Emile Zola was obsessed with class. But the working class was far from monolithic. The urban poor like Nana Coupeau were raised in squalor and carelessness, destined to infect those around them with degradation. The rural peasantry like Maurice in The Debacle were stolid, competent, and a source of strength and positivity. (The man could write a mean book, whether or not you agree with his politics.)
All this to say: There are two ways to lose a basketball game. The same result can have a variety of values, good or bad.
The Toronto Raptors just finished a month of extraordinarily poor basketball. Thirteen losses in a row stands on their own, but what actually came of them? Not a whole lot. Through bad luck in hand injuries among other things, the Raptors were without the vast majority of their rotation for much of the month. Raptors 905 players were getting big minutes, but there weren’t many breakout performances. (Javon Freeman-Liberty has come the closest, with some impressive double-digit scoring games.)
Playing end-of-bench players extra minutes and in larger roles can have plenty of value. The Raptors developed Chris Boucher largely by doing just that, watching him break out in 2019-20 on a West Coast road trip with the frontcourt rotation decimated by injury. But success like that requires necessary structure, a framework into which new and untested players can fit. In 2019-20, Boucher largely depended on Kyle Lowry, getting spoon fed for layups as a cutter and rim-runner out of the pick and roll.
The 2023-24 Raptors were so unlucky, and untalented, during the month of March that the framework just wasn’t there. Freeman-Liberty is a talented cutter, driver, and finished, but he was press-ganged into a point guard role. He has little comparative acumen as a creator, yet he was drawn away from his nascent strengths to do just that. And that cascaded into difficulty for his teammates. The cutting and motion dwindled a touch without a true point guard to create advantages. Gradey Dick saw his role balloon, which resulted in larger scoring totals, but generally less impressive attention to detail, especially on the defensive end.
Kelly Olynyk saw his role expand, and he was solid with extra touches. But he is a known quantity, not likely to improve with extra touches now after years of fairly consistent roles. He is a rock, not a rainbow.
But with the returns of Immanuel Quickley and especially RJ Barrett against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Raptors saw a return of competence. Of structure. Of the requirements for positive lessons, win or lose, for players up and down the roster. In a small way, of course. We’re not talking about night and day, just small movement in one direction or another.
Quickley at times turned bad possessions into good results for Toronto. With his shot-making, especially as a pull-up 3-point shooter, he turned possessions with no movement, no spacing, no cutting, and no plan into three points on the board. (One snatchback pull-up from the top of the arc was especially impressive, and eerily reminiscent of Darius Garland.) That’s well and good. But even more significant was his passing. He finished with six assists. Quickley organized sets, got Toronto into position, and acted like the point guard the Raptors have so desperately needed.
Barrett did his damage as a slasher. And he was as effective as Ghostface, carving a bloody swath through the defense. He romped through the lane, as has become his wont as a Raptor, and gave the offense a purpose that it has lacked for weeks. His bag was deep, finishing with inside-hand lays, push shots after putting his man in jail, or the laydown to teammates for easy 2-pointers after drawing the interior defense along his path. He, too, finished with six assists to go along with his team-high 28 points. He closed the third quarter with a one-handed throwdown in traffic, the most excitement the Raptors have mustered since … well, since LeBron James was introduced in warmups. (He got a standing ovation.)
A smaller role looked good on Dick. He was asked to do less and was able to better nail the details. The shooting has been nice for a long time now, but he even added a tip-in on the offensive glass for good measure. Olynyk was deadlier in a smaller role, too. He had fewer assists than he has in some recent games in which the offense has been run through him, but he had fewer turnovers trying to force advantages that didn’t exist. He was efficient, letting his fakes do damage after his guards created for him. He swallowed Anthony Davis at the rim on one defensive possession. (Don’t ask about the others.)
Of course, the Raptors still didn’t have enough competent players to ensure structure during the entire game against the Lakers. For long stretches, the Raptors had to play without any of Quickley, Barrett, Olynyk, or Bruce Brown on the court. The half-court offense was predictably horrendous, with the best looks Toronto could muster often coming on falling-down jumpers from not-ready shooters. Playing a few real NBA-level starters doesn’t fix everything.
But it helps. The Raptors just lost 13 in a row without learning a whole lot in the latter stretch, losing the final six games by 134 points. That’s nobody’s fault, just the reality of the talent level available. There were small victories, certainly. But mostly the players just looked like they wanted the season to end. That’s, uhh, still the case. And Toronto still lost by a wide margin, with nearly seven minutes of garbage time against the Lakers. But in Barrett and Quickley, the Raptors now can ensure a few more small victories in losses. More possessions ended in real sets, real shots, real reps for NBA players to work on NBA skills. That’s a step forward. Players can still learn from losses. And it’s easier to do that with better players on the court.
In Zola’s epic Rougon-Macquart series (to which both Nana and Maurice belonged), it was Maurice, not Nana, who inherited the nation. For all the catastrophe of foreign and civil war, the soul of France triumphed. Basketball isn’t quite as dramatic. But eventually, the Raptors will look back on these dog days of March, 2024, and see either building blocks or the start of something worse. What happens now does matter. And the Raptors can ensure good lessons result from all this losing. Having Quickley and Barrett back helps accomplish that, even if it doesn’t help end the losing streak (yet).
