What we learned about the Raptors
The Toronto Raptors reached the 80-game mark with Wednesday’s exciting, but ultimately familiar, loss in Brooklyn.
It’s been a long, draining season for the entire franchise with far more bad than good occurring and more questions than answers revealing themselves as Toronto finally fully turned the page from its championship and contending era.
Here are some things we think we learned about these Raptors, though:
TORONTO HAS ITS FUTURE POINT GUARD
The Raptors had a great run with Kyle Lowry and then Fred Vanvleet at the position, but desperately needed a long-term successor to the floor generals who had been so strong for years for the club.
Getting Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and the 31st or 32nd pick in the 2024 draft for OG Anunoby was strong work for a front office that needed a hit. Barrett’s been fantastic, playing by far the best basketball of his career with room to get even better, and the pick is a nice chip to have, likely the first selection of the second round, but Quickley will be the key to that deal for Toronto.
In 24 games in January and February, his first outings with the Raptors, Quickley shot 43 per cent from threepoint range, despite hoisting more threes than ever before, and also averaged 5.6 assists per game. Though his shooting dipped to 31 per cent from three in eight March games, Quickley showed he could be a superb playmaker, averaging 9.6 assists per game (including an 18-assist game), along with 5.8 rebounds.
Quickley has been even better this month with his highest scoring games as a Raptor coming in each of the last two and near triple-doubles in each of the last three. The restricted free agent is going to get a nice new deal and deservedly so — he’s going to be one of the faces of the Raptors for a while.
SCOTTIE BARNES IS A FORCE
Barnes made his first all-star appearance and might have been a dark-horse candidate for the all-nba third team if he didn’t get hurt.
After following up his stirring rookie of the year campaign with a major step back as a sophomore, Barnes answered his critics by starting Year 3 averaging 20.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting 38.4 per cent from three through his first 37 games. While that superstar-level play dipped to 23.5 per cent three-point shooting with mostly lesser numbers everywhere else, too, for the final 23 outings before his injury, Barnes had already made it clear that at just 22 years old he possessed the skills to dominate the game in multiple ways.
GRADEY DICK IS GOING TO BE A PLAYER
Anyone who writes off a rookie, let alone a teenager at that, just a few months into their career is foolish. You don’t just flick a switch and figure out the NBA right away.
Dick was 19 and rail thin when he broke into the league on a team that was getting ready to ship out two of its best players. He looked out of place and overmatched, which shouldn’t have been surprising. Sure, Dick didn’t fare much better in the G League at first, but eventually he started showing why the Raptors selected him 13th overall after his lone season in Kansas.
After a special program toughened Dick up both physically and mentally and slowed the game down for him, he returned as a useful NBAER. The shooting stats are what stands out (40 per cent from three in seven January
games, 49 per cent from beyond the arc in 12 March outings and 41.2 per cent in five April appearances after a lull to 33.3 in March), but everyone knew Dick could hit from outside.
General manager Bobby Webster said from the start that he was far more than just a shooter and Dick has been proving it. He attacks the glass, isn’t afraid to try to step in and take a charge and moves superbly off the ball. Down the line, he can learn from gunners like Klay Thompson and Peja Stojakovic, who expertly found their shots and made them at a high clip.
At worst, he’s going to be an extremely valuable reserve. If his defence can improve to the point where he is no longer targeted on that end, Dick can be much more than that.
SPACING STILL NEEDED
Unless Barnes and Barrett are suddenly good three-point shooters, as they’ve shown this year but only extremely sporadically in the past, Toronto needs to add more strong shooters.
Jakob Poeltl clogs things up and Quickley and Dick can’t
be the only two consistent outside shooters on the floor. Gary Trent Jr. has proven himself in that regard, but will be an unrestricted free agent.
Ideally Toronto would find a big forward who can fit beside Barnes with elite shooting and rebounding skill sets (think a modern-day Chris Bosh with three-point range). Those guys don’t grow on trees, but it’s arguably what the Raptors need more than anything else moving forward.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH DEFENSIVELY
With Poeltl and Barnes, Toronto is much more sound defensively. But their absences turned this team into the worst defensive group in the entire NBA and even at full strength there’s work to be done.
Quickley got burnt consistently by elite point guards. Barrett is game and tough, but not known for his defensive work. Barnes is great as a roaming cleanup man, but can improve as a man-to-man defender, and Ochai Agbaji has lots of promise, but needs more refinement.