TORONTO — In the eternal words of the late, great Al Davis, “Just win, baby!”
And as odd as it may sound, that’s the philosophy Raptors 905, the Toronto Raptors’ NBA G League affiliate, will be applying to their 2021 season.
As a G League franchise, the 905’s primary goal is to help develop the players on the roster and turn these young men into legitimate NBA players but, as an overall organizational philosophy, that doesn’t necessarily mean that has to come at the expense of winning.
“I believe the best development is done as you win,” said Raptors 905 head coach Patrick Mutombo. “If you can have those 12 guys buying into, ‘Hey, whatever we do has to serve the purpose of winning,’ I think that’s when good habits, a good mindset, a winner’s mindset is developed. You get rid of a lot of bad stuff if everybody can look into that direction knowing that it’s not about me, it’s about winning.
“And, like I told our team, listen, people are attracted to winners. If you win, you get people’s attention. We want to create an atmosphere, we want to create winning habits here.”
The 905 will kick off their sixth season Wednesday with a matchup against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers at 7:30 p.m. ET from the G League bubble in Disney World, a new wrinkle to the usual G League season.
Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the G League opted to play its season in the same bubble that the major league used to conclude last season. However, not every team chose to participate and just 18 of the 29 G League clubs chose to participate in the bubble.
For the 905 and the parent club Raptors, however, there was no way they were going to give their minor-league outfit a year off. The 905 are far too integral to the franchise’s overall player development plans, after all, and it starts, as Mutombo alluded to, with winning.
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In 2017, just the 905’s second season in existence, they won the D League championship thanks largely to the contributions of Fred VanVleet and then-D-League Finals MVP Pascal Siakam. And in 2019, Chris Boucher enjoyed a monster season with the 905 as he helped lead them to a playoff berth and won both G League MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.
All three players, of course, have gone on to become key contributors and figure to be major parts of the big club’s future, and it all began with their stints in the minor league where they first learned how to win and built up some confidence there.
Now it’ll be rookies Malachi Flynn’s and Jalen Harris’ turn to get some seasoning down with the 905 and, hopefully turn into players like their predecessors did before.
“It’s tough just going through it and I think when you get drafted in the first round and all that you want to be out there, playing in the league and being sent to the G League can feel like you’re going backwards but you can’t have that mentality,” said Siakam of Flynn heading down to the 905. “It’s a good opportunity for you to have minutes.”
Siakam said he and VanVleet had something of a “Last Supper” with Flynn before Toronto’s first-round pick from the 2020 draft departed for Orlando where he and VanVleet offered advice to him on how he can make it back to the big club a better player.
“Just going out there and just telling him to do things that I said: Show that you belong in the league, show your leadership, go out there and you have time to play minutes,” Siakam said. “It’s basketball so have fun and just do what you’ve gotta do and then you’re gonna be right back here.
“So it’s a good opportunity for you and don’t take it for granted. Like, don’t go out there moping around and stuff. You’ve gotta take it as an opportunity and just go out there and try to run with it.”
Both Flynn and Harris will likely be given many chances to prove themselves and play through mistakes as the two biggest development pieces on what is mostly a veteran-laden (for a G-League squad) team that includes five-season NBA vet Nik Stauskas, who joined the 905 hoping to make a return to the NBA.
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There aren’t any specific developmental goals for Flynn and Harris to work on with the 905, but the value of just finding time to play in actual competitive five-on-five games still figures to serve them well.
“We didn’t really have an off-season, we didn’t really have an understanding of the system, we didn’t really have time to learn it,” said Harris. “I think that’s kind of the point of us being down here, is to really just get a feel for it, get an understanding of the system and the different roles and different things they focus on and pay attention to at that level.”
Added Mutombo: “These guys are here to be developed. … The biggest part is getting these guys to play and play a lot of games.”
It makes sense. There’s only so much you can learn in practice, having to then ride the pine during games. Getting reps in live games can only help, particularly if those reps come while racking up victories along the way.
“I think that’s the most important thing. As long as we win games, I think everything else takes care of itself,” said Flynn. “So I think that’s really the only goal I have in mind is just to win every game.”
It’s a methodology that’s worked for them in the past, to win while developing, so expect more of the same this 905 season.
“I think the best development is done while you’re winning. I believe that wholeheartedly,” Mutombo said. “I was fortunate enough in my career to be a part of losing organizations, winning organizations, and I’ve seen team development on all fronts.
“I’ve been part of developing players in an environment where you didn’t win as much and I’ve been part of developing players in an environment where we won. It’s not impossible to develop while you’re winning.”
