Eyes of hoops world on . . . Mississauga? Well, to a point
Mississauga, the land of hopes and dreams.
Okay, perhaps a stretch, but it becomes that starting Wednesday for a couple of hundred NBA D-League players as the league’s annual showcase takes over the Hershey Centre.
Each of the league’s 22 teams will play two regular-season games between now and Sunday at what Raptors 905 general manager (and Toronto scouting director) Dan Tolzman calls a “convention” for player personnel bosses and NBA GMs.
“You gather everyone in one area and see every team for two games, and really kind of get downloaded on the state of the D-League and see the talent that’s out there,” Tolzman said. “Pretty much everybody is in the same city and it’s kind of like a draft combine-type setup in terms of having all the GMs discussing stuff. Stuff gets done, for sure.”
This week marks the first time the showcase has been held outside of the United States since the inaugural one in 2005. The Raptors, Canada Basketball and the D-League are sponsoring a variety of related events — clinics for kids, ticket giveaways to school-age children for midweek day games, and a Canada Basketball coaches school to take advantage of expertise in the area.
But at its core is the basketball, and the chance for players to catch the eye of the dozens of scouts and front-office executives who’ll take in the games.
There were two callups to the NBA during showcase week last season — most notably Sean Kilpatrick, who played for the Brooklyn Nets against the Raptors on Tuesday night — and two were added to NBA teams the next week.
But even if there is no immediate movement, players and their agents know they have a captive audience of NBA and European scouts taking notes.
“It’s a great event to just kind of start making lists in terms of training camp next year, summer league, guys to keep an eye on for the rest of the D-League season,” Tolzman said.
Toronto’s D-League affiliate, Raptors 905, plays Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. against the Grand Rapids Drive, and Friday at 8:30 p.m. against the Long Island Nets. The NBA team, in the midst of a week-long trip to Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Charlotte, won’t send down any players under NBA contract to augment coach Jerry Stackhouse’s roster.
“These guys that are in our system have been grinding it out all year and this is their chance, so why should we send our guys down for two games to steal their minutes and hurt their opportunities?” Tolzman said.