Trail Blazers 72, Raptors 64 — Box Score
Despite entering the playoffs as the top seed, the Toronto Raptors bowed out in their first elimination game on Thursday at the hands of Doug McDermott and the Chicago Bulls.
However, since Summer League is almost entirely set up for the purposes of development, the Raptors played yet another game on Friday, this time against the Portland Trail Blazers as part of a consolation bracket.
Both teams rested their key starters. The Trail Blazers sat breakout sensation Noah Vonleh and 35-year-old Keith Bogans among others, while the Raptors held out Delon Wright (hamstring), Norman Powell (already reached God status) and Ronald Roberts (hopefully working on his free throws).
What was left were the dregs. The game mostly featured a battle of third-string summer league invitees duking it out in front of a sparsely attended Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. The few who did show up mostly came to watch Bruno Caboclo and Bebe Nogueira, who I’ll discuss shortly.
As for the game itself, the Raptors played solid defense, but struggled to generate offense in the halfcourt without Powell and Wright. The only capable floor general was Phil Scrubbs, who consistently made nice reads to keep the offense flowing. Toronto led for most of the game, but their offense dried up in the fourth quarter. They shot a ghastly 3-of-17 from the floor, including a sparkling 0-of-7 from deep. Their defense kept them in the game until the last minute, but Trail Blazers guard Andre Dawkins exploded for 12 points in the fourth, including a key triple to put his team up three. He finished as the game’s leading scorer with 24 points.
On to the Brazilians.
Bebe Nogueira
Statline: 4 points (2/3 FG), 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 5 TO, 23 minutes
Bebe’s impact was bigger than what his modest statline suggested. He continued to shine as the Raptors’ interior defender. He showed good help instincts in rotating over and protecting the paint on drives, or when he had to make up for blow bys. He was out-muscled by Daniel Orton (who has a solid 30 pounds on Bebe), but was solid otherwise.
The most impressive aspect of Bebe’s game on Friday was his passing. He effectively operated as the Raptors’ high-post option, a role played by Amir Johnson in recent years. He made smart cuts off pick-and-rolls and swung the ball effectively to keep the offense moving. He had a strong grasp of how the offense worked and it led to some pretty dimes.
This one is my favorite. The Raptors run HORNS action, with an initial pick-and-roll. The swing comes to Bebe, who quickly reverses the court. He fluidly moves into a pick-and-roll, before spotting the Blazers’ trap. So, instead of screening for the ball in tight quarters, Bebe moves into open space, catches a nice bounce pass from Drew Crawford, which forces the Blazers’ big to step up. With that, Bebe fires a quick pass to his man in the dunker’s spot along the baseline.
The actual Raptors ran a lot of HORNS action with two bigs up top. Read more about that here.
Here’s another one of Bebe’s assists.
The impressive part of this play is Bebe’s ability to turn and face the defense, making a move and elevating, before throwing a dump-off in mid-air. It doesn’t look like a lot, but it takes a lot of dexterity, control and vision to make a play like this.
My overall impression of Bebe is the same as I had last year. I think he has shown enough ability to merit a chance at the rotation. He certainly still needs to work on his strength, but he’s a massive hurdle for opponents at the basket on defense and he can rebound quite effectively. Throw in his abilities in pick-and-roll scenarios, and a dash of passing vision, and Bebe could turn into something useful.
Bruno Caboclo
Statline: 12 points (4/16 FG, 2/12 3FG, 2/3 FT), 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 2 TO, 31 minutes
Again, it’s a case where Bruno’s play looked better than his horrid shooting line would suggest. It was certainly an off-night with the jumper, but he showed some flashes.
First off, Bruno continues to wield an incredibly quick trigger finger. As soon as Bruno gets the ball, Bruno shoots the ball. It doesn’t matter if the defender is right in his face — if he catches the ball on the perimeter, the shot is going up. That’s why the statline looks so poor.
Quite frankly, I think it speaks to his unfamiliarity with basketball. Most of the time, the mental calculus for Bruno seems very linear, in that he understands how plays operate, but he doesn’t have the intuitive ability to salvage plays if they’re well defended by going to secondary options on the sets.
But there were some encouraging signs. He showed great awareness on this post-up play, as he catches his defender ball-watching. Bruno makes a backcut and finds himself an easy layup.
Here’s another encouraging sign. It looked somewhat awkward, but Bruno managed to push it all the way to the basket on a fast break using his shaky handles before getting to the basket with a slick lefty finish.
Bruno also busted out a nice Eurostep move, which led to some free throws.
Defensively, Bruno remains somewhat of a mess. He has trouble scaling around screens and sometimes gets beat off the dribble when he plays too close. He’s mostly fine when he sags off, which he can afford to thanks to his hilarious wingspan.
The above clip is a good example. Bruno shows great help instincts by showing help on the drive. But when the Trail Blazers guard finds a spot-up shooter on the perimeter, Bruno is somehow able to make an effective contest despite taking off with one foot inside the paint. The instincts may or may not come, but the length will definitely play.
With that, the Raptors wrap up Summer League with a 3-2 record. Things might have been different had Wright now tweaked a hamstring, but it’s a silly tournament anyway. What’s most important is that we caught a rare glimpse at Bruno and Bebe, while players like Powell and Wright were able to make strong first impressions on fans.
