Toronto Raptors getting little production from centre position – TSN.ca
Veteran journeyman Aron Baynes, who was signed to supplant Gasol in the starting lineup, has underwhelmed and even seemed unplayable at times. He was one of the best centres left on the market after Ibaka and Gasol turned down modest offers from Toronto, and he’s been a serviceable big for good teams in the past, but he’s looked lost on the floor with his new club.
Since scoring 24 points on 11-of-20 shooting in his first two games as a Raptor, the 34-year-old has totalled 13 points on 6-of-25 over his last five. He played 27 scoreless minutes in their most recent losses to Boston and Phoenix, and was benched for all but six second-half minutes in those contests.
The Raptors are essentially playing four-on-five offensively when he’s on the floor. Teams aren’t respecting his jumper – he’s shooting 3-for-16 from three-point range, so far – and he continues to have difficulty catching and finishing around the basket. He’s not a rim protector, like Ibaka was, and he hasn’t been as defensively sound as Gasol to make up for the lack of offensive punch.
Alex Len – the former fifth-overall pick who was signed as a reclamation project after spending his first seven NBA seasons with three losing clubs – hasn’t shown much, either.
In 25 combined minutes against their former team, the Suns, on Wednesday, Baynes and Len recorded one point and six rebounds. Together, they’re averaging 8.5 points and 7.9 rebounds on the season. To put that into perspective, Gasol and Ibaka averaged 22.9 points and 14.5 rebounds last season, while shooting 39 per cent from three-point range and anchoring the team’s second-ranked defence.
As it stands, the Raptors’ best option at centre might be to go without a traditional centre.
Five thoughts recap: Phoenix Suns 123, Toronto Raptors 115 – Raptors HQ
The Raptors’ three centres combined to score 10 points on 3-of-7 shooting with eight rebounds and three turnovers in 41 minutes last night.
I don’t need to tell you that they need more than that.
The Raptors closed with their small lineup, featuring Lowry, VanVleet, Powell, Siakam and Anunoby; that’s a lineup that found decent success against Boston in the playoffs, and played excellent defensively last night. But with Norman Powell playing below par, offensively, it makes it that much harder to play it, especially in crunch time; Powell missed two three pointers and a free throw down the stretch that could have been difference makers.
I wouldn’t mind seeing that same lineup with Boucher at the four, or with DeAndre’ Bembry, who can’t seem to crack the rotation now. (Obviously, the preference would be for Norm to re-discover his mojo from last season!)
Other than that, centre is a position that Masai Ujiri might need to look to upgrade.
Nurse has options aplenty for Raptors, but none that really appeal | Toronto Sun
In his starting five, Nurse has the biggest of holes at the centre position with no real palatable answer right now.
Aron Baynes has a had a couple of good games but followed those up with a few stinkers too.
His three-point game, which was at least dependable just a year ago, has all but disappeared. He is shooting just under 19% from distance.
Alex Len has shown signs of being the interior deterrent this team desperately needs and had one game where he looked like an all-world shooter from behind the arc but that hasn’t sustained.
Chris Boucher has probably been the best of the three from an overall perspective but his slight frame means he is continually being knocked out of position for rebounds and that has been one of the Raptors most egregious failings to date.
Boucher actually provides much more production and effectiveness as the second big on the floor, but of course that job is already taken by an all-star in Pascal Siakam.
No matter which way Nurse turns, his choice is only half ways suitable.
Len, with time in Toronto’s system, could develop into the centre the Raptors need, but right now the more likely option is the tried and proven Baynes.
Whereas Len has yet to show sustained effectiveness in his career, Baynes has a track record.
The hope is that he can get back to being a somewhat reliable outside threat and the reliable defender he was in his Boston days and just as importantly an effective rebounder.
So far in a Toronto uniform he has been neither. He still sets a mean screen, but has yet to really find his fit in Toronto’s defence.
A lot of the Raptors struggles are coming on the glass, ranking in the bottom 10 for rebounds per game and bottom five in both opponent rebounds per game and second-chance points allowed per game.
It’s hard not to place some of that blame on Baynes and Len, who are averaging just 5.7 and 2.2 rebounds per game, respectively. Both All-Star forward Pascal Siakam and two-way wing OG Anunoby have done a better job on the glass than Toronto’s other two centres not named Chris Boucher and in Wednesday’s loss, we saw head coach Nick Nurse revert back to the small-ball lineup we saw in the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Boston Celtics, closing the game with Anunoby at centre.
Anunoby at centre gives the Raptors a different type of versatility and speed, allowing them to play at a faster pace without giving up too much frontcourt physicality because of OG’s ability to defend 1-through-5. It’s a viable option against teams with bigs that don’t continuously try and punish you in the paint but against teams with more beef up front, we may see Nurse also try and use more Boucher than the other two centres on the depth chart.
After the loss, Nurse hinted at that possibility after showing some praise for how things went with the small-ball lineup of Anunoby at the five.
In last year’s playoffs, in a small sample size of 37 minutes on the floor together, the small-ball lineup with Anunoby at centre had a net rating of 5.6 and an impressive defensive rating of 83.3. While the lineup’s offensive struggles of only 88.9 points per 100 possessions isn’t pretty, that had more to do with Toronto’s scorers going cold than it did a lack of production because of the lineup on the floor.
Send me any Raptors related stuff that I may have missed: rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com
