Success brings higher expectations
More energetic Joseph has stepped up in a defensive role in second season with Raptors
TORONTO — It’s a funny thing, this business of going from middle-ofthe-road playoff team to contender.
The bar keeps moving up with every winning season.
Even a couple of years ago, a 12-6 start would be hailed as basketball nirvana, each win celebrated a little louder.
But the Toronto Raptors are well past that stage. The wins are expected now — and not just wins but good, complete wins that signal better things to come.
The same measuring stick of success applies to individuals. A year ago this time, Cory Joseph was still finding his fit within his new NBA home, returning to his native land after four successful seasons with perennial contender San Antonio Spurs.
With Raptors coach Dwane Casey calling for a better defensive effort, he went to Joseph, a lockdown member of the second unit who sees minutes with the first unit late in games.
Joseph’s response was both immediate and effective. Over the past four games, the start of which coincided with a man-to-man meeting between coach and player, Joseph is a combined plus-39.
In the previous four games, he was a combined minus-19.
Joseph doesn’t have a lot of time for individual stats. He’s a team player through and through, but the plus-minus is the one stat he will check after each game.
“I feel like I’m trying to be more energetic out there and trying to have a bigger impact. I think that shows with the plus-minus.”
Casey doesn’t need the plus-minus stats to make his assessment. He’s seeing it in real time and he’s liking it quite a bit.
“He’s playing with more juice,’” Casey said. “He’s getting into the basketball, is the most important thing. He’s gotta be our defensive stopper with the second unit or if he’s gonna play there (late in the game) with Kyle (Lowry) and DeMar (DeRozan), that’s his role … and he’s doing that, he’s getting into the basketball, creating turnovers, pressuring the ball. That’s who he is.
“And I think that, in turn, gives him juice on the offensive end, gives him confidence, (and he) plays a little bit freer and tougher on the offensive end. But it starts with his presence on the defensive end.”
Two of his best offensive performances have come in those past four games, lending credence to the carry-over effect his lockdown defence is having offensively.
Joseph had 17 points against Houston Nov. 23 and 16 against Memphis Known primarily for his defensive prowess, Canadian-born guard Cory Joseph has been picking it up at the offensive end for the Toronto Raptors, scoring 50 points in his last four games. — THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Wednesday in Toronto. In between, he had eight- and nine-point nights in wins over Milwaukee and Philadelphia, all part of his most productive four-game segment of the year.
What impressed Casey, though, was his defence.
“I thought he got back to who he was last year with his defensive presentations on the ball; in pick-and-roll situations, he was into it, he got a deflection, got a turnover over late in the game and that’s who Cory’s got to be.”
Joseph — and DeMarre Carroll, another huge factor in the Raptors defensive prowess — see the team making strides these past few days in that area. With Casey putting the full-court-press on defensive improvement, it’s almost impossible that things not get a little better.
But as Carroll pointed out, it’s all part of learning how to be as effective defensively as they were a year ago, but doing so with personnel changes.
“We’ve got to be more scrappy,” Carroll said. “We don’t have the rim protection we had last year. We have to be more scrappy. We have to get to the 50-50 balls. We have a lot of long, athletic guys who can play defence. It’s all about the will and want-to.