Is Ingram on track to be fully healthy for the start of next season?

Is Ingram on track to be fully healthy for the start of next season?

All right, joining me now from Las Vegas is our Raptors reporter Josh Leuenberg. Josh, Brandon Ingram is with the team working with assistant coaches. He didn’t play for the Raptors last season after being acquired, missing out with an ankle injury. Should we assume that he’s on track to be 100% for the start of next season? Well, I don’t think we can ever assume anything with Ingram’s health. This is a guy who’s coming off of an 18game season. He hasn’t played more than 62 games since his rookie year, but it is encouraging to see him out here getting shots up, doing work, and the good news is he’s been cleared for contact. So, the next step will be for him to start scrimmaging with the team over the coming days. And the plan is for him to be at 100% for the start of training camp. And look, they need him to be. They’ve got a lot of eggs in this basket, not just with the trade obviously, but the $120 million extension. And you look at the way the off seasonason has unfolded. They didn’t get lucky in the draft lottery. They haven’t been able to get one of those big fish in free agency. So Brandon Ingram is going to be their big addition and this is a team that plans to take a big step this year, compete for a playoff spot. And for them to do that, they’re going to need Ingram to be healthy and to perform at a high level. Now the Raptors head into summer league with a deep roster full of secondyear players. They’ve been given the second best odds of winning it all on FanDuel. Who are you most excited to see in action, Josh? Yeah, I’m excited to see what Jacobe Walter has added over the last couple months. I think he’s going to sneak up on a lot of people this year. And I don’t just say that because he’s got the new look. He’s cut his hair. He’s added 12 lbs of muscle, but he’s coming off of a rookie year that was kind of up and down. He dealt with injuries, was up and down from the GLeague. So, a lot of stop and start kind of went under the radar a little bit and it really prevented him from gaining any kind of real momentum, but he did show flashes when he was out there. He’s a guy that has a nose for the ball, plays really hard on both ends of the floor, and really improved his jump shooting over the course of the year. Now, this is a deep team, or at least it’s looking like it could be, especially at his position. So, he’s going to have to earn his minutes. But I’ll say this, if Grady Dick doesn’t improve defensively and start shooting the ball the way that they expected him to shoot when they made him a lottery pick a couple years ago, I could totally see Jacobe Walter jumping him in the pecking order in the depth chart by mid-season. Also on the roster, Colin Murray boils Toronto’s ninth overall pick in this year’s draft. You had a chance to speak to him, Josh. What are your thoughts on his mindset with the team for the upcoming season? Yeah, I met him yesterday. I was impressed and I think Raptors fans will be too. I mean, first of all, just seeing him up close, you can understand why the Raptors liked him just in terms of the physical tools. I mean, he’s long, he’s got these wide shoulders, an NBA ready body, but then speaking with him, he’s confident. He’s ambitious. He understands that defense needs to be the foundation of his game, especially early on. And while he has these ambitious goals of he told me he wants to be an AllNBA defender eventually, maybe a defensive player of the year, he did say that he doesn’t want defense to be the entirety of his game. It’s a stepping stool and he’s studied players like Draymond Green or Jaylen Williams from OKC, but he wants to build around his defense. Now, offensively, he’s got to work on his jump shot, and that’s something that he knows about, but he’s got an interesting set of tools. He was a point guard before his late Gross spurt uh going into his junior year of high school. So, he’s a big man with guard skills, and that’s clearly an archetype that the Raptors like. Think Scotty Barnes or even Jonathan Mo. So, I’m interested to see how his game expands and whether he can put all the pieces together over the coming years. Josh, thanks so much. The Raptors four game summer league slate begins Friday when they face the Bulls. It’ll be a first look at Colin Murray Boils. The other three games Toronto will play, we’ll see them face off against the Magic Nuggets and Warriors. You can catch the game against the Bulls Friday night on TSN 4 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.

TSN Raptors reporter Josh Lewenberg joins SC with Jay Onrait to discuss if Brandon Ingram will be ready to play for the Raptors at the start of next season, what he’s most looking forward to seeing in Toronto’s Summer League opener, and what kind of mindset Collin Murray-Boyles has heading into his first NBA season.