Toronto Raptors Media Availability | Postgame vs Orlando Magic | March 15, 2024

Toronto Raptors Media Availability | Postgame vs Orlando Magic | March 15, 2024

A very tough match up for you guys with all their L athleticism do you find that as a game going yes I did uh I thought that the first half he did a pretty solid job outside of those uh two first minutes to start uh to start the game

After that I thought that we did really good job of fighting and we kept them to two offensive rebounds uh only in the first half and we were able with our aggressiveness to come up with with Steals and opportunities for for us to run in in transition but as as the game

Progressed their physical um you know attributes came to to the full light obviously more often than not you want to like Brady sort of play through his mistakes tonight A Little Less of that maybe down the stretch what do you tell them maybe not tonight but in the in the

Coming tomorrow about this as a learning experience um I think the biggest thing uh with his learning experience here is learning how to play to start first of all because he’s been starting for like couple of games now second thing is uh how to play starters minutes and that

Was uh he played a game with 39 minutes then 36 minutes he had a couple of games in a row so to the certain degree I expected a dip at at some point and um unfortunately it was that night today he he uh he did not have that extra juice

That he usually brings and it was a tough night but uh sometimes like yes playing through me mistakes but sometimes you know he needs to understand like I can’t do this and that there is a fine line sometimes learning is on the bench as well you went with

Jamas in that spot where we’ve seen Javon and and Jaylen a bit recently um why did you go with them there and and what did you think of what you got from him um he’s uh he just signed on the second 10 day with us uh he’s young

Talented player that we wanted to take a look at him because he just joined our organization we don’t know a lot about him and what I did like is that scrappiness and uh and defensive effort that he was giving us uh he was able to

To score on uh to make two threes in the first half as well he had seven points at the halftime I just like that his own ball defense and aggressiveness that he brought to the team today you uh you mentioned that physicality early you guys have had injuries to the front cour

It seems like these games is kind of like sfist pushing the B the hill how do you keep motivating guys to guard up positions repeatedly night after night like this um to be honest with you I don’t have any problem with that because this group shows up to work every single

Day you know every practice every shoot round they bring their best and they’re focused and they’re asking questions and they’re really trying to improve and uh that’s my mindset as well all we can do is control uh our work and what we put

In and uh as I said I I thought that we did some some really good stuff tonight we just could not put it enough minutes of that good basketball to to to win a basketball game but all this experience is going to give us a lot of lot of uh

Uh benefits in the future um how beneficial is it to play the same team again uh but this time obviously in their home court but point tonight yeah it is very very good we just talked about it in the lock room it’s going to be great for us to learn

From what we did in this game what we can improve what are the potential adjustments you know we can kind of like look at it at the mini playoff series playing the same opponent twice in in you know in 48 hours so um and I’m

Really excited to to go to film and go to to practice and uh to to get our guys ready to go out there and then play better game you got 14 points Off the Bench from Jordan what did you see from him tonight uh Jordan um I saw 14 points

As well same like you did but I also I also saw Improvement on defensive end you know uh he’s been working very hard to improve his on ball defense activities you know staying in a stance staying in front of the defense there um but there is next layer to it you know

I’m I’m greedy I always want more I always want better from all the players and I believe that he’s a player that can give us even more got a lot of guys at different roles great GR in starting minutes O A starting power forward Kelly’s playing starter Center minutes

How do you evaluate them in their different spots Doug sounds like you want some minutes as well it sounds like you want to play uh the it’s uh it’s it’s really uh uh goals that we uh that we lay down to all those guys expectations and then evaluating in dead

Regard you know we’re learning about them but at the same time there is a game plan uh there is uh individual player development plan for each of those guys and really trying to see how they’re uh how they’re doing in those goals you know and and I I never like to

Go like game by game I just like make conclusions based of that I like to give players multiple games and opportunities so we can really take a good look at them are there any specifics in terms of next steps next goals for Grady as he kind of progresses gets more opportunity

Here I mean uh I think uh what he’s going through now is invaluable you know starter minutes uh playing heavy minutes uh you know he he he looks tired but he needs to learn how to play through that you know he played more games this season than he played previous five

Years of his life you know college season is is getting to the end and he’s still still playing so there is for a 20-year- old there is so much to learn like even like to to the certain degree failure and the bad game is good because

