Centre of attention
Baynes adjusting to life with Raptors
It reached the point where Aron Baynes had to politely ask for it to stop.
“Everyone keeps saying congratulations, but — full disclosure — I didn’t do much,” one of the newest Raptors and the only Aussie on the team said.
The congratulations were for the birth of his third child with wife Rachel Adekponya.
In truth, Baynes and his missus have both been rather busy since he signed his two- year, US$ 14.35- million deal with Toronto.
Already well into the pregnancy, the couple had to make the snap decision to wait and have the baby in Arizona where they had been living or make the early move to Florida ahead of training camp and have the baby there.
“I wouldn’t call it early,” Baynes said with a laugh from Tampa. “I think we got in a couple of days before everyone else. We did have to make a quick decision as to where we’re staying, having the baby in Phoenix or whether we were going to uproot everything and make it complete chaos here for the first few days. We definitely chose the latter, which has been fun to navigate. Full credit to the missus, she’s been amazing as always. She just proves she’s my better half and tougher than me every single day.”
On top of navigating that chaos, Baynes is also navigating a bit of chaos himself, arriving as the likely starting centre on a team that is finding its own way through some uncharted waters.
At the top of that list is figuring out his fit on a squad that relies on and has been extremely successful with a team defence that demands precision switching.
Baynes more or less downplayed that yesterday when he spoke with the media following Day 3 of training camp.
“There are a couple of nuances,” he said. “Overall, the NBA game comes down to a lot of pick- and- roll defence. Nick ( head coach Nurse) throws in a few different looks and a few little other things. There are some changes in the vocabulary.
“Beyond that, it’s very similar, things I’ve done here, things I’ve done there. So I’m just trying to put it all together and learn. Also getting on the same page as everyone. Once we communicate and talk and do that over a number of repetitions, it will start to look even smoother and cleaner. That’s what we’re working toward every time we step out there.”
Nurse has been pleased with his newest centre, who has the very big shoes of Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka to fill. He’s seeing all the same characteristics that made him such a tough opponent — his top level screening and physicality — as well as a keener appreciation for his shooting.
“You always learn stuff when you’ve got them in front of you,” Nurse said when asked about Baynes. “I think he’s a much better shooter than maybe I had envisioned for one.”
Baynes has been an improving three- point shooter since his days in Boston and is coming off a year in Phoenix where he shot the three- ball at a 37 per cent clip.
Baynes says that continues to improve.
The other issue about joining a new team made that much tougher by a pandemic is getting to know your teammates and the staff you’re going to be around every day for the next eight months or so.
Baynes admi t s the mask- wearing the staff does has hindered that somewhat.
“I think the biggest challenge for me is I’m crappy with names; I’m better with faces and the mask covers up the face of the staff. So I’m walking around continually asking the staff, ‘ Sorry, what’s your name again?’” Baynes said. “Usually, I can identify them by their face and it makes it a little easier, but that’s the biggest challenge to me right now so it’s really not much at all to deal with.”
Baynes, though, is a huge proponent of the safety measures and protocols the team and the league are taking because he knows firsthand the ramifications if one lets his guard down for even a minute.
This past summer, Baynes contracted the coronavirus himself, knocking him on his butt for a week. It also prevented him from joining his Phoenix Suns’ teammates in the bubble for the resumption of the season.
But far more seriously than that was the potential harm he could bring to his family. His wife was pregnant at the time, while his daughter is compromised with asthma, putting both in a high- risk category should they become infected.
“We were definitely worried about what was going to happen,” Baynes said. “As much as it knocked me on my butt ( at one point he slept for four straight days) any moment that I was awake, it was just complete dread and scared as to what was going to happen for them, for their safety. It was one of those things because I know how it felt to worry about it, it’s something we take serious to this day and try to practise the best possible isolating and cleaning and looking after ourselves and doing the same for others. We don’t want to put others in the same position that our family went through.”
So, yes, Baynes has had his plate full these past few months. The good news is, the really hard stuff is behind him.