RAPTORS NEED TIME TO PUT PLAN IN PLACE: LOWRY
But Toronto has ‘chance to be really good’ with Leonard on board, all-star guard says
Kyle Lowry has spent the bulk of the pre-season attached to Kawhi Leonard.
In practice, when Lowry looked around on the court, Leonard was always out there with him. Every other teammate not named Kawhi or Kyle saw a host of different Raptors with them throughout camp as new head coach Nick Nurse put his plan for an almost totally interchangeable roster in place for the coming season.
In games when Lowry looked to put a teammate in a position to score, it was Leonard first and foremost. Only rarely did he look up and not see Leonard as his first option.
“It was pretty much locked in at practice every day that way,” Nurse said. “I mean, they were on the same team — I think — every single second we scrimmaged.
“It looks good. I mean, obviously, I think those two guys are going to be out there a lot, our two biggest minute guys, so we’ve tried to put them on the same teams.”
Tried and succeeded in practice, yes. But in games, it has been a little tougher.
The two played the majority of the first half of the first two preseason games in Vancouver and Salt Lake City together.
In Montreal, they were supposed to extend those minutes into the second half, but Lowry got tossed from the game. Both sat out the only other two games.
Lowry warned observers early in camp this was not going to be a quick process. The Raptors are incorporating a new superstar in Leonard, playing under a new coach for the first time in six years, and another potential starter in Danny Green has to find his comfort zone, too.
But even Green will tell you everything starts with Lowry and Leonard.
“They’re all-stars, they are our two all-stars,” Green said. “You have two leaders — if not vocally, then in action — and they’re going to lead this team with how they play.
“They’ve been great figuring out how each other plays, how to interact with each other, how to communicate on or off the court and how to make it work with me, with each other, with the rest of the guys on the team. It starts with them two first and it trickles down from there.”
Despite playing just 57 minutes in the pre-season, Lowry is among the least of Nurse’s worries.
“(Lowry) has been really good, you know, similar,” Nurse said. “Really been locked in from the learning standpoint and the competing standpoint. I really admire the way he competes. He has been a good source of information as far as ‘when are we going to get to this’ or ‘when are we going to get to that?’
“He’s making sure it’s on our radar and coming and we assure him it is, and all those things.”
Lowry, for his part, reiterated the need for patience, but said he’s right where he needs to be from a health standpoint.
“I feel great, amazing,” Lowry said. “As a team, we’ll continue to get better. We’re not going to be clicking on all cylinders right away. There’s a lot of work we need to do. But we’ll be fine. It’s a long process. Everything is going to take time: new players, a new offence, new defence, new head coach. Everything is going to take patience and time. We want things to go fast, but we understand it’s going to be a process.”
As for his impressions of Leonard, Lowry said the man has come as advertised.
“He is a regular guy like everybody else,” Lowry said. “I don’t judge a book by its cover. I think he’s still gonna be Kawhi Leonard, still gonna be a heck of a player. This is the first time since like, what, January for him playing the NBA game? I’m sure we’ll see the same player.”
Leonard having the same goals as everyone else has made the get-to-know-you phase easy for all involved.
“He just wants to win. I think that’s why he’s gonna help us,” Lowry said. “He wants to win at a high level and I think that’s the one thing that makes it easier for everyone to come together. He wants to win and we all want to win, too.”
Lowry is not one for predictions, but he has seen enough to suggest that this team at least has the tools to go as far as its want.
“We’ll see,” the ever-cautious Lowry said.
“We’ve got a chance to be really good. We’ve got some real good talent; we’re really deep. Now we’ve just got to go out and compete.”
That all starts Wednesday, when the Cleveland Cavaliers arrive for the season opener.