is that he keeps everybody in the locker room accountable,” Schröder said. “We had Russell Westbrook, we had (Paul George in Oklahoma City, where Rajaković was an assistant) and he kept everybody accountable. It’s not to take ‘em down. It’s to lift ‘em up.”
“In the weeks we’ve been together, he’s been super receptive,” Trent added on Monday. “Communication has been great, whether it’s talking about basketball, whether it’s talking about his kids, his coaching journey, how he got here, his story. I told him … I’ve been (in the) NBA six years and I’ve had more conversations with him about anything going than with any coach I’ve ever had. It’s been refreshing. It’s been great.”
It’s training camp, and nobody is going to start criticizing the new coach on day one, but it is encouraging to hear those comments given the job Rajaković faces. When asked about Siakam adjusting to the style change on Monday, Rajaković specifically mentioned the All-Star having to play with more aggression when he catches the ball. When asked about Anunoby, who has long been rumoured to want a bigger role than he has ever received in Toronto, on Tuesday, Rajaković talked about involving him more as a cutter and ballhandler, but also emphasized the importance of his shooting to the team. Rajaković wants Anunoby to start migrating from the corners to above the break. Anunoby has shot 41.4 percent on corner 3s for his career, but just 34.5 percent on all others.
In a world of shorter and shorter contracts, all players are going to have personal agendas. The trick is to allow them to pursue those in a way that benefits the whole. Nobody thinks that happened last year, which was a big reason for the coaching change.
As much as the stylistic changes matter, making the team’s most important players feel like they can thrive here is just as important for Rajaković. This is his first chance as a head coach, and he walks into a complex situation.
“It was an easy decision for me to come here,” Schröder said, “because I know what he’s about.”
Rajaković’s style and personality are going to have to resonate as much with his new players on the court as they did with Schröder in free agency. It’s going to have to happen quickly, too.
Schroder's hot summer, new perspective provides Raptors with reasons for optimism – Sportsnet
The German guard was named tournament MVP, and anyone who saw him eviscerate Team USA in the semifinals and Serbia in the gold medal game won’t soon forget it.
Schroder hasn’t and won’t.
“It was a lot of fun. We’ve been working for it, it’s been for over 10 years now [I] have been playing with the national team,” he said. “Last year, got third place in EuroBasket and to come out on top in the World Cup is insane. I can’t still realize it.”
The good vibes from international play don’t automatically travel, of course. Winning in the summer for the national team with friends you grew up competing with is one thing; trying to get an NBA team to commit to playing with each other and for each other is another.
The Raptors didn’t do a great job of it last year. “Sometimes I did feel like [it was] every man for themselves,” was how Scottie Barnes addressed the selfishness that seemed to be such an issue last season — but there is hope they can fix it this year.
For one Rajakovic has been empowered to demand a more team-first approach and for another Schroder – who says he shared many meals with Rajakovic in their years together with the Thunder – plans to bring it in word and deed.
He’s already travelled the path from first-round pick who had to sit and wait for his opportunity on a deep Atlanta Hawks team, to being thrust into a role among other top players and expected to buy in during stops elsewhere. With Germany, he had the ball in his hands at all the critical moments it seemed, but that’s not the only way he can play and contribute.
“I was five years in the league and went from Atlanta to OKC where I played with (superstars Russell Westbrook and Paul George) and then my seventh season I played with Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) and Chris (Paul). After that I played [in Los Angeles] with LeBron and (Anthony Davis), then (in Boston) with Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, back to LeBron James, AD, (and DeAngelo Russell) and I (always) found a way,” Schroder said after his first workout with his new team as the Raptors opened training camp in Burnaby, B.C.
“Everybody’s professional, everybody cares about winning, everybody puts their ego to the side, and we play team basketball.
“I think that’s what we did this summer with the national team, and I try to bring this to this locker room.”
He’ll likely need to lead by example. Rajakovic has made no promises about a starting role for Schroder and – based on the coach’s comments about wanting to have the ball in Barnes’ hands to initiate offence more than in the past – instead the Raptors’ new point guard could be coming off the bench.
“Dennis as you know, he played as a starting point guard, he was backup point guard, he shared the court together with Chris Paul, he was on the ball, he was off the ball,” said Rajakovic. “That’s the beauty of Dennis Schroder. He does not command and demand the ball to have in his hands for him to be productive and to play the right way. So we’re gonna have very creative ways of using him.”
New Raptor Dennis Schröder knows how he fits on the roster – Toronto Star
What Schröder does have is an abundance of confidence coming off a World Cup gold medal summer with the German national team and an MVP performance in the 32-team tournament.
He knows full well that FIBA basketball and NBA basketball are two very different games and whatever role he has in Toronto won’t match what he had with Germany, but there’s still something to be said for how he feels coming into his first Raptors season.
The 30-year-old is a more mature player now. He’s more of a leader, he’s brimming with confidence and he may be the steadying hand a relatively young Raptors roster needs.
It’s a far cry from what Schröder was when he first met Rajakovic about seven years ago when they were backup guard and assistant coach with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“He’s a different kind of leader, a different kind of father, a different kind of person,” Rajakovic said. “He matured so much. He was great when I (got) him in OKC (but) he’s just like on a completely different level.
“And even today in practice, he does such a great job of talking to his teammates, talking to young guys, explaining, making sure they’re in the right spots. He’s doing a really, really good job for us.”
Schröder, who signed a two-year, $25-million (U.S.) contract to replace Fred VanVleet in Toronto, has said since July that the presence of Rajakovic was the tipping point when he was considering free agent options.
“What I love about coach is that he keeps everybody in the locker room accountable. We had Russell Westbrook, we had (Paul George) and he kept everybody accountable,” Schröder said.
“It’s not to take ‘em down, it’s to lift ‘em up. That’s from the first player to the 15th player. That’s what I really like about Darko, as a person I know how he is, he’s a family person … his family is close to me as well, my family, my wife, likes him as well. It was an easy decision for me to come here because I know what he’s about.”
It was cemented when the Raptors held a camp kickoff team dinner Monday.
“We had a meeting as a group and he had his rules and the style of play, being a great teammate, everybody. It don’t matter who you are, if it’s coaching staff, front office: Respect everyone.
Josh Lewenberg: Raptors hoping Schroder can help fill void left by VanVleet | TSN
Schroder had been on Toronto’s radar for a while. They tried to sign him during the summer of 2022 but he opted to return to the Lakers on a one-year deal, citing unfinished business. When Fred VanVleet left for Houston this past off-season, the Raptors quickly pivoted and circled back to Schroder.
This time they could offer him a little bit of familiarity (in addition to $26 million over the next two seasons). Schroder played for Darko Rajakovic, then an assistant, in Oklahoma City from 2018-2020. His relationship with Toronto’s newly hired head coach was the biggest factor in his decision to become a Raptor.
“It was an easy decision for me to come here because I know what he’s about,” Schroder said after finally finishing up his lengthy post-practice shooting session. “What I love about coach is that he keeps everybody in the locker room accountable. We had Russell Westbrook [in OKC], we had [Paul George] and he kept everybody accountable, and it’s not to take them down, it’s to lift them up.”
“He’s matured so much,” Rajakovic said of the 11-year vet. “He was great when I had him in OKC but he’s on a completely different level [now].”
The Raptors will be Schroder’s sixth team over the past seven seasons, so he’s been around and seen a lot of things in this league. He was the young kid on that 60-win Atlanta Hawks team in 2014-15. He was the sixth man for the Chris Paul-led Thunder club that exceeded expectations and made the playoffs in 2019-20. He’s played with LeBron James and Anthony Davis in two stints with Los Angeles, while also making brief stops in Boston and Houston. He’s started, come off the bench, played on the ball and played off of it.Now, he finds himself on a team that could use some experience and veteran savvy at the point guard position. Schroder isn’t a one-for-one replacement for VanVleet. If you’re expecting him to step in and fill that void, on or off the court, you’re likely to be disappointed. But the Raptors believe he can help address those areas of need.
Admittedly, he’s not as vocal as VanVleet, few are, but he leads in other ways that should prove valuable for an organization looking to build a new identity and re-establish culture.
“Even today in practice, he did such a good job of talking to his teammates, talking to young guys, explaining, making sure they’re in the right spots,” Rajakovic said.
Oddly, it felt like Ujiri was implying Fred VanVleet, the point guard who opted to sign for big money with Houston, and franchise forward Pascal Siakam had a lot to answer for where 2022-23 was concerned. While it’s fine to think that both VanVleet and Siakam forced the issue a bit last year, it’s not like they had much choice. Nearly every teammate they shared the court with shot the ball at a below league average rate from outside, so it’s natural that the club’s single game scoring leader, VanVleet, and the two-time All-NBAer Siakam, who averaged nearly 25 points a game, would determine that they were better options than most of the others. They still averaged a lot of assists, and were willing passers. And the front office didn’t give VanVleet an effective pick-and-roll partner until acquiring Jakob Poeltl at the trade deadline, finally ending the 2.5 season drought between employing a viable NBA starting centre.
Yet, Ujiri matter of factly said that he wants to see how Siakam adapts to new head coach Darko Rajakovic’s system of offensive meritocracy before determine if Siakam, a free agent come next summer, should be signed to a long-term extension.
“We do believe in Pascal. We believe that a lot of our players didn’t play the right way last year and we want to see them play the right way,” Ujiri said about why a deal has yet to be offered.
“I said that we were selfish, I’m not running away from that. We were selfish and we did not play the right way,” Ujiri said.
“So, let us see it when we play the right way.”
Rajakovic, in his first year at the helm of an NBA squad, talked of an expected adjustment curve for Siakam, one of the league’s premier talents, to the way he wants the offence to run.
If all of that, particularly Ujiri’s offerings, sounds like unnecessarily tough love for a player who is the greatest developmental story and draft pick in franchise history and who was the No. 2 scorer on an NBA title winner, well, who are we to argue? If sour vibes held your team back, it stands to reason being so direct, even if that’s how you feel, is a bold approach with little upside. In a league that revolves around All-NBA players it’s hard to see the why of Ujiri’s stance.
It also contrasted with his assertion — while taking the blame if it needed to be meted out, for VanVleet not being moved before leaving for the Rockets— “Could we have traded Fred at the deadline? If that was a failure, we’ll take full responsibility for it” — that they were doing right by VanVleet by hanging on to him, giving him a chance to either return to a franchise that has always “done right by its players” or deciding to leave.
All in all, media day was easily the most defensive Ujiri has been since some wrongly grilled him for his masterful trade of fan favourite DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard. Emotions got the better of critics at the time and maybe emotions stirred up Ujiri on Monday more than we’re used to. It’s understandable that the Raptors don’t know if Siakam fits the long-term plan, given his age, compared to that of Scottie Barnes, Gradey Dick and any other young player on the way.
