TL;DR – 23-9; The Clippers are stalkers, but Kawhi doesn’t know anyone on the team; we are slipping in the power rankings; Kawhi and Lowry need to play better together.
The view from this vantage point? This revamped Clippers group — with the NBA’s richest owner $38 billion man, Steve Ballmer, at the top, the great Jerry West as his consultant, Lawrence Frank and his loaded front office, coach Doc Rivers and his rugged roster — is clearly going to do everything they can within the rules to up their odds at landing one (or maybe two) of the game’s greatest players. As well they should.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to outhustle the competition, especially when you’re a franchise that’s battling the lingering perceptions that come with three decades of dysfunction under the exiled Donald Sterling. What’s more, there’s a nuanced distinction that should be made about the difference between research and recruiting.
The former is fair-game, with teams gathering any and all intel (on and off the floor) that might help shape their eventual free-agency pitch. This involves scouting the player himself, constantly updating that file about his individual game and what sorts of teammates might eventually work best with his skill-set. This is even more pivotal for a player like Leonard, who played just nine games with San Antonio last season because of his mysterious quadriceps injury and is now adjusting to a new system and style in Toronto.
It also includes the periphery relationship-building that is equally important, learning who matters most inside said player’s inner circle and, in essence, what makes them tick. The gray area that comes with recruiting is where it gets trickier, not only because of tampering rules that govern such matters (albeit not very well) but because of the tougher-to-define desire across the league for some professional courtesy in such matters.
Yet the Raptors officials with whom I spoke, and who are hoping their mid-July trade with San Antonio to make him their centerpiece wasn’t a one-year rental, expressed no concern over the Clippers’ style. And if what transpired after that Raptors-Clippers game is any indication, it’s quite clear that this isn’t about getting Leonard to notice them or their efforts.
Not yet, anyway.
In Episode 437 of Locked on Raptors, Sean Woodley and Vivek Jacob break down the Raptors’ losses in both Portland and Denver over the weekend. They talk about OG Anunoby’s extreme struggles of late, Nick Nurse’s choice words about the officiating Kawhi Leonard has received, and other stray thoughts from the two games. Injuries: they suck!
Raptors’ focus now turns to maximizing Lowry-Leonard combo | Toronto Sun
The real issue for this team right now and going forward is finding a balance with Leonard and Kyle Lowry on the floor together.
To call this an issue is probably overstating things. They have co-existed and done so successfully. The 23-9 record is proof of that.
But to say they have reached the point where it’s seamless would also be overstating things.
The pair did not share a second on the floor together in the past four games.
Leonard sat out the wins in Los Angeles and Oakland while Lowry was down for the losses in Portland and Denver.
So in terms of making any sort of progress in finding that just-right balance when the two are on the floor together, the trip was a waste.
Ideally, the Raptors want the two playing at their peak simultaneously.
The feeling around the team is this will come with time. So far the two most important Raptors have played 21 games together and another 11 when one or the other was out.
The team is 15-6 with both in the lineup and 8-3 with one of the two missing. Overall, they are winning at a .718 clip. With both in the lineup, they are slightly worse at .714. With one missing they are slightly better at .727.
In games (8 of them) without Leonard in the lineup, Lowry averages 21.1 points and 12.1 assists. In games when Leonard is sharing the floor with him (21 of them), Lowry’s number slip to 12.6 points and 9.1 assists a night.
NBA Power Rankings Week 10 — The Nuggets are climbing, but the hottest team is in the East – ESPN
3. Toronto Raptors
Record: 23-9PREV. RANK LAST WEEK THIS WEEK
2 2-2 IND, CLE, @PHI
The Raptors concluded their 2-2 trip out west banged up. Kyle Lowry missed the final pair of games — losses at Portland and Denver — with a thigh bruise, and Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet sat out on Sunday with back injuries. The Raps can take some consolation in Lowry’s return to form before the injury. After a lengthy shooting slump, the point guard shined in back-to-back wins at the Clippers and Golden State, converting 17 of 31 field goal attempts. — Arnovitz
The Athletic’s NBA Power Rankings: Welcome the Celtics back to prominence – The Athletic [paywall]
1. Toronto Raptors (Previously 1st), 23-9 (+7.0 net rating)
I wonder where the Toronto Raptors’ ranking would’ve been if the game against the Nuggets happened before the rankings were submitted. Toronto missed shot after shot during an 18-0 run by Denver in that game. That stretch made it look like the Raptors were executing a perfect tribute to the Houston Rockets in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. No Kyle Lowry and no Fred VanVleet made the Raptors rely too much on Kawhi Leonard. Delon Wright and Lorenzo Brown had to overextend their roles. My god, they made Danny Green attack off the dribble so much. And Denver was happy to make CJ Miles and OG Anunoby beat them.The Raptors will get healthy with their backcourt. And they’ll get Jonas Valanciunas back in a month or so. A fully healthy Raptors team looks a lot different than what we’ve seen recently, and they’ve still been pretty good during this stretch. Mostly, the Raptors need to make sure they have a more diverse plan on offense than ‘Kawhi, please save us.’ That’s where you need Lowry to be more of the scorer we’ve seen in the past. Toronto has months to fine-tune this machine before they get back to the playoffs to prove this iteration is above the past playoff failures of different star dynamics. This is still the top team in the Power Rankings, but it should be the Warriors again. My guess is we have a new number one next week.
