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

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

I uh when you’re in a situation like this at this stage of the Season how important is it to take advantage of when a spot start or extended minutes whatever the opportunity might present yeah um I mean I think it’s you know never taking that for granted uh never

Taking any opportunity that I get whether it’s 5 minutes 30 minutes um whatever it is uh just being in that position I think is where I want to be and um making the most of it is you know what I’m trying to do you guys have a couple of really good

Passing bigs on this team for a player like yourself that moves well without the ball how much of a benefit is that I mean even today a couple assists early on from on Cuts yeah I mean it’s really nice really really nice to to be found on those cuts

And um cuz it’s always a short window um of you know you know when you’re open and all that so having the having those bigs that can that have the ability to to pass and playmake like that is really cool it’s really fun to play with what’s

The learning curve like there I mean you you spent most of your time here so far playing with Kelly in the second year unit do you have to spend that time building chemistry with a player like Yak or is just one of those things where

You you cut and he’s going to find yeah yeah it’s kind of one of those things where I mean although I haven’t been on the coure with him I’ve been watching him and um him and ke Kelly are obviously a little bit similar in that way where they find Cutters and um make

Those Distributing plays so uh just being ready for those and and um you know playing off that how would you rate your performance tonight uh I’d rate it like a ready like a c um kind of kind of hard on myself but uh you know I obviously

Didn’t shoot it well and I thought that that’s that’s something that could have shown up and um could have been better at but yeah I mean there’s there’s obviously room to grow and even if even if I made all those shots I would have said you know probably like a B+ or a

Minus um that’s just kind of how I am I always want to get better um game by game so Dargo said a couple times that he’s told you guys that he’s not going to you go good good game bad game he’s not going to sort of change his judgment

On that but this is a big opportunity for you guys with Scotty out M how much pressure are you putting on yourself um over this next little bit uh I mean I think the best thing to do is not put any pressure on yourself um yeah easy

Easier said than done obviously but um to just trust in him um trust in him that you know whatever you do out there he he fully supports you and um obviously it’s early and you’re building his trust but uh just going out there and playing hard and if you know if

You’re doing that and you make mistakes akes going 100 m an hour uh he should be good with that so um that’s just how I play and that’s how I approach the game is you know just playing hard defensive mindset and um just trying to be a leader out

There than trying to shame them into getting you at Toronto FC Jersey or something I no no no I actually just got sent this by by sporting Camp city today Darko said he uh talked to you and RJ before the game I don’t know if it was

Together or separate but said even with Scotty out he wants you guys to sort of of sticking to what you guys do and don’t try to do too much how uh how do you feel you did with that uh for night with Scotty yeah Scotty’s a big part of

What we do um takes a group effort to make up for what he does um takes a lot more effort honestly cuz he he does so much that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet so uh a lot of effort things we have to make up for um the intangible

Things he does uh extra possessions he gives us the defensive versatility so kind of a group effort to you know make that up yeah we talked briefly before that before the game but so can you just take me through what you think or may have happened with Scotty and I still

Haven’t seen the video yeah so what does anyone kind of explain to you they said uh I kind of kicked him a little bit no I didn’t even know I didn’t know until today that uh I called him yesterday even when I called him I didn’t know

That I did it I probably got to call him back like my fault bro but and I mean in terms of uh we were talking oi and and you know any opportunity NBA is can be pivotal for a guy’s career and so you know in your

Role as point guard guard are you kind of I don’t know if conscious but kind of looking for opportunities to to help guys get confident kind of find their feet and uh you know kind of show their best SS absolutely uh to your point I

Think my first game I ever played in my career was preseason game and all the guards were hurt like six or seven guards were hurt and that was my first chance to get to play and I took advantage of it and oai did the same uh he was aggressive uh he crashes every

Time which our team loves and needs uh a lot of rebounds a lot of four offensive rebounds so um and he plays defense with a lot of energy a lot of effort he’s just a winning player which you need um to win in this league so um he did a

Great job tonight do on that on that team like do you expect this team who knows where you might end up regarding the chasing that playoffs playin spot but um the attention to detail the accountability do you expect that to be front and center really yeah um the

Day-to-day grind of trying to be a champion never changes um what we have to do on a day-to-day basis of like you said attention to detail film we have to do all the little things to give oursel a chance to win play with great effort

And energy um and just we have to be hard workers you know whether that’s uh on a day like tomorrow we have to come in and and we have to have a great practice every single day we can’t take any days off um and that’s just who we

Have to be how different did your offense feel without Scotty uh definitely different uh anytime somebody that plays 40 minutes a night is not in the game I think everything changes uh but you try to keep it the same as much as you can uh uh Scotty probably gets me like four

