Raptors are legit | Siakam working hard to make jump |Bench is mobbing up
.@FredVanVleet got jokes 😂 pic.twitter.com/gGQSFgxH49
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) November 28, 2019
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Raptors Over Everything: A deep dive into Masai Ujiri – Yahoo!
Host William Lou is joined by Trevor Cole of Toronto Life to discuss his profile of Masai Ujiri.
Topics:
- Masai Ujiri’s childhood and upbringing
- Professional basketball career and transition to the front office
- Return to Toronto
- Hiring Nick Nurse
- Trading for Kawhi Leonard
- Future plans
The Raptors’ unique title defence is the best story of the young NBA season – The Athletic
As we approach the end of the first full month of the season, alongside the ascent of Dallas’ sensational sophomore, Luka Doncic, the Raptors are the best story in the NBA, full stop. This was not supposed to be how this season went.
With apologies to Wednesday’s rudimentary win over the Knicks, it was the win over the 76ers that was evident of just how compelling this team is. After it, Raptors president Masai Ujiri exchanged fist-bumps with his players, expressing his exuberance with enthusiasm and profanity. At this stage, the Raptors’ defining characteristics are probably their effort level and competitiveness.
It was the 76ers who were the most-hyped team in the conference, with a giant starting lineup poised to shut down teams. It was the Raptors, however, who closed the game with a 10-0 run in the last four minutes. It is the Raptors, who lost two of the best wing defenders in the world in Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, who entered Wednesday’s play with the sixth-best defensive rating in the league, a sliver better than those 76ers. It is the Raptors who, along with the Bucks, are the only team in the Eastern Conference with offensive and defensive ratings in the top 10.
Even the team’s most optimistic observers thought this level of performance might be difficult after the losses of the two former stars, replaced on the roster by two guys off the scrap heap. And if you would have told those observers that they would be accomplishing that without team engine Kyle Lowry, as well as without Serge Ibaka, for more than half of their first 17 games, they would have concluded that their 13-4 start was a work of fan fiction. Before you cite the Raptors’ cupcake schedule, they have played the fourth-toughest schedule in the league, according to Team Rankings. John Schuhmann of NBA.com, who factors in rest when considering strength of schedule, has them closer to the other end, mostly because of the rest they have accumulated. Basketball-Reference’s Simple Rating, which takes into account strength of schedule and point differential, ranks the Raptors behind only the Bucks and Clippers this season. The Raptors have beaten the Lakers and 76ers already, with their only four losses coming by 10 points or fewer on the road to teams that are at least five games over .500. And all four of those games were competitive well into the fourth quarter.
“They’re the NBA champs. How can that not produce some level of confidence and extra boost on how they perform?” Philadelphia coach Brett Brown, one of the Raptors’ most memorable victims last year, said Monday. Brown had experience with championship teams as an assistant in San Antonio. “I would suspect that that’s some of it.”
The Toronto Raptors have what it takes to be a contender in the East – Sir Charles in Charge
Several players doing their part
After a breakout year last season, Siakam looks to be blossoming into a star for the Raps, with a team-leading 26 points and 8.4 rebounds per contest. He’s averaging almost ten more points per game than last season, while also registering the second-most minutes per game on Toronto at 36.7.
Kyle Lowry is still a vital part of this team’s success, but Siakam is showing huge potential as the next franchise player for the Raptors.
Fred VanVleet is also enjoying a breakout campaign after bursting on to the scene last year. The former Wichita State standout is playing the most minutes on the team currently at 37.6 while averaging a career-high 18.3 points and team-leading 7.5 assists.
He’s really taken his game to another level so far this season, and the increase in minutes that he’s seen haven’t overwhelmed him at all, showing out on a nightly basis for Toronto. Siakam and VanVleet have emerged as the two most important players on this team in the 2019-20 campaign thus far.
Small forward OG Anunoby has been a pleasant surprise this season for Nick Nurse. The 22-year-old is putting up career-high numbers in all categories, most notably dropping 11.9 points per game off the bench on 54 percent shooting from the field. With several injuries on their roster, Anunoby is getting his opportunity to contribute on a nightly basis and running with it.
Norman Powell is getting substantial minutes this year and posting solid numbers across the board, while newcomers Terence Davis, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and reigning G-League MVP Chris Boucher are proving to be instrumental players in the second unit.
