Raptors 905, the Toronto Raptors NBA Development League affiliate, is set to begin its inaugural season Saturday on the road against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
Here’s an FAQ to get you familiarized with who to watch, how to watch and what to expect as the team prepares to take its fledgling steps forward.
Where do they play?
Raptors 905 play out of the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ont. The team’s first home game is on Nov. 19.
“We really hope that the GTA and the community comes out and supports us,” Raptors 905 GM Dan Tolzman said over the phone on Thursday. “I don’t know how many people understand the D-League yet and how competitive it is, and how talented these players are.
“There’s NBA-level basketball going on in Mississauga and I think that it’s a great venue for people to come and take the night to watch these young, aspiring NBA guys up close and personal.”
How can I watch the games?
According to the team’s official schedule page, all 50 Raptors 905 games will be broadcasted live on Youtube.
Will there be NBA talent on the roster?
As the NBA affiliate to the Raptors, the 905 will see its fair share of NBA talent from the big club coming down to get reps and minutes.
Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Nogueira have been assigned to the 905 for the start of the season, but, as Raptors GM Masai Ujiri has said, there’s a good chance Toronto rookies Delon Wright and Norman Powell as well as Canadian forward Anthony Bennett will see time in the D-League.
How often will there be NBA talent on the Raptors 905?
D-League rules dictate that an NBA team can assign up to three players to an affiliated club and there are no restrictions to how often you can send a player down and bring him back up.
Right now there appear to be five candidates for D-League assignment, so chances are good that fans who decide to head to Mississauga for a game will see at least one player from the Raptors, particularly if the Raptors are at home themselves.
“It’ll really all depend on how the Raptors season is going, how the rotations play out, how the two schedules line up,” Tolzman said. “That’ll really determine a lot of the assignments, I think. Our plan is to maximize our assignments whenever both the Raptors and Raptors 905 are in Toronto at the same time. …
“It’ll be a very fluid back-and-forth thing throughout the year just to maximize whenever the two teams are lined up in the same city. I think it’ll be good for our fans because we could very well have our NBA guys with us for a lot of our home games.”
How similarly run will 905 be in comparison to the Raptors?
By the looks of things, Raptors 905 is simply another branch of the Raptors as a whole.
From the top of management down, it really does appear as if the same message is being relayed across the board.
“I think the guys [the Raptors] signed this year, like DeMarre Carroll, Cory Joseph, Bismack Biyombo, you can tell they all have that same mentality where they’re hard workers, they’re really good human beings, very team oriented and they do a lot of the dirty work that might not show up in box scores,” Tolzman said.
“Those are the kind of guys that we’re trying to build a culture around and I think that the D-League is a very similar thing. I think that there’s going to be all different levels of guys as far as impact on the game and, no matter what tier you fall in, you need to be about the team and be a good teammate, be a good citizen. [The players] need to be, very much, a good representation of the Toronto Raptors, not just Raptors 905.
“It’s not so much the defensive identity, it’s more of the team-first culture that [the Raptors organization] is trying to build and, as we try to say, the lower maintenance the D-League is the better, because we’re not needing to worry about these guys away from the court at all.”
Given the developmental nature of all minor-league teams, will Raptors 905 actually be competitive?
It’s impossible to know how good a team 905 will be until the games start, but according to Tolzman, fans needn’t worry about seeing players working on particular skills, as the live game experience is exactly what the Raptors brass is counting on to help season the players on the 905 roster.
“It’s not so much that we’re going to assign guys to go down there and work on something in particular. … It’s more of just getting these guys minutes,” Tolzman said. “There’s no better instructor than in-game experience.
“Regardless of if the level’s not as good as the NBA, there are still pressure situations, and the talent level is pretty good in the D-League. I think it’s a lot better than a lot of people give it credit for.
“If we can get our young guys into intense pressure situations in front of a crowd, in a hostile environment if they’re on the road, all those types of situations, it builds so much character and experience and it helps lower their anxiety when it comes to checking into an NBA game.”
Expanding on the idea of game experience as a teacher, NBA players that get sent down won’t necessarily be given a role outside of what the Raptors would’ve had in mind for them if they were up with the big club, although they will still receive priority minutes, according to Tolzman.
“Our goal is to use the guys in the D-League the same way coach [Dwane] Casey would use them in a Raptors game.
“In other words, if Bruno were to get assigned, we’re not going to run Bruno out there and have him handling the ball like being a superstar, like shooting 40 times. We want to make sure that he’s getting minutes, reps and experience in the same situation with the Raptors. So that means, when he’s down there, he’s going to be playing very much a role.”
Who else, besides the NBA guys, are worth checking out?
Raptors fans may be familiar with Shannon Scott, Axel Toupane, Michale Kyser and Ronald Roberts.
Scott, Toupane and Kyser were all camp invites with the Raptors, while Roberts put up good numbers with the team’s summer league squad.
Also worth checking out are Canadians Sim Bhullar, Nick Wiggins (brother of Minnesota Timberwolves star Andrew), and Keanau Post.
Of the Canadians on the team, the seven-foot-five giant Bhullar is probably one of the more interesting guys to keep an eye on because of the team’s curiosity with his potential.
“He’s a really interesting project for us because, for one, he’s so big and, on top of that, he’s talented, too,” Tolzman said. “He’s got a lot of things you look for in big men: He’s got really soft hands, he’s got a nice understanding of the game, you can play him out of the high post and he’s a very good passer.
“You put those things together and there is a good NBA player in there somewhere.”