The reason for comparison in sports is plain: the more comparisons you’re able to make, the wider amount of assumptions and ideas you’re able to fit under one understanding of what you’re seeing. If you filter your idea of basketball through stars? In the Raptors sense, maybe Pascal Siakam’s large, dominant playmaking is LeBron-like to you; maybe Fred VanVleet was, for a time, a version of Klay Thompson who had been shortened by a Looney Tunes style hammer to the head (I’m guilty of this one too). These things are all true, until they aren’t. And these comparisons aren’t true, virtually, at the moment of conception.
A comparison helps us convey an idea quickly and succinctly, but what happens when that comparison starts to guide the dialogue around a player? How do we untangle a proliferated web, where these comparisons helped create illusions of a player’s skillset? Or, perhaps they help polarize public opinion? How now, do we look at O.G. Anunoby and remove him from the Kawhi Leonard comparisons, while still providing a holistic look at his strengths? While Anunoby obviously isn’t a Leonard-type player, he can’t be a ‘3 and D’ player; he’s too good at too many things. O, halcyon days, we long for you — when Anunoby knew his place, his ‘role’, and scored 10.6 points per game. Surely, everyone understands that’s wrong. Even if frustrations are to be had by Anunoby & fans alike while he stretches his legs, everyone dreams bigger.
The real question is: how do these attempts at improvement fit in the Raptors offense? Let’s start with the passive stuff, because we have to establish a floor that Anunoby isn’t tanking the Raptors offense. So, the Raptors offense through 4 games is 26.4 points per 100 possessions better with Anunoby on the floor as opposed to when he’s off of it. Their effective field goal percentage is 21-percent higher. Both of those categories will likely end up on the positive side of the ledger for the third season in a row. As a spacer? Anunoby has refrained from taking a single pull-up from downtown and is cashing 44.5 percent of his catch-and-shoot looks. He’s also, objectively, a good cutter and finisher. He threatens mismatches and offensive rebounds, which lean fully into what the Raptors like to do. All good things.
The defense is elite. Moving on.
The Raptors offense still ranks 21st. Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet are averaging 38 minutes per game. Offense needs to come from somewhere, and Anunoby’s shrinking usage rate is of no help whatsoever. He’s clearly been a benefit to the offense, but so too has he been less of a benefit than he could have been. Anunoby’s four-shot attempt performance vs. the Heat is emblematic of two very big things:
- Anunoby can reach the paint with a live dribble, and regardless of the warts, that has to be leveraged by the Raptors offense in some form or fashion.
- The contemporary idea of the ‘3 and D’ player is dead. Over the past half decade, defenses have become incredibly good at running teams off the line, covering space, and forcing tertiary players to put the ball down. This is why Gary Trent Jr.’s pull-up is so important. This is why Precious Achiuwa’s attacks on closeouts loom large. This is why Anunoby’s pump-go-laydown to a big for a dunk reads are impactful. If you want a player to stand in the corner because you’re thinking of a sexy shot profile? He’s going to shoot two times a game.
Anunoby’s performance against the Cavaliers was amazing, on both sides of the floor. Against the Heat in game two? Just the one. And call me crazy if you’d like, but I would much rather see Anunoby’s offensive process in the first game against the Heat as opposed to the second. Thirteen points on 14 shots vs. six points on four shots sounds like a bad efficiency trade off, but Siakam certainly felt the difference in the two games with how much attention he received. The Raptors need Anunoby to do more, and whether he succeeds when he does so to some extent determines the team’s ceiling, but if he just doesn’t offer anything but shooting on offense, that bottoms out the team’s floor.
The Raptors’ best play is a transition layup, or Siakam’s fling to the left wing for a VanVleet three. In the halfcourt, Siakam in a one on one or passing out of a double probably moves the needle the most. But mediocre efficiency on the in-between plays is nothing to turn your nose up at. Especially when Siakam or VanVleet need a breather. The Raptors famously face massive offensive droughts. How nice does a Trent pull-up in the midrange, or a bully drive from Anunoby feel in those moments? Like a glass of water in the desert. And the thing is, we don’t get to choose which one of those the Raptors create at any given point in time, and neither do they. Neither Anunoby or Trent are great enough to determine their own offensive futures; and while Siakam is unbelievable and looks like a top-10 player, his playmaking finds who’s available. The humming offense that Kyle Lowry quarterbacked and Anunoby plugged into? Gone. The Raptors grind for what they can get, largely on the back of Siakam, and they need more grinders.
Anunoby’s drives contain the potential of missed shots and turnovers, yes, but they also have the potential to shift defenses, create free throws, laydowns for dunks, kick-outs for threes — hell, offensive rebounds (because the defense is overloading to contest). If you think this is selective and overly optimistic, that’s okay. I’m trying to parse the good from the film, and reference it against the past two years where Anunoby was well above-average in usage and shot-creation among wings and forwards, while still coming in around average efficiency. I don’t mean to say that what we’ve seen from Anunoby driving or creating so far has been good. Only that if he continues to shift the defense and beat his initial defender that I expect it to get better. The Raptors need better from their tertiary guys, and there’s potential for far more of that with Anunoby.
Offensively, Anunoby is a tantalizing mix of overwhelming advantages gained by strength and undone by balance issues. He is a bull in a china shop that racks up endless offensive fouls but still maintains a 40-percent 3-point touch and finesses crisp live-dribble reads to his teammates. He gets two feet in the paint to shift the defense, and then he falls over. Which do you focus in on? What do you expect to happen going forward? How do you make sense of it in the Raptors offense? It’s clear where I stand, and it’s admittedly optimistic. However, I’m curious where you do.
Have a blessed day.
