Training camp includes Davis II, for now
Second-year guard among 20 invited to Florida workouts while assault case plays out
The Raptors have settled on a 20-man roster for training camp, which begins in Florida this coming week — a group that includes Terence Davis II, the secondyear guard who arrives under a cloud.
Starting camp and starting the regular season are two quite separate matters for the 23-year-old, who faces charges including assault and endangering the welfare of a child stemming from an incident involving a woman in a New York City hotel last month.
For the time being, there’s little for the Raptors to do other than let Sunday’s deadline to guarantee Davis’s salary
come and go, and let a league-led investigation into the incident continue.
What that investigation bears out — and what becomes of the criminal charges Davis is facing — will ultimately determine whether he plays for Toronto in the 2020-21 season.
Letting the guarantee kick in isn’t that significant, financially or from a purely basketball sense. The money is small with a full guarantee of about $1.5 million (U.S.) this season, a drop in the bucket for a team with a payroll approaching $130 million.
While it would send a message to some if the Raptors let Davis go before the deadline, it would certainly prompt a grievance from the players association, since the criminal charges have yet to be proved in court — his next court date is scheduled for Dec. 11. It’s impossible to argue that Davis, who had a stellar rookie year, should be released for purely basketball reasons.
By bringing him to camp and letting the process unfold, the Raptors assume no risk or liability and still have the option of releasing or disciplining the native of Mississippi in the future.
The Raptors have a long-standing and well-earned reputation for social awareness, fairness and promotion, support and inclusion of women in high-ranking positions. They have not taken the Davis
incident lightly and have complied with all of the league’s information gathering steps.
Still, they have not publicly addressed the situation other than one statement handing over the investigation to the NBA, as they are compelled to do. The league takes control of any internal probes into cases related to domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault, and could hand down an array of penalties — anything from a suspension to banishment — on top of any court-imposed sentences.
Davis was with a large group of players for informal workouts in Los Angeles last week, and is expected in Florida this weekend.
The Raptors’ camp list, which had yet to be formally released by the team, holds few surprises and sets up minimal competition for jobs.
Along with holdovers from last year’s team, the 20 players include:
> Camp invitees Oshae Brissett, Henry Ellenson, Alize Johnson and Yuta Watanabe.
> Draft picks Malachi Flynn — who signed his rookie deal Saturday, according to the league’s transaction list — and Jalen Harris.
> Free-agent signees Aron Baynes, DeAndre’ Bembry and Alex Len.
With 15 guaranteed contracts, the Raptors will be looking mostly at candidates for the pair of two-way deals they can offer players in a training camp that won’t get going in earnest — just north of their temporary home in Tampa, Fla. — until the end of the week.
According to widely reported league timing rules, players must quarantine in their camp markets at some point this weekend, and there will be limitations on workout numbers for the first couple of days.
The first day of full team workouts is not until Dec. 4, and the Raptors play their first exhibition game in Charlotte on Dec. 12.
The main focus of camp will be finding a rotation beyond the surefire starting group that includes Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam — all holdovers from last year when the Raptors posted, by winning percentage (.736), the best regular-season mark in franchise history.
Whether Baynes or the returning Chris Boucher cracks the group as the other starting big man and who fills the next three or four spots off the bench will be the key things for coach Nick Nurse and his staff to figure out.
Norm Powell, Matt Thomas, Davis and either Baynes or Boucher would seem to be a logical second group to meld in with the starting five in a 10man rotation.
But if something happens with Davis, which remains a possibility until the league investigation is complete and the legal process is fulfilled, there will be battles for the slot that might be the most newsworthy of training camp stories.