https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYCLB8MQX4Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPOkzSjrF-Q
In grand scheme of season, Raptors have done well to navigate COVID risks – Sportsnet
Reading the tea leaves, the Raptors have done well. It seems like some additional positive tests showed up Saturday and/or Sunday, which made Sunday night’s game a no-go as the contact-tracing net would have been cast widely at that stage. By pushing Tuesday’s game to Wednesday, the league bought itself enough runway to see if it could go a couple of days without more positives tests, and appears to have pulled that off.
“There’s a process to contact tracing,” said Webster. “As you go through it and ask the questions, I think you’re either deemed a close contact or not. Obviously, the initial group is going to be a lot larger, and as you ask more questions and you get more information and you check the connects on detectors, you get a better sense of how much contact there was, and over the course of that process, you’re able to put people into different groups.”
The Raptors are lucky too that their COVID moment has come just as the team was about to pause for the break. If they get away with only Sunday’s game being added to their second-half schedule they will have 36 games in 66 nights, which is onerous, but not as bad as it could be.
Also, if the likes of VanVleet, Anunoby and Siakam – the heart of their young core – have to remain sidelined, the all-star break lessens the possibility of the Raptors having to play a significant number of games woefully short-handed, as several teams have had to do.
In a jam-packed playoff Eastern Conference playoff race, that could end up being a material difference.
In the short-term there are clearly going to be inconveniences. The Raptors have one point guard – Kyle Lowry – available for what are now back-to-back games and will missing their two leading scorers in Siakam and VanVleet and best defender in Anunoby.
“Whatever the circumstance is, we have to go on the floor and compete and try to get the boat into the harbour,” said Scariolo. “We got a little damage, but we have to try to stay floating and bring it to the harbour, and then we’ll have a few days to repair it and to start over, obviously with the break and renewed energy and trying to continue what we’ve been doing the last few weeks.”
It’s not ideal but by the standards of the 2020-21 season, the Raptors should be fine, which in the grand scheme of what the NBA has been trying to do, is pretty damn good.
Looking closer at Anunoby’s offensive game you’ll find that he’s only become more of a 3-and-D player this season. More of his shots are coming from behind the arc than last season and an even larger plurality of those have been on catch-and-shoot looks. Last year, for example, 38% of Anunoby’s shots were 3-pointers and 36.7% of his shots were on catch-and-shoot attempts. This season, those numbers have jumped to 49% and 48.7%, respectively.
That’s OK though because Anunoby is really really good at doing exactly what’s asked of him.
Every elite NBA team needs a player like Anunoby. Championship teams these days almost always have one defensive stopper who doesn’t require a superstar’s load on offence. With Anunoby, the defence is certainly there and his ability to nail 3-pointers at an impressive clip opens things up for Toronto in the half-court.
Take a look at Anunoby’s Gravity+, a statistic created by Dr. Andrew Patton Ph.D. to measure how much a player distorts a defence simply by being in a certain area. Think of it as a respect factor. When Stephen Curry or Duncan Robinson are on the court opposing defences are pulled in their direction any time they’re behind the 3-point line, opening things up inside for everyone else.
This season, Anunoby’s 3-point Gravity+ is way up from last year, meaning he’s creating even more space for the Raptors to attack the inside.
Anunoby will probably never evolve into the Kawhi Leonard-type that some had hoped. Truthfully, that kind of development curve is always pretty unrealistic. But this season has shown Anunoby can evolve into an even better version of himself by becoming an even more dangerous 3-and-D player.
So even if he doesn’t become an on-ball playmaker — a possibility that can’t be ruled out yet considering he’s just 23 years old — he’s still an incredibly important player for the future of Raptors basketball.
As per Toronto’s recent announcement, we now know who is in for tomorrow’s game from the Raptors and who is most definitely out. Let’s get to the names of who will sit out on the Raptors.
OUT: Pascal Siakam (as previously reported), Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Patrick McCaw, and Malachi Flynn.
That leaves the Raptors with a projected starting lineup of Kyle Lowry, Norman Powell, DeAndre’ Bembry, Chris Boucher, and Aron Baynes to take on the Pistons tomorrow.
Given their dire need for players now that Toronto’s “injured” list will include five out of their 17 players, the Raptors are recalling Jalen Harris and the recently signed Donta Hall just in case. For more context on the latter, check out JD’s Prospect Report from earlier today. As for the former, Harris has been absent since February 22 with a dislocated finger. In addition, Toronto is also set to gain from the reported decision to lift the 50-game limit on two-way players, which means they no longer have to manage Yuta Watanabe’s situation — they’ll be free to play him as needed for the rest of the year.
