News

Vivek Jacob

Sports have a unique way of daring kids to dream, and athletes are superheroes that can be seen in the flesh.

For six months a year, and even more in the best of times, children are completely absorbed by the manner in which NBA players can make the impossible seem routine. That’s why, when the likes of Pascal Siakam or Scottie Barnes stop by a school, it can light up a kid’s face instantly. Looks of wonder and amazement spread across the room and a child’s year, let alone day, can be made.

In more recent years, gun violence has increasingly ruined many a bright future and it needs to stop. A year ago, the Toronto Raptors took a step in addressing it by launching a petition urging Canadians to observe a national day against gun violence in Canada, and now like the U.S., the first Friday in June will represent that.

“Sports is a protector, I think sports brings people together, I think sports brings peace in an incredible, incredible way, and sports is a connector.” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said. “We have to be voices, you can say here, ‘Why does sports participate in these things?’ This is our community. The youth, we are a huge part of them, we are a huge part of this community and it affects us in every way.”

On Thursday, the Raptors hosted Government officials, civic leaders, student athletes, the NBA, and representatives from 30 community organizations to commemorate this legislation being passed.

None of this would be possible without community leaders such as Shamso Mohamoud and Shamso Elmi, who both lost their sons to violence and created ‘Mending a Crack in the Sky,’ a program consisting of a dedicated group of mothers looking to address youth radicalization to violence and the alarming rates of youth violence.

There is the One By One Movement that assists organizations from the grassroots level up to the government level with strategy and social programming development in an effort to decrease extreme acts of violence while the Zero Gun Violence Movement, led by Louis March, has collaborated with over 40 different community organizations, agencies and programs across Toronto to address structural and socioeconomic conditions that contribute to gun violence.

“I think the first thing was talking to community members,” John Wiggins, Vice President of Organizational Culture and Inclusion for the Raptors, said of the biggest part of the process in making this day of awareness happen. “We couldn’t inform ourselves or our strategy without talking to the people that have been doing it since 2005 and the ‘Summer of the Gun.’ We had to bring people into our war room where we do drafts and have two, three-hour conversations about what’s going on in the community, how we can help, what we can do, that really informed us.

“It allowed me to have conversations with the Liberal Black Caucus, go out to Ottawa and talk to the Prime Minister’s office, really just advance what we’re trying to say on why this issue is important.”

While those aforementioned programs were able to help Wiggins and the Raptors organization as a whole better understand the needs of the community and better understand and feel the pain some of these individual members have gone through, Canadian Doctors for protection against guns (CDPG) was crucial in providing concrete data and statistics to support the argument for magnifying awareness on this subject. The organization represents physicians working in collaboration with nurses, paramedics, rehabilitation specialists, psychologists, researchers, and other front-line health care professionals, all of whom have witnessed first-hand the emotional and physical trauma caused by guns.

Canada ranks third among the G7 and eighth among the G20 for age-adjusted, standardized gun related mortality and research clearly shows that countries with stricter gun ownership and safety laws have significantly less injury and mortality from guns. In 2020, per Statistics Canada, handguns were involved in approximately 75 percent of violent robberies, along with 60 percent of homicides and other violations causing death and attempted murder.

This is the type of information that was presented to James Cadogan, Executive Director of the NBA Social Justice Coalition last year during meetings at Summer League to gain full support in pushing for this policy, and once the green light was given, the Raptors led by Wiggins drove the train and ran with it.

“To see the growth and development of this initiative from this time last year to now where you have Canadian federal recognition of a day against gun violence is just unbelievable,” James Cadogan, Executive Director of the NBA Social Justice Coalition said. “Things don’t usually move that quickly, especially not in public policy, but a year to get something like that done is lightspeed and so couldn’t be happier to be supporting the Raptors in their work.”

Much of what happened this week will be judged by what comes next, how efforts are continued in helping the community address this problem, how consistently the government is engaged in furthering policy to create stricter measures against guns, as well as how socioeconomic factors that contribute to violence are further addressed.

The youth in not just Toronto but Canada need to continually be shown they’re sincerely valued and the image of student athletes going through several drills and playing basketball after the adults had their say needs to be front of mind.

“Gun violence is something we must fight on many different fronts across the country,” Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “One of the most important fronts is prevention, education, and awareness. I know that’s particularly important to you, Masai. You’ve used your voice and this organization to talk about these things, these issues, bring them forward, make them real in the community, bring young people from the communities here to learn, to be empowered, to grow confidence, to seek paths forward and solutions. That’s how, Masai, you and the Raptors continue to show that you’re a winning team not just on the court but throughout the community and across the country.”

