toronto raptors linkage – oct 11
Kris Humphries has gone back to his old look, but perhaps not his old situation.
The Raptors’ high-energy big man has shaved the nest of hair he had been sporting atop his head in favour of last year’s more streamlined shaved look.
Apparently the ribbing was getting a little too much to take. It’s too much when wives of ex-teammates are sending messages that the do just doesn’t look good.
But far more important than what Humphries looks like, both for him and the Raptors, is how he fits into head coach Sam Mitchell’s plans on the court this season. And based on some early anecdotal evidence, there is every liklihood that Humphries’ court time will go up from the 13.2 minutes a game he averaged last season.
Humphries added bulk to his frame over the summer and coming into camp, that caught Mitchell’s attention. Through five days of training camp in Ottawa and a pair of pre-season games, Humphries showed a willingness to throw that bulk around, all the while running the court and providing the kind of energy Mitchell looks for off his bench.
So far this year when Mitchell talks about his big men, his refers to his four bigs — starters Chris Bosh and Jermaine O’Neal as well as Andrea Bargnani and Humphries.
Humphries hasn’t always made the cut in the past.
“Basically we have got four big guys so there are going to be minutes there for a lot of them,” Mitchell said. “There are only so many minutes to go around but we are going to need all four of those guys. We’re going to need them healthy, but all four are important in different ways.”
Humphries blend of size and speed is his advantage and he knows it.
“I’m prepared to come in and run, rebound and defend, get to the basket. That’s what I feel like I’m out there to do,” Humphries said.
But unlike previous years, Humphries is determined not to let what minutes he gets or doesn’t get become a distraction.
“For me this year it’s just about not putting that pressure of: ‘I have to play this much,’ ” Humphries said.
At 6-foot-1, 185 pounds, Solomon is referred to as a tweener, not a true point guard or shooting guard, but he has the body span to defend his position. A second-round pick of the Vancouver Grizzlies in 2001 right before they moved to Memphis, he played just one NBA season before embarking on a nomadic career through Greece, Israel and Turkey.
“I’m just trying to fit in, just trying to give the team energy,” the Hartford, Conn., native said after Wednesday’s game. “It’s no different when you walk up a flight of stairs. You take it one step at a time.
“Playing against Cleveland, playing against a Knicks team that likes to play fast, it’s all helpful. I’m just trying to find that comfort level.
“Coach Mitchell is a player’s coach and he’s always encouraging me. The Raptors are a playoff team, a good team, and I just want to do my part in helping them.”
Solomon and rookie Croatian guard Roko Ukic both looked good against the Knicks when Calderon and Anthony Parker sat, with Ukic going 3-for-3 from the floor.
Each day, for each practice, game and workout, players strap belts to their chests that hold monitors to record their heart rates, providing a valuable tool in training and conditioning that sets them apart from all but a handful of NBA teams.
“It helps Sam kind of determine how hard maybe he goes in practice,” said Keith D’Amelio, the team’s strength and conditioning coach now in his fourth year with the club. “We know if they’ve been pushing it hard the last few days. It helps me monitor recovery of each guy and it helps me see maybe which guy needs to do extra work to kind of keep his fitness up.
“For some guys, if you have ‘em do a sprint and say, `Okay, 40 seconds rest,’ some guys aren’t recovered in 40 seconds so it’s detrimental to their conditioning. Some guys recover in 10 seconds and it’s like, `Okay, you need to get them moving.’”
The players are wearing the monitors for the entire pre-season (”some of the guys just want to use ‘em as an excuse why they aren’t hitting shots, but they’ve been great about it,” said D’Amelio) in everything from practices to weightlifting sessions.
“What I’m kind of looking at is seeing in terms of recovery at a break (how) you can make that applicable to a game,” said D’Amelio. “If you get a timeout, how much does his heart rate come down? Is he recovered and ready to go?
“I don’t think it’ll ever get to a point where it would dictate substitution patterns but it’s more information.”
With Nathan Jawai still sidelined with the cardiac problems that have kept him out of all of training camp and Joey Graham (hamstring) and Jamal Sampson (wrist) unable to go, there were just 10 players available to work out yesterday.
“We had 10 to practice so we got a lot of stuff done,” said coach Sam Mitchell. “We had a really good practice. You just have to know what you’re doing.”
The players don’t seem to mind.
“I think in terms of being able to play live and go as hard as some of the teams do, it’s tough (with a limited camp roster) because guys get hurt,” said Jason Kapono. “But I think it’s better in terms of guys getting more reps, the quality of reps.
“(The) combinations seem to fit better because you’re not always mixing and matching with guys coming in and out of the lineup.”
Hump without hair. Hump with hair.
Which one do you like? Does it really matter? Is this what the pre-season has degenerated into? Yup.
Anyway, there were a couple of good lines yesterday when we arrived to see the Soon-To-Be-All-Star with his locks shorn.
He suggests it’s a reaction to the reaction of others:
“AP said Maceo’s wife called his wife and said I didn’t look very good. Just a lot of pressure building up so you just go and do it.”
Sam’s a pragmatist:
“I liked the hair, he was playing good.”
And Hump seems to be just working the angles:
“It’s the new me. Ladies, if you’re out there, I’m switching it up for you guys.”
Seriously, this is the kind of thing we talk about at practice some days. We desperately need games that matter to start.
“I’ve enjoyed my success in Phoenix and would love to stay here,” Nash said this week in an interview. “But if not Phoenix, playing in Toronto would be a dream come true in many ways.”
The 34-year-old point guard says he wants to play for at least four more seasons. He has one season and a team option for a second left on his contract with the Suns, most likely making him a member of the vaunted free-agent class of 2010, joining the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Raptors’ Chris Bosh.
In that context, Nash was more than willing to put Toronto at the top of his list providing the Suns wanted to go in another direction.
“As long as it made sense from a basketball perspective and I could be an asset to a competitive team then I would relish the opportunity of playing there,” Nash said.
The Raptors shipped T.J. Ford and Rasho Nesterovic to Indiana for what they hope is a healthy, and rejuvenated Jermaine O’Neal. They put former first-overall pick Andrea Bargnani through a summer of weight training, surgery, pickup, games and overall development.
The Raptors have two spectacular players in Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon, who led them to the playoffs last season. When you add a healthy O’Neal, and a vastly-improved Bargnani to that mix, you’re basically adding two star players to replace Nesterovic and last year’s Bargnani—who was, to put it kindly, awful and unhealthy).
If a few role players like Kris Humphries, Anthony Parker, Jason Kapono, and Roko Ukic can play a little above their heads, this might be a squad that could be the last team standing in the East.
The Raptors are relying on a lot of unknowns to materialize into positives. O’Neal’s health, Parker and Jamario Moon’s ability to contain opposing wings, and the fruits of Bargnani’s offseason progress all have to turn in the Raptors’ favor for Toronto to make noise in the East.
Leave a comment