Bobby Webster is excited for the Toronto Raptors to finally have a fully healthy roster, something the team didn’t boast during much of the 2019-20 regular season.
“We’ve never really been able to map out our rotations,” the Raptors general manager told Sid Seixeiro and Donnovan Bennett on Friday.
The Raptors played 64 games (46-18) before the NBA underwent a hiatus due to COVID-19, but they rarely had a fully-stocked bench and/or starting lineup. In fact, backup shooting guard Terrence Davis was the only player who managed to suit up for every game and only seven players played in 50 or more contests.
“We’re still a week out from even scrimmaging, so I can’t say we’ve decided on our rotations. But you have the full cast of characters to put in play,” Webster said. “You can probably figure out who some of the guys are but there’s going to be some battles on the bench and there’s going to be battles for playing time and positioning and roles so hopefully we’ll see that play out in the next couple weeks.”
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Webster said recent practices have been getting more intense, something head coach Nick Nurse spoke about Thursday.
“There’s a lot of juice in there, a lot of juice in the building, and high spirits,” Nurse said. “It’s all good-natured stuff. I mean, it’s competitive-natured stuff, but it’s all been fine.”
Raptors forward Norman Powell added: “I was actually really happy and excited the way the younger guys were getting Fred (VanVleet) and Kyle (Lowry) and Pascal (Siakam) worked up, taking their intensity level even higher. The games have been really good when we’re getting after it in our in-team scrimmages and things like that.”
The deeper the bench, the better it’ll be for the defending NBA champions, especially during the eight games prior to the start of the playoffs.
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