Samson Folk & Trevon Heath recap summer league and discuss the latest in the Raptors realm.
“By the time the first half had wrapped up, CMB was leading the Raptors in points, rebounds, steals, and should’ve been in assists if not for shoddy shot-making by the roster around him. He was ever present defensively, popping up in the lane to play goalie against would be drivers, stepping out on ball handlers above the break to act as a guardrail; and overwhelming whatever offensive player had the bad luck of stumbling into his midst. He jumpstarted a lot of possessions after rebounds — his hands operating as if they were giant hooks with super glue attached to them — and must have collected nearly 10 deflections in his first 12 minutes of play. That’s a lot of the stuff we expected, and a continuation of his first two games.
Offensively though, they looked for him early. They tried to short the pick n’ roll to him early on (Castleton missed the pass), they used him as a screener more often, and he took the green lights ahead of him and punched gaps as a driver. He made high level reads out of handoff sequences, often times out-foxing the defense in where they thought the play would progress to. We even got the fade right pop out of the pnp from him, which I highlighted might be his most successful form of 3-point look, and he banged a triple, moving him up to 40-percent (2/5) from downtown at Summer League. Very low volume.”
“Now the player who is Toronto’s best individual creator is Brandon Ingram. He likes the same areas of the court as Siakam, is a huge but slim forward who likes the ball in his hands, and enjoys the same playtypes. And outside of him, the Raptors don’t have anyone to hold up the tentpoles of the offence. Barnes has had plenty of chances, and has improved in a number of areas, but still isn’t ready to be the primary engine of a successful half-court offence. Quickley has never been consistently successful in big numbers of isolations, and his drives haven’t unlocked enough for teammates.
Thus in many ways the entirety of the success of this team’s core rests on the shoulders of Brandon Ingram. From this perspective, he is bearing in many ways the same load as Siakam did before him. I am suspicious of whether Ingram can out-perform Siakam in the same role.”
Have a blessed day.
