The times – and the roles – are changing.
Makes sense. If the Toronto Raptors were looking to continue with the status quo, they wouldn’t have parted ways over the summer with head coach Nick Nurse along with 13 assistant coaches, the head athletic trainer, the travel manager, the head of team security and their longest serving physiotherapist.
In that context, it would only be a surprise if incoming head coach Darko Rajakovic took over the Raptors’ reins and didn’t tinker with the rotations from years past. The two players who look like they will be most affected in the near term are Gary Trent Jr. and Malachi Flynn.
While nothing has been set in stone at this stage – the Raptors have two more exhibition games before opening their season next Wednesday – the outlines are getting firmer all the time.
Trent Jr. could see his profile reduced – or at least his minutes shifted – while Flynn looks like he’s going to get every chance to prove himself a rotation player after three years bouncing around the fringes of Nurse’s lineup.
For Trent Jr., the change seems to have been a long time coming. Ever since he arrived in Toronto, it seemed like his best fit would be as a quick trigger scoring option in the second unit. But given the Raptors’ lack of shooting up and down their roster, the 24-year-old has started 83 per cent of the games he’s been available for since joining Toronto at the trade deadline during the 2020-21 season. It kept more shooting in the starting lineup but meant the Raptors backcourt was on the small side when Trent Jr. played alongside since departed Fred VanVleet, and it also meant another mouth to feed in a starting five that where everyone seemed hungry.
It looks like that will be changing under Rajakovic, who has started incoming point guard Dennis Schroder ahead of Trent Jr. in Toronto’s two exhibition games. It hasn’t been formalized – the head coach says he’s going to wait until Toronto wraps up its preseason schedule with a game in Chicago on Tuesday night and at home against Washington on Friday – but Trent Jr. seems to know what’s up.
“As of right now, it’s going to be what it’s going to be,” he said after practice on Monday. “I haven’t heard anything about coming off the bench [or]starting. Obviously, the first two games I’ve been coming off the bench. Practices, I’ve been with the second unit in everything we’re doing, [so]the writing is on the wall. So we’ll just continue to go, come in and help to win as much as I can.”
Trent proved himself pretty adaptable last season when Nurse did tinker with his role at times.
He averaged 19.6 points per 36 minutes in the 22 games he came off the bench last season compared with 19.5/36 in his 45 games as a starter, but he was more efficient coming off the bench, with a True Shooting percentage of 58.0 compared with a 55.2 mark while starting.
Getting Trent to embrace his new role will be one of Rajakovic’s first tests as a head coach.
Trent Jr. is a pending free agent, and – presuming he doesn’t get some version of the four-year, $113-million extension he’s eligible for in the coming days – would hit the open market next summer after opting into the final year of the three-year $54 million contract he signed prior to the 2021-22 season this year.
Taking a step back in term of responsibilities or minutes is not normally well received by players heading to free agency.
Trent Jr. praised the open lines of communication Rajakovic has established early in his Raptors tenure but said that to this point he hasn’t discussed his role – or apparent change in role – with Rajakovic and isn’t the type to go asking.
“Obviously you work to start in the league and start for a team and help the team as much as you can,” said Trent Jr. “But again, I have no control over that. So whatever it’s going to be, it’s going to be. I can only control me coming in, working, being a great teammate and contribute to winning. That’s all I can help with. That’s all I can do. There’s no time to complain, nag about what’s going on or how my situation is not what I wanted. There’s none of that. I’m coming here to work. And I’m going to do what I need to do to help this team win.”
Rajakovic said when the time comes to formalize Trent’s status, his pitch will be a simple one, if he indeed ends up coming off the bench.
“You can look at Hall of Famers, some of those guys were coming off the bench and being amazing players at different parts of the season,” Rajakovic said. “Like, you’ve just gotta be ready to go out there and be (a) pro and everything I’ve seen so far from Gary’s, he’s that guy. He’s a pro.
“[But] we’re going to talk about everything once we know how rotation is going to look like,” he continued. “We’re gonna sit down and talk to every player and explain what are my expectations and what is my vision and how we’re gonna go from that.”
Some conversations may be easier than others.
Flynn, the fourth-year point guard, has listened closely as Rajakovic has preached his intention of rolling with a 10-man rotation – a departure from Nurse who ran his starters harder than any coach in the NBA the past two seasons, making minutes scarce after eight players most nights – and has liked what he’s heard.
He likes even more that he’s been on the floor in the first quarter of both of the pre-season games so far and seems to be firmly positioned to be part of whatever second unit ends up taking shape.
“It’s definitely going to be fun,” said Flynn. “[Going] 10 deep, and he kinda lets us know who it’s going to be or who it may be. So that’s definitely something to look forward to.”
It’s been a long-time coming for Flynn, who was taken 29th overall in the 2020 draft but has struggled for steady minutes all three years he’s been in Toronto. He appeared in just 44 games in his second season and 53 last year, generally on short minutes.
Rajakovic seems to see something he likes in the six-foot-one San Diego State product who looks visibly stronger and bouncier this year after training closely under his brother-in-law, a track coach at the University of Washington.
“Malachi is somebody who I have a very high confidence in,” Rajakovic said. “I think he’s a player that he’s not even close to maxing out. I think there is so much room for growth in his game on the ball and off the ball … and we’re just going to continue working on those skills with him.”
Flynn is hopeful.
“I think it’s just like a reset, you know what I mean?” said Flynn of the new opportunities it looks like he’s going to get under a new coach and a new staff. “When he first got the job I didn’t know nothing about him but it’s just a reset for everybody. And then once I got to know him he’s really detail oriented, very organized and somebody I can get on the same page with. So I think it’s been good.”
It does look like a change will benefit Flynn. The jury is out on how it will affect Trent Jr. and how any of the new twists Rajakovic has planned play out in terms of wins and losses.
At minimum things promise to be different, ideally for the better.
