When basketball started, centers were in the middle of the court, forwards were near the opposing basket, and the guards, guarded their own basket. Basketball used to operate more like frisbee, with no dribbling, so you can see where the logic followed. The etymology is pretty fun, and it helps us understand that Fred VanVleet and Gary Trent Jr. dishonored the origins of their positional monikers.
Coming into last night’s game, Trent Jr. (32.4) and VanVleet (36.9) combined to average 69.3 minutes on the court each game. A lot of time! In last night’s game? They combined for 46 minutes which, for those keeping track at home, is a whopping 23 minutes less than their average. The duo is very valuable to the Raptors for many reasons. Chief among them? Shooting, and the spacing that comes along with it. And slightly less chief among them? Point of attack defense, which the Raptors have struggled with all season long. The league as a whole has struggled more at the point of attack, so there’s some slippage to be expected for the Raptors too, I suppose. What isn’t to be expected, is the continued failings of their 3-point shots. For the Raptors, who rank 30th in the NBA in effective-field-goal-percentage, the offensive boom has ignored them completely.
On a night where the Raptors starting backcourt combined for 3-of-17 shooting, and surrendered driving lanes to the opposing guards repeatedly? Their Venn diagram of struggles was a circle.
“A lot of slips on ball screens, being able to drive those gaps, holding people off on their back and getting deep in the paint either for little floaters or Dejounte was getting a little mid-range shot or they would hit the roll. They were just getting options when they got into the deep paint. There were finding ways to score the ball. I felt like we should have guarded the ball better. I feel like that would have helped us.”
Scottie Barnes on the success of the Hawks guards
The Raptors played a style that would’ve worked against many teams in the NBA. They had a backline that dissuaded some drives, they funneled the ball into the mid-range, and the Hawks did a great deal of work from there. 49-percent of the Hawks total shots came in the mid-range. 33-percent of them in the cozy 4-14 short mid-range area, and 16-percent from there to the 3-point line. They shot 45-percent in the former, and 67-percent (!) in the latter.
The Hawks love to set those step-up screens and turn the middle of the court into a playground for their star guards. Sure, the higher step-up screen means the Raptors have more time to rotate and wall off the rim, but if Young and Murray are going to bring their shot-making bags that isn’t going to work.
So, a plan was devised to get back into the game defensively. And, it worked.
Forget the guards. Why funnel at all? Switch at the point of attack with your extremely impressive and agile forwards — the likes of Precious Achiuwa, Pascal Siakam, O.G. Anunoby — so that you offer nothing to the bigs, and you can keep the play in front of you. There’s also the added bonus of more length on the floor to crowd passing lanes.
“I thought it was good. I thought it was better than what we’d seen most of the night. The bigger guys were were doing better at keeping the ball in front and challenging.” Nick Nurse said of the choice to have his bigger players guard down, rather than have his guards try to maintain at the point of attack. “I thought the defense was probably good enough in the fourth and that was mostly those guys. Just needed to score a little more.”
For Precious Achiuwa, this was the first time he crossed the 27-minute threshold since a mammoth 22-rebound game against his former team, the Miami Heat, in what was the 4th game of the season. He was injured for awhile, in the dog house for awhile, and is now working himself back. He is, in my mind, the single most important defender to making the Raptors scheme work outside of O.G. Anunoby.
“It was definitely something I’m sure coach wanted to get done. He just came back from injury so the conditioning probably played a factor in his minutes, but I think he is getting there. Like I said, he’s a big piece for this team so it’s really good to see him get the reps and obviously producing.
Chris Boucher on Precious Achiuwa
Given Achiuwa’s central role with the defense, and his successful history in guarding Trae Young in the pick n’ roll, I asked Nick Nurse pre-game if we might expect to see more of Achiuwa for those reasons:
“We’re trying to inch Precious closer and closer to a bigger role, longer minutes, whatever. He’s still not near 100 per cent, physically, conditioning, rhythm wise, not near it so I think we’re still working towards that.” Nurse said. “You’re exactly right though, I think the biggest thing he gives us is yet another, what we would call similar size, similar athlete, big, strong athletic guy who goes in the — Pascal, OG, Scottie and Precious — If any one of those other three are in any kind of trouble defensively, we shouldn’t miss much a beat there. It’s really big for us if we get an extra guy in that kind of rotation.”
While I disagree somewhat with the framing of Achiuwa as just another similar sized body, an extra guy in the rotation — he reaches levels of defense that few NBA players can — Nurse was correct that he helped get the Raptors out of some trouble defensively. The Raptors allowed a paltry 18 points to the Hawks in the 4th quarter, with Boucher, Anunoby, and Achiuwa playing the full 12 minutes.
The draw back? The other side of the floor, of course. “We got it to the front of the rim many times and came away empty. I thought we had some great looks at three and came away empty, ran a couple sets were threes were there and turned them down.” said Nurse. “The rhythm wasn’t great on offense during that stretch, but I thought the defense was.”
During the game, Achiuwa made plays in the open floor, and came close to game changing offensive plays down the stretch. A 3-point attempt touched every part of the rim before bouncing out. An uber-athletic step through in the lane was failed by his touch at the bucket. Boucher, whose shot-making both as a shooter and scrappy rebounder allowed the Raptors to climb back into this one, wasn’t able to be a source of creation down the stretch. For most of this roster, length and creation meeting is a fleeting thing. Barnes, Anunoby and Achiuwa represent a bit of inconsistency, a bit of limitation, and all-out chaos. No one is setting their watch to these things, only embracing them when they come – and relative to each expectation.
Siakam is supposed to be the Raptors ultimate bet on length and creation harmonizing, and last night he struggled immensely. Even with other standouts, the Raptors just aren’t getting enough in enough places from game to game. This isn’t to say that any of the aforementioned players bear the responsibility of this loss, singularly. They all share it as a team. Unfortunately though, the Raptors continue to share losses, not sterling performances. Their many skillsets: ships passing in the night.
Have a blessed day.
