Remember the start of last season, when the reserves in Toronto’s backcourt were D.J. Augustin, Julyan Stone and Dwight Buycks? Sorry, did I just open an old wound?
To say that the Raptors’ cupboards were bare of quality reserves this time last year would be a terrific understatement (it’s worth remembering, too, that through the first month of last season it wasn’t like Kyle Lowry was exactly lighting the world on fire, either). Heading into the ’14-’15 campaign, however, the backcourt has been remade, and it provides the most likely area of external improvement on a roster that otherwise saw continuity prioritized over remodelling.
It’s basically impossible to talk about the re-signing of Greivis Vasquez without discussing the acquisition of Lou Williams, just like it’s basically impossible to discuss the acquisition of Williams without talking about the re-signing of Vasquez. The two guards and their roles on the team this season will be inextricably linked, primarily because they’re both used to being the primary backcourt reserve whenever they’ve been tasked with coming off of the bench, and that means that both men will have to adjust the expectations of their roles heading into this season.
For Vasquez this may be a harder adjustment. After all, he chose to stay in Toronto this summer (though something tells me the two year, $13-million contract helped make that decision easier), and he is the one coming into this season with tremendous chemistry with the pre-existing roster. He was the one that came from a starting situation, accepted a bench role with zero fuss and spoke as passionately about playing in Toronto as any player since Jerome Williams. The idea that he should have to make any sacrifices for Williams probably feels a bit absurd.
Here’s the thing, though: whether he wants to or not he’s going o have to adjust. There are only so many minutes available behind starters Lowry, DeMar DeRozan and Terrence Ross, and that time is cut even thinner for Vasquez and Williams because neither one is suited to playing the small forward position. Vasquez was already down to a four-year low in minutes per game last season (21.5), and that’s with him logging nearly 20% of the team’s available shooting guard minutes (a position he was much better suited to playing on defence, by the way, holding his opponents to an 8.5 PER at the two over a 14.2 PER at the one, a discrepancy owing greatly to his unimpressive foot speed, according to 82games.com). In fact, there was a point around midseason when Casey was using Vasquez more as a pure point, rarely teaming him with Lowry except in certain end-of-game scenarios, and Vasquez’s production dropped-off precipitously. He worked best getting some minutes beside Lowry before taking the reins of the offence in Toronto, a situation that may be complicated by the arrival of Williams.
Williams is not a point guard. He does not come close to approaching Vasquez’s ability to run an offence, execute in the pick-and-roll or make the ‘right’ pass. He’s a terrific scoring guard, though, and that means Dwane Casey is going to find minutes for him at shooting guard this season.
Now, Vasquez still gets priority in Casey’s rotation. Casey likes to lean on players that he is familiar with and that he trusts to execute his schemes, and Vasquez grew into a trustworthy player as last season wore on. Williams, though, brings skills to the table that the Raptors sorely need in their rotation. The biggest is his ability to create shots off of the dribble and get all the way to the basket with the ball in his hands. The Raptors have precious few players who can do that, and basically none that come off of the bench. Williams is that kind of change-of-pace scoring guard that can help pull a squad out of scoring droughts while also helping to ignite flurries of scoring for the team himself. There were countless incidents in the Playoffs last year where the Raptors simply didn’t have enough firepower to score against Brooklyn’s targeted defensive schemes, and a guy like Williams can have a huge impact in those areas. At this point the Raptors have to be looking ahead to building a roster that can survive the microcosmic world of the NBA Playoffs because just making it there isn’t an accomplishment anymore.
This is assuming, of course, that Williams is fully recovered from his 2013 ACL tear and his nagging hamstring problems from last season. Williams has only played above 75 games once in the last five seasons, and his two-year stint in Atlanta (both pre-injury and post-injury) showed a marked decline in productivity over his years in Philadelphia. While early indications are that he’s put his injuries behind him, that doesn’t mean that Toronto is going to be inheriting the best version of Williams this season. The expectation should be that Williams replicates what Leandro Barbosa gave Toronto in his brief stint with the club, with the hope being that he’s able to offer (a lot) more when he’s up to speed on what the team likes to run.
To that end, he may be up against a steep climb to steal too many to minutes from Vasquez in Toronto’s rotation, and there is no telling how Williams would respond to a minutes-cut like Vasquez experienced last season (he hasn’t played fewer than 22 mpg since ’06-’07). Like Vasquez, Williams is used to receiving minutes at both guard spots, which almost assuredly won’t be happening on a regular basis in Toronto, and we should remember that that defensive-minded Casey may not appreciate the considerable ten-point per 100 possessions defensive drop-off Atlanta experienced last year when Williams was on the floor. Williams has skills, though, that Toronto is going to need to lean on, just like Vasquez does. For a roster and rotation that is returning more-or-less in tact this is a rare minutes battle worth keeping an eye on.
Of course, considering where the Raptors were at this time last year, they’ll happily take the headache of sorting through too much backcourt talent over trying squeeze useful backup minutes out of Augustin, Stone or Buycks.
