Lowry and Leonard never far apart
VANCOUVER— Nick Nurse is no dummy.
Despite the best intentions of the Toronto Raptors coach to mix and match teams for most of training camp, Nurse understands what’s most important for his team. He wants to find out which combinations work most effectively with each other at both ends of the court. But he knows he has to give Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard every opportunity to develop some cohesion.
The two play nearly every scrimmage as teammates, and they’re paired with each other in almost every drill.
It’s a simple NBA fact that the two best players on a team have to have an innate sense of each other and that’s what Nurse is providing for his all-star point guard and newly-acquired allstar wing.
“We’ve been in almost every group together,” Lowry said after the Raptors finished the practice portion of training camp Friday at Fortius Sport and Health in suburban Burna- by, B.C. “We have to be on the same page, I think we’re going to be on the same page. He’s a heckuva a player and us being on the same page makes everything a lot easier, and getting everyone else on the same page will come.”
It has helped tremendously that Lowry and Leonard are both veterans and possess above-average NBA intelligence. The transition to becoming teammates gets a bit easier with those two attributes. Finding ways to play effectively together should just be a matter of time.
“Some people are going to be on the court that were never on the court together, everyone is going to have to get used to Kawhi, that’s one thing,” Lowry said.
For Nurse, the other eight or nine guys who might make up the rotation could very well be interchangeable but the team’s overall success is going to start and end with how well Lowry and Leonard get along. Not like the deep abiding friendship between Lowry and the departed DeMar DeRozan but in the way they maximize each other’s skills.
“For us, it’s where he wants the ball, and we just have to talk,” Lowry said.
“We’re just trying to figure out where we want to be, let him know where we like it and he’s letting us know where he likes it. “That’s all communication.” The process is not going to happen overnight — and it might not look so great early in the season — but both players know it will come and starting early is the best thing they can do.
“Every day’s important, just getting time with everyone, getting acclimated with the team,” Leonard said earlier this week. “It’s not just going to take one day. It’s going be a process to get ready to play regular-season games.”
The process begins here Saturday when the Raptors face the Portland Trail Blazers to kick off a five-game exhibition schedule.
It’s not likely that either Lowry or Leonard will log extensive minutes but it is likely they will be on the court together for the bulk of the time.
Nurse can fiddle with everyone else but he has to make sure those two develop some cohesion as quickly as possible. The coach sees it in practice, he needs to see it in games.
“The only thing I would have noticed today is I kind of notice a little appreciation both ways — from Kyle to Kawhi and Kawhi to Kyle,” Nurse said. “Maybe they are doing some shooting drills and Kawhi hits 19 out of 20 and Kyle is like, ‘Man, I didn’t know you shot it that good.’ Kyle then goes and answers it by shooting19 of 20 and Kawhi is like, ‘I didn’t know he could shoot that good either.’
“It’s more of them just seeing what each guy has got in their package and maybe just acknowledging it more than anything right now.”