NBA Power Rankings: Nuggets surge to No. 1 | SI.com
2. Raptors | Last Week: 2-2 | Overall: 23-9 | Previous Ranking: 1
Topping the Clippers and Warriors on consecutive nights was an impressive way to start a West Coast swing. It’s a shame the fans in Portland and Denver didn’t get to see just what Kyle Lowry brings to this team.
2 This isn’t the first you’ve heard this, but the continued development of 24-year-old Pascal Siakam has been one of the many keys for the Raptors this season, and among the most surprising to those who haven’t followed the Raptors closely the past few years. Jonas Valanciunas’ injury will put even more of an onus on the versatile Siakam during the next month or so. Siakam used to ooze potential but would often play recklessly. As he’s matured, you can see the game slowing down for him. He’s third in the NBA in true shooting percentage.
3 Toronto Raptors
Record: 23-9
Pace: 100.4 (18) OffRtg: 113.0 (3) DefRtg: 106.0 (7) NetRtg: +7.0 (3)A 2-2 trip through L.A., Oakland, Portland and Denver isn’t bad, given that the Raptors didn’t have both Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard in any of the four games. Lowry got his shot back before missing the last two games with a thigh contusion, though it would be nice to see him shooting well (and aggressively) again in a game he plays with Leonard. Lowry has a higher effective field goal percentage (57 percent on 149 shots) with Leonard off the floor than he does with Leonard on the floor (49.7 percent on 179 shots), though the Raptors’ offense has been just fine (117.1 points scored per 100 possessions) in the pair’s minutes together. When the offense has struggled (scoring less than a point per possession) has been when Lowry has been off the floor. After that trip out West, the Raps have a couple of important games within the East this week. They’ve already played the Celtics, Bucks and Sixers two times each, but Wednesday will be their first meeting with the third-place Pacers.
Some fine-tuning should help Toronto Raptors get to the next level | The Star [paywall]
The rotation and the bench
Much of the confusion and disruption is the result of injuries and absences for a variety of reasons, but coach Nick Nurse is still doing a lot of experimenting with groupings at this point in the season.They’ve yet to come up with a consistent rotation that staggers the playing time of key components like Leonard and Lowry to ensure one of them is on the court.
The days of five Toronto backups playing together and dominating are long gone, so it’s up to Nurse and his staff to figure out a rotation and give it time to develop some chemistry to see where it takes them.
There have been extenuating circumstances and Nurse is playing the long game with one eye focused on the post-season and how things work in April, May and June, But players like certainty, or at least consistency, in playing times and roles and it’s about time to give it to them.
RAPTORS BLOG: Shooting has to get better, but it’s not as bad as you might think | Toronto Sun
Some analysis: That record won’t mean a whole lot in the playoffs, where this season will be defined, if players keep bricking so many open shots. Under Nurse, the offence has run beautifully. Toronto is generating great look after great look. The problem is finishing the plays by making shots. It’s similar to how you can play great defence, but if you don’t haul in the defensive rebound to finish the sequence, all of the effort that went into getting stops proves meaningless. Nurse has focussed a lot on rebounding, but it’s not exactly his job to fix the poor shooting. It’s up to Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster to find some help. Everyone wants shooters, so it’s easier said than done, but C.J. Miles needs to be insurance, not someone the team is relying on (even if his career norms indicate shots will fall at some point).
Surprisingly, per NBA.com, Toronto ranks 10th in wide open (defender six feet away or more) three-point accuracy and generates the sixth-most number of those types of shot. That’s good. Not so good? The team ranks just 21st in open three-point shooting (defender 4-6 feet away). Worse still, when guarded tightly (2-4 feet), Toronto shooters have been awful, hitting just 22.9% of their three-point takes. Only three teams have fared worse.
