Brand-new Raps world
Season of change is officially underway as coach, players aim to create chemistry during ‘different’ training camp
A new day dawned for the Raptors’ organization on Tuesday.
It did so with a new head coach for the first time in six years, a new go-to-player for the first time in at least that many years and a whole lot of fresh faces both on the floor and among those coaching the guys on the floor.
Despite the return of familiar faces like Kyle Lowry and Jonas Valanciunas and the bench mob there is enough new about this team that this was more akin to the first day at a new school than just the first day of a new season.
“Yeah, it was different,” third-year Raptor Pascal Siakam said. “(Head coach Nick Nurse) has his own things, the way he does them. Just little things he does that are different from the past. We all have to circle in the middle. We have to have a perfect circle, different things that he just adds with his own little touch. It feels different.”
Nurse was a member of Dwane Casey’s staff but he has his own ideas about how to do things.
The circle thing, at least according to Siakam, is to have teammates looking each other in the eye. Again, it’s a small thing but one of many small differences the players noticed.
The big difference, obviously, was the presence of Kawhi Leonard and the absence of DeMar DeRozan.
In Leonard the Raptors boast a top-five talent, the magnitude of which the franchise has never had before and that includes the good Vince Carter years.
And training camp — and the pre-season for that matter — are going to be big for Leonard.
Consider that Tuesday was the first 5-on-5 basketball Leonard has played since January. That’s eight months, give or take.
“You could certainly see his level at times,” Nurse said of the two-time all-star and former league finals MVP. “He’s a little rusty out there but you can certainly see his strength, his vision, his ballhandling, those kind of things. He looked good.”
Leonard, for his part, knows this is just early days in the process. He’s not getting ahead of himself.
“We’re building a new team this year,” Leonard said, voicing words that haven’t been said around this team in years. “It always takes time to create that chemistry. Knowing where guys are going to be, me knowing where their spots are, them knowing where my spots are, that stuff takes time, it takes practice and game playing.”
Add in the level of rust that has accumulated on Leonard’s game since that last run in January and the point that this could take some time to gel is hammered home rather well.
“Just positioning yourself on the floor, getting your rhythm down, remembering your steps to get to the basket, remembering your spots, your wind, just everything,” he said.
And no, it’s no easier on the defensive end than when he’s on offence.
“No, you need to get your rhythm defensively, too,” Leonard said. “Rhythm is not just offensive. It’s also on defence, knowing what guys are going to do, being in the gap space, getting hands on the ball.”
The Raptors have 20 bodies in camp this year, a normal number of returning vets, some on the bubble guys and a few who will undoubtedly wind up helping the Raptors 905 until or if a spot opens for them on the parent club roster.
Nurse admits he and his staff going to have to figure out what they have and which combinations best fit what they are trying to accomplish. In other words, it’s not just the players making adjustments.
“I think I kinda look at this whole pre-season and training camp as us trying to search for some different combinations just for the sake of it,” Nurse said. “We gotta get to know them. They gotta get to know me a little bit and we’ll see a lot of learning and a lot of growth going on here and I’m looking forward to it.”
Nurse’s offence, which is much the same as it was a year ago, is based on ball movement finding the best possible shot. That won’t always be your go-to scorer but as we saw last season, the ball did tend to find leading scorer DeMar DeRozan a lot. The same is expected for Leonard.
“Our offence is kinda equal opportunity, right,” Nurse said. “But it always kind of tends to gravitate towards the guys who can score. That’s the really neat thing about it. You guys have seen the way it’s rolled out. The ball’s gonna find him. He’s gonna have a lot of chances.”
Days in the gym like Tuesday’s will have Leonard ready once the regular season tips off.