Nick Nurse Explains Why Malachi Flynn Fell Out of the Rotation & How Impressed He's Been Lately

The Toronto Raptors were disappointed in Malachi Flynn to start the year, but he stuck with it and with some help from Pascal Siakam, he's finally flourishing

Aaron Rose | Mar 2, 2022

John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

What happened to Malachi Flynn?

It's been quite possibly the strangest part of this season for the Toronto Raptors. Coming out of last year, Flynn seemed like a shoo-in for a rotation spot this year. He won Rookie of the Month honors from April and nothing he did in Summer League nor preseason seemed to warrant a benching, at least not to me.

And yet, when the ball was thrown up for Game 1 of the season back on October 20, the 23-year-old sophomore was nowhere to be found. On the heels of a pair of 15-point and 22-point preseason performances, Flynn was suddenly vanquished to the end of the bench when the regular season began, replaced by Dalano Banton, Toronto's incoming 2021 second-round pick. It seemed as though within a matter of months Toronto's organizational philosophy had completely flipped. There was no more need for crafty undersized point guards, save for Fred VanVleet, and instead, the Raptors were all in on 6-foot-9 versatile wings. The fit seemed awkward.

Flynn played nearly eight total minutes in Toronto's first six games. Save for a few extended looks here or there, especially when COVID hit the team or VanVleet was sidelined, Flynn had fallen out of the Raptors' rotation.

"Listen, we gave him some shots early in the season. We gave him some chances and he didn't really look like he was ready to go," Nurse said Tuesday. "He just wasn't impacting, wasn't making shots, wasn't playing what I thought we needed."

In a small sample, Nurse was right. Flynn was shooting 36.5% from the floor and 28% from behind the arc as recently as February 10. In the G-League, things were even worse. He was benched in crunch time of one game and shot 8-for-26 from the floor and 2-for-11 from deep in his two Raptors 905 games.

But, behind the scenes, the developmental process was still unfolding. Flynn hadn't given up, hadn't accepted the fact that maybe it was just time for a change.

"He did a really, really good job of just staying in everything. DNP, DNP, DNP, seeing Dalano play, but he was into every practice, into every workout, into shootaround, into every film session, always asking questions, always bright and energetic on the bench. He just stayed in everything," Nurse said. "For whatever reason, I didn't play him early. When I gave him chances, I thought I gave him some extended chances, I didn't see enough to extend that to other places. But then when I started playing him here recently, I did."

It's a journey Pascal Siakam said he knows all too well. For him, the ups and downs of young NBA life came within the span of one season. He went from Toronto's prized rookie, starting and playing 15 to 20 minutes every night early in 2016, to a backup forward off the bench, to the G League.

"It was crazy, like just like a roller coaster of emotion and I went from the Ritz Carleton to like — I don't want to name drop any hotels right now — but yeah, it was tough," Siakam said Tuesday. "And those can be like tough mentally, to go through as a young player. And you know, you got to stay strong. That's part of the NBA. I think only the strong survive."

So Siakam has been in Flynn's ear all season, talking to him, shooting him text messages, and keeping on him, encouraging him to stick with it. It's a leadership spot Siakam isn't entirely used to yet. He doesn't like to be overbearing on young players, knowing they have enough people sending them messages all the time, but he wants his teammates to know he's there.

"I try to pick my spots and I'm trying to help as much as I can with whatever little knowledge that I have that I feel like they can they can benefit from," he said. "I'll just, you know, randomly just like a little ‘it's okay,’ type thing. There’s a lot people telling you what to do, but at the same time, you just need somebody that's just there to encourage you, and that’s something I’ve tried to do."

Recently, Flynn has made the most of his opportunity. Nurse described his 18-point outing on Monday as "perfect" and was again impressed with his poise late in Tuesday's victory over the Brooklyn Nets. The young guard beat Brooklyn's tough zone midway through the fourth quarter by finding Gary Trent Jr. inside for a floater and whizzing a ball out to Thad Young for a three-pointer on a pick-and-roll with Scottie Barnes. He then followed it up later with a floater of his own out of a pick-and-pop with Young and nailed a catch-and-shoot three to pull the Raptors to within three late.

"I’m proud of him. I’m proud of Malachi," Siakam said. "I think he’s been going through a lot and I always tell him ... this is the NBA and it’s tough, we all go through tough times and I’m just happy that he’s been given an opportunity and he’s taking advantage of it."

There will certainly be more ups and downs as Flynn's career continues. Siakam knows that well. But the past two games have shown he deserves to stick around in the rotation for the next little while. He's earned it.

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