QUÉBEC - The Toronto Raptors head into Saturday night’s pre-season opener with one big question hanging over the Videotron Centre: will Kawhi Leonard suit up against the Miami Heat?
Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic didn’t close the door on it Friday after the team wrapped up its final practice at Laval University, but everything around camp points to caution. Leonard, back with Toronto after helping the club win the 2019 NBA championship and returning in a high-profile summer trade from the Los Angeles Clippers, still hasn’t taken part in full-contact drills. The team has handled him carefully throughout camp, even if there was a little one-on-one moment after practice on Friday.
“It’s a day-to-day thing with Kawhi, but since he beat me today at one-on-one, maybe he will play against the Heat,” joked the fourth-year head coach of Canada’s lone NBA team.
Toronto finished its lead-up to the game with a sold-out intrasquad contest the night before on the Rouge et Or home court, and now gets its first real test against a Heat team Rajakovic called one of the league’s most improved. That comes with a twist: Miami has brought in new centre Giannis Antetokounmpo, while the Eastern Conference picture has also shifted with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown in Philadelphia.
Rajakovic said his expectations for the Raptors are already high, regardless of what the rest of the conference looks like.
“Expectations are changing, and we don’t care what the other teams say about us,” Rajakovic said. “We have high expectations from Day 1, that’s how we work, that’s how we approach it.”
He added that most of his regulars are expected to play against Miami, which could mean a look at point guard Immanuel Quickley as well. Quickley said he has long modeled parts of his game after Leonard’s.
“My dad got me to watch Leonard play when he was with the Spurs,” said Quickley. “He was talking to me about (Leonard’s) defence, and he was the first person I saw as a two-way player, and that’s the way I am now, to play offence and defence, as not a lot of players like to do that.”
Rajakovic said the early stretch of camp has gone well, but the real value now is seeing how Toronto performs against someone else.
“Every team in the NBA is super-excited at this time of year, everybody likes their drills, but the players are sick and tired of going against each other, so we are excited to go out and play someone else,” Rajakovic said. “The game tomorrow will also give us a lot of answers.”
Saturday’s matchup is also a notable one for the city itself: the first-ever NBA game in Quebec City is sold out, and Rajakovic said he hasn’t missed the reaction.
“We are a little bit spoiled everywhere we go in Canada,” he said. “We are spoiled but at the same time we are very grateful, as we understand the importance of the Raptors in the different Canadian cities and communities, and the influence the team has on the younger generation.”
After the game in Quebec City, the Raptors will continue camp in British Columbia before facing the Clippers - Leonard’s former team - on Oct. 10 in Vancouver.
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