What the Raptors coach wanted to see from the fourth-year point guard was more…..
They weren’t mechanical issues that Darko Rajakovic wanted to change with Malachi Flynn — not his shooting form, defensive posture or decision-making ability.
What the Raptors coach wanted to see from the fourth-year point guard was more joy, more smiles, a more relaxed manner.
Rajakovic wanted Flynn to look different.
What the Raptors coach wanted to see from the fourth-year point guard was more joy, more smiles, a more relaxed manner.
Rajakovic wanted Flynn to look different.
“First time I saw Malachi, he looked a little bit down, a little bit downbeat,” Rajakovic said Sunday. “He didn’t have a lot of energy.
“I told him, ‘Listen, you are a very good looking young man when you are smiling and you’re very ugly when you have that face.’
“Our first goal is to change that face, get a smile on your face, for you to enjoy basketball, for you to enjoy coming to practice and games.”
Flynn takes joking exception to Rajakovic’s first point — “Never ugly,” he said — but agrees that he needed to play with more freedom and, yes, joy.
It wasn’t easy, not after Flynn was basically buried for most of three years by former Toronto coach Nick Nurse, jerked in and out of the rotation. Flynn was always playing with one eye on the scorer’s table to see how quickly Nurse would have a substitute there to replace him.
