When the Raptors 905 begin their postseason on Wednesday, they will take on an unfamiliar path.
The new playoff format for the G League will put the defending champions with the second-best record in the league in a bit of a precarious position as they will have to play a first-round elimination game against the Grand Rapids Drive. All for the rights to play the Atlantic division winning Westchester Knicks, who the 905 split their season series with 2-2.
Head coach Jerry Stackhouse is as competitive as they come, and every step he takes during the regular season is to ensure his team is ready for the playoffs. That’s why despite a 5-10 start to the season that included losing two of three to the Drive, they will carry the confidence of a team that has been 26-9 since with a league-best net rating of plus-7.7 and by far the best defensive rating at 98.7 points allowed per 100 possessions.
The swagger they carry now comes courtesy of a multitude of players being given the opportunity to prove themselves in big games throughout the season. When Lorenzo Brown hasn’t been available, Stackhouse has turned to Kaza Keane, Kethan Savage and Davion Berry without hesitation. It helps ensure that if there’s a similar scenario that presents itself when a championship is on the line, he and his players both have a point of reference with which to work.
Keane averaged 10.8 points, 11 assists and 6.5 rebounds in four December starts, while Savage received his opportunities most recently when Brown was down with an ankle injury. Berry, who has emerged as one of Stackhouse’s most reliable players when the going gets tough, started at the point in a loss to the Agua Caliente Clippers in their penultimate game of the season, and recognizes that while unfamiliarity can be uncomfortable, it does push them to be better.
“It’s been challenging because I’ve been playing the 2 the whole year and now I’m playing the 1,” Berry said looking back. “Luckily, me working on my craft and my game has helped make it easier. It helps tremendously, too. Everybody has played in big games here and Stackhouse says he always trusts everybody. You just have to go out and play with confidence, we’re about to see.”
Stackhouse has established different strategies he can turn to as well. There are times he’s played two point-guards and others when he’s turned to two centers in the absence of the stretch-4’s he usually likes to go with to space the floor.
Shevon Thompson and Kennedy Meeks afford Stackhouse that opportunity because of their ability to make good reads and keep the offense in a flow whether it be the high or low post, and they’re capable enough of defending out on the perimeter or at least blitzing hard enough to buy themselves time to get back to the roller.
Fuquan Edwin has been a relative newcomer to the team, acquired off waivers in December after the team let go of Richard Amardi. He has come off the bench and started since joining the team, and notes that the core principles of the team dictate the talent that’s acquired.
“We have a lot of talent,” Edwin said. “Guys who can score the ball and play defense, it fits our system. Every night, it could be anybody’s night, and that’s what makes our team so special and strong.”
This kind of shuffling and chopping and changing can sometimes rub players the wrong way. They may want to know exactly when their minutes are coming, where they’re getting their touches from, and how many. Here, again, Edwin gives Stackhouse the thumbs up.
“He was in the same situation as us — being a kid trying to chase the NBA dream — he knows how it is personally and from a basketball standpoint,” Edwin explains. “He gives a lot of tips for us to take with us and it gets emotional sometimes because he cares so much.”
Stackhouse keeps them cognizant of the fact that they have families to care for, that it’s tough in the real world and, comparatively, playing basketball is a fortunate experience that they’re blessed enough to have.
In game, Stackhouse prides himself on the defensive end. It’s where you can see the 905 turn to the full-court press as they did against the Greensboro Swarm when they were looking to build some momentum to carry over into the half, or blitz the pick-and-roll as they did against the Maine Red Claws in their final game of the regular season.
“It’s something we have in our bag,” Stackhouse said about the full-court press after beating the Swarm. “I like to make sure there’s not a ton of shooters out on the floor so we can jump into that. That’s definitely a little trick that we have in the bag that’s been good to us all season.”
Another tactic that’s been good to them all year has been turning to Brown and Berry in the clutch. Our own Louis Zatzman did a terrific job of detailing how good the pair have been in late game scenarios, and so it was no surprise to see Stackhouse trust the Killer B’s — if you will — down the stretch of their final regular season game.
In the game against a Red Claws team 16 games under .500, they trailed by five points with under a minute remaining. The 47 minutes that preceded it went very much along the same lines as the parent club’s performance against the Brooklyn Nets a night before, but with the game on the line, it gave them something to play for.
After Brown got fouled getting into the lane and attempting a runner to knock down two free-throws and cut the lead to three, Stackhouse went to those pet sets with Brown and Berry.
Going into the playoffs on a high.@BMO Game Highlights pic.twitter.com/riJcN7HeR1
— Raptors 905 (@Raptors905) March 24, 2018
“That’s a play we like to call our reset play — we’ve got options if we turn the corner, here we were able to get two — and we were actually able to run it twice, LB was able to score the layup but I thought DB was open in the corner possibly to tie it up the first time but we were able to extend the game, get another possession and find him for the game winner so, big plays.”
Berry has established a bit of a reputation now as a big shot maker who doesn’t need a strong performance to finish strong.
“He’s real difficult to read,” Stackhouse said. “You look at his last five games, he’s probably shooting about 17 per cent from three, but at the end of the game, there’s nobody I’m calling the three for other than DB because I know he has a knack of just making big shots. He wants to step up and make big shots for the team, but, he does a lot of good things for us, he’s gotten better as a playmaker and I think in the playoffs we’re going to need more, not to say that we’re not going to trust our younger guys but when it comes down to when we want to win a game it’s going to be him and LB pretty much with the ball in their hands making decisions in those big games.
Heading into the playoffs, it appears the 905 will be at full strength with the likes of Brown, Miller and McKinnie available to help bring in a second title. Again, the thinking behind it is generating familiarity, but with those guys, helping them carry over that familiarity to the next level.
“It’s good to know that we’re going to have the full contingent,” Stackhouse said after the win. “I think Dan (Tolzman) and Case (Dwane Casey), that was really important, they saw the benefits of Pascal and Fred last year, having that playoff run and the momentum they carried into the summer and we want Malcolm and Lorenzo and all these guys — Alfonzo — we want everybody to have the same experience of understanding the playoffs.”
By continually trusting different members of the roster with bigger roles, unnatural ones and checking their egos with smaller ones, Stackhouse has exposed his players to every possible scenario. Check his Twitter handle and you’ll see him advocate, “Train your mind to be calm in every situation…. A mistake made more than once is a decision.”
When the ball is tossed at the Hershey Centre for tip-off on Wednesday, there will be nothing that transpires over the course of their postseason that the haven’t seen before. Everything will be familiar, perhaps, even the smell of champagne in the locker room at the end of it.
