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Five Things I Dig and Don’t Dig about the Toronto Raptors

This week on Five Things we chat morrrrrre Precious, immobile Gary, OG's back, Playoffs hopes, and #FreeYuta.

Holler at IG/tansley24 and IG/zach_nph for the wicked graphic and the Raptors for the photos used

Big W Thursday. Things are looking up for the [almost] healthy Raps.

Let’s talk about it.

1. Precious Touch

Everyone’s been wildly impressed by Precious Achiuwa’s growth of late. Or, maybe it’s just me being mildly obssessive, I dunno.

Last week, I raved about his 3-point shooting. Yesterday, I wrote extensively on Precious’ improved ballhandling. Today, and, possibly, most dramatically, it’s his at-rim shooting percentage.

Precious, up until 5 games ago, was in the 5th percentile for bigs in at-rim field goal percentage (56%). The last 5, he’s skyrocketed to 94th percentile (86%) hitting 12 of his 14 attempts.

 

It could be a hot streak. I don’t care. If you were watching the rotten logs Precious was pitching at the rim earlier this season, you’d think this an Act of God.

Raptors Republic Twitter Manager extraordinaire, Chris Howson-Jan (you all should follow him and our other Twitter guy, Don Yang. They’re funnnnnnnny), put it succinctly:

It is hard to pinpoint the improvement. I will say that ballhandling (read my deep dive for more on this) and finish at the rim are interconnected both in skill and execution. In skill, its feel for the ball, touch, precision, and so on. In execution, control provides for cleaner shots, the ability to see, and swifter reaction times.

It’s also experience and comfort. Everything we’re seeing from Precious is new: the ballhandling, the shooting, the usage, the positioning, the slashing, the independence, and experimentation. All of it.

Imagine having to compute all those things at once. I can’t even text a friend and talk to a real person at the same time.

Upon reflection, it makes perfect sense. Everything’s an interconnected culmination of his development. It just happened so fast and sudden, I’m aghast.

This was what we’re seeing a lot of, even up until a few weeks ago:

 

Even when Precious had clean looks he bungled ’em:

Precious did badly lack the awareness piece. So often he’d miss the open teammate when helpside landed at his doorstep, or receive a pass or corral a rebound deep in the paint and force something abhorrent:

 

After the missed alley-oop, Precious finds himself palisaded on the baseline. He should have, at the very least, booted it out to OG; ideally, he would have eyed Scottie cutting at the top of the key.

This year 13% of Precious’ shots have been blocked. For context, Pascal who has 500 more field goal attempts than Precious has only been blocked 2 more times than Precious.

That’s all changed recently. He’s scoring more shots at higher degrees of difficulty. He’s flying at the rim with more control, more confidence, and more dexterity. Even the five-foot floaters and baby hooks are dropping. In 57 shots these last 5 games, only 1 shot has been blocked.

Most noticeably, Precious is finishing in traffic with contact. That’s something that also takes time to develop. Younger players are often ill-prepared, expect it, or attack to create contact compromising their finish. Great players accomplish both.

Contrast that final clip, where Precious finishes gently after double pump-faking two Phillyians with that previous Bulls clip where he’s double-teamed in the exact same area. Great binary of comfort and patience.

The 3, the dribbling, the finishing: Precious continues to blossom like a vivacious spring flower.

2. OH HI, OG, OH MY!

Yes, this is a riff from my title for the Rap Up (check it, it was a great chat between me, Kyle Brickman and Samson Folk).

I’m allowed to reuse material, it’s my God-given right – that and to wear masks when there’s no mask mandate – YA THAT’S RIGHT YOU CAN’T STOP ME.

Sorry…

OG is BACK!

He started on Thursday at shooting guard in a must-win against Cleveland and did more than anyone could have expected from a guy who hadn’t played in 15 games(!) and had a wrapped, previously-broken finger on his shooting hand.

He came out determined, firing 3 threes in the first 4 minutes of the game, and locked-in on D:

(See how long OG stalked Isaac Okoro for?)

OG finished the night: 4/11 | 4/8 from 3 | 3 assists | 1 block | 0 turnovers | +5

Solid.

More importantly, you see how much more complete this team is with its full core, duh. OG fills so many holes: shooter, attacker, perimeter and paint defender, depth. Samson talked about this in more detail.

