Taking aim
Canada’s Heslip hoping to land spot with Raptors
He steps behind the three-point line and drains one with ease, then makes two more.
A hand in his face from a Toronto assistant to serve as a distraction? No problem. A tough pass and a quick release? Got it.
“Brady’s a shooter,” said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “I love the way he shoots the basketball.”
There’s no doubting Heslip’s deadly accuracy from his time in both college and the pros — he buried a record 13 threes in an NBA DLeague contest back in 2014. But it’s the other parts of his game that will mostly determine the Canadian’s fate with the club he cheered for as a kid.
“Defend. That’s the No. 1 thing,” Casey said of what he wants to see from Heslip. “He’s one of our best shooters that we have right now. I’m sure Kyle (Lowry) would argue that, but it’s almost like a layup for him, a three-point shot.
“He’s done it for a while. He’s a proven shooter.”
While Heslip might be a proven shooter, it hasn’t translated into an NBA job up to this point.
He went undrafted following three seasons at Baylor University but got Baylor guard Brady Heslip, left, and Iowa State forward Melvin Ejim (3) chase a loose ball during an NCAA basketball game in Kansas City in this March 2014 file photo. a tryout with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2014. Heslip didn’t survive training camp and wound up in the D-League for a brief time. From there he would spend the next year-and-a-half playing in Europe before the Raptors acquired his rights and signed him last week. FRISCO, Texas (AP) - Dez Bryant missed medical appointments and team meetings over two days away from the Dallas Cowboys this week as the star receiver tried to avoid bad news about his injured right knee. Coach Jason Garrett said Bryant missed an MRI on Monday and a team meeting Tuesday before finally getting the exam Wednesday. The MRI revealed a hairline fracture in a bone in his right knee, which he injured in last Sunday’s win over Chicago. It’s possible Bryant won’t miss Sunday’s game at San Francisco because the Cowboys have had similar scenarios with injury in the past. But Bryant missed practice for the second straight day Thursday, an indication he’s unlikely to play. “It stems from someone who is very passionate about what he does and he did not handle this the right way,” Garrett said. “He expressed that to me. He expressed that to other coaches and teammates. You can understand why he did what he did, given the passion that he has for the game and for this football team and where he thought he was. I’m not excusing any behaviour that he has.”