{"id":927214,"date":"2026-10-10T01:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/927214\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T01:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:54:15","slug":"how-rookie-allen-graves-fits-in-as-raptors-contention-window-opens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/927214\/","title":{"rendered":"How rookie Allen Graves fits in as Raptors’ contention window opens"},"content":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER \u2014 The greatest team in Toronto Raptors<\/a> history was elevated to its ultimate peak by Kawhi Leonard.<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t the only future Hall of Famer on the 2018-19 Raptors. Kyle Lowry was the team\u2019s heartbeat and Marc Gasol was its backbone, but Leonard was the one whose talent turned the dream of lifting a trophy into a reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And now that Leonard is back in Toronto for his reunion tour, it\u2019s hard not to be excited about what adding his still-formidable skills to the Raptors lineup could mean for a next generation of dreams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there is more that goes into building a winning team than handing the ball to Leonard, even if he did average a career-high 27.9 points per game for the Los Angeles Clippers last season.<\/p>\n

Which is where rookie Allen Graves fits into this picture.<\/p>\n

How exactly is a bit of an unknown at this particular moment. The 19th pick in the draft this past June wowed in Summer League in July, was generating steady buzz during summer workouts and right through the informal scrimmages in early September. But a minor groin injury has kept him out of the Raptors’ first pre-season game last Saturday in Quebec City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, there is optimism he\u2019ll be available when the Raptors host the Los Angeles Clippers this Saturday in Vancouver, their second of five pre-season games before the season opener on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n

Leonard won\u2019t be playing as he continues to work himself into game shape \u2014 a process that will hopefully make him available when the Raptors host the New York Knicks on Tuesday in Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meantime, these are important development opportunities for the rest of the roster and the youngest members of it in particular.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What role Graves could play Saturday or at any point in the near future is an unknown variable, but one the Raptors would love to nail down.<\/p>\n

Finding playing time for young players was a priority over the past three years as the Raptors were very clearly rebuilding. Now, having made the playoffs last season and added Leonard in the summer, the windows of opportunity might be harder to pry open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Graves is open to any chance there might be, in any form.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like no matter what my role is, I feel like I impact winning whenever I’m on the court,\u201d he said Friday after the Raptors practice at Rogers Arena. \u201cAnd if they allow me to be in the rotation, then that’s what I’m gonna do. Either way, though, I’m just gonna work and continue to keep my head down, and you know, just help the team in any way I can, whether that’s being in practice or whether that’s being on the court.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: the Raptors very much may need Graves to be on the court sooner rather than later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For all the justifiable excitement around Leonard\u2019s return, the Raptors’ championship era was defined \u2014 retrospectively \u2014 by the quality of their youngest players. Pascal Siakam was in the third season of what ended up being a thriving NBA career that has earned him two all-NBA selections and three all-star nods and counting; OG Anunoby was just a rookie on that team and sidelined for the post-season due to appendicitis, but it wasn\u2019t that hard to project he would eventually emerge as what he is now: the best ‘role’ player in the NBA and a championship starter on virtually any team in any era.<\/p>\n

Fred VanVleet was beginning his ascent to all-star status and Norm Powell was showing signs of becoming the kind of microwave scorer that earned him an all-star berth last season, while Delon Wright and Jonas Valanciunas were valuable enough players at that stage of their careers that they were worth being included in the mid-season trade that netted the Raptors Gasol.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pretty easy to identify who is manning the engine room of the Raptors now \u2014 their ceiling will depend on how much horsepower Leonard and Scottie Barnes can generate. But the team\u2019s floor will be determined by the kind of contributions they can get from other places in games in November, December, January and February, which can get lost in the shuffle of a long NBA season but very much set a team up for success in April, May and \u2014 who knows \u2014 maybe even June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely agree that when you look at the depth of our roster\u2026 there\u2019s a lot of young guys that we expect to contribute,\u201d said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. \u201cOn a nightly basis any of those guys can be in a lineup, and they need to help us. We’re definitely counting all the depth of our roster for carrying the whole season.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably not fair to compare the current group of young Raptors to the championship era years, just because the probability of drafting \u2014 in the space of three seasons as the Raptors did from 2015-2018 \u2014 four players that earned all-star or all-NBA recognition and another (Wright) who played 10 NBA seasons as a valuable role player is low.<\/p>\n

But the current group does overlap with their predecessors in that the Raptors have shown again that you don\u2019t have to draft in the high lottery to find capable players, as Jamal Shead (45th pick), Ja\u2019Kobe Walter (19th pick) and Jamison Battle (undrafted free agent) have already demonstrated to varying degrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of them are being counted on significantly this season to play supporting roles on nights when Leonard is driving the action but, perhaps more importantly, as key players on the nights when Leonard inevitably has to sit out. It\u2019s always worth remembering that the Raptors were 17-5 in the 22 games that Leonard didn\u2019t play during their championship season.<\/p>\n

Can Graves keep up the Raptors’ streak of finding contributors deeper in the draft and do it soon enough to help this team this season?\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lot to expect for a first-year pro who was coming off the bench for his college team at Santa Clara as a redshirt freshman last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But no one is ruling it out, which is telling. Graves was excellent at the Las Vegas Summer League. That he averaged 16.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.2 steals and one block in less than 28 minutes a game while shooting better than 50 per cent on two and three-point field goals certainly jumps off the page. Watching it in person, however, it was that he was able to do it seamlessly and without commanding any specific accommodations, which was perhaps even more impressive. To be successful in the NBA you need to stand out, but fitting in as a young player can be a big part of it too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe brings a lot of things with him: the intangibles, how hard he plays. He’s got great hands. Creates a lot of steals. He’s very disciplined when it comes to rebounding the ball, and he’s a player who is pretty good catch-and-shoot three-point shooter,\u201d said Rajakovic. \u201cAs a coach, you’re always looking for players where there are things that they catch on to and can build on, and he\u2019s that type of player. So I believe that he’s going to be able to help us throughout the whole season, and I can see him being on the floor very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graves has worked accordingly. An obvious shortcoming with the Raptors lineup is that they don\u2019t have an abundance of three-point shooting and it goes almost without saying that the more spacing they can provide around Leonard and Barnes will only make life easier for the stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Graves apparently read that email. He shot the three well in college \u2014 41.3 per cent \u2014 but had just shot 92 attempts. If the work he\u2019s done since being drafted is any indication, the plan is to put up a lot more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Graves opened some eyes the other day when he was knocking down shot after shot from a taped line the Raptors have at the OVO Athletic Centre that sits about four feet behind the official three-point line. It looked repeatable and remarkably comfortable for someone who was playing back-up centre in college just last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe four-point line, we call it,\u201d said Graves. \u201cMy pre-draft workouts really helped me with being able to get adjusted to the NBA line and then even, you know, expand my range even further to the four-point line. I won\u2019t be shooting too many from there but I\u2019m just trying to get adjusted and continuing to work on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graves is so early in his NBA journey that projecting where it leads is a fool\u2019s hobby. But the Raptors’ journey in the Kawhi 2.0 era will require as many able hands as possible to help the team reach its potential on the nights he plays and especially on the nights he doesn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a formula that worked incredibly well eight years ago and the progress of Graves and some of the Raptors’ other young talent will be crucial if it is going to work again.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 The greatest team in Toronto Raptors history was elevated to its ultimate peak by Kawhi Leonard.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-927214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}