- In the wake of the Raptors‘ impressive shorthanded win over the Lakers, Mark Medina of USA Today explores how Toronto has set itself up in both the short-term and long-term to stay competitive despite the loss of Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard.
Following a blowout 108-87 loss to the Cavaliers on Sunday, Knicks president of basketball operations Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry held an unscheduled press conference to address the team’s early-season struggles. New York is off to a 2-8 start in 2019/20 despite making a series of veteran free agent additions aimed at helping the club compete for a playoff spot.
“Given that this is our 10th game, we felt like we had an obligation to come and speak to you guys,” Mills told reporters, including Ian Begley of SNY.tv. “Obviously, Scott and I are not happy with where we are right now. We think the team’s not performing to the level that we anticipated or we expected to perform at and that’s something that we think we have to collectively do a better job of delivering the product on the floor that we said we would do at the start of this season.”
Mills added that he and Perry still believe in the Knicks’ plan, their roster, and the coaching staff, but reiterated that the results so far have been disappointing. According to Mills, the Knicks’ top execs felt as if it was important to communicate that dissatisfaction to fans, stressing that they’re “committed to making this better.”
As Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News observes, the timing of the impromptu press conference appeared to be related to a halftime meeting involving Mills, Perry, and team owner James Dolan. A source tells Bondy that Dolan expressed his disappointment during that meeting, while Frank Isola of The Athletic hears Mills and Perry were ordered by Dolan to address the media after the game.
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Based on Sunday’s presser, it’s fair to wonder just how hot head coach David Fizdale‘s seat is getting. Multiple sources told Begley that there’s no indication that any head coaching change – or management change – is imminent, but those same sources said nothing has been ruled out with regard to in-season changes.
For his part, Fizdale claimed responsibility for the Knicks’ struggles so far and admitted he’s beginning to feel some urgency to start winning games, as Bondy relays. However, he also pointed out that there’s plenty of time for New York to turn things around.
“A good friend of mine told me to never overreact to overreactors,” Fizdale said, according to Steve Popper of Newsday. “We’re two games from the eighth seed. The team that’s in the eighth seed right now has four wins. So it’s not that like, oh my God, everybody’s acting like the world is coming to an end. It’s not. We just have to find our consistency in our games so we can start playing better basketball.”
Sean Deveney of Heavy.com writes that Fizdale has the support of several Knicks players, including RJ Barrett, which is one factor working in his favor. Marcus Morris and Bobby Portis were among those to publicly back their head coach on Sunday, according to Bondy.
“Fiz is a great guy, great coach. He’s a frontline dude,” Morris said. “He’s always going to speak on it first but he’s not coming out and giving up 20-point leads. At the end of the day, f–k the X’s and O’s. We have to come out and we have to be better.”
Although a head coaching change is typically the first move made by a struggling team looking to shake things up, Mills and Perry shouldn’t necessarily be considered safe either, Isola writes. As of last week, the plan was to give the Knicks’ top executives at least the rest of the season to figure things out, but that’s not set in stone, per Isola.
Several people familiar with the Knicks’ thinking believe Dolan intends to take another run at Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri next year, according to Isola. It’s safe to assume the Knicks would be willing to make it worth Ujiri’s while financially if they pursue him, but the Wizards reportedly attempted a similar push in June and had no luck (they later denied having interest). There’s also no guarantee that Ujiri would view working for Dolan as an upgrade on his current job.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
- Veteran point guard Tyler Ennis made his triumphant return to a basketball game for the Raptors‘ G League affiliate, Raptors 905, 13 months after suffering a gruesome leg injury for Turkish team Fenerbahce. Doug Smith of The Toronto Star has the story and the details on Ennis, who feels that the time off had some unexpected developmental benefits. “I had six, seven, eight months of nothing, so I was able to think, ‘When I get back this is what I want to work on,’ ” Ennis said. “I want to be able to shoot better off the dribble and that’s how we kind of did it, in stages.” Though Smith observes that the parent Raptors could use a third point guard and liked Ennis as far back as the 2014 draft, Ennis is nursing a zen calm about the prospect of a callup: “I kind of just want to let it manifest.”
The Raptors have ruled out Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka for the foreseeable future due to their respective injuries, announcing the news in a press release on Saturday afternoon.
Lowry will miss at least two weeks after fracturing the distal phalanx of his left thumb, an injury which occurred during the team’s victory over New Orleans on Friday. He’s set to be re-evaluated after the two-week period.
Ibaka suffered a sprained right ankle and is set to undergo additional imaging in Los Angeles. The team is listing him as out indefinitely.
For Lowry, this is the same thumb he had surgery on during the summer to address torn ligaments. However, the fracture is a different tissue. He continued playing through the injury Friday for some time before choosing to exit for good.
