https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOBucMd2nkk
The Raptors are signing Gillespie to a two-year deal, sources tell me and @ShamsCharania. Made good on two 10-day opportunities, now he'll get a year in the Raptors' developmental system to see where he can go. https://t.co/W1q892PkQk
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) April 28, 2021
How has OG Anunoby progressed as a scorer for the Raptors this season? – The Athletic
In the earlier parts of the season, Anunoby was tasked with nudging his usage a little higher and maintaining his efficiency. When we’ve done deeper dives on potential development paths for Anunoby, this was a must: 3-and-D players, even very good ones, have somewhat of a ceiling. With the extension Anunoby received before the season, he would at least need to reach elite role-player status. Last year, Anunoby occupied the offensive territory of players like Patrick Beverley, Xavier Tillman and Reggie Bullock. Those are all useful players, but a 14.3-percent usage rate needed to climb if Anunoby was going to establish himself as the true third piece of the long-term core rather than a good complement.
Anunoby’s career has unfolded largely in that realm of play finishers. True-shooting percentage and usage rate are helpful descriptors of role and efficiency within that role, and save for a down shooting 2018-19 season, Anunoby has occupied the top left quadrant of the usage-efficiency graph we’ve often utilized. Pascal Siakam’s immense usage growth year over year set a bit of an unfair bar; Anunoby simply moving further to the right without losing much efficiency would be a win. That’s exactly what he’s done, growing his usage from 12.4 percent to 19 percent over four seasons while improving his true-shooting percentage.
That has gone to another level since the trade deadline. Anunoby has played in 15 of the team’s 18 games and has taken on a significantly larger scoring load than he has at any other point in his career. He’s now carrying the usage of a No. 3 at 22.2 percent of the team’s offensive possessions when he’s on the floor, and his efficiency has barely been noticed.
Usually, we’d expect some efficiency decline as a player takes on more of the scoring load. That’s for a few reasons. One of those is that a player who is a bigger part of the offence tends to draw more defensive attention. Over the past four games, Anunoby has played alongside Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Siakam and Khem Birch, a well-balanced offensive group that makes it hard to key in on Anunoby. It’s true he’s benefitting to some degree by being the fourth option — fifth if you want to consider Birch’s volume of screens more central to the attack — but only Siakam and VanVleet (slightly) are using more possessions. He’s gone from punishing defences helping off of him with leak-outs and spot-up 3s to asserting himself on the game more.
Usage and true-shooting percentage alone do not tell us everything we need to know about player growth or role. Joe Ingles is threatening true-shooting percentage records by pushing the limits of what a lower-usage specialist can accomplish with shot mix and lethal efficiency. Anunoby’s closest usage-efficiency comparable is last year’s version of Enes Kanter; obviously, we need more information about how he’s coming about these opportunities.
Digging in further is even more encouraging. For the season, Anunoby is shooting a few more 3s and a bit less at the rim as a percentage of his overall shot mix. We don’t love fewer rim attempts, but he remains in the 70th percentile among forwards, per Cleaning The Glass. What’s more, the additional shots that are normally saved for stars on the shot spectrum have yielded positive results — 16 percent of Anunoby’s attempts have come in the mid-range, and he has been about average among forwards from floater range and from mid-range jumper territory. These aren’t high-yield attempts, but they’re helpful counters as defences try to take away his bully post-ups or hard drives to the rim. They also open up his nascent pick-and-roll game.
Why the Raptors should look more into the VanVleet-Anunoby two-man game
It’s Anunoby’s versatility, in particular, that opens up a number of interesting options for the Raptors. Anunoby is such a unique player because, at six-foot-eight, 232 pounds with a seven-foot-three wingspan, he can do a little bit of everything. On top of being the most versatile defender in the league, Anunoby has the offensive skill sets of both a wing and a big man.
The Raptors have appeared to have developed him with that flexibility in mind, shying away from putting him in a box as a 3-and-D player or a rim-running big, instead allowing him to get reps in almost every single play type. And while the majority of his offence comes via spot-ups, where he is most effective, at least six per cent of his offence
comes via transition, isolation, post-ups, cuts, and as a ball-handler in the pick-and-roll.In the span of one game he will go from looking like a 3-and-D wing in the mold of a Mikal Bridges to a strong downhill threat like Zion Williamson to a screen-setting, rim-running big like Bam Adebayo. He can truly do a little bit of everything on the offensive end, and has seen his true shooting hold steady even as his usage has increased over the last three seasons, learning how to better use his strength and mobility as he grows more comfortable putting the ball on the floor.
