Toronto Raptors Media Availability | Pregame vs. Charlotte Hornets | March 3, 2024

Toronto Raptors Media Availability | Pregame vs. Charlotte Hornets | March 3, 2024

Did you have a chance to connect with Scotty since we saw you last any more details on the nature the injury yes yes uh I did uh we’re we’re in touch uh uh he’s not here u in the building today with us but uh we are evaluating options

Uh for him what’s going to be the next step and we’ll know more in uh next day or two uh what the next step is going to be but uh you know it’s going to be opportunity for him to reflect on the season uh to continue supporting teammates uh staying in touch with

Everybody and we’re excited to have him back with us and to help us on the sidelines until he’s ready to help us inside the lines is there possibility of surgery that everything is on the table right now is he seeing Specialists or or is that where he is today yes he’s seeing specialist

Yes how are you how do you make up the loss of Scotty bar how do you try to do that uh you know what uh we we have a lot of young guys uh that this is going to be great opportunity for them to step

Up uh first of all I expect uh quickly and RJ to step up and our leaders in Kelly olenic and yakob to step up uh Gary can step up but also this is going to be a good opportunity to take a closer and better look at some of the

Young guys like Jordan noara and oai he can get more minutes Grady is going to have expanded role obviously uh more minutes uh so it’s opportunity is everywhere and it’s going to be for those guys to grab those opportunities to learn through those and and to grow

But our objective stays the same uh to be competitive and try to win in every single night game uh coach uh yeah Miss uh made the decision to to go to the NBA maybe a little little late he’s already 30 years old uh but anyway do you think

That he can have a successful career in the NBA I believe so MIT is established uh point guard in Europe uh he was MVP of Euro league um and uh he won it all with with with his team with FS um I I believe that he’s going to need a little

Bit of time of adjustment uh but we’ve seen players come to NBA at later later um stage of their career as well and they made an impact so I believe he’s going to find his Niche and that he will be able to to have a good solid NBA

Career as well obviously Scotty such a big part of what you do uh and that means everybody takes on a bit more how do you as a coach coaching staff how do you guys evaluate the guys you do have who are now being asked to do a bit more

That maybe would be outside of their normal RS for sure that’s really good question that man I talked to staff about that like we cannot get too high or too low after a game uh we got to stay uh continue um developing those guys and doesn’t matter how we how they

Perform in a single game we got to be give them opportunity to bounce back from Bad performance or to learn from it and then or if they play well to take it to another level so it has to be a lot of patience who are here with them um a

Lot of support uh a lot of uh a lot of work um our guys are they’re putting a lot of work in every single day so this is going to be everybody’s going to have to do a little bit more you know you you were primarily Defender now secondary

Defender now you got to got some some players that a little bit upscale to the level so it’s great opportunity for them to prove themselves for all all of our guys but it’s also learning and growing opportunity for sure coach would you anticipate a bigger opportunity potentially for Grady in these in this

Time yes uh Grady and we had talks so uh he was aaging some 20 minutes uh so far in last couple of weeks so I think he’s going to be getting a couple of more minutes and just make it natural progression for him as well any decision on who would start

Tonight uh yes we made that decision I I’ll I’ll I’ll share it a little bit later um do do you kind of coming out of the All-Star break anyway but maybe even more now do you kind of look at these 20 remaining games and and say look maybe

Communicate to guys that you know we’re really going to be evaluating not only your whole season but but really let’s drill down on some of the things we’re expecting for you going forward and begin to see them in in this in this state stage of the Season yes uh uh we

Before allar break we start working on Player Development goals for all all the players on on the roster and uh we having uh um Team meetings uh in a sense medical performance uh nutrition uh mental skills uh coaches all together as a group we come up with goals objective

Goals and what we need to achieve in those uh 20 plus games post All Star so we already had uh pretty much the half of the roster with those meetings we’re trying to knock down every day two or three guys so there is a clear objective

For each of them what they need to be working on and what are the areas that we’re going to be evaluating them in so there is a plan for each of them so um I don’t want to wait for summer so we start working on on goals and Player

Development uh we got to use this time now and opportunity of those games that we have here co uh yeah sorry following up the the last question about about Miss uh What uh would you have to take into account from from him considering how how he’s playing now in in uh yeah

With with the Hornets I mean uh he’s a player that uh point guard that brings a lot of experience um talking to coaches from Charlotte they they like him a lot so we got to be ready for him he’s going to try to show up tonight and play his

Best game so we got I’ll be ready for him will you have Bruce excuse me will you have Bruce tonight Bruce Brown uh Bruce Brown he’s going to be out tonight yeah thanks for watching the Toronto rappers YouTube channel check out our latest video And subscribe for [Applause] more [Applause] wide

Head Coach Darko Rajakovic speaks with the media ahead of Sunday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets. #Raptors #TorontoRaptors