Tiago Splitter just wants his rookie to clear his mind and go out and play basketball when the season tips-off Wednesday in Toronto.
Easier said than done for the 20-year-old rookie, especially since Caleb Wilson has said from Day 1 that he was chasing elite status in this game.
But Wilson seems to be buying what his coach is selling and made that clear after the Monday afternoon practice.
“I feel like I’m prepared for it,” Wilson said. “Feel like you got to give yourself grace. I don’t know what the timetable is for me being like an All-Star and all that stuff, but I know that every day I’m going to come out and be better than I was the day before. So excited for the opportunity to keep working and eventually be the player I want to be. I know it will come, so I just go out there and enjoy it.”
A very mature take from the No. 4 overall draft pick that is deemed the future – and in some ways the present – of the entire franchise.
And it was good to know he was listening to his coach and looking to just “go out and hoop … have fun.”
Now, if Splitter could only follow his own advice. After all, he was a first-year NBA coach last season with Portland, but had the “interim” title attached to him when he took over for Chauncey Billups. Up north against the Raptors will somewhat be a first for him as well.
So is the coach approaching it as just go out and “have fun?”
Yeah right.
“Trying to figure out everything we need to do to win basketball games,” Splitter said when asked where his mindset was as the team gets ready for the start of the regular season. “Develop young players, make them approach the game the best way they can, create those habits – it starts now. How you approach a shootaround, how you approach a film session right before a game, how you remember all the scout things that you got to do in the game, so that’s what’s on my mind right now. Are we ready? Are we doing the right things for them to be successful on the court.”
Are they?
“They should be,” Splitter replied with a smirk.
There’s a reason he has a lot on his plate, however. Toronto’s frontcourt is no joke with Kawhi Leonard’s return to the team, two-time All-Star Scottie Barnes, and center Jakob Poeltl finally healthy.
Meanwhile, Splitter said that stretch-four Jalen Smith will likely start at center in the wake of Nic Claxton being re-evaluated and deemed another two weeks in street clothes, and he is throwing Wilson and 22-year-old Matas Buzelis to the wolves, hoping they can hold their own against two grown men in Leonard and Barnes.
Yes, a huge challenge, but one that Wilson is more than up for.
“Kawhi is a guy I’ve looked at my whole life, kind of modeled my game after, just his two-way abilities,” Wilson said. “And then Scottie is really physical. I think he was the fourth pick too, actually. He’s just really become their focal point as a player, so I’m excited for the matchup. It’s a heck of a matchup for a rookie to go into his first game, so I’m excited to see how I do out there.
“It should be a lot of fun. I know it’s going to be a huge game with Kawhi coming back for his first game (since the championship with) Toronto, and I feel like it has a good chance to put us on the map.”
