The league is going big and the Toronto Raptors are not
The NBA is an innovative space.
Which makes it, like most things in life, a mimicable one too.
Something works. Everyone follows suit. Something changes to counter what works. Everyone follows suit.
There’s no shame in it. The power is in the execution. Sure, you coulllddd shoot 48 threes a game like the Boston Celtics did last year. But how that’s all going to work out for ya, – ahem, Chicago Bulls (42 attempts a game) – supremely depends.
The last few years, the newest growing trend has been size. Lots of it.
It’s borne, one could argue, out of the need to combat pace and space. If an advantage in points (3s are greater than 2s) could not be won then, perhaps, the number of times a team has the opportunity to score could. Control the glass, win the turnover contest, and maintain a steady diet of easy shots, and, over time, math would favour those firing from beyond the arc less.
The Toronto Raptors are no strangers to this concept (#Length+StrengthTM). That experiment went somewhat awry, but the hypothesis was sound. They figured supersizing each of the three wing positions in both size and athleticism would overwhelm opponents and sway the possession battle in their favour. Problem was, some of that other important stuff – like shooting, ball creation, rim-pressure – still mattered.
In the broader NBA, there’s been a less bold change. More of a compromise. Get some of that size, size. That man-meat size. Girth. Power. Height. Shoulders-the-size-of-small-animals’-heads type size. And, pair that with a more traditionally balanced core.
As an aside, this is all quite funny. What we’re talking about, now, is what the 1990s was, theoretically, all about – and what we happily left behind. A pair of WWF tag-team partners cosplaying as an NBA centre and power forward. They’d back you down like a tank reverse-parking on one end of the floor and then clobber anyone nearing the hoop at the other.
That’s not, of course, entirely true today. 2025’s iteration of large is less forgiving. If bigs move like congealed fat, they’re toast. The days of brawlers with anvil-hammer hands are over. Dale Davis could not, would not thrive in this NBA.
That said, a 1990s-Gen Z reincarnation of the big is taking hold. Across the league, teams are utilizing more jumbo lineups. Of the sixteen playoff teams last year, roughly, half of them incorporated “two-big” (a centre or low-post playing forward) lineups in the post-season.
- Cleveland: Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley (140 minutes in 8 games)
- Houston: Alperen Şengün and Steven Adams (93 minutes in 7 games)
- Memphis: Jaren Jackson Jr. and Zac Edey (70 minutes in 4 games)
- Milwaukee: Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis/Brook Lopez (182 minutes in 5 games)
- Minnesota: Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle (268 minutes in 15 games)
- New York: Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson (165 minutes in 18 games)
- Oklahoma City: Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren (239 minutes in 22 games)
Those aren’t huge minutes. But considering just a few seasons ago, there was an arms race for anything that walked, talked, and shot 40% from 3 (see Duncan Robinson and Davis Bertans contracts), the sudden switch is stark.
Much of the league is following suit. Contending teams abound sized up in the offseason. Including, the Denver Nuggets, who acquired Lithuanian big man, Jonas Valančiūnas, by trade. He’s primarily there to back up Nikola Jokić, but the likelihood of the two of them playing together is high.
I, recently, asked Nuggets head coach, David Adelman, about the growth in duo-big pairings and the potential of Jokić and Jonas [Hey JoJo? Anyone?] on the floor at the same time.
Coach Adelman agreed it’s a way to oppose “the trend of playing small spread basketball,” and that they’ll experiment with it. “We just have to find the right group to do it. I do think, offensively, it can be really effective. I don’t know who you’d put on Valančiūnas and 15 is 15, so it’s worth trying. Offensively, it sounds easy to me. I think the defensive part of it will be the challenge.”
Yet, while the NBA tinkers with barbarian-horde sized frontlines, the Raptors’ remain, exceptionally, small.
This year’s roster includes only Jakob Pöltl as the lone anchor of Toronto’s backline (Ulrich Chomche was waived as I wrote this). Leaving another plethora of 6’7″ to 6’9″-forwards to fill the void.
Funny enough, the fellas – Esfandiar Baraheni and Samson Folk – talked about size and trends in the NBA at-large as I wrote this piece (15:00).
And, it’s true, as Samson says, at the end of the day it’s all about talent.
It’s also, I’d argue, not about any single innovation – size, shooting, speed, or otherwise – per se, but the versatility it creates. The ability to deploy different types of talent in different scenarios. Changing lineups game-to-game, quarter-to-quarter. Size just makes all of that easier.
Want more space? Better shooters, but taller. Stronger defence? More athletic, but taller. More pace? Better court vision and…taller. All that great basketball stuff, just taller. Hence, the ultimate unicorn fantasy.
