Welcome to the Weekend 3-on-2, a weekly (maybe) feature that looks at three things the Raptors do well, and two things they don’t.
That’s love: ‘Patterbrough’ as death to smallball
In the modern NBA, defending smallball lineups is really tough. It’s part and parcel to the idea of smallball — space the floor, move the ball and exploit defenders while they’re trying to make hurried rotations. When the right lineups are trotted out, with ample floor-spacing and clever play design, it’s damn near impossible to stop. The championship successes of the Spurs, Heat and Mavericks are a testament to smallball’s success.
The Raptors are no exception, as they too struggle to guard smallball lineups. This weakness was made abundantly evident in the Raptors’ nail-bitter win over the Suns, who utilized a five-out lineup to mount a furious fourth quarter comeback. Granted, the Suns employ a radicalized form of smallball, but the Raptors’ woes with smallball traces back to last season’s playoff loss to the Nets, as Paul Pierce playing power forward gave the Raptors fits.
The key to stopping smallball is being quick and decisive on rotations — help defense is essential. Defenses need to be keenly aware of how they’re guarding screen and rolls, which side to send help from, who should rotate over to the basket, they need to communicate, and ultimately, be in position to end the defensive possession by grabbing a rebound. It’s exhausting, and a tough task to be sure, but the best teams do it well.
The Raptors’ starting lineup often struggles to defend such lineups, which mostly illustrates a deficiency in the frontcourt. Jonas Valanciunas is oftentimes too unwilling to rotate away from the paint, and like most young bigs, he struggles to make the correct reads. His partner Amir Johnson is a smart help defender, and he’s still a plus on the defensive end, but that comes and goes with the health of his wonky ankles. On a good day, Johnson is active and therefore able to rotate quickly. On a bad day, Johnson can barely move.
Luckily, the Raptors have two premier help defenders in Patrick Patterson and Tyler Hansbrough coming off the bench. Hansbrough has always been a willing help defender, and when he manages to stray from fouling everyone in sight, his mobility and awareness of defensive schemes is a plus. The same goes for Patterson, who has improved by leaps and bounds on defense this season. With the two of them on the court at once, opponents are shooting just 43.9 percent from the field, and just 32.1 percent from deep. On a per 48 minute basis, opponents score an average of 89.4 points when Hansbrough and Patterson share the court. Their opponents’ shot chart is shown below.
The key to their success is their ability to seamlessly switch on defense, which allows them to be aggressive in blowing up initial screen and roll action. Both players are quick enough to venture out past the arc, while at the same time not compromising defensive rotations. They’re also roughly the same size, so it’s not a worry if they need to swap assignments on the fly. When paired with James Johnson, who can also adequately check bigs, the net effect is something like a zone defense.
Take the play above, for example. The play opens with the Hawks trying to start action on the left side of the floor. Shelvin Mack runs along the baseline and loses Greivis Vasquez on a down screen, but Hansbrough steps over just enough — without leaving Horford open for a pass — to blow up that action. The Hawks then try to initiate through the right side of the floor with a dribble hand-off, but Patterson hedges hard, thus forcing Thabo Sefolosha away from the middle, leaving him with just a swing to Mack in the corner. Mack drives baseline past Vasquez (notice a trend?) but Hansbrough helps once more, taking away the layup. The ball eventually finds its way into the paint, just past the reach of Patterson, but Hansbrough helps a third time, forcing Mike Scott into a tough shot at the basket. The Hawks tried four actions in the same play, but thanks to the versatility of Hansbrough and Patterson, Atlanta ends up with a heavily contested shot from a poor interior finisher.
I don’t like: Powerful interior scorers
It’s all well and good that Patterson and Hansbrough can whiz around the court, blowing up action on the perimeter and whatnot, but all the rotations in the world can’t fully compensate for size. Both Hansbrough and Patterson are undersized, standing no taller than 6-foot-9, which makes makes defending behemoths in the paint a torturous task.
Teams know this weakness, and they’re moving to exploit it whenever possible. In last night’s victory over the Pistons, the Pistons repeatedly attacked Hansbrough in the post with Greg Monroe, who is simply too big for Hansbrough to handle. The same happened in the Raptors’ first game against the Magic, as seen below. Vucevic easily claimed low-post position on Hansbrough, and dropped a short lefty hook with ease.
