The Process can be frustrating, even outside of Philadelphia. In the D-League even more than in the NBA, it needs to be trusted. That can be trying, like it was Saturday as the Raptors 905 were summarily dispatched 128-99 by the Grand Rapids Drive.
The 905 are now 2-6, with this blowout loss standing as the least justifiable defeat yet. They lost in much the same way they’ve been losing, but with a week of practice amid a string of home games, the same mistakes are growing exponentially more difficult to explain.
“There are a lot of disappointing things. I think the most, I guess, would be it was kind of a losing effort,” head coach Jesse Mermuys said after the game. “That’s disappointing…We didn’t do anything well tonight.”
Once again, turnovers were the story of the day. The 905 coughed the ball up 24 times, the bulk of those on live balls that led directly to points for the Drive. Grand Rapids was credited with 37 points off of turnovers; the effect of those miscues was far greater, as the 905 grew visibly frustrated with their inability to run complete sets.
Transition defense has been a consistent problem, too, one that’s impossible to fix until the turnover issue is taken care of. The team is fast and athletic and built to cross-match freely in exactly those situations. All of that is great, except the magnitude of the pressure put on the defense by the offense is far too large. Defending is hard enough in the half-court.
Not that the team’s set defense was all that great Saturday, either. The 905 have several quality man-to-man defenders but players are still learning the system and their rotations, and the number of high-quality corner threes surrendered is astounding. The 905 tend to over-help out of either corner, and they’re not in a place yet where subsequent rotations comes in a timely fashion if a shooter attacks an aggressive recovery closeout.
Defense was a buzzer-to-buzzer issue, even if the turnovers didn’t creep in until the second quarter. Even when there were stops, the 905 had trouble on their own glass, surrendering 25 second-chance points.
“I don’t think it was really bad effort,” Mermuys said. “We definitely aren’t playing as tough as I would like and as physical as I would like.”
Mermuys has options when the defense gets out of sorts, and he went to reserve center Keanau Post earlier than usual to try to settle things down in the second quarter. Post had his best game of the season and chipped in with a few baskets, too, but the offense is having enough trouble without introducing two of Post, defensive specialist Ashton Smith, and Shannon Scott at the same time. Bench units weren’t particularly effective Saturday, anyway, neutralizing Mermuys’ imperfect and temporary options to goose the defense. The starters and Axel Toupane, a strong on-ball defender playing heavy minutes off the bench, need to figure things out.
Making matters worse Saturday was that it was probably the worst game Bruno Caboclo has turned in. He was guilty of several egregious turnovers, not of the “he’s trying to make good plays” variety. These were bad passes in traffic and general around-the-horn passes being picked off. It’s telling that he played just 23 minutes despite avoiding foul trouble, as there were several teachable moments he needed to be sat down for.
Those are important, to be sure. Caboclo doesn’t need to have good games every time out, and mistakes are valuable learning experiences. It’s the entire point of him being in Mississauga. But it took a toll on the emotive Caboclo, who got hit with a technical foul in the fourth quarter and was guilty of some pretty poor body language after turnovers. He wasn’t alone.
Sim Bhullar gave them decent minutes and Delon Wright played a balanced, if unspectacular game (pressed for a positive, Mermuys identified Wright’s quick improvements in pick-and-roll defense), but this was hardly a “they played poorly BUT” game. They played poorly in the same ways they’ve been playing poorly, even after a week of practice dedicated to getting a better grasp on their schemes.
“We’ve kind of re-tooled this week and tried to bring the focus back on us, trying to get more consistent and something to hang our hat on defensively,” Mermuys said at practice Friday. “I thought it was a good idea to get back to more of a training camp environment because we had so many days to practice. And really focus on the things we’re trying to accomplish and try to do them better.”
That change in approach will likely continue after Saturday’s showing, and it’s a great benefit to Mermuys that the team doesn’t travel for some time.
While it’s not going to make anyone feel any better in the moment, it’s instructive to remember that this is an expansion team that had less than two weeks of training camp and has since added plenty of new faces. The process didn’t call for immediate returns at the team level, and it’s paramount that the energy around the team remain upbeat despite any mounting frustration.
“We have to just grind through this,” Mermuys said. “Myself as the head coach, I have to stay positive with these guys. Beating them down isn’t going to help, being negative isn’t going to help, jumping up and down and screaming isn’t going to help. We have to get better and the only way you can do that is with work.”
There’s plenty of that to do.
