Samson’s Training Camp Mailbag Day 2: Quiet Ja’Kobe & Real Media

To enhance the readership/writer dynamic and to take advantage of my being in Calgary to cover the team for training camp – I’m answering questions everyday!

Ask any pressing questions you might have and I’ll answer them!

Some of the questions will require more reporting/digging on my end, but some I can answer right now. Onto a few of yesterday’s questions:

My question to you — which parts of the training sessions is the press allowed to see and what is the team working on when you aren’t there. Also, what’s up with Chomche? – Holly Golightly

Firstly, Chomche wasn’t participating in either of the first two days of training camp, because he had a scheduled “medical appointment”. I put it in quotations because that’s the exact thing we were told. I’ll ask for an update today while I’m there, but they gave no further info on him.

Secondly, whether it’s practice during the season or training camp beforehand, the practices we see are virtually the same – group skill development. As media we’re asked to arrive at a certain time towards the back end of the practice and it gets opened up to us for that portion. We don’t see the coaches lecturing about scheme and we don’t see scrimmaging. We do, however, see guys work on ball skills, shooting, closeout situations etc. and maybe if a coach is working on something quite specific we’ll get to see that.

Players are also very competitive (shocker, I know) so often times you can see battles in shooting drills or 1 on 1 sessions.

The first drill I ever saw at a practice was in 2019 — the first practice I ever attended, I was visiting Blake from Mexico — and it was Pascal Siakam working with Big Cat. Magloire was changing where he was applying pressure to Siakam in post ups, and Siakam’s job was to read his weight and step through or spin off based on what Magloire was doing.

Where and how is the Disappearing Man Ja’Kobe Walter. I haven’t seen any comments on him from anywhere. – GFL88

Ja’Kobe is doing well. He’s the same level of prospect he was coming out of and into Summer League, and he’s fully healthy coming into this season without having to worry about a bothersome AC joint. I’m quite certain that we’ll talk to him at some point during training camp, but there hasn’t been any urgency so far.

It typically works like this: there’s a certain demand of players by media — we all want to sit and talk with Brandon Ingram for 45 minutes, as an example — and that demand is met by Raptors PR as they decide which players to pull for media. With this being a huge year for Gradey (he and the team will start looking at extensions after this season) and Ochai as well, AND with the team wanting to win quite a few more games this year – the narrative isn’t set up for Ja’Kobe. I personally think he’ll be at the back end of the group to start the season.

Now, does that mean he can’t leapfrog guys? Absolutely not. If that defense is up to speed, which it usually is, and if his screen navigation has improved, and if he’s hitting open jumpers – that’s a real player right there. And all of those things could happen within the first 20 games of the season and vault him up the rotation. For now though, he just continues to get the work in. I’ll ask Darko about him today.

Curious, how’s CMB shooting from what you’ve seen up close? – Douglas Ngira

I wish I could say it’s markedly improved, but I don’t think it has. He’s still much more comfortable moving to his right if he’s taking it off the bounce. He’s still a pretty slow shooter (although I think that’s the one thing that’s improved, he’s releasing a bit quicker now). And he’s still not a deadeye by a long shot.

I went back and looked at all the video I have on my phone from recording him at training camp this year and he’s shooting 16-34 from downtown in those clips. None of these shots are under duress, though. Very few of them are game speed.

He’s meant to dominate elsewhere. The jumper will be a years long development story.

I remember the mess our chip year camp was, Kawhi rusty af, Nurse shuffling starting lineups, media saying CJ Miles looked like the best guy in camp…media was more real even back a few years ago…now it’s all bullshit only can trust your own eyes. – Robin

I wrote about this at the end of yesterday’s notebook, but it’s worth talking about, I think.

“Of course, so much of training camp is the fluff. It’s the niceties, and the optimism. But, there is stuff to glean. Last season they were bad, but they were honest about the style of basketball they wanted to play, and there was a genuine throughline from start to finish in how they went about their business. This season there is far more optimism around the team, especially the decision makers, and they’re going to continue leaning into a playstyle that takes advantage of young legs, and a hopefully, deeper roster.

Last season the Raptors were fourth in the NBA in average pick up point (where they meet the ball handler) with an average of roughly 48 feet. League average was just a smidge under 42 – which was the highest in the tracking era (12 seasons). In a league that will be leaning in, the Raptors will continue leaning harder. We’ll see how it goes.”

I can’t say how real the media is, although the landscape is definitely changing. You’re definitely right about camp that year, and the team frankly. They were juggling all of Kawhi’s unique challenges while actively trying to keep Fred from talking too much shit about it. Kyle was in a cold war with Masai following the DeMar trade. It was madness to some degree.

Vibes help on the margins, but dependable high end talent is really what drives success. The Raptors are at the very least more talented than last season. It doesn’t hurt that the group seems close as well. Some things, you just gotta see. We gotta see these fellas play some real games and trust our eyes once we get there.

I’m working on answering some more of the questions, but I am once again happy to answer/hunt for anything you guys ask. So, ask away!

Also, watch the vlog:

Have a blessed day.

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