VanVleet is similarly versatile in that he can play either on-ball or off of it. This season, the Raptors have let VanVleet run the offence much more, with his touches and time per touch going up while Kyle Lowry’s have gone down, making VanVleet the de facto point guard. But VanVleet is still most effective in an off-ball role, setting screens and also maneuvering around them in order to get open three-point looks like JJ Redick or Duncan Robinson, which is part of the reason the Raptors have been so much better with both point guards on the floor than with just one.
So, though it remains important that VanVleet continues to get point guard reps and grows as a playmaker – especially in the event that Lowry leaves and the Raptors don’t replace him in the off-season – the Raptors need to put him in positions to utilize his most valuable skill: Shooting.
Anytime you have a lethal movement shooter who has hit 41.6 per cent of his catch-and-shoot threes over the past three seasons and a bruising forward with the power and athleticism to move bodies out of his way towards the rim – and especially when each of those players can set effective screens for one another – it’s natural to let them build chemistry together in the two-man game – think about Robinson-Adebayo or Redick-Williamson.
But what makes a two-man game especially lethal is when each member of it can effectively attack a mismatch, making it harder for defences to switch the action or else they risk putting a big on a guard or a guard on a big. After all, not many teams have a mobile forward like Anunoby who can switch onto a guard without issue. VanVleet and Anunoby can both exploit mismatches, with VanVleet’s ability to take bigs off the dribble in isolation situations and Anunoby’s ability to post-up smaller guards.
6. Kyle Lowry, Raptors (unrestricted)
Outlook: It’s fascinating how so many of the league’s best old-head point guards will be available this summer. We chronicled the outlook for Paul (who has a player option) and Conley (who is unrestricted) in the first edition, and Kyle Lowry (16.7 points, 7.3 assists, 5.5 rebounds per game) is right there with them when it comes to proving he’s still very productive at this later stage. In fact, Lowry’s pace is nothing short of historic for his age.According to StatHead.com, Lowry — who missed significant time with a right foot infection and has played just 44 of Toronto’s 62 games thus far — is on pace to become one of just three players 34 or older to average at least 16 points, seven assists and five rebounds per game. LeBron James has done it three times, and Larry Bird did it once.
Lowry hasn’t been as efficient as those other two legends — he’s shooting just 42.8 percent overall — but it’s noteworthy nonetheless. Like Paul, whom I wrote about at length last week because of his ability to fight off Father Time, the 35-year-old Lowry looks fully capable of playing several more seasons at a very high level. Add in the fact that he’s a natural leader who has the 2018-19 championship ring to prove it, and his market should be quite robust. Age be damned.
“Really good,” one general manager said when asked about Lowry’s market. “There’s teams with money and not a lot of players, so I think he’s going to do really well.”
If you’re Lowry, you can make the sound argument that his relative lack of mileage, so to speak, means he still has more runway than other point guards around his age. To wit: Lowry has played nearly 8,000 fewer regular-season minutes than Paul (30,369 compared to 37,464) and approximately 600 fewer postseason minutes (3,397 compared to 4,061). The 33-year-old Conley, for what it’s worth, has logged 28,522 regular-season minutes and 2,258 in the playoffs, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
Post-trade deadline prism: Lowry not getting traded at the March 25 deadline was quite a surprise, but it wasn’t for lack of trying on the part of the Toronto front office. But as team president Masai Ujiri made clear back then, the Raptors still have an incredibly high opinion of Lowry and his game that — as they saw it — wasn’t properly reflected in the offers that came their way. Yet among the three teams known to be in hot pursuit of Lowry back then — the Lakers, Miami and Philadelphia — only the Heat are in a financial position to possibly sign Lowry outright this summer. Sources say the Sixers still plan on pursuing him by way of a possible sign-and-trade. While they added George Hill at the deadline in lieu of Lowry, only $1.2 million of his $10 million salary for next season is guaranteed, and the deal expires at that point. The Lowry interest remains very strong there. — SA
A long, hard trip begins but it shouldn’t be a make-or-break week for the Raptors | The Star
I expect them to play well because regardless of what went on the first fourth months of the season, the Raptors do seem to have figure a few things out. They seem, for the most part, to be playing free and easy and well and there’s no reason to think they won’t be competitive in any of the games.
It’s a point Fred touched on last night when he said “we seem to play better against better teams and we’re going to be tested coming up here on this road trip for sure.”
