SIMMONS: It’s home sweet home for the smiling Raptors

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Bobby Webster, not recognized for smiling on cue, was smiling ear to ear. That got here simply after he relaxed, exhaled, and took his seat as the primary to talk on Raptors media day.

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Nick Nurse was subsequent. He waved to the group of media members at Scotiabank Area, most of whom he’s all too accustomed to, the way in which you wave throughout a schoolyard on the primary day of the brand new 12 months. He, too, was carrying a Webster-like grin, which is the extra the coach’s fashion than that of the final supervisor, setting the tone as Raptors coaching camp has formally begun.

There may be an previous expression in sports activities, one that’s often a little bit cynical and a contact cliché: Simply pleased to be pleased right here. However the fact on opening day, with Kyle Lowry formally gone, with the Raptors returning dwelling after a 19-month exile, with Pascal Siakam simply discovering you must pay to trip a streetcar, with the franchise one shot away from 100% vaccinated, with the roster in flux, is that this crew, this franchise, is so very pleased to be right here.

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So very pleased to be dwelling.

It is a relatively exceptional time for Toronto sports activities, not all of it associated to the pandemic. The Leafs performed an exhibition sport at dwelling on Saturday night time with the biggest crowd since March 2020. The Blue Jays start their most vital dwelling regular-season collection in years, with a playoff spot at stake, with crowd dimension elevated, on Tuesday night time in opposition to the Yankees. And the Raptors go to work at their coaching dwelling on the CNE: They play their first pre-season sport right here on Monday.

There’s a lot to soak up right here. Lots to be glad about this near thanksgiving, And what appeared to matter virtually least in all of those have been the questions concerning the basketball crew. How will they be? Can they compete within the NBA’s Jap Convention? Are they tall sufficient to rebound? Are they deep sufficient to attain?

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It is a crew that has spoiled us and now it’s time to begin yet again. They received so many video games with Lowry and DeMar DeRozan in cost, with Dwane Casey teaching and Masai Ujiri pulling the strings. They received every little thing however a championship after which Ujiri pulled off the exceptional gamble, the one-year odyssey of the paradox that’s Kawhi Leonard, and with a championship and the ever-elusive and horribly manufactured post-victory parade.

Who is aware of once they — or another crew on this metropolis — will be capable to have fun like that once more?

You win when you don’t essentially count on to do it once more. The Raptors adopted up their title with their finest common season in historical past. Nurse received a championship as a rookie coach and the NBA Coach of the 12 months award as a sophomore.

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Who will get to begin a profession like that, particularly from somebody who had bounced league to league, nation to nation, in attempting to ascertain who he was in basketball?

Now this season begins and we all know what Nurse is — probably the greatest coaches within the NBA — however we’ve virtually no concept what his crew is likely to be. He kind of joked that he checked the most recent NBA Energy Rankings on Monday morning and the numbers weren’t precisely encouraging. Whichever rankings he checked, had the Raptors because the nineteenth finest crew within the league, the eleventh finest crew within the East, and with an over-under variety of 36 wins for the season.

Nurse did make the purpose that the final time he checked the rankings the Raptors have been listed as twenty first finest within the league. So by some means in the summertime, with out doing a lot of significance apart from re-upping Ujiri, the Raptors had moved up two spots to nineteenth. You get the impression, listening to him, understanding how Nurse teaches, understanding what he expects from his gamers and simply as a lot from his coaches, that this crew will likely be higher than eleventh within the East.

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How a lot better? Fred VanVleet, Toronto’s most considerate athletic interview, mentioned he doesn’t play to lose. Eleventh place doesn’t sound correct to him. A battle for eighth — or within the newer NBA — a battle to get to the play-in spherical, that appears extra prefer it.

They’ve the smiling Pascal Siakam again, smiling now as he’s again in Toronto, having gotten via shoulder surgical procedure, and able to resume what appeared like a profession on the rise two years in the past. He desires to be a star, which appeared as a risk two years in the past, simply not a lot since then. He’s “tremendous excited” to be right here, which is greater than only a handy mantra on opening day.

Sport is all about home-court benefit and for years the Raptors have had a home-court not like many within the NBA. Now, it is likely to be half a home-court benefit with the sector solely half full — however to have the ability to sleep in your individual mattress, your individual dwelling, to work out in your individual apply facility, to shoot round within the morning in your enviornment, meaning one thing energy rankings can’t essentially equate.

“There’s acquired to be a means,” mentioned Nurse. “And we’ve acquired to determine it out. And we’re we’ve started working a little bit tougher, and we’ve acquired to play a little bit smarter then we’ve acquired to teach a little bit higher to get them to play a little bit smarter.

“I count on the crew to win, that’s how I’ve approached each season now for 30 years as a head coach, anticipating to win and anticipating myself and my employees to determine a means to assist ‘em.”

And for now and till additional discover, smiling quite a bit. Very happy to be right here — thrilled actually.