Down 92-87 with 7.9 seconds left in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Boston Celtics, the Toronto Raptors emerged out of the timeout feeling as confident as they should be.
They were defending NBA champions, battle-tested over the years and used to these tight situations, there was nothing to fear here.
OG Anunoby acted as the trigger man and quickly lobbed a pass to Pascal Siakam to the opposite side of the floor where the Raptors had cleared out some space for him.
Siakam retreated to the three-point line and hoisted up a three-point shot with about three seconds in the game remaining. Should this go, Toronto would be right back in this thing down just two with time remaining.
Unfortunately, Siakam saw his shot come up short and so the Raptors’ long reign as champions came to a rather anticlimactic end.
Raptors Newsletter
That was exactly 92 days ago, not the longest length of time to wipe that bitter taste out of the Raptors’ mouths. But in just a few hours time, the team will unofficially do just that when Toronto kicks off its 2020-21 pre-season schedule with an encounter with the Charlotte Hornets in the Queen City at 7 p.m. ET on Sportsnet.
This is a very different-looking team than the one that came up short to the Celtics in the second round just three short months ago, but the goal of this Raptors team remains the same as ever.
Still with a core highlighted by Kyle Lowry, Siakam, Anunoby, Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell, the Raptors expect to win and compete for a championship this season and Saturday night’s exhibition opener with Charlotte is just the first baby step of many more to come.
Including Saturday’s affair, Toronto will play just three pre-season games, with two taking place in Charlotte before one at “home” against the Miami Heat.
Now, granted, pre-season isn’t quite the real thing, and, yes, top guys will sit out after a quarter or two of action, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to look for during pre-season. So, to get you set for these coming Raptors exhibitions, here are five things to watch for as you take the games in.
New roles for core guys?
As mentioned before, the Raptors’ core remains much the same as before. The band, minus the two key centres Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, are all back together for the most part.
But just because many of the Raptors are returning doesn’t mean they’ll be doing the exact same thing as before.
Players like VanVleet, Anunoby, Siakam and Powell will all likely have a little more responsibility on their plates this season as they’ll be looked up to as young veterans and de facto leaders of the team now.
It may not be overtly obvious during pre-season because it’s likely the minutes of these players will be limited as their services will be more required when the games get real, but all four of those players are more lead-by-example type players and seeing them set a tone with their play in however minutes they end up playing would be encouraging.
Looking at each player individually, from VanVleet there’s nothing, in particular, he’ll need to do but the assurance that he’s just as deadeye a shooter as ever and, perhaps, signs that he’s improved as a finisher at the rim would go a long way.
Siakam is similar to VanVleet in the sense that all he has to show is that he’s back to the All-Star form he was playing at before last season’s suspension and everything will be peachy. He obviously struggled in the bubble but has said that’s behind him now and we’ll get our first taste of that in pre-season where — if we’re nitpicking here — we’d like to see, perhaps, wiser shot selection from Siakam than he showed last season.
Lastly on this, Anunoby and Powell both equally have big offensive opportunities in front of them this season. With the departure of Ibaka — Toronto’s fourth-leading scorer last season and a player who also averaged the fourth-most field-goal attempts — there’s going to be more shots to go around and these two players are the most likely to take those looks that will now be on the table.
Last season, Powell looked like he finally turned the table and became a reliable offensive threat for the Raptors, but injury kept him off the floor more than anyone would’ve liked. Hopefully he can remain healthy this season and build off a successful campaign from before.
Anunoby also took an offensive leap last season but wasn’t quite as consistent as Powell, but with more offensive opportunity this season he could finally put it all together and become the two-way threat everyone had him pegged as since his rookie season.
The new faces
As mentioned before, there are quite a few new faces in Raptors’ camp this season, but the most important guys that are essentially guaranteed a roster spot are Aron Baynes, Alex Len and DeAndre’ Bembry.
The two centres, Baynes and Len, in particular will be important for the Raptors as they were picked up in free agency as essentially the replacements to Gasol and Ibaka.
Those are big shoes to fill, but, in theory, Baynes and Len could do an admirable job of it and we’ll get to see just how exactly in pre-season.