“It felt weird from the rip,” Lowry said, according to ESPN’s Andrew Lopez. “I kept playing through it and kept playing through it. Originally we thought it was something in the nailbed because the nailbed turned black and blue. We got some X-rays and we sent the X-rays off to the doctors and there was a small fracture in the thumb.”
Raptors coach Nick Nurse acknowledged that Ibaka’s sprained ankle was “pretty bad” after the game, according to Lopez. Both Lowry and Ibaka are key players in Toronto’s rotation and played integral roles in helping the franchise win its first championship last June.
Toronto currently holds the second-best record in the Eastern Conference at 6-2, with upcoming road games scheduled against the Lakers, Clippers, Blazers and Mavericks.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2019 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s moves from the last several months and look ahead to what the 2019/20 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Toronto Raptors.
Signings:
- Standard contracts:
- Patrick McCaw: Two years, $8MM. Re-signed using mid-level exception.
- Stanley Johnson: Two years, $7.43MM. Signed using bi-annual exception.
- Rondae Hollis-Jefferson: One year, $2.5MM. Signed using mid-level exception.
- Matt Thomas: Three years, minimum salary. Second year partially guaranteed ($725K). Third year non-guaranteed. Signed using mid-level exception.
- Terence Davis: Two years, minimum salary. Second year non-guaranteed. Signed using minimum salary exception.
- Cameron Payne: Two years, minimum salary. First year partially guaranteed ($150K). Second year non-guaranteed. Signed using minimum salary exception. (Waived)
- Isaiah Taylor: Two years, minimum salary. First year partially guaranteed ($50K). Second year non-guaranteed. Signed using minimum salary exception. (Waived)
- Two-way contracts:
- Non-guaranteed camp contracts:
- Oshae Brissett: One year, minimum salary (Converted to two-way contract).
- Tyler Ennis: One year, minimum salary (Waived).
- Sagaba Konate: One year, minimum salary (Waived).
- Devin Robinson: One year, minimum salary (Waived).
- Matt Morgan: One year, minimum salary (Waived).
Trades:
- None
Draft picks:
- 2-59: Dewan Hernandez — Signed to three-year, minimum-salary contract. First year partially guaranteed ($500K). Second and third years non-guaranteed. Signed using mid-level exception.
Contract extensions:
- Pascal Siakam: Four years, 25% maximum salary. Projected value of $129,920,000. Starting salary can be worth between 28-30% of the cap if Siakam earns All-NBA or MVP honors in 2020 (full details). Starts in 2020/21; runs through 2023/24.
- Kyle Lowry: One year, $30MM. Includes $500K All-Star bonus. Starts in 2020/21; runs through 2020/21.
Departing players:
Other offseason news:
- Named Brittni Donaldson, Jon Goodwillie as assistant coaches.
- Kyle Lowry underwent left thumb procedure to repair tendon injury.
- Exercised 2020/21 rookie scale option on OG Anunoby.
Salary cap situation:
- Remained over the cap.
- Hard-capped.
- Carrying approximately $125.15MM in salary.
- $961K of mid-level exception still available (used $8.3MM on Patrick McCaw, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Matt Thomas, and Dewan Hernandez).
- Three traded player exceptions available; largest TPE ($2.54MM) expires 2/7/20.
Story of the summer:
Generally speaking, the Raptors received high grades at the time for the 2018 blockbuster that saw them acquire Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green from the Spurs without surrendering young building blocks like Pascal Siakam or OG Anunoby.
However, some skeptics questioned the wisdom of giving up a perennial All-Star like DeMar DeRozan for Leonard, who was on an expiring contract and didn’t even want to be in Toronto. Kawhi had also been limited to just nine games the year before due to a quad injury, creating further uncertainty about what exactly the Raptors were getting in that deal.
The concern that Leonard would be a one-year rental was real, even if early speculation that he wouldn’t even report to Toronto was invented. But after years of disappointing playoff runs, the Raptors had determined it was time for a change. To president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri, the risk of Leonard being one-and-done was worth it, since a healthy Kawhi would give the club a legit chance to make the NBA Finals.
Ujiri’s bet paid off in a big way, as Leonard didn’t just give the Raptors a chance at a title — he led the way as the franchise secured its first-ever championship. It took some good luck along the way – including a fortunate roll on Leonard’s series-ending buzzer beater against the Sixers and a Finals matchup against a Warriors team missing Kevin Durant – but Toronto was one of the NBA’s best teams all season long, and peaked at exactly the right time.
While Ujiri was ultimately right to make that move for Leonard, the skeptics who were concerned about the star forward being a rental were proven right too. Once free agency rolled around, the Los Angeles native decided to head home, joining the Clippers just three weeks after winning a Finals MVP award with the Raptors.
Leonard’s departure stung in Toronto. After all, the hangover from the championship celebration had barely worn off by the time fans found out the team’s best player wouldn’t be back. Still, having that title under their belts made it a whole lot easier for the Raptors and their fans to move on.
