A few months ago, Fred VanVleet called back to Chris Boucher’s time in the G-League and produced a tremendous quote: “Did you see him in the G League? He was like, box office.” And Boucher was box office. Absurd numbers, a DPOY, an MVP, Boucher was that dude in the G-League. Lorenzo Brown won MVP the year before him (with the 905), and Frank Mason III won it the year after him. Neither are in the NBA now, and neither will come close to the nearly 50 million in salary that Boucher will have made by the time his contract is up.
G-League dominance doesn’t guarantee NBA success. That’s why it’s so important that Jeff Dowtin Jr. is making good on his time up with the Raptors. Dowtin Jr. is very good at the G-League level, but Nick Nurse giving him the defensive vote of confidence at the NBA level is where that staying power is going to come from.
In the last 3 games, we’ve seen nearly an hour of on court time featuring Dowtin jr., and in that time he’s made modest strides in his offensive approach, and continued to solidify the opinions of his defense. “I just think that from the first time I saw him in the summer, you know, got in there, you could just see that he’s a competitor.” Nurse said of Dowtin Jr. “And that’s like, if you’re gonna be any good on defense in this League, especially at that size, you’d better be ready for battle and you better be ready to go.”
Dowtin Jr. is fast, twitchy, and keeps everything active on the less glamorous side of the ball. He’s bigger at the point of attack than any of the Raptors smaller guards, and with the Raptors (correctly) liking the passive benefit of length and size on defense, he’s been a natural fit. It’s even better though, that he cares a lot about getting stops. “I don’t like when guys score on me, I take that personal, so make guys have a hard time scoring, make things difficult for them on the offensive end and it always came natural to me.” Dowtin said at practice the day after his longest stretch with the Raptors since November. Most notably in this performance? No garbage time.
“He’s just really good defensively. He just does it on the ball. He does it with his hands. He does it with his feet. And he does it off the ball.”
Nick Nurse on Dowtin Jr.
Meaningful minutes have, historically, been a bit hard to come by on Nick Nurse’s Raptors. The team has been limited off the bench for some time, and the coach has elected to run a shorter rotation. This isn’t to say players don’t get chances. Everyone gets a stretch of sorts. But, the stretches are a bit shorter, and more erratic. Dowtin Jr., in Fred VanVleet’s absence, played heaps of meaningful rotation minutes in close games. The benches weren’t emptied, the score wasn’t out of hand, and he was hanging in against starters on opposing teams. We got an hour of quality defense at the guard position. So, does that mean he sticks in the NBA? Not necessarily.
The “two sides of the floor” argument is typically levied at players who hardly engage on defense, but Raptors fans will know well that it can be cast the other way too. A fair share of talented defenders with extreme offensive limitations have tried their luck in Toronto – Dowtin Jr. needs to be different. If the skills are any indication, he is.
As a guard who is being brought in first and foremost to defend, there’s not a lot of reason for Dowtin Jr. to stir things up offensively. This is why, despite getting to a lot of the same spots on the floor in the NBA, his shot profile looks a lot different in the G-League. He’s cutting drives short, and bringing the ball back above-the-break to deliver it into the hands of Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes. If you get too deep, you run the risk of turnover. If you take mid-range jumpers or floaters as a two-way player, you’re upsetting the offensive hierarchy. So, Dowtin Jr. has kept it conservative.
The good news? He is getting to spots. He’s retreating from places that he can make shots from, and we saw it as he snaked a pick n’ roll, slid over to the baseline, and hit a middy. The herky-jerk in the middle of the floor, testing bigs out and relying on the in-between shot-making is a massive part of Dowtin Jr.’s game in the G-League. With the Raptors sputtering on offense, missing the presence of VanVleet, the hierarchy can shift a little bit. Siakam & Barnes receive lots of attention, and so they’re happy to see someone who can create their own shot, also taking it. It’s not carte blanche, but it’s a little bit more for Dowtin Jr.
From the way he plays with the Raptors you’d think that Dowtin Jr. was a non-shooter. He isn’t. It’s not his defining skill or an elite one, but it’s something that could be part of his game at the NBA level.
Fits and starts, low field goal attempts, fitting in. That’s how VanVleet’s NBA career started as well. This isn’t to say that Dowtin Jr. is headed for All-Star status or anything like that. But rather, that most guards trying to break into the league aren’t showing you their full offensive repertoire. Dowtin Jr., if he ever gets a little bit more confidence from the coaching staff in his role, will eventually stretch his legs more offensively. That’s where his burst and shot-making could pair quite well with a more talented bench now that Jakob Poeltl is in town.
We already saw a gorgeous link up between Dowtin Jr. and Precious Achiuwa, why not more? And why can’t a bench trio of Gary Trent Jr., Achiuwa, and Dowtin Jr. score some points in 3-man actions (Chicago, for example) in bench lineups? They probably can, and that 3-man bench lineup is a lot more tenable because Dowtin Jr. brings his lunch pail. We’ll just have to wait and see if he brings his full offensive toolkit. Hopefully he gets the chance to show it off. I hope he cracks the rotation, even once VanVleet is back.
Have a blessed day.
