Sohi: Jakob Poeltl’s defensive acumen is fair – not foul – for Raptors – The Athletic [Subscription]
This season, Poeltl is committing slightly more fouls per game — from 2.1 to 2.3 — but he’s also playing more minutes. According to Cleaning The Glass, as a rookie, Poeltl committed a foul on 7.1 per cent of team plays, making him one of the NBA’s worst offenders. This season, that number fell to 4.7 per cent. It’s not for a lack of aggression. Poeltl’s fouling less per minute, but his block rate has doubled.
Early season sample sizes are like pendulums, swinging from one side to the other game after game. The numbers will shift. The veracity of Poeltl’s defense likely won’t. Poeltl’s pick-and-roll defence — albeit, facing second units for the most part — has been exceptional. He is armed with the agility to momentarily contain attacking guards and rotate onto his man, with positioning instincts rare for a second-year player. He angles himself just so, preventing the obvious pinpoint pass to rollers. At 22, he has a level of command over the nightmare that is two-on-one pick and roll coverage that fans have been clamouring to see from Valanciunas for years.
“I’m trying to be all over the place, really. Nowadays, most teams are very guard-focused. Us bigs have to be there in every single pick and roll coverage, hedge to help on every single drive,” he said.
Even when Toronto’s guards have allowed line drives into the middle, which they often do, Poeltl
has managed to play the angles well enough to get by, especially with OG Anunoby’s backside help.
Get to know Raptors GM Bobby Webster and his story in the latest @OpenGymRaptors https://t.co/xBBZlJQsLV
— William Lou (@william_lou) November 4, 2017
By the Numbers: Does Raptors ‘culture change’ come at DeRozan, Lowry’s expense? – Sportsnet.ca
From an overall growth and development standpoint of the team, the Raptors’ new play style definitely appears to be working. However, when taken from the perspective of the team’s two best— and most important— players, it’s not all that rosy.
As mentioned, DeRozan is most effective when he can dominate the ball in isolation situations. To a lesser extent, the same can be said for his fellow all-star backcourt partner Kyle Lowry. Last season Toronto averaged approximately nine isolation possessions per game, entering Tuesday night, however, they’ve managed to drop that number to about 7.8 per contest. Great, right?
Not necessarily.
The Dallas Mavericks and, more interestingly, the Houston Rockets were leading the league in isolation possessions per game with about 12.6 heading into Tuesday. This is significant because the Rockets are hailed as one of the analytic innovators of the NBA—their GM Daryl Morey helped co-found the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, after all. Last season the Cleveland Cavaliers led the league in isolation possessions with an average of 12.8 per game.
If you’re the Raptors, and you see this information, doesn’t this trigger some warning bells? It’s fine to want to move the ball more— and they should— but not if it comes at the expense of their best players. Clearly Houston isn’t looking to get the ball out of James Harden’s hands, and Toronto shouldn’t be doing that to DeRozan and Lowry either.
Three-point threat C.J. Miles has been a decoy while Raptors figure out offence | Toronto Star
“Teams are coming in with a real focus on me individually, what I’m doing and the ways that I affect the game and it’s a different role for me because I haven’t been — I won’t call it a go-to (guy) — but the main attraction in a five in a long time,” Miles said Tuesday. “It’s a learning process for me and the guys that I’m with.”
Miles’ usage, or lack thereof, has been easier to take because of the overall success Toronto’s second unit in the infancy of the season. Miles and that group — whichever four of six young players he’s on the floor with — have been consistently good despite the fact he hasn’t grabbed a game by a the throat and taken it over.
It has given the youngsters a boost of confidence because they don’t have to rely solely on the veteran among them. And it has given opposing teams issues because the youngsters are quick and aggressive and willing to pass up good shots to get better ones. Casey is fine with what he’s getting, even if it isn’t precisely what was envisioned when Miles was signed to a three-year, $25-million contract in the summer.
Casey joked that there aren’t many open shots for Miles because of the attention he attracts, but that’s now part of the grand plan.
Raptors Practice: Dwane Casey – November 8, 2017 – YouTube
GANTER: Miles slowly but surely finding his way with Raptors | Toronto Sun
Being a pure shooter, Miles did not have to adjust to that part of the game. There has been some adjusting elsewhere, though.
“Teams are coming in with a real focus on me individually,” Miles said Tuesday after practice.
“What I’m doing and the ways that I affect the game, it’s a different role for me because I haven’t been – I won’t call it a go-to, but — the main attraction in a (five-man unit) in a long time.
“It’s a learning process for me and the guys that I’m with (often four young guys from a group that includes Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, Jakob Poeltl and Anunoby). I encourage them to be as aggressive as they can because it’s almost like you take it that the other team’s being disrespectful to you — they feel like if they take me out of it, we can’t score in that second unit. You should make them feel stupid for doing that.”
Ten games in, Miles has been pleased with what he has seen from his young teammates.
“They’re doing it,” Miles said of bringing that aggression. “Delon’s doing it more, Freddy was aggressive (against Chicago), when P Skills (Siakam) gets a chance to play he’s getting downhill and doing things and then that’ll change everything.”
