Raptors Practice: Jontay Porter – January 9, 2024

Raptors Practice: Jontay Porter – January 9, 2024

So you’ve been getting some run in the past couple of games now uh just give me your overall takeaway so far my takeaway is that the NBA is a lot more like chess compared to the g- league uh which is a little bit more like Checkers whether

It’s matchups with sabonis or ad or whatever I have to watch the scouts 10 times more I have to be ready physically like everything especially in my position cuz I you know limited run I got to make a name for myself I got to stick out in some capacity so I guess

Just overall level of being prepared um is super duper important and for me I’m trying to take that with my sleep with my diet with uh you know these shoot arounds and everything just any opportunity I get to uh hone in on you know the chess aspect of it the better

It is for me and hopefully we can keep these wins rolling have you been able to talk to your brother at all or any family support um given the fact that I mean hey your brother plays for the nuggets and you know he’s been through some things some stuff yeah he’s been

There done that obviously he’s coming off a championship which is the highest peak of uh basketball so he whenever he’s talking I listen up and make sure to soak in all his knowledge and even though he’s a young player himself he’s a lot more experienced than me so um

Yeah but my family him included just been super supportive super encouraging super grateful that I have this opportunity uh yeah they’re probably more excited for myself than I am so it’s really cool to have a support system like that so I know we talked earlier and the one thing that you know

Stood out to you was the fact that you don’t want to mess up out there but um is there anything that you know that you feel like as long as you go out there and you Tang do like do well you know how do you evaluate yourself in that I

Think overall just um My overall physicality being able to belong in there there are a lot of grown men 30y olds that have been in here for a long time so for me uh I don’t have a lot of NBA experience I’ve only played probably can count on two hands how many NBA

Games I’ve played so going out there just being overall physical rebounding not doing too much with the basketball just fitting in where I can get in um and over time my role will probably expand and evolve but for now I’m really comfortable just going in there doing

What I can to impact the game whether that’s on defense or offense and uh just bringing an overall physicality cuz that’s my job as a big man is to be physical rebound block shots all that and your teammates here have been uh supportive and helpful I’m sure oh yeah

They’ve been awesome a lot of these guys are around my age which is helpful I grew up you know in the aou circuit with them and whatnot so it’s a familiar faces for sure and that helps me just being comfortable and not beting a shell I’d say I’m overall pretty reserved dude

So the easier I can break out of that shell be more comfortable I think the more train like to on the court you know the nerves won’t be there I won’t be as anxious going in with the second unit whatever the case may be um but yeah the

Roster the coaches the uh staff everything has just been phenomenal and helping me feel comfortable in this situation

Jontay Porter speaks with the media following practice on Tuesday. #Raptors #TorontoRaptors