The Raptors have now played three of their five preseason games after losing 113-111 on Saturday night in Boston, a game that was more intense than you’d expect for the time of year. With a pair of games to go, it is time to check in to see who is making the most of the pretend games and who has more work to do next week.
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Svi Mykhailiuk: It’s tough to know what to make of the Raptors’ wing/forward rotation, since three players — Pascal Siakam, Chris Boucher and Yuta Watanabe — have not been available. Those guys will obviously figure into the Raptors’ regular rotation, to varying degrees, when they are healthy.
Saying that, Mykhailiuk is probably the player who has taken the most advantage of the extra playing time in their absences. Mykhailiuk was signed late in the offseason, largely because he has a track record as a solid 3-point shooter. He has flashed that, for sure.
Man like Sviji for the 3 pic.twitter.com/yQTOTh6gWT
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) October 9, 2021
He has displayed a lot more than just a shot, though. Mykhailiuk has been one of the most forceful drivers on the team, creating for both himself and others. He has shown surprising physicality as an offensive player. You’d like to see that carry over to defence, but for the minimum, that element is nice to see.
“He’s kind of a playmaker, not just a shooter,” coach Nick Nurse said Thursday. “He’ll touch the paint a lot, which is good, and he flies off those screens.”
Mykhailiuk has seven assists through three games, a nice bonus.
Scottie Barnes: The Raptors rookie hasn’t been perfect. You can see the moments of indecision on offence when he’s in what should be a natural scoring position. Jayson Tatum got clinical on him in the second quarter Saturday, drawing some fouls on Barnes with precise movement.
Those are no great crimes for a rookie who is supposed to be on the raw end of the spectrum, considering what he’s flashed. It’s true, he won’t be able to fully leverage his playmaking until he is more of a scoring threat himself, but if this is his passing level while the other stuff is catching up, his ability in a few years is nice to dream about. Barnes is both making good passes quickly and difficult passes into tight windows. He had eight assists against the Celtics, and has 19 through three games, comfortably leading the team.
Another 1 https://t.co/WMcFlIBxQG pic.twitter.com/rAzAolYBoZ
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) October 10, 2021
Barnes even showed off a pair of fadeaway jumpers in the lane against the Celtics in case you really want to dream big.
OG Anunoby: Umm, OK, OG.
OG GOT THOSE pic.twitter.com/GNakQ5NnKl
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) October 10, 2021
There is no mystery to this. With Pascal Siakam out, the Raptors need someone to pick up the offensive load. He can look a bit stiff as an attacker, and he is much more comfortable playmaking from a set position rather than on the move, but he has been excellent in a much bigger role. As Fred VanVleet noted, Anunoby has not really had to “share” the ball much in the preseason. Given that, you would expect an efficiency decrease.
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Instead, he has shot 53 percent from the field and 56 percent from deep. You’d like to see him either be able to create more for his teammates or draw more free throws, but this is a player who has been closer to the fifth option than the first option for the majority of his career. Anunoby has been excellent.
“He’s been great,” VanVleet said. “He’s been assertive finding his spots. I think me and him are finding a little bit of rhythm together.”
Stock down
Malachi Flynn: This isn’t so much about Flynn’s individual numbers as it is the Raptors’ offence when he has been running the show on his own. It just feels like the creative burden is too high for him right now if VanVleet or Goran Dragic is on the bench.
Part of that is because we haven’t seen enough of Flynn puncturing the first line of defence. There has been far too much perimeter dependence with the Flynn-led lineups, which is not a huge surprise given how many jumpers his running mate off the bench, Gary Trent Jr., tends to take. That should only increase the amount of pressure he puts on the defence. Instead, 15 of Flynn’s 20 field goal attempts have been 3s, and he has shot just two free throws.
We have to keep in mind that Flynn is leading reserve-heavy lineups, and that because the Raptors are missing several key players, these lineups are likely to struggle. Regardless, the process has not looked very good to start.
Gary Trent Jr.: Let’s start with the positive — Trent looks way more attuned to what the Raptors are trying to do defensively in the preseason than he did after March’s trade. He has been much more competitive defending the ball and helping off of it, and two-way effort is essential with the way the Raptors want to play.
However, Nurse was critical of the Raptors’ shot selection as a team Thursday, and Trent was a big part of that, with eight of his 12 shots coming outside of the paint. Saturday, it was 11 of 14, with a pair of good cuts leading to his buckets inside the paint.
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It is mostly fine: Trent is a scorer, and he is not going to be the model of efficiency. Part of his gig is to take difficult shots. However, Trent has to try to mix things up a little bit more.
“I think it’s getting more rhythm shots and within the sequence of the offence,” Nurse said of Trent. “We’re trying to really improve his catch-and-shoot game because he does get some in-rhythm (attempts when the ball is) swung over to him that he needs to just sit down and pull the trigger on.”
