Ulrich Chomche: “You can find everything in Toronto, any kind of culture, it’s very amazing”

Ulrich Chomche: “You can find everything in Toronto, any kind of culture, it’s very amazing”

All right. Where do I look at? Sorry. I look at you. Where do I look? Wherever you want. Look at wherever you want. Just look up everybody’s uh I mean you’re feeling more comfortable game by game uh now in your second season league. Yeah. I think I’m getting in shape a little bit. A little bit and I just have to keep pushing myself and keep getting better. Yeah. What what what’s what does James ask you? What’s the number one job that the coaching staff wants you to do? Make sure my uh I make my teammate getting better and open to score on the floor rebound and do everything for my teammate to have good chance to score. So setting screen setting screen. Yeah. Send a good screen on rebound. Yeah. How hard was it to sit sit out for all those months? Sorry. How hard was it to sit out all those months after you hurt your knee? Sit out. I was not sitting up. Not playing. I was I was still working out. I was not sitting up. You couldn’t play a game, was it? No, it was good. Yeah. Yeah. I think even my injury was part of the process because I learned a lot from it. I was sitting on the side working on my game, watching film. I think that helped me a lot to understand the game better. I just have to keep keep it up and keep getting better. What were you able to work on while you were recovering from your knee? My touching. I’ve been working my touching, catching the ball and finish all the rim. Yeah. And good. And know I’ve been watching video of Yeah. send his screen. So I’ve been watching that and how to present good screen. So yeah. Uh seems like I could touch on the jump hook. Sorry, the the jump hook shot. It seems like you put a lot of work into it. Always. That’s the main point that coach Mike put the the point on. We doing that every every day before we start practice. Okam hook shot Florida and stuff. I know um I remember seeing you last year and you would also work with some threes as well. Is that something that you still want to like get to in the long? I have Emanuel Quigley. I have Buon Ingram. I have Scotty. I have a lot of guy who have to shoot threes. I have to do my job. I have to catch rebound. Yeah. And send good screen. The tree going to come after, not now. But I still working on that. Yeah. I know you said uh you know you’ve been watching a lot of film to to get better at screens like what is it about a screen that you have to perfect? What’s that? Sorry. What what is it about screening part of it that you have? Uh the angle of the screen is more important because I have to force the player to go over not under because by forcing to go over I have to change me and the point guard to play one against two. No, two against one for Yeah. Yeah. So I think that’s the most important getting a good angle for the screen for my point to be open for a shot like Emanuel quickly or Jama. I have to make sure I say good screen for them because Jama is very quick attacking the rim and quickly is good for shooting. So that’s why I say the hang of the screen is what I’ve been working on. Yeah. So I make sure my point doors are open for it. How uh you adjusted to living in Toronto? Yeah. Great city, very diverse city. I love it there. Uh just just the winter is a little bit tough for me, but other than that, Cotton is a very diverse city. You can find everything in Toronto. Food, any kind of culture. It’s very amazing. Yeah. Happy drawing. Thank you. Thank you. How are you? Is that better now? You don’t you don’t coach free throws or something? Yeah, man. I need to do a better job of that, you know. I used to can shoot free throws back in the day. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know why I can’t coach them now. The uh I mean obviously not the prettiest game, but again the defensive intensity was there and um I guess that’s something you’re looking to stay consistent with. I mean this is what I just told the group like you know some people are like born to be models like me. Some people are born to be firemen. Some people are born to be policemen. That group in the locker room are they they’re born to play defense. Um so they have to like really buy into it. We um we turn them over uh 29 times for 44 points on a day that our our like offense didn’t, you know, didn’t look great. Um but that’s what it has to be. Like that’s what we have to hang our hat on. I I think the the one thing um that you know we can do better in is uh you know we can take care of the ball and uh we can make our free throws. So like it’s it’s good when you get a chance to win a game like this because you still got so much more that you can improve on. So the guys will be locked in on they that that they can play better. So yeah. What did you think of Colin’s first game? Thought it was good. Uh I tried I had to get them out of there really quick. you know, that first win I think is um you know, when you’re not used to playing at that rhythm and and speed and um you know, everybody on the court is playing for something. Uh so, you know, you got 10 hungry guys on the floor at all times. Um so, but I I thought he responded well and you know, we leaned on him a lot in the second half, so it was it was pretty good. He looks like he has a I mean, that’s his reputation, but it seems to have like a real mole of the ball, a good feel for how to make a play. Yeah. Yeah, he does. I I think um what we saw tonight like his his timing was a little bit off because he got his hands on balls and he was you know he was trying to look for where it was. Um so that that’s going to come with more more games, more practices and stuff like that. Uh especially at this speed, but uh that’s what he does well. Um along with other things, his second jump is being disruptive. Um you know, so we’re just going to build on it. He fits the identity of those guys and uh um we expect them to fit in well today. There are times that Jonathan looks like Amanda’s obviously a lot of big dudes. What’s the biggest difference between now and last year at this time? I think the pace that he plays at uh he plays at a different pace. He’s more aggressive and uh especially going toward the rim. Um I think, you know, and the fact that he knows that he he belongs. Um you’re talking about a guy who had two triple doubles last year. Um, and you know, his length and his disruption just bothers people and he knows that. And he also has a feel for the ball offensively. Um, you know, when to make passes, when to make cuts, um, in his hands. The game has slowed down for him and he catches it a lot better right now. So, um, I think yeah, exact same question, but for older felt like he was more comfortable the last couple games. He’s just like he’s in rhythm. Yeah, I I you know, like I’m going to always like give credit to like Darko and the coaches that work with him. Um Darko’s given everybody a clear picture of of what guys need to do uh to improve. And you talk about a guy who’s, you know, want to if not the best player development coach in the history of the game. And uh for him to kind of give the instruction to coaches of how guys need to um improve and and those coaches being capable and doing their jobs really well. Um, that’s just a lot of the work of the player and a lot of work of the coaches that work with him, too. He sends bodies flying like people, you know. Hey, look, man. I I wasn’t blessed with that height and that size. Uh, but if he ever if you know, if he ever want to borrow it to for me, you know, I would I would, you know, I would do the same thing. So, um, no, he has to use the the gifts that God gave him. Um, you can’t teach size, you can’t teach height, um, but you can teach skill, and that’s what he’s improving every day. Obviously, some teams are starting to shut down their guys. Is this any plan for you to shut down players or you guys work for? Uh, that’s above my play grade. Uh, but, um, you know, if it was up to me, you know, I probably don’t need to plead on here, but I like our guys out there. I think we honestly, I think they want to play for something. uh it’s probably too early to talk about, you know, what we want to do or what we’re going to do, but I know that they like playing for something and um they felt good about getting this win. So, I just want to give us time to just kind of keep on going with this group if we can, but you know, that’s not that’s not up to me. How good would it feel? I don’t I don’t know. Um I know winning next game will feel really good. So, that’s I’m just going to think in those terms. So, like that’s a that’s a long ways away, but if we win the next game, I I’ll feel really good. If we get better um from this game and we win next game, what do you guys have to do? Cuz you mentioned the offense was not the best today. What do you guys have to do? We just have to be more decisive in the things that we do. Uh more decisive in our cuts. Uh we have to get to our spacing points that we like um uh more deliberately. And um we have to get downhill. And when we get downhill, we have to really be decisive in what we’re doing.

Toronto Raptors center Ulrich Chomche makes a rare media appearance after their win over the Orlando Magic in Las Vegas Summer League. He discusses the growth of his game, understanding his role on the team, and adjusting to life in Toronto.

Then, Raptors acting head coach James Wade speaks about their win over Orlando.