TORONTO – In the midst of a shooting slump or after missing a defensive assignment, you might catch Sandro Mamukelashvili talking to himself on the bench.
Off nights are few and far between these days; the 26-year-old is enjoying a breakout campaign and blossoming in his role as a do-it-all backup big man for the Toronto Raptors.
However, he still has moments of self-doubt.
It’s one of the things that humanizes him. From a young age, athletes are told to regulate their emotions: don’t get too high and don’t get too low. Like most professional sports teams, the Raptors encourage their players to stay even keeled. It makes sense, given the length of the season and the amount of adversity they’re bound to face along the way, but it’s easier said than done. Athletes are not robots. To get down on yourself is relatable. It’s human.
“I think Sandro’s [greatest] quality is that he is an amazing human being and his biggest weakness is that he’s an amazing human being,” head coach Darko Rajakovic said last week. “He cares so much. He cares so much to do well for the team… And sometimes, guys that have that type of mentality, they tend to be a little bit too hard on themselves. If they miss a shot, if they don’t do something well, they beat themselves up.”
It’s something Mamukelashvili has struggled with for as long as he can remember but it got worse when he came into the league as a second-round pick in 2021.
He was selected 54th overall by Indiana and traded to Milwaukee the next day. As a two-way player, he split time between the Bucks and their G League affiliate, the Wisconsin Herd, for a year and a half before he was waived and claimed by San Antonio in 2023.
Naturally, Mamukelashvili didn’t feel like he had the luxury of playing through mistakes. He told himself that he needed to be perfect, an unrealistic expectation for any player or person to have of themselves.
“It’s been tough because of the position I was in,” Mamukelashvili told TSN. It’s not like you have a lot of chances to make a mistake. When you’re a second rounder on a two-way [contract], you’re such an easy person to move. If they like somebody else, you’re the first one gone… I was hard on myself because I put a lot of work in and nothing came easy for me.”
Playing regular rotation minutes for the first time in his five-year career has forced him to recalibrate. Mamukelashvili has appeared in all but one of Toronto’s 37 games this season, averaging 21.3 minutes per contest, as well as 10.5 points and 5.0 rebounds on 51 per cent shooting – all personal bests.
As a floor-spacing big who can shoot, pass, and run the floor, he’s been an ideal fit in Rajakovic’s offensive system, especially with starting centre Jakob Poeltl nursing a nagging back injury. The organization has given him no reason to think that he’s a missed shot or bad turnover away from ending up on the bench, or worse, the waiver wire. But old habits die hard.
In the New Year’s Eve loss to Denver, Mamukelashvili was held scoreless, missing all five of shots and playing just 12 minutes, the fewest he’s logged since early November. As it happened, the Raptors didn’t play again until Jan. 3, so he had two days to think – and overthink – about what went wrong.
By his own admission, Mamukelashvili had an emotional New Year’s Day filled with self-reflection and some familiar feelings of insecurity. He felt like he had let his team down. But that’s where the strategies he’s been working on and the progress he’s made over the years paid off. A game like last Wednesday’s used to cost him sleep. Now, he’ll watch film, try to learn from it, maybe crumple up a piece of paper in momentary frustration, but then move forward. That night, Mamukelashvili went to the gym, got some extra shots up and told himself that he was ready to leave those feelings in 2025.
“It was like, boom, I messed up but I’m leaving it there and I’m moving on,” Mamukelashvili said. “I feel like that’s where the progression started with me, just understanding that everybody makes mistakes and you won’t always be perfect, but as long as you’re resilient, as long as you go in with the same mindset and as long as you want to win, it’s going to take care of itself.”
Feeling more secure in his role has helped his shift in mindset and so has the support he’s received from his teammates and coaches, past and present.
“I love Sandro, man,” said Raptors swingman RJ Barrett, a high school teammate of Mamukelashvili’s at Montverde Academy in Florida nearly a decade ago. “I think a lot of players could get down on themselves; we work so hard [and] when you get in the game, it doesn’t go perfect like you want it to. It could be a little annoying sometimes, but that’s where we gotta pick each other up. I know that myself and teammates, we always make sure we pick Sandro up. [I’m] proud and happy for Sandro.”
For the past few months, Mamukelashvili has also been working with Brian Cain, a mental performance coach who has helped some of the greatest competitors across the sporting landscape unlock new levels of self-confidence and achieve success in their fields.
Together, they’ve focused on positive self-talk, word association, and identifying strategies to release the negative energy that can lead to being overly critical of oneself.
Cain encourages each of his clients to find their own release – a word or action or series of words and actions that help them overcome obstacles in their mind and stay in the present moment. For a hitter in baseball, it could be as simple as taking off your batting glove and then strapping it on again. It’s meant to be personal, and Mamukelashvili has found his version of it.
When Mamukelashvili is sitting on the bench, looking to put a rough shift behind him and lock in on the next one, he quietly repeats a phrase to himself. He says it changes from time to time, but it’s something that he values in the moment, something meaningful to him and his faith, something that calms him down and inspires confidence – usually words of affirmation.
Whatever he’s doing, it’s been working. In two games since the calendar flipped to 2026, Mamukelashvili has turned in two of his best performances of the season. He followed up his scoreless outing with a near triple-double: 13 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists on Saturday. The Raptors outscored the visiting Atlanta Hawks by 27 points in his 32 minutes on the court. In Monday’s game, also against the Hawks, he had 12 points, six rebounds and three assists.
His jumper hasn’t been falling of late – he was shooting 42 per cent from three-point range before missing 16 of his last 19 attempts – but that hasn’t stopped him from finding other ways to help his team. In the most recent game, two of his buckets came from simply outrunning his defender in transition. He had a couple more attacking closeouts and finishing at the rim. He stopped budding star Jalen Johnson on a crucial defensive possession late in the win.
After making the most of spot minutes in San Antonio for parts of three seasons, the Raptors gave him the veteran minimum over the summer – a rare win for Toronto in free agency and one of the league’s best value signings.
Though the bar was low, he already has more win shares (2.6) than any of the franchise’s other free-agent signings since 2020 and he ranks third on the team in that category this season, only trailing Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley.
The unfortunate irony, now that he’s found a home in Toronto, is that he might be pricing himself out of a long-term future with the Raptors. He’s making $2.46 million this season (to put that into perspective, 350 NBA players are earning more) and is line for a considerable raise over the summer, assuming Mamukelashvili declines his player option for next year.
With the team’s top-heavy payroll and luxury tax crunch, it could be challenging to keep him, should he receive competitive offers on the open market.
But that’s a worry for another day. More than ever before, Mamukelashvili is committed to living in the present. It has been and continues to be a process but the big man with the big name, big beard, and big heart has come a long way.
“It’s getting there,” he said. “Over the years, I grew and grew and grew, and I’m so proud of myself and thankful for the people I have around me who helped me get to the point I am today.”
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