While Toronto Raptors coach Dwane Casey has stressed since Day 1 that this season would be about the process as much as it would be about the results in the win/loss column, it has been obvious that he has been most comfortable with his veterans in crunch time.
This is normal. It’s why rookies — save for the exceptionally-talented and well-adjusted ones — rarely crack the rotation on winning teams. When a team is not winning, though, this is where development needs to happen.
Following the team’s return from a West Coast trip that finished with an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers courtesy of Kobe Bryant being Kobe Bryant, it appears that the Raptors have reached the point where they are prioritizing development over the outcome of individual games.
After the loss to the Lakers, the team flew back to Toronto on a red eye that same night and returned home nine games back of the Milwaukee Bucks for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.
In that disappointing loss, Jonas Valanciunas was stashed on the bench down the stretch while Terrence Ross had the best seat in the house to watch Bryant go bonkers and add another superhuman game to his resume. While Valanciunas played up until the fourth quarter and overtime sessions, Ross received the dreaded DNP-CD. (Did not play – coach’s decision.)
Prior to Sunday’s game against the Cavaliers — a victory earned while Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving spent the fourth quarter in the locker room after injuring his shoulder — Casey spoke with the media and talked of the team’s approach in their final games of the season. In stark contrast to what happened in Los Angeles, he said the focus would be on evaluating the players they have, that getting young players like Valanciunas and Ross minutes would be the priority.
Casey followed through on his words by featuring the two rookies in the game against the Cavaliers, including giving Ross his first career start after Rudy Gay was a late scratch with back stiffness. Down the stretch, though, with the outcome of the game hanging in the balance, Valanciunas and Ross were back to being spectators as their veteran teammates pulled out the victory.
Victories are nice, but at this juncture of the season, is the greatest victory the one that comes after 48 minutes of a game or is it shaping these two young pieces for next season? A season when the wins and losses will — hopefully — matter and where it will finally be about more than just the process?
That depends on who is answering the question.
Casey had his reasons for pulling Valanciunas late on Sunday evening, “I had to get Jonas out at the end,” he said. “Bless his heart, he (Valanciunas) said, ‘Coach, he’s coming really fast.’ I said, ‘Guess what, all of them are coming fast.'”
The game isn’t going to be slower in a season. It only becomes slower when it becomes familiar. The best way to adjust to the speed, strength and skill level of the NBA is through experience. When better to gain that experience than these remaining games right now?
The Raptors coaching staff might have wanted to save Ross from the overwhelming challenge of guarding a superstar like Bryant under the bright lights of the Staples Center, but the challenge of guarding superstar players isn’t going away anytime soon. If Ross is going to become the player the team feels he can be, he’ll have to learn what he’s going up against and how good he will have to become to hang. Better him learn it in the final stretch of a season that will not extend beyond April than in games that will be needed a year from now.
While Casey and his coaching staff changed their game plan following the West Coast swing, one thing the coach wanted to hammer home: the rebuilding that is happening is a project he wants to see through.
“I know where we’re at, I know where we’re going and I know how to get there,” he told the media following Sunday’s victory.
With 18 games remaining before the season draws to a close, wherever they are going, they will get there with their rookies riding shotgun rather than in the backseat.