We’re past the halfway point of the season and the Toronto Raptors are still struggling to generate assisted baskets on the offensive end. Things have looked pretty good at times during their win streak but they still struggle overall, with the Raptors ranking second last in the NBA in assist percentage for the month of January. A brief stretch at the beginning of the month gave us a little glimmer of hope, as we saw some effective passing from centre Jonas Valanciunas in a variety of situations. That aspect of his game is obviously not on the level of someone like Marc Gasol yet, but he completed some difficult passes which strongly suggest that this is something that can be nurtured and developed into a legitimate offensive weapon.
We start with a nice read from both Valanciunas and point guard Kyle Lowry:
When Kemba Walker’s attention lingers on the screen coming from DeMarre Carroll we see Lowry dive straight to the rim. Zeller’s hands are down, waiting for the contact from a Valanciunas backdown so Jonas has a clear view of the passing lane and hits Lowry for the layup.
Valanciunas still has some work to do on his pick and roll timing but his passing after the catch is much improved. Batum is drawn all the way down to the paint because Cody Zeller can’t do much to stop Valanciunas in the middle of the paint and Carroll is the recipient of a nice kick out for an open corner three:
So far those are nice reads by Jonas but the passes don’t require much in the way of touch. This assist is set up by a great Lowry cut, who feels his man overplaying him a bit and changes direction, rubs his defender off Valanciunas in the high post and goes to the rim. Valanciunas does his part by delivering a perfect pass over the top:
In this example Cory Joseph makes a great cut and Valanciunas delivers a perfect bounce pass to him for the layup. I love this not just because of the cut and the pass but because Valanciunas was heading to the rim for a give and go in the event Joseph didn’t continue with his drive for some reason:
This pass is one of the most impressive of the bunch and is one that has me thinking his passing can be developed into a potent offensive weapon. Jonas catches a nice pocket pass but decides to post up instead of shooting, recognizes the weak double coming from the top and delivers a no look pass to Lowry in rhythm for a jump shot. Valanciunas had already shown some ability to kick it out when going across the lane but I don’t think there is any way he makes this particular pass a year ago:
The early January game against the Wizards may have been his best overall passing performance. Here we see some passes that require a timing and a light touch and he delivers them with precision. The first is a tough high-low feed to DeMar DeRozan, who is fending off the skinnier Otto Porter:
That’s not an easy pass to make. This is something I’d like the Raptors to do more when teams overplay DeRozan because they fear his post game against smaller defenders. Valanciunas can make that pass if DeRozan can seal.
The very next Toronto basket of that game was a perfect bounce pass from the perimeter to a streaking(for lack of a better term) Luis Scola for a layup. It looks basic enough but a year ago I don’t think Valanciunas could make that pass and there are a lot of starting big men in the NBA today who wouldn’t be able to make it:
I don’t think this one should be an assist because DeRozan manufactures this shot after receiving the pass from Valanciunas but the look away bounce pass is delivered well and is what allows DeRozan to attack without breaking stride. Even if it shouldn’t be an assist it’s a good pass:
Perhaps the best pass of the bunch is this gem from the Miami Heat game. Valanciunas catches the ball in the post, sees the double coming to try to force the turnover and throws a no look, over the head pass to James Johnson in the corner for an open jump shot. That’s some Gasol Brothers/Vlade Divac/Arvidas Sabonis style passing:
He’s far from being an elite interior passer at this point. He’s still prone to making some bad reads or missing opportunities due to slow decision making but it’s becoming obvious that he does have some passing ability and this should be developed. His growth may be stunted by the fact that he doesn’t see the ball enough – he can’t fully develop the ability to read a game speed defense in practice so he needs frequent touches in game. This presents a conundrum of sorts for the Raptors, who have to weigh the longterm benefits of a more reliable Valanciunas with the desire to win games now and may feel that more Valanciunas is a risk.
I don’t view this as a particularly difficult decision to make for a few reasons. First, the Raptors have made a longterm, big money commitment to Valanciunas so it’s in their best interest to have Jonas become the best player he can be. Second, assuming the Raptors stick with the current core and throw a lot of money at DeRozan they’re only going to take that next step forward if their youngsters develop skillsets that the team needs to have a more varied offensive attack and more consistent defense. Bruno Caboclo still looks to be a year or two of regular Raptors905 play away from being a viable NBA player and while Bebe Nogueira, Norman Powell and Delon Wright are all promising it’s still unclear if any of them have the potential to be anything but an infrequent contributor on the offensive end. Valanciunas has already shown a lot of offensive skills and on a per-minute basis is one of the most productive young big men in the game.
Developing an all-around game for Valanciunas should be a priority for the team and as much as his workouts with Jack Sikma in the offseason seem to have improved his confidence and face up skills he really needs to be featured more in the offense. The argument against that has typically been that he’s something of a black hole but at least for small stretches we’ve seen that this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case – give him cutters and he can hit them. If you’re going to generate assists on the Raptors you have to collapse the defense yourself with one on one play which is why the Raptors big men as a unit generate precious few assists. It’s difficult to fault Valanciunas for generating low assist totals in an offense where every other competent offensive big man is seeing significant drop offs in their own assist totals. It’s clear that there are systemic issues at play which are holding this aspect of his game back. The Raptors slow, plodding offense can benefit greatly from some increased movement and a bit of diversification, increasing frontcourt touches for Valanciunas with cutters keeping the defense occupied would be a good start.
