Justise Winslow hopes to carve his path back to the NBA through Raptors 905

Definitions are hard to come by for Justise Winslow.

During his eight-year NBA career, he has been everything: A lottery pick, the key prospect in a major trade, and salary ballast in another. A small forward by size, he has started playoff games at centre and been asked to handle point guard duties in key spots. If the NBA has gone positionless, Winslow is the first “six” — some amalgamation of the other five spots on the floor.

And so on Raptors 905 media day last week, when players were asked what position they play on questionnaires, Winslow was unsure. Winslow asked 905 general manager Luke Winn what he should put, and Winn suggested “all.”

“Point God” is what he ultimately went with.

Winslow may as well have just put “Raptor.” Because while this is Winslow’s first time in the Raptors organization, it’s felt for years that the Raptors are trying to find and develop Winslow types. Long, fast players who are versatile defensively and can handle the ball and make plays for others on offence, no matter the position. If you can shoot the three, awesome, but it’s not a requirement to fit the Raptor prototype.

It’s jokingly been called “Vision 6-9,” and though Winslow is merely 6-foot-6 (with a 6-foot-10 wingspan, mind you), he has the two-way fungibility the Raptors have tried to create an entire roster out of.

“I’m aware of it. The guys they have and what they’re trying to do, even going back to the championship team, having those wings available. I thought it would be a good fit for myself and my skillset,” Winslow said.

When Raptors 905 open their season Friday, they will reflect the NBA club in that way.

They’ll employ guards — some as small as 5-foot-8, like Markquis Nowell — but the G League roster and style will be very familiar to Raptors fans. An off-guard trying to learn to be a more natural lead handler in Javon Freeman-Liberty. Tons of high-upside length in Mo Gueye and Makur Maker. And the lack of a traditional centre or established point guard depth, meaning there will be a bunch of wings switching all over the place and interchanging roles on both sides of the floor. Even the final roster spot was awarded, after a strong camp battle, to a raw, Winslow-style developmental piece in former NAIA defensive standout Myles Burns.

As hard as it is to define Winslow’s on-court position, it’s equally hard to know how this will all work out for him this season. He is, after all, in the G League for the first time, even though when we last saw him he was averaging nearly 30 minutes per-game for an NBA team.

Unfortunately, injuries have been a big part of Winslow’s basketball journey. He’s managed to play in 344 games over eight seasons, averaging about half a season’s worth of games each year. He’s been sidelined by wrist, shoulder, back and hip issues. He’s still in the process of rehabilitating an ankle injury that required season-ending surgery in March, and he won’t play in the team’s season opener as he continues to ramp back up.

Those injuries have, at times, taken a mental toll on Winslow. Now, he finds himself in a much better place mentally, with his son set to join him in Mississauga to celebrate a birthday soon and those myriad injuries offering real-life perspective aside the grind of a basketball dream.

“Basketball’s a big part of my life. When that’s been taken away from me, due to injuries or whatever, it’s been an adjustment for me, finding other things that bring me fulfillment and purpose,” Winslow said. “It’s definitely been a part of my journey, and it’s allowed me to grow and evolve and become not just a better player but a better person.”

After surgery, two months in a walking boot and six months of rehab to this point, Winslow is itching to play. He can do contact drills with coaches, and he can run, jump and cut effectively, but just a little more patience will be required. This close to a return, Winslow is now equipped to handle that process.

“I'm doing really well, man,” Winslow said. “Attacking this rehab process every day, you know, doing things that help me mentally stay in a good place and, you know, find peace and stay patient within the journey. So, it’s been a really good process.”

If you’re wondering how someone with Winslow’s track record finds himself in the G League at age 27, injuries are your answer. He had interest this summer from teams in the NBA and abroad, but his timeline for a return wouldn’t have allowed him to compete fully in training camp. Winslow had observed a number of teammates over the years benefit from their G League experiences, and the Raptors and their G League organization offered the best mix of resources and opportunity once healthy. Winslow also has a good relationship with Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic from their time in Memphis together.

“It was a pretty smooth adjustment, just with the terminology and play calls and that sort of thing. So, I was pretty excited to get down here and get to work.” Winslow said.

(And yes, Winslow remembers the 2016 playoff series in Toronto well, including Kyle Lowry’s buzzer-beater to force overtime in Game 1. Winslow came off the bench for the Miami Heat as a wing early in that series, drew a DNP-CD in Game 3, then started Games 6 and 7 at centre. It was the full Winslow versatility package on display.)

Once healthy, the goal is to get back to the NBA. There have never been doubts about Winslow’s ability, other than maybe spacing concerns around his limited shooting range. He defends everywhere and has had seasons averaging more than four assists from the wing. The Raptors don’t currently have an open roster spot, but things change between now and the trade deadline, and there are 29 other teams for whom Winslow can be auditioning — and showing he’s healthy — while with the 905.

For as long as he’s in the G League, the 905 are thrilled to have someone like him around.

“He's an extremely versatile piece that we could use all over the G League,” Winn said. “I think it's a mutually beneficial situation where we want to get him ready to play for us, and to get back to the NBA, and also have him, in kind of a new way, use all of the experiences he's had in the NBA to mentor some of our younger guys.

“You never know what you're gonna get when you have an NBA player without G League experience coming in. Is it just something they view as, ‘I'm here for a few weeks and out and I'm not going to really invest in the team’. And to his credit, he's really jumped in and been a great presence from the first days here. He's embracing it. I think he's been great with the guys so far. He’s been a noticeable presence. He has a great personality. I think that because of all his varied experiences, he's got a lot of wisdom to share that's going to be valuable.”

Players are already grabbing Winslow after practice or texting him questions, whether about the game or his NBA career. He’s comfortable in that leadership role, giving his insights on the court and sharing his experiences off it. The team has a number of big, long, playmaking wings without a natural position and you can see how they might be drawn to Winslow’s perspective.

At times in the past, his versatility, while valuable, has come at a cost. The solution to roster imbalance or injuries was often “let Justise roam around and figure it out.” It’s possible focusing on what he could do to help a team in the moment prevented teams from keeping an eye on his ultimate ceiling, developmentally. At the same time, that versatility opened several paths to playing time, and that’s front-of-mind for most G Leaguers.

The NBA has changed since Winslow’s 2015 draft year, when the word “tweener” was still in the lexicon. Just as his versatility opened up playing time if Miami, Memphis or Portland had an injury, he has multiple paths — positionally and role-wise — to an NBA call-up.

That eventual call-up isn’t what Winslow will measure himself by this year, even if he sounds confident it will come.

“I don’t try to put too many expectations onto myself,” he said. “I know the type of player I’m capable of being, so it’s just about getting healthy and immersing myself in the process and just going from there. Obviously, getting the call would be great, but I’m gonna do all the other things and keep a good mental space, just controlling what I can.”

Success can be as hard to define as a position.