The good, bad and in between
Inconsistent bench play leaves many questions heading into second half
This is the tease that is the end of the Toronto Raptors’ rotation, the seventh, eighth, ninth men on the pecking order.
As a group they have been maddeningly inconsistent all season, with good games and bad games and so-so games all in the same week, and it has to be driving coach Nick Nurse a little batty.
They dangle athleticism and smart decision-making and an acceptance of their roles one night; they try to force things, miss good shots and play with a dulled sense of purpose the next. Teasers, all of them. Take Tuesday against Atlanta as a case in point.
OG Anunoby, whose struggles the entire season have been real and well-documented, had one of his best games of the season. He had 14 points on five-of-six shooting from the field, knocked down the two free throws he attempted — no mean feat for a guy shooting 32 per cent from the line this season — and was a disruptive force on defence in his 28-minute run in a 104-101 win over the Atlanta Hawks
He played so well that Nurse left him on the court instead of Pascal Siakam down the stretch of a close game.
“I thought he was having a really good hands game, he was really getting his hands on some balls, knocking them away, coming up with some loose balls,” Nurse said. “Pascal picked up his fifth (personal foul); I thought Pascal was coming to life a little bit at the offensive end, but OG was playing so good defensively that we let him roll.” A good game. Then there’s Norm Powell, who had been evoking memories of his breakthrough 2016 playoff run, being explosive and aggressive but not out of con- trol, a shooter on a team that desperately needs one and a Swiss army knife defender who can handle numerous assignments.
Powell had been good far more than bad of late, but a season-high 23 points on Sunday against Indiana was followed by a brutal game Tuesday — 1-for-7 from the floor and three missed three-pointers in three attempts. A bad game. Delon Wright, meanwhile, had four points and five assists in 15 minutes, without a major impact on the game. A so-so game. How the Raptors solve that conundrum will be one of their more important moves in the second half of the regular season.
The five starters are basically set — Kyle Lowry, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, Siakam and Serge Ibaka — with guard Fred VanVleet and centre Jonas Valanciunas, when healthy again, cemented as the top two backups. Nurse needs to find two more players he can trust to perform every night and, at the moment, there’s no leader in the clubhouse.
Anunoby has always been in Nurse’s sights as a potential key contributor. Games like Tuesday will earn him even greater favour with his coach, despite a spotty start to the season.
“We’re counting on him,” Nurse said of the second-year forward.
“He’s kind of got to get through his slow start, but I’m not really worried about that. Is it a concern? A little bit. But I have a lot of confidence in him. He’s a good defender, that’s always a good starting point. He’s a good person, that’s another good starting point.
“He’s working. And I think there’ll be some chances to open things up for him and let him get his little groove back on.”
Powell, meanwhile, might be the most frustrating of them all. The potential seems immense, and he’s proven in playoff games past that big moments don’t scare him. But it’s always one step forward and one step back, and that’s not going to cut it in the long term with a team that aspires to play for a title. Still, Nurse holds out hope. “I’m really liking what Norman Powell’s doing and I think he’s a versatile enough guy to guard small, quick guys, and he can also bang a little bit with the bigger threes and fours down there if we need to do some switching,” the coach said. But every night? A question still unanswered, by all of them.