Raptors’ DeRozan masters art of the steal
Toronto Raptors’ coach Dwane Casey has been asked about his new ball-moving, three-point shooting offence so many times he can recite the answer without even thinking.
“Yes, the ball is moving much better.
“Yes, we will continue to take those three-point shots when they’re there. We might even make a few one day.’’
OK, that last bit might not be part of the routine. But it could be.
For a man who has built his NBA reputation on defence and turned around this franchise by giving defence the attention and time it requires to be good, he seems to be spending very little time actually talking about the Raptors’ defence.
“We are doing some things differently defensively too, but nobody’s been asking about the defence,” Casey said prior to Monday’s shootaround at the MODA Center in advance of Monday night’s game with the Portland Trail Blazers.
“Everyone seems to be concerned about the offensive changes. Well, we’ve made some changes defensively that I’m not going to say publicly, but we are doing quite a few things different defensively and nobody has even asked about it.”
So while the talk has been focused on the offence, perhaps because we in the media tend to be fixated on the offence, behind the scenes, it remains a defencefirst mentality with Casey’s team. The numbers back it up. Toronto owns a defensive rating of 97.4 (points per 100 possessions) which is fifth overall in the NBA. Last year, they wound up in eighth in defensive rating holding teams to 104.9 points per 100 possessions.
DeMar DeRozan said defence has, and always will be the primary focus of a Casey practice.
“One thing we always preach in practice, if something is an offensive drill, we also treat it like it’s a defensive drill as well,’’ he said.
“We don’t favour one over the other but at the end of the day we treat both ends of the drill as a competitive drill and that’s how we practice. We play mainly for stops, not for buckets.”
Norm Powell owns the highest defensive efficiency rating of 90.9 among the starters. Serge Ibaka at 96.4 is the only other starter in Toronto’s top seven individual defensive stoppers.
DeRozan has also had a big hand in this as well, in one area in particular.
While it’s still very early in the season and DeRozan will be the first to tell you his intention is not to go out there and lead the league in steals, that’s exactly what he has done through five games.
DeRozan chalks it up to study and understanding the changing NBA and trying to take advantage of some of those changes.
DeRozan said every team plays at a faster pace these days. It’s get the ball off a turnover or inbounding from behind the basket after a miss and it’s go. Just get down the court as quickly as possible so as not to let your opponent get set up.
In doing that, teams fall into habits and DeRozan’s leaguehigh 2.8 steals a game is testimony to understanding what teams are trying to do.
“We all scout offence regardless of who we’re playing against,” DeRozan said. “A lot of passes in a team’s offence are automatic. There are a lot of triggers that go on in the offence now to speed up the game. So I pay attention to all the triggers where a guy does a certain thing whether it’s them getting a defensive rebound and trying to push it or something else. You kind of just play that feel.”
Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green singled DeRozan out for exactly that as he tried to explain to reporters after their win over Toronto why the Warriors turned the ball over so much.
“Even with us, our mindset is to get it out quick and get it down court as fast as possible,” DeRozan said. “With that, there is a lot of room for error.
“For me, as soon as I see a big get the ball, my first reaction is look down court and see how many options he has.
“From there on out, I’m playing the free safety role and anticipate from there.”
But DeRozan does that selectively and always with a mind to how he can recover if the pass isn’t picked off.
The last thing he wants to get, and certainly the last thing his coach wants, is DeRozan gambling and getting beat.
So yes, the Raptors are answering a lot of questions and talking a lot about offence, but defence is still very much front and centre for this team.