Bismack Biyombo has given the Raptors a player who defends the rim like no other Raptor before, and that’s a good thing.
Raptors forward ‘ has earned minutes,’ says coach Casey
Jonas Valanciunas’s fractured left hand is currently in a splint, which makes his participation in any of the Toronto Raptors’ practices tedious. All of those basketballrelated things that require full use of one’s hands are off limits for Valanciunas, which means he gets to do a lot of conditioning work.
As practice wound down on Friday, Valanciunas was working with Alex McKechnie, the Raptors’ director of sports science. McKechnie had the centre moving from side to side, as to keep his agility at a playing level. A few moments later, McKechnie ripped the Catapult tracking chip from Valanciunas’s shirt, measuring how he is progressing. For a basketball player, the rehabilitation journey is a monotonous slog.
Valanciunas still has one good hand, though. After McKechnie took the chip, Valanciunas used his right arm to initiate a half-hug with his replacement in the starting lineup, Bismack Biyombo. As Biyombo spoke to the media, Valanciunas raised the same arm aloft, in solidarity with the new Raptor.
Biyombo’s first 16 games with the Raptors have been full of adventure, but his most recent appearance was the most encouraging: 11 points and 12 rebounds in 33 minutes, helping to anchor a solid defensive performance against LeBron James’ Cavaliers. And that is why Masai Ujiri took a chance on Biyombo — for all of his flaws on the other end of the court, Biyombo protects the rim like few others, and communicates coach Dwane Casey’s schemes loudly with, in the words of Casey, his Barry White baritone. For a player who went from lottery pick to a disappointment very quickly in Charlotte, the validation is nice.
“I’ ll tell you what, it hasn’t been a big change,” Biyombo said, comparing the Hornets and Raptors. “It’s just that people notice that here and of course within the organization and within the team, it’s much needed in the situation where I am. And of course it helps my teammates in a way that it’s appreciated.”
While Biyombo’s defence has yet to lift the team’s defence up as a whole — the Raptors are actually slightly stingier when he is on the bench compared to when he is on the floor — he provides defence at the rim like no other Raptor during Casey’s tenure. According to Nylon Calculus, a basketball analytics website, opponents are shooting just 39.7 per cent at the rim when Biyombo contests a shot. Of true shot blockers, only Utah’s Rudy Gobert exceeds Biyombo, who fits right alongside confirmed difference makers such as Tim Duncan, Roy Hibbert and Serge Ibaka in this category. The Raptors’ improvement containing guards on the perimeter is the biggest reason they are ninth in points allowed per possession so far, but Biyombo’s presence has definitely helped.
Then there is the other end, which complicates Biyombo’s value. While it would be nice to focus just on Biyombo’s defensive impact, he clearly hurts the team’s offence. Opponents virtually ignore him because of his problems catching the ball on the move and finishing in traffic; he had a few key baskets in the fourth quarter against Cleveland, but a few of them were the product of Cleveland abandoning Biyombo as he rolled to the basket. There have been enough cases of Biyombo dropping shovel passes in the paint this year that fans should not expect Wednesday’s productivity to continue.
As a team, the Raptors score 7.5 more points per 100 possessions with Biyombo on the bench compared to when he plays.
“Bismack has earned minutes just on his hard play alone,” Casey said. “There are so many situations why we’ve had him in the game. One was ( for LeBron) James, to protect the rim, because he’s coming at 100 miles per hour. We felt like we needed a bigger body, a stronger physical presence at the rim, which he gave us more so than Luis ( Scola). There are going to be games where Luis is probably more valuable for us at (centre).”
Opponents shoot 56 per cent when Scola is at the rim, and were at 57.5 per cent against Valanciunas before the injury. So, there is some merit to living with Biyombo’s faults in the short term, especially as long as Kyle Lowry is able to carry the offence.
Perhaps, in the interim, Biyombo’s chatty presence will transfer to the rest of his teammates.
“I know scoring is not a big issue in the room,” Biyombo said.
“We have a lot of scoring but we’ve just got to play good defence.
“I’ve said it before — when you play for the guy next to you, you develop toughness, you develop something special. And I think that’s what has helped us to play the way we’re playing.”