Of every player to have a slow start to their rookie season, Malachi Flynn surely has one of the best excuses. Granted, as the 29th overall pick by the Toronto Raptors, he wasn’t expected to produce anything more spectacular than his 7.5 points and three assists per game. But Flynn’s gradual development throughout the 2020-21 season — he averaged two points in eight minutes per game pre-All-Star break versus 10 points in 25 minutes post-break — was surely slowed by the strange circumstances of his rookie year.
With no summer league, no real training camp, and, due to injuries on the NBA roster and issues with COVID-19 protocols, a mere six games played in the G-League, Flynn was only given a brief taste of the Raptors’ well-reputed developmental system.