One Swing Skill: Jamal Shead’s Offensive Utility

This is a part of an off-season series by Esfandiar Baraheni, breaking down one skill for each Raptor heading into the 2025-2026 season that could change their career. Check out the video below.

It’s difficult to survive as a small guard in the modern NBA. There are obviously the success stories: Fred VanVleet carved out an All-Star career for himself as a lethal three-point shooter, improved playmaker, and feisty defender. Davion Mitchell earned himself his second career contract in Miami because of his defensive prowess and improved off-the-catch shotmaking. TJ McConnell was just one of the most important players on a Finals team because of his pace and frenetic style.

But you need some outlier skill. Something that makes you stand out amongst the giants.

That is the key for Jamal Shead as he heads into the second year of his career.

Shead understands this idea well. He said as much when Samson Folk interviewed him back in July.

While you can argue that we’ve seen flashes of those outlier skills, moments where either his defense, pace, playmaking, or three-point shooting excelled, Shead isn’t far along enough in any department to claim he has that one outlier skill.

I can hear people getting angry at that statement already.

Shead had a good rookie season for a second-round pick. The case could have been made that he was deserving of, at the very least, some votes for an All-Rookie team last season because of the playmaking pop he provided for the Raptors off the bench. For all the concerns about his shooting, Shead finished the season shooting 32%, a solid start for a player who wasn’t much of a perimeter shooter in his four years in college.

Shead also has, rather quickly, earned himself a reputation for being a defensive ‘stopper’. And while he certainly does provide a ton of effort and exerts a lot of energy on that end, it’s tough for a player of his size to become truly remarkable without being a master of angles, gamesmanship, etc.

The numbers don’t lie in this department. While Shead’s quick feet allow him to pressure the ball well, he struggled overall as a pick-and-roll defender, ranking in the 33rd percentile guarding that action. He’d get caught around screens or sometimes get beaten off the dribble purely because he was over-aggressive. He ranked in the 9th percentile in guarding spot-ups, again being baited into being over-aggressive, closing out on shooters, or getting bullied into a mismatch. He was also below average at defending screens. The Raptors were 3.5 points per 100 possessions better when Shead was off the floor on defense, according to Cleaning The Glass.

None of this means he won’t ever become a good defender. It’s impossible to be positive on that end as a rookie (even one with as much college experience as Shead), and most of the things he needs to work on in terms of timing, angles, etc, all come with time. What Shead innately oozes as a defender is his effort. The man is a workhorse, and that will keep him from being played off the floor there.

The main question with Shead’s future comes on the offensive end.

As mentioned earlier, Shead’s pace is another prevailing quality he has. He plays frenetically, and that helped him have some utility offensively, but again, there needs to be some outlier skill.

For his part, he shot 35% on catch-and-shoot looks, and that should be a healthy number to help him keep defenses honest when he’s off the ball. Still, not enough to hang your hat on as a 6-foot guard. The downside? He shot 25% on pull-up jumpers.

Speaking of size, Shead also struggled with finishing around the basket, shooting 51% on layups, ranking in the 15th percentile. He was better on floaters, shooting 45% from the short mid-range area, which would rank in the 55th percentile.

All of that resulted in a below-average pick-and-roll season for Shead offensively, and that’s where the crux of the problem is. It’s undeniable that Shead is a talented floor general. He sets the tone for the team, understands when and how to get teammates involved, and, coupled with his ball pressure on defense, there are the machinations of a good backup guard there somewhere.

But in order to win his minutes regularly, he needs to find a way to be a real threat on offense.

There is a pathway forward, though.

Shead could improve his pull-up jumper, which will force teams to fight over screens, allowing him to weaponize his speed to get downhill, where he can get to his evolving-but-potent floater bag. In July, he mentioned studying TJ McConnell, a player who does not take a ton of threes but lives in the mid-range area, as a potential blueprint to build off of.

And while Shead is a better shooter than McConnell is already, they do share similarities in their frenetic style on both ends of the floor.

Ultimately, the Raptors will be leaning on the development of bench players like Shead to reach their true ceiling this season. And how much or how little he adds to his game could determine how deep this team is. Shead plays a huge part in that as the de facto bench general for this team.

It’s a tall task. We’ll see if he’s up for the challenge.

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