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In the moment Hollis-Jefferson admitted it was hard for him.

“Definitely,” he said. “I ain’t perfect. But they told me when I came here it was going to be a grind. It was going to be something you had to work for and nothing would be given to you so I knew that.”

Opportunity presented itself in the form of injury to a teammate, or in this case a couple of teammates, as both Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka went down in a win over New Orleans that would keep both out for the better part of the next month. Hollis-Jefferson’s services were required at that point. Two games later OG Anunoby got poked in the eye courtesy of Kawhi Leonard and Hollis-Jefferson started to see even more minutes.

Hollis-Jefferson grabbed the opportunity and ran with it. He says now there are no hard feelings when he looks back at those rough first few months as a Raptor, which included the early portion of the schedule, the pre-season and all of training camp.

Hollis-Jefferson is asked if it feels like two separate seasons, the time before the early injuries to Lowry and Ibaka and all that time before which included his own groin injury that cost him three games. All told this year he has been a coach’s did-not-play for six games and twice he has been on the inactive list, all but one of those before the game in Los Angeles.

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“You could look at it like that,” Hollis-Jefferson says. He has his own view.

“I look at it mostly as an opportunity,” he said. “They didn’t bring me in to be a star. They didn’t bring me in to shoot 20 shots or anything like that. Pretty much just came down to coming out and competing and earning everything that has been given to me. I understand it. I respect it. He (Nurse) has been very transparent with me. It’s something as a man you have to give credit. So I feel like it’s all been good.”