When Ja’Kobe Walter first made the leap into the Raptors rotation, his impact was highlighted by sticky point-of-attack defense, second efforts on the glass, and very little shot-making to speak of. A lot different, of course, than how he burst onto the scene at Baylor – putting up 28 points (with 0 assists) against Auburn in his very first game. A pure heat-pump, going out there and putting the ball in the bucket.
Walter’s lone season at college was an exercise in abundant attempts at everything. Lots of drives without overwhelming success, lots of shots without overwhelming success, and an expectation from his teammates and coaches to keep trying no matter how tough things got. Over his first 18 games he shot 42-percent from the floor — which isn’t great, obviously, but for a volume guard in the NCAA is perfectly palatable — and he shot 32-percent from the floor over the course of his last 17 games. Grinding away, missing shots, but wriggling to the line to help move the chains.
When you look at the end of Walter’s college career and the start of his NBA one, you start to see a player who was looking for his shot for awhile. And he’d been doing so while navigating two vastly different roles, two vastly different leagues, and heaps of different teammates. Only, the things that were escaping Walter at the NBA level — like hitting open three-pointers — seemed a lot easier to get under control than what was being asked of him at Baylor – which was massive on-ball creation.
Regarding creating at the NBA level? It’s really hard. Walter is young, inexperienced, and lacking in a lot of the skills necessary to breakdown NBA defenders. His dribble is quite narrow and doesn’t possess much manipulation in it, his touch at the rim — especially when contested — has struggled a lot. Some players have a lot of on-ball wiggle, but I wouldn’t describe Walter as such, more so as having on-ball wriggle. In my mind wiggle on a basketball court is a more expansive movement pattern over larger spaces, and wriggle being a more discrete and contained jittering in small ones, let’s say. Could be nonsense. His C&S jumper though, that should translate quickly.
Walter’s jumper is one of the simpler shots you’ll come across. No wasted motion going east-west, no exaggerated dip, no hitch. A pretty high pickup point, a tucked elbow, and a very linear motion going from grab to release. Easily repeated, quiet mechanics. Also, anytime you go to a practice or a game to watch him hoist them up, he’d shoot great. It was pretty surprising, for all these reasons, that Walter was shooting roughly 20-percent on his unguarded threes halfway into his season. For all the little mid-range jumpers that he’d get to by inch-worming his way around in the middle of the court, he still needed some honest-to-God effectiveness from downtown, and now it’s come around.
Over his last 33 unguarded 3-pt attempts, Walter has connected on 39-percent of them. The Raptors are a team that hasn’t been able to sneak into the top-10 in the NBA in any of the major quadrants on the floor — rim, short mid-range, long mid-range, 3-pt — and that is largely due to the fact that their stars are not efficient relative to other stars (Scottie Barnes in particular has struggled with his efficiency) and their higher-usage role players don’t juice the efficiency numbers either. Gradey Dick, for example, hangs around 55-true shooting and he’s 3rd on the team in field goal attempts, Ochai Agbaji has been as efficient as they come but sits 200 attempts behind Dick.
With Brandon Ingram set to join the team (at some point), the Raptors don’t look to be on pace for elite efficiency, but at the very least a lot more creation. In the current Raptors environment, they ask everyone to create more than they probably should — Dick’s shot diet is probably the best indicator of this — and struggles have been abound. Ingram can set the hierarchy into its proper order (at least to some degree), and with Walter sorting out his 3-point stroke the roadmap to minutes and impact becomes extremely straightforward.
There’ll of course be possessions and opportunities for Walter to attempt to create for himself — he’s still young and everyone should get a shot at it — but with the Raptors clearly ramping up to compete at the outset of the 25-26 season, Walter providing a higher level of defense than Dick can, and the road to efficient catch-and-shoot, erm, shooting, emerging? There’s absolutely no reason why a rotation spot couldn’t fall into Walter’s lap. Once that foothold is established, that’s a great place to develop from.
While the Raptors have selected Dick & Walter in back-to-back drafts — and the fact that the top end of the 2025 Draft appears to have a lot of shooting guard talent — the Raptors look most ready to pivot around the backcourt.
Dick is very well liked by the Raptors organization, but at some point the defense will need to improve. Ochai Agbaji’s future is less than certain with the team. RJ Barrett & Immanuel Quickley aren’t guaranteed anything. Everyone could stay, it’s true. However, they might not. Considering what Walter has shown to be good at and the fact that he has the most, what is the term again? Team control? That leans very pro-Walter. Of course, none of that matters if any of the aforementioned players pop off, and it wouldn’t be a conversation at all if Walter hadn’t taken so well to the defensive side of the floor and shown a clear acumen as a cutter – and now as an improving shooter.
It should be very interesting to see how the Raptors backcourt situation shakes out, considering how many different types of players they have jammed back there. Regardless of how it shakes out though, it’s clear that Walter has cemented his path as a real possibility – and that’s the very first step in a young players career.
Have a blessed day.
