For Toronto Raptors, idea of a consistent bench group doesn’t fly in COVID times … Chris Boucher and Justin Champagnie turn energy into minutes

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Nick Nurse has his starting five more or less in a good place.

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Save for a what should be a brief absence from both Scottie Barnes and Gary Trent Jr. that is.

Barnes was back in practice yesterday and looks to be on track for a return tonight in Detroit.

Trent Jr. didn’t practice but he too is listed as no worse than questionable for tonight’s game.

But those two along with Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby have finally had some time together over these past few weeks and are looking like that solid five going forward.

Nurse is no where near as certain about his second unit, that group that comes off the bench to give those five a blow in starting both the second and fourth quarters.

On that group, Nurse just can’t be sure enough in this day and age of health and safety protocols and the rarely frozen out injury bug to have any good feel about what that group should look like consistently.

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Every time he feels like he has the bottom portion of the rotation settled, an injury or a stint in protocols pops up and he’s back to square one.

“I think we’re all going to have to accept the fact it’s always going to be a work in progress,” he said Thursday. “You can sit here and say ‘ideally this is what I was going to do’ but it’s just never ideal.

There’s always one or two … guys taken off that unit into the starting lineup and getting shifted around so you’re back at kind of experimentation mode again and just trying to figure out what’s going to happen.”

Nurse and his staff were quite happy coming out of Christmas with Siakam and Barnes sticking around to get that second unit into its minutes. He had Precious Achiuwa and Chris Boucher and Khem Birch or Justin Champagnie out there with them and that group ran with those minutes for three or four games before injuries and lineup absences forced the coaching staff to find a new ‘second unit.’

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“So I think there’s some history there we can kind of base things off of and maybe go back to (when the affected players return) but I think night to night, it’s just make sure we’re ready to go in there and play, play with great energy and play a role even if that role is switching from night to night.”

TWO OF A KIND

Boucher and Champagnie couldn’t be more different in appearance and manner, but they share a very real comparable on the basketball court.

Both are the very definition of ‘instant energy’ on the floor these days.

Champagnie, the rookie with a nose for a rebound like few others, comes across as energy personified off the court too. And when his name is called you pretty much have to start the stopwatch on him as he sprints from is spot at the end of the bench to the table to check in.

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Boucher, the now 29-year-old veteran, is more laid back away from the game. He’s doesn’t exude the youthful exuberance Champagnie does but on the court both are bringing it every second of run they get.

These two fit in with just about any second unit grouping Nurse and company come up with because energy is a skill on its own and it fits with whatever it gets paired.

“All he does is go out there and play really hard and chase the ball, which is a plus for us and right now that’s a great role for him,” Nurse said.

For Boucher it’s kind of been a return to this role after having his day, so to speak, a year ago in the Bubble taking advantage of the Raptors centre issues and then the COVID tribulations to get into the starting unit where he produced.

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The key for him was mentally accepting that his biggest impact could come in this spark-plug role.

“It’s a role perfectly suited for (Boucher) and (his) game and (his) personality,” Nurse said. “Can you impact from that role? And that’s what he has been doing. And that’s great to see. Maybe the starting boosted his competence or whatever but when he mentally handled it well, to go back and wait and wait and he sees a big chunk of the game go by, and he’s still not in there, but we call his number he sprints up to the scorer’s table and sprints out onto the floor and starts playing hard.

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PLENTY OF RODMAN LOVE

First it was Siakam invoking the name of the greatest rebounder of all-time saying he heard people referring to him as Pascal Rodman.

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Then it was Boucher admitted he’s been studying tapes of Dennis Rodman in his best rebounding days trying to pick up a thing or two about anticipating the bounce off the rim.

Now we have Champagnie, a noted rebounder in his own right, admitting he once had a college coach who called him Baby Rodman for his penchant and all-consuming desire to pull down the rebound.

That’s a lot of love for a guy who hasn’t played in the league since the turn of the century, although Nurse sees it as completely appropriate.

“It seems to me, I mean, it’s hard work, it’s some athleticism, it’s some size, it’s some anticipation, it’s some IQ,” Nurse said of rebounding. “All those things that Rodman brought — toughness, just relentless pursuit of it. And I don’t know. I’m glad these guys are watching him because I think it’s worth your time to sit back and watch this guy and how incredible he did what he did was.”

The studying is paying off as well because the Raptors were a bottom three rebounding team in the NBA just a year ago and already they have worked their way back into the middle of the pack averaging about four more a night than they did a year ago.

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