Losing Jared Sullinger before the start of the regular season isn’t the way the Toronto Raptors wanted to kick off the 2016-17 campaign.
The forward, who joined the Raptors as a free agent in July, was scheduled to undergo foot surgery Monday and will be out of commission for the foreseeable future.
Sullinger was slated to be the team’s new starting power forward, so head coach Dwane Casey must decide how he’s going to fill that void. Casey, entering his sixth season as Raptors bench boss, is optimistic about the many options he has at his disposal.
“Unfortunate for Jared because he was going to be such an important piece but it’s a great opportunity for other players, for Pascal Siakam if we decide to start him, and Patrick Patterson will be able to take more minutes and have more of a role,” Casey told Dean Blundell & Co. Monday morning. “And our younger guys, Jakob Poeltl will have an opportunity because Jared was going to play some backup five in that situation so Lucas Nogueira will get opportunities to play some backup minutes behind [Jonas Valanciunas], so I don’t really like saying the term ‘next man up’ because it means something bad has happened but it’s an opportunity for other players to step in and do their job.”
Casey singled out rookies Siakam and Poeltl in particular as players he has high expectations for.
“The thing with Pascal and Jakob, they’re going to make mistakes and like I tell them all the time, the NBA is a game of mistakes but the key is you’ve got to make those mistakes hard and try not to make the same ones over and over again, learn from them,” Casey explained. “That’s one thing Pascal does and Jakob does, they’ll make a mistake but they do a great job of recovering from it and they do it hard. They’re quick learners, they pick up things quickly.”
Siakam was selected 27th overall in the 2016 NBA Draft. The six-foot-nine Cameroon native started the Raptors’ final four pre-season contests.
“Pascal’s athleticism at the four position will be important for us because it allows us to do some switching and defensively he can guard different positions from that standpoint,” Casey said. “He gives us some flexibility and versatility. He’s one of those players we don’t have to rely on for a lot of offence, a little bit different from [Patterson].”
Poeltl was the ninth pick in the draft after a strong two-year stint at Utah. The Austrian isn’t as far along in his development as some other Raptors but Casey likes what he sees so far.
“Poeltl is a very, very versatile big man,” Casey said. He’s got great hands, excellent passer, excellent feel for the game. A little bit different from [Bismack] Biyombo in the fact that he’s not overly explosive in the paint but he knows how to play and his anticipation and basketball IQ is off the charts.”
Of course, the Raptors also have a healthy DeMarre Carroll to consider. They open their season Wednesday at home against the Detroit Pistons.