Raptors handle Pistons | Casey salty but gracious | Giannis to Raptors rumours are in full swing | Stanley Johnson has a dope mom
Oh, and did I mention — there is one giant, long-armed Greek shadow looming over every decision this franchise makes. Sources say the Raptors are likely to be one of the chief pursuers of Giannis Antetokounmpo if and when he hits the 2021 free-agent market, so any moves that eliminate the possibility of max cap space that summer would be extremely unlikely.
As a result, one imagines the Raptors eyeing two distinct windows — everything before summer 2021, and everything after. Their two recent cap moves both fit neatly under that description. Kyle Lowry’s one-year extension puts him in the “everything before” timetable, retaining his rights without committing to a lengthy deal that would limit their ability to pursue the Greek Freak. Meanwhile, Siakam’s max extension secures the franchise’s most important long-term asset to the team well past Antetokounmpo’s decision date.
The trade deadline isn’t until Feb. 6, giving the team three months to evaluate the remaining roster before launching into any long-term decisions. Team president Masai Ujuri’s reputation is that he’s a pragmatist — always hunting trades, yes, but knowing his price limit – and is likely to keep his options open as long as possible. At the same time, he’s known to detest losing players to free agency and receiving nothing in return.
February felt a long way away when I went to Toronto for opening day; nobody is sweating the future just yet. Frankly it was a bit surprising, given the franchise’s recent history (given that it traded franchise icon DeMar DeRozan, certainly it could move others), but it was also opening day with a ring ceremony on tap.
The first four games won’t cause a rush to action either, with the Raptors essentially sitting at an even par (OT win at home over New Orleans, narrow loss at Boston, easy win at Chicago, home win over Orlando) relative to expectations.
But the specter of change looms nonetheless — most insiders would be surprised to see Toronto with the same roster in March. And, of course, questions will only loom larger if an injury or two strikes during the season. Toronto basically rolls with a seven-man rotation right now, and faces a precipitous drop in quality when it goes any deeper.
10 things: Raptors’ Siakam embraces stardom vs. Pistons – Yahoo!
Seven — Dominating:
Apologies for the tired comparison, but there is something Kawhi-esque about the way Anunoby hounds defenders on the perimeter. Anunoby envelops you with his 7-foot-3 wingspan, and he actively attacks the dribble without giving up position. Only the best ball-handlers can cope with the pressure, while average wings like Luke Kennard are just forced to reset. If he keeps this up, Anunoby just might crack the All-Defence teams.
Pascal Siakam haunts old coach Dwane Casey in his most promising game yet – The Athletic
Siakam’s statistics were gaudy enough to start the season. If there was a reason to question Siakam’s ascendence in the team’s pecking order, it was that Siakam was occasionally sloppy with his decision-making. Foul trouble has plagued him, and he had 14 assists and 17 turnovers. Siakam is aggressive by nature, and sometimes that means he spins or twirls into traffic instead of open space.
Still, the Raptors are smartly trying to put Siakam in the middle of things again and again. Through five games, his usage percentage is at 32.2, higher than where Leonard finished last year and where DeMar DeRozan was in all but one of his Raptors seasons. It is safe to assume that will fall over time, but the team is clearly not easing Siakam into this role.
Which is why, then, his first half might have been more impressive, or at least more important in the long run, than his third-quarter outburst. Siakam had all five of his assists in the first half, with just a single turnover. You could see Siakam identifying where help was coming from, and when he had opportunities to score. When he spun in the paint with Morris on his back, he noted Andre Drummond camping out under the rim, waiting for either a rebound or a chance to block a shot. Serge Ibaka was farther out but still in the paint, and Siakam delivered him the ball for a short push shot.
Counter that to the first half, when Siakam backed down Wood, with Ibaka floating out to the paint and beyond. Detroit’s Thon Maker followed Ibaka most of the way out to cut down the passing lane, so Siakam took his time, spinning counter-clockwise for an easy basket.
“Double-teams, extra bodies,” Casey said when asked what is the toughest thing for young players to adjust that when they’re becoming top options. “Usually when you’re playing off another star player, you can free flow and kinda get lost in the shuffle (with the opponent’s defence), but now when that spotlight is on you … usually seeing the extra bodies, that extra attention you get, whether it’s a half a body or people watching you, that’s hard to get used to. But he’s handled it very well in his first few games. He’s had no trouble adjusting to that role.”
That is maybe a bit too kind to his former pupil. Regardless, Wednesday night certainly represented progress for Siakam. If he can really fill both roles in the full-court transition pass, those numbers might get gaudier.
Detroit Pistons doomed by Pascal Siakam, 125-115, in Toronto – Detroit Free Press
But with no Blake Griffin (yet to play this season left knee soreness) and Reggie Jackson (missed third straight with back stiffness), the undermanned Pistons (2-3) were no match for the world champion Raptors (4-1).