Raptors Practice: C. J. Miles – November 8, 2017 – YouTube
Caboclo forging his own path to NBA by remaining in G League – Sportsnet.ca
It was plain during the Raptors’ exhibition season, where Caboclo started one game and played generously in three others but looked uncertain and hesitant, finishing with seven turnovers compared with four made field goals. When rookie OG Anunoby returned from his knee injury sooner than predicted and when second-year man Pascal Siakam jumped from deep in the rotation to right in the heart of it with some career-best performances on the Raptors’ road trip, it was clear that the likelihood of Caboclo being part of the Raptors rotation were minimal at best.
It’s not supposed to work like that for a first-round pick.
But deciding to return to the G League was still his choice to make, and after meeting with Raptors president Masai Ujiri Tuesday after the latter returned from a scouting trip in Europe Caboclo decided that he needed to play somewhere more than he needed to be in the NBA.
“I just think I did to play [instead] of just staying on the bench,” he said. “I’m going to 905 so I can have playing time. I think it’s better for me so I can have a chance to show myself and maybe Coach Casey will think I can help the team.”
Ujiri was pleased to hear it.
“It’s a huge step for him to do this without feeling embarrassed, that he can set aside pride or ego,” said Ujiri. “It’s going to help him and it’s a sign to me that he’s progressing.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbP4HMjlSCj/
Woz Blog: JV breaks out for Raptors but work to be done | Toronto Sun
The late stages of the fourth gave the coaching staff a lot of video to show the team detailing what not to do while on the court. It was wretched stuff.
Still, Lowry said it looked like they were having fun again at times and a win is a win. Also, this was a Bulls team that ranked near the top in a bunch of defensive categories and the Raptors dropped 119 on them, with the starters setting a season-high for points and field goal percentage. The outside attack finally got going (Season-best 52% on 13 makes), Miles was back in form, Lowry too and Valanciunas looked a lot more confident and comfortable on offence.
It was tough for the Raptors to do the work in moving the ball more often than in the past and mixing the offence up without getting the desired results. They entered the game last in three-point accuracy, so this should reinforce the idea that the plan can pay off.
Lowry said he’d come in with more energy and intensity and that was the case. Lowry attacked the rim more aggressively than he has in any other game this season.
He had also discussed earlier this week the marked decrease in pick-and-roll plays. Even Tuesday it seemed like it was DeMar DeRozan hooking up with teammates like Valanciunas on PnR’s more often than Lowry.
Other than the late return to isolation-land, thought DeRozan played an outstanding offensive game. He only had four assists, but made many outstanding passes for good looks. He only got to the free throw line four times, which is quite low for him, but still hit half of his field goals, both of his three-point attempts and made a lot of good decisions.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbQO5gpFScJ/
Three Keys to Victory
Respect the three-point line. The Raptors used to live in the midrange area, but in smartly changing with the times, they’ve added a lot more three-point shots to their arsenal. While they rank next to last in converting attempts, Toronto has posted a 5-1 record in the games they’ve finished with a higher three-point percentage than opponents. If the Pelicans are having difficulty finding the mark from the outside, they need to make sure the Raptors are having similar issues and see lots of hands in their faces.Attack Jonas Valanciunas. Toronto’s starting center will likely be less than 100% as he continues to round into form following an ankle injury. Against the Jazz and Wizards, he committed a combined 11 fouls in just 40 minutes. Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins should consider punishing him in the lane early and often, and then obviously try to continue with that same focus against all Raptor small ball lineups the duo encounter later.
Attempt to match the production/energy of Raptors bench. According to the stats, Toronto boasts a top-3 bench. In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock, the Pelicans have struggled to get key production from their reserves for much of 2017-18. In recent games, Darius Miller, Tony Allen and Jameer Nelson have picked it up nicely, but odds are they’ll either need to raise their games several more notches or get some additional help from players like Ian Clark or Dante Cunningham.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbP2GBcFfAD/
Thursday game preview: New Orleans Pelicans at Toronto Raptors | Toronto Star
Raptors centre Jonas Valnciunas had 21 points and 10 rebounds on Tuesday but that was against Robin Lopez and the Bulls. DeMarcus Cousins is an entirely different matter. The Pelicans centre piled up 32 points and 13 rebounds during a win in Indianapolis on Tuesday, and is averaging 28.9 points and 7.5 three-point field goal attempts per game.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbQnvffApOf/
Pelicans’ bigs will be handful for Raptors | Toronto Sun
Casey said the onus is going to be on his own bigs in a very big way Thursday night.
“Your bigs have to do a special job of closing out and the second half Tuesday night (against Chicago) we didn’t,” Casey said. “First half we did.
“I thought Serge (Ibaka) did a good job of getting into Markkanen and we did a good job of getting our bigs out there and the second half we didn’t. If we don’t do that tomorrow night they are going to do the same thing (the Bulls did in the second half). We got to make sure we have attention to detail and be disciplined for our coverage for the entire game.”
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