Open shots a game so uh makes my job job really easy but you know everybody came in chipped in uh played with great effort everybody was you know playing with great energy so that’s what we’re going to need as gra sorry dou as GRE just referred to a playing spot still in

Range what’s the mindset have to be given that Scotty’s out and Yak might be out as well I think the mindset just has to be to come in every day and give everything you have uh with great effort and great attention to detail um everybody is like talking about the

Result of the playing but but I think if you put everything you have into every day I think that’s the most important part about it um obviously we have to go out and compete as well uh but just going out and uh whether it’s a practice

A game film session uh just being being present in that moment and trying to get better in that moment is is a big part of winning are there parts of parts of your game that have to expand or should expand now SC on uh I think I I have to be a better

Leader which I think I have to do regardless you know whoever’s on the floor um we’re a very young team so just trying to show guys where they uh need to be and just encouraging guys to do the best they can and uh just try to do

My part as a leader to try to encourage guys to help them get better to help them improve um but you know on the floor I try to be who I am which is be aggressive uh compete and have fun that’s you know kind of what I just stand

By feeling pretty well in uh I mean I told I talked to those guys individually before the game and uh what I told them is like they’re going to have expanded role and minutes and I told them that I’m not going to make any conclusions based on on one game good or

Bad you know so I thought that tonight tonight both of them they did uh some really good stuff and I think there is another layer to it what it can do communication wise uh where they need to be on the floor that kind of stuff you

Know we allow them to scor 62 points in the paint and that’s that’s big emphasis for us to to protect our paint better and uh I think that couple of those situations was actually oai that he needed to support and help and and Jordan as well but overall I thought

That uh that they did a really good job they they get u g gave us U extra fuel I think oai was really good offensively in the first half he had couple of really good Cuts uh really good finishes uh brought a lot of energy and good for him

He manag somehow to get finish shots in the game is the unfamiliarity cause of the last couple minutes there they run to make it a little bit closer than it should have yes but I also thought that we had couple of wide open shots that that we

Missed there uh what I did not like is US turning the ball over like they were supposed to take a control of the game and get organized we had two three turnovers that that are not you know we cannot have but definitely end of the

Game uh we got to be able to know spacing and what we’re running and how to execute that depending on their coverages it’s going to be a great film Tom more it seem that without Scotty there’s a big playmaking void that you know some of it will come from the

Centers and RJ was in that sort of position where he’s trying to help carry the team uh in the hybrid units what did you see I mean five assists five turnovers what did you see from him sort of I mean he’s still looking to score but in that sort of different role uh

That was part of our conversation where I had up with both uh quickley and RJ before the game you know don’t think that you got to do more now when Scotty is there that you got to you know take more shots necessarily you guys are both great great players you’re going to get

Your shots in a game just allow it to to come naturally and make sure that we have a good ball movement and we’re playing together we are reestablishing identity you know I don’t know how many times this year right now but that has to be they they they that has to be our

Identity that we move the ball that we play together that play we play off of each other and I thought for the big part of the game we did good job outside of those uh those 14 turnovers so hopefully next game he has 10 assists and zero turnovers do you have an update

On Yak or TR uh Yak uh has his uh he had his pinky dislocated in a game uh so uh we did the evaluation over here there is no fracture but he’s uh going through through for under in investigation right now and what did you think of how Kelly

And jonte stepped up in his absence uh I thought that jante he played seven eight minutes in the second half I thought that he did well you know when you your numbers are cold he had two assists there he had one deflection one block shot um I thought that that he

Was ready for the game and that’s what we always want from players to be ready and Kelly stepped up there with a first unit now so he was able to play a little bit with with uh quickly and to figure out like you know those blitzes and when

There to be on the floor and they had some really good conversations on the floor as well what do you think of quickly uh taking on some sort of that expanded role without SC uh make the right play every time down the floor you know that’s that’s uh the message that I

Sending him he had 11 assists tonight you know they were blitzing him I thought that he has couple of really really good reads I thought that couple of times he could do a little bit better but uh I’m I’m loving that that he’s in this position that he’s going to have so

Much more to handle I thought that he did really good job of making sure that Gary gets touches that RJ gets touches to to run a team but at the same time to stay aggressive you know uh so I I was really happy with with his performance

Tonight we could hear the reaction from here who got the chain today uh RJ got a chain and um our video guy ran br got his first Scout and uh that loud celebration was celebrating him that that he got as a winning Scouting Report thanks for watching the Toronto rappers

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Players and Coach speak with the media following the Raptors’ 111-106 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday. #Raptors #TorontoRaptors

0:00 Ochai Agbaji
2:51 Immanuel Quickley
7:27 Darko Rajakovic