Jamison Battle was exactly what the Raptors needed
The following is part of Raptors Republic’s series of pieces reviewing the season for the Toronto Raptors. You can find all the pieces in the series here.
The story of the 2024-25 Toronto Raptors is likely not one that’ll be told all that often. But when it does, Jamison Battle’s chapter will undoubtedly be a highlight.
After joining the organization on an Exhibit 10 contract last summer, the sharpshooting forward steadily worked his way through the Raptors 905 while on a two-way deal, made the most of his NBA reps and eventually earned himself a standard three-year contract. And beyond that, he proved himself an invaluable part of the roster by the end of the season.
Pretty good for going undrafted.
Battle, 23, ended up playing 59 games as a rookie, averaging 7.1 points and nearly two made threes per game on 40.5 per cent shooting from beyond the arc. Per 36, that’s 14.5 points (and 5.5 rebounds) on 3.6 makes from distance. All of which is pretty good considering almost 75 per cent of all his shot attempts came downtown.
His role for the Raptors, albeit simple, was meaningful. The six-foot-seven sniper’s primary objective was to let it rip from behind the 3-point line, a box he checked off pretty emphatically. Battle was one of just nine rookies to attempt at least 4.4 threes a game, leading that group in terms of efficiency while ranking third for average makes (1.8). He was also just the 90th rookie in NBA history to make at least 100 threes in a season. His 105 total were the second-most triples ever by a Raptors first-year player, trailing only Damon Stoudamire’s 133 in 1995-96.
Going up and down Toronto’s roster, the story was similar. Despite ranking fifth on the team for both attempts and makes from distance, he led the Raptors in conversion rate by the end of the season — a pretty handy player to have for the league’s second-worst 3-point shooting squad. Ultimately, Battle fit snugly into head coach Darko Rajakovic’s movement-heavy offence, roaming and relocating into spots along the perimeter while making the most of the not-so-many opportunities he got with the ball in his hands.
Incredibly important for a team that, as Raptors Republic’s Samson Folk put it, “takes all the right shots, and makes none of them.” Battle was one of the few players who could do both. His team-leading 63.5 effective field goal percentage (min. 50 games played) on open looks and 41.6 per cent clip on open triples was a pretty good indicator of that.
When it came to the “simpler” stuff, he was a rockstar. For instance, Battle was near the top of the list for the Raptors in just about every catch-and-shoot metric this season, boasting a team-leading 60.2 per cent effective field-goal rate on such shots. Again, useful for a team that was bottom five in C&S efficiency from beyond the arc.
On above-the-break 3-pointers, another of the many long-distance areas in which Toronto struggled (24th in percentage and 29th in makes), Battle led the Raptors, nailing 40.4 per cent of his looks on just under three attempts per game.
And when things weren’t as simple, like being asked to move, come off pindowns or curl past screens, the Ohio State product was still impressive. Specifically on handoffs — a playtype the Raptors ran at the eighth-highest frequency in the NBA this year — Battle held a whopping effective field-goal percentage of 78.6 per cent. That was the second highest in the league for those who played at least 50 games, fifth highest overall, and had him ranked in the 98th percentile.
Simply put, while the Raptors struggled to find any reliable production from beyond the arc as a team, Battle remained a singular model of consistency.
And while some folks may not have seen that coming when Toronto took a flyer on him heading into Summer League, he always knew what he was capable of.
“Scoring, you know, I’m not too worried about that. I feel like I’ve shown I can do that,” Battle said after scoring 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting and five made threes in a late-January win while down with the Raptors 905.
Speaking of his time in the G League, it was a stretch of hoops that undeniably improved the undrafted forward for the better. Battle described his time with the junior dinos as a “blessing” when I spoke to him after that performance, largely because of the consistent opportunity and longer stints on the floor. Through 13 regular-season games with the 905, he averaged 12.3 points while making 2.5 threes on a torrid 52.4 per cent clip on nearly 30 minutes a night.
While impressive, shooting the ball wasn’t his main focus in the G League because, as he mentioned, he’s already proven it’s an NBA-level skill.
The forward was much more interested in improving the areas of his play that he knew weren’t at that same threshold yet.
“It’s just about the other things,” Battle said when I asked him what he’d been working on with the Raptors 905. “Other things that impact the game, whether it’s rebounding, whether it’s getting steals, whether it’s playing defence on good players. I’ve just got to keep building.”
And that intentionality to grow outside of his comfort zone paid off when he ultimately did return to the big club.
Post-All-Star break, Battle’s defensive rating was 3.5 points per 100 possessions better than before, and by the end of the season, he ranked seventh amongst rookies with a 45.6 defended field goal percentage (min. 300 DFGA).
So, when he told me “I feel the most confident I’ve ever felt defensively” right before re-joining the Raptors rotation in March, he clearly wasn’t lying.
All the while, his strides on offence weren’t going unnoticed either. Battle’s offensive rating improved in the final months of the season as well, as his scoring production nearly doubled. And although some of that could be attributed to his playing time ticking up at a commensurate rate, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Battle scaled his game about as perfectly as the Raptors could’ve hoped for when his minutes increased in the back half of the year. His usage practically stayed the same pre- and post-all-star break, but there was much more diversity to his play style. The numbers showed he was driving and cutting more, and he was simply much more comfortable putting the ball on the floor.
It is also worth noting that, with the added opportunity, his efficiency numbers did take a dip. But that’s pretty understandable given the increased shot volume and added attention from the opposition as the season went on.
| Stats | Pre-All-Star break (39 gms) | Post-All-Star break (20 gms) |
| PTS | 5.5 | 10.3 |
| 3PM | 1.3 | 2.7 |
| 3P% | 42.3 | 39.0 |
| TS% | 63.3 | 55.2 |
| Off. rating | 103.7 | 106.2 |
| Def. rating | 115.3 | 111.8 |
All in all, he kept doing the things that were his “ticket” to the NBA, while adding in plenty of other areas along the way in his first year as a pro.
Which is why, when the Raptors converted him to a standard NBA deal, it hardly came as a surprise. Battle had essentially forced their hand, given he’d been ripping through his NBA-eligible games while still on a two-way slot, as he was playing so well.
In the end, his rookie season resembled the kind of undrafted success saga the Raptors know about as well as any team in the league, but also one they hadn’t been able to tell themselves the last couple of years. Fortunately for them, finding and developing the sharpshooter was part of a greater narrative for Toronto, one of returning the team to a place it thrived once upon a time.
So, if you end up telling the story of the 2024-25 Raptors at some point, just make sure not to skip the chapter on Jamison Battle.
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