Raptors Insider: The uncomfortable truth for Bobby Webster's roster

Hamilton Spectator

2 days ago

With the summer's heavy lifting complete, the
Raptors
now shift focus to preparing for the upcoming season and that starts next week at the
NBA
Summer League in Las Vegas.
Sure, the chance of a trade still exists but it's becoming increasingly slight with each passing day and what general manager Bobby Webster has done is set up one of the most fascinating scenarios in years.
The Raptors are deeper and that's important to handle the grind of an 82-game season and inevitable injuries that will pop up, but who comprises that depth is in question today and lends a competitive nature to every practice, mini-camp and scrimmage.
For argument's sake, we'll cede the five starting spots to
Immanuel Quickley
,
RJ Barrett
,
Brandon Ingram
,
Scottie Barnes
and
Jakob Poeltl
.
MLSE CEO Keith Pelley said the decision to replace Ujiri was his, without explaining why. We can put the pieces together.
MLSE CEO Keith Pelley said the decision to replace Ujiri was his, without explaining why. We can put the pieces together.
Where do they go from there?
Is the backup point guard Jamal Shead or can
Alijah Martin
or someone else wrest the spot away? Shead's got experience, Martin's got a bit more size; their practice matchups might be fun.
Are Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji the first two wings off the bench or are Ja'Kobe Walter and Jamison Battle?
Battle's the best shooter on the team, Agbaji's the best defender of the group, Dick can shoot and can cut without the ball in possibly the best all-around package and Walter, in a rookie season that played out in fits and starts because of injuries, has abundant promise and a fearlessness and confidence that belies his youth.
Is
No. 9 draft pick Collin Murray-Boyles
as good as experts say and can he beat out Jonathan Mogbo for frontcourt minutes? And what becomes of Sandro Mamukelashvili, an intriguing pick-and-pop three-point frontcourt threat the Raptors don't have? Mamukelashvili's bigger, younger, thicker and less expensive than Chris Boucher and I don't imagine Toronto signed him to let him waste away on the bench.
So, five starters and Shead, Martin, Dick, Agbaji, Walter, Battle, Murray-Boyles, Mogbo, Mamukelashvili. That's nine guys without even considering the likes of AJ Lawson and Colin Castleton and there is no way on earth any team can play 14 guys on a nightly basis.
Practices and scrimmages, three-on-three games and one-on-one challenges might be epic and determine who ultimately gets a chance to play.
And that's good. You want competition every day, you want guys to not be entirely comfortable with their jobs and it took last season and this summer to get to this point but it's exactly where you want a team to be.
There are other things that eventually will be in play – Webster will likely have to trade someone to get out of the tax but that's not due for months, and injuries are sure to happen – but what Toronto's done is foster a competitive nature. And if you're looking at how the existing roster improves it's in large part through individual growth and that will come by forcing players to prove themselves daily.
And that dovetails into the next point …
Raptors people high in the food chain point out there were two over-riding things they wanted from
head coach Darko Rajakovic
when he was hired two years ago.
They wanted a coach who would re-establish a sense of optimism and good feeling around a team that had turned stale and they certainly got that. He is unwaveringly positive, always supportive and it has created a mood that's upbeat. You can sense it every day, to be honest.
And developmentally, he's shone. Look at Barrett having the best season-and-a-half of his career here, look at all the rookies who emerged last season, see how much more comfortable young players like Dick and Agbaji are. No question about Rajakovic's teaching chops.
One of the greatest basketball players of all time met Aziz Olajuwon's mother when he was with the Raptors during his final NBA season.
One of the greatest basketball players of all time met Aziz Olajuwon's mother when he was with the Raptors during his final NBA season.
Now? He's got to be able to prune, be able to tell players they aren't good enough to play but reach them deeply enough that they keep working to improve.
The coach can't play everyone at his disposal; how he handles the ones who aren't will be important. Almost as important as having to win because 'building' has now been replaced by 'winning' this coming season.
Of all the things fans will be looking at – and more importantly, his bosses – how Rajakovic coaches to win will be under the microscope.
Summer League practices have been going on for a few days here in Toronto and begin in earnest next Wednesday in Vegas. There's an interesting mix of players – seven players from last year's team are there; I'd expect each to play a game, maybe two, of the five in Vegas – but what has to be accomplished most is setting up the rest of the off-season.
Summer League serves as a check-in for the staff to see what improvement has been shown since April and to set a baseline for work that has to be done in August and September before training camp begins.
I know fans will see games on TV and use them to judge what the familiar players look like. The biggest thing is what they look in practices and shootarounds and scrimmages, so remember that the games are not the be all and end all of the couple of weeks in the toasty Vegas summer.
We're going to keep up Ye Olde Mailbag right through the summer because there always seem to be a few things to ask about. And to do that, all it takes is an email to
[e-mail]
.