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Stop Gun Violence

tormbeloso

The National Basketball Association announced Tuesday that forward O.G. Anunoby has been named to the 2022-23 NBA All-Defensive Second Team. This marks Anunoby’s first All-Defensive Team selection, and he becomes just the second player in franchise history to earn the honour, joining Kawhi Leonard who was also voted to the second team in 2018-19.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Anunoby averaged 16.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, and career highs in both steals (1.91) and blocks (0.75), in 67 games this season. He led the NBA in steals per game and total steals (128), becoming the first Raptor to achieve either feat. Anunoby joined Marcus Camby (blocks per game in 1997-98) as the only players in Raptors history to lead the NBA in a major-five category - points, rebounds, assists, steals, or blocks.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A native of Jefferson City, Missouri, Anunoby was one of just two players in the NBA to tally 120+ steals and 50+ blocks this season, along with Anthony Edwards, and ranked third in the league with 241 total deflections. He recorded five or more steals five times, including three straight games early in the season (Oct. 31 - Nov. 4), becoming the first player since Russell Westbrook in 2018 – and first Raptor – to achieve such a streak.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Anunoby helped Toronto lead the NBA in steals per game (9.4) last season and set a single-season franchise record with 772 total steals.

Joining Anunoby on the NBA All-Defensive Second Team are Bam Adebayo (Miami), Draymond Green (Golden State), Dillon Brooks (Memphis) and Derrick White (Boston).&nbsp;&nbsp;

The NBA All-Defensive Teams were selected by a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters.&nbsp;Players were awarded two points for each First Team vote and one point for each Second Team vote.&nbsp;Voters selected two guards, two forwards and one center for each team, choosing players at the position they play regularly. Players who received votes at multiple positions were slotted at the position at which they received the most voting points.

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ANUNOBY NAMED TO NBA ALL-DEFENSIVE SECOND TEAM

The end of November was the beginning of the end. After entering the 2022-23 season with the belief that the Raptors could beat anyone, consecutive blowout losses in New Orleans and Brooklyn that included giving up 40-plus points in each of those first quarters alarmed the Front Office.

By season’s end, a dismal exit from the Play-In Tournament, after coughing up a 19-point lead and missing 18 of 36 free throws along the way, summed up the tone and tenor of the entire season.

“To watch us play this year was not us,” Vice Chairman and President Masai Ujiri said at his season ending press conference. “I did not enjoy watching this team play. I think that spoke loud and clear to everything that went on this year.”

Barring the championship winning season, this was the longest Ujiri waited to address the media. He spent the past week meeting with General Manager Bobby Webster and head coach Nick Nurse to figure out the best path forward, arriving at a conclusion that will serve as a wake up call for anyone associated with the team.

While Ujiri acknowledged that accountability for a disappointing season extends from himself to the players and beyond, it was Nurse who was first to pay a price, being relieved of his duties as head coach after five years at the helm. Despite an underwhelming 41-41 season, Nurse leaves with the best winning percentage in team history at 227-163 (.582), won Coach of the Year in 2019-20 where he also coached the All-Star game, and became just the ninth rookie coach in NBA history to win a championship in his first year in 2018-19.

He leaves behind a legacy of winning and ingenuity, but not everything has a happy ending. Or else, it wouldn’t have ended.

Inconsistency, a term that has been foreign in these parts for the better part of a decade, became a theme this season and what Ujiri wants more than anything is for the Raptors to resemble the type of team that has become commonplace during his tenure. That means playing unselfish basketball, showing real togetherness as well as spirit, and threading the needle of winning while developing players at the same time.

In pursuing wins the last couple seasons, development was put on the backburner. Ujiri bluntly stated that he wasn’t happy with how much time was made for the development of younger players on the roster.

While Christian Koloko received more playing time than many anticipated coming in and even started 18 games, the likes of Malachi Flynn, Dalano Banton, Jeff Dowtin Jr., and Ron Harper Jr. all sparingly figured into the action, if that. Justin Champagnie entered the season with high hopes but was waived. The synergy between Raptors 905 and the senior club was a hallmark of this franchise’s success and that pipeline getting clogged is something the Front Office will have to reckon with as well.

Ujiri said he expects to begin the process of finding a new coach late Friday evening and perhaps have one in place before the 2023 NBA Draft on June 22. In search of that lost culture, Ujiri highlighted the traits that he feels the top candidate will have:

“Character. Quality of a person. Energy,” Ujiri said. “What kind of energy are we going to get? Because we need that. Discipline, style of play.”

It suggests a major shift from a style predicated on chaos preached by someone affectionately known as a mad scientist, one that both worked and didn’t work. Toronto finished atop the league in forced turnover percentage but second-last in effective field goal percentage allowed, suggesting that if they couldn’t force the ball out of the opponent’s hands, they couldn’t force a miss. They were sixth in transition scoring efficiency but 25th in half-court offence, showing just how much they struggled to score without a running start.

All of that can’t come down to one person, and Ujiri mentioned that examining the fit of the roster and addressing the outside shooting woes would be major points of emphasis. The Raptors finished 20th in three-point shooting a season ago and 28th this season, and with hardly any personnel changes during that time, it’s hard to look past the lack of internal development.

“Look at the roster maybe in a different way,” Ujiri said. “We have to figure out shooting on this roster in some kind of way. We have to figure out who fits and who doesn’t fit. On the overall, maybe manage people better and maybe see things a little bit deeper because when we hire people I let them do their jobs. That’s been a strength of ours the last 10 years here but I pay attention now a little bit more.”

