Words of WOZDOM
Highlights from Ryan (The Woz) Wolstat’s NBA Courtside blog
The Raptors soared down the stretch last season when Kyle
Lowry went down with an injury, but make no mistake, the run came in spite of his absence, not because of it. DeMar DeRozan and Serge Ibaka played out of their minds on offence, Cory Joseph was steady, and P.J. Tucker brought leadership, intensity and a defensive mindset.
However, Lowry is the best player on the team and by far the most impactful. Lowry is seventh in the NBA in value over replacement player over the past five seasons (behind only
LeBron James in the Eastern Conference) for a reason. So it’s no surprise that the Raptors looked terrible in their late night, Hawaiian finale against the Los Angeles Clippers with Lowry being rested. Told you not to worry about
C.J. Miles and Ibaka after one game of poor shooting and will repeat that advice after another stinker. Ibaka’s now shooting 33% in the pre-season including just 2-for-14 on three-point attempts. Miles is 3-for-13. These are early days, both will find their missing jumpers. Ibaka has rimmed out a lot of good looks and with Miles, it seems like so far they aren’t quite freeing him up from the spots where he is most comfortable (the corners, vs. above the break — Miles hilariously nailed his lone trey from about 2.5 steps up from centre court). The spacing will work itself out as the players adapt to the new stuff they are running.
Not as encouraged by DeRozan’s three-point prognosis moving forward. He doesn’t look close on most of his attempts.
The Raptors seem to be crashing the offensive glass a little harder than in previous seasons. It’s too early to tell if that will be a new wrinkle or if it’s merely a coincidence. The team needs to be smarter though, as each game has seen a nice put-back negated by offensive cylinder interference (once by Bruno Caboclo, once by Jonas Valanciunas). One of the things Delon Wright does is sneak in for rebounds.
The Blake Griffin-Ibaka running battle at least added some entertainment to what was a dull affair (cheers to
Adam Silver for shortening the pre-season!). Griffin can get under the skin of opponents and Ibaka loves to talk. Ibaka blew by Griffin for a monster dunk in the opening quarter, giving the high-flyer a taste of his own medicine. Griffin got him back with a big dunk. Ibaka didn’t like a Griffin push off after he had already fouled him, Ibaka blocked Griffin at the rim and told him about it and it went on from there. Good stuff.
Valanciunas was steady again on offence, but got lit up on the other end. DeAndre Jordan looked like vintage
Dwight Howard at times, and Valanciunas’ closeout defence (or lack of it) was well on the way to becoming a meme even as the game was still going. Who had nice nights for the Raptors? Pascal Siakam looked quite solid and active;
Lucas Nogueira was good again (this time as the second centre off of the bench, behind Jakob Poeltl); Fred VanVleet continues to make a big push for the backup point guard spot. I think Wright will leave camp with it, and he had a bunch of good moments too, especially using his herky, jerky, longlimbed style to get to the rim at will, but VanVleet will be chasing him all season and will force his way into minutes. VanVleet’s aggressiveness and smarts add a nice dimension to the bench;
Alfonzo McKinnie intrigued. Who didn’t fare as well? K.J.
McDaniels was brutal in his Raptors debut; Caboclo was horrendous again; Poeltl really struggled, fouling like Robert
Archibald, bricking free throws like DeAndre Jordan and turning the ball over far too often for a big man. He’s much better than he showed in this one.
Chris Paul might be the best point guard of this generation (when he was at Wake Forest I called him the closest thing to Isiah Thomas we had seen and he has almost lived up to that billing, though he hasn’t soared in the playoffs like the first Raptors general manager used to). Still, the Clippers did a good job replacing the future first ballot Hall of Famer. This is an impressive group. The one concern for me would be there is little chance the group stays healthy. Griffin, Danilo Gallinari and Patrick Beverley have had all kinds of injury issues over the years. Betting on all of them to stay in the lineup is asking a lot, though, to be fair, Paul wasn’t the most durable player either.