Gasol must be bigger part of offence
Amid offensive drought, veteran centre being nudged into taking more shots
It appears change is afoot for Toronto Raptors centre Marc Gasol.
It does not feel like it will be an easy transition.
Gasol, 34, has been playing the game of basketball one way throughout his career.
He is a pass-the-ball, sharethe-ball, make everyone around him better kind of offensive player. He’s much more facilitator than scorer, though he’s been a scorer in this league already, with an average of more than 15 points a game over 11 years in Memphis. He just hasn’t been that kind of player in Toronto yet.
“You can’t take it upon yourself,” Gasol said of kick-starting an offence when it’s sputtering like it was Saturday in Milwaukee. “You have to continue to execute the offence, be patient with it, move the ball side to side, especially against a long and athletic team like the Bucks are. So you have to have that patience and trust your offence and the shot it will create. Let the ball go through your hands a couple of times and make somebody else drive and collapse and move it. You just have to trust it and move it and run and move your body and create separation from the action and get open shots.”
That part of Gasol’s game where he battled down low for position and then scored inside isn’t gone, but it isn’t what it once was.
But the Raptors believe they need Gasol to be a bigger scorer.
Never was that need more apparent than Saturday night in Milwaukee.
Other than Kyle Lowry, just about every Raptor normally relied on to score was having issues getting the ball in the net.
Fred VanVleet was off. Pascal Siakam was way off. Even Serge Ibaka, who isn’t counted on for a ton of scoring but has been a steady double digit producer in that department, was off.
Gasol attempted just five shots in the first half. He did amp it up somewhat in the second half with seven more attempts, but he had to be looking for his shot more than he was.
“I thought I was looking at the rim when I had it,” Gasol said when he was asked about the need to be looking to score more. “Sometimes you just don’t have the ball as much. You can’t have five guys out there who are shot-first mentality. It’s like I said, when you are out there at the top of the key you have to let the ball go through (your hands) and swing side to side and create some other action. But trust me, the last few games I have been looking at the basket a lot more and I have been conscious of it. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen right away but you have to stick with it, but I think I’m getting back into it for sure.”
That Gasol is even talking about this speaks to how much, behind the scenes, he has already been prodded to look to score.
Head coach Nick Nurse is at the forefront of that campaign.
He was asked post-game in Milwaukee if he needed to see Gasol become a little more shot-happy than he has been. Nurse began by pointing out that Brook Lopez, the man guarding
Gasol for the most part on Saturday, is sort of the Bucks’ designated roamer on defence, so there were definitely opportunities there for Gasol to impose his will offensively on the game more than he did.
Initially it sounded like Nurse was going to avoid a direct answer on the question of needing more scoring from his centre. It didn’t stay that way for long.
“Yeah, we want him to be a focal point offence scorer at some point this year,” Nurse said.
Gasol’s teammates also see the opportunities and, like the coach, seem willing to bring Gasol along slowly toward becoming that guy who is more assertive offensively.
“Just time,” point guard Fred VanVleet said of what it will take to get Gasol fully on board with this. “Everyone goes through it, his is right now. He’ll figure it out. Marc’s played a lot of basketball in the last few months and we trust he’ll figure it out.”
But VanVleet said some of the onus is on himself, and the rest of the Raptors too, to ensure Gasol feels good about the shots he’s taking.
“We have to do a better job of getting him involved and putting him in situations where he’s not just a playmaker or just in a catch-and-shoot,” VanVleet said. “We have to give more options., more flexibility. He’s got to do a little better job being more assertive. We’ll figure it out, we’re not worried about it. Over time, we trust he’ll be good.”
No one is suggesting Gasol forgot how to play basketball. His defensive IQ is off the charts, as is his role as a facilitator. But his role on this team since arriving has changed with the departure of all that offence when Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green left.
Before they left, he could be facilitator and spot-up threepoint shooter, and that was enough to fill his offensive responsibilities. But now they need more on the offensive end from him and if it means being a little more selfish, then that’s how it has to be.
The issue is that selfish basketball, even within a team concept, goes against everything Gasol believes about the game. mganter@postmedia.com
We have to do a better job of getting him involved and putting him in situations where he’s not just a playmaker or just in a catch-and-shoot.