Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
Why Continuity Will Pay Dividends for Raptors Early on This Season
At this time last season, the Toronto Raptors had no idea what was about to unfold.
They were a new team, with a new identity, a new leader, and a group of players who had barely ever played together. They knew what they wanted to be: A defense-fist group that was going to crash the glass, play in transition, and hope their half-court offense wouldn’t be an Achille’s heel. Even with so many new faces, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse wasn’t going to lower his expectations. He demanded defensive excellence and even when his standards weren't met, he remained unwilling to change.
For better or for worse, it showed.
Through 20 games last season the Raptors were 9-11 and ranked 26th in the league in defensive rating. They looked anything like a Nurse-led team, unable to figure out rotations, and regularly out of sync.
But then something changed. Pascal Siakam returned to the court after offseason shoulder surgery and the Raptors began to find a groove. It wasn’t always pretty, but through the final 62 games, Toronto played to a 51-win pace thanks in part to the league’s seventh-ranked defense over the final five months of the year.
This year, the Raptors think they can hit the ground running without the early-season hiccups of last year. While the rest of the league is getting acclimated to new faces in new places, Toronto returned a league-leading 14 players from last season and expects that continuity to pay dividends immediately.
“We’re way further ahead (than last year),” Nurse said. “I’m pretty confident they get can stuff done.”
The Raptors are going to need that right away this year. Their schedule starts with seven games against Cleveland, Brooklyn, Miami, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, all of whom made changes this summer and all of whom are expecting to be in the playoff or play-in mix this year.
“I’m expecting us to be hard to play against,” Nurse said. “I’m expecting us to go out there and play with tremendous effort and really really feed off of each other and feed off of the momentum that energy creates. I think we gotta be a team that outplays another team or every team that we’re playing. And that’s what I expect to see. And I think if we do that I would imagine this team will continue to grow. I imagine if the effort, energy, and I think they are picking up schemes pretty good, there is some carry over from last year, then we oughta be pretty good.”
When Toronto has been at its best over the past few seasons it’s been because of its defensive know-how. That championship team of 2019 could change schemes in an instant. Their rotations were crisp and clean and if Nurse wanted to draw up box-and-one mid-game, they knew how to do it.
This year’s roster won’t be on that level, but the goal is to get close.
“I think everyone’s on the same page. I think everyone knows the rotations, the next rotations, where everyone is going to be,” O.G. Anunoby added. “I think everyone is on the same page now, more than they were last year.”
Unlike last season, though, there are no excuses for the defensive miscues that plagued Toronto last year. A 9-11 start to the season isn't going to be good enough in an Eastern Conference so loaded with high-end talent. And after a quiet offseason, Toronto knows it has to make the most of what it has. This year, that's experience.
Further Reading
Raptors want Christian Koloko to get extended reps between G League & NBA rotation
Raptors finalize roster, keep Justin Champagnie & waive 3 others
O.G. Anunoby makes his case for a bigger role in preseason victory over Celtics
