By The Time Raptors Coach Dwane Casey Spoke To The Media On Friday Morning, Six Of The Seven Practices That Made Up Training Camp Had Been Completed. There Is A Scrimmage Scheduled For Saturday At The Halifax Metro Centre, But That Is More Of A Show For The Fans Than It Is Instructive For The Coaches.

On Thursday, Casey Was Miffed Over The Team’s Inability To Pick Up The Pace Without Sacrificing Execution. A Day Later, He Seemed A Bit Happier.

“[Thursday] Kind Of Tainted My Feelings A Little Bit,” Casey Said. “But The One Thing I Can’t Question Is Our Effort And Our Focus. Our Guys Are Going Hard. They’re Competing. They’re Banging And Hitting. We’re Way Ahead Of The Game From That Standpoint As Far As Setting Our Tone, Setting Our Culture, [compared To] Last Year. [Thursday], Our Execution Was Bad And Just Non-existent. [Friday] Helped Uplift Me A Bit More As Far As What We’ve Accomplished.”

Casey Said DeMar DeRozan, Landry Fields And Andrea Bargnani Were Settling In As Consistent Parts Of The First Unit. But In The First Few Pre-season Games — Monday Against Real Madrid, Wednesday In Detroit And Friday At Home To The Pistons — Casey Will Likely Try A Few Different Lineups.

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Fields Is Away From The Insanity Of Last Year’s New York Knicks. Still, Questions Linger About One Of The Soap Operatic Teams In Recent NBA History. What, For Example, Ever Became Of Fields’ Couch, Which Jeremy Lin Slept On During His Memorable Run? “It Was A Furniture Rental, So I Had To Give It Back To The People I Was Renting From,” Fields Said. “Hopefully They Sold It. It Was The Best Time In My Life, Just In General. It Takes The Cake In Basketball.” Yet Fields Is OK With Having Left The Knicks.

“I Actually Prefer Not To Be In The Circus, Not That It’s A Bad Thing To Be In It. But I’m Liking It [with The Raptors] So Far … It’s More My Pace.”

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On Thursday, Casey, A Few Assistant Coaches And Point Guard John Lucas III Went To The Black Cultural Centre For Nova Scotia, Where They Learned About Canada’s Role In Cultivating The Underground Railroad, Among Other Things. Meanwhile, The Whale-watching Trip For Jose Calderon, Jonas Valanciunas And A Few Others Was Quickly Turned Into A Fishing Trip. Casey Said That While A Few Of His Players Caught Fish, None Of Them Brought Him Home Some Dinner.

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