1. Post Thad
Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I lauded the Thad trade.
The gist of my defence centred around Thaddeus’ newfound – young Thad was a more of a warhorse – life as a playmaker. Something Toronto still needs more of.
Thad doesn’t really capture the typical definition of creator, I admit. He can’t really shoot. He, definitely, can’t dribble. He’s athletic, but not explosive nor quick. Instead, Thad relies on his intellect and brawn.
Thad’s been most effective this year at two spots on the floor: the elbow and the low post. Both are offensive fulcrums. Like the Death Star’s Thermal Exhaust Port, they are vulnerabilities; holes in the defence that when exploited correctly are its undoing.
In the low post, it’s obvious. A mismatch is about as high-percentage as it gets. Thad’s unique body type – mile-wide shoulders, longggg arms, shanks for elbows, übermensch strength, and adept touch – creates mismatches amongst most forwards and guards. Defenders might be taller or quicker than him, but certainly, not stouter or stronger.
Now, a consistent part of the rotation (there were a sprinkling of DNP-CDs), Thad’s more actively hunting post-ups. Iota of a sample size, but he’s posted up six times this year (all in the last three games) and scored 6 points on 3/3 shooting. That’s solid. It’s also simple. He identifies prey and pounces. Quickly and efficiently.
Aaron Nesmith switches onto Thad. Thad kindly walks him a bit further down. Receives the ball. Jousts him a few times with his bowling ball shoulders. Deploy’s his patent-pending craning left-arm flick/hook shot. Donezo.
Two minutes later, Isaiah Jackson, a taller, but slighter defender, gets the same treatment. This time with a swift drop-step to the lefty flick.
Rinse and Repeat below. (Note to Reader: this is the kind of constant rate of post attack that I’d love from Scottie).
High-post Thaddeus is a candy store of opportunity. He’ll plunge down gifted lanes, hand-off to whizzing guards, and zing passes to diligent cutters. It’s beautiful to watch. Toronto’s been wise to leverage high-post Thad with many of its offensive loadbearers injured.
It’s a welcomed, old-schoolish type of creation that you see with a select few of passing “bigs” (Marc Gasol and Nikola Jokić immediately come to mind). And it’s welcomed, because it makes both Thaddeus more dangerous as a scorer and others more likely to find themselves in scoring positions.
Here, the play is called for Thad. Thad jaunts to the elbow, gets the pass, and, immediately, fakes the pass to Banton. Zach Lavine doesn’t bite and Ayo Dosumnu’s denial is really good. No problem, Thad dribbles into a hand-off for O.G. and smokes Derrick Jones Jr. opening some room for O.G. to operate. Should that all fail look at how much paint domain Thaddeus owns.
Same play. High-post entry to Thad. Freddy and Scottie run the laziest cuts off Thad possible. Though, that might be because Freddy was feigning disinterest in preparation for the back screen of O.G. (and Scottie cause he knows it’s not for him). Thad fakes a hand-off. Zip to O.G.. Lay up.
This is a sexy AF-Horns set (by the way, Samson doesn’t talk about Horns, but he does do some cool play explanation on the Tube). I love Horns – ball handler up top, two guys at both elbows, and two guys at the wings – for the Raptors. They have so many mid-ranger guys who can pass well and attack in isolation, but need to be a bit closer to the rim. Horns gets them there. The set also presents a myriad of versions letting Nurse and Co. deploy subterfuge and counterintelligence to disorient teams.
Anyway, this turns out to be deliciously simple play. O.G. starts to slowly run over top the two elbows from the one wing side. As Thad, gets the ball, O.G. accelerates off the Boucher screen, and Thad delivers a jalapeño popper just out of reach of two defenders helplessly watching it bounce by.
2. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly Liners
Matt Devlin’s no Jonesy when it comes to metaphors.
He’s good for a few once in a while though.
Freddy had a saucy little take against Oklahoma City on Friday and Devlin, feeling a bit frisky, in his classic hoarse expression of awe delivered a simple yet poetic, “hoooo put a little English on that Muffin.”
It’s borderline lame, but also totally great.
In perfect juxtaposition, Alvin had a few more – of his many – headscratchers. I’ll give Alvin some credit, he’s improved magnitudes from last year. He still fumbles here and there, but he’s fresher. I love his anecdotes. That’s where he’s most natural and lets loose a bit. In those moments, he’s funny and charismatic; when he gets back to worrying about analysis, though, you can hear his sphincters tighten through the T.V. screen.
For example, in an attempt to metaphorically describe the monstrous Luguentz Dort of the Oklahoma City Thunder as a “Freight Train”, Alvin called Lu a “Weight Train”. Which, in literal terms, could be worse than a locomotive transporting “Freight”. “Freight” could be feathers. “Weight”, well, that’s heavy. Unintended consequences.
Just like this beauty from Wednesday.
Are we sure Alvin knew what he was alluding to? Not till Devils was like… “What!?” in his cute boyish astonishment did Alvin clue in.
Maybe leave the poetic devices to Devils, Al.
3. Juancho Launcho
Sports has a somewhat unsympathetic adage, “next one up”, when someone falls to injury. It’s got a WWI attrition vibe to it that I don’t love, but the points stands: opportunities are to be seized.
I wouldn’t exactly say Juancho Hernangomez has seized his minutes of late. But he’s proven trustworthy.
Juancho, effectively, replaced Yuta Watanabe on this roster. It seemed that he was destined for the same “Yuta” treatment from Nurse too. Buried.