Coach Adelman alluded to this too. As monstrous as a Jokić and Valančiūnas lineup would be, it is just one among a myriad of other combinations. Giving Denver more options at more times throughout a game. (Another podcasting duo, Kevin O’Connor and Kenny Beecham spoke about the double big and the versatility it creates too [9:40]).
One would think this principle of versatility aligns with Toronto’s roster-building approach. On the one hand, having a bunch of dudes who can size up and down – at least defensively – should give a coach a world of options. On the other, if none can match up against traditional centres, let alone two at one time, is there all that much flexibility in truth?
This question of “size” and its advantages is one that has philosophically tormented Toronto since the day Marc Gasol left. One neither the Nick Nurse nor Darko Rajaković regimes have necessarily solved. The last three years, the Raptors have been -0.5, -7 and -10 points per 100 possessions with Pöltl on the bench.
We saw in the Raptors’ first preseason game how challenging it will continue to be without Pöltl. Against the Nuggets, Scottie Barnes, Jonathan Mogbo, Collin Murray-Boyles, and Sandro Mamukelashvili each had the unenviable task of bodying Jokić and Valančiūnas. They faired well; it did not look fun nor sustainable.
Bobby Webster and company must deeply believe in this concept. That somewhere – in the caves of the Himalayas, or in the nano-depths of some AI-Basketball bot microchip, or on the desk of a Microsoft Excel savant – they found the true divination of NBA roster-building. How else can one explain a group that looks, at least on its face, so similar to previous Raptors rosters?
Well, for one, there are significant differences this time round. Variations that better leverage the non-traditional size advantages Toronto flaunts, enabling them to impose their identity upon others, not the other way around.
This team will exert pressure. A lot of it. In doing so, teams are forced to play at a tempo and level of effort not, necessarily, conducive to their style. Offensive units with at least two non-dribbling positional players (ie: the duo big), for example, might struggle to initiate their actions. Or, lean more heavily on those who can.
Against Denver, the Raptors tortured their ballhandlers. Jamal Murray, Bruce Brown Jr., and even, Jalen Picket struggled to get down the floor. The effect was twofold.
One, Denver faced a shortened shot clock; they entered their offensive sets much later limiting the advantage they have with a big, or two. Two, Murray, a primary scoring option for Denver, was, suddenly, a bit more fatigued, a bit more discombobulated. He played well in spite of the pressure, but, in theory, ballhandlers will be a bit less potent, particularly, as the game drags on. In response, teams may need to go smaller to alleviate their primary ballhandlers’ labour.
We saw similar the other night against the Brooklyn Nets. Here, below, half the shot clock has already expired before Nets’ point guard, Egor Demin, is able to even start their play.
The Raptors will also move at a frenetic pace on the offensive end. Running, passing, cutting. Half court and full. Off misses and makes. This team will move.
The Raptors placed in the 87th percentile in transition frequency and were one of the fastest moving teams last year. This preseason, their pace remains as fast (ninth) as before (ninth). They were also second in assist percentage and sixth in passes per game last year, and remain similar (first) through six exhibition games so far.
All this activity functions to compromise larger opponents. Bigs, contemptuous of holding and moving in space, may suffer by the endless pesky pace. If Toronto can tire opponents and force fouls by turning the game into a pinball marathon of passing, cutting, and running, teams may, ultimately, relent to Toronto’s preferred style of play.
Of course, there are counters to the counters.
The Raptors are going to see many a packed paint. Opponents will dare them to indulge a diet of long mid-range and three-point shots. The ball pressure may not always succeed either. Especially, against teams with a multitude of ballhandlers. Games that do get bogged down will test the more vulnerable parts of this team. Rebounding and turnovers will be harder to come by. It could all crumble from there.
Still, there’s a vision. That if – and boy is it a major if – this team finds any sort of consistency from 3 – so far 17th in attempts and 14th in percentage. Or, if it finds measure in its half-court offence, then the activity and intensity might just be enough to battle bigger, and better, teams.
The rest, then, falls into place. Teams less large, like the Sacramento, Boston, and Washingtons of the world, will struggle with Toronto’s general positional size – particularly, on the offensive glass (sixth last year in offensive rebounding percentage) and paint (4th in points in the paint) where the Raptors are unrelenting.
The Raptors are once again going against the NBA norm, alchemizing a unique roster lineup that can overwhelm bigger and smaller teams alike.
A precariously optimistic notion.
But that’s the nature of innovation. It doesn’t look like it will work, until it does.
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