Casey was complimentary of Siakam, but his disgust was obvious when seeing the Raptors shot nearly 60%.
“Our individual defense was lacking,” Casey said. “Any time you let a team shoot 59%, I don’t care if it’s Pascal or whoever is out there, we weren’t guarding them.
“Pascal had a heck of a night. Their whole offense is playing at a very high level, with a lot of confidence, but you have to go out and compete and not wait to get punched in the mouth.”
Siakam was a project when the Raptors selected him in the first round of the 2016 draft.
But he has improved steadily and his play against Golden State Warriors standout defender Draymond Green in the NBA Finals raised eyebrows.
He had the entire repertoire working against the Pistons in the third quarter when he was 8-for-12 from the field and 3-for-4 from 3-point range.
The Detroit Pistons were without Blake Griffin, Reggie Jackson and without any answers for the defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors. The Raptors carved up Detroit inside and out, on the fast break and in the half court. Toronto was led by Pascal Siakam who scored 19 in the third to put the game out of reach and ended the nigth with a cool 30 points.
Siakam made every defender that feigned to stop him look silly. He was sinking high-arching 3s with a hand in his face, crossing players over and using a herky-jerk handle to create space and take a simple stepback against the switch.
Siakam was not the only Raptor who shined brightly, as the Raptors’ depth and balanced roster stood in stark contrast to Detroit’s shorthanded and hodgepodge rotations. Six Raptors finished in double figures and four had 19 or more points.
Detroit had no answers for anything Toronto was doing, but leaves the Scotiabank Arena with plenty of questions. Derrick Rose was hot in the first half but cooled in the second as Toronto blitzed him with multiple defenders as soon as he looked ready to make a move.
Rapid Reaction: Toronto Raptors 125 Detroit Pistons 113 – Piston Powered
I’m very uncomfortable with the Pistons’ regular struggles with finishing at the rim. With guys like Drummond, Morris, Christian Wood, and even Thon Maker with his height, it should not be as difficult to score inside as it has apparently become. Tonight was no exception.
Lazy and errant passes were a regular happening tonight, as Detroit committed 20 turnovers for the third consecutive game. This allowed Toronto to dominate the Pistons in transition, where they scored 23 fast break points to Detroit’s 11.
I’m also uncomfortable with the fact that the Pistons are frequently relying on Derrick Rose for damage control. The opposing team will jump out to a lead, and Rose is sent in to run a majority of the offense. Has it been working? Most of the time, he’s been incredibly effective. However, this should not be a regular habit of Casey’s, as Rose is already on a minutes restriction.
Allowing Rose to regularly exhaust his energy during the first half may be working fine through the first quarter of the season, but givens Rose’s history by game number 50 or so, that begins to take its toll.
Raptors’ defence helps Nurse top Casey-led Pistons for first time
Midway through the first quarter, a pair of steals by Norm Powell and OG Anunoby helped the Raptors on their way to an early nine-point lead. They let things slide in the second but still led 64-58 at half. But in the third they held the Pistons to four points in the first six minutes while forcing four turnovers. By the time the Pistons settled into a rhythm, the Raptors were up 20 and didn’t looking back. Siakam, in particular, was rolling.
“At halftime, we were like, ‘Listen, offence seems to be okay and we just have to give a bit more defensively’. I thought we came out of the half and did that,” said Nurse. “They kind of threw it in gear, they weren’t dominating by any stretch defensively but a pretty solid second half.”
The Raptors’ emerging defensive identity appears consistent with the rise of Siakam as a potent first-option scorer. His ability to guard multiple positions was supposedly going to be his ticket to regular NBA work, but he’s far surpassed that narrow job description while maintaining his core defensive abilities.
His challenge will be making sure his defensive effort doesn’t wane as his offensive responsibilities ramp up.
“I think it’s something in my mind, I have to find a way to be engaged and not just stand,” Siakam said. “Obviously having the ball more is more demanding but I think I have the ability to do that so I just have to make sure I keep that focus mentally and go out there and do it. Kawhi used to pick his spots and it was interesting to see. Maybe we’ll find a way to do that – maybe I won’t start on the best player at the beginning and at the end pick him up. We’ll figure that out and find ways to add to that.”
The reality is there may be no limit to what Siakam can do. Coming into the game, he was shooting 42.9 per cent from three on 5.3 attempts per game – unheard-of numbers when he broke into the league under Casey. He hit another three triples on six attempts in front of his old coach Wednesday night.
“When he started for 38 games or something like that (as a rookie in 2015-16), he did a great job of learning, picking up; the last thing I said was gonna come was shooting,” Casey said before the game. “And it came because the young man worked. If any young men out there looking to use an example of making yourself a player, you’ve got him as an example. Because he worked on his shooting, worked on his shooting, now he’s one of the top three-point shooting power forwards — or whatever position you want to call it — in the league.”
Recap: Toronto Raptors run Pistons off floor, 125-113, behind Pascal Siakam’s play – Raptors HQ
In truth, Casey’s Pistons don’t have a ton of momentum to spare. For every massive Drummond rebound (he had 22 boards tonight), for every shifty Derrick Rose drive (he finished with 16 points and 10 assists), even for every Langston Galloway three (a total of three), Siakam and the Raptors had an answer. In this it’s hard not to feel a bit bad for Casey — he knows some of Toronto’s guys perhaps better than they know themselves, or at least better than they knew themselves when he coached them — particularly Siakam. Now Pascal is a no-doubt leading scorer able to provide a mix of iso-jumpers, above-the-break 3s, and punishing spin moves in the post. Everyone else in Toronto is finding their places behind him.
Off of that singular effort, the Raptors shot 59 percent from the field as a team and 48 percent from three; they had only 14 turnovers to Detroit’s 20; and while they couldn’t out-rebound the Pistons (Drummond made sure of that), it didn’t really matter. Kyle Lowry just ran the floor instead, getting his team out to 23 fastbreak points, and finishing with 20 of his own (on some neat 7-of-13 shooting). His backcourt counterpart Fred VanVleet put in some light work for 13 points and 11 assists in a low (for him) 30 minutes. And OG Anunoby continued to be early-career Scottie Pippen with 13 points, eight rebounds, and two steals, while acting as an all-around deterrent on the perimeter. (Luke Kenard will be seeing OG’s swooping arms around every corner for the rest of his life.)
And while the Pistons’ bench did provide some strong contributions, the Raptors continued to see steady production from Serge Ibaka with 19 points and six rebounds. What’s more, they got 19 come-from-anywhere points from Norman Powell, who shot 7-of-10 despite having no real business doing so. Let’s also give special mention to the 23 minutes the Raptors got from Patrick McCaw, who showed off a bit more of those defensive chops Nurse is always crediting him with having. He also, amazingly, took three whole shots — and hit two of them! I’ll say it again: if the Raptors are getting five points from McCaw on any given night, they will be tough to beat.
The Raptors still project as a thin team. Nurse was not shy in admitting the foibles of his squad — Siakam resting on D due to his offensive expenditures, Lowry’s minutes still ticking too high, Gasol rounding into form (OK, that was my addition), the absence of anything from players nine through 15 — but they’re 4-1 anyway.
Raptors finally beat Casey’s Pistons in latest Siakam masterpiece | Toronto Sun
“They’re playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Casey said afterward. “That’s what you get from winning the championship. That’s a residual effect of that. It’s a credit for them.”
When it was over, Casey and Nick Nurse waved at each other, before Casey left through the opposite tunnel. Griffin can’t come back quickly enough for Casey, who led Detroit to the playoffs last season but will be in tough this time around barring a run of good health.
Meanwhile, Toronto is off to a confident 4-1 start and turned in perhaps its best offensive night yet, shooting a blistering 59% from the field counteracting good outside shooting from the Pistons.
There was even some progress in cutting down the heavy workload of most of the starters, though Nurse said there is work to do in that area yet.
“They’re a little high for me,” Nurse said of Lowry’s minutes.
“I’d like to trim them, excited that I trimmed them from 40 to 37 tonight, working on it, if I can trim a couple more minutes here and there, we’ll be in the ballpark.
Pascal Siakam leads third-quarter outburst as Raptors pull away from Pistons | The Star
Six Raptors were in double figures — Serge Ibaka and Norm Powell each had 19 points off the bench — while Fred VanVleet had 13 points and a season-high 11 assists.
Nurse’s point is that there is much more the Raptors can give offensively on a consistent basis. They are good now but can be better for longer.
“We’re just probably having a few too many possessions where we’re not making the best basketball decision,” he said before his team blitzed the Pistons to go 4-1 on the season. “We’re just taking it into too many bodies and not getting it out, or there’s one more pass to be made or whatever it is. Just a little bit more rhythm and little bit better read of the game.
“You know I’m always talking about stretching out those minutes of good play, I think were at about 30 right now so we’ve got a good goal to get to 48, we’ve got a good ways to go yet.”
The Raptors allowed the Pistons to shoot nearly 47 per cent from the floor, Derrick Rose got loose for 16 points off the bench and Andre Drummond had 21 but Toronto’s defence was good enough in stretches.
“At halftime, we were like, ‘Listen, offence seems to be OK and we just have to give a bit more defensively,’ ” Nurse said. “I thought we came out of the half and did that, strung up maybe a 10-1 run or something. They kind of threw it in gear, they weren’t dominating by any stretch defensively but (it was) a pretty solid second half.”
Stanley Johnson – For Mom – Video – TSN
Raptors forward Stanley Johnson grew up with a special basketball idol – his Mom. She taught him the game, coached him and supported him all the way to the NBA. But she did all of this while also battling breast cancer, and it was her strength that left the biggest impact on her son.
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