Man, what a run.
It’s not been the ruggedest set of opponents – shaddup, Adon – but who cares.
It’s been a joy.
Let’s roll.
1. Good for the Ol’ Ticker
We’re in hallowed territory here.
Not since the 2020 season has this team had such a competent, confident, resilient, and talented rotation of dudes.
I mean, prior to this season, how often – if ever – did you feel like a Toronto Raptors’ lead was safe?
Like never.
It was, laughably, almost clock work.
The Raptors would be winning the majority of a game. Playing great. The opposing name-your-killer-All-Star – Donovan Mitchell on Monday, for example – totally off kilter. Gameplan working to a T. Everything’s humming both ends of the floor. All hunky-dory. Victory in sight.
Then, fourth quarter comes around and whole things gets flipped upside its head.
The bench loses a lead, the name-your-killer-All-Star suddenly goes supernova, and an accompanying random cluster of lesser-known, non-3-point shooting dudes – Nae’Qwan Tomlin on Monday, for example – go red-fire hot from 3 and boom, in an instant – minus the fake comeback rally – game’s done.
And, there we all are, helplessly staring at our TVs, mouths agape, wondering what the Hell just happened.
It’s different [pinches self] now. When games are close, this team is calmer, more poised. They’re a top-tiered team (6-2) in the clutch shutting teams down when it matters most (3rd in clutch opponent points allowed).
This Raptors team possesses a certainty that, amongst one another, they’ll find a way. Previous iterations of the Raptors were more singular. If X or Y wasn’t working, well, better luck next time.
Now, there are more buttons to press. More levers to pull. Smother opponents. Roll out double point guards, or four shooters, or three “bigs”. Run an offensive set for the hot hand(s). Spam the isolation advantage. Break-in-case-of-emergency Jamison Battle. And so on, and so on. So many more ways for the Raptors to capture the moment.
And, man, is that nice for an aging heart.
2. Dynamic Digging Duo
It’s the little things that sustain winning. Particularly, on the defensive end. Where single acts dismember teams possession by possession.
Gradey Dick and Ja’Kobe Walter – among most on this team – have had a real knack for doing just that. For sabotaging whatever opposing teams had in mind.
Walter is the ball-hawking pest. Deployed to track and prowl points of attack. He’s Jamal Shead’s counterpart – the longer, bigger version better-suited to oppose the strength and pop of more athletic guards.
Dick is the wandering sentry. He does his best on-ball – and has really improved – but his power is computational surveillance. A terrorist cell timing optimal disruption. Watch, in the clip below, his head swivel as he lurks towards the interception.
Walter’s top ten in the league in steals and deflections per 36 minutes. Dick’s not much further down the list.
One fun aspect of their defence has been the digging. Traditionally, it’s done by perimeter players jabbing at the low-post to confound attacks. Dick and Walter are doing it all over the damned place.
The key to it all is, of course, timing. To know where to act when. To have the proprioceptive wherewithal to know where they, their guy, and the ballhandler are all simultaneously. If they lunge too early, the ballhandler exploits the mistake; too late, and the play gets away from them.
Instead, it’s at the exact moment the opponent stops forward progression, or slackens their dribble, or turns their back, or gets tunnel-vision, they pounce.
Might already be Walter’s signature play. He waits for a ballhandler to fully turn his hips and makes an unorthodox – and risky – decision to storm the backside from afar. Any counterintelligence bungles the whole thing. If secrecy is maintained, the ballhandler is utterly exposed to what’s coming from behind.
Dick is a bit more risk-adverse. Patiently, assessing the situation. Waiting for the ballhandler’s gravity to intersect his orbit.
Once that horizon is crossed, it’s a meddlesome poke with those long – growing stronger by the day – arms.
3. Too quick[ley] fast-break, pull-up 3s
The Raptors are a joy to watch gallantly stampede down the floor. They do it more than any other team in the league. They’re also not all that efficient at it – 23rd in points per 100 transition plays and 15th in effective field goal percentage.
Defences are at their most vulnerable in transition. They’re discombobulated and disengaged from the game plan, scrambling just hold the fort. Good shots – closer to the rim preferably – should be easier to come by.
Much of the responsibility falls on the lead ballhandler – Immanuel Quickley – to exploit scrambled defences and find the team’s best opportunity. Instead, Quickley’s hoisting before any of that can be resolved.
It’s a four-on-three and two of the defenders, Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker are bunched. Quickley has options. He could have drove-and-kicked to a wide-open RJ Barrett on the wing, hesitated and burst of speed to the rim, or waited a moment dropped it off to Jakob Pöltl clomping his way straight to the rim.
It’d be one thing if Quickley’s 3s were supercharging the Raptors transition game. But he’s in the 30th percentile for transition efficiency and has the worst transition on/off splits of the team (-20.4 points per 100 transitions possessions).
