Nothing marks the dog days of summer quite like the NBA’s Summer League in Las Vegas.
Summer League feels like an NBA carnival. It’s a hub of activity, with a unique mix of incoming rookies, team owners, Hall-of-Famers, rabid fans, and league powerbrokers intermingling amid a backdrop of sloppy, competitive and altogether entertaining basketball.
Generally speaking, your level of NBA fandom is partly determined by how much Summer League action you catch each July— it certainly attracts a more hardcore audience—but this year’s edition warrants more Raptors fans watching than ever.
That’s because the Raptors roster boasts a whopping five players under contract (or soon to be) with the NBA club— all Masai Ujiri selections from the past three drafts—providing a window into what the future might hold for the big club.
2014 first-round pick Bruno Caboclo (20th), 2015’s Delon Wright (20th) and Norm Powell (46th), and 2016’s pair of first-rounders Jakob Poeltl (9th) and Pascal Siakam (27th), will comprise the Raptors starting lineup when Summer League tips off on Friday night.
“Sometimes we’ll have two, three, maybe four,” says Raptors assistant and Summer Leauge head coach Jama Mahlalela, “but to have five players [from the NBA team] is a pretty unique situation for us. And the great thing is that all five guys play different positions, and I think that’s somewhat by design— Masai’s focus is to always have a young group players at the bottom end of your roster that can fight the older players for minutes.”
Ever since the Summer League switched formats a few years back— a brief round-robin followed by a single-elimination tournament— winning has meant more than ever, yet with a roster featuring key prospects winning games must be weighed against the opportunity for development.
“We have our “Raptors rotation” on our team, so our priority is to get them as much in-game experience as we can,” Mahalalela says. “Our end goal is to make the Toronto Raptors basketball club better. So it’s a balance. We’d like to win this tournament if possible, but we’re not going to compromise those players’ development to do so.”
Let’s take a closer look at each of the starting five— what the Raptors’ coaching staff and front office is expecting from them, areas they are looking to improve, and for the two rookies, early impressions in a Raptors uniform:
DELON WRIGHT, PG
Wright played two games in the Summer League last year, averaging 9.5 points, 5.5 assists, and 1.5 steals in just over 20 minutes per game. He particularly impressed in the NBA’s D-League with the Raptors 905 last season, and looked comfortable in spot minutes with the Raptors big club.
Still firmly planted third on the Raps point guard depth-chart behind Kyle Lowry and Cory Joseph, the team is looking for Wright to be more assertive this summer in order to develop into a consummate floor general.
“That’s where Delon really needs to step up,” says Mahlalela, “to be able to command the game so that when he’s on the floor everyone knows exactly what they’re doing, the ebb and flow of the game is under his control, and he’s helping to really direct people. Developing his leadership as a professional point guard is our main focus.
NORM POWELL, SG
As Powell recently told me, the Raptors brass isn’t “looking for me to score 30 every night, because they already know I’m capable of that.” Instead, the team wants to see Powell, who started 24 of the 49 games he appeared in the NBA last season, work on harnessing his speed and ability to get to the paint in order to become an more effective drive-and-dish penetrator.
“We really want him to prove his assists,” Mahlalela says, “while not sacrificing his aggressiveness while attacking the basket. That’s the real focus for us- if we can get his assists up that’ll be a real sign of success.”
At Summer League last year, Powell averaged more than 18 points per game while shooting 51% from the floor, and stands to be one of the top players in attendance this year, on any team.
“For Norm, this is a chance to have another great Summer League and really put pressure on our two’s and three’s [on the NBA roster]. If you have a good summer it’ll help you come [into training camp] and earn minutes on the Varsity squad.”
Click here to read more about how Powell is planning to work on his game this summer.
BRUNO CABOCLO, SF
One of the more enigmatic Raptors, Caboclo made huge strides toward the end of the D-League season but is still considered to be in the early stages of his on-court development (hey, at least he’s now zero years away from being two years away).
“It’s much of the same,” Mahlalela says of Caboclo’s development plan this summer compared to last. “The biggest thing is getting repetition at game speed, at game intensity, and then making the right decisions. His skill-set is there, it’s now about the decision making— starting to understand when do I drive, when do I pass, when do I shoot. It sounds rudimentary in many ways, but it is a real skill to learn.”
“The one thing is his communication has much improved this year versus last,” Mahlalela continues, “There’s nothing still existing in terms of a language barrier. Now it’s about breaking through the basketball barrier. He’s been in this position for two years, hasn’t played on the main team, but he wants to and is showing he’s willing to put in the work to get him there, and hopefully in a year or two he’s there and ready to contribute to our team.”
Click here to read ‘The Long Game’, Sportsnet magazine’s Bruno Caboclo profile.
PASCAL SIAKAM, PF
Watching highlights, the one thing that immediately jumps out about the New Mexico State product is just that: he jumps out.
“I hadn’t really heard of him until I worked him out in Buffalo before the draft,” says Mahlelela. “He shocked us with the skill he showed in the workout— his energy, his bounce-ability, and his presence. He had that “it” factor in our workout. It just shone through.”
The team put him through workouts last week in Los Angeles and have now held three practices in Vegas in preparation for Summer League, and through it all Siakam’s raw ability has been undeniable. “He just needs a lot of fine-tuning now.”
“His activity on the glass is great as both an offensive and defensive rebounder, and his finishing at the rim is good. Now he has to learn things like the professional NBA terminology and defensive coverages. For him Summer League is about ‘Let’s show him what this is.’ Let’s show him what NBA basketball is, and then not until next season are we really going to have any expectations as to what that might lead to. “
JAKOB POELTL, C
The Raptors’ top pick, Poeltl is a legit seven-footer with an impressive skill-set on both ends of the floor and was considered the highest-ranked centre at June’s draft for reasons that have been evident early in Summer League practices.
“He’s shown a capability to play with his size,” says Mahlalela. “The first few days in practice you’ve seen him be dominant as a rebounder and able to get up high off the glass and snatch boards down. He’s shown promise as a passer, and anytime you have a big man who can pass it changes your offense. Now the difference is the speed of the game. That’s where his biggest adjustment is going to come. Already you see things like pick and rolls, having an NBA point guard flying at him in pick and roll coverage is a lot different than a college kid doing it. So the biggest difference now is adjusting to the speed of the NBA game and using his size and skill package that he has.”
Poeltl stands to play a role on the Raptors main roster backing up Jonas Valanciunas, and while he has a long ways to go, the message the coaches are imparting to him extend to all five of the “Raptors rotation.”
“This is what we spend our time telling these players: things change so quickly in the NBA. So any of these five players could have a moment where he impacts our team. Norm has done so, and his performance in the first round of the playoffs was fantastic. Delon can easily do so. But Bruno, Jakob, and Pascal, there could be a moment this season where they do contribute, even if it’s only a five-minute stretch of basketball. But they get a deflection, a rebound, and their energy can make the difference in us winning a game in the NBA next season.”
Through it all, however, one message to this young group lingers above all others: Learn how to play the Raptors way.
“We need to maintain our defensive identity,” says Mahlalela, “That’s what we, in our Raptors culture, are focused on, and it needs to remain our focus here in Summer League. It’s a short window to put in all of our defensive concepts and coverages, so that needs to remain the central focus of each and every game. If we improve defensively, the offense will come.”
The Raptors tip-off against the Sacramento Kings Friday night at 10 pm ET.