Toronto Raptors media day was all about setting the tone for the season to come.
On Monday, we learned they don’t expect to win too many games, but definitely are going to try to make it harder for opponents to score on them.
We found out Masai Ujiri and Ed Rogers III get along just fine, that Scottie Barnes is eager to take on a leadership role and that the team’s new point guard Immanuel Quickley believes there is a lot more to his game than he previously has shown.
Here are a handful of secondary takeaways from what always feels a little like the first day of school, before we delve into the next stage of camp, which has now shifted to Montreal.
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BRUCE BROWN SAGA EXPLAINED
When the Raptors announced just prior to camp that veteran swingman Bruce Brown would not participate and would miss some time due to knee injury, the obvious question was why now for the surgery? Why not do it earlier so he’d be 100% for the pre-season?
Team president and vice-chairman Masai Ujiri provided the answer: “For Bruce, just to make things clear, like Bruce was cleared in the summer and, as he began to ramp things up a couple weeks ago, his knee flared up and once he did that, we went for another checkup, and the decision was made that he should have surgery.”
Brown had said when the season ended that he had been dealing with a knee issue since being acquired by Toronto in the Pascal Siakam deal.
“But all summer, Bruce had been good, and he was working out, and he’s participated with the team, and once he began to ramp things up, then it flared up. So our decision there was collective with him, his agent, the doctors, our doctors, and we came up with the time frame for the surgery, and we look forward to having him back,” Ujiri said.
Injuries to Brown and rookie Ja’Kobe Walter have eliminated most of sophomore Gradey Dick’s competition for a starting spot. Yes, Ochai Agbaji is in the mix because he is a far better defender than Dick, but since this year is all about development, expect Dick to claim the role.
THE ROOKIES WILL BE IN AND OUT
Head coach Darko Rajakovic explained that sometimes the young players will be up with the big team, but they will likely also get plenty of time with Raptors 905 in Mississauga.
“What we need to understand this year is that it’s not just one game, not just the start of the season, and we need to look at this as a big picture. We have four rookies on roster, there’s going to be times when those guys will be on the roster, there’s going to be times when those guys will be in rotation. Maybe starting,” Rajakovic said.
“There’s also going to be times when those guys will need to go to 905 and play games and practice with that teams. So they can get more reps or develop on certain things that we will lay in front of them. So there has to be a good balance there.
“I think it’s very important for all of the guys to get opportunity. Training camp is gonna tell us a lot about where the players are and what are the areas they need to improve and where they need to to get to.”
JAKOB POELTL KEPT IT REAL
The team’s veteran centre gave refreshingly honest answers. He was traded away just before the team won the championship, having been a part of the franchise’s rise, and returned from a tanking Spurs franchise to what was still a pretty good group, at least on paper, only to see close friend Siakam dealt, Fred VanVleet leave and OG Anunoby traded.
Now Poeltl is back on a rebuilding squad. Won’t he be frustrated?
“Our expectation isn’t to win 65 games this year and be in the NBA Finals. I think we can have really positive experiences based on how we develop, how we improve over the year,” Poeltl said.
“We don’t need to win every single game to have a positive outlook at the end of the season. That alone helps. And to be honest, I think we put ourselves in a position where we can surprise a bunch of people, where we can exceed expectations, and those are the things that make for a positive environment.
“At the end of the day we can look back on the season and say we got better and a step closer to where we want to be.”
UJIRI ON NBA’S NEW FINANCIAL LANDSCAPE
The NBA changed its rules to punish big spenders more than ever.
While there isn’t a hard salary cap, the penalties for reaching what’s known as the second apron are quite extensive and debilitating. That’s why trades have been made with teams desperate to shed salary.
Even the recent Minnesota-New York blockbuster was mostly done because the Wolves needed to get rid of Karl-Anthony Towns’s massive contract.
“It’s interesting, we’re still really studying it,” Ujiri said of the new rules. “These things are tough with the aprons is tough on teams, you know, and we have to be cognizant to the way we build teams and things you commit to and things you don’t commit to. As you see, deals are going to be like a little tougher. There were fewer this year, especially during free agency, but our jobs are to find ways,” he said (and the Raptors did take advantage of a team’s need to cut cap. Toronto got a handful of assets, including Davion Mitchell, rookie Jamal Shead and more, because the Kings needed to find a way to add DeMar DeRozan).
“I don’t want to say loopholes, I get in trouble, but we need to find ways in the new CBA to build our teams efficiently, to produce, and produce consistently. We’ve seen a lot a few teams shed now in terms of contracts, and that’s one thing teams are paying attention to, and we all have to pay attention to that,” Ujiri added.
As Toronto’s rebuild continues, there should be opportunities to take on onerous contracts in exchange with assets, similar to the Sacramento deal. Maybe that means dealing Brown or Chris Boucher (both on expiring contracts) for players with longer deals, along with sweeteners.
Time will tell.