Baynes has the size, smarts and quick feet to be a good defender for the Raptors, and his improving three-point game and devastating screen-setting ability has the potential to be a real game-changer for the club. It might be hard to see all of that in just three pre-season games, but here’s hoping.
As for Len, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of chemistry he manages to build with the Raptors’ second-unit — his likely role. Len isn’t overly athletic, but he is a lob threat and a roll target off the pick-and-roll the likes Toronto hasn’t had since Jonas Valanciunas was on the team. Defensively, he might not be the best in space, but he’s a rim-protecting, shot-blocking threat and in the presumably sparse burst minutes he’ll be playing, that could be quite impactful.
And in regards to Bembry, he’s an athletic, defensive-minded wing who, in order to carve out a consistent role for himself, will have to show what he can do on offence — particularly as a shooter — during the pre-season.
New is always fun, and the Raptors will have plenty of it this season, meaning how these players perform in exhibition play could go a long way to determine how they’re utilized and what their roles will be when the regular season begins.
Rookie watch
Of course, free-agent signees aren’t the only new guys on the Raptors this season.
The two rookies, Malachi Flynn and Jalen Harris, will also be intriguing to observe in pre-season.
First-round pick Flynn has been getting high praise in camp thus far as a player with high basketball IQ and someone already with good understanding of how to run pick-and-roll. The third point guard spot is up for grabs in camp and if Flynn has a good pre-season, it could very well just be his right out of the gate.
There’s been less conversation about second-rounder Harris, but from what we’ve gathered he’s a kid with tools that could see him compete for a roster spot as a wing player with athleticism and shooting ability.
Admittedly, we haven’t seen much of Harris, so getting a good look at him now is high up on the list of priorities to do this pre-season.
Camp battles
The most intriguing thing annually in pre-season is seeing how performance from game-to-game may impact specific battles occurring in camp and this year won’t be any different.
From what we’ve gathered, the team’s top six is pretty much locked in with Lowry and VanVleet starting in the backcourt, the two forward spots belonging to Anunoby and Siakam, the starting centre most likely Baynes and the team’s sixth man being Powell.
Seven onward is when things get a little more interesting, however.
The No. 7 spot in the rotation will likely be whoever the team’s backup centre ends up being and the Raptors could go with either Len or Chris Boucher here.
The prospect of giving Boucher more opportunity and an expanded roles this season is intriguing because while he’s likely a more volatile choice than Len, he probably brings a higher offensive upside as an incredibly athletic lob threat and potential three-point threat. Seeing what Raptors coach Nick Nurse will do with the backup centre will be an important aspect of games to be mindful of.
Looking at No. 8 and beyond now, in seasons past Nurse would usually be more fluid with this spot, going with whoever he thought might be rolling at that moment. This season, however, Nurse has indicated a desire to lock that rotation spot down to a single player and by the sounds of things he wants it to be a wing of some sort.
Names like Matt Thomas and Terence Davis have been floated by Nurse as possible fits here, but you can probably also include Patrick McCaw and Bembry as possible candidates as well. What’s most important to Nurse is that whoever fills this role is able to bring it on both ends of the floor for the club.
Beyond these top-eight spots, the rest of the roster will be more fluid, but there will be guys competing to just make the roster as well.
The Raptors invited 20 players to camp, but there are only 15 full-time roster spots to be had, plus two two-way spots that are being taken up by Paul Watson Jr. and Harris for now.
Players on the roster right now like Oshae Brissett, Henry Ellenson, Alize Johnson and Yuta Watanabe are the players who, in all likelihood, are the ones fighting just to make the squad. While the brunt of their audition is taking place in camp away from the public’s view, how they perform in an actual game — exhibition or not — will still help or hurt their cases.
The new home court
Finally, on Dec. 18, we’ll all bear witness to a strange sight: A Raptors home game in Tampa.
Yes, because of COVID-19, the Raptors weren’t allowed to play in Toronto and had to find a temporary home instead, opting for Amalie Arena, the home of the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Being the pro hoopers that they are, the Raptors’ on-court performance likely isn’t expected to be affected much, but as weird as it was to see them playing in the bubble, that was still a neutral site. Seeing them as the home team in a building that isn’t actually their own and not in Toronto is just going to be plain weird.
This is a pre-season adjustment we as observers will likely have to get used to more than the players themselves.