Unlike when the Cavaliers lost LeBron James in 2018, losing their star player won’t immediately force the Raptors into rebuilding mode. The team’s cap sheet is relatively clean going forward, and Siakam, Anunoby, and Fred VanVleet give Toronto a few intriguing pieces to build around, with accomplished veterans like Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, and Serge Ibaka still poised to play major roles in the short term.
There will be no way for the Raptors to adequately replace Leonard, a two-way superstar who ranked sixth in the NBA in scoring and earned All-Defensive honors during the regular season before taking his game to another level in the playoffs.- With Patrick McCaw out at least a month after undergoing knee surgery, head coach Nick Nurse said before Wednesday’s game that undrafted rookie Terence Davis will get the first shot at becoming the eighth man in the Raptors‘ rotation (Twitter link via Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca). Davis committed five fouls in just seven minutes on Wednesday, but still looks like the frontrunner for those minutes, according to Blake Murphy of The Athletic, who views Matt Thomas and Chris Boucher as other candidates.
1:10pm: McCaw underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Wednesday and had a “benign mass” on the back of his left knee removed, the Raptors announced today in a press release. According to the club, he’ll be re-evaluated in four weeks and the team will provide an update at that time.
10:13am: Raptors guard Patrick McCaw will undergo surgery on his troublesome left knee, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Although a specific recovery timetable hasn’t been announced, Charania hears from league sources that McCaw is expected to be sidelined for “several weeks.”
That nagging left knee injury had limited McCaw to just two games so far this season. Raptors head coach Nick Nurse told reporters on Monday that the 24-year-old had been ruled out indefinitely as he visited a specialist to determine the source of the issue. I expect we’ll get an official update from the team soon with more details on the procedure McCaw is undergoing.
The Raptors’ backcourt is already somewhat thin, with Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet playing heavy minutes in the early going for the defending champions. With McCaw out for the foreseeable future, Terence Davis, Matt Thomas, Stanley Johnson, and Malcolm Miller are among the candidates to receive longer looks from Toronto, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca.
- On the other side of the wins-losses spectrum, the Raptors appear to be taking a similar approach to the struggling Knicks when it comes to one hot-button health topic. “I don’t really see much point in (load management) right now for anyone we’ve got,” head coach Nick Nurse said on Monday, per Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun. “Kyle [Lowry] will be somebody maybe we do something with down the road, maybe Marc [Gasol] as well. But it’s not really in the forefront of my mind this year like it was last year.” The Raptors famously conserved the play of eventual Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard last season. 33-year-old Lowry is currently leading the league with a heavy 38.8 minutes played per game, while backcourt mate Fred VanVleet is logging 37.8 minutes a night.
Here are Monday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA G League:
- Pistons first-round pick Sekou Doumbouya was assigned to the Grand Rapids Drive, Eric Woodyard of ESPN tweets. The teenage forward had been in the league’s concussion protocol since late in the preseason.
- The Raptors assigned rookie big man Dewan Hernandez to Raptors 905, Blake Murphy of The Athletic tweets. Hernandez has yet to make his NBA debut.
- The Wizards recalled rookie guard Justin Robinson prior to their team’s game against the Pistons, the team’s PR department tweets. The point guard has made two cameo appearances this season.
- The Celtics assigned first-round pick Romeo Langford to the Maine Red Claws, the team’s PR department tweets. The rookie guard from Indiana is still looking for his first NBA basket.
- The Nets recalled power forward Nicolas Claxton from their Long Island affiliate, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution tweets. The rookie out of Georgia has yet to make his NBA debut.
- The Mavericks recalled rookie forward Isaiah Roby from the Texas Legends, according to a team press release. This is the second time the second-round pick has been recalled from the G League.
Patrick McCaw has missed four of the Raptors‘ six games so far this season due to a nagging left knee issue, and is scheduled to see a specialist today to attempt to determine the source of that issue, as Blake Murphy of The Athletic tweets. Head coach Nick Nurse told reporters that for now McCaw has been ruled out indefinitely.
McCaw, 24, joined the Raptors as a free agent halfway through the 2018/19 season and finished the season with the club, winning his third consecutive NBA championship after two years with the Warriors. Although his regular-season numbers in Toronto (2.7 PPG and 1.7 RPG in 13.2 MPG) certainly didn’t jump off the page, the former second-round pick played some postseason minutes during the team’s championship run and then re-signed on a two-year, $8MM deal.
In the two games he has played so far this year, McCaw averaged 20.0 minutes per contest, showing that he’ll be one of the first players off the bench for the Raptors when he’s healthy. However, it sounds like he may be sidelined for the foreseeable future, depending on how his knee injury is diagnosed.
While we wait for a more concrete timeline on McCaw’s recovery, the Raptors likely plan to lean a little more heavily on reserves like Matt Thomas and Terence Davis, with Stanley Johnson and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson potentially getting a shot as well.