Masai Ujiri was watching a pre-camp Raptors scrimmage the other day, and everyone was there except the likely five starters. So, everyone was young. There was Bruno Caboclo, Jakob Poeltl, Delon Wright and Norm Powell and Bebe, with his blessed giant-spider-sea-anemone hair. The best player in the brief time Ujiri watched was point guard Fred VanVleet, actually. Apparently, that’s been a trend. Huh.
As the Toronto Raptors open camp for the 2017-18 season on Monday, they almost resemble two eras mashed together. Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, newcomer and veteran C.J. Miles, Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas have appeared in almost 3,000 regular-season games; the next eight more likely roster players have combined for a little over 300.