Raptors Training Camp Notebook Day 3: Gradey’s Defense & Ingram’s Attitude
Inching ever closer to the games that matter, the Raptors are now one Banff trip away from putting on a show for Calgary.
“We’re really looking forward to fans coming tomorrow to our open scrimmage.” Coach Darko said. “We’re playing tomorrow. It’s gonna be an intrasquad game, we’re going to be playing against each other. So they’ll (Calgary fans) have an opportunity to see all the players. We’ll have some drills early so guys can get a loose a little bit, but we’re playing tomorrow.”
Will the game be good to watch? Darko thinks so: “It’s always serious. Every time you step on the floor it’s serious. You take this thing seriously.”
As far as I understand it the tickets are sold out for the open practice. However, it’s at Jack Simpson Gymnasium at 6pm tomorrow.
Something that may be seen at the open practice? An improved-on-defense Gradey Dick. Personally, I haven’t seen anything to convince me of it, but it’s been 7 months since everyone outside of a very select few have seen him play in a game. However, with the time off, everyone has said he’s added muscle and Coach Darko was effusive in his praise of how Dick’s defense was coming along.
“We’re noticing that on both ends of the floor (the added strength). Defensively he’s doing a much better job with contact. He’s doing a much better job of rebounding the ball. A much better job of staying in front of the guys.”
Stay tuned for my interview/podcast with Gradey coming out tomorrow.
To my memory, this is about as positive as Darko has been in discussing Dick’s defense. All of it deserves a massive grain salt, especially when you consider just how much we’ve seen him struggle when the games mattered. Although it’s likely for Dick to make strides defensively, even if it’s less so that he ends up grading out as neutral or good on that end. It’s good to hear from Darko anyway, and he continued on about how his role on offense should help him this season.
“Offensively, we’re really focusing with him to play a simple offensive game.” Coach Darko said at practice. “When he has open shots and even slightly contested shots, just to be ready to shoot the ball and to play with a lot of aggressiveness. His physical shape and adding strength is definitely helping with that.”
For reference, Dick shot just under 46-percent on his spot up triples last season. So, the simple shooting stuff that didn’t require sprinting off a screen into a movement triple? He was elite. And he also graded out as very good attacking closeouts off the bounce (nearly 80th percentile) because of how good he is reading his defender’s momentum and getting to the line. He did struggle at the rim last season, but when you’re pretty good at drawing fouls and you shoot 86-percent from the line? It helps boost the efficiency.
And in the way that Coach Darko praised Gradey, Brandon Ingram praised Coach Darko.
“He’s intense. All the time.” Ingram said with a smile about his coach. “He talks about aggressiveness and dominating on the defensive end. Letting the offense come easy from the defensive end. He’s been very present every single day. When we come in here, we expect energy from him. And he brings it every time.”
Coach Darko expressed an admiration for Ingram as well, saying: “He’s a very genuine person. He cares about his teammates a lot. He cares about winning a lot. He is a basketball junkie. He really loves the game so much. He watches the film so much. After every practice he’s asking for film so he can dissect it. We had a meeting yesterday, we were talking for an hour about our offense and defense. Then we stayed and talked for 30 minutes about life, family and everything. He’s a guy that any team would be happy to have on the roster, so we’re really blessed to have him with us.”
It’s nice that the guys like each other. However, with this being the last day of closed training camp practice and it being the 4th day in a row of these guys answering questions from media, it makes sense that they’re running out of basketball stuff to tell us and are leaning on reinforcing the togetherness.
I’m excited to see the open practice. Es and I will have lots of video for you to look at. Keep tuning in with the vlogs!
If you have any questions you want me to answer in the mailbag, let me know!
Have a blessed day.
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