Parting ways with Nurse represents a major change both on and off the court, and whether that turns into a domino effect remains to be seen. The pieces who help this team who play the right way and want to win, those are the ones that will stick around. On a day the team let go of a man who built a reputation on strategy and innovation, the Raptors made it clear they are hell-bent on re-establishing the intangibles that gave it such a strong base.

“The culture here has been, honestly, we love it, it’s incredible,” Ujiri said. “I think we follow the culture of an incredible city, people, humility, everything we stand for here, togetherness. We lost some of that but I don’t think it’s something you cannot build right back up again. Some of this stuff, sometimes, when these things happen not winning pronounces it a little bit more.

“We believe we’ll be right back, even if it’s slowly, back to where we feel we can be as an organization and as a team.”

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Re-establish the culture

&nbsp;Toronto Raptors Vice-Chairman and President Masai Ujiri announced Friday that Nick Nurse has been relieved of his duties as the team’s head coach.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;“The decision to make a change like this is never arrived at easily or taken lightly, especially when it comes to a person who has been an integral part of this franchise’s most historic accomplishments, and who has been a steady leader through some of our team’s most challenging times. As we reflect on Nick’s many successes, we thank him and his family, and wish them the best in future,” Ujiri said.&nbsp;

“This is an opportunity for us to reset, to refocus, to put into place the personnel and the players who will help us reach our goal of winning our next championship.”

Nurse joined the Raptors organization in 2013 as an assistant coach before being named the ninth head coach in team history in June 2018. That first season, he guided Toronto to 58 wins, one shy of the franchise record, and became the ninth rookie head coach in NBA history to win the championship in their first year.&nbsp;

The following season, Nurse and his staff represented Toronto at the 2020 NBA All-Star Game in Chicago and finished the year with 53 victories. For his efforts, Nurse was named NBA Coach of the Year, an award presented to him while in the NBA’s “Bubble” in Orlando.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In five seasons (2018-23) at the helm of the Raptors, Nurse had the best winning percentage in team history with a 227-163 (.582) record,&nbsp;made three playoff appearances, winning two Atlantic Division and one Eastern Conference title, and the 2019 NBA Championship.

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NICK NURSE RELIEVED OF HEAD COACHING DUTIES

The Toronto Raptors began the 2022-23 season with high expectations and ended it with a feeling of bitterness. After 48 wins in a year that signalled the beginning of a new era, they fell flat in their attempt to better it and missed the playoffs entirely.

Every which way they tried, consistency eluded them. Like a cat chasing a laser, no sooner than when they thought they had finally figured it out were they back at square one.

“Certainly, it was a difficult season,” head coach Nick Nurse said at his season-ending presser. “With what the team accomplished last year with 48 wins, you always want to take a step forward there and we never got to take a step forward. On the other hand, there were some challenges, there were quite a few challenges but guys hung in there. They were responsive, they were attentive, they worked hard, they were trying hard. All those things. And they tried to play through a lot of these outside distractions.”

Diversions were aplenty whether it be players in contract years, the head coach and assistants being linked to jobs elsewhere, and trade rumours surrounding virtually every member of the core. This is all part and parcel of the moving jigsaw that makes winning at the NBA level so difficult but hadn’t eaten away at this franchise’s on-court product for a long time.

For the ninth season in the last 10, the Raptors secured a record of .500 or better and the lone exception was the Tampa Tank. Humans are creatures of habit, and when you get used to winning at the clip Toronto has over the past decade, the goalposts shift. Excluding the 2020-21 season, fans saw the team average 51.4 regular season wins over nine years with eight playoff appearances, 46 playoff wins and a championship. For context, over the previous 11 years, the franchise averaged 32.5 wins and made the playoffs twice where they earned just three wins.

Masai Ujiri, Bobby Webster and co. have worked hard to redefine what success means for this franchise and now must work even harder to ensure that missing the playoffs for the second time in three seasons is an exception and doesn’t become the new normal.

When it was Fred VanVleet’s turn to speak, he expressed the need for a new identity, that the championship residue had worn off and that any hope or belief that it still resides in the air and would magically carry them in years to come needs to evaporate. Newness was a theme, and particularly how what was ingenious last season became antiquated this season.

Toronto created significant marginal gains last season with their innovative style of winning the possession battle via forcing turnovers and crashing the offensive glass. The league as a whole saw an opportunity to be had with offensive rebounding and reduced that advantage this season. The ball pressure and scramble aspect of their defence was picked apart far too often while their gains in the fast break offensively were negated by their transgressions defensively.

“We didn’t execute at a high level, we didn’t perform,” VanVleet said. “I don’t know how many games we came in talking about energy, and not playing hard enough or tough enough or smart enough. So, there are a lot of things that we could’ve done better, obviously, in hindsight. But when you’re in the moment it’s just funky like that sometimes. All in all, like I said, just a disappointing season from our standards and where we want to be and the tradition that we’ve built here. We just didn’t meet that mark for this season.”

