“One day, when I was oppressed by cold, I found a fire which had been left by some wandering beggars, and was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects!”
Frankenstein’s monster said this to his creator, explaining the duality of fire. The substance was good at one thing in one way but very bad at it in a slightly different way.
The Toronto Raptors are learning the same lesson of their players during the oppressive cold of Pascal Siakam’s absence. Their being good at one thing in one way does not make them good at the same thing in a related way.
There are three ways to achieve success on the offensive side of the basketball court — three roles, if you will. There are advantage creators, or players who can turn static situations into dynamic situations. They can force rotations, or put defenders out of position, or otherwise do stuff that helps an offense from a complete standstill. These are your initiators: Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and company.
There are advantage extenders, or players who can take dynamic situations and make them even better. They often make quick decisions and are great second-side drivers or passers. They receive the ball (or do another thing to help, sometimes cutting and drawing a defender without actually touching the ball) with the defense already on the move and often distribute the ball elsewhere where it’s even better placed. They turn small gains into larger ones. These are your more cerebral players: Isaiah Hartenstein, Draymond Green, Lonzo Ball, and the like.
Finally, there are advantage converters, or players who take benefits and turn them into points. They can be great shooters or great finishers or both. They can dunk lobs or catch on the move and finish with creativity. Efficiency in efficient situations is the calling card here. These are your most efficient low-usage scorers, such as Nic Claxton, Luke Kennard, or Buddy Hield.
Players can of course belong to more than one category. Kyle Lowry, in his prime, was fantastic at creating advantages in the pick and roll, a genius at extending them with clever screening, cutting, and quick-decision passing on the move, and deadly at converting advantages into points as a catch-and-shoot shooter. But for a team to be successful at scoring the basketball, all three roles need to be filled.
The Raptors do have all three roles filled when healthy. Even with a few injuries, it’s possible that they can scrounge together some advantage creation, extension, and conversion. But Siakam is the primary advantage creator on the team. When he’s out, Fred VanVleet does the heavy lifting. Toronto has been creative in how to force defenses to make choices when VanVleet has the ball, including by using Christian Koloko as his pick-and-roll partner. From the bench, Precious Achiuwa has put work in on that end this season. And with all three missing against the Indiana Pacers, few players could force defenses to make choices.
By and large, much of that burden has fallen on the shoulders of Scottie Barnes. The sophomore has been playing plenty of point guard for the Raptors, initiating in the half court, and creating for his teammates. He has run pick and rolls and received the ball in the post, all with the aim of forcing the defense to do something. Sometimes that’s worked, with him creating open shots for teammates.
But just as often, that has resulted in a whole lot of *shrug.* Defenses can leave Barnes in single coverage, and he hasn’t been consistent at forcing the issue. He hasn’t been making his hook and push shots with as much touch in a crowded paint, and often he’s even fading away despite defenders doing nothing to force him to turn to that counter.
Barnes is best employed as an advantage extender. He is fantastic at catching in tight spaces and making immediate choices to punish defenses, either as a scorer or a passer. Next to Siakam, Toronto’s premier advantage creator, Barnes is deadly — the offensive rating for Toronto is extraordinary with both on the court, far better than with one or the other, or with neither. Barnes’ best abilities are blunted somewhat in the static grind of the half court when he’s the one initiating plays, and Toronto’s offense has suffered.
The Raptors have also given O.G. Anunoby some opportunity to create advantages for the Raptors, and he’s been quite solid. In fact, he’s looking more and more like a star with every passing game. But Anunoby is Toronto’s best advantage converter, with a solid true shooting percentage of 57.7, and he’s equally deadly from behind the arc or at the rim. One of the best ways for the Raptors to end a possession is with Anunoby taking a shot against a moving defense.
That is also the perfect visualization of the three roles, with Barnes drawing a double team as the creator, Otto Porter jr. making an immediate pass as the extender, and Anunoby turning small advantages (a moving defense, and catching on the move) into two points as the converter. That is what a body in harmony looks like. Anunoby is not at the level where he can consistently both begin plays and end them. That’s Doncic- or Antetokounmpo-level stuff, and it’s hard. Toronto can use Anunoby as a creator, sure, but then it can less often rely on him as the finisher.
Too often, the Raptors have been miscast and ill fitting. That is largely to be expected with so many of the team’s most crucial creators on the sidelines. There is a transition to be expected when moving an extender into the role of the creator, and Barnes has been mostly solid at creating benefits for his teammates, but his own scoring has fallen off a cliff as a result. The transition is bumpy, and Barnes is still learning how best to balance the requirements of his shifting role. Even if his scoring hasn’t been great, his choices have been relatively impressive, considering the difficulty of the team structure around him.
Mary Shelley wrote “How strange that the same cause should produce such opposite effects” in the early 1800s, long before the invention of basketball. But universal truths have a way of applying all over the map, and the Raptors are finding the same truth, a painful truth, much like Frankenstein’s monster before them. For the latter, it meant a scorched hand and a learned lesson. For the Raptors it means piling up losses in the early season.
But so too can it be a lesson learned. The Raptors will need some of their most important players to become better advantage creators if they’re going to compete for another championship. Barnes, if he’s going to become the superstar so many expect of him, will need to do so without sacrificing his own abilities to extend plays as a cutter and in-between passer, and to finish plays around the rim. Roles are supposed to be malleable, and the Raptors are finding theirs almost too ossified, too hierarchical. That works in theory, with everyone healthy, but too rarely does the NBA represent ideal test conditions. For now, the Raptors, much like Frankenstein’s monster, are too stiff. And if learning role flexibility and on-court adaptability is one outcome of this rash of injuries, the Raptors will consider the losses of the present to be well worth the gains in the future.
