D-League Diary No. 2: Scott Suggs discusses the 905’s ups and downs

It’s been about two weeks since we heard from Scott Suggs of the Raptors 905, and a lot has happened since his first diary entry. The 905 have now played seven games on the season and while their record isn’t great (2-5), there’s reason to believe they’ll turn it around quickly.

Here are a couple things Suggs did not mention in his latest diary that deserve some recognition: Suggs scored the first basket in Raptors 905 history (!) and he hit the game-winning 3-pointer in the team’s first ever home win. Here’s video to prove it:

And with that, we bring you Suggs’ second diary entry on this young D-League season.

Diary Entry No. 2

Back for the 2nd entry! And boy oh boy has it been an interesting season so far.

Last entry I think I left you guys with us about to play our first game against Ft. Wayne. Well, since then we’ve gone 2-5, but our record isn’t indicative of the talent we have on our team. We’re still learning how to play with each other and how each of us can contribute effectively to the offense/defense. It’s still early in the season, and I know that sounds cliché lol, but it’s a fact and I really believe we have a team that can be special.

But back to that first game against Ft. Wayne. They have a squad with some core pieces that have been together for a couple years, so they definitely had a step on us as far as chemistry. But we fought hard all game and gave ourselves a chance to win. With maybe 4 seconds left it was their ball and the game was tied. Unfortunately, we had a little bit of miscommunication on defense and Xavier Thames was able to get loose with just enough room to jab step and pull-up for three.

Game over.

That one hurt bad. Clutch shot by him, though. The next day we played them again and they pulled away from us in the 2nd half beating us convincingly. But as a team we took some good things away from those first 2 games.

Coming back to Mississauga, we had our home opener against the Maine Red Claws. They had a couple NBA guys sent down from the Celtics (Terry Rozier and James Young). Rozier played pretty well in the first contest and they were able to pull out the win against us. We ended up playing them two more times (back-to-back games at their place) and finally got our first win in that 3rd game. Shoutout to Jay Harris for making a spin-move into a half-court jumper at the buzzer (end of the 3rd quarter) that sparked us going into the 4th! Our second unit did a great job of changing the game in our favor.

Myself and Bruno were in foul trouble basically the whole game, so we had our second unit (who can ALL HOOP by the way) in for a lot of the 2nd half. Everyone contributed to that win, but that second unit deserves soooo much credit. Jay Harris, Melvin Johnson, and Ash Smith really stepped up big time for us! Bruno Caboclo, who didn’t let foul trouble frustrate him, also came in and made some HUGE plays (game-deciding block and some key free throws) down the stretch. So shoutout to those guys!

I’ll get to some more stuff, including the last couple games and our first home win, in the next diary entry. But right now I’d like to ask anyone reading this to please say a prayer for a very close friend of mine. She’s going through a difficult time with some unfortunate family news and I know she will appreciate everyone’s prayers. I believe in the power of prayer and I know God is able to move in miraculous ways! He is near to the broken-hearted (Psalm 34:18) and He hears our prayers! (Psalm 66:19-20). Thank you everyone in advance!

I’ll have even more to share with everyone next entry! Thinking I’ll share some behind the scenes stuff like the funniest guy on the team, the ins and outs of a day in the D-League, and of course our first HOME win! It was a crazy game. God Bless! And I’ll talk to you guys soon!