National Post (National Edition)
Five things we learned, Raptors edition
CASEY CAN COACH
With a playoff record of 3-8 heading into this season, there were valid questions about whether Dwane Casey could make the right adjustments in the crucible of a playoff series. Those concerns were heightened in the opening loss to Indiana, when the coach stuck with the same lineup he had used down the stretch in the regular season. But Casey proved to be more than willing to mix things up, adjusting his starting lineups several times during the postseason run and making changes when certain strategies didn’t work. For a coach who often talks about players having to accept roles out of their comfort zone, he showed he would do it himself, too.
JONAS RISING
Before he was hurt in the third game of the second-round series against Miami, Jonas Valanciunas was the most effective player on the team in the playoffs, something even Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan admitted when the big Lithuanian sprained his ankle. Valanciunas had a playoff efficiency rating of 26.8, where 15 is average. Next best on the Raptors: Kyle Lowry, at 16.6. At 23 years old in a league where big centres usually take time to develop, Valanciunas should be a tremendous offensive force as he enters his prime.
RULE OF THREE
The Cleveland Cavaliers and their barrage of 17 made three-pointers in the seriesclinching Game 6 win showed just how effective the long ball can be as a weapon in today’s NBA. It also showed a weakness in the Toronto offence, where only Lowry shot them regularly among the starting unit. A healthy DeMarre Carroll should be more of a threepoint threat, but if DeRozan can extend his game beyond the arc, it could dramatically improve the Raptors offence by creating much more space on the floor. Casey has said that even Valanciunas needs to add that shot to his arsenal.
YOUTH MOVEMENT
Casey talked this spring about how the Raptors were a growing team, but he wasn’t wrong. The nine players who saw regular playoff action averaged 26 years of age, more than two years younger than the Cavs — and five years younger than San Antonio. Toronto got major minutes from rookie Norm Powell in the closing stretch of the regular season, and he had moments in the playoffs but was littleused against Cleveland. How Casey incorporates him, plus 23-year-old Lucas Nogueira and whatever Toronto gets with two first-round draft picks will be a challenge for a team that will be building toward another playoff run.
GIVING THE BIZ-NESS
The injury to Valanciunas likely made tens of millions of dollars for Bismack Biyombo, the backup centre who had a starring role in some of Toronto’s playoff wins, most notably his 26-rebound effort in Game 3 against Cleveland. But with Valanciunas’s 4-year, $64-million contract extension kicking in next year, it’s highly unlikely the Raptors will want to pay starter money to two centres. Someone will almost certainly give Biyombo a boatload of money this off-season, but unless he wants to move an existing rotation player — or, gasp, Toronto loses DeRozan — that someone will not be Toronto GM Masai Ujiri.