So while the eye test says it’s just wide open misfiring, there are times where it’s been more apparent when opponents are close. Perhaps the most encouraging thing for the Raptors is by far the highest number of three-point attempts have been of the wide open variety (18.3 attempts a game vs. only 11.0 open and just 4.1 when guarded tightly). Those completely open looks are the aim and the team surprisingly hasn’t been as bad as everyone thinks on them.
That said, VanVleet nailing a whopping 48.4% of his wide open threes, with Danny Green and Leonard at 44% and Lowry at 41% are skewing the numbers up a bit. Others like OG Anunoby (31%), Miles (34%), Serge Ibaka (32.8%) need to be better.
It’s too bad that injuries are starting to pile up for the Raptors, but if you believe in things being due, this run probably was. Over the past five years the Raptors ranked No. 1 in the NBA in fewest man games lost to injuries (per instreetclothes.com) and that includes missing the fewest minutes to injury in the league last season.
4 things we learned from the Toronto Raptors’ 4-game road trip – Sportsnet.ca
The Raptors roster, as we know, is deep. But naturally, as they go further down the bench, their reserves aren’t quite reliable enough to count on for wins.
On Sunday the team was without three critical players in Lowry, Siakam, and VanVleet (along with Jonas Valanciunas, who will be sidelined for at least a month). It forced Leonard into a high-usage outing, which is generally a good thing given how effective he is, but with Delon Wright in the starting lineup (more on him in a moment), and meaningful minutes going to players who haven’t had many reps this season in Lorenzo Brown and Greg Monroe, the regular rotation players were sorely missed.
Another starter was C.J. Miles, who has seriously struggled this season. On the roster as a much-needed three-point specialist off the bench, Miles is shooting just 30.8 per cent from deep — the lowest mark since he was a teenager in the 2006-07 season. He has a quicker first-step, it seems, compared to last season, but has been a little too aggressive and forceful in trying to attack the rim, and has missed countless opportunities on drives to the hoop as he looks to regain his form — and confidence — shooting the ball.
But there were signs of hope, or an eventual turnaround, on the road trip. On Friday versus Portland he scored a season-high 13 points.
Miles has “been a shell of himself,” as Nick Nurse put it after the Friday loss in Portland, but the coach added that his performance that night was closer to what we expect from the veteran shooter. With Lowry and VanVleet out on Sunday the team needed another strong outing from the veteran, but he managed to go just 2-of-9 from deep for a quiet six points.
Undermanned as they were, the Raps were still in contention to win Sunday’s game against the West’s top team, and it wasn’t until late in the fourth quarter that the Nuggets pulled away for the win, and that in itself is somewhat encouraging nonetheless.
Kawhi Leonard Didn’t Know Who Lawrence Frank Was When Meeting Clippers Exec | Bleacher Report
So yes, a team like the Clippers should be fully committed to landing Leonard. At the moment, the Clippers have $48.7 million in practical cap space for the summer, enough to get at least one superstar free agent, but they will have options for clearing more space. Namely, the team can waive Avery Bradley and his partially guaranteed contract, freeing up another $11 million in cap space and bringing them close to $60 million overall.
According to ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst, the team has sent executives to numerous Raptors and Warriors games, ostensibly scouting Leonard and Durant. And even if the Clippers can only land one of those players, they can use another max slot on Tobias Harris and bring a superstar into the fold on a team that has surprisingly started 17-12 and looks primed to make a run at a postseason berth.
One advantage the Clippers will have in their pursuit of Leonard is that it has long been rumored that the Raptors star wants to play in Los Angeles, where he grew up, and isn’t particularly fond of the cold. And while it might seem like a bad sign for the Clippers that Leonard doesn’t even know who Frank is, he’s always marched to the beat of his own drum.
Leonard has been described as aloof, isn’t particularly great at marketing himself and has acknowledged that he doesn’t have social media. If ever there were a star player who wouldn’t know a prominent member of a another team’s front office, it would be Leonard. It’s simply his personality.
Even with how well the Raptors have played, this isn’t much of a surprise at all. Throughout this offseason, when trade rumors were rampant, we heard often that Leonard’s preference was to play for one of the Los Angeles teams — either the Lakers or Clippers. Neither swung a deal, but that was in part because they can each chase him in the summer of 2019. After the trade happened a few months ago, we still heard that Leonard’s first choice was to play in Los Angeles next season.
This is just an unfortunate reality for the Raptors. Other cities are almost always going to be more enticing — especially when it comes to Leonard, who is actually from Los Angeles. But this factor is one of the main reasons why they made the deal. In free agency, there’s almost no chance that Leonard would have seriously considered the Raptors. But now, they have the entire season to show him first hand while he should stay. It may not work, but at least this way they have a shot.
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