TORONTO — As much as things have changed for the Toronto Raptors, much has remained the same.
Sure, without Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka on the roster this is a team entering the 2020-21 campaign with a different feel to it, but with much of the core still intact — Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby and Norman Powell remain key cogs of the machine — don’t expect the Raptors’ style of play to drastically change.
The identity of the Raptors that has been built up and established over the past five or so seasons will not change.
“…Our foundation hasn’t changed, the things we believe in haven’t changed, our expectations haven’t changed,” VanVleet said Monday after the team finished practice at its new temporary training facility in Tampa, Fla. “We’ve still got our core, we’ve still got our head coach, those things aren’t going to change.”
Added assistant coach Sergio Scariolo: “If you talk about identity, I don’t foresee any major change. The team has been successful throughout the last couple of seasons because we had to trust our philosophy, our identity, what Nick [Nurse] wants.
“We have to be an aggressive team, we have to be a press-the-ball team, we have to be good being in the gap and being out at the same time after helping and being ready to recover and contesting every shot, we have to be a strong rebounding team, and we want to be a running team.
“Our priority is always to run the floor and to end up with as many possessions as we can, with fast pace in the open court and in transition. And then in the half court offence we’ll still be an open team. We want to share the ball and be unselfish. We want to have players that can attack the rim but at the same time when they have two men on them be able to make the next pass and be generous with that. So we need people who can facilitate and finish at the same time. And I believe that we have a pretty nice group of players who can handle the ball, who can create for others. And we have another nice group of people that can really shoot and finish the play.”
But while the general philosophy of Raptors basketball won’t change when the ball tips on their new season Wednesday night, it’s undeniable that there is still a lot of “new” to integrate — which is something VanVleet, at least, conceded.
“I think it’ll be a lot different. Just plainly speaking, there’s a lot of different guys that are gonna be playing,” the Raptors guard said. “Serge and Marc were very big pieces of what we did over the last few years, certainly big parts of the championship team and last year even more.
“Those two guys were such a huge piece of what we did, and I don’t think that we have to necessarily replace ’em, but I think just the dynamic will be different and the way we play might look a little different.”
One example of what VanVleet is alluding to will be hard to miss this season.
Aron Baynes was picked up in free agency as a pseudo-replacement for Ibaka and Gasol. With big shoes to fill in a short period of time, Baynes said he’s been adjusting with help from the most well-established Raptor.
“Fortunately, Kyle’s an all-star point guard,” Baynes said Monday. “He’s a great player. He’s able to come in and straight away get a feel for guys and try to put guys in the best positions, and it makes everyone’s job that much easier. … It’s pretty good when you have a leader in Kyle and a coach in Nick. You know they’re exceptionally smart in the game of basketball and they’ll work out pretty quickly the best way to get everyone into their comfort zone.”
The Raptors are Baynes’ fifth team in his ninth NBA season so he’s grown accustomed to trying to learn new teams, teammates and systems, and with the Raptors it sounds like it’s still a work in progress for him, but he’s confident sooner than later everything will come together on the floor.
“…For me personally, it’s just finding where I should be to give these guys the most opportunity to create for me, and for me to help them create,” Baynes said. “There’s a bunch of nuances within that, but at the end of the day, it’s still playing basketball. It’s still a lot of fun to go out there, and I’m just excited to get to keep doing it every single day. Hopefully, sooner rather later, we’ll start looking like things are clicking well out there.”
A way Baynes can help establish this chemistry he’s looking to build with his new teammates will just be doing something he already does very well: Set hard, brick-wall-like screens.
As Scariolo described Baynes’s screening prowess, the six-foot-10, 260-pound Baynes is among the best screeners he’s ever seen — comparing him to the likes of former Raptor Zan Tabak, even in that regard.
Said VanVleet of the kind of screens Baynes sets: “He’s a monster out there. I tell people, the biggest thing is I know from playing against him, it’s not the ones he hits you with, it’s the ones now you’re looking for him. It only takes him one time to hit you before you start looking around to see where he’s at. That makes all the difference, as well, when guys know they gotta go around him one way or the other.”
Though it’s an over-looked part of the game, the screens Baynes sets could be game-changing for the Raptors. Last season with Phoenix, he averaged 3.0 screen assists per game, generating 6.7 points per contest from screens he set. In other words, when he comes to set a pick on a teammate’s man, it’ll often directly lead to points on the board for his team — or at least a good offensive opportunity.
“I was never the most talented offensive player on my team, so I always wanted to be able to figure out a way to contribute and make someone else on my team better,” Baynes said. “Offensively, it’s an easy thing you know, like you set someone a screen, you’re gonna make their job easier. At the same time, if you set the screen, a lot of the time the ball is gonna find its way to you as well. It’s a win-win.
“So setting screens, and also allowing the offence to get spacing. If you get Freddy or Kyle a little bit of space, they’re going to make something good happen more often than not. So just trying to set a screen and give them an extra step on their defender is a good thing. I’ve seen over the course of the few weeks I’ve been here how well that can help them, and how much it’s good for our team as well. So I’m just looking forward to going out there and getting running and going with these guys. It’s something I’ve always done in my career, and it’s something I think I could still get better at as well.”
Screens are things we’re all familiar with, but with new personnel on the team like Baynes, all of a sudden this small-looking part of the game looks like it could have a wide-reaching impact on Toronto’s season.
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