Raptors on verge of healthy lineup
POWELL SET TO RETURN; SIAKAM, GASOL NOT FAR OFF
And soon, some normalcy for the Toronto Raptors.
Not right away, likely not this Sunday, but the distinct impression from what head coach Nick Nurse has been told and what he relayed to the media on Friday is things are moving perhaps a little quicker toward full health than even he anticipated as recently as last weekend.
The trio of Norm Powell, Marc Gasol, and Pascal Siakam were all sidelined following that pre- Christmas win over Detroit. Powell had another injury to the shoulder that cost him 20 games last season. Gasol strained a hamstring and Siakam came out of the game with a groin stretch.
None of the three have played since.
Fred Vanvleet joined them in street clothes on Tuesday after his own hamstring strain was incurred in Saturday night’s win in Brooklyn.
Other than Vanvleet, though, there appears to be real progress on the other three being made.
Nurse revealed, as had been anticipated, that Powell will be cleared to play Sunday barring any further setbacks when the Raptors play host to the surging San Antonio Spurs.
And while there have been published reports about Siakam — and less so, Gasol — mending quickly and on the cusp of a return, Friday marked their most extensive on-court work to date as the rest of the team practised at one end while that trio engaged in what Nurse called “semi- active live basketball” at the other end.
“Sunday may be a bit soon,” Nurse said of a realistic return for all three. “But I’m under the direction and guidance of the silver one ( director of sport science) Alex Mckechnie, and if he clears ’ em to play, we’ll play ’ em and if he doesn’t, we won’t. But I think (Sunday’s) probably a bit ambitious.”
Still the injury pendulum seems to be swinging in Toronto’s favour for a change.
It was as recently as Saturday in Brooklyn, before the Raptors went out and defeated the Nets, that Nurse seemed to be preparing the public for a longer absence for both Siakam and Gasol than initially thought.
He called their return a “ways away.”
The first reports of a Siakam return being closer than that started to filter out Wednesday, courtesy of Postmedia’s Ryan Wolstat, with the team in Charlotte.
Friday morning before the Raptors took the court, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN took to Twitter and suggested Siakam would practise on Friday. That turned out to be premature. As Nurse pointed out, it wasn’t a full practice but it was certainly more than he’s done in the past.
Siakam himself, not surprisingly, is very anxious to return but he will not push Mckechnie, who has full control of how soon any Raptors player returns to the court following an injury.
“It’s kind of hard to push Alex,” Siakam said laughing. “But I trust the medical staff. I trust they have my best interest. I think we’ll do everything together to make sure I’m out there when I need to be out there and not rush it. It will depend on how my body reacts. ( Friday) I did a little bit more, so we’ll see how I feel tonight. ( Saturday) I’ll try to do more and see what I feel like.”
When Siakam was first injured on that very costly night in Detroit that took two starters ( in Gasol and Siakam) from the Raptors and a third ( Norm Powell) who was on the verge of joining the starting five in more of a full- time role, the thinking was it would be up to a month before he could return.
“As soon as it happened, we got an MRI, the scan everything,” Siakam said. “It was going to be up to four weeks, that’s what Alex told me from the beginning and I trusted him. But it was up to four weeks, it could have been five, six, it depended how my body reacted. I think it’s going really well, in terms of my body being able to move and do certain stuff.”
All Nurse knows for sure is Siakam will return as soon as he possibly can.
“Let’s put it this way: He’s itching to play,” Nurse said. “He’s really itching to play. He’s done everything he can do to get back on the court. He’s not looking for a break or for any rest or thinking about anything further down the line. He’s ready to get out there and play as soon as he can. He’s working really hard. I think he did a little extra on the shooting, as well. As soon as they cleared him to get back on the court, even if he couldn’t move that well, he spent a lot of time again working on his mechanics.”
Nurse, like many of you watching and cheering on the defending world champs from home, just wants all of his players back.
“We need to get healthy and stay healthy,” he said. “I think we’re ready to line up with anybody ( once that happens).”