Teenage life is complicated, and while we’re in the 2020s, it seems that the Toronto Raptors are going through an awkward phase right now. With a big brother (Kawhi) out of the house for college (injury treatment), they’re having to find themselves in a big and scary high school (Eastern Conference) as they’re trying to develop an identity for themselves in an unforgiving world (the National Basketball Association).
More threes, and a Kawhi Leonard and Scottie Barnes centred offence, would have both
been logical progressions from last year’s Raptors’ squad. But, Leonard out and some streaky shooting has meant that the Raptors are looking like quite a different beast entirely. Tonight, the Raptors are matching up with the Grizzlies, a familiar foe from the Vancouver days, with the possibility to have three starters out, due to Leonard’s injury management and some issues exhibited from Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley.
Barnes and Quickley are both focal parts of the Raptors’ offence, but didn’t play in the team’s last game, a victory against the Milwaukee Bucks. Across the four game road trip, the Raps went two and two, picking up wins against two really, really bad teams (Clippers and Bucks) and losing to a great team and a fine team (Lakers and Nuggets). Not super heartening, but again, the first major road trip, and all of those games were played with at least one starter down.
The road trip continued to showcase Scottie Barnes’ development into a type of player that we only saw glimpses of during the last playoffs. Barnes, this season, has transformed himself into a rebounding, midrange shooting, volume scorer as opposed to the pass-first point forward that he had developed a reputation as.
As of time of writing, Scottie is second in the league for midranges attempted, and third in the league for midranges made. This is, quite frankly, bananas, considering that Barnes was never known to be a primary scorer; it seems that one summer with Kawhi Leonard has rubbed off a lot on the younger player. Barnes has never been more fun to watch, while still maintaining his responsibilities on the defensive end, averaging 2.3 steals on the season so far.
Barnes has shown that he’s able to do something that superstars are often called upon to do: prop up a mediocre team with great scoring, taking over like he did during the win against the Clippers. And indeed, the Raptors have thus far been unfortunately mediocre.
“We’ve been very underwhelming to start the season,” said Jamal Shead after the Raptors’ win against the Bucks last week. “We have so much more to put out, and I think today was a start,” he continued.
Consistency is a big part of that. Kristian Cuaresma pointed to the loss to the Denver Nuggets being a tale of four quarters: the Raptors take 12 threes in the first quarter, and make six. Immanuel Quickley gets 10 points and six times in 12 minutes. But then, the Raptors shoot 6-22 from three for the rest of the game, and Immanuel Quickley ends the game, scoring just three more points, and getting one more assist.
In the game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Barnes finished with 22, but only had seven before the fourth quarter.
And, in the game against the Bucks, Jakob Poeltl plays 31 points and gets a 19 point, 11 rebound double-double. Yes, the Bucks are abysmal, but when Poeltl does that in one game, but has a rough stretch like he does at the beginning of the season, it’s difficult to know what version of the big man the Raptors are getting on a night-to-night basis, at this juncture.
Understanding team identity is important, and clearly, the idea of Scottie Barnes as a point forward supporting Kawhi Leonard, and the Raptors developing a major three point shooting offence isn’t developing quite as anyone thought it might. And ultimately, that’s okay. But this lack of dependable production (and availability) from just about everyone on the Raptors means that every game is shaping up to be a very different kind of contest, where weapons end up being used in majorly different ways.
If Darko Rajaković understands, and is able to harness his players’ varying levels of production going forward, there won’t be an issue. But, the alternative, a confusing and inconsistent team, would be devastating after making such a big swing for Kawhi Leonard.
Jamal Shead might have been speaking for his team with his statement: the Raptors can be doing a lot more, and perhaps will be able to turn the corner now into a more polished version of what they bring to the hardwood. But finally cementing the identity of this iteration of the Raptors is a project that seems far from finished. Growing up takes a lot of time, and a lot of pain for everyone involved, and Toronto seems to be no exception.