If someone were to name traits of the organization’s identity over the past several years, hard-nosed and defence-first would be among them, but the whole being greater than the sum of its parts would likely be right up there, too. That was perhaps the most puzzling absence of all, and speaks volumes of why the second-half collapse in the Play-In Game against the Bulls was more a theme than an anomaly.

The best teams have a swagger to them but also humility in not taking anything for granted. There is a ways to go in terms of the team as a whole understanding the value of each possession and recently acquired centre Jakob Poeltl lamented the team going “too much into cruise control.”

“We're just at times a small step behind,” Poeltl said. “It seems like a tiny adjustment that we need to make. I feel like we have everything we need, we’re just not quite there. It's about figuring out what that is to put us in a spot where we are really good on a consistent level. What those adjustments are, it’s not always easy to figure out. Maybe a small change of mindset here, it might be a small tactical change. I don't know, I couldn't tell you that. It's about figuring that out to become a winning team, a really winning team.”

Poeltl was a big part of the positive note the Raptors finished the season on (15-11 record), the presence of a seven-footer at centre with strong rim protection skills and a soft touch around the basket addressing a major need. The starting group posted a plus-9.5 net rating after his arrival, and re-signing him will play a huge role in the team’s hopes of success in 2023-24.

There were arguably no bigger individual positives than the play of Pascal Siakam and O.G. Anunoby with both expected to contend for end-of-season awards, the former for what could be a third All-NBA appearance and the latter for a first selection to an All-Defensive team. Anunoby led the league in steals on both a cumulative and per game basis, while Siakam finished as one of just five players to average at least 24 points, seven rebounds, and five assists alongside Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and LeBron James.

Again, the starting pieces are there, but how they can be complemented to get the team better results is the main challenge that lies ahead. A major component in putting it all together is Nurse, who expressed his passion for both the franchise and how to get it back to the level of success it’s become accustomed to.

“Listen, I love it here. I love it here and we have built a really strong culture,” Nurse said. “That is what Masai is doing. That is what Bobby is doing. That’s what I’m doing. We’ve got to all evaluate how we can get that culture back where we need it and get back to being a playoff team and then getting to a level of winning it all. That’s what we want to do. That’s what we get up and go to work for the last 10 years.”

From players to coaching staff to front office, this is a summer for serious reflection and evaluation. What are the minor details that are missing? Who will look in the mirror and acknowledge their own shortcomings?

Failure can be a great teacher, and the action or inaction this summer will show exactly what the team has learned.

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A time for new laurels

The Toronto Raptors, in the midst of figuring things out in a new era of the franchise, having to go through one of their favourite sons in DeMar DeRozan on Wednesday and Kyle Lowry, arguably the greatest player in franchise history, on Friday in order to make the post-season.

As both Nick Nurse and Fred VanVleet emphasized after practice on Monday, Wednesday can be the only focus currently and as much as the storyline will surround DeRozan going up against his former team in an elimination game, the Raptors have a game to win versus the Chicago Bulls.

“Every game's a must-win,” Nick Nurse said Monday. “Every game we play we’re going out there to win, so we got another one in front of us Wednesday.”

Toronto’s reputation is no secret at this point: apply a tonne of ball pressure to help force as many turnovers as possible (ranked second in turnovers forced after the trade deadline), play in transition as frequently as possible, and attack the offensive glass (third in offensive rebounding after trade deadline).

Chicago, on the other hand, hangs its hat on the defensive end, posting the third-best defensive rating (112.0) after the all-star break while relying on their Big Three of DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Nikola Vucevic to carry the offence.

What should you expect between these two teams in an elimination game? That’s exactly what we’re about to break down:

Since the acquisition of Jakob Poeltl, the Raptors starting group of Poeltl, Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes, O.G. Anunoby and VanVleet have posted a plus-9.5 net rating in 313 minutes. That’s certainly impressive, but the Bulls starting quintet of Patrick Beverley, Zach LaVine, Alex Caruso, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic is a plus-14.7 in 267 minutes.

The two teams faced each other once after Toronto got Poeltl and Chicago got Beverley, the Raptors emerging victorious 104-98 courtesy a spectacular fourth quarter for Barnes.

Defensively for the Raptors, they began with VanVleet guarding LaVine, Siakam on Caruso, Barnes on Beverley, Poeltl on Vucevic, and Anunoby on DeRozan. The Bulls meanwhile switched things up a bit, having DeRozan match up with Barnes on the other end, LaVine on Anunoby, Beverley on VanVleet, Caruso on Siakam, while the centre matchup remained the same. This caused quite a few cross-matches in both transition and semi- transition, and one key will be to see who can take better advantage of those mismatches.

What’s worth noting from the film is that Poeltl didn’t close this game. Nurse opted for Trent Jr. instead of the Austrian, and the Raptors’ activity and length were key factors in winning the fourth quarter 34-26. Though Vucevic finished the game with 23 points including 4-of-6 shooting from deep, Toronto was able to force him into six turnovers as well. Over three games against the Raptors, Vucevic and DeRozan have combined for 25 turnovers while LaVine has had seven turnovers in two games. As we know, that’s what the Raptors live for.