With both the starters and bench decimated by injuries, Nurse had no choice but to look to Juancho. For the record, this is one reason I think Juancho was signed over another young, unproven, raw recruit. Like Thad, Juancho could be thrust into a situation and have a better chance of surviving.
In the last four games, Juancho has averaged 20 minutes | 5 points | 6 rebounds | 2 assists | 1 turnover | 1 steal | 53% effective field goal | 13.4 net rating
That’s solid for the 11th guy on the depth chart. We’re not likely to get an explosive effort like Dalano Banton, but reliability is good enough.
What I love most from Juancho is his activity and instinct. He’s not all that quick laterally and struggles to stay in front of attacking defenders. He uses positioning and anticipation to compensate.
On Wednesday against the Heat, Juancho was matched up in the mid-3rd quarter with Jimmy Butler and in a two minute span, Jimmy turned the ball over three times: two throwaways and an offensive foul.
You can see in both throwaways, Juancho’s D is kinda hanging by a thread. Jimmy has a path, but Juancho’s staying a step ahead as best he can, keeping enough pressure on Jimmy that when helpside comes, Jimmy’s making mistakes.
Ultimately, Juancho is best off-ball where his intuition leads to interceptions.
That might be the easiest steal in Juancho’s career (this one is close). It’s not simply coincidence. Juancho knows weakside corner shooter is the likeliest kickout and arrives there accordingly.
This is another great example of Juancho’s instinct. I’ve never seen a 2-on-1 fast break broken up so early in the break by a defender anticipating the pass. Luck’s involved; still, heck of a play.
Juancho’s defensive efforts were best demonstrated in Toronto’s win against the Heat. The Raptors team defence was on a string for the majority of the night. Juancho, specifically, was involved in multiple possessions where Miami desperately swung the ball side-to-side in search of an open shot or lane to no avail.
On the offensive end, like on defence, Juancho contributes by executing basic, important basketball functions.
Quick extra passes:
Selective drives:
And sneaky cuts:
That fake screen was worthy of a Tony.
Juancho’s efforts and subsequent success is a great lesson to the bench. Get out there and stick to the fundamentals – easy passes, good cuts, hard rebounding, and persistent, but wise, defence – and you’ll find more playing time.
4. FlynnD Days
Speaking of intuitive defence (or lack thereof)…
I’m still down for Flynn. Generally, speaking.
But Dalano Banton’s sudden rise and Jeff Dowtin’s much-anticipated arrival might spell doom for poor Malachi.
Flynn’s really had a rough go of it. Between bench burials, injuries, confidence issues, Daddy delinquency, Desmond Bane comparisons, it’s not been easy for Malachi. It’s also why watching him play defence against Oklahoma City and Indiana on the weekend hurt my heart. This was his chance to prove himself and, offensively, he mostly did. He just couldn’t hold his own at the other end.
On-ball Flynn does the best he can with his size and stature. Could be better, but it’s fine. Off-ball, Flynn’s lost. It’s not for a lack of trying. He want’s to be involved. You can see how active he is. He just doesn’t have the principles sorted.
Put these poor plays in contrast to Banton (to be fair to Flynn, Banton also had a bad defensive game against Oklahoma City, but made up for it big time in Indiana!) and Dowtin’s efforts and it looks really bad for Flynn.
In the first clip, Flynn just kinda forgets he exists altogether. One second he’s a Toronto Raptor playing the game of basketball, the other he’s inanimate. In the second clip, you see clear as gin, Flynn’s poor defensive footwork. One single pass and he turns his entire body to see where the ball goes. As he turns back, Eugene Omoruyi is already exploiting the mistake.
Honestly, it’s not for a lack of trying. Flynn’s moving and bouncing about. He just doesn’t really know where to be all the time. He gets lost as though his activity is a cover for his uncertainty.
You see. Flynn’s moving. He’s trying to be somewhere. He just chooses to turn his back entirely to the weakside. Basically, begging for Jalen Williams to cut past him.
Not to over state it, but just to demonstrate that what I’m observing is no anomaly. You don’t get the entirety of the play, but you’ll see Flynn turn his back to T.J. McConnell when helping out losing total sight of T.J.
I don’t recall Flynn looking so lost before. He might just be getting overwhelmed and excited about doing the right thing. I totally get it. The space and speed he’s traveling the defensive end is commendable, but, ultimately, ineffective.
It may be his undoing…:(
5. DON’T FORGET TO LOVE YOUR PEOPLE
Couple times a year, I am reminded why I love sports and why I love the Toronto Raptors. And why I love my friends.
Look at this embrace:
And, of course, Kyle Lowry was back. The love he has for these guys is depthless and exudes in all his interactions with the “enemy”. Miami was down late with like 40 seconds, Kyle was inbounding the ball and he and Freddy and the Ref we’re having a good ol’ fashioned “discussion”. The smirk on their faces told you what percentages were love and what percentages were “fuck you”.
Freddy said as much in the post-game (Samson covers this in greater detail):
“It’s funny for me. There’s nothing he could do to frustrate me. It’s annoying when he tricks the refs but other than that, it’s just fun watching him do what he does. I thought he was old three years ago, to see him still kicking and making an impact and putting pressure on the defense, you could just see the greatness in him. It’s Just fun to match up against him, keeps you working, keeps your mind – you’ve got to be attentive all the time – it’s a fun chess match.”
Then, post-game you got this sentimental gem.
And the Masai hug after too!
LOVE YOUR PEOPLE!
