Road ready
Raptors helping rookie Anunoby prepare for an NBA life of hotels and suitcases
The Toronto Raptors will play six times over the next 12 days, starting Monday in San Antonio.
It is the longest trip of the season and even though the NBA has cut down significantly on back-to-back and three-games-in-four-nights slogs, surviving and thriving on extended road stretches is one of the biggest challenges of being an NBA player.
It is something rookie OG Anunoby is going to have to get used to quickly after playing only 34 games as a freshman at Indiana, then 16 more last season before injuring his knee. The far shorter NCAA schedule usually has games going three to five days apart. Though Anunoby played tournaments in college and went on AAU trips where games came in quick succession, he hasn’t been through anything like this, as his teammates are quick to remind him. They try to give him advice, but mostly, they say it’s just about living and learning.
“It just feels weird at first because you just go from hotel to hotel to hotel,” second-year centre Jakob Poeltl explained to Postmedia before the team left for San Antonio.
“I think he got a taste of it in the pre-season when we went from Victoria, then Hawaii and then Portland. Now, you’ve got double that with six different cities, but it’s just something that is going to take time. You’re going to have to get used to it if you want to stay in this league, that’s just how it is. These long road trips are tough. You’ve just got to play anyway.”
Fellow sophomore Fred VanVleet echoed those thoughts.
“We can try to prep him for it, but you don’t really experience it until you experience it, right?” VanVleet said.
You can tell by chatting with the laid-back Anunoby that he hasn’t wasted too much time worrying about adapting to life on the road.
But his teammates give him pointers, nevertheless.
“Stay hydrated, sleep as much as possible, try to get good meals in because it’s a grind,” VanVleet said.
“Hotel to hotel, a game very other night. It’s different when you are sleeping at home and coming into your own building versus being on the road and taking flights, taking buses. It can build up and you may not even realize it, but your play might start to drop off or just little small details. It can be a cumulative effect sometimes. It’s not impossible to get through, but definitely a challenge.”
Unlike Anunoby, VanVleet was not in the rotation as a rookie, yet he says he still had issues getting used to the travel.
“I wasn’t even playing, (but) I couldn’t get my sleep right. I was sleeping in the morning, energy levels, small things that you do really add up,” he said.
Veteran C.J. Miles entered the NBA straight out of high school, as big a jump as it gets, but he kept his advice for Anunoby basic.
“Pack enough underwear, but at the same time, don’t overpack,” said a smiling Miles.
“It’s pretty simple. And be ready for somebody to tell you to do something stupid.”
Most likely a veteran, though Anunoby isn’t yet carrying around a ridiculous, gaudy backpack, a time-honoured Raptors tradition bestowed on the team’s first-year players.
The good news for Anunoby is that while this might be a grind for the next few weeks, the schedule turns significantly later on, with most of Toronto’s later games and trips taking place in the Eastern time zone.