After practice Tuesday, Nurse explained his thinking behind whenever he turns to Barnes for minutes at the centre position:

“It probably enabled us to switch the mid ball screen,” Nurse told Raptors.com. “That’s usually what we’re doing there with that when Scottie’s playing the five. He’s capable of switching and we’ve got two kinda bigger bodies defending the ball handler and the five but they’re also agile enough to guard the ball handler. Then, whoever gets switched onto the five, they’re big and strong enough not to get buried in the paint.”

Beyond the Raptors regular starting five, expect to see Trent Jr., Boucher, and Achiuwa in action off the bench. Whether any of Will Barton, Malachi Flynn, or Christian Koloko see the floor will come down to specific demands of the game.

For Chicago, Ayo Dosunmu, Coby White, Andre Drummond, and Patrick Williams will make up the main bench options, though Derrick Jones Jr. could figure if head coach Billy Donovan opts for some length on the wing to better match up with Toronto.

The biggest individual matchup is undoubtedly Anunoby going up against DeRozan. Anunoby has been quite successful in the head-to-head so far this season, focusing on prevention rather than cure by putting in as much work as possible to push DeRozan as far out to the perimeter as possible or deny him completely before he can receive the ball. Help defence has always been ready and waiting as well. In three games against the Raptors, DeRozan has averaged 14 points – 10.5 below his season average, 3.7 assists, and 3.3 turnovers. He averaged just 8.7 field goal attempts and 5.7 free-throw attempts, showing the degree to which Toronto has prioritized getting the ball out of his hands.

Another priority for Nurse heading into this game is to attack not just DeRozan, but LaVine (averages 24.8 points per game) as well on the other end to make sure they’re exhausting as much energy as possible and perhaps even getting into foul trouble.

“It’s always important for scorers, I’ll put LaVine in there, too, their top two scorers, we’ve gotta make sure we’re making ‘em work at the other end,” Nurse said. “That’s always a little tricky because you’re maybe having to adjust your sets and things like that which you gotta do, but, it’s not like, ‘Oh, yeah, sure, we automatically flow into that,’ you gotta take a look and you gotta see where it is and see where to move pieces and things like that and try to get to stuff.”

For the Bulls, how Caruso fares matched up against Siakam will be a huge factor. Siakam only played in the Feb. 28 encounter between these two teams, missing the previous two. He scored 20 points on 7-of-18 shooting and shot 5-of-6 from the free-throw line to go along with eight rebounds as well as three assists against just one turnover. While the shooting percentage was less than ideal, Siakam’s process throughout the game was quite good.

Against Caruso, Siakam relied on a steady diet of backing the Bulls guard down before either rising up for a fadeaway or going up strong if he was close enough to the basket.

“I think he’s a good defender,” Siakam said. “I feel like, especially [among] those guys that are smaller than me, he’s strong and can hold his own, it’s always going to be tough but I do feel like it’s going to depend on where the help’s coming from and those types of things. But I think they have a variety of people that can guard and they’ve done a lot of different things so it should be interesting and fun.”

Patrick Williams would be the other best option to defend Siakam from a Bulls perspective, and it’s easy to envision how Donovan might look to stagger them and give his team the best shot possible at limiting Toronto’s all-star.

In Caruso and Anunoby, this game will present two of the best defenders in the league and it should make for intriguing viewing to see how Siakam and DeRozan handle their respective challenges.

Chris Boucher has had some great moments against the Bulls, none bigger than a 38-point, 19-rebound performance almost two years to the day.

The Montreal man had an impressive performance off the bench last season as well, and hit three crucial 3-pointers in the Raptors’ most recent win over the Bulls. He finished this season with the second-most blocks of any bench player in the league, and his ability to make highlight plays on both ends of the floor could be a huge spark plug in an elimination game.

For the Bulls, it’s hard to look past Play-In tournament king Pat Beverley. He’s provided a boost to his hometown team since arriving after the all-star break and will do everything in his power to get under the skin of the Raptors.

“That’s his game. I like it, I don’t mind it,” Siakam said of Beverley. “That’s what he does, he’s always had that energy and (you) like to play against those types of guys, guys that give everything and they want to do everything they can to win the game and sometimes don’t care about their offence and this and that. I think it’s great, I think he’s a good guy. Every time we play, it’s fun.”

Toronto barely got to the free-throw line after the all-star break, ranking 28th in free-throw attempt rate. Only three teams foul less than Chicago, and so freebies at the line should be hard to come by. Throw in the fact that the Bulls force the fourth-most turnovers and the Raptors will do well to be disciplined offensively and not get discouraged when the Bulls’ best defenders are able to cleanly knock the ball away.

“We’re gonna have to run some good next action offence,” Nurse said. “This team’s playing very well defensively, they do a lot of switching, we can’t let the switching – they switch so they can keep the ball in front – we gotta keep getting it into our next actions and have good offensive possessions.”

