Raptors continue to show signs of new identity in pre-season win over Taipans

Darko Rajakovic was hired after the outlines of the Toronto Raptors pre-season schedule were mapped out, but he thinks it has worked out in his favour anyway, with two full weeks of training interrupted by just one game prior to Sunday night. 

It’s an unusual ratio, even during pre-season. Once the regular season kicks in a team might be lucky to have eight full practices in a month. 

But for most coaches, more is better when it comes to training. When I asked the first-year head coach what he thought about having eight practices interrupted by just one game so far, he was quick to correct: 

“Nine practices, one shootaround,” he said. 

The only action his team has had outside of playing against each other was last Sunday’s contest against the Sacramento Kings to conclude training camp in Vancouver a week ago. 

However, given the regular season is rounding into view soon enough — the Raptors host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Oct. 25 which is suddenly just 10 days away — Rajakovic was not surprisingly eager to see how all the preparation would translate into competition. 

Enter the Cairns Taipans an Australian NBL (National Basketball League) team who were in Toronto as part of a brief pre-season tour. 

How much competition Cairns would actually provide was the question. They had an illness run through their team upon their arrival, so much so that they had to send two players back to Australia and played the Washington Wizards with only nine players, losing 145-82.

The Taipans added nine-year NBA veteran Elfrid Payton on Saturday just to round out their rotation. 

Any specific goals then, besides an almost certain win? 

“It really comes down to continue working on our habits,” said Rajakovic. “Is that the communication piece? Is that spacing? … is the defensive shifting in the right positions where we need to be? Is that using our hands? So it's really focusing on us, respecting our opponent and then playing hard.”

Mission accomplished then, as the Raptors won with predictable ease, 134-93, over their mostly over-matched opponents. Toronto’s starters – even missing Jakob Poeltl, who was out with an illness – were up 20-10 before Rajakovic began going to his bench. Toronto led 38-17 after the first quarter and never really looked back, improving to 2-0 in exhibition play before heading to Chicago on Wednesday and then hosting the Wizards on Friday. 

“The start of the game, we were locked in,” said Rajakovic. “You could see that. Just the way, the stuff that we were working on, recognizing who are the guys on the floor, getting to extreme corners. At the start of the game, we got three threes very quickly. The defensive energy was very good.”

There was a little bit of additional pre-game buzz as a healthy contingent of NBA talent evaluators were on hand to see Bobi Klintman, the 6-foot-10 wing who is projected as a potential lottery pick in the 2024 draft. But even that fizzled as the talented youngster had a hard time showing his game against wave after wave of Raptors defenders who could look him in the eye and move their feet with him. The 20-year-old from Sweden finished with nine points, seven rebounds and two assists in 34 minutes on 3-of-12 shooting. 

The pace is picking up from here, however, but the Raptors seem ready for it. 

A big question mark heading into the season was whether Toronto would have enough shooting after finishing 28th in both three-pointers made and three-point percentage last season. 

Encouragingly the Raptors went 10-of-24 from deep in the first half on their way to a commanding 71-44 lead. 

But even if the ability of the short-handed and undermanned NBL club to put the kind of closeout pressure on Toronto they would be used to might have been a factor, Toronto can at least take credit for getting their looks the right way. Several of them came in transition when Toronto was able to get out and run after either forcing a turnover or a Cairns miss.

The next step was to push the ball hard to the middle of the floor with an eye on the rim and if the defence collapsed as it inevitably does, whip it to the corner where a teammate has ideally run hard to and set up well in advance. O.G Anunoby scored the Raptors' first basket that way after Scottie Barnes dragged half of Cairns with him on an early paint foray, and Pascal Siakam set up Dennis Schroder for a similar three a moment later. Each was one of the Raptors' 18 first-half assists and 34 for the game, the second time in as many starts Toronto has topped the 30-assist mark. The 17 turnovers will need to be cleaned up, but so far Rajakovic’s plan to have the Raptors move the ball and cut more seems to be bearing out. 

None of the starters played more than 17 minutes. The Raptors' leading scorer was Javon Freeman-Liberty who is on a two-way contract and will likely play most of his basketball for Raptors 905 this season. He finished with 15 points on 11 shots in 14 minutes.

Other interesting developments? 

It appears that Dennis Schroder will be part of the starting lineup for Rajakovic, supplanting Gary Trent Jr. who has been almost exclusively a starter in Toronto since he was acquired at the trade deadline for Norm Powell during the 2021-22 season. Trent Jr. has come off the bench in both of the Raptors exhibition games so far, though nothing is set in stone yet. 

“I think it’s going to come after the Washington game,” said Rajakovic. “Obviously, we want to use (the) opportunities that we have in the next three games to see different lineups, to see different guys. And after the Washington game, heading into the first official regular season game, that's going to be kind of like the time for us to make some decisions.”

In addition to Poeltl being out the Raptors were without Precious Achiuwa (groin injury) and Otto Porter Jr., who is returning to playing shape after off-season toe surgery for the second straight game. 

That was part of the reason there were some eyebrows raised last Sunday against the Kings when Gradey Dick, who the Raptors took with the 12^th pick in the draft last summer, didn’t get any playing time in the first half against Sacramento. Dick didn’t have to wait as long this time as he saw action in the first quarter. He didn’t shoot the ball well but looked sharp in creating some shots for his teammates. 

Dick started in the second half – as did Trent Jr. – as Rajakovic decided that risking his starters in a game that was already decided and meant nothing in the first place was unwise. 

Trent Jr. found Dick for an open corner off some dribble penetration early in the third quarter as the rookie finished with five points on 2-of-7 shooting in his 18 minutes. 

If there was one player who took advantage of the opportunity against Cairns it was probably Malachi Flynn. The fourth-year point guard who never cracked head coach Nick Nurse’s lineup on a steady basis seems to be getting every opportunity to do so by Rajakovic, who has pledged to run a steady 10-man rotation. 

Flynn hit a pair of quick threes early and in general, looked like he was too much for the Taipans to handle as he was able to get where he wanted, when he wanted on his way to 10 points and four assists in 17 minutes. Proving he can be consistently productive in limited minutes against NBA competition is the hurdle Flynn will need to get over this season, but at least at this stage, it looks like he’s going to get some chances.