Four Raptors rookies join doubleheader club, make history

When the quartet of Raptors rookies took the floor together at Scotiabank Arena ten hours earlier, the situation could not have been more different.

As four-fifths of the Raptors 905 starting lineup for their annual 11 a.m. ET tip-off, Ja'Kobe Walter, Jamal Shead, Jonathan Mogbo and Jamison Battle helped lead the 905 to their best win of the season, a 134-92 wallop of the G League’s best team. Around 9:30 p.m. ET, they took the floor as part of a Raptors bench unit that was playing out the end of a 129-92 drubbing at the hand of arguably the NBA’s best team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

It was about as big a whiplash in quality of competition as you’d expect, going from a morning start in the minor league to a marquee meeting with the NBA’s best defence. With no disrespect to the Greensboro Swarm, now 8-2, there are levels to the game, and there are sub-levels within those levels, and enough levels between quality G-League play and NBA championship contention to make Nick Jonas’s head spin. The Thunder are a buzzsaw, and a heck of a way to end a very long day of basketball.

Raptors outcome aside, the four rookies got to etch their names in a spreadsheet maybe only I keep, but one that is nonetheless a fun part of the Raptors’ player development history: Walter, Shead, Mogbo, and Battle became the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Raptors to ever appear in games for Raptors 905 and the NBA Raptors in the same day, and the 53rd-through-56th in G League history.

It also marked the first time any team has ever had four players do this in the same game, topping a record of three that the Raptors shared.

“It was a lot of fun. I think those games are very valuable,” said Rajakovic, who watched the 905 courtside after the Raptors finished shootaround on the practice court upstairs. “You know, there are so many games in the season, there are so many games in the career of a player, but I guarantee, that all of our rookies, all of our guys going to remember that game.

“I think those opportunities are not very frequent, but when you have those opportunities, I think they're awesome for, overall, showing the unity of 905 and Raptors that we are one team. And then for those guys to get more minutes and then play the morning and night, it's amazing.”

While the doubleheader list is not exclusive to Raptors 905, it’s an honour that is filled heavily with Raptors. Including players who have appeared in multiple, 26 of the 70 instances in league history came from the Toronto team.

Current Raptors Jakob Poeltl and Chris Boucher have done it, and major 905 success stories like Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam double-dipping, as well. Sometimes, those have been 11 a.m. starts and nightcaps both at Scotiabank Arena, but the history is dotted with trips down the Gardiner Expressway after early afternoon tipoffs and, in the case of Malachi Flynn once, an unlikely trip from the G League bubble in Florida to Milwaukee.

“From my time in the G league this, this particular setup was one of the more impressive ones,” Thunder and former OKC Blue coach Mark Daigneault said. “I think they've done a really good job creating synergy with the programs here. I think we've done the same thing in our market

“There are huge benefits to that. You want to develop all your players, all the time. Especially in the current modern salary cap system, player development is a huge equalizer or competitive advantage for every organization. And you can only commit 240 game minutes every night, and so you're capped to a certain degree, and the G league uncaps you and allows guys to get real game minutes. It changes the developmental environment, it changes his role on a team, it puts more responsibility on those guys, it helps their conditioning, rhythm, there's a lot of benefits to it and Toronto's a team that I think has done that well.”

The doubleheader isn’t quite as daunting as it may sound, though no player can recall playing two games in a day since AAU. The morning game effectively takes the place of an arduous shootaround, and the 905 are careful to monitor minutes in the event a player is needed later. Until Thursday, the 905ers usually just saw end-of-game minutes in blowouts (except for Lorenzo Brown, who once had a great showing in a rout of Lebron James’s Cleveland Cavaliers on ESPN during the G League Showcase). If you were Joe Wieskamp, the last player to play the double, you only had to worry about getting subbed in once the later game was out of hand.

What made Thursday unique is that all four Raptors rookies are firmly in Darko Rajakovic’s rotation. The chances of them playing for the Raptors were extremely good, enough that the 905 didn’t play any of the players more than 21 minutes in their blowout victory.

“They’re young,” Rajakovic said with a big smile when asked about workloads.

“I feel like we were ready for it,” Mogbo agreed. “You know, we're still young. So, you know, we still got that young stuff in our body. So we're good.”

The players did have to change a bit of their routine — they all did their pre-game shooting later in the afternoon than they usually would, they had to catch up on film with Rajakovic, pre-game weightlifting became post-game weightlifting — and naps were a must, but mostly it was business as usual.

If anything, the 11 a.m. ET start might be more difficult than getting up for a second game. If they needed a boost of energy, they had a G League record crowd of 19,257, most of them screaming school children, to power them on.

“Yes,” Shead said with emphasis, asked if the noise was noticeable on the court. “Those kids are extra loud and it was like, really screaming, it wasn't cheering, it was screaming. I think it kind of messed with everybody else, and it kind of fueled us a little bit. It was pretty fun.”

“It felt great. The kids were loud today,” Mogbo said. “That's probably one of the loudest times it's been in here. So it was great, you know, just seeing the smiles on everyone's face and get the dub. It was a great energy today, great vibes.”

Those school day crowds, with busses of children from all around the GTA joining the 905, have become special days of their own even without the nightcap, with Raptors assistant coach and former Raptors 905 head coach Jama Mahlalela telling current 905 coach Drew Jones it’s a game he’ll never forget.

The contrast in results — a 42-point win and a 37-point loss — is beside the point, developmentally.

Shead was excellent in his 905 minutes, dishing 12 assists without a turnover, but was shaky and scoreless against the Thunder. Battle hit his threes and continues to look steady at either level. Walter missed his and needs these reps after missing so much of camp and the early part of the season. If anything, it was Dylan Disu (8-of-9 on threes) and Canadian Eugene Omoruyi (29 points) stealing the show in the morning game, but the infusion of NBA talent rarely hurts.

“I think that it's a great opportunity, and I've tried to make the most of it,” Shead said. “And it's been fun, you know, getting a change of scenery, getting a bigger role, going down there and being able to show a little bit more, trying a little bit more.”

Mogbo, meanwhile, looks good enough at the NBA level to quiet any 905 talk unless the schedule aligns perfectly.

That next opportunity could come on Dec. 29, with a few other day-and-night dates on the schedule in the new year. If anyone else really wants to lock in their status as a Raptors developmental piece, they’d be well-served to join the doubleheader club and feel like part of the history.