Despite both teams being strong in forcing turnovers, the Raptors were much more effective than the Bulls in imposing this strength when facing each other, garnering a 36-to-59 turnover advantage over the three games played. Achieve something similar on Wednesday and that’ll be half the job done.

Toronto finished as the third-worst three-point shooting team in the league after the trade deadline but 10th in shooting within four feet of the basket. Chicago was 19th in both shooting at the basket and at the three-point line and so how the paint and the arc shooting plays out will be the biggest deciding factor.

The Raptors finished the regular season with a 27-14 record at home while the Bulls finished 18-23 on the road. Toronto won both home games against Chicago during the season.

After the all-star break, Toronto allowed the second-fewest points per game (108.6) while Chicago allowed the fewest (107.9). The Raptors finished the season 31-6 when allowing 110 points or fewer.

Since the inception of the Play-In tournament, the No. 9 seed has gone undefeated against the No. 10 seed with a perfect 4-0 record. No pressure.

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Play-In preview: Raptors vs. Bulls

The hardest part of being great is normalizing it. Can you make what would be considered spectacular to the masses routine? Can you provide excellence, then enter a new day with the resolve to make it even better than the day before?

Pascal Siakam had a tremendous 2021-22 season that saw him make the All-NBA Third Team. He set lofty expectations for himself entering ‘22-23 and, in reaching for the moon, looks to have landed upon a star once again.

The 29-year-old is averaging career-highs in both points (24.2) and assists (5.8) while also impressively recording a career-low turnover percentage (9.6%). Rebounding has always been a strong suit for Siakam and that remains solid with 7.8 per game. The best regular season night of his career came at Madison Square Garden where he dropped 52 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists with just one turnover, shooting 17-of-25 from the field as well as 16-of-18 at the free-throw line.

“All-NBA,” Fred VanVleet said when asked to sum up Siakam’s season. “He came in and wanted to be top five, he looked that way to me. He’s put the numbers up, had big performances, he’s carried us all year, he’s been outstanding.”

Though it’s been a trying season for the Raptors as a whole, Siakam has been nothing short of a beacon of hope, leading the league in minutes per game (37.4) and serving as a buoy for a team that has struggled for consistency. This was encapsulated perfectly in the team’s Wednesday defeat in Boston, where Siakam was the standout performer with 28 points, 11 rebounds, and four assists, including a brilliant third quarter where he scored 16 with the team struggling for any kind of offence.

Most renowned for his ability to spin and fake and feint his way around the basket, Siakam has shot an outstanding 75 percent within three feet of the basket which is also the best mark of his career. For some context, Jayson Tatum is shooting 74 percent from that range this season while Jimmy Butler (70%) and Julius Randle (68%) also trail him.

His work around the basket has also translated to earning more trips to the charity stripe, averaging nearly seven attempts per game this season after hovering at about 5.5 for the last three seasons. Siakam has explained in the past that he’s someone that has always focused on getting his shot off cleanly around the basket, but there seems to be a greater understanding this season of when his scoring odds are better by just drawing contact and going to the free-throw line.

As the Cameroonian has continued to elevate his status in the role of that of a primary scorer, it’s the mid-range that has proven the biggest barometer of success, improving to a career-best 47 percent from 10-16 feet. The noticeable change in Siakam’s approach in the mid-range is the increased degree of comfort he’s shown in the turnaround fadeaway. Last season, he was happy to rely on more of a face-up game, using a combination of dribbles and hesitations to get to his spot and rise up. This season, there’s been more backing down of opponents before turning and fading for a shot that’s simply impossible to contest. Tatum is shooting 39 percent from 10-16 feet while Randle is at 44 percent. Butler does have the better of Siakam here at 49 percent.

“I think the biggest thing that's changed over the years is just how comfortable he's gotten in his mid-range game,” Jakob Poeltl said when asked to compare the Siakam he knew during his first couple seasons in the league to the one he sees now. “That's something that stands out to me this season. Seeing it on a daily basis, how comfortable he's gotten in those types of situations between multiple moves and getting into his rhythm and mid-range shot is really impressive. The skill development there, I think that's the one thing that’s stood out the most.”

His growth as a playmaker is probably the most underrated aspect of his development this season, building off the last couple seasons of improvement but the results not showing as much for a team that has struggled shooting the ball all season. While his current assist average sits at 5.8, it jumps to 7.1 when adjusted for league-average shooting. The Raptors are currently 28th in the league in three-point shooting at 33.5 percent (league average 3-point shooting is about 36 percent), which makes not just Siakam’s playmaking difficult to stand out, but also ramps up the degree of difficulty when looking to operate in isolation as opponents feel free to show him as many bodies as possible and force the ball out of his hands.

“I come in every single day, do my job, and do it at a high level,” Siakam said. “I definitely think I deserve it (All-NBA) but, at the end of the day, there’s things I can’t control so I focus on my team and doing everything that I can to help us be successful.”