Freddie Gillespie: Gillespie is undersized as a centre, but he is a centre. He does not offer the defensive versatility that so many other Raptors do. That means he has to hold his own even when he is physically overmatched, and he had two tough nights against Philadelphia.
He was a lot better against Boston, although there were still some warning signs. He continues to struggle around the rim, and he got dinged for another moving screen. However, given that he was frequently matched up against the bulky Enes Kanter, Gillespie did well on the glass. Kanter had four offensive rebounds in 15 minutes, but Gillespie won his share of battles, too, and had two of his own.
Ultimately, the Raptors will need Gillespie to finish plays on the back end more often. Given how much playing time he is getting, I would be surprised if he doesn’t make the team, but it is hard to imagine the preseason has made the prospect of giving him regular minutes too appetizing.
We’re talking about practice
A few times in this preseason already, Nurse has lamented that he hasn’t had the opportunity to teach more of the offence to the new Raptors. Nurse has put that failure on himself, noting it will become more of a priority as the next few weeks carry on. Still, the schedule hasn’t helped.
After media day, the Raptors had six days to hold practices. Sometimes, there are just four such days before the first preseason games. After that, the NBA scheduled five exhibition games over the course of nine days, including a back-to-back set to end that. In the NBA, teams generally don’t hold very intense practices unless there are multiple days in between games, and there was only one such opportunity. After Tuesday, the Raptors will take a day off, after which they could hold another six practices before their first regular-season game, Oct. 20 against Washington.
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In other words, there would not seem to be a ton of time to teach new things in between preseason games and try to implement them in games before the ones that count.
Nurse, however, has not minded.
“We had a good, hard practice this morning, probably a lot harder than normal, because you’re not really that concerned (about playing time),” Nurse said before the game. NBA teams tend to hold “shootarounds,” or light walk-throughs, on the day of a game. “You’re in a teaching mode, and it’s a moment to teach, and it’s a moment to work, and the minutes are gonna be down. Nobody’s going up 35, 38, any of that stuff quite yet. Even yesterday was a long, long, long session of film and walk-through and practice and intensity, then you run it back again today. You’re just kind of doing that every day now. I think we don’t really mind that there’s a game on top of that.”
During the regular season, that all changes.
Notes
• It’s “nobody believes in us” season again. A reporter asked Nurse before the game whether the Raptors were being overlooked, as most people were picking them to finish “seventh or eighth” in the Eastern Conference. “Seventh and eighth? Man, they’re talking way lower than that,” Nurse said.
• Games against the bulkier 76ers worked against him, so it was no surprise to see Precious Achiuwa deliver his best game of the preseason against the Celtics. Achiuwa had 13 points and 13 rebounds and showed some legitimate handling skills at times. (For what it’s worth, VanVleet smiled widely when asked whether Achiuwa’s ballhandling had impressed him, simply answering, “Yes.” He might have been using that newfangled sarcasm I’ve been hearing so much about.)
• In another low-key shoutout to the departed Kyle Lowry, Anunoby took a charge in a preseason game on Celtics starting centre Robert Williams.
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• A contrast in vision: Barnes skipping a pass across the court to an open VanVleet on one end of the spectrum, and Anunoby putting the ball on the floor and throwing a pass to Dragic that could have been intercepted by either of two Celtics on the other. Had Anunoby thrown the pass immediately, the ball likely would have made it to Dragic. Instead, Jayson Tatum went the other way with it.
• VanVleet fell to the floor hard after he collided with Williams in transition, with Williams’ shoulder hitting VanVleet in the face. The Raptors needed to call a timeout as VanVleet tried to shake it off. He stayed in the game and said he was fine after the game.
• Nurse lost his first challenge of the year, arguing a block/charge call. On the bright side, the Raptors got to shoot a delay-of-game free throw for the second time in the preseason.
• For a moment, it appeared that David Johnson did the right thing by taking a foul late in a tied game. Nobody wants overtime in a preseason game, so fouling the opponent, giving them some free throws, and getting a free end-of-game offensive possession has its merit. Nurse clarified that he did not tell the rookie to foul Juancho Hermangomez, who sunk two freebies, the last two points of the game. The Raptors had been pressing, and Johnson got a little overaggressive.
• On Friday, the Ontario provincial government loosened some restrictions on social gatherings. Among other things, this means both the Maple Leafs and Raptors will be allowed to play in front of capacity crowds at Scotiabank Arena.
“Obviously, we want to respect everybody’s safety first and foremost,” VanVleet said. “But to have a packed building is gonna be a special vibe. … The Boston fans had a great crowd tonight. For a preseason game especially, it was a lot of fun to be in front of fans. I think that, for us, we kind of look forward to it more because we didn’t have it in Tampa, we didn’t make it to the playoffs to experience — towards the end of the season there were full buildings that we never got to be a part of. So me, personally, I’m really looking forward to being back in front of a full building.”
(Photo of Svi Mykhailiuk: Brian Babineau / NBAE via Getty Images)
