The challenge in the NBA for all but the chosen few is you can spend your whole career trying to get a job for which you have no experience.
The formula for team success leaves little room for substituting ingredients: Two players or sometimes three carry the bulk of the offensive responsibilities and everyone else is employed to find ways to make lives easier for those two or three guys.
If you’re not one of the special ones, the smart choice is to fully commit to being a bit player in some shape or form — “be a superstar in your role,” was Tristan Thompson’s rallying cry when he banged and crashed in Cleveland on behalf of LeBron James.
You might crave more shots or touches or opportunities, but teams have games to win. If you’re best at rim protection on defence and diving to the rim for lobs at offence and that’s what the team needs you to do, chances are that’s what you’re going to be paid to do.
Which brings us to Khem Birch, the intriguing big man that the Raptors signed as a free agent after he was waived by the Orlando Magic, who the Raptors hosted Friday night and sent back to Orlando with a thorough 113-102 thumping.
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Over four seasons he’s been expected to defend when called upon and touch the ball only when necessary. He started just 30 times in 188 chances and averaged just 16.5 minutes a night and 3.3 shots; nearly half of them were within three feet of the rim and more than 80 per cent of them were from inside 10 feet.
It can be a frustrating experience for a player: you work on your skill with an eye towards creating new opportunities for yourself, but the team wants to you do the one or two things you’re best at and that helps them the most.
It’s why Birch asked to be bought out of the last few weeks of his contract in Orlando and join the centre-starved Raptors.
“I was in a box in Orlando. Not to be disrespectful, when I came over there I was really raw. So I guess that’s what they expected me to be,” he said after a season-tying 14 points in a win over San Antonio on Wednesday.
“But I work on my game a lot. The pandemic helped me out. I was in the gym a lot. I always knew I could be doing [more]. I don’t even think I’m at my full ceiling right now. I think I can do more.”
There is clearly an opportunity for Birch in Toronto, and for many others.
Not only have the Raptors been on a season-long search for help in the middle, once again Toronto sat down a range of their regulars for a range of reasons of varying plausibility against Orlando.
Out were typical starters Kyle Lowry – officially for rest, but head coach Nick Nurse suggested it could also because of his toe infection; OG Anunoby (knee swelling, though he was listed as being out for “rest” on Thursday; Pascal Siakam (rest) and Gary Trent Jr. (ankle).
Whether the Raptors are trying to improve their lottery odds or hoping to make a playoff run, it’s clear the last month of the season will be an extended job fair.
Do what you do best, and you might get to do more of it, is the theme.
For example: Paul Watson, the 26-year-old who got his first NBA start in his fourth season of professional basketball.
The six-foot-seven wing didn’t get more than eight minutes in a game for the first two months of his first full NBA season. He then cracked the rotation and began to play well only to miss 11 games due to health-and-safety protocols. In his first game back on Wednesday, he was 3-of-4 from the field and then went nuclear against the Magic on Friday as he scored 20 of his career-high 30 points in the third quarter alone. The bench got more and more excited with each triple as Watson went 6-of-7 from deep in the period.
He finished up 10-of-13 from the floor and 7-of-9 from deep. He made the most of his moment.
He allows that he had COVID-19 and had a few rough days, but he wasn’t going to miss his chance, and his teammates couldn’t have been happier for him.
“It feels good just to see how much fun they were having with it and just having that support out there because we give those guys the same energy when they are out there on the floor, so you know it feels good to see them, you know, being happy for me,” said the low-key Watson, who was stony-faced on the court but cracked some smiles afterwards. “And honestly they were probably going crazy or happier than I was. I probably didn’t show it much but it was nice just to see them, you know, be happy for me so I appreciate it.
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He wasn’t alone in making the most of the chances that are available as the Raptors finish out this strange season. Yuta Watanabe is trying to convince the Raptors that he deserves a full-time NBA job after three seasons as two-way player and he delivered his best game yet. He topped off a five-game stretch where he’s shot 70 per cent from the floor and 62 per cent from deep by going 7-of-11 from the floor and 2-of-4 from deep for a career-high 21 points. For most of the season he’s been tentative with his offence but not so much lately.
“It’s good to see, isn’t it?” Nurse said. “I mean he’s really becoming a threat, right? You’ve got it to account for him up the floor in transition. He’s pretty sneaky with his kind of run-in behinds or he’ll cover so much ground coming out of the corner and he’ll end up at the top of the key on a relocation just on effort and that’s hard to kind of keep track of when the balls being penetrated down the other side of the floor. So he earns the open shot with his hard effort.”
But Birch’s case is a bit different. He’s an established NBA player and the Raptors want him for what the 28-year-old has established he can do, not what he wants or hopes to do.
He may believe he’s got more to offer than screens and blocks and the odd put-back on the offensive glass – he’s attempted 25 threes this season compared to two in the previous three seasons combined, making five – but it’s not clear the Raptors want any more from him than the Magic did.
When I asked about how Birch might be able to expand his game, Nurse – perhaps tellingly — included Birch in the same category as Freddie Gillespie, the raw 23-year-old with five NBA games on his resume and a knack for rebounding, setting hard screens and not much more at this stage.
“I don’t really worry about [them] expanding anything, either one of those guys, right now.” Nurse said. “It’s those basic things we want our bigs to do. Screen, rebound, roll, block shots, protect the rim. Talk on defence.”
Birch has shown he can do that, but how about doing more?
He had a pretty typical game for him against Orlando. He finished with seven points on 3-of-7 shooting, six rebounds and three blocks in 26 minutes.
As a Raptor, he’s shown nice touch in the lane, finishing on a range of floaters in the paint that suggest a touch for something other than dunking home lobs — which he’s good at too. He started his game against his old team with a lovely fading turnaround in the lane. But the few times he’s tried to initiate some offence while facing up off the dribble, he’s looked awkward. He hit a three on Wednesday against the Spurs but has otherwise double-clutched on some other looks and had one blocked in the corner.
The Raptors like him for the same reason the Magic did.
“He’s a very valuable guy to have on your team,” said Magic head coach Steve Clifford. “I saw some quotes from Nick about the fact that he can be a valuable backup and I totally agree with that … He knows who he is, he’s improved his skill level tremendously, [but] he’s a very good pick and roll defender, post defender … He helps his teammates play better, and he brings a ton of intangibles and love basketball.”
And if he wants more?
“That’s what you want in a player, somebody who wants more,” Clifford said. “[But] the toughest thing is that role definition so you can get as many guys on your team that play efficiently, and what you allow them to do on the offensive end of the floor, and how the team functions when they’re out there. So, I mean that’s the Catch-22.”
It’s the conundrum Birch is trying to solve and a path many others have tried to navigate. The likes of Watson and Watanabe are trying to find a niche in the NBA and Birch is trying to expand his. Success is never guaranteed.
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