Welcome to the Weekly Rap, a resource for getting you caught up on what went down and what’s on the docket in Raptorland.
It’s no secret that ever since the calendar flipped to 2015 the Toronto Raptors have struggled mightily. However, within this space — and others like it — patience has been preached as the team had previously done enough to earn the benefit of the doubt that it is a good team simply going through a bit of a rough patch.
Well, after a 2-4 homestand where just about the only highlight was fans screaming for free pizza in a win over the lowly Philadelphia 76ers, the grace period is over and it’s time to panic as the wheels on the bus are starting to come off.
Those two wins are the only ones in the Raptors’ last nine games where they’ve been playing the fourth-worst defence in the league (allowing 107.5 points per 100 possessions) and seen their vaunted offence take a major dip (only 101 points per 100 possessions), dropping them to 20th and fourth in defensive and offensive efficiency for the entire season now.
Put into context, the Raptors are playing about as well the 12-29 Los Angeles Lakers who sport very similar numbers on the season to what’s been seen during Toronto’s slump (102.6 points per 100 and 108.6 points allowed per 100).
Need another damning stat? Before the slump, the Raptors were among the league leaders at taking care of the ball, only turning it over 11.6 times per game. During this slump however, the Raptors have seen their turnovers balloon to 16.1 per game.
None of this is good and it matters not that included in last week’s losses were defeats to the streaking Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks as what’s ailed the Raptors has been more or less them playing poor basketball on both ends of the floor.
The Raptors were able to bank wins earlier in the season that has provided the cushion for scenarios exactly like this. However, with the Hawks shooting further and further up the standings, the Washington Wizards just passing them and the Chicago Bulls on the verge of overtaking them, the Raptors need to do something to remedy the situation.
Whether or not that’s a trade or a tweak to the starting lineup is still difficult to say but something has to happen. This stretch is more than just a blip on the radar and needs to be addressed.
In the meantime, it’s alright to feel great alarm. Who knows, maybe that sense of urgency is just what the team needs to kick it back into gear.
Record
26-14 (1st in Atlantic Division, 3rd in Eastern Conference)
What happened?
What was learned?
DeRozan hasn’t appeared to show much rust: On the bright side, the Raptors did see all-star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan return from injury this week and he appears to have shown no rust since returning to the lineup, averaging 22.3 points per game in the three he’s played in since his comeback and shooting a very efficient 54 percent from the field – a particularly encouraging sign since he was struggling with his shot before getting injured.
Ross was benched: Maybe this is the beginning of some of the change that’s needed but in Sunday’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, Terrence Ross was benched in the second half in favour of Greivis Vasquez after going 0-for-3 from the field in the first half. The circumstances surrounding the benching are still unclear, but the third-year guard has struggled in his last six games, averaging only 5.3 points per game on a dreadful 26.7 percent shooting from the field and 26.1 percent from deep.
Upcoming slate
- Monday 8:00 p.m., TOR at MIL
- Wednesday 8:00 p.m., TOR at MEM
- Friday 7:00 p.m., TOR at PHI
- Sunday 7:30 p.m., TOR vs DET
Storylines to follow
The Ross situation: Dwane Casey’s decision to bench Ross in the second half on Sunday was very intriguing because it brings forth a whole set of new questions such as about whether Ross remains as a starter? If he is relegated to the bench does that mean he’s in Casey’s dog house? Can the Raptors even afford to not give him minutes? This is definitely something you’ll want to keep your eye on.
Defensive adjustments: The Raptors play an ultra-aggressive defensive scheme predicated around excellent communication and precise rotations in order to create turnovers. As witnessed by the month of November and most of December this game plan worked to great effect as most teams in the NBA plan for and are now more used to seeing variants of the Tom Thibodeau pack-the-paint scheme.
What was working once before doesn’t appear to work quite as well anymore as teams appear to be exploiting the Raptors scheme by making them over-rotate and commit to dummy actions – hence why the team’s defence has looked so bad of late.
Casey can’t allow this to continue to happen, and while it would be foolish to suddenly change the defensive plan that’s been preached since training camp, maybe reeling in the aggression on defence from time-to-time could help or could at least give an opposing offence pause to think about what the Raptors may be doing defensively on a possession-by-possession basis.