Looking for a jump start on offence
Nurse doing all he can to help make Anunoby more consistent producer
The Raptors made their first substitution of the game about seven minutes into the first quarter on Friday night in Indiana, taking out OG Anunoby and replacing him with Patrick McCaw.
It was all part of coach Nick Nurse’s grand plan to spark the offensive production of Anunoby, who had been shut out on Wednesday against the same Pacers and had 10 points only once in his previous nine games.
The way Nurse figured it, if he could get Anunoby out early and then come back with him near the end of the first quarter or the start of the second, with primarily a group of backups with him, it would give the third-year forward more impetus to get fully involved in the offence and a few more shots might open up for him.
“I’ve been trying to get him out early and bring him back and get him to roll with the second unit. Somehow we’ve got to get the ball to find him a little bit more, because we need his defence, we need his rebounding, we need his cuts and back cuts and dunks and things like that,” Nurse had explained after Wednesday’s game, when Anunoby finished with zero points and one field-goal attempt.
“We need to keep him going here.”
It didn’t work out quite as Nurse had planned on Friday, as Anunoby was scoreless in the first quarter and had only five points in the first half, but it did prove that they will do all they can to jump-start a young player going through some difficult times.
It hasn’t been costly to the Raptors overall — they haven’t lost since Jan. 12 against San Antonio — and team offence hasn’t been an issue.
Anunoby is never going to be a go-to offensive player on a team that’s got Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Norm Powell, Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol, but having him as a consistent producer would ease pressure all around. The Raptors don’t expect 20 points a night, but more games of14 or16 or 18 would certainly help. He wound up with 16 in Friday’s win.
“I need to find a spot for him where the ball seems to find him a little bit more,” said Nurse.
“I’d like him to get some more reps out there, whatever it is. If it’s catch-and-shoots, if it’s drives, if it’s bringing (the ball) in transition or whatever.
“He’s just not going to get much better if he’s only getting one or three or five attempts for us.”
Anunoby’s value to the Raptors is primarily as a defender and, to his credit, his play on that side of the ball has been consistent even as his offence sputtered a bit. He’s the team’s most physical wing defender and can guard multiple positions. In two games this past week against Indiana, he had successful stints guarding allstar big man Domantas Sabonis while also getting out and switching onto smaller, quicker guards such as Victor Oladipo.
Anunoby often gets the most important role in Toronto’s zone defence: playing in the middle at the front, which forces him to move sideline to sideline and from the top of the circle to under the basket, chasing space and shooters.
As long as he keeps doing that, they can accept a somewhat passive offensive role. But as he showed in the third quarter on Friday, when he had two threepointers and a thundering dunk after sneaking into space along the baseline on the weak side, he can have an offensive impact as well.
Unlocking that consistently is what Nurse is trying to do, by giving Anunoby more responsibility with the second unit and trying to jump-start him by running plays for him when he’s on the court with the other starters.