The NBA has often been a league dominated by big men, centers like Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Hakeem Olajuwon. Those over seven feet tall have an inherent advantage when it comes to a sport that involves putting a ball through a hoop ten feet off the ground. It’s logical that teams would want to have that size on their roster. Other than a short period of time in the late 2010s, when ‘small ball’ was all the rage, teams have understood that having seven footers on your roster is essential to building a good basketball team.
The Toronto Raptors haven’t exactly caught on to that yet and are paying the price because of it. In four games, the Raptors have allowed the second highest opponent field goal percentage. Largely due to the fact that they have given up the fifth highest frequency of shots at the rim and opponents are shooting 71 percent on those looks.
In those games they have faced a gauntlet of the league’s premier big men, and while no one can stop that level of elite talent, they’ve made the Raptors look like a JV team trying to compete against the varsity squad.
Giannis Antetokounmpo put up 31 points and 20 rebounds (7 offensive) while shooting 9 for 12 at the rim, relentlessly driving and finishing dunks and layups with ease. He also made 7 of his 12 free throws.
Then, against the Dallas Mavericks, Anthony Davis had 25 points and 10 rebounds (6 offensive) while making 8 of his 9 shots at the rim and shooting eight free throws.
The very next night, when facing the San Antonio Spurs, Victor Wembanyama had 24 points and 15 rebounds while making three of his four shots at the rim, the Raptors couldn’t stop him without fouling, and he ended up with 10 free throw attempts, hitting them all.
Even Onyeka Okongwu coming off the bench for the Atlanta Hawks had 18 points, hitting five of his six shots at the rim. He had multiple rim-rocking dunks right over the Raptors’ bigs.
In the past, the Raptors would look to Jakob Poeltl to shore up these weaknesses, but so far this season, Poeltl has been far from his typical self. Whether that’s due to the lower back tightness that he’s been dealing with since preseason, or a symptom of the aggressive defense that Darko Rajakovic has insisted on playing, the Raptors are suffering while he’s on the court.
While the Raptors have lost their minutes with Poeltl, they haven’t been exactly stellar without him either. When Poeltl has been off the court the Raptors are allowing teams to shoot 72.4 percent at the rim. While some of the blame can be attributed to the style of defense Toronto has been playing, the need for size in the NBA is evident.
Having bigs that can block rim shots, or at least deter them, can paper over a lot of those defensive miscues. It’s key to the type of defense Toronto wants to play; when you’re picking up deep, and often sending doubles, you need a strong backend to cover the rim when mistakes are made, right now opponents have been getting to the rim with little resistance. You need someone to clean up messes. Largely, that’s because you’re intentionally making messes.
While Poeltl is out, the Raptors have to figure out how they’re going to handle bigs and protect the rim. Since they have no one else on the roster above 6-foot-9, they have to rely on using physicality to disrupt rather than length to deter. They signed Sandro Mamukelashvili to be the backup center, hoping he could provide a different look in non-Poeltl minutes. While he has been incredible for the Raptors this season, he’s never been known as a high-level interior defender. He was supposed to be a curve ball, not the primary pitch.
Which is why, in their first game without Poeltl, rookie Collin Murray-Boyles got his first career start. The start came off a good showing against the Spurs, where he showed flashes of what he can do against Wembanyama. However, despite his best efforts, Murray-Boyles was not enough to stop the jumbo Houston Rockets. The Rockets outrebounded the Raptors 53-22, including 17 offensive boards that led to 23 second-chance points en route to a 139-121 thumping.
You would think that the Raptors would have learned their lesson after the Great Center Drought they faced before re-acquiring Jakob Poeltl in 2023. Alas, they have not, but with Bobby Webster now in charge of the team, it’s a perfect opportunity for him to make his mark on the roster. The Raptors could look at the free agency market to find a five-man they can bring aboard. There are a few seven footers out there, such as Mo Bamba or Bol Bol, or they could look internally, as they often do, and call up Olivier Sarr from the G-League.
However they decide to address it, they need to do so quickly. There is no shortage of elite big men in the league, and in the coming weeks Toronto will face Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen twice, Giannis Antetokounmpo again, and Joel Embiid. While it’s been a bad start for Toronto, it’s only been five games. There is lots of time left, but it’s getting to the point where tweaks to the defensive strategy, Poeltl being healthy and more minutes for Murray-Boyles may not be enough to solve the Raptors’ ‘big’ problem.