He’s going to go back he’s going to analyze it he’s going to learn something from it and he’s going to come back uh being better so um uh to answer your question I I think it’s just like one day taking one day at a time approach

And uh you know taking a lot of a lot of uh lessons on defensive end and on offensive end what he can do better early on in the season one of the first things you talked about with Brady was working on footwork and the stuff up top

To get up Court over top of the screams have you noticed the progression in his ability to kind of like navigate the physicality off ball at the NBA level that’s a very good memory you have remembering what we talked about at the start of the Season uh about Grady um I

See a lot of improvement there um you know even in season he a he was able to gain a little bit of weight muscle weight good weight uh he’s moving better he’s learning moving patterns on defensive end he’s able to catch up not just because of his foot speed but also

What because he’s doing the right thing there and the same thing applies on offense he’s already working on some stuff that they’re going to try to unleash this uh this summer league offensively and defensively but it just takes time and takes a lot of work and

Takes a lot of uh progression in his work I got uh Grayson’s Jersey I play with him Milwaukee that’s my guy so just had I had him hanging on to it for me for a little bit Jordan what do you hope to get out of the last 15 or have been hoping to

Get out of these last point games or so give your situation I think just steady Improvement um um on both ends of the floor uh it’s something that they’re preaching every day in practice uh not just myself but the whole team um and just you know that’s really the biggest

Thing just improving and you know yeah getting better every day I mean you’ve been on some pretty good teams up to this point minutes can sometimes be hard to to get in those situations so when you’re in one now where there’s a lot of Runway here and

You kind of feel an urgency that to to take advantage uh yeah definitely um you know it’s it’s definitely easier to play you know when you get in consistent minute minutes nice night in and night out um but you just got to it’s probably

The NBA just got to make the most of of every opportunity um however it comes uh obviously it’s not ideal right now with guys being injured um you want to get those minutes because you know with a full healthy team so um it is what it is

Just got to you know keep trying to capitalize on those moments so Jordan you mentioned how you’re trying to get better obviously individually but there’s a lot of guys on this team who are getting more minutes than they’ve ever seen before what’s it like learning as a group learning as a

Team um it’s been good it’s it’s a challenge we’re all facing you know it’s we’re all you know most of us are new guys on this team um outside of a handful and uh we’re still you know meshing everybody’s is learning each other still um we’re all for the most

Part we’re all pretty you know young or relative in age outside of I guess you could say Grady um so you know we’re all learning each other figuring it out and like I said we’ve been working hard in practice every day uh and these coaches have done a great job with the

Development of everybody uh everybody’s locked in and just taking those steps has it been difficult to build chemistry on the Fly I mean there’s not a ton of practice time at this point in the season season and there’s been so many different lineups and guys in and out

What’s the learning curve like for groups that in some cases have never played together uh it’s different but like I said it’s part of being this in this league uh something you just got to do and adjust on the Fly um you know it can happen happen to anybody like I said

This whole everybody here is going through it now like I said we got a basically a whole new whole new team um and I think long term it’ll you know help us out and uh and it’s another we can just improve together uh nobody’s perfect and everybody on this team has

Room to improve and I think that’s what’s great about it and you know we should just keep doing it moving forward seeing that you have to play Orlando again in Orlando um what was the one thing that stood out to you or two things that stood out to you tonight

About them uh I think first obviously their defense their size um you know they’re a really good defensive team uh I think we just got to you know stay stay on the on the glass uh get some of those rebounds now that them have second chance points and then

Just limit turnovers uh you know they’re really uh active and uh get into passing Lane so just got to you know take care of the ball Gary obviously this is a young team you’re one of the older guys now and I think the longest 10 you’re at

Least of the guys that are playing right now has your role changed at all from a leadership standpoint do you feel like that gu is picking your brain just in terms of the league and what they to be doing with these minutes they’re getting most definitely uh even just before the

Season started again uh me and Coach Evo we’ve been working with me and Grady we’ve been the group together basically since the summer you know just when I first came in I was just trying to really show him a certain mindset a certain approach a certain Focus you

Should have whether it’s in between drills whether it’s paying attention to how your footing is on your jumpers you know all types of things and he’s been super receptive and he’s asked me a lot of questions too on the court he asked me questions about what tattoos he

Should get all types of stuff so you know it’s been it’s been cool so far but we continue to keep building everybody you know he trying to grow together and you know keep going what tattoo would if you he just he had an idea or something