Another example of Quickley not feeling the situation. There’s something to be said for understanding the spirit of a possession. Like, sometimes, it isn’t exactly all about scoring. Because, open or not, taking a quick shot when your teammates just busted their ass to win a defensive possession and gallop down the floor, is demoralizing. Quickley is not open here. No one else is either. It’d have been best to pull it out, reset, and let everyone get a touch and savour their hard work.
Quickley’s not the only guy to take hasty transition shots; he’s got the most responsibility of the bunch.
4. Slingshot Play
There’s a cool play the Edmonton Oilers run for their best player, Connor McDavid. I call it a slingshot play, but don’t know the first thing about hockey.
They, essentially, allow McDavid to build up a tonne of speed and momentum in their own zone and as he launches forward at full speed, hit him with the puck in stride. McDavid comes flying into the opposing zone like a blazing comet. An unstoppable force.
Kind of like this. (There are even better examples but I couldn’t find any.)
The Raptors should set Barnes up in a similar way. He’s best in transition, out in the open, where sheer momentum carries him past snoopy defenders. He’s too big, too fast, too talented, and too savvy a passer to be stopped.
It’s not the whole play, but you see how it can work. Quickley flips Barnes the ball as he hits nearly full speed. There’s five Pacers settling in the half court, no one’s got a chance of slowing Barnes down.
It’s a sneaky way to get Barnes downhill sooner and more often. He will, time to time, grab an offensive board and run with it. So fun to watch. So deadly. The team is +10 points per 100 transition possessions with Barnes on the floor.
Often things get stuck or others lead the break, or Barnes, himself becomes too deferential. Why not a few slingshots to get things going?
5. Raptors Aesthetics
Look, I’m just some average schmo that can’t tell the difference between peach and salmon. It’s all orange to me.
So, you might want to stop reading here. Cause this is just some nobody with zero insight or education ranting about something he knows nothing about. But I, basically, just described Twitter, so you’re probably well used to it by now.
Anyway, I’ve got gripes with what the Raptors organization did this year with its jersey and court choices.
Like, for example, why, for fuckin’ sakes, did Toronto actively choose to have a ketchup-stained floor for its NBA E******* Cup games?
It’s so unoriginal.
Take a look at all 30.
I count at least five other teams with red courts. Three of which – Atlanta, Houston, and Washington – look nearly identical to ours.
Besides, no one’s asking for red. We get enough red. Anything and everything Canada is red. Last thing we need right now is patriotism to ruin this good thing we going on right now in Raptor land.
Further to that point, when has We the North – it’s embossed on the new floor – ever been associated with red? That all came about with a black and white – and, ugh, OVO gold – schema. Not a disemboweled Raptor red.
[Shit, I forgot how hard that commercial hit.]
You’re telling me, Minnesota got to do tennis-ball green courts and Toronto couldn’t do dinosaur PURPLE!?
Prime for the taking. Sure, Utah went purple. It’s a milder, softer, lush hinterlands purple. Our is uproarious and fierce and carnivorous.
Toronto had purple last year. It was gorgeous.
Do it again. Add claw marks. Raptor fangs. Paw prints. Blood spatter [a little red is okay]. I dunno, but double down on what makes the Raptors so unique. So visceral. Instead, our court looks like the puddle of whatever carcass the dinosaur dragged in.
Then we have the city edition jerseys and court. Again, I’m just confused..
Like, the jerseys themselves are fine. Decent. Whatever. But they’re also so painfully safe.
Black, white, and red. That’s like the Times New Roman of colour schemes. Nothing about it is identifiably unique to Toronto. Nor, again, unique to Raptors.
The franchise’s explanation goes as follows.
Those colours are an “ode to what keeps the North true…”
…okay…
“Classic black and white takes ball back to the basics…”
…like when TVs had one, black and white channel and everyone on the telecast was named Franky and Tommy kind of back to the basics?
“To the lines on outdoor courts where Toronto forged its basketball identity. Meanwhile, red accents celebrate the nation we play for…”
Okay….
…Wait…what?
What lines on which outdoor courts? They’re all black and white? Is Toronto the only city to have founded basketball outside? Don’t think so. Doesn’t everyone, everywhere play anywhere? Outside and in? How’s that a Toronto thing?
The red is patriotism. Fine. [Read above for that take]. I get trying to rope in all of Canada. Smart marketing. But, man, does it feel like they built this one backwards.
Hey Siri, what’s a generic explanation for a city-based basketball team using black, white, and red for its jersey colours?
I’d even be indifferent to it all EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT THE COURT IS THE DREAM COLOUR SCHEME WE ALL WANTED.
I mean, feast your fucking eyes on that gem.
Ohhhh so sultry. The old-school paneled wood. The obtusely-shaped spikes on top of the key. The glow of the red Raptor skin. The black accent. The deep, vintage purple.
It’s perfect.
Give me a jersey matching that style all day. Throw in some pin stripes, and woooeee we’d be cooking with gas on an active volcano.
