Last preseason, after the the Raptors had been humiliated by the Wizards in the first round of the 2015 playoffs, Toronto introduced a pseudo-motion offense. It didn’t stick very long, as they progressively abandoned it throughout the season and opted to enter their base offense more quickly, instead of engaging scripted entry points that rarely produce points directly.
This year, the Raptors have decided to introduce their version of a Motion offense once again. The positives in doing so, lessening the predictable nature of their offensive attack which tends to bog down come playoff time, should be important to this Raptors team.
The sequence starts with the ball handler dribbling up one side of the court and quickly engaging the trailing big man in a swing of the ball from one side of the court to the other. If the big man cannot continue the swing of the ball to the opposite side of the court, he will pass back to the original side in which the ball came from, Sometimes this forces one player above the break to exchange positions with a corner player because one player is more adept at handling the ball and making plays on offense.
This triggers a high pick and roll.
When the Raptors are able to successfully swing the ball from one side to the other, the initial ball handler and trailing big who engaged in the swinging of the ball will set a staggered screen for the Raptor placed in the corner.
This is commonly called “Sting” action out of the “Motion Strong” sequence. The player will rarely be open for a shot, as this is such a common action among NBA teams. It can also progress into one of the Raptors base offensive sets.
As a result of this action rarely producing an opportunity to score by itself, the Raptors will sometimes scrap the staggered screen and just have the initial ball handler get freed on a single screen from the trailing big – this is referred to as “One Down.” This opens up a wide variety of options and sets. It can transition nicely into “Horns” or the Raptors “Flex Series.” Additionally, it can serve as another avenue to running a high pick and roll.
In the following clips, we see it transfer nicely into “Flex” sets and “Horns Triple” to degrees of success only shown in the preseason.
Concluding Thoughts
It should be a shock to no one that the Raptors are attempting to tone down the levels of predictability that their offense faces. This motion offence, however basic relative to other teams, allows for impromptu decision making with reads and reactions based on what the defense is willing to give. If continued through the entire season (unlike last year), it should provide a more well balanced attack that doesn’t allow for bogging down quite as easily as the Raptors tend to do come playoff time.