I told him he said it’ be nice if he did it so he might surprise y would have posted something later in this summer or something I’m excited T to what I mean you said that you guys prepared together all year what have you seen from him you

Know on the court Improvement wise especially with him becoming a starter over the last week for sure I just really seen him getting more comfortable you know obviously he’s thrown he’s thrown into a situation that’s not you know relatively easy a new coach uh new trying to figure everything out we had a

Lot of changes as a rookie so that could be that could be a lot for you but again he’s handled it well he’s handled his his g-league stin when they sent him down he’s been super receptive he’s been like a sponge he’s ready to learn he’s

Ready to keep going take the next step and you know he has so much more Improvement to do and so much more add to his game you know his opportunity is Limitless so he must continue to keep working you know and I continue to try

To help him as much as I can what you tell him after a tough game today with him personally he was kind of tough out there he’s getting used to like all these minutes all these games he never played this before no matter what keep going the same thing I’m telling Jordan

When he comes in shoot score the same thing I’m telling uh Jr Ramsey everybody um everybody come in and be aggressive be assertive you know obviously it’s the next man up and there’s a whole bunch of opportunity out there for a lot of people to Showcase and try to help us

Get as many wins as we can and help contribute towards winning G how long did it take you to become like physically NBA ready um you know to the point where you can handle 35 minutes one night 35 minutes back to back that kind of stuff yeah for sure

You know my Approach my my first time in the league was kind of different you got to think I was a second round pick I went to an established team with eight years that was already together so there was no plan my first year I was like a

Like trainer for the Olympics I was running and lifting every single day I was that’s all I was doing for basically a year straight you know and I accepted it I dove into my work and whatever came with it came with it and obviously you

Know my dad is big and you know body is good and we’ve been doing a lot of calisthenics since I was a little kid so from day one I always had you know baby pitches where I’m stocky so yeah what’s your goal for the rest of the season

Personally man try to get as many wins as we can try to contribute towards winning again try to help guys get ready again this is our season we’re still fighting for some but it’s even a bigger pitchure than that down the line we even starting to get ready for next year with

Little stuff and just we want to implement and everything we just trying to work on it try to figure it out make it work that’s what we’re going to continue to keep doing and that’s really the main focus and goal you mentioned just gym basically that type of stuff to

Start your career you get tra you get your opportunity you pop off in the playoffs you come to Toronto you get put into a starting position you get bumped in and out ofate you stay professional the whole time now the longest T to drafter that’s playing and seeing all

These different guys what if you learned about yourself through all these different situations across the years uh really just I wouldn’t say learn about myself it’s just kind of something I already know again I getting I’m getting a hell of opportunity to play in the NBA

It’s a great League again just because I may be sat playing and not playing and benched and not benched and opportunity may be gone and opportunity may be here again I just continue to work and again control what I can control try to be a

Good teammate try to be a good you know person player you know go out there and just try to help to contribute towards winning as much as I can that’s really my only Main Focus that I really have those experience help you relate to some of these younger guys because you’ve

Been in so many different roles uh yeah you you could say that and I honestly feel like I could help a lot even well a lot well too cuz again there’s not one part of the NBA that I have not seen like for example Scotty Barnes he came

Into the league who he is what he’s going to be everything given to him lights Glitz glamour I didn’t went from the bench behind the bench I didn’t been in a suit I didn’t been on the court I didn’t been a starter I been back bench

I didn’t so there’s no part of the game I think I haven’t touched or been a part of so I feel like that just helps me how to handle things and how to go about things again with just all those different situations I’ve been in my

Whole career the uh the glasses the the aggressive cut what do you make of that fashion train like the Oakley style they came back in yeah N I feel like again fashion always going to regurgitate itself it’s never going to leave again it’s always going to go for 10 years and

Then they going to bring back skinny jeans and they going to bring back big pants and it’s all on what you trying to do and how you trying to dress you see what I’m saying it’s all on that what are you going to be ahead of the curve

On what do you think is going to pop off next like regurg next whatever individuals want to wear I don’t know you see what I’m saying that’s what I’m doing so it’s going to be that yeah thanks for watching the Toronto rappers YouTube channel check out our latest video And subscribe for [Applause]

More the that was great

Coach and players speak with the media following the Raptors’ 113-103 loss to the Orlando Magic.

00:00 – Darko Rajakovic
07:09 – Jordan Nwora
10:43 – Gary Trent Jr

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