Raptors’ Wish List: Simplified offence

The holidays are a time to get away from many of our usual responsibilities. Put your work notifications on do not disturb, take a break from the gym and indulge in some tasty treats. A time to block outside noise and focus on what really matters: spending time with close friends and family. A simpler life. 

The Toronto Raptors have hit a deep valley over the holiday season, failed to meet their responsibilities and could use some simplifying too.  

That’s why my wish for the Raptors this season is for a long-overdue improvement in dribble creation, whether that comes internally from an unexpected development on the roster or externally from a trade.  

In their win last week over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Raptors started the fourth quarter with a multipart set play. 

They started out in Horns – with the ball handler at the top of the floor and two players stationed on either side at the elbow-extended area – and Sandro Mamukelashvili ran above the break to receive a pass.  

Immanuel Quickley, who had just passed to Mamu, then ran towards the basket off a rip screen from Ja’Kobe Walter. After setting that screen Walter lifted up top and caught a pass from Mamukelashvili, all while Quickley set a flex screen for Scottie Barnes. Mamu then set a pin-down for Quickley in a kind of screen-the-screener action, which he ran off and received a pass.  

Quickley wound up right back at the top off the floor where he started, with seven seconds left on the shot clock and no advantage created. 

Mamukelashvili then quickly ghosted a screen, and the result was a contested 3 from deep above the break to barely beat the clock. That’s a lot of work for a poor return.  

The only player who wasn’t involved in the handful of off-ball actions the Raptors ran in this play was Gradey Dick, who was stationed in the weakside corner to space the floor for the duration.  

Alternatively, here are examples of how the No. 4 offence in the league, the Houston Rockets, often generate 3s for one of their role players, Aaron Holiday, who is among the highest frequency corner 3-point shooters in the NBA.  

They’re out of the pick n’ roll or off drives. The problem is the Raptors don’t have potent enough drivers, nor have they found potent enough pick n’ roll combinations to reliably generate offence this way. So, instead, they must rely on a perfectly conducted orchestra of screens, cuts and passes that lately has been off tempo and out of tune.  

This isn’t meant to be a slag on Darko Rajaković or offences that utilize a lot of movement and quick decision making. I’m interested in X’s and O’s and enjoy well designed sets, and Rajaković has many. His egalitarian, 0.5 offence is also a dynamic and efficacious way to play. But this style is often described as making the decision to either pass, dribble or shoot within 0.5 seconds, and Toronto is severely short on the dribbling.  

That’s why the Raptors have been a top 10 team in both passes and assists since Rajaković took over – it’s a combination of both the system he’s implemented and limitations on the roster that necessitate the ball moving around the court via passing rather than drives.  

It’s also part of the reason why the offence has floundered over the last 13 games while RJ Barrett – Toronto’s best driver and paint-toucher – has been out. 

Brandon Ingram and Quickley have shown brief glimpses of the ability to drive the paint and create for others.  

But they’ve also had long NBA careers – 10 years and six years, respectively – and both their larger track records and recent history point towards them not being able to read the floor from the middle with consistency. Ingram prefers the mid-range, and Quickley often can’t even get all the way downhill.  

Instead, they often function best as scorers, largely via their tough shot-making. Ingram started the year by shooting a league-best percentage on arguably the hardest diet of pull-up jumpers in the NBA. Quickley has long been among the best pull-up 3-point shooters in the world. And while they both have the tools to initiate offence for others, they appear better suited for secondary playmaking responsibilities with each passing game.  

One of the few positives to come out of the Raptors’ abysmal recent stretch has been Ingram accurately emptying the clip from distance. He’s averaging 6.7 attempts per game – up from the 4.4 he averaged previously – and is hitting at a 55 percent rate.  

Ingram appears to be forming up around drives with more intention and looking to take more 3s. But to my eye, the Raptors are also making a concerted effort to run more plays designed to get Ingram 3s, including these two BLOB plays against the Bucks and Boston Celtics. 

The first, starting with a rip screen for Barnes, puts pressure on the defence going towards the rim, and potentially makes Myles Turner hesitant to switch onto Ingram when he uses an exit screen from Collin Murray-Boyles to get free for the corner triple. 

This is a simple, well-designed, set, because of the intention behind it and how it forces the defence to make tough choices. The Raptors juicing Ingram’s shot diet with looks like these, and making his mid-range game an option the team can go to, rather than the primary offence, only stands to benefit both him and the team. Ingram’s also been driving more lately, and him running more pick n’ roll could be a potential option to jumpstart the offence.

In the earlier play I highlighted that failed, the initial rip screen was between two guards, making it easy to switch, and while the Raptors have had success running Quickley off pin downs this season, Mamu failed to plant the screen. The more complex a set play, the more must go right for it to work.  

The best plays are ones the defence can have an idea are coming, but can’t guard anyway, because of the tension they create.  

The “unstoppable play” Samson Folk highlighted for Raptors Republic earlier this season is a great example of this.  

Sets are also always more effective when run with intention. Even if an off-ball cut or screen isn’t the primary function of a play, hitting it at full pace can go a long way in changing how the defence reacts. The Raptors have been doing the opposite, sleepwalking through their motion as if it makes no difference how they get where they’re going, as long as they end up in the right location of the floor.  

In their previous game against the Nets, they were able to beat the zone with simple exit screens and flare screens.  

On Sunday, well, they were completely inept. I don’t have the heart to cut clips of it.  

Preferably, Barrett returns soon and the Raptors cobble together enough initiation from their bevy of leading guards and wings to return to offensive prosperity. Maybe we’ll all be kicking back and sipping egg nog while we watch Toronto run effective two-man actions and go from paint to great before the new year.

If not, we might all be wishing for a very late gift of Coby White come Feb. 5.

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