Raptors’ win easily over Jazz, show little movement in bench hierarchy

There is very little to learn from the Utah Jazz. They started an undrafted rookie in Bez Mbeng. John Konchar was their best player for much of the game. Some teams at this point in the long season are not NBA teams.

So instead of focusing on the competition level in the Toronto Raptors’ contest — if it can be called so — against the Jazz, let’s instead check in on what the Raptors can take from such games, and whether those lessons bode well for the playoffs. 

One of the qualities the Raptors most need at the moment is bench depth. The Raptors need shooting, scoring, creation, and more off the bench. And with Immanuel Quickley, Brandon Ingram, and Jakob Poeltl all sitting out of this contest, Darko Rajakovic and the Raptors got plenty of chances to look at their extended bench. 

Markelle Fultz even played almost 16 minutes in the game! A recent (read: today) signing to the big club from the Raptors 905, Fultz might have a chance to steal some minutes from Jamal Shead, whose already shaky efficiency when trying to score has been dwindling to unsustainable levels recently. 

And Fultz played fairly well. He defended with verve, using his far-better-than-any-other-point-guard-on-the-roster length on his closeouts to really challenge Jazz triples. He threw home-run passes. But his scoring was limited, as he found some points as a cutter off of Scottie Barnes in the post. And his shooting was non-existent. He committed turnovers, including a silly one dribbling in the open court. Is that an upgrade on Jamal Shead? Though the defence could be punchier with more length, it’s hard to say he improves on Shead’s weaknesses. 

Shead, as a point of comparison, finished with 15 assists. (The Raptors, by the way, set a franchise record with 49 team-wide assists.) He won his minutes by the widest margin on the team while Fultz lost his by the widest margin. Still, Shead was still extremely limited as a scorer, finishing with seven points on 2-of-6 shooting from the field. And one of them was a banked-in triple from 35 feet. Everything he attempted was tough. If he’s going to change his role on the team, which is unlikely at this point, he needs to improve as a scorer.

Gradey Dick also found his way back into the rotation after starring in garbage time the night before against the Phoenix Suns. He was slick in some ways and predictably flat in others. He scored on the drive, finding a nifty reverse. He scored with his jumper, using a practiced pump fake, two-dribble, pull-up jumper combination. He cut for a layup. He threw a tasty live-dribble bounce pass on the drive. (He did smoke a layup off the glass in an out-of-control run in transition.) Aaaaand his 3-point jumper remains wayward, as he missed from the corners, above the break, elsewhere. (He did make one with a few seconds left in a decided game.) And at this point, efficient 3-point shooting is a requirement for him to join the rotation in the playoffs. 

Jamison Battle did not cover himself in glory to start, though he got quite hot as the game went on. To start, his defence was iffy on the perimeter, and he just didn’t find his way into the game. With three starters out for the Raptors, everyone moved up in the hierarchy, and it meant there wasn’t as much room for a shooting specialist who’s limited as an offensive creator. But he shook loose for a triple in the first half, a layup in the second, more triples later. But outside of a garbage-time pull-up, his scoring was entirely dependent on the presence of Barnes creating for him. If he was on the outside looking in prior to this game, his performance — though it ended up very strong — likely didn’t change that. 

Collin Murray-Boyles was great in his return from the thumb injury. He was dominant defensively, as he should be against non-NBA talent. He scored on the roll, even tossing in a falling jumper as the roller after colliding into the helper for an and-1. He collected blocks, finishing with five as the Jazz couldn’t stop challenging him around the rim. But Murray-Boyles is no deep-bench player. He was already slotted into the playoff rotation, and his performance against the Jazz only confirms that’s very much correct. Ditto for Sandro Mamukelashvili, who scored with total ease on the drive or with the jumper and defended very well, too.

Similarly, Ja’Kobe Walter was dynamite. He was hunting space around the arc when he didn’t have the ball so he could get up triples. He’s been hot from deep, but more than the makes tonight, it was impressive to see his volume. He attempted four triples in the first half, many of them out of movement, relocations, and other beneficial vehicles. He hit a moonball from the corner in the third quarter that once upon a time was a Fred VanVleet special. But like Murray-Boyles, he’s firmly in the rotation. He’s been hot, and he stayed hot, but he didn’t show anything he hasn’t had to this point.  

Until the third quarter! Early in the third frame, he drove a closeout and threw a live-dribble pass to a cutter mirroring his steps on the other side of the lane. It was a ho-hum play that led to a quiet layup, but it was the type of progressive moment that Walter has shown little of to this point in his career. It, more than any other moment against the woeful Jazz, was a moment of real progress.

Obviously, Barnes succeeded whenever he wanted. He scored efficiently, picked the Jazz apart with his passing, and dominated defensively. He found RJ Barrett on cuts, in the dunker spot, for a series of layups. His jumper was great from the mid-range, and he even drilled a pull-up triple to beat the second-quarter buzzer. All together, his effort in perhaps 15 minutes was on its own was enough to win. He did what he should, and there’s no real lesson to be taken there. And it really wasn’t Barnes who was Toronto’s best; Barrett went berserk as a versatile scorer, hitting from deep, in transition, and in all ways.

And so what did the Raptors learn against the Jazz?

Very little. Most players did exactly what the Raptors have come to expect, which meant the game result was exactly what would be expected: a win for the Raptors. Yet there was little real development, outside of a moment here or there, such as that Walter live-dribble pass in the third and a Battle pull-up jumper in the fourth. A win’s a win, of course, and you can only beat the team in front