So, you can expect good games, which is just want anyone should want, especially anyone staying up until the wee hours of the morning.
Good? I’d think if they got two of the four that’d be really good, one of the four would be okay and losing all four would be quite a disappointment.
I don’t know which one or two they’ll get or how they’ll get them but if you’ve been paying even scant attention to the league this season, zaniness has occurred almost nightly and form charts mean squat.
Nothing makes sense any night, it seems. Oklahoma City goes into Boston and wins last night, Portland’s been horrible for weeks and gets about a zillion point lead on Indy last night. And that’s just one night; I swear you can go back over every night of this season and at least one thing that happened that makes you go “how it the hell did that happen?”
So if the big question is whether this trip will decide once and for all their fate in chasing a spot in the play-in series, the answer is easy:
Nope.
I think – and this is mostly off the top of my head and has not been done after any real deep dissection of the schedule – that 31 wins will be enough to get them in, as long as two of those 31 are wins back East over both Washington and Chicago in the games they have with those teams.
Maybe I’m wrong – that would be a first – but if the Raptors get one out west and then four of their last six when the trip’s over, I think they’ll have a legit shot at sneaking in.
We can debate the merits of that later on – you know I think it’s vital that teams play as many “big” games as possible just for the experience – but I don’t really think this trip is as big a “make it or break it” proposition as some do.
But as wise man once said, ‘that’s why they play the games’ and go and play them they must.
Hope they’re fun to watch.
Toronto Raptors signing Freddie Gillespie to long-term contract – Tip of the Tower
Having depth throughout the line-up is key to all teams hoping to compete at the very top of the NBA, and with the future clearly something the team is looking to sure up, the Athletic’s Shams Charania reports that Gillespie’s contract is for two years.
The deal comes just days after the team signed Yuta Watanabe to a standard NBA contract, which is expected to see the Japanese native remain with the team during the 2021-22 season also.
With the Raptors expected to be tight up against the cap next season, locking up players currently with the organization could be a sensible cost-effective approach to building a competitive roster after so much turnover in recent years.
Keeping players that know Nurse’s system, and are already a part of what appears to be a truly enjoyable group and culture, is a logical move for the team and will ensure continuity further down the line-up with the 23-year-old former Baylor Bear having plenty of room to grow.
There are a number of moves the Raptors are likely to consider between now and the off-season, but locking up Gillespie beyond this year makes sense for a number of reasons and is largely unsurprising from the organization.
Report: Toronto Raptors sign Freddie Gillespie to two-year deal – Raptors HQ
Like most young bigs, Gillespie fouls too much (5.2 personal fouls per 36 minutes), but that’s something he’ll be able to work on as he learns to play with his feet and body more.
All in all, this deal is a low-risk for the Raptors, and potentially high-reward for Gillespie, who’ll continue to get minutes in the team’s remaining 10 games and will in all likelihood get the opportunity to fight for an even bigger role in next season’s training camp.
The Raptors invest in longshot play-in hopes, and buy low on Freddie Gillespie | The Star
On Wednesday the Raptors rewarded Gillespie, 10 games into his NBA career, with some job security. Previously on board with successive 10-day contracts, the club announced it had signed the undrafted rookie to a two-year deal. Though the precise terms weren’t announced, suffice it to say Gillespie will amount to low-risk, low-outlay depth next season. He’s still an unproven prospect, sure. But he’s clearly got potential to be a serviceable backup. And given his path to this moment — from Division III to Division I to the G League — he fits Toronto’s preferred player profile of a hungry soul desperate for an NBA morsel.
“It’s definitely a blessing,” Gillespie told reporters earlier this month. “It’s not (a chance) every player gets … Everyone gets a little nervous, everyone has their moments of self-doubt and all those things, but all the preparation I’ve put in and all the steps I took to get here have prepared me for this opportunity.”
If the latter stages of this season have amounted to auditions for more than one Raptor, it’s a fair assumption Gillespie won’t be the only peripheral player to earn a job beyond this year. Birch, who’s a free agent come the off-season, has made a case that he’d be a fine signing. Ditto the tireless Yuta Watanabe.
Still, in a season that’s mostly gone sideways, even some Raptors securely under contract have plenty to prove about what this season says about their long-term viability with the franchise. If springtime is traditionally exam time, at least in the academic world, it’s as good a time as any for the Raptors to take a test. All they’ve got to prove is that the math that has them 12th in the East clearly doesn’t add up.
