Raptors mailbag Part 2: Scenarios for 2021, everything Fred VanVleet, G1, more – The Athletic
Can we know Fred’s ceiling with Kyle playing alongside him? — Konrad
This is probably the bigger question than Joel’s. Unfortunately, it’s not functionally as relevant now that VanVleet is a free agent. This is something you needed to figure out before you re-up VanVleet, as the salary he’ll command is unquestioned starter money.
The evidence you have to date is mildly encouraging. Over the past two seasons (and playoffs), the Raptors have a plus-4 net rating in 2,257 minutes with just VanVleet on the court, and he has a personal true-shooting percentage of 53.1 percent on 22.2 percent usage. That’s less efficient than in his minutes with Lowry (plus-6.8, 55.9, 18.0), but that’s true for just about every Raptors player ever. VanVleet can be the best defensive guard on the floor, and reaching unquestioned starter status offensively might come down to using him a little differently as a playmaker rather than the playmaker when he’s out there. He also needs to improve his pick-and-roll game and his finishing, with or without Lowry.
To date, the evidence doesn’t cry out for VanVleet to carry a larger share of the offence yet, but he’s a starting-calibre guard when off-ball play and defence are factored. The Lowry partnership might elevate him some, but the Raptors will hope it’s more of a two-way effect than one-way heading into 2020-21 and a theoretical decline season for Lowry. (Yeah, right.)
Is Fred VanVleet necessary to the Raptors’ future? – The Athletic
Teams like the Clippers, Nets, Nuggets and Timberwolves are clearly paying for their top two offensive options. Ideally, Siakam and VanVleet would be the Raptors’ second and third options behind a superstar on a championship contender, or at most, sharing those three or spots more or less equally with a player such as Lowry. They are not being paid like the two most important guys on a team — well, Siakam is — but they are still not producing as key parts of a top-10 offence. They both have a lot of defensive value that makes up for some of that, but without some improvement from both players in key playmaking areas, it becomes difficult to raise the team’s offensive potential.
Obviously, the acquisition of a superstar such as Antetokounmpo would do a lot to help out Siakam and VanVleet. It is no coincidence that Siakam’s true shooting percentage was 7.4 percent higher last year, when he was frequently playing with Kawhi Leonard, than this year. This was VanVleet’s highest-usage season ever, and it is probably safe to assume he would get the same bump from playing similar minutes with a star. (Brogdon had a similar true shooting percentage drop to Siakam this year, as he went with playing from Antetokounmpo to not.)
We say this almost every year, but the Eastern Conference figures to be better next year than this year, with another potential Finals team emerging in Brooklyn with the health of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The Raptors have two choices: Pay VanVleet as if he is going to become a slightly better player than the very good one he already is, or bet that one of the best development programs in the league can have the offseason of its life on multiple fronts in what will be an uncertain, and likely shorter, period off than usual. Given the circumstances, the former seems a lot more likely than the latter.
As VanVleet likes to say, he has bet on himself, and he will cash in at some point in the late autumn. The Raptors might have no choice but to bet on him again, too, and worry about the math later.
The Raptors and Serge Ibaka might be cool with a $28-million golden handshake | The Star
The best idea from the Raptors’ point of view may be to try to convince Ibaka to take the Kyle Lowry Memorial Golden Handshake, a one-year deal with a raise on his $23.2-million (U.S.) salary from 2019-20.
A deal at, say, $28 million would be a nice thank you for his contribution to a championship run and still preserve the much-desired financial flexibility for team president Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster in the off-season after the 2020-21 season.
“Well, it’s all communication and how we relate to our players,” Ujiri said. “That is what our jobs are. We have to face them square on and we will deal with them as they come, as we have in the past. We do respect who our players are.
“We have to really attack this head on, and we know where their game is. We know how much they can improve; we try to project that as much as we can. We know where they have come from, too, because we have gone through all these struggles with all these guys and we mutually appreciate that.”
It might be as simple as the Raptors dangling those big-money, one-year deals in front of both Ibaka and Marc Gasol and being willing to live with whoever signs first.
They are certainly different players — Ibaka’s more athletic and instinctual, while Gasol’s ability to anchor both offence and defence is the best of any big man the team has — but it’s hard to envision a scenario where both will come back, unless they’re each willing to take one-year deals.
Even then, it could very well put Toronto into the luxury tax. Money may not be an issue, but long-term development may not be best served by keeping two big men, each in their 30s, on short-term deals.
To be frank, Toronto could have used a little more “Playoff Powell” during the 2020 postseason.
In Games 1 through 5 of the Boston series, Powell averaged 8.6 points on just 35.7% shooting from the field. His scoring average up until that point in the series was largely impacted by his scoring 10 points (seven in the second half) and 16 points (13 in the second half) as the Raptors were blown out in Games 1 and 5, respectively. And while his play in the second half Game 5 may have allowed him to find his rhythm in Game 6, it shows that his averages in the second round aren’t necessarily indicative of his scoring impact in the series, or for the entirety of the playoffs.
In short, Powell’s postseason – and season as a whole – was a wild ride. The regular season showed us that Powell is at his absolute best as a starter, while we saw that his ability to find his rhythm off the bench wasn’t as much of a sure thing at times.
That he found ways to strive in varying roles speaks volumes about Powell, who finished the season averaging 16.0 points (18.7 as a starter, 13.2 as a reserve) and is technically still the league’s reigning Player of the Week, after earning the honour for games played during the last full week of action prior to the season’s shut down.
Toronto Raptors season in review – The Varsity
The comeback game
December 22, 2019 was just a run-of-the-mill, regular season match against the Dallas Mavericks. Both teams were missing key players. Nobody expected much. I know I didn’t.
With two minutes left in the third quarter, the Raptors were down by 30 points. I remember turning to my dad at this point and saying, “We’re cursed! Whenever we go see a game in person, the Raptors lose. Remind me never to buy playoff tickets.”
People started to walk out as the quarter ended. I was so bummed I even considered leaving to try and get ahead of the post-game traffic — but I’m glad I stayed.
Long story short, Lowry went supernova in the fourth quarter, and the Raptors rallied back to complete a very memorable, statistical comeback in franchise history.
Winning is hard, and it doesn’t happen often. Sometimes it doesn’t happen at all. So, I know that loss to Boston was bitter, but keep faith! We had an amazing year, and it won’t be the last.
Send me any Raptors related content that I may have missed: rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com
