Bench brigade powers Raptors’ rise
Stellar second unit brings infectious enthusiasm to the floor as Toronto gears up for stretch run
LOS ANGELES — The biggest surprise of the first half of the NBA season for the Toronto Raptors was probably the stellar play of its bench.
Conversely, the biggest question ahead of the stretch run and the playoffs beyond is whether the mostly young group can continue to turn heads as the games start to matter more.
But before we get to that, a recap: Point guards Delon Wright and Fred VanVleet have been excellent at both ends of the floor.
VanVleet’s been the best-shooting high volume three-point gunner on the team (41.7 per cent), both he and Wright have hit at a team best 86.7 per cent rate at the free throw line, their advanced metrics are good, and they’ve frustrated opponents on defence.
Big men Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl have also changed games with their two-way work, and the veteran of the group, C.J. Miles, finally sprang to life ahead of the all-star break.
Norman Powell has had a trying campaign, but he could re-enter the mix at any point.
“Our guys, they’re kind of the lifeblood of our team a little bit, our bench,” assistant coach Rex Kalamian told Postmedia after coaching at the Rising Stars event to kick off all-star weekend on Friday.
“The spirit of our young guys is infectious and I think it’s kind of taken over into our locker-room, into the games. It’s fun.”
Kalamian spent plenty of time working under Scott Brooks in Oklahoma City, and while he might not be helming a bunch of future league MVPs here, the way he was with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden with the Thunder, he says there are some similarities in terms of the enthusiasm and effort the youngsters in both places brought to the table.
“In OKC, we used to call it Thunder U, Thunder University, that’s what it was. It was like college practices. Our games were like college
games,” he said. “We were just so young, I don’t think we really knew what we were doing, or how good we could really be, we just concentrated at getting better one day at a time.”
Which is what this Raptors’ group does, though they have the added advantage of being surrounded by all-stars Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, as well as solid veterans like another former Kalamian pupil, Serge Ibaka.
People around the NBA are noticing.
“Those young guys in Toronto on that bench don’t get enough credit, they are fantastic,” Charles Barkley said on ESPN over the weekend.
DeRozan and Lowry certainly are fans, too.
“I love it. Our bench is everything,” DeRozan said. “Our bench gives us older guys an opportunity to not play in the fourth quarter and to rest. It’s great to be able to sit back and cheer those guys on while they go out there and pull out victories.”