Amidst the chaos, Gary Trent jr. is playing the best ball of his life

Snatch is perhaps the purest representation of the Guy Ritchie aesthetic. Full of sharp wit and sharper knives, quick cuts and quicker-to-violence characters, Snatch walks a winding road with you. At the end -- spoilers here -- a pooch eats a diamond, and Jason Statham and his hapless partner end up as the nominal owners of the independent dog. Presumably, Statham and company are responsible dog owners and, seeing his first bowel movement, pick it up. Then they find something very special encased within the turd.

The Toronto Raptors, if they’re responsible employers, would realize that encased within the thus-far turd of their 2022-23 season is also a hidden diamond: Gary Trent jr. It was his heroics that pushed the Raptors over the Phoenix Suns, putting a very loud, 35-point topper on what had to that point been a quiet improvement throughout the year.

Trent has spent nearly every second on the court of his five-season career putting the ball in the basket -- and doing little else. In my research into Buddy Hield for FiveThirtyEight, I found Trent’s name near the top for players whose 3-point attempts outweigh their non-scoring box score stats combined. He attempted 1.1 more triples than he averaged rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks last year; this season, the gap is up to 1.5. For Trent, 2022-23 has been an exercise in how the chucker got his spots.

And yet, Trent has never been more impactful.