The Raptors Have Been Here Before and Know the Way Out: 'There’s No Finger-Pointing'
As the doors of Toronto Raptors practice opened Tuesday morning the velvety tones of Bill Withers rang out: And I know it's gonna be a lovely day. Lovely day. Lovely day. Lovely day.
What did you expect? Highway to Hell? It’s the End of the World as We Know It? Burn it Down?
It's been a rough week for the Raptors. Consecutive losses to the Orlando Magic have dropped the team below and the panic meter, if you will, has certainly gone up for onlookers as this team fails to meet early-season expectations. Inside the team, though, nothing seems particularly different.
Toronto has been here before. It was just a year ago that the Raptors sat at 14-17 on December 29, the 11th-worst record in the conference, and seemingly on a train bound for nowhere. But then the storm passed. Pascal Siakam refound his footing following offseason surgery, the COVID-19 issues went away, rotations stabilized, and Toronto finished the season going 34-17 over the final 51 games, the sixth-best record in the league over that stretch.
"I know that a lot of people do hit that panic button real quick," Siakam said Tuesday. "As long as we in here, in the facility, are not doing that, we’re looking at each other and helping each other, there’s no finger-pointing, we’re all in this together no matter what’s happening. Those guys in here, I love them and I want everyone to succeed. I want us to succeed as a team and I think we’ve all got to do it together. Everyone in this together and we gotta get out of it together."
For Nick Nurse-run teams, that starts with three things: Defense, rebounding, and a little bit of shot-making.
The rebounding has been the least concerning of Nurse's trinity. Toronto has been a very good offensive-rebounding team, though that number has dipped a little bit over the past couple of weeks. Even on the defensive glass, where they rank at the bottom of the league in defensive rebounds per game, the Raptors are still grabbing their fair share of rebounds and actually rank sixth in the NBA in defensive rebound percentage, well above league average.
Part of the reason that the defensive rebounding equation looks so unusual is Toronto's equally strange defense. The Raptors have been a pretty good defense this season, but when they're not forcing turnovers, things get ugly quickly. Opposing teams are shooting 48.4% against the Raptors this season, the fourth-worst defensive field goal percentage in the NBA. Particularly problematic is Toronto's interior defense where the Raptors have struggled to stop anyone from getting good looks at the rim.
"I think the defense looks amazing at times and then not so good at times," Nurse said. "A little bit of inconsistency, a little bit of maturity [is] needed to get that a little bit more consistently."
And then there's the shot-making part of Toronto's struggles. The Raptors are shooting just 32.3% from three-point range this season, 26th in the NBA, and their effective field goal percentage, a metric that accounts for the extra value of a three-point shot, also ranks the fourth-worst in the league.
"Well, what’s the reason? I don't know," Nurse admitted. "I mean, there’s been a lot of reasons probably most of it switching lineups. I think a big shift happened when Pascal went out, that’s like the earmark of whatever happened. He was creating a lot of those open threes for guys. Some guys have played through some injuries, they are out there not feeling their best and they’re playing through some stuff. And I just think we’ve not made 'em during this stretch."
The Raptors don't need to be an elite shooting team by any means. Their transition offense, offensive rebounding, and turnover-forcing defense should help buoy a lackluster half-court offensive attack just like last season. The key is just getting closer to average.
"We’ll get on a roll, and nobody will be talking about those two games that we lost," said Chris Boucher. "We are a good team and just losing to that team back to back sometimes it just makes us realize how hard we have to work and we can’t take possessions off. I think a lot of us have to look at ourselves in the mirror and see what we can do to help the team."
The hole feels different this season compared to last. Last year this team was ahead of schedule, bouncing back from the Tampa Tank and taking the Philadelphia 76ers to six games in the first round of the playoffs. This year expectations have gone up and so far haven't been met. But it's early and while alarm bells may be sounding outside the organization, this team has shown it can find the right path forward.
“Put your foot in front of the other one and keep going," Siakam said.
Further Reading
Raptors say injury has impacted O.G. Anunoby's shooting stroke
Disappointment continues for Raptors whose offense goes silent in loss to Magic
Report: Teams closely monitoring Raptors as NBA trade season nears
