D-League Diary No 6: Scott Suggs reflects on season with Raptors 905
The D-League season has come to a halt for Scott Suggs and the expansion Raptors 905. While they may have fallen short of their personal and team goals of reaching the postseason, the franchise had a very successful inaugural campaign. They had two players earn call ups and contracts with their respective NBA clubs and they won more games (23) than the last two expansion teams combined — Delaware and Westchester won a total of 22 games in their expansion seasons.
Suggs, himself, had a wondrous season shooting the basketball and emerged as a leader for a young team with the usual revolving door for new players coming and going. Suggs was the only player on the 905 to play all 50 games and did so averaging 36 minutes per game. That kind of stability and durability is invaluable to a head coach and Jesse Mermuys leaned on his veteran heavily throughout the year, and it showed in his play.
Scott finished the season averaging 18 points and 3.4 rebounds while shooting 44.1 percent from the field and 41.9 percent (6.3 attempts) from 3-point distance. The long-range threat is the key to Suggs efficiency as a wing player in the pro ranks and he proved he can knock that shot down with high frequency and consistency by finishing second in the entire league for 3-pointers made (132).
Suggs is only 26-years-old and this summer will be vital for his professional career. It’s highly likely that he earns at least a summer league invite — if not multiple — and hopefully he can latch on with a team for training camp and earn a roster spot as a “3-and-D” guy off the bench.
Upside & Motor wants to extend a massive thank you to Scott for agreeing to be our inaugural D-League Diary participant and for sticking with it all season long. Best of luck to you, sir, as you move forward with what we know will be a very fruitful professional career.
Diary Entry
Hellllooooo out there to all the readers! Season is officially over now so this is going to be just a reflection of everything that happened this past season. I appreciate everyone who followed along this journey with me.
First off, let’s talk about our two players who got called up and eventually signed for the rest of the season with their respective NBA teams: Axel Toupane (Denver Nuggets) and Greg Smith (Minnesota Timberwolves).
Axel had been really playing well basically since the Showcase in January. He showed his defensive ability as well as his ballhandling and playmaking ability on offense which was huge for us! He was able to get into the paint and kick the ball back out for wide open 3s, drop it off to the big man, or take it all the way and finish it himself. And don’t forget about that corner 3 ball that he was knocking down at a HIGH rate!
One kind of cool thing real quick. When Axel got called up, they were playing the Lakers in his first game and Kobe is his favorite player so he was superrrr excited! It was super cool just because that was something we had talked about a little bit. Like how you would feel getting called up and going up against your favorite player. Then a few weeks later it happens to him! God is good!
Ok now to Greg Smith. He was a late addition for us, but a great one! He gave us another big that had some experience since he played in the league for a little while. With Greg added we were able to pull one of the other defensive bigs away from the rim and run some “high-low” action with him and Ronald Roberts. Unfortunately Ron ended up getting injured but that made having Greg even more vital for us. And he took full advantage of having a bigger role all of a sudden, leading to his call up!
Congratulations once again to those guys! Y’all put the Raptors 905 on the map! Oh and I gotta tell Greg Smith that I’m still the best shooter lol. If anybody reading this knows him then tell him I said that lol. He’ll know what I’m talking about.
As far as reflecting on the season, I’m pretty proud of what we accomplished as a team! We started off the year verryyyy slow and lost a lot of close games. We were still a very new and young team and we had to learn how to play together. The very first game of the year we had some miscommunication on a defensive adjustment we made and got splashed from three for a game winner. Tough way to start the year lol. But as we kept playing together we got better and better. Initially that didn’t show up in the win-loss column, but I think after the Showcase in January is when we started to string some wins together! We won 7 in a row and then I think like 9 or 10 out of 12 so that was by far our best stretch of games as far as wins go at that time.
Later on in March, I think, we ended up trading a couple players away (miss those guys and don’t get it twisted — they can hoop!) and we picked up EJ “cash from anywhere on the court” Singler and Davion “certified bucket-getter” Berry.
They ended up being great additions as well (quick shoutout to the staff/management for having a great eye for talent) and they transitioned seamlessly with our team. Right away they both brought us shooting, scoring, playmaking, defense, and rebounding. I knew EJ from college because he played at Oregon (shoutout to the Pac12!) so I was well aware of how good a player he is. I didn’t know much about Davion, but he was great as well! We were in the same warmup group and roommates so we formed a little chemistry right away.
With all of that said we ended the season with a BANG! We moved the ball extremely well and had a great balance of attacking, shooting, and passing that I really felt like was good enough to make a deep playoff run if we had a few more weeks left in the season. Either way, I really enjoyed playing with those guys and was proud of the way we took our bad start to the season and really turned it around that 2nd half!
Now two of my most memorable moments on the year didn’t even have to do with basketball lol. The first one was when we played football at practice. We split into two teams and headed over to the indoor soccer field that’s directly across from the courts. Mannnn that was fun! Football is one of my favorite sports so I really enjoyed that. And really the whole team had a blast. But that’s just a credit to our coaching staff who knew how to keep the environment serious, but fun at the same time. We actually had a game the next night and we ended up winning by 20. We had been on like a 5 game losing streak so that was a risky, but great move by the coaches in my opinion to do that. I loved it!
The other memorable moment was when we did an Escape Room challenge in Delaware on one of our off days. We split up into 3 teams (Rookies, Vets, and Coaches) and tried to see who could escape a locked room first that was full of riddles/clues to help you get out. Sadly enough the rookies diidddd end up winning, but I’m calling for a rematch!
Ok, been kind of a long diary so I’ll wrap it up. Looking back on the season professionally it was great for me. I was put in a position where I had to develop my game especially in pick and roll situations, driving and kicking, and just creating plays. I loved every minute of it because that’s what I fee I am capable of doing as well as shooting the basketball. On a personal level I loved it as well thought just because we had a great group of guys. One of the coolest teams I’ve played on. And the coaches were all great as well. I can promise you that I’m not just saying that either. Ask any of the guys that played for our team and they’ll tell you it’s the best place to be in the D-League. From coaches, to staff, to trainers, to equipment managers, to teammates, etc. all the way down the line. So thank you from the bottom of my heart Raptors 905 for an amazingly fun year/experience and thank you to all the fans who came out and supported us and believed in us all season long!
Also, HUGE thank you to Chris Reichert and Upside & Motor for allowing me to do this diary! I really appreciate it! And I had a lot of fun with it!
Last, but certainly not least I want to thank God. I don’t deserve the favor and blessing He’s had on my life, but I pray that He continually keeps His Hand over me and teaches/shows me to be more and more like Him and trusting of His plan. Wouldn’t be here without God!
Thanks again to all the readers! I had a blast!