The hoopsters continue to arrive in Israel as a pair of Maccabi Tel Aviv naturalized Israelis TJ Leaf and Will Rayman landed in the Holy Land and begin training camp over the next week. Leaf, who has been out of action for a number of months due to a shoulder injury will start to get back into the swing of things while Rayman will look to take the next step in his career.

“I haven’t played basketball in a while, so I missed that,” Leaf began. “That’s probably what I’m just honestly looking forward to the most, is just getting back on the court with the guys. In practice, 5 on 0, 5 on 5, you know, whatever it may be, but just getting back playing basketball again.”

“I feel pretty good. We have all our tests and stuff the next couple of days, so we’ll see what all the doctors say and whatnot. But I’m feeling good. I’ve been working out a lot. I feel good. I feel like I’ll be ready to go, but there’s a lot of precautions you’ve got to take. So I hope I’m ready. I think I will be, so the progress has been good.”

Lead was a bystander as Maccabi won the Israel league title and was able to learn a bit more about how he will be able to help on the court by watching his teammates on the court.

“Watching a lot of games from the sideline was definitely different. Watching a lot on TV, watching a lot in person, so it was definitely a different dynamic. I watch Jalen and Roman a lot. Those are the guys that are in the spots that I’m in. So just being able to watch them, a little more guys who have been in the system longer than I have, take small things here and there from them. But yeah, it was obviously not optimal, getting hurt like that, but I think I took some things from it and I’m going to be more excited now coming back and playing again.”

There are a number of holdovers and new players on the roster which will be a good base for Maccabi going into the new season but there also needs to be the right dynamics as well.

“Obviously, you never know how guys are going to mesh in the locker room, on the court and whatnot. But after talking with a lot of the guys, everyone seems like they’re pretty good people and pretty easy to get along with. So I don’t think we’ll have any problems with that. The talent of the roster looks great, and I think that will put us in good places to be successful. So I’m excited about it.”

Rayman also shared his thoughts about getting back to business on the basketball court, “I missed my teammates. I missed the fans. I miss you reporters and I miss winning basketball games, so I’m ready to get back to that and I’m excited to see what we got this year. As for myself and the team, I feel really good. I feel like we made some really good additions and we kept a really good core. I’m really excited. Two years ago we weren’t very good. Last year we got better and now it’s time to really make some noise. So I’m excited.”

With a bunch of new players coming in the sky’s the limit for the squad, “The additions were really good. It’s experience, which we definitely needed. We have guys who have played in the EuroLeague before, played at the highest level. So that’s always really good to add and from what I’ve heard, some really good people. So I’m excited to meet them, excited to get us started.”

One of Rayman’s new teammates is Yam Madar, a player that he knows very well from playing against him, but now he’s on his side of the court, “He’s a special player and he’s really exciting to watch and play against. I’m sure playing with him and I played with him a little bit on the Israel National Team a couple years ago will be great as he was special then and he’s gotten even better. So I’m excited to see what he does for us.”