I Attended The Raptors Coaching Clinic and Open Practice, Some Takeaways

[HiJiNX]

Sooo I attended the Raptors coaching clinic yesterday and it was revealing in a lot of ways. As a (newish) coach, I came away with a lot. But what I saw with the team was more revealing than what I learned for my personal use as a coach. Anyway, here are some takeaways.

1. McDaniels can’t even shoot well unguarded in practice. Very streaky. Awful shooting mechanics. He needs to gain strength badly.

2. ⁠Nwora is just as lazy on D in practice. In fact, I don’t think it’s laziness, I think he fundamentally doesn’t know where to be. Darko was exasperated with him at one point for not knowing where to be in the system.

3. ⁠This whole season is about teaching the fundamentals of how to play as a team. And they’re basically spending 75% of the time working on the offence. The things they’re working on look amazing. It’s no wonder we generate so many quality looks.

4. ⁠It was obvious that there was a clear emphasis on IQ, Dick, Ochai and their development. Almost every play run in practice was for one of them.

5. ⁠Garrett Temple is a great influence on the young guys and has a nice rapport with them. He played with the young squad (the trio I mentioned above, along with KO and Trent).

6. ⁠Barnes wants to be involved with everything. He was with the coaches as they were walking the team through actions, just trying to soak up knowledge and be a leader. Very positive energy.

7. ⁠Boucher is a real hood mans hahah. Much more outgoing away from the cameras. Seems like the most fun personality on the team, along with Scottie. They’re clearly friends.

8. Poeltl is a very serious worker and even with one hand was working on his push shots.

9. Bruce Brown was running with the g-league guys, and not as a mentor. He clearly has had trouble picking up our offensive schemes (the g-league guys were working solely on learning the schemes the entire practice). This explains why he so frequently seems out of sync and doesn’t know what to do with the ball once he gets it. He’s freestyling out there.

10. Pat Delaney’s principles on defence are strong, we just don’t spend a lot of time on it in practice. The focus this year seems to be the offence.

11. Gradey Dick has his own individual development program run by Ivo Simosivic (probably spelled that wrong) and a lot of it, apart from the physical development stuff, is rooted in the most basic fundamentals—Mikan drills, form shooting, shot preparation, bumping your defender before using a screen, etc. Very little things that make a huge difference.

12. Now here’s the biggest one for me…With more talent/development, this team is going to be very good soon (probably the year after next), like 50 wins good, and people will change their minds about Darko. He’s an inspiring leader, has strong attention to detail, holds players accountable, and is a great teacher. The offence looks incredible and I can see what they wanna do on D, they’re just not there yet. Everybody from his coaching staff to the players respect him and are fully bought in. His coaching style is very hands on and communicative. Frankly, he’s less about authority and more about collaboration, which probably was a lot for players and even the media to adjust to. He’s different in that regard. But they really listen to him. Oh and he’s not soft or a pushover. Far from it. He’s just very very respectful, and talks to his players without yelling or berating them. I like him much more than I did before after seeing him in action. Oh, he was also very open in saying that being an NBA head coach is still very surreal and unbelievable to him, and that he’s still learning a lot. Really good guy. High character person. Clearly still getting comfortable with his position as the guy, but it’s coming. He’s going to have a long career in this league even if head coaching doesn’t work out.

13. To follow up on the above point, winning is not the Raptors highest priority this season, it’s about learning and development. Everything they’re doing right now is about teaching. Everything. And it’s wild how little most of the guys on our team understand about playing high level team basketball. KO, Poeltl, and Temple seem to have the greatest grasp of how to play. Ochai is very novice in that regard. So is Dick, but he’s so smart that he finds ways to do stuff (coaching staff lauded Dick’s cutting ability and defensive anticipation…they think he’s going to be a good defender). IQ is about halfway there but is learning the PG position, how to manipulate the D to create passing lanes and deliver the ball through seams with good timing etc. Trent seems to understand a lot, he just has physical limitations—but they are working on his passing haha.

14. Darko spent a lot of time sitting with Bobby for the first two hours of the event where other coaches were talking and giving clinics. Take that for what you will.

15. Jama is what everyone thinks Darko is—just a great cheerleader and culture setter. He radiates positivity. Probably has the least amount of ‘basketball’ responsibility on the team, but is there to keep folks energetic and engaged. Amazing person to be around I bet. He’s all about the intangibles.

[ArthurVandelay]

Thanks for sharing your insights!

[vi3t]

great stuff

[2019nbachamps]

Very valuable post. Thanks for this.

[islandboy53]

This is amazing. It should be stickied, and required reading for every poster on this forum. Thank you!!

[Los_29]

I like what they’ve been doing even though it hasn’t led to wins. KO and Yak make a lot of sense given the personnel that we have. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the direction Masai wanted to go in last year with the Yak addition.

Masai needs to hit on some of his picks over the next couple of years and hope that Scottie, Gradey, IQ, RJ and Ochai can continue to get better. If that can happen they can possibly get into that 40-45 win range. Just don’t think they can get any better unless they get that true #1 scorer.

People have forgotten why we even hired Darko in the first place. Great reputation around the league and clearly knows how to develop players.

[right between the eyes]

Great recap! Very detailed. Much appreciated.

[TorontoBarneys]

Great write-up, thank you for the insight. I wish Scottie was further along in his recovery timeline so you could have gotten a deeper grasp on what their plans for him were and where he was at in practice.

[anotherhomer]

For those bemoaning why Nurse was fired, these two stands out.

