No load management plan for Raptors’ tireless leader
A year after the Toronto Raptors helped mainstream the term “load management” with its treatment of star forward Kawhi Leonard, the team is taking a different approach with all-star point guard Kyle Lowry.
Lowry leads the NBA at 38.8 minutes per game after six contests, after being reined back to 34.0 and 32.2 minutes per game in the previous two seasons. Lowry spent the off-season recovering from thumb surgery and has said he wants to play a lot to get back into peak shape. So far, the workload hasn’t seemed to bother him.
He’s averaging a career-best 24 points a game, along with 6.8 assists, has never shot better from the floor than his current 47 per cent rate, and has never hit more than the 3.7 three-pointers per match he’s sinking at a 39.3 per cent clip.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said he’s aware Lowry (and Fred VanVleet) are playing heavy minutes, but is confident things “will settle in once we get going.”
Nurse added that 30-somethings Lowry and Marc Gasol might get some games off down the line to keep them fresh.
Nurse said it’s different, even with veterans like Lowry and Gasol, than it was last season with Leonard, who had missed nearly an entire campaign due to injury and was trying to figure out how much NBA action his body could handle.
“The light was shining pretty bright at that particular topic and on that particular player and our team,” Nurse said after practice on Monday. “I don’t really see much point in (load management) right now for anyone we’ve got. Kyle will be somebody who maybe we do something with down the road, maybe Marc, as well. But it’s not really in the forefront of my mind this year like it was last year.”
VanVleet, as cerebral as they come, knows he’s playing a lot, and he’s also aware that his past success, when Toronto had the best crop of reserves in the league, was a major reason Lowry was able to conserve himself more.
“You can thank me for that,” said a smiling VanVleet when Lowry was brought up.
“You know, when I got here, a big thing I wanted to do was decrease what he had to do (at the time, VanVleet took some of the ball-handling and distribution responsibilities and lead guard defensive assignments from Lowry). I think the one year, they said he played the equivalent of 15 less games when we had the bench squad running,” VanVleet said.
“So, I mean, it’s big, you’re shaving games off a guy’s career, and extending careers, and extending seasons, and keeping him fresh, so, you know, he works as if he’s going to play 48 every night.”
Lowry is having one of his best seasons, despite having five prior all-star appearances.
As VanVleet and Nurse pointed out, it’s not like the old days of gruelling practice after practice, drill after drill. For the key contributors, there’s more down time between games (and there are fewer practices than ever before leaguewide).
“With certain guys who are playing heavy minutes, you’re not doing too much on the days in between,” Nurse said.
“You’re trying to get back as much as you can on the days in between. Even today, with the game a couple of days away, you’re not into contact with most of those front line guys who are playing heavy minutes. That’s where you’re trying to recoup it all.”
Toronto lost Saturday night in Milwaukee, and will host Sacramento on Wednesday.
“That’s the important part, playing the game. It’s what I do for a living,” VanVleet said.
“But you get treatment, you rest, you cold tub, you ice, you massage, you stretch, you yoga, Pilates, lift weights, whatever it is for that person. For me, it’s a combination of many different things to get back as close as I can for the next game. ”
AROUND THE RIM
Nurse said guard Patrick McCaw’s knee issue will keep him out indefinitely. McCaw had further testing on the knee on Monday ... Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lakers big man Anthony Davis were named NBA players of the week. rwolstat@postmedia.com