Looking to improve to 1-1 on the season, the Sixers travel to Toronto for a Friday night game against a Raptors team that has finally embraced the rebuilding process. This will be a homecoming for Sixers head coach Nick Nurse and point guard Kyle Lowry — Nurse led the Raptors to their first championship in franchise history, with a franchise icon in Lowry finally reaching the mountaintop.
There is nobody better to discuss Nurse and Lowry's legacies in Toronto — and the early stages of the Raptors' rebuild — than Blake Murphy, who covers the team for Sportsnet and hosts The Raptors Show with former NBA veteran Matt Bonner.
Let's talk to Blake:
Adam Aaronson: After a necessary divorce between the Raptors and Nick Nurse, the man who led the team to its first NBA Finals victory has found a new home in Philadelphia. What is Nurse's legacy in Toronto?
Blake Murphy: One of the greatest guitarists in Canadian music history, right up there with Steve Sladkowski. Just a banger of a showman when he took the stage with Arkells, as you’ve surely experienced with Mt. Joy in Philadelphia.
Look, the ending wasn’t ideal. His final season here was mired by some minor controversies and a generally weird vibe around the team, the blame of which doesn’t fall solely on him. The organization was stuck between two paths and timelines, and he probably didn’t do the best job managing the locker room around that. He was hired to be a win-now tactician, and the vagueness of the team’s goals and timelines were uncomfortable. He also gave the impression late in the year that he was resigned to the relationship ending, and even if you understand, you don’t want a coach to have a foot out the door.
He also coached the team to their only championship, leaned into his role in the city and country and showed personality in a way we don’t see a ton of, and was unquestionably a very good coach when it came to the important on-court stuff. The work he did in the championship season was at a level that, given how small playoff margins are, maybe the Raptors don’t win with a different coach. He was awesome in their over performing run-it-back year, too.
I think enough time has already passed that very few people will care about the awkward ending. He helped bring a ring. He’s teflon forever. With the caveat that Raptors fans WILL be making fun of all the quirks that they became used to now that he’s on the opposite sideline.
AA: You are as qualified as anybody to talk about what Sixers guard Kyle Lowry means to Toronto and the Raptors organization. How would you describe that significance to someone who is unfamiliar?
BM: He’s the greatest Raptor of all time.
That’s really as complicated as it needs to be. Were Vince Carter not going into the Hall of Fame during the Raptors 30th season – at a time when the organization doesn’t have winning to promote, creating a marketing void – Lowry would be the first Raptor jersey going up in the rafters. Nurse has joked he should get a statue of him taking a charge. He’s going to sign back with the Raptors to officially retire with them, and if he’s deemed to have done enough to eventually get the Hall of Fame nod, he’ll do so with his Raptors legacy at the forefront.
Beyond that, him and DeMar DeRozan were the guys who stayed, which is important. Yeah, market factors were probably a part of it, whatever. The Raptors had an All-Star duo who fit the personality of the fanbase, came along at the right time, and led the team to the most success they’d ever experience (even before the title year). And at each turn they stayed, and re-signed, and represented, and became fixtures in the city and basketball community. It fundamentally changed what it felt like to be a Raptor fan, having that love reflected back at the highest levels.
Speaking personally, I probably learned more about basketball from watching and talking to Lowry than any other player in my life. He’s a basketball genius. And I think he’s stopped fighting this now, but he’s also a good dude, someone who was an A-plus level teammate behind the scenes and treated every staff member and media person with respect (at least when the cameras were off, in terms of media). He’s the man. The GROAT.
MORE: 'He's a winner': Sixers grateful to have Lowry back
AA: Finally, on the current Raptors: with the season getting underway earlier this week and the team finally embracing entering a rebuilding phase, which young Raptors should people keep an eye on in 2024-25?
BM: Gradey Dick is the headline item, as a 20-year-old sophomore who the organization really needs to make sure fits with Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and RJ Barrett long-term. And so far so good; Dick had an awesome preseason. But you guys know Dick, as a recent lottery pick.
Further down the roster, the young player who popped most in camp was Jamal Shead. He may have to bide his time behind Quickley and Davion Mitchell in the rotation initially, but I feel strongly he’s going to have a career as a solid backup, maybe more. He does all the little winning play things that you consistently see in under-drafted guards who succeed, and why he wasn’t a bigger prospect is pretty straightforward (he’s small and not a great shooter). He’s really good pressuring ball-handlers into mistakes or just eating up clock, and he punches gaps well attacking on offense, with a good nose for funky passing or floater angles. Hopefully the three starts dropping eventually.
Jonathan Mogbo is interesting, too, but he’ll need some G League time. He passes really well for a big and has fun open court vision, and there’s real defensive potential there. He can’t shoot at all yet, which is a troubling trend on the team, but he’s got some time to figure that out. Injuries might have him in the rotation to start the year, so he’ll get some early chances before the Raptors 905 option comes into play.
MORE: Instant observations: Bucks 124, Sixers 109
More Sixers-Raptors information
• Date/Time: Oct. 25, 7:00 p.m. EDT
• TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia
• Spread: Sixers -3.5
Follow Adam on Twitter: @SixersAdam
Follow PhillyVoice on Twitter: @thephillyvoice
