When the Toronto Raptors traded for Kawhi Leonard, the natural flow of conversation gravitated towards how he’d assume the mantle as the team’s new go-to man and replace DeMar DeRozan.
Secondary became OG Anunoby, who may or may not have been in the running to split time at the power forward spot just as Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas would for the first two-and-a-half months, but would definitely be losing out on the starting small forward role. Siakam quickly seized his opportunity at the four-spot, and so Anunoby would have to make the most of whatever minutes were left to the bench. Most recently, he’s even been faced with the threat that Toronto had been in the market for forward Markieff Morris.
Anunoby, frankly, has had far greater concerns than losing a starting job this season or looking over his shoulder for who’s coming for his role. His father’s passing has left a mark, forcing him to miss several games this season due to personal reasons — he’s missed 11 in total that includes time out for a wrist injury. The basketball court can be a temporary escape for some, offering some solace, but each individual is different.
Now, the All-Star break is here, and despite his struggles, he can feel like he belongs again, getting named to the World team for the Rising Stars challenge Friday night. It may have just been a flash in the pan — of which there have been a few this season — but on a night where Siakam stole the show and Powell wasn’t at his best, Anunoby highlighted what he’s got in the bag and what the front office was so intrigued by when they selected him 23rd overall despite other teams fretting over a lost college season due to a knee injury. Better still, even when Toronto was in the midst of discussions with different teams to upgrade their roster, it was Anunoby and Siakam who were deemed untouchable.
It speaks further volumes of how Anunoby’s season has gone thus far that, in the absence of Leonard, head coach Nick Nurse has generally turned towards a two point guard lineup of Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet. Except, on this Wednesday night against the Washington Wizards, there was no VanVleet to be had either. So Nurse turned to Norman Powell, he who lost his starting job to Anunoby last year, but has come on strong this season by working on his drive game, upping his three-point percentage, and generally just not forcing the action.
For Anunoby, defense is the calling card. His signature moment as a rookie came guarding James Harden in Houston, and unlike so many who need to see the ball fall through the mesh to get their juices flowing, it’s preventing his opponent from doing so that really seems to get the forward drafted out Indiana going.
On this night against the Wizards, that trend continued.
Jordan McRae looks for Jabari Parker after being denied a feed to the left wing, and under the impression there is no defender, lazily tosses the ball to the former second overall pick. Anunoby is virtually in motion at exactly the same time McRae is about to release the ball, like a sprinter timing his jump out of the blocks to perfection. Off he goes to the races, throwing the ball down with authority at the other end. His seven-foot-six wingspan is what initially allows him to place himself further enough from his man to goad the ball handler into making the pass, while his strength ensures he can’t be bodied out of the way by his man.
A leak out like that is just what the doctor orders to get the confidence back up, and it was amazing to see just how quickly Anunoby ramped up the aggression from there. The Raptors have been abysmal from three, especially when considering how highly touted the personnel was entering the season. Entering Wednesday’s contest, they ranked 25th in three-point percentage and that’s largely due to the drop-off we’ve seen from players like Lowry, VanVleet and C.J. Miles to this point. Of course, the personnel has changed some over the past 10 days, and with a slight decrease in overall depth to bolster the top-tier talent, the need for Anunoby’s willingness to shoot is at a premium.
Here, Anunoby shows exactly what’s required of him with two shots — before and after an offensive board — that are the definition of letting it fly. There’s a healthy arc on both shots, there’s a positive motion to his follow-through like he believes it’s going in, and the trust Marc Gasol shows in getting the ball right back to him matters, too.
Again, in the play above, Anunoby is looking to get shot-ready the second he gets the ball to Powell. He’s unfazed by Bradley Beal’s closeout, and again the follow-through is consistent.
While the three-point shot is encouraging, Anunoby’s physique is too special to be limited to just that. When the Raptors were at Summer League, Nurse put the ball in Anunoby’s hands plenty to help develop his game, and suggested areas he wanted to see the forward grow in heading into the 2018-19 season.
“For me, it’s important that he adds some specific things,” Nurse said after a July 13 practice in Vegas. “He can add — right now — in an NBA game, that we can get him out and get a couple transition buckets. He’s not a transition bucket maker and we’ve seen a few here. That we can get him inside on a post-up, that he can score that, and he can get a put-back or two and he can get to the line, maybe, one or two more times and all of a sudden you’ve added five, six, seven, eight points to his game.”
Compartmentalized scoring. It’s a method Shaquille O’Neal has revealed in the past he’s used to plan out his scoring, and his would go even further in terms of how many points he needed every quarter as well as how he would go about getting them (breakdown of free-throws, dunks, hook shots). No one’s asking Anunoby to score at the rate of the NBA’s original Superman, but keeping these easy ways in mind to get a few baskets can be incredibly helpful in him maintaining consistency from game to game.
Lin pushes the ball in transition in the play above and Anunoby is smart to recognize the Wizards have no semblance of organization as they casually get back. With no one picking him up, Anunoby makes a beeline to the basket, and despite a pass that’s slightly behind him, takes it in stride and finishes with a one handed jam.
Anunoby’s ability to seek out opportunities could prove vital as we look ahead. Per Cleaning the Glass, Philadelphia and Milwaukee are two of the best transition defense teams in terms of efficiency while Boston is 10th. Only San Antonio is more efficient at transition scoring, but as the game slows down in the postseason, those opportunities are bound to come at a premium. Every little bit Anunoby can seek out in this regard will aid not only the team cause but also allow him to ease into his own offense.
If he showed confidence earlier in taking back-to-back threes on the same offensive trip, he seemed to give himself a neon green light by passing up on what looked a clear swing opportunity to Lin (who would generally be considered the better perimeter option this season) and proceeding to take advantage of a poor closeout by McRae to finish at the rim once again.
As an aside, I know that assist was probably a bit too generous to Ibaka, but he finished with six (!) for the game. His passing has been much improved this season, especially in finding shooters off the short-roll, and while it would be unfair to expect him to elevate the productivity of his teammates in the manner that newly acquired Gasol can, his sustained improvement in this facet of his game (career-high 1.5 assists per game that includes 16 over last five games) should open more opportunities for Toronto’s role players to succeed.
Okay, so there wasn’t any post-up scoring nor trips to the free-throw line for Anunoby. It was still enough for a career-high 22 points and one that couldn’t have come at a better time. He’s now got himself a chance to unwind, take in the season that’s been and possibly come out refocused.
With Masai Ujiri and the rest of the front office having played all their cards, the onus is on the players to take ownership of the position they’ve been put in, do their bit to bring a championship to Toronto. While not central to the plot, Anunoby proved against Washington why he’s capable of playing a part.
