After a successful 111-100 pre-season debut victory against the Charlotte Hornets Saturday, the Toronto Raptors will be looking to do it again Monday night.
Onto the second instalment of their truncated, three-game exhibition schedule, the Raptors don’t have too much time to fine tune things before games become real next week. That means Monday’s tilt at least features a little more importance to it than your average pre-season affair, as key decisions within Toronto’s rotation need to be figured out quickly.
These granular decisions are what the pre-season are for. So while it’s instinctual to only want to focus on the score and the feature guys on the team, the importance of exhibition play lies in how the “others” perform.
As you take in the game Monday, here are three aspects worth paying attention to:
The wins and losses may not count yet, but the outcomes still have implications. Don’t miss a moment of tonight’s roster-shaping action. Live coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. ET on Sportsnet.
Flynn’s encore act
The Raptors rookie had just about as good a debut as anyone could’ve hoped Saturday and, perhaps, even exceeded expectations.
The 22-year-old out of San Diego State went 3-for-6 from three-point range, looked to have excellent shot mechanics and great confidence in his deep jumper, looked comfortable when given a chance to use a ball screen, making smart decisions for four assists and, perhaps most impressively, looked to already have the kind of lateral quickness and dogged competitiveness needed to be a high-level NBA defender on the perimeter.
Sure, it was just a pre-season game, but Flynn really did look like he belonged out there Saturday and now, coming into Monday, there’s naturally a lot of anticipation for what his follow-up act may look like.
In all honesty, while it would be fun to see him explode for a big scoring night, all you can really ask for is just more of the same from him.
“[It’s] early days for him,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said of Flynn after practice Sunday. “He had a good debut, obviously. I just like his makeup as a player and I’m sure he’s probably gonna have some up and down moments as all rookies do, but I think he’s got good makeup mentally to fight through those things and bounce right back.”
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More burn for “other” guys
As mentioned before, the pre-season is usually the time where roster and rotation battles are determined so you should probably expect to see a lot of non-regular players get playing time so the coaching staff can make better decisions.
Every player on the roster except for Kyle Lowry, who is away from the team during this Charlotte trip, Patrick McCaw and Oshae Brissett saw floor time Saturday. Barring an injury that we’re unaware of at the moment to McCaw and Brissett, everyone who is there in Charlotte will likely see some action Monday.
In particular, of players who are more on the fringes of the roster, Nurse alluded to wanting to find more playing time for Yuta Watanabe and Paul Watson, especially.
“I think both those guys probably had more limited minutes that I would have wanted, just to get a look at them,” said Nurse. “They are kind of battling positionally and they both have some size at the wing, right? They both kind of can move to the four if we need to as well and they’re both intriguing and we don’t know a lot about them, even though Paul’s been with us.
“I would say I feel good about Paul’s progression level, I think he’s progressed well, had – as short as it was – good off-season training, he’s played well in the camp and he looked good out there last night.
“I just like that they’re both versatile and solid. They cut, they move, they guard, they really try to do what we want to do as a team, they’re good team players.”
Watanabe is a training camp invitee on an Exhibit-10 deal – something that allows the Raptors to cut him and then send him immediately to the 905 without fear of losing him to another organization – and is fighting to prove himself as a possible valued member, either now or in the future, of the Raptors. Any extra opportunity he might get bodes well for his future.
“Last night I played 12 minutes, I’m not sure how many minutes I’m going to play next game,” said Watanabe. “So every single practice matters, every single game matters. So I’ve just got to keep showing what I can do even in those small minutes and I’ve just got to go all out and that’s like the only thing that I can do because I’m not sure how many opportunities I’m going to get.
“So in those small opportunities, you know, if I don’t show it I’ll be out. So in like practice, extra work, games, I’ve just got to do good things and like I’ve just got to keep showing coaches in this organization that I’m capable.”
Hearing things like that is why the pre-season does still matter even if it’s not exactly the most important of things.
So while exhibition ball may want for star power, paying attention to how guys on the peripheral or just within that get more playing time than normal is still intriguing to monitor. There are actual peoples’ potential livelihoods on the line here.
OG on offence
Lastly, if you do want to narrow in on a regular Raptor Monday night, do yourself a favour and closely follow what OG Anunoby is doing on offence and how he’s being utilized.
Anunoby performed well Saturday, going 5-for-10 from the field for 11 points, highlighted by a gorgeous behind-the-back move leading to an easy slam.
The efficiency was nice, but more encouraging was the number of shot attempts Anunoby took in that game Saturday, and that might be something you want to watch out for Monday.
With the departure of Serge Ibaka, the shots he was afforded before are now up for grabs and a good chunk of them should now belong to Anunoby, particularly because Nurse said he plans on using Anunoby in a variety of different lineup combinations.
“I certainly could see that because there may be a hole there a little bit at the backup four and that would land OG from moving from three to four,” Nurse said. “And I would say this, as you saw last year in the playoffs, with OG, and even last night a little bit, he’ll play some five. Because, again, if we end up playing a second unit that’s really small and we want to be able to guard and switch all the things like that then OG could end up playing some second-unit five, too, maybe.”
OG, OH MY.
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Before, when Anunoby was used in positions outside of the traditional small forward role he plays, the conversation around him was what he could do on defence. He’s a player who can seemingly guard any position on the floor so talk would naturally land there. But if you consider the Raptors going small with Anunoby at the four or five and possibly attacking more traditional big men off the bounce, or even if Toronto were to play big with Anunoby at shooting guard to utilize his size and strength against smaller defenders, it’s hard not to get excited about the possibilities.
Better yet, Anunoby is good for whatever himself.
“Whoever’s in, just doing whatever the coach needs,” said Anunoby. “Play the five, four, three, two, one. Just doing whatever the coach needs.”
If he is going to be as multi-faceted as he’s claiming he can be, what the Raptors will need from Anunoby is more consistent offensive production and part of that equation will come from how Nurse plans to find Anunoby looks and touches.
We’ll hopefully get more hints as to what that may look like Monday.
