SportsBasketballRaptors

How each Raptors player has been spending his summer

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Aug 17 2022, 9:06 pm
How each Raptors player has been spending his summer

The Toronto Raptors have been up to a lot this summer, on and off the court.

Sure, they’ve made a few signings, selected a draft pick, and been in Kevin Durant rumours for over six weeks now, but they’ve also just, well, done a lot else.

From pro-am games to pretty beaches, from Summer League to casual gym runs, and from birthday parties for their kids and themselves, everyone has been up to something this offseason.

Here’s what the Raptors’ key players have been up to this summer.

The team

Team hangouts have been pretty common this summer.

One of the most notable came in July when Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, Otto Porter Jr, Malachi Flynn, Scottie Barnes, Gary Trent Jr, Chris Boucher, and Precious Achiuwa all pulled up in Las Vegas to watch the Raptors’ youngsters play at Summer League. How wholesome!

Then there’s been the summer workouts together, most notably at the Los Angeles-based Rico Hines runs featuring Raptors players as well as other NBA talents like James Harden, Paul George, and Patrick Beverley.

 

Scottie Barnes

What hasn’t Scottie Barnes been up to this summer? After crashing the NBA Finals and Summer League, meeting up with fans at Shoppers Drug Mart, and generally just being around Toronto, Barnes celebrated his 21st birthday in style with a bowling win. Last week, he then went laser tagging. Just a kid living the dream.

He’s also become a vlogger, narrating his own highlights at summer runs.

Pascal Siakam

For Pascal Siakam, it’s been a summer of two things: grit and grind.

After a trip to Montreal for the F1 race and a meetup to hand out laptops in Regent Park, it’s mostly been back to the lab for Siakam.

“He looks absolutely spectacular. You sit there and you watch him work out, his athleticism is electric, his focus, his shot is smooth and soft. He looks great,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said earlier this summer about Siakam’s growth this summer.

Fred VanVleet

Fred VanVleet’s spent much of his summer in his hometown Rockford, Illinois, relaxing with his fiancée Shontai and two children Fred Jr. and Sanaa.

He’s been running basketball camps and clinics but hasn’t exactly been the kindest to the campers.

“I was kind of down a little bit the way the season ended and obviously being hurt,” VanVleet told Daily Hive earlier this summer. “Right now priority number one is my body. When I go out there on that court and I feel great, and my body’s feeling strong and fast, I feel like I’m one of the top players in the league. So I’ve just got to find a way to maintain that, sustain that as long as possible.”

Gary Trent Jr.

It’s a big season coming up for Gary Trent Jr., as we wrote this week.

Last week, Trent dropped 56 in a Kingdom League pro-am game taking place in his hometown of Columbus.

Earlier this summer also took a trip to Miami, where, well, he did Gary Trent Jr. things, including posing for pics in private planes and flashy cars. Like VanVleet said earlier this year, he’s “a rockstar in every sense of the word.”

 

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Juancho Hernangonez

Outside of the release of his Netflix movie Hustle, Juancho Hernangonez has also been active on the basketball court.

The man they call Bo Cruz (after the Hustle leading character’s name) played a little bit of international action for his home country of Spain, including a pair of friendlies against Greece and an upcoming set against Lithuania in preparation for the upcoming EuroBasket 2022 championship.

OG Anunoby

Who knows, man. OG Anunoby isn’t much of a social media user these days. He did make an appearance at the Raptors’ draft party, but not much has been heard from him since.

Precious Achiuwa

It’s been a summer of camps for Precious Achiuwa. The biggest of which was a camp held in Port Harcourt in his home country of Nigeria.

But Achiuwa is also taking to the road to Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Halifax this summer, where he’ll be hosting additional youth camps. What a guy!

Thad Young

The Raptors’ oldest player has been busy diversifying his portfolio this summer, working hard as the head of Reform Ventures investment fund, as well as the owner of Reform Sports Training in Memphis.

He’s also the head of a youth basketball squad aptly named Team Thad, which OG Anunoby actually used to once play on.

 

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Chris Boucher

After signing a three-year deal with the Raptors this summer, Chris Boucher is living his best life, including crashing a CEBL game in Montreal earlier this summer.

 

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A post shared by Chris Boucher (@slimmduck)

This weekend, he’s back in Quebec, as he’ll be hosting a streetball tournament on Saturday in Montreal.

Christian Koloko

After Christian Koloko averaged 7.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.8 steals, 2.2 blocks, and 1.0 assists in 22.1 minutes throughout five Summer League games, he made a quick trip up to Toronto to check out the city.

He’s yet to sign his rookie deal, but it seems like only a matter of time before he’s officially a Toronto Raptor.

Malachi Flynn

Malachi Flynn has had an impressive on-court summer, including a 52-point performance in the Drew League pro-am event and another 73 points in The Crawsover pro-am game.

Later this week, Flynn will be making an appearance at the Ball Don’t Stop pro-am taking place on Saturday, August 20.

“That guy looked great the other day,” Nurse said earlier this summer of Flynn’s game in the Drew League. “This is a big year for him to step up.”

Otto Porter Jr.

Otto Porter Jr. began his summer celebrating with the Golden State Warriors, where he won his first NBA title. And when we last checked in with him, well, he wasn’t sure what he’d get up to.

“I won the championship like two weeks ago. Still trying to figure that out,” Porter told Daily Hive.

But it seems like he’s been meshing well with his squad, even rocking an all-Roots fit at Summer League. With a wife from Canada and a pre-existing love of Toronto, he looks like he’ll fit right in.

Nick Nurse

Not to be outdone by his players, Nick Nurse has also been up to a lot this summer. He’s been in and out of Toronto, which included a trip to Rátgéber Academy in Pécs, Hungary as a featured speaker.

“It was really enjoyable, about ten times better than I thought it’d be,” Nurse told Daily Hive. “They’ve fallen in love with basketball and they’re really trying to grow it. There was classroom sessions, on-court sessions. Lots of people there, lots of tremendous focus and energy about the game of basketball.”

Nurse also hosted his first charity golf tournament for his self-named foundation, which included guests such as Kyle Lowry and Julius Erving.

“I don’t want to go too far here but I see a little specialness with this group,” Nurse told reporters at the tournament about his Raptors roster. “I’ve seen some really good signs for some cohesion and some belief and building.”

Nurse also spent some coaching the Canadian men’s national team this summer, where they beat both the Dominican Republic and US Virgin Islands in a pair of FIBA World Cup Qualifiers.

Adam LaskarisAdam Laskaris
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