10 things: Fred VanVleet continues to be Raptors’ answer in fourth quarters – Sportsnet
Three — Fred VanVleet continues to be the Raptors’ answer in the fourth quarter. VanVleet was sharp all night, finishing with 23 points on an efficient 9-of-14 shooting with six rebounds and seven assists, and he was near perfect in the fourth.
The Raptors ran essentially the same play each trip down, with Precious Achiuwa giving VanVleet a screen on the left side of the floor where VanVleet can get to the middle, and he picked the Grizzlies apart.
On the first possession, he got deep into the paint for a tough finish over the shot blocker, then he pulled up for three after Achiuwa clipped Morant on the screen, and on the third trip down, VanVleet anticipated that the Grizzlies were coming to trap him, so he went left instead and rejected Achiuwa’s screen, which caused the Grizzlies to panic and three defenders converged on him which allowed VanVleet to flip it to a cutting Pascal Siakam for the layup. Then on the next play, VanVleet pushed it in transition and got to the line for two free throws which extended the lead to nine points with three minutes left.
Just as he did against Washington, Indiana, and Orlando earlier in the year, VanVleet has an astute sense for when he should take over, and he’s been reliable in the clutch, which is arguably the most important form of leadership in basketball.
Barnes was there during the Raptors road trip that winds up Friday night in Indiana. For a couple of the first five games, Barnes was ordinary or a step below that, a split second slower than he had been, a beat behind the play, accepting being reactive rather than proactive.
He did turn it around, though. He was average in the first half against Golden State on Sunday but rebounded with a solid second half; his first few minutes Wednesday in Memphis were, at times, brutal, but he was fully engaged as the Raptors roared back in the second half to win going away.
In the first four games of this road trip, Barnes was shooting 34 per cent (15-of-44) and averaging 10 points a game. Against Memphis, he had 17 points on 57.1 per cent shooting (eight-of-14); Indiana on Friday night will be the final game of this trip.
“Finding your way around the league I don’t think you’re always going to be in a great state of mind and your body hurts sometimes and you’ve just try to be able to brush those off and get onto the next one,” coach Nick Nurse said before Wednesday’s game.
“I think he’d had a couple of tough ones in a row going but he found a spark, made some shots, started getting to the basket, those kind of things.”
Much, indeed is being asked of the 20-year-old already and the responsibility is only going to grow. He’s already played more minutes (597) in 17 NBA games than he did in his entire season at Florida State (595) and the level of competition is light years more difficult.
But fair or not, Barnes carries great responsibility with the Raptors.
Nurse wants him to shoot and shoot often (“I want him to be aggressive. I want him to take his opportunity more in the course of the offence,” the coach said. “I want him to shoot more from the perimeter while continuing to try to defend and rebound for us.”) while also sharing a variety of defensive assignments.
The six-foot-nine Barnes spent the end of Wednesday’s game guarding Memphis point guard Ja Morant because VanVleet was playing with five personal fouls. Morant, who had 23 points overall, had only four points in the final five minutes of the game.
Rookie star Barnes showed it all in Raptors win over Grizzlies | Toronto Sun
Before Wednesday’s win in Memphis, Barnes had shot 3-for-11 against Golden State and 1-for-8 against Sacramento. His shot looked flat and his 2-for-7 work at the free throw line indicated his first six-game road trip was wearing on him.
But then Barnes went out and looked great against the Grizzlies, scoring 17 points, including 10 in one quarter, grabbing nine rebounds and defending everyone on the floor, including star point guard Ja Morant, merely one of the NBA’s most dangerous paint scorers. Morant got what he wanted early on, but when Barnes, who has also guarded centres, amongst other positions, on this trip, got the assignment, Morant’s night shifted.
“He really picked up his defence, where he was much more solid and contested shots better and also rebounded the ball a little better,” Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said of Barnes. Nurse said he asked Barnes to use his size advantage to bother Morant.
“He had tremendous energy.”
Fred VanVleet, the team’s leader and best dispenser of sage advice, was asked what he says to Barnes about the NBA grind.
“Just to bring it every night. I think you should chase greatness and you shouldn’t fall into the trap and the lulls of what it means to be a rookie,” VanVleet said.
“With his size and his skill set, if he just plays hard he’ll be OK. I think he had a couple nights where he just didn’t quite have it. That’s OK. We’ve all been there. As a rookie, we’re certainly asking him to do a lot,” VanVleet continued.
“We need him to produce in order for us to be good. He turned it around tonight, so that was good to see. The effort and the intensity and the attention to detail, those things have got to be non-negotiable. Whatever else comes after that, we’ve got to take it in stride.”
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Minor injuries pop up all the time: Scottie Barnes missed two games with a minor thumb strain, VanVleet sat out one to rest a sore groin, Pascal Siakam took the second night off in a back-to-back for rest. Khem Birch (knee swelling), Precious Achiuwa (shoulder tendinitis) and Chris Boucher (sore back) have all been sidelined at some time.
In their first 18 games, no player has started every game. They used six different starting lineups. No team wants that much minor disruption, but it’s allowed Nurse to avoid one very difficult decision:
Does he start VanVleet, Gary Trent Jr., Barnes, Anunoby and Siakam and go without either Birch or Achiuwa in the starting lineup?
Does he go big with VanVleet, Anunoby, Siakam, Barnes and one of Birch or Achiuwa?
Or does he go against all public statements and move Barnes — the rookie who is eating major minutes to get valuable in-game experience — to a bench role?
“I think it’ll be a revolving door until one of those guys makes a bona fide statement that they’re not going anywhere,” he said. “I think it’s gonna be by committee. The more we raise our level in terms of experience and know-how on the court, I think the rest of those things will fall into place.”
It may not be a huge issue for a long time, though, for a couple of reasons.
There’s certainly a way to get backups to play starter minutes — each game unfolds differently — and whatever works in Memphis might not work in Indianapolis on Friday night.
The reality is that little injuries are always going to crop up that cost a player a game or two, and having a committee of six or seven who’ve assumed starting roles at some point is a nice luxury to have. And it’s not like the potential frontcourt starters — Anunoby, Barnes, Siakam, Birch and Achiuwa — are incapable of guarding multiple positions.
Raptors Seeing Precious Achiuwa Find His Groove – Sports Illustrated
He’d gone from a one-dimensional rookie in Miami to a sophomore trying to do too much too fast. He’d run end to end with the ball trying to dunk over bigger centers without letting the offense settle in. Through his first 13 games this year, he was averaging 7.5 points on 34.8% shooting and looked borderline unplayable.
“He’s in the stage where he needs to figure out what his go-to moves are,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said last Friday. “He’s got a variety of different things he can do: He’s got the hard-right drive, he’s got a right-handed hook, he’s kind of got the Euro, he has a left-handed thing he goes to sometimes as well. He has a turnaround he goes to sometimes as well. He probably has too many things for right now.
“I try to tell him to go to the strengths, whatever he’s most confident in and don’t give up on trying to get to that until it’s absolutely gone. Get consistent with those and then start varying it up a bit when you get comfortable with that.”
It appears Achiuwa has heard the message.
