Young Raptors team needs to learn balance in NBA roller coaster season

One of the many challenges this season for the Raptors will be managing the young players’ hearts and minds as much as their bodies.

They will have to learn the ups and downs of a long and tough season, figure out how not to let bad games drag on, and not let good games take over.

The process has started. Emphatically.

There were some slumped shoulders and downcast eyes around the practice facility early Thursday morning after the Washington Wizards turned their heads over to the Raptors to open the season the night before.

It is perhaps understandable that young players feel affected by a stinky game and it is not inconceivable that some let those feelings linger.

But can not. Games come too fast, too furious, and there’s no time to think about the bad, there’s only time to recap, review, and hopefully grow from it.

That’s where players who have been through it many, many times before can be most valuable: making sure their teammates keep going with the growth process rather than dwell on disappointment.

“It’s part of the business,” said Goran Dragić, the team’s senior statesman. “There are 82 games, we have to move on. Of course we already watched the movie to see what we did wrong and try to correct those mistakes for the next one.

“It’s not like in Europe when you have one game a week and then you have seven days of practice and you can correct those things. Here it is right away, you have to move on to the next one and the next opponent is Boston, the first game away, so it’s going to be a really tough challenge for us. “

There will be many challenges for the Raptors that arise as the season progresses and maintaining stability is one of the most important.

Toronto Raptors forward Precious Achiuwa has an easy dunk in the season opener against the Washington Wizards in the season opener at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.

The coaching staff, the front office and the older players know that there will be nights like Wednesday where the team just doesn’t play well, the rookies look like rookies, and the end seems to be near.

But is not.

There is a game on Friday and Saturday and Monday and maximizing the lessons that can be learned is vital.

“It comes to you pretty fast in this league, so you have to learn what you can and as fast as you can, you have to be ready to play,” coach Nick Nurse said. “You have to wash that off even if you don’t like it and start over and see what happens.”

There were certainly enough shortcomings in the way the Raptors played Wednesday to work.

They didn’t play at the steady pace they need, they didn’t take advantage of transition opportunities, they flipped the ball too often, and they committed too many fouls.

Neither is singularly crippling, but combined they were disastrous.

Tactically, the answers are obvious: the Raptors can’t shoot 31 percent from the field and win; OG Anunoby cannot miss 11 of his first 12 field goal attempts; Fred VanVleet needs to be more effective and young players need to bring in more constant energy.

All that will come, perhaps in fits and starts, but it will come.

“We have to put this in (context) that it was the first game back,” Dragić said. “The building was electrifying. Everybody wants to do it right. We had a lot of young players for whom it was the first game he had played in the NBA. They are just emotions.

“Of course you get a little discouraged when you don’t make plays. In the preseason we have already shown that we can defend and steal and enter the open court. Yesterday we didn’t have many chances, but … it’s the first game. We definitely have to be better. “

They can also be different. Nurse said immediately after the game that he wasn’t comfortable with some of the combinations on the court and that’s where some tweaks come in.

Is Dragić better off the bench to stabilize the second group if Gary Trent Jr. can handle the starting role?

Is Precious Achiuwa better suited to a backing role with a fundamentally stronger Khem Birch start?

All fodder for the coach.

“I think there are some other rotation things to consider,” he said. “I think I felt that way during the game. Actually, at halftime, I was thinking this, this, this, this didn’t look quite right or it didn’t feel quite right or whatever and I tried to stagger it a little bit differently in the second half.

“I think there are some interchangeable types that might look different in another way. I guess we won’t know until I try some of them, which I think will be ongoing here. “

Best of all, there is a lot of time. And much to improve.

“I see it this way,” Dragić said. “We couldn’t play worse so it’s only going to get better.”