Toronto Raptors heading down to Southern U.S. for offseason work
With the team missing out on the NBA postseason this year, the Toronto Raptors are making sure to fill up their offseason calendar with as many things as possible.
“Next up is Caribana,” Dick joked, though it’s still a few months out for the Toronto Caribbean Festival that runs from July 31 to August 4 this year. After making an appearance at the Toronto summer staple before his NBA rookie season, the 21-year-old spoke glowingly about the diversity of the city he’s come to call home.
“I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else,” Dick said. “It’s amazing. I keep telling my family how great it is, and they’re trying to get up here and spend time with me every time. Just the people in the city are amazing. Just the versatility of it all, the food, everything.”
At the team’s end-of-season meetings on Monday, the Raptors’ 2023 first-round draft pick opened up a bit about his summer plans and thoughts on the team’s future.
And with the team’s last two games of the year coming on a road trip to Texas, Dick revealed that some of the team’s players plan to head back to the home state of Raptors rookie Jamal Shead to get in some extra offseason reps.
“We got a couple weeks where we’re out [in Toronto], but we’re going to go to Austin, mostly the younger guys. Jamal can be our host out there. So that’ll be a good time.”
Despite being a rookie, Shead actually led Toronto in games played, with 75 games this past year. Along with first-year players Jonathan Mogbo, Jamison Battle, and Ja’Kobe Walter, Toronto now has a contingent of four second-year players heading into their sophomore NBA season with a combined 249 games played and 4,898 minutes of action.
“We’ve got a lot of chemistry together now. It’s not just us going to the G League and building that chemistry. We played against a lot of great guys this year. Sometimes we didn’t do as well, sometimes we did as well. And I think we learned, and I think that was a really big part [of our growth],” Shead said.
While Shead blossomed into an All-American talent in his final season with the NCAA’s Houston Cougars after a four-year career, he admitted that he took some time to be content with learning the challenges of the NBA.
“People are really, really good at this level,” Shead reflected. “You can see that on TV… but you get in front of them and you realize just the level of play and the shots that people can make and will make shouldn’t bother you, because people are really good.”
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