And finally, we have to add here that the Raptors’ coaching staff is still down quite a few members. During Friday night’s ill-advised game, Sergio Scariolo worked as the team’s acting head coach. He was joined by Jim Sann and Jamaal Magloire. From what I can recall, and by process of elimination — and because Nick Nurse is confirmed out for tomorrow — it looks and sounds like Adrian Griffin, Jama Mahlalela, and Jon Goodwillie are also still out.
We’ll update this post if need be after Scariolo and GM Bobby Webster address the media in a few minutes.
UPDATE:
From Webster, it sounds like right now the Raptors do not expect VanVleet, Anunoby, Siakam (as already reported), McCaw, and Flynn to be with the team when they take on the Celtics as scheduled for Thursday night in Boston.
NBA pushes Raptors-Pistons game back a day with the hope they can still play this week | The Star
That grind — and that’s presuming no other postponements the rest of the season — would certainly mean the Raptors would have to rest key players for some games, putting them at a competitive disadvantage.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse spoke about the need to rest players even before the possibility of a busier schedule.
“The goal is going to be at some point — hopefully, if we can stay in this playoff race — that you’re going to want to have your bodies healthy at the end of the year and fresh somewhat, so I think that’s going to take some thought,” he said last week.
The crowded middle of the Eastern Conference standings will also add to the stress of the second half of the season.
Only three-and-a-half games separated fourth-place New York from 12th-place Washington on Monday afternoon, with the Raptors in a three-way tie with Miami and Boston for fifth.
An extended losing streak, if it is made worse by key players needing games off for rest, could be costly in playoff seeding, if not participation, for the Raptors, who have been in the post-season a franchise-best seven straight seasons.
Raptors back at it Wednesday, but with some big names missing | Toronto Sun
The only additions to the team will be the Raptors recalls from the G-League Bubble in Orlando in two-way player Jalen Harris and recently acquired big man Donta Hall.
“We’ve had multiple days here with no new cases,” Raptors’ GM Bobby Webster said Tuesday night. “I think that’s really important. That’s something the NBA stressed to us that would allow us to at least get back on the court as a team. So multiple days of no new cases, I think, is the big takeaway here.”
The Raptors were able to hold a practice for the 10 players who have cleared protocol and the two additions from the 905s on Tuesday night.
As was the case on Friday when the Raptors defeated Houston, Sergio Scariolo will take control of the coaches reins in Nurse’s absence.
As for when the affected players and coaches can return to the court, Webster said it was too early to make that call and he would have an update once the team returned from this weekend’s all-star break.
Webster seemed pretty certain that the length of the protocol for the affected players would extend at least past Thursday’s game in Boston meaning at minimum two short-handed games for the Raptors in the immediate future.
Some of the players from among those that cleared protocol were able to get in some one-on-one workouts on Monday, but Tuesday night’s practice was the first time the team has been together as such since its win Friday.
“I just sat through a bit of practice (and) there’s, as probably you can imagine, a ton of energy I think having everybody essentially quarantining or isolating your room for three days is never fun, but I think from that point they were happy to see each other,” Webster said. “Not a ton of socializing, but there’s just a lot of energy out there. I’m sure you’ll talk to Sergio (Scariolo), but I think there’s opportunity for different players.”
Scariolo, who has been in frequent contact with Nurse throughout this situation, liked what he saw from the players in practice Tuesday night and says he is confident on calling on any of the 12 at his disposal, including the two G-League call-ups.
Will the Sixers Cough Up Their Chance at a Title? – The Ringer
Which leads back to Lowry, an architect of that 2019 playoff defeat, and the obvious trade target if president of basketball operations Daryl Morey wants to make a great cannonball splash at the deadline. Lowry—a Philadelphia native and Villanova star—would certainly add ball-handling oomph in the backcourt without compromising the team’s broader advantages. It’s hard to spot any weaknesses in a Lowry-Simmons-Curry-Harris-Embiid closing group.
Lowry could also help stabilize the team’s non-Embiid minutes, which offer another frightening parallel to that 2019 Raptors series. This season, the 76ers are 19.3 points per 100 possessions better with Embiid on the court than off, per CtG—the widest margin in the league among rotation players. When Embiid sits, the offense musters just 104.7 points per 100 possessions, worse than the worst offense in the league.
Whether Toronto wants to trade Lowry is a different question. Despite a .500 record, the Raptors are within a point of the 76ers in net rating, with especially encouraging results since moving to a small-ball lineup.
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