FVV was the guy always hanging out with Nurse. They needed a new coach that would fully embrace Barnes and allow him to flourish. FVV, Nurse stood in the way of that.

I'm getting the sense, if Darko/FO could had squeezed an extra 5 more wins if the focus was on winning this year.
I'm glad FO/Darko are taking the long view.
I do believe they are targeting 2025-2026 as the year to be competitive again.

Sooo I attended the Raptors coaching clinic yesterday and it was revealing in a lot of ways. As a (newish) coach, I came away with a lot. But what I saw with the team was more revealing than what I learned for my personal use as a coach. Anyway, here are some takeaways.

6. ⁠Barnes wants to be involved with everything. He was with the coaches as they were walking the team through actions, just trying to soak up knowledge and be a leader. Very positive energy.


12. Now here’s the biggest one for me…With more talent/development, this team is going to be very good soon (probably the year after next), like 50 wins good, and people will change their minds about Darko. He’s an inspiring leader, has strong attention to detail, holds players accountable, and is a great teacher. The offence looks incredible and I can see what they wanna do on D, they’re just not there yet. Everybody from his coaching staff to the players respect him and are fully bought in. His coaching style is very hands on and communicative. Frankly, he’s less about authority and more about collaboration, which probably was a lot for players and even the media to adjust to. He’s different in that regard. But they really listen to him. Oh and he’s not soft or a pushover. Far from it. He’s just very very respectful, and talks to his players without yelling or berating them. I like him much more than I did before after seeing him in action. Oh, he was also very open in saying that being an NBA head coach is still very surreal and unbelievable to him, and that he’s still learning a lot. Really good guy. High character person. Clearly still getting comfortable with his position as the guy, but it’s coming. He’s going to have a long career in this league even if head coaching doesn’t work out.

[MiamiSPX]

Great breakdown, thanks for sharing.

[tecumseh18]

I regret that had but one and1 to give to the OP.

Darko had a plan to make this team a passing team - not "selfish" . And he accomplished this. 30 assists per game is amazing, given that we don't have the best shooters. (now, whether an emphasis on a free flowing, pass offence works in crunch time or the playoffs remains to be seen). It's nice that they're working with him on it, but I really don't see how Gary fits in here. I'd rather have the cap space. So yeah, Darko isn't nothing. He isn't just a cheerleader. And Scottie wants to be actively involved in the process. Great!

Interesting that they're working on bumping on screens with Gradey. One of the surprising aspects this season is his willingness to absorb physical punishment - e.g. in taking charges. He just needs to be a LOT stronger, especially to play like that and keep his shooting form. But I wouldn't expect him to get there until the 2025-26 season. Which as you suggest, is the timeline for this team.

All in all, I love the step by step plan you've laid out. As Darko said the other day (I think Pop told him this), you can't skip steps. Focus on the offence this season, and then maybe the defence next season. As I've said many times on this board, I've lived through the dark days of 2010-2013 as a seasons ticket holder. We didn't have a Scottie, an RJ, an IQ or a Gradey Dick on those teams. This team is a lot more promising.

[grimlock]

And this is why I still read RealGM. Great insight, thank you.

[WuTang_OG]

Thanks for that great summary.
They really shifted identities from 6'9" do whatever to a more modern offense where everyone is involved in some way , basically spurs 2014 which to me was one of the best basketball viewing experiences. Good luck to Darko

[Mikistan]

Thank you for this

[bluerap23]

whether an emphasis on a free flowing, pass offence works in crunch time or the playoffs remains to be seen.

It's about talent. If you have elite talent it can work. Warriors are the example. As amazing as Steph is, he isn't an elite iso player. It's a system built around playmaking and shooting.

[HiJiNX]

I like what they’ve been doing even though it hasn’t led to wins. KO and Yak make a lot of sense given the personnel that we have. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the direction Masai wanted to go in last year with the Yak addition.

Masai needs to hit on some of his picks over the next couple of years and hope that Scottie, Gradey, IQ, RJ and Ochai can continue to get better. If that can happen they can possibly get into that 40-45 win range. Just don’t think they can get any better unless they get that true #1 scorer.

People have forgotten why we even hired Darko in the first place. Great reputation around the league and clearly knows how to develop players.

Yeah it became clear that the reason Boucher isn’t playing is because he’s not a big that can make decisions from the high post and that they want to make time for development of guys like Ochai.

[HiJiNX]

Thanks for that great summary.
They really shifted identities from 6'9" do whatever to a more modern offense where everyone is involved in some way , basically spurs 2014 which to me was one of the best basketball viewing experiences. Good luck to Darko

Yeah and one thing that really stands out is that young NBA players are completely foreign to this style of play. They’re more about simple pnr, dho, iso stuff. What Darko is installing is…well you’ll all see it in a year or two. He has sets for different parts of the floor and different situations and about three to four options per set. LOTS of emphasis on weakside actions and cuts. Any above the break threes we take are designed that way for the most part, and they’re usually wide open because of off ball stuff happening going toward the paint. Very intricate. I won’t give away the team’s total philosophy (and they likely didn’t give us anything they wouldn’t want people talking about anyway) but…there’s a very clear plan of what shots they want and how to get them. And watching the games, they’re getting what they want consistently—it’s just about making the shots and refining the smaller things to create better advantages.

[And1Skip]

It's probably one of the reasons why the 905 have been so bad this season as well (apart from the lack of talent due to injuries and call-ups) but with so many young players (and non-NBA caliber players) - its really tough to implement their system but I applaud the organization for not giving up, even at the 905 level.

[Duffman100]

Amazing post!!

[BetterCallSaul]

Thank you for posting this