And, yeesh, are the Raptors big with OG as the 2nd guard. With Fred undaunted by player before him and the team’s ability to switch, pre-switch, and “scram” all over the court like a choreographed 5-man dance troupe, even a monster-sized team like Cleveland was no problema.

The line up of Freddy, OG, Pascal, Scottie, and Precious have only played 90 possessions together. They’re a +6.8 points per possessions differential and in the 100th percentile(!) in points allowed per 100 possessions. WOOOOEEEEY! That’s roughly equivalent to the Phoenix Suns’ starting lineup’s point differential.

The Raps have lacked shooting the majority of the year mostly because one of Gary, Freddy, or OG has been out. They’ve played only 18 games together this season. In those, they’re shooting 37% from 3 – virtually the equivalent to best in the league –  and average a net +2.2 points per 100 possessions.

That’s mostly prior to Pascal turning All-NBA and Scottie regaining his early-season monstrosity. At full health, they’re a foe no team’s yet to truly reckon with.

3. Raps Rolling

It’s become fairly clear now that the Raptors play up to competition and down to it. They should have beaten the Lakers; the Bulls loss can be chalked up to exhaustion. Other than that, they’ve lost to crud and fought top-tier teams tooth and nail.

This is tweet is a couple days old, but still:

Updated: 25-18

For anyone nervous about Playoff performance, this is utterly reassuring. Particularly, when, for years, our great regular season records translated poorly in the playoffs. This team feels different.

I know there are caveats with these wins and losses. Ultimately, though – pending OG and Freddy’s health – this team is ready to battle anyone and won’t back down.

4. Stationary Gary

I’m getting a tad ticked off with Gary’s play of late.

It’s one thing to be in a funk. (I did say that his hot-streak felt a bit fools goldy). It’s another to be in a full-on Doldrums, not a breath of fresh air for miles.

Gary’s last 10 as of Thursday night:

4/23
2/12
7/19
5/13
13/21
2/13
7/19
1/9
8/17
2/13

A couple of okay nights, one gem, a whole lot of stench.

I’m all for players shooting themselves outta their woes. Jaren Jackson Jr. spoke on Zach Lowe’s podcast recently and said, in response to Zach asking about his poorer 3-point shooting this season (I’m paraphrasing):

“There’s 81 games in a season. I can’t dwell on the last game. Even if I went 0/80, I gotta go into the next game thinking I shot 80/80.”

That’s the ultimate professional confidence. You can’t be distracted by sulking or insecurities. Too many games, too many people relying on those players to perform.

That said! There’s a line. Shot selection and scouring for ways to disrupt a lull becomes a bit more important.

For example, Gary cuts second least on the team (1.4% of his possessions) – Freddy is last at 1%, OG is 4%, Pascal 5%. He’s also scoring the least points per possession (0.79) on the team by far – Freddy is 0.92, OG, 1.53, and Pascal 1.35.

Okay, Gary’s a shooter or as he says “scorer who shoots” so cutting is less in his bag. It’s not designated solely for bigs and larger forwards – Jimmy Butler does it 7% of the time, LeBron James 6%, Desmond Bane and Bradley Beal 5%, and Tyler Herro 3% – though, nor is it beyond Gary.

Herro, Bane, and Beal all play similarly to Gary and are of similar size and position. It would behoove Gary to move a bit more than he does.

As a shooter myself and a horrid everything else, cutting is how I get buckets. When shooters struggle, getting a gimme or getting to the line can be the key to unlock the funk lock.

I noticed it of late, Gary’s stillness. It really irked me watching him get mad at All-NBA teammate, Pascal Siakam, for not passing the ball.

 

Look at that sulk. C’mon man. I get that’s the right pass. Pascal clearly missed you. You’re 2/5 by then. Pascal’s 3/6. You have no reason to sulk. He’s carried this team for 3 months. You’ve disappeared for the last 3 weeks. There’s a cut available there. Cuts, by the way, also get your teammates open. If Gary had cut, Embiid has to bump him, if he doesn’t Gary’s open, if he does Precious – El Corner Tres sniper – would be wide open. Win-win.

5. #FreeYuta

I persist. Though, it’s looking grim Yuta, lookin’ grim.

Still, Ho Hum, just another, season-best contedning, monster Yuta block:

and another great take in a minute of play:

Courtesy: nba.com

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Photo via NBA.com

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