Cautious Raptors adapting to life inside Disney World bubble
The Toronto Raptors are now free to roam the NBA campus at the Sports Complex in Disney World — but early indications are the group is sticking pretty close to home for now.
Home being their own bubble of teammates and staff, their hotel rooms, the practice gym and the odd trip to the cafeteria for meals.
Certainly head coach Nick Nurse and rookie Terence Davis, the two Raptors made available to the media Sunday following practice, have no immediate desire to see the sights.
“Getting out on campus, it’s not really ideal right now,” Davis said. “I’m just trying to get the hang of things and how things are going, like breakfast is sometimes in my room and sometimes it’s in the meal room. So, just really getting the hang of things right now. Maybe I’ll venture out, but right now it’s really about business.”
Nurse is taking a similar cautious approach.
“I have not been out to look around. I did take the outside path down to the meal room last night but that was just right along the same hallway, that was as far as I ventured outside. I’m not planning on doing much looking around, to be honest with you,” Nurse said. “I’m good with working and getting back to the room, to be honest with you.”
These are early days in the bubble and you can’t blame the Raptors for being careful. Unlike a lot of teams coming into the bubble, they did so fully healthy without a single positive case of the coronavirus among them. The plan is to keep it that way, so it only makes sense to keep their distance early on until the testing ferrets out any potential unhealthy bubble dwellers.
SETTING THE BAR
Not only do the Raptors have their championship pedigree to sell to would-be free agents, but their reputation as a franchise that goes the extra mile for its staff and players is getting plenty of attention these days.
The buses the team used to roll up from Naples to Orlando were one of those things. With Black Lives Matter painted on both sides of their transport from Naples, the buses caught the attention of Sixers guard Matisse Thybulle, who is doing a podcast from inside the bubble.
Thybulle is on the phone with a teammate who asks him: “You seen the bus for the Toronto Raptors, man?” Thybulle responds: “Yeah, amazing, amazing.” His teammate then says: “Our team has to do something, man.”
The Raptors burnished their well-thought-of reputation within their own team, as well, when the staff had framed photographs of each team member and his family waiting for them in their hotel rooms when they checked in.
“They had pictures set up, one of me and my son and then one of all my family members at a college game,” rookie guard Terence Davis said. “It meant a lot, man. It felt like they really care. Just seeing the pictures, it was heartwarming. Obviously, I miss my son every day, just being without him, but one day he’ll understand what daddy does for a living.”
Small things, but things players notice and remember when making that all important decision about where they might like to play should they ever get to that level.
EASING INTO ACTION
On the court, the Raptors are also taking a cautious approach, easing into activity after the extended, and for them unnatural, break from strenuous physical activity.
Nurse is taking things nice and slow for his returning players and letting them tell him when they’ve had enough.
“I’ve asked the guys to really self-monitor themselves, especially the veteran guys, and ease into things here a little bit,” the Raptors head coach said. “I’ve tried to get to kind of the majority of the action early in practice to avoid fatigue and get to the main part. I think they need to play.
“Marc (Gasol) went for a good stretch of practice, the main bits and just like I suggested, took himself out to kind of ease into it. I think OG (Anunoby) did later on in the practice, as well. Just again, I’m really leaving it to them. They know their bodies best and how they’re feeling.”
Nurse remains very happy with what he has seen from his team.
“Intensity was super high, I thought, especially for this early in the morning and it was a good one, a good effort and, again, just getting a lot of things in,” he said. “Pretty happy, just looking at some of our foundational stuff, I see it already appearing, so it’s a good start for two days.”