As the Toronto Raptors get a full roster back following the COVID-19 outbreak they experienced in late December, the team is rounding into form to kick off 2022.
With the rotation coming into focus, Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet have led the Raptors to a 6-1 record since Dec. 31, including a six-game win streak that was just snapped on Tuesday night against the Phoenix Suns.
Head coach Nick Nurse joined The FAN Drive Time with Stephen Brunt and Arash Madani on Thursday to talk about the Raptors’ recent surge, Fred VanVleet’s development, and… mascots?
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VanVleet leading
Nurse believes the team’s recent success is a group effort with two veterans leading the way.
“There are some guys, you know Freddy (VanVleet) and Pascal (Siakam) obviously playing at a super high level,” said Nurse. “OG (Anunoby) continues to go, Scottie (Barnes) when he’s out there is very solid, the two bigs have both been playing good, and we’re getting some real juice out of (Chris) Boucher off the bench, and a couple other guys, too. It’s been pretty much a collective effort here and it’s been good to see.”
When the second wave of NBA All-Star fan votes were revealed on Thursday, VanVleet came in at the eighth spot amongst Eastern Conference guards, moving up from the 10th spot in the first round of results. Curiously, the Raptors point guard still finds himself behind the Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving and the New York Knicks’ Derrick Rose.
All-Star tallies aside, VanVleet’s development transcends the box score and voting polls.
Following the Raptors’ home win against the New Orleans Pelicans, former Raptor and current Pelican Jonas Valanciunas commented that VanVleet has taken over Kyle Lowry’s role as leader on the team.
It’s been VanVleet’s consistency night after night that has specifically caught his head coach’s eye.
“Well, probably just doin’ it. Right?” said Nurse. “Just going through it, game after game, I always say the most remarkable thing for me as a coach when I came to this league was to see these guys that do it night after night after night, to score 20 (points) a game in this league, you just got to do it again and again. That to me is what is super hard, there is only really a small percentage of guys that can do that… if (VanVleet) has a bad (game), he usually bounces right back and that’s, again, what the good ones do.”
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One thing the Raptors could do to help VanVleet maintain this consistency is carefully regulate his time on the court. The game-high 43 minutes he played against the Suns is not something Nurse wants to continue.
“Well, the other night got a little high. I think we have to get him back into the 36 to 38 (minutes per game) realm and I feel pretty comfortable with that,” said Nurse. “We’ve kind of moved Pascal to the back-up point guard, but he needs Scottie out there a bit too, just in case teams take that out or apply up-court pressure, and then they can give him a break here and there, a little bit of how Kyle (Lowry) and Freddy used to do it.”
Mascot memories
In the waning seconds of the Raptors-Suns game, Phoenix guard Devin Booker went to the line to shoot a pair of free-throws. After the make on his first attempt, the two-time All-Star notified an official that Toronto’s mascot was distracting him with sudden movements, and had “The Raptor” sent away from his line of sight.
Booker later joked about the incident on Twitter.
Having coached in Birmingham, Manchester, Brighton, Rio Grande and Iowa, Nurse has seen his fair share of mascots, but which one was the most rambunctious of the group?
“I gotta think about that one,” said Nurse. “The Iowa Energy, our mascot’s name was Surge. Not Serge, but S-U-R-G-E, so surge of energy. He was pretty wild.”
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