The many ways Jamal Shead leads the Raptors

Leadership tends to be an undefined skill. In the world of sports, where most skills are measurable — and with increased variety and complexity that can be quantified — leadership is comparatively ambiguous. It’s equally difficult to determine what makes someone a good ‘leader.’

But no matter what your definition is, Jamal Shead has become one for the Toronto Raptors.

“He’s going to be paramount for the second unit,” Darko Rajakovic told me during Training inside the Jack Simpson gym at the University of Calgary. “He’s the player I expect him in his second year to make another jump.”

Year two will be all-important for Shead. After a rookie season in which he received ample opportunity and playing time, averaging seven points and four assists in just under 20 minutes per night, his role is likely to change — particularly because of the presence of Brandon Ingram and a hopefully healthy Immanuel Quickley.

Not only are there more mouths to feed, but there are more ballhandlers on the roster. That puts Shead in a precarious position.

But the Raptors still envision Shead being the head of the snake for their bench units, facilitating lineups with his pace, heady playmaking, and on-ball tenacity on defense. If anything, he will need to do more in less time on the court.

How did that inform his off-season training? He worked out with two-time All-Defense member and 2025 NBA Champion Alex Caruso.

“I’m very fast, so he taught me about changing my pace,” Shead told me. “And then on the defensive end, just how he gets steals. We watched a lot of film together. He did just come off a championship, so we didn’t work out too much together. But we had a lot of good talks.”

Much of what Shead does requires effort. He’s relentless in outworking his opponents, and it shows with the fire he plays with on the floor. The Raptors’ defensive scheme — predicated on ball pressure and picking up the ball high up the floor — asks a lot of Shead. By the numbers, the Raptors pressed more last season when Shead was on the floor, ranking in the 83rd percentile in time spent. They lean on his endearing quality as a player. But it can be taxing, and he knows it.

“My conditioning,” Shead said. “How we’re about to play, how we are playing right now, and me being a focal point, especially on the defensive side, having the energy and the air to be willing to do all the things that we’re trying to do is really important.”

Shead’s utility isn’t only on the floor. Off of it, he’s become the conduit for team meet-ups and gatherings. He’s got the ear of the Raptors coaching staff. He attended team events this summer in Austin, Spain, Los Angeles, and Newport. He is the loud voice you hear in every single practice.

Or in the words of Scottie Barnes:

“He’s the ultimate leader. Put people in the right places. He’s not afraid to have those conflict moments with people. (At the same time), He’s very hard on himself, but he has high expectations for himself, and we have high expectations for him as well.”

The second-year point guard plays off the title, though. “Honestly, it’s just information. I’m a point guard. I give out information. They take it, they receive it, and then we move on from there,” Shead told the media. “I don’t think it’s just them following me. I think it’s just a matter of mutual respect.”

No matter how coy he is about leading, he is the opposite of that around his team, especially on the floor. Shead’s presence, above all else, serves as a calling card for the types of players the Raptors are trying to attract to their organization.

Shead is a perfect storm of sorts. He’s an older, young player on an inexperienced roster with players who either lead by example (Ingram, Barnes, Quickley) or lead with their voice (Temple), but no one who truly does both in the way he does.

Perhaps that’s why Rajakovic is keen for Shead to take a leap in his career this season: staying on the court is key to his voice continuing to resonate in the locker room.

“With the depth of our team, it’s kind of like almost always to have two starters being on the court at any point in time,” Rajakovic told me when I asked about Shead’s responsibilities. “And in those cases, (Shead) can enhance those lineups.”

Jamal Shead: enhancing what the Raptors want to do in more than one way.

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