That’s love: Hayes’s daddy swag
Luckily, the Raptors have one of the league’s most unique players in Chuck Hayes, who certainly has his flaws, but truly excels at one thing: post defense. When Hansbrough or Patterson are getting mauled by post-up bigs, Dwane Casey usually turns to Hayes to put the lean (shoutout to the Talking Raptors crew) on.
Take last night, for example. Monroe had his way with Hansbrough and finished with a solid 17 points and 7 rebounds in 26 minutes. But during the 13 minutes while Chuck Hayes played, Monroe only managed two points and three rebounds.
And of course, Hayes stepped up when he was needed most. After Drummond threw a cheat shot at James “tha god” Johnson, it was Hayes who stepped to Drummond. He wasn’t looking for a fight, but he made damn sure that Detroit’s young bigs knew how he and the Raptors felt as he wagged his finger in their faces. “Watch yourself, youngin,” Hayes said in my imagination of how it all went down. “I’ve got a 401k. Don’t mess with me. You don’t want none of this. I’ll put the lean on you. I’ll give you some of my arthritis. Watch yourself.” That’s the daddy swagger of a savvy veteran, something you can always count on with Mr. Charles Hayes.
I don’t like: Lowry struggling with quick guards
Before I start, this is a minor complaint. Lowry is a tremendous defender, especially the point of attack. He draws attention for his propensity to rack up timely steals and clutch charges, but he’s skilled at the little things, too. He’s really hard to screen, and helps tremendously on the defensive glass. Altogether, he’s very solid.
However, Lowry has struggled to guard quick point guards this season, something that was made evident by Brandon Jennings’ first quarter outburst. Granted, Jennings shot just 4-of-9 in the first, but he repeatedly exploited Lowry off the bounce with his quickness before getting into the lane.
Granted, Lowry has taken on an increased workload this season as compared to last, and checking point guards is damn near impossible in this Golden Era of point guards, but it’s become a worry at times. Players like Jeff Teague and Isaiah Thomas have been able to counter Lowry’s aggression, and it’s putting more pressure on the bigs to defend shorthanded against drives.
That’s love: The Raptors’ historically productive offense
Based on the eye test alone, most observers would rank aesthetically-pleasing offenses — Warriors, Hawks, Spurs, Mavericks and Trail Blazers — above the Raptors’ pass-deficient attack, but here’s the facts: the Raptors’ offense is scoring 114.5 points per 100 possessions, which ranks as the 11th-best offense since 1986.
That’s right: 11th.
Yet, despite its success to date, the Raptors’ attack hasn’t really been talked about. The Raptors are recognized as a good offensive team, but they haven’t been given the same credit as the Mavericks, or even the Hawks, on a national scale.
I have two explanations in mind. First, the Raptors’ attack isn’t very complicated as it oftentimes looks like a series of one-on-one attacks. The Raptors rank in the bottom-five in passes per game, and admittedly, Casey’s offense does oftentimes rely on players like Lou Williams and DeMar DeRozan to create shots on their own. Second, the Raptors lack a “superstar”, which is something of a prerequisite for dominant offenses.
To these explanations, I find two counters. While the Raptors’ offense isn’t necessarily heavy on detailed plays, the Raptors do an excellent job of getting players shots in the environment in which they excel. It’s mostly subtle, like this double-staggered play they run for shooters (thanks to Brian Decker for sending this along). The Raptors run a staggered double screen at the top, which frees up Lou Williams — or Lowry, or Vasquez, or DeRozan in other cases — for an open look.
But there’s actually more complexity to the action. The initial action is usually a post-up, which draws attention away from the weakside action. By running this out of a post up, the Raptors also have another option on the play, which is always helpful in keeping an offense flowing.
To the second point, the Raptors only lack a superstar in name, as Lowry is playing at a top-ten rate on the offensive end. By offensive plus-minus, Lowry ranks third behind Stephen Curry and Chris Paul. Similarly, Lowry ranks in the top-10 in points created through assists per game, in addition to dropping 19.4 points per game of his own on a true-shooting percentage of 55.3, which easily tops fellow assist leaders John Wall and Rajon Rondo. Most importantly, Lowry is committing just 2.2 turnovers per game, meaning he’s taking good care of the basketball. Among all players who are averaging over six assists per game this season, Lowry ranks first in turnover percentage. Simply put, he has played like a superstar.
This column ran way long. I apologize. It’ll be shorter next week (maybe). Until then, have a happy holidays.
Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports