Raptors’ offence could get an injection from Chris Finch – The Athletic
Zion Cuts and dynamic hand-offs
How Williamson was used was more interesting than Ingram, tactically. Like with Denver and Jokic, a lot of New Orleans’ principles were based on free flow and improvisation. An explosive Williamson hand-off action was a great opportunity to break down a defence with a few decision points early in the clock. One of Williamson’s first dunks came off a pistol action where he attacked on a hand-off as the trailer.
Several Raptors could run such an action, but it strikes me as a way to get Siakam in attack mode early, similar to how the Raptors used to run a semi-transition alley-oop for DeRozan early. If you’d prefer, here’s Ingram scoring off of a series of semi-transition quick-hits involving pitches or hand-offs to get him attacking early in the clock with an advantage.
The Pelicans would also use a “Zion Cut” with Williamson off the ball, with the initial pick-and-roll at the top working as a misdirection.
This strikes me as more of a potential wrinkle for Anunoby than anyone, given how often he’s stationed in the corner and Siakam figures to be used in high pick-and-roll more. Mostly, it’s just another data point suggesting Finch figures to have the Raptors trying to threaten from more places on the court, especially earlier in the clock. The Raptors were the third-lowest player movement offence in the league, per NBA.com tracking data, and while movement isn’t a goal on its own (just like passing isn’t), it can help make a team harder to defend, which was Finch’s entire point in that opening media availability.
So, yeah, but have you heard the Raptors offence on vinyl?
Raptors enter COVID-impacted season with ‘next man ready’ mentality
Nurse and the Raptors won’t just be relying upon past experience to help them navigate what might be a tricky season of roster shuffle, however. In a year like this one, it’s wise to have contingencies in place for the real possibility that someone — or multiple bodies — might be forced out.
As Nurse said, the backup plan in the event of a particularly COVID-ravaged roster will come from the team’s internal style of play.
“I think one of the biggest contingency things we’ve got to do is try to get all 15, 17 guys ready, right? I mean, you just gotta make sure you teach these guys how you want to play. Obviously we have a number of new guys, so that part needs to continue. We need to accelerate that — especially the new guys — from day one. And I think that’s the best contingency plan we can have is to continue to say ‘next man ready’ or ‘plug in and play,’ and we got to have confidence in the system at both ends of the floor.
“The system has to do its job defensively, first of all, first and foremost, to give you a chance. Then if the way the system offensively is generating shots, that’s when we always say, that’s all we can do.
“And then instead of just maybe great individual one-on-one play generating shots, the offence generates the shots and all the players — hopefully one through 17 — will be able to fit into that system and execute it.”
This egalitarian approach Nurse spoke of is similar to how the Raptors navigated the rough waters of what could’ve been season-debilitating injuries last season. So, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
That seems to be the philosophy the Raptors have, for now at least, concerning COVID-19’s potential to become a true problem with the team, but it’s not like they’re actually trying to court this danger, either.
The Raptors are doing the best they can to try to make as safe an environment as possible for its staff and players and, so far, despite the positive tests, seem to be doing a good job of it, at least according to one of the team’s players.
New centre Aron Baynes recently saw the birth of his child, someone who is obviously at risk of COVID-19, but said Tuesday how comfortable he feels with the Raptors and the safety precautions they’ve put into place.
“That’s one of the things about what we’re doing is we’re in the best possible circumstance to be doing what we’re doing,” said Baynes. “They look after everything for us. So it’s really not much stress on us in terms of what we have to do on a day-to-day schedule. The hardest thing for us is going out to get a test every single day. That’s as tough as it is for us. We’re protected, we’re looked after so well and, sure, we can’t do some things some days but at the end of the day we’re lucky to be able to do what we do.”
Toronto Raptors training camp rolls on, despite positive tests for COVID-19 – TSN.ca
After follow-up testing and contact tracing, the Raptors are confident that the three cases remain isolated, so much so that they’ve deemed it safe to keep their facilities open. They held a non-contact practice on Monday and were able to go full bore in Tuesday’s session. They’ve got an intrasqaud scrimmage planned for Wednesday, according to Nick Nurse.
Despite another would-be distraction, this one hitting closer to home, it’s business as usual for Nurse’s team.
“You kinda get used to it,” said the Raptors head coach, who spoke to the media via videoconference following Tuesday’s practice. “I don’t know if it’s handling whatever’s being thrown at you, or if it’s putting it in a certain compartment and handling that and moving forward with basketball. That’s kind of what it seems like to me. There seems to be many things that are going on, even with relocating [to Tampa] or whatever it is. There is time and energy spent there, [but] you put that to the side and you get to your film-watching and your practice-planning and your making-players-better thoughts.”
Even with that said, there’s no ignoring what’s happening around them. As someone who keeps an elephant figurine in his office back in Toronto – signifying the value of addressing topics that are often avoided, or the ‘elephant in the room’ – Nurse is making time to have those conversations with his players before or after most practices. Ensuring that everybody understands the importance of following proper health and safety guidelines on their own time has been an early emphasis in camp. That they’ve already had three positive cases should reinforce it as a priority.
“I don’t think it feels like a wake-up call, but I think it does add a sense of awareness,” said Nurse. “I think a lot of things do. You look around and see something happen in another sport, or another team, or college, or whatever, and you’re getting these awareness reminders because it’s kinda what’s going on. That’s the way things are moving in the world of sports right now. But yeah, it hits a little closer to home. Do I get in front of the team and have some commentary on it? Yeah, I do, and that’s probably because of those results coming in. I envision myself having to do that, not every day but maybe every other.”
Recently signed centre , who tested positive for COVID-19 over the summer, can speak from experience.
“The worst thing about it was the stress of initially not knowing if I was going to pass it on to my family,” said the 33-year-old Australian big man. “At the time when I was first diagnosed, my wife was pregnant, so she was in the high-risk category. My daughter has asthma, so she was in the high-risk category. And then all the unknowns of what it was going to do to children and adults alike, but definitely the kids, we were definitely worried about what was going to happen. As much as it knocked me on my butt any moment that I was awake, it was just complete dread as to what was going to happen for them, for their safety.”
“Because I know how it felt to worry about it, it’s something we take seriously to this day… We don’t want to put others in the same position that our family went through.”
ESPN ranks Toronto Raptors OG Anunoby #68 on annual top 100 list – Raptors HQ
But while the write-up is on the money, we can quibble with the rankings exercise as a whole. 68 seems pretty reasonable on the surface, especially when you consider some of the players behind OG, including a few with around the same age/experience:
- Buddy Hield, #87
- John Collins, #84
- Aaron Gordon, #78
- Montrezl Harrell, #76
- Myles Turner, #74
- D’Angelo Russell, #69
I would rank OG ahead of all those guys, yes!
But then… there are some players ahead of OG that are real head scratchers, none moreso than Tyler Herro at #58. I like Herro! He’s gonna have a long career! But maybe let’s see the guy do it for more than one season, and perhaps play just a little bit of defense, before we declare him a top-60 player?
We also have TJ Warren at #63, and while he absolutely has a more refined offensive game than Anunoby, he’s way worse defensively, and I really don’t trust that the offensive explosion we saw in the bubble will lead to anything more (and it certainly didn’t lead to, you know, winning, which is kinda important). Besides, he did all that without Domantas Sabonis and with a hobbled Victor Oladipo.
Then there’s Michael Porter Jr. at #51. You’re telling me there are only 50 NBA players better than Michael Porter Jr.!? COME ON. He’s only played 55 games and while sure, he shot 42% from downtown and was an offensive force during the bubble seeding games, he couldn’t crack the Nuggets’ starting lineup in the postseason due to his defensive woes, and then he complained about it publicly during the team’s playoff run. He has tons of potential and may well end up better than OG Anunoby and a lot other guys on the list, but for now? I’m sorry, Michael Porter Jr. is not the 51st best player in the NBA.
Dammit. Look, they did it. ESPN got me riled up with their stupid list. I hate myself for it, but they did it.
Safety is paramount for Raptors centre Aron Baynes after summer session with COVID-19 | The Star
The spectre of COVID-19 will hover over the NBA to some extent for the entire season to come. The risk of getting it, the repercussions of a large outbreak, and the cost it exacts from individuals who are infected and their family members will be a constant.
Raptors centre Aron Baynes knows what that is like. He was “knocked on his butt” by the coronavirus in July and he can make a firsthand case to his new teammates on just how important it is to follow protocols, to conduct themselves with equal parts caution and awareness, and to be worried about those around them as much as themselves.
“It’s something we take serious to this day and try to practise the best possible isolating and cleaning (protocols) and looking after ourselves and doing the same for others,” Baynes said in a video conference call Tuesday. “We don’t want to put others in the same position that our family went through, even though at the end of the day they were mostly asymptomatic — a couple little things, but they were more on the very mild side.
“Myself, I was symptomatic and had some things that knocked me on my butt. Thankfully, I’m fit and have a good diet, so I was able to overcome it.”
Compounding Baynes’ illness in the summer — he tested positive in July and missed the NBA restart of the 2018-19 season — was the fact he wife was pregnant at the time and one of their children suffers from asthma. It made him acutely aware of the trickle-down dangers of the insidious disease, an awareness he feels today, especially since the couple’s latest child was born this week in Florida.
“The worst thing about it was the stress of initially not knowing if I was going to pass it on to my family, not knowing if they were going to get extremely sick and what the repercussions were going to be on their end,” he said. “As much as it knocked me on my butt any moment that I was awake, it was just complete dread and scared as to what was going to happen for them, for their safety.”
Raptors newcomer Baynes was hard at it long before camp opened | Toronto Sun
Baynes is also navigating a bit of chaos himself arriving as the likely starting centre on a team that is finding its own way through some uncharted waters.
At the top of that list is figuring out his role on a team that relies on team defence that demands precision switching.
Baynes more or less downplayed that yesterday when he spoke with the media following Day 3 of training camp.
“There are a couple nuances,” he said. “Overall, the NBA game comes down to a lot of pick-and-roll defence. Nick (head coach Nurse) throws in a few different looks and a few little other things. There are some changes in the vocabulary. Beyond that, it’s very similar, things I’ve done here, things I’ve done there. So I’m just trying to put it all together and learn. Also getting on the same page as everyone. Once we communicate and talk and do that over a number of repetitions, it will start to look even smoother and cleaner. That’s what we’re working toward every time we step out there right now.”
Nurse has been pleased with his newest centre who has the very big shoes of Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka to fill. He’s seeing all the same characteristics that made him such a tough opponent — his top level screening and physicality — as well as a keener appreciation for his shooting.
“You always learn stuff when you’ve got them in front of you,” Nurse said when asked about Baynes. “I think he’s a much better shooter than maybe I had envisioned for one.”
Baynes has been an improving three-point shooter since his days in Boston and is coming off a year in Phoenix where he shot the three-ball at a 37% clip.
Baynes says that continues to get better still.
The other issue about joining a new team made that much tougher by an on-going pandemic is just getting to know your teammates and the staff.
Baynes admits the mask-wearing the staff does has hindered that somewhat.
“I think the biggest challenge for me is I’m crappy with names, I’m better with faces and the mask covers up the face of the staff so I’m walking around continually asking the staff, ‘Sorry, what’s your name again?’,” Baynes said. “Usually I can identify them by their face and it makes it a little easier, but that’s the biggest challenge to me right now so it’s really not much at all to deal with. It might piss a couple people off asking their name a couple more times than normal but beyond that everything here is so good and the camaraderie and the family that is already built here it’s making it easy for me to come in, be a part of and contribute to this very easily right now.”
