Raptors forward OG Anunoby, who has been sidelined since the All-Star break due to a fractured right ring finger, was reevaluated on Monday, according to Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link).
“It’s kinda the same,” head coach Nick Nurse said of Anunoby’s finger injury. “It’s not fully healed. He’s got a decision to make.”
According to Nurse, the plan is for Anunoby to practice on Tuesday and see how he feels — the team will know more at that point about his status. Nurse’s comment about Anunoby having a “decision” to make suggests that playing through the injury before it has fully healed could be an option if the pain isn’t too bad.
Here’s more on the Raptors:
- As Eric Koreen writes for The Athletic, Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes are both technically forwards, but their versatile skill sets allows them to function as de facto point guards at times, and they’re developing intriguing chemistry together. “I think we have kind of like similar skill sets, and we always feel like we have a mismatch every time down the floor,” Siakam said over the weekend.
- Noting that Toronto enjoyed success in Denver on Saturday with a shooting-deficient lineup made up of Barnes, Khem Birch, Thaddeus Young, Chris Boucher, and Dalano Banton, Eric Koreen explores Nurse’s unconventional rotation decisions, dubbing the Raptors the NBA’s “delightful weirdos.”
- Birch appreciates the Raptors’ willingness to stick with him as a rotation regular and a frequent starter, given how much time he has missed this season due to injuries and illnesses. “Honestly, I feel like with any other team I probably wouldn’t even be playing right now,” said Birch, who has missed 26 of 68 games (link via Doug Smith of The Toronto Star). “The fact that they just have that type of confidence in me despite all the injuries I’ve had, all the setbacks, and I’m still getting minutes tells a lot about how they feel about me, and it gives me a lot of confidence to keep going despite my injury.”
- Nekias Duncan of BasketballNews.com examines the progress that Raptors center Precious Achiuwa has made in his second NBA season and the areas where he still has room to improve.
I think “the decision” is whether to get surgery or keep waiting. If it feels no better as said, rest and natural healing may not be sufficient for him. So either get surgery to find a better correction or play through how horrible it feels and hope nothing catastrophic happens in either route.
Scottie Barnes plays PG in certain lineups, as well as the 5/4, Siakam plays the 4/5/3
As long as they have a couple of guys that can shoot around their versatile playmakers/defenders in all of their lineups, they’re extremely dangerous, and there are times where they can just go to an all defensive, super long lineup in certain matchups, and just throw different looks out there, and I’ve talked about something like that potentially being the future of the league, and once they figure out their rotations more consistently, I think they can make it very interesting against the right matchups into the early playoff situation…all assuming health, especially OG Anunoby
I can now point to 3 articles about this dude’s damn finger.
It’s a good thing it isn’t his index finger or he might have a hard time pointing to things.
Thumbs up re: your digital statement; it really rings true.
You gotta give Nurse credit for his coaching. Everyone expected Toronto to suck….
There were a few out there who knew this could be possible. Although I think even then they are ahead of schedule.
Not having home games for a whole season has an impact though. Last year wasn’t a true representation of this team for so many reasons.
Top-5 coach in the league IMO. Pop, Spo, Nurse, Jenkins and Finch are my guys in no particular order. Honorable mention to Monty and Kerr.
Of course I’m not overly familiar with every single head coach in the league, and some more than others, so it’s a very rough list.