That All-NBA conversation is particularly interesting this year in light of the reports of a new CBA agreement that indicates a minimum of 65 games played will be required to obtain this elite status beginning next season. Will voters use that as even more of an earmark for how they make decisions this season or do they lean more on this being a last opportunity to make exceptions?

Siakam’s case for a forward spot on one of the All-NBA teams is certainly bolstered if games played is a bigger factor than usual, as Kevin Durant (47 games played), Kawhi Leonard (50 GP), and LeBron James (53 GP) would all be out of the mix. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jayson Tatum seem destined for deserved First Team spots, while Jimmy Butler, Julius Randle, Lauri Markkanen, and Jaylen Brown look like the stiffest competition.

Realistically, Randle looks like a guarantee for a forward spot after bouncing back with a tremendous individual season as the Knicks flirt with 50 wins. Jimmy Butler has averaged 22.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.8 steals on a career-best true shooting percentage of 64.3. The Heat also have more wins than the Raptors. That leaves Brown, who has spent the majority of the season in a secondary role to Tatum on a Celtics team locked into the 2-seed, and Markkanen – who has also been outstanding but plays for a team that, despite exceeding expectations entering the season, will not make the Play-In tournament.

An X-Factor will be if Brown – averaging 26.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists – sneaks in as a guard, where if the same 65-game logic were to be applied this season, both Steph Curry (54 GP) and Damian Lillard (58 GP) would miss out and thereby open up room to work with there.

This looks like a battle between Markkanen and Siakam for the final forward spot, one player who announced himself on the NBA stage as a great scorer with 25.6 points and 8.6 rebounds and shooting 50 percent from the field as well as 39 percent from deep, while the other has impressively added to a more established resume with 24.2 points on 48 percent shooting, 7.8 rebounds as well as 5.8 assists, and despite his Raptors falling short of expectations, the team still has more wins than the Jazz. Siakam has also played almost 350 minutes more than Markkanen, which based on the latter’s per game average would be about 10 games worth.

Voting this year will be less clear cut than years to come when we know there will be a minimum games played stipulation, and that makes it harder to know what to expect with Siakam’s standing for All-NBA. As he said, though, all he can do is control what he can control, and the evidence this season shows that he has certainly done that.

Siakam is steadily normalizing his greatness, and that’s something that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

siakam-deserves-all-nba-love

Siakam deserves All-NBA love

Kawhi Leonard is the only player in Toronto Raptors history to make an All-Defensive team, doing so in the championship winning 2018-19 season.

Especially in recent times, the Raptors have had their fair share of players in the mix for the honour but eventually miss out. Fred VanVleet was the last player to almost get selected, finishing with the most voting points of any player to not get picked last season.

This season, it is going to be very hard to deny O.G. Anunoby.

“I’ve always wanted to be Defensive Player of the Year,” Anunoby said back in early November. “I’ve always thought I was the best defender in the league, [I’ve] thought that for the last I don’t know how many years.”

In not getting the recognition he has stated he wants, Anunoby acknowledged that he observed the ones who do tend to get defensive acclaim are the ones who rack up impressive numbers in steals and blocks. The game is the game, and doing that in highlight fashion creates more of a visceral memory when voters gloss over a resume.

The 2022-23 season has been the definitive Anunoby all-defence world tour. While he has had good steal numbers before, he has made himself impossible to ignore now as the league-leader on both a per game basis (1.9) and total steals (127) among qualified players. He’s had nine games this season with at least four steals, including a three-game stretch in which he had a mind-boggling 16 steals in 94 minutes. He has had 157 consecutive days ranked inside the top three in total steals, the longest streak in franchise history and the longest by any player this season.

“Have you seen his legs?” Nuggets coach Michael Malone asked. “That guy is strong. I remember when he was coming out, we brought him to Denver, we were going to lunch with him. He wasn’t able to play at the time, he was still recovering from the knee (surgery). You knew there was something about the kid: how he carried himself, the quiet toughness if you will. He lets his play do the talking. I have a lot of respect for that. When you look at O.G. guard – whether it is Nikola or anyone else – the strength, the athleticism, the IQ, the anticipation and all great defenders have a common characteristic no matter how they’re built —&nbsp;mindset. He has a mindset to go out there and shut down whoever he’s guarding.”

It’s an art to bully someone into submission when you don’t have the ball in your hands and Anunoby’s ability to get steals without some foxy sleight of hand but rather an incessantly intimidating physical presence is a marvel to watch. You don’t need to zoom in on a subtle trick or replay for an exchange you might’ve blinked and missed, it’s happening in a very obvious way and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

When opponents are in the midst of a dribble hand-off, Anunoby is the uninvited third wheel that makes you question your own presence in it all. Then there’s him batting away the ball in the middle of your crossover, why did you think dribbling was a good idea? He’s an immovable object crouched in front of you, then an unstoppable force once he’s breached enemy airspace.

