Fans of the Toronto Raptors have been doing their best Chicken Little impression the past few weeks as the team has found themselves in a mid-season slump.
What has worried fans is the team averaged 108.5 points in October and November, 107.7 points in December but they have slipped to 99.5 in January.
They’ve also averaged 15.8 turnovers per game this month.
As I wrote last week, now isn’t the time for fans to panic. This is the kind of slump every team goes through during the course of an NBA season.
Even the Chicago Bulls, the probable Eastern Conference champs, are currently stuck in a slump.
But don’t just take my word for it.
“A lot of the shots they are taking, are shots they have made (earlier this season),” Leo Rautins explained during the broadcast of the game against the Detroit Pistons. “When you bring a DeMar DeRozan back in the mix, believe it or not, that’s harder than losing him. When you lose him it’s harder to win. But when you bring him back its hard for the players to get used to because number one, you want DeRozan to get a rhythm and now players are losing minutes and they are losing shots when you bring him back into the mix. So the rhythm of the whole team is off. A lot of people have said the chemistry is bad. It’s not chemistry. It’s just the rhythm of the game and the rhythm of the team is off. They will get it back because these are shots they have made all season until this rough patch.
The reality is that Lou Williams caught fire earlier this season and some of the wild, random heat check shots that were falling just won’t be falling again during the rest of this season.
Some of the miracle shots by players like Greivis Vasquez, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan won’t keep falling, but they are still solid shooters whose shots will find the bottom of the bucket more often than not.
There’s also something to be said for easing up on three-pointers, too.
“This team is always going to take 3’s,” Rautins conceded. “What you just don’t want to get is the situation where you’re coming down the court firing three’s when you’re not making them and when you could go inside and explore your options inside the paint first. Once you’re doing that you’re going to be fine with your 3’s because they are going to fall eventually.
“As long as they are good shots, take ‘em.”
The Raptors are currently fourth in the NBA in points in the paint yet they aren’t feeding their big men often enough. Jonas Valanciunas (8.5 field goal attempts per game) and Amir Johnson (7.3) all are attempting less than nine field goal attempts per game.
Both of those post player are shooting better than 55% from the field.
Meanwhile, Kyle Lowry (15.9 attempts per game), Lou Williams (11.2), DeMar DeRozan (15.5) and Greivis Vasquez (9.3) are all shooting less than 42% from the field.
Valanciunas is only averaging slightly more field goal attempts this season yet has the highest field goal percentage of his career (55%).
Amir Johnson leads Toronto’s starters in field goal percentage while Valanciunas is second.
Patrick Patterson is second among bench players who have at least 130 field goal attempts.
Yet Toronto is 9th in 3-pointers attempted and only 18th in field goal percentage (34.6%).
It stands to reason that some of those “good shots” Rautins is talking about involves giving Toronto’s bigs more touches.
