The first day of training camp is always fun for players, coaches, and media alike. A healthy mix of new faces, but most importantly, heaps of optimism for each and every player in the gym.
As part of this I’ll be fielding mailbag questions at the end of each day, so if you want something asked/answered for tomorrow – ask away in the comments.
“Once it comes to training camp practices become longer, we compete more and that becomes a really good opportunity for us to coach more, to get into the details and really start creating chemistry on a team. Seeing different guys in different combinations – how they play together, how they find each other, understanding roles – I think that’s the most important thing now.” – Darko Rajakovic
For starters, if anyone is interested to know, the players were organized into these groups for workouts/shooting drills:
Group 1: Brandon Ingram, Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Collin Murray-Boyles, David Roddy
Group 2: Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji, Ja’Kobe Walter, Jamison Battle, Garrett Temple, Jared Rhoden
Group 3: Immanuel Quickley, Jamal Shead, AJ Lawson Alijah Martin, Chucky Hepburn
Group 4: Jakob Poeltl, Jonathan Mogbo, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Olivier Sarr (Chomche wasn’t dressed for practice)
Main takeaway from these groupings? Murray-Boyles has been slotted in with the wings/forwards, not the bigs. That tracks with what my expectations were of his game coming out of college, but the Raptors also designated Mogbo as a wing prior to last season, but still grouped him in with bigs back in Montreal. Also, with how much competition is being referenced by the players in the run up to the season, seeing the new rookie grouped in with all the big names is a good thing.
Scottie Barnes was receiving treatment so we didn’t see much of him. There’s no cause for concern, treatment is regular. We’ll talk to him later this week.
“Brandon and I compete a lot. You know, obviously we’re playing together, but it’s still competition. And just what I’ve seen with him is, this is work ethic. He comes in every day. He comes in early, you know? He works on his stuff. So, he’s a true professional. Besides his size and length and shot making and stuff like that – besides that, I can see why he’s been as good as he is.”
While there wasn’t a specific matchup between Barrett and Ingram for me to feast my eyes on, Ingram wandered over to the guard/wing portion of fellas and picked out Agbaji for a 1 on 1 matchup from the elbow.
What’s shown on video is a couple possessions, but the battle went on for about 4 or 5. I can tell you Ingram was mostly settling into jumpers and Agbaji was working very hard to get into his body and disrupt him on the catch. A really fun aspect of it was the cheerleading from the rest of the team for their guys – Shead urging Agbaji to yell “GIMME THAT SHIT!” is a nice bit of color.
On the whole, it was a very energetic and boisterous environment, which matches quite well with a team that wants to play with so much energy.
“It starts with establishing our identity on the defensive end, and offensive end. We did a lot of work during the summer. I think the guys did an outstanding job with their conditioning.” Coach Darko said during practice. “Now it’s about getting all of our principles in, understanding how we want to play on defense, understanding how we want to play on offense and really putting a foundation down for us going into this season.”
The Raptors were one of the NBA’s most aggressive teams last season in how high they picked up the other team’s ball handlers — think of a full court, 3/4 court, or halfcourt press — and there’s been no indication that, that will change.
“I really believe that our defensive identity has to come from a mindset that we want to dominate on the defensive end.” Coach Darko said at practice. “That we want to make our opponents very uncomfortable. And for that you need a lot of work. For that you need big time commitment. That’s what we have from our group.”
Coach Darko on playing a deeper rotation being necessary for the Raptors style of play:
“I don’t think that this style of play that we want to have on offense and defense — I don’t think anyone can be in shape to play 12 minutes straight to be honest with you — I think shorter stints, play hard on both ends of the ball, raise a hand when you need a little bit of rest and I’ll get you back in the game. I think playing that way is keeping everybody honest and accountable. It helps, like if you don’t have it, someone else from the bench is going to have that same energy and ferocity that we need on the floor.”
The Raptors have maintained their identity from one year to the next for the first time in a long time. In theory, that should help them win some games this upcoming season, in addition to their influx of talent (Ingram, Brandon) and an expectation from young players to improve from one year to the next.
Regardless, after the first day of getting up close with the team, they’re at the very least in great spirits. Some competition has to churn, some roles have to become a bit more concrete, and we’ve gotta see it tested in the preseason before we kick off. Lots of room for optimism and hope, though.
Have a blessed day.