“He’s been so good defensively for us,” VanVleet said. “I think he’s just finding a better pace and rhythm [this season] and not really going for home runs all the time, just staying solid and when he goes, he gets them. I think that’s a maturity thing, just what you get from experience and knowing when to go for the steal. He’s been an anchor for us on that end of the floor. We’ll continue to lean on him and he’ll be a big key for our defence.”

In addition to the steals, he is also just behind teammate VanVleet (3.8) for the league-lead in deflections per game at 3.6. As of April 4, per Dunks & Threes, Anunoby ranks first in the league in defensive estimated plus/minus (plus-3.4) among those who average at least 26 minutes per game. He currently averages 35.7 minutes per game – the highest of anyone in the top 50 – which speaks to the extent of the team's dependence on his particular set of skills on a nightly basis.

The Raptors have six lineups that have played at least an hour’s worth of basketball this season and Anunoby features in five of them. Four of them feature a true centre in either Jakob Poeltl or Christian Koloko, and the defensive rating of each of those four units would rank in the league’s top seven. Toronto’s current starting group of VanVleet, Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl is allowing 109.5 points per-100 possessions through 297 minutes, which is a tad ahead of Cleveland’s current league-best rate of 110.1.

Anunoby’s 6-foot-8 frame of muscles protruding from every angle can teleport into passing lanes or present a brick wall of resistance, whichever tickles his fancy in a given moment. Over the course of a week, he’ll shuffle through defending guards, forwards, and centres alike. The last couple of years and until this season’s trade deadline, the Raptors asked him time and again to defend the biggest, strongest players in the league because of their lack of a centre and he’s delivered far more often than not.&nbsp;

Even since the trade deadline, Anunoby has gone from defending DeMar DeRozan to Bradley Beal to Nikola Jokic to Kawhi Leonard to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and even Embiid and Antetokounmpo. The best of that run came in Los Angeles with a jaw dropping two-way performance against the Lakers, operating as the primary defender against Anthony Davis in helping limit him to eight points while supplying 31 points on 12-of-14 shooting on the other end.

It’s all very, very impressive and not something the Raptors take for granted.

“He’s done a great job on all of ‘em from a seven-foot-plus guy (who may become a three-time MVP) to one of the shiftiest guards in Beal,” head coach Nick Nurse said after the game against the Nuggets. “He’s really a great defender, really great defender.”

Some might argue that the team as a whole being right around league-average defensively is holding him back, but it’s worth remembering that both Rudy Gobert and Giannis Antetokounmpo made last season’s All-Defensive First Team despite their teams ranking 10th and 14th in defensive rating, respectively. Matisse Thybulle made the All-Defensive Second Team a year ago despite the Sixers ranking 12th in defensive rating and him playing just 25.5 minutes per game.

A more pertinent question then may be how much winning impacts how the all-defensive teams shape up. Of the 10 players who made the two all-defensive teams last season, Rudy Gobert’s Utah Jazz had the worst record at 49-33 (0.598). In the 2020-21 season where each team played 72 regular season games, Draymond Green made it with the worst team record of the lot, Golden State posting a 39-33 (.542) record. In 2019-20, no Raptor made it despite the second-best record in the league but Thybulle’s Sixers had the worst record of anyone who made the two all-defensive teams that season at 43-30 (.589). Toronto's .500 record and play-in tournament positioning may not bode well in this regard but this season has also had the most parity of any in history.

Looking at last year’s all-defensive first and second teams as well as the regular names that crop up season after season, there’s a case to be made that Anunoby’s path at forward is slightly less complicated than usual. Gobert has had his name inscribed to an All-Defensive team during his time with the Jazz, but his run of six straight First Team appearances looks set to end with what has been an underwhelming first season with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Why does what’s happening at centre matter to Anunoby, or any forward for that matter? Because there are a couple players in Jaren Jackson Jr. and Bam Adebayo who made last year's All-Defensive teams as forwards but should be considered for the centre spot having played that position and defended the paint rather than the perimeter far more often than last season. Per Basketball Reference, Jackson Jr. has played 76 percent of his minutes at centre this season compared to 43 percent last season while Adebayo has seen 100 percent of his minutes at centre this season.

If Jackson Jr. and Adebayo are indeed battling Brook Lopez, Jarrett Allen, Nic Claxton, Anthony Davis, and Joel Embiid at centre, that’s yet another forward slot that opens up.

When looking at Anunoby’s competition for the four forward spots, the competition most likely includes Draymond Green, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Mikal Bridges, Jayson Tatum, Jaden McDaniels, and Evan Mobley. The first name is a lock, but Anunoby has a case that can compete with any of the rest.

Whichever way you slice it, Anunoby’s body of work makes for an extremely strong case with not only the eye-popping numbers and highlights that people want to see, but the defensive versatility he’s always been recognized for. The X-factor of health has also panned out as he’s on pace to play over 80 percent of the season.

It is, quite frankly, near impossible to find a better wing defender than Anunoby, even tougher still to find one who can use his strengths to deter the best players at the other positions as well. The different parts that people have wanted for Anunoby have coalesced perfectly this season, and he deserves to be recognized for it come awards season.