Raptors return as a deeper team
Road trip proved capabilities of the bench
Winning is a whole l ot of fun — no question. But a team learns the most about itself in times of adversity, and in a three-game, five-day trip that began in New York and ended with a 112-78 win in Atlanta, the Toronto Raptors learned a lot.
That the trip ended on a winning note, evening the weary Raptors’ road record at 6- 6 through the first 19 games of the season, was nice. But the wins and losses don’t tell the whole tale.
Here’s a look at some of the things we discovered about this team on this trip. ❚ The young bench mob is far deeper and more impressive t han what was first thought, and they still haven’t reached their peak. Toronto’s second unit was youth personified in the final leg of the trip, with nary a player on the court with more than three years of experience — and that would be three years of mostly watching, truth be told.
On this night there was no C. J. Miles, no Kyle Lowry and no DeMar DeRozan to turn to when things got dicey. The kids did it themselves, and they did it to the tune of a 39-14 second quarter that determined the outcome of the evening. Fred VanVleet, Lorenzo Brown, Norm Powell, Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl all played significant roles.
Earlier in the trip, when they were keeping the Raptors afloat in Indianapolis and New York — in games Toronto would lose — the bench was doing it with one of the vets. VanVleet was asked after the game if that was as smooth as he can remember the second unit operating, and said it has been pretty smooth this entire trip. The only difference was against Atlanta, both units were locked in. That they excelled in the final two games with Miles back in Toronto with his newborn daughter suggests this group has more in the tank than suspected. ❚ DeMar DeRozan, even when he’s not scoring, is still a force. The Raptors’ leading scorer left his shooting touch back in Toronto on this trip. In the three games, he put up a total of 33 points, which is more like one night’s work for the high- scoring guard. But even in a slump, he has found ways to contribute. In Saturday’s trip-saving win in Atlanta, DeRozan had two points but eight assists. For the trip, he had 14 assists. As for the slump, DeRozan is not worried.
“It happens, man,” he said after the loss in Indy. “We play so many games. Nobody is going to be perfect every game, and that’s fine. I try to find other things to do, go out there and play hard, cheer my teammates on whatever I can do, but one thing about me, I understand when I have games like this, the bounce back is always much better.’’ ❚ The only thing certain about the way head coach Dwane Casey is going to employ his stable of centres, and centres posing as power forwards, is the uncertainty of it all. Casey has Jonas Valanciunas, Lucas Nogueira, Serge Ibaka, Poeltl and even Siakam if he wants to extend it even further to play the position.
The metrics all confirm Valanciunas at centre with Ibaka at power forward is sub- optimal. Ibaka is far more effective at centre, which leaves Casey to leave Valanciunas on the bench for lengthy periods, which he did Friday in Indianapolis, or play a less efficient lineup.
As it stands now, Valanciunas and Ibaka are starters, but even in the second half of Friday’s game, when Casey normally returns with his starters, Casey flipped the script and started Siakam at forward and Ibaka at centre to get more speed in the game. He has not done this yet to start a game with everyone healthy, but that may not be far down the road. ❚ Kyle Lowry has designs on becoming the smallest big man to lead his team in rebounds in a season. OK, Lowry never said this, but all indications are the six- foot point guard has it in him. Lowry has been in double digits in the rebound department six times, including all three games in the trip.
Lowry is averaging 6.3 rebounds a night this season. That’s sixth in the NBA among guards behind Ben Simmons, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James (who isn’t really a guard but qualifies as one), Lonzo Ball and Jaylen Brown. Of that group only Westbrook is close in height to Lowry, and he has three inches on him. ❚Van V lee tisn’ t going to just let his teammates take his minutes. With everyone healthy, Casey has gone with as many as 12 men in the rotation with the knowledge that he will eventually cut that down. VanVleet often gets mentioned as one player who could lose his minutes when this happens.
With Delon Wright out for the time being, VanVleet isn’t going anywhere yet. VanVleet hasn’t had the big minutes some other players have enjoyed, but through Saturday’s games he is No. 2 in the league in both individual defensive rating and net rating. On the three- game trip he averaged just over 21 minutes a night with nine points, 3.5 assists and just under two steals per game.