Raptors’ current defensive prowess stems from championship playoff run – Sportsnet.ca
Keep building it did, all the way until Toronto eventually emerged from the post-season gauntlet as NBA Champions and with the know-how of how to play NBA championship-level defence — something that Nurse says is the reason why he was so mad at newcomers such as Rondae Hollis-Jefferson at during training camp and beginning portions of the season.
There was a certain defensive level Nurse expected his players to play at, and the new guys simply weren’t reaching it at the time.
“You guys heard me complaining about the new guys a lot for the first month of training camp that they just didn’t get that we’re gonna play defence,” said Nurse. And it’s our staff and that’s how we want to play, but it’s also, and I’m pointing to the guys that have been here, these guys don’t want you to be around if you’re not gonna play the right way. And that’s Marc [Gasol] and that’s Kyle [Lowry] and that’s Fred [VanVleet] and that’s OG [Anunoby] and that’s Pascal [Siakam]. The guys that grew through that success and understand it.”
But with key Raptors players, such as Lowry and Serge Ibaka, going down due to injury, some of those players who were in Nurse’s doghouse were forced to step up and have done so, most notably Hollis-Jefferson, Terence Davis and Chris Boucher.
“I give all those guys credit,” said Nurse. “We started having two-a-days where we had a practice and then all of the new guys had to practice again, and it was mostly on defence and they weren’t very happy about it for the first couple days but then they kinda took it on board and started doing it and learning our schemes a little better and playing a little harder and I think it’s paying off for them. So they’ve had buy-in and it’s helping them, it’s helping their own individual success.”
Raptors’ strong transition play opening up Siakam’s three-point shooting – Sportsnet.ca
It happens off made baskets as well. Next time you watch the Raptors, notice how quickly they inbound the ball and ship it to the offensive end, looking to catch an unprepared defence before it’s set. Kyle Lowry’s the best at it, often clapping his hands at officials, urging them to recycle the ball quicker after a bucket. And even in his absence over the last few weeks, his teammates have taken up the mantle.
All that transition and fast break play may no longer be leading to trademark Siakam outlet dunks — but it doesn’t have to. That was the play of Siakam 2.0. This is the new, updated model — one who’s shooting 39.5 per cent (30-of-76) on above-the-break three’s after hitting only 27 per cent (17-of-63) last season. One who’s dropping 38.9 per cent (14-of-36) of his pull-up three’s after attempting only eight — he made just one — all of last season.
It’s not supposed to happen overnight like that. But nothing about Siakam’s basketball-playing life, which began a decade ago on a whim at a Cameroonian basketball camp, was supposed to happen. He made it happen.
When Siakam was first working on developing his shooting, the Raptors tasked him with taking 450 repetitions a day — 150 form shots, 100 free throws, and 200 corner three’s. It took him about an hour to complete a session. Three days into the routine, Siakam told his coaches that wasn’t enough. So, he upped the daily repetitions to 900, completing the 450-shot routine twice a day.
“That’s always something I’ve been able to do — continue to make sure that I work on my craft,” Siakam said. “I’m always late. That’s my mindset. I have to find a way to catch up with all the people that started playing when they were like five-years-old, three-years-old. I have a long way to go. And every single day I know that. So, I’ve got to work double.”
For Raptor Pascal Siakam, the prescription for NBA greatness is 1,000 shots a day | The Star
Siakam’s improvement has been as startling as it has been rapid. He was a brutal three-point shooter his first two seasons in the NBA — 14 per cent from beyond the arc as a rookie, 22 per cent in his sophomore year — but his last two seasons have been revelatory.
He shot 37 per cent with just over two attempts on average per game last season. This year, he’s firing at a 39.3 per cent clip and averaging more than six attempts. He shredded the Knicks with five made threes, tying his career high, as teams continue to give him far too much space to operate and pay dearly for it.
“(Taking) whatever the defence gives me,” he said. “That’s something I’m learning to do, and not forcing it and taking whatever the defence gives me. That’s the next part of my game.
“Sometimes they’re going to fall and sometimes they’re not. The most important thing is understanding that … whatever they give you is what you’re taking, and you live the results.”
The trickle-down effect of Siakam becoming such an adept shooter is that he isn’t always taking a pounding from double teams and trying to score in the paint. If he can get up quick shots in transition, or early in the shot clock, it plays perfectly into the early offence Nurse craves.
“I think he’s ultra-aggressive — lots of catch-and-shoot threes, which I love,” the coach said.
“Those are easy possessions. He doesn’t have to get pounded on, or make three spin moves to get a shot up or anything. It’s nice that he gets to come down and take some of those.”
The first thing that should jump out is just how much offence Siakam is creating for himself compared to years past. Not just in the post, where he did the bulk of his 1-on-1 scoring last season. Siakam is getting more opportunities as the ball handler in isolation and pick-and-rolls, the combination of which has almost doubled the amount of time he has possession of the ball, up from 2.5 minutes per game last season to 4.2 this season.
With it being new territory for Siakam, he’s been surprisingly efficient in isolation and pick-and-roll scorer. According to NBA.com, he ranks in the 61st percentile with an average of 0.94 points per isolation possession. He’s not shooting particularly well in those situations, but he benefits from getting to the free-throw line at the same rate as LeBron James, Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Siakam ranks higher in pick-and-roll efficiency, the 71st percentile with 0.94 points per possession.
Siakam’s evolution as a shooter has played a big role in his growth as an isolation pick-and-roll scorer. Whereas he couldn’t do much much more than spot-up in the corners last season, he’s expanded his range to the top of the perimeter and has become more comfortable shooting off the dribble.
As a result, Siakam has already made more above the break and pull-up 3s this season than he did all of last season.
End of Bench Chronicles: What can’t these guys do for the Toronto Raptors? – Raptors HQ
Eighth Man Title Holder
Rondae Hollis-JeffersonTrust Meter: 10 out of 10
Happenings: We’re going the whole 10 right now because the take I’ve been waiting for has finally be put out into the world: Really, the Nets couldn’t have used what Hollis-Jefferson was giving them? Brooklyn is currently 9-9 and essentially sitting out the year while Kevin Durant heals. The Kyrie Express is already steering them off the edge of the world. They play on a weird-as-hell Pleasantville court. And you’re telling me they didn’t want RHJ’s 11.7 points and 7.7 rebounds in a crisp 26 minutes per game (this week), plus stifling defense on every player possible?
Honestly, if you’re a Nets fan, first I’m sorry to hear it, and second, every time you see Rondae sneak along the baseline to receive another dump-off pass for a lay-up you really have to question what it is you’re doing with your sports fan passion.
Raptors subs haven’t reached bench mob status yet, but they’re coming | Toronto Sun
As VanVleet himself, who is reluctant to compare this group just yet to that group two seasons ago that included himself, Pascal Siakam, Delon Wright, C.J. Miles and Jakob Poeltl, he knows they are still a unit in the making.
There will come a time not too far down the road when Norm Powell, now in the starting five with Kyle Lowry out, will join them. Also on the mend and almost ready to step back into a starring role on that second unit that he found a comfort level with a year ago is Serge Ibaka.
No, VanVleet has not heard any catchy nicknames for this year’s second unit, nor is he apt to put one out there himself, but VanVleet is excited about the group that is beginning to form right before his eyes.
“They have the talent and that is what we have been looking for,” VanVleet said of the Raptors bench. “We were waiting to see who was going to step up and I think we found it.”
VanVleet, because he has been in these same shoes not that long ago, knows there’s another challenge looming for this group.
“The hard part is going to be when we have a full team,” VanVleet said. “How do you manage that? Less shots, less reps, less minutes. That time you get to play through your mistakes is shortened and that’s a mental hurdle you have to get over. That’s something we’ll have to see.”
Davis, like VanVleet, is a testament to the Raptors player’s operations department and scouting department. Headed up by Dan Tolzman and still basking in the success of that VanVleet steal as an undrafted signing in 2016, Davis — also undrafted and signed — is shaping up to be every bit the success story.
Who are the 30 best players in the NBA right now? | NBA.com Canada
Biggest risers
Pascal Siakam wasn’t even on the list the first time our experts from NBA.com put this list together. There were a ton of questions surrounding how Siakam would stand up as the go-to-guy for the Toronto Raptors with Kawhi Leonard taking his talents to L.A.
A month and a half into the season and Siakam has silenced the doubters and is well on his way to being named an All-Star in 2020. There’s a legit argument to be made that Siakam could go back-to-back as the league’s Most Improved Player. Others believe that he should be in the conversation for the league’s Most Valuable Player award. Those are discussions for another time – what matters is Siakam is on the list now. Don’t be surprised to see him rise even higher when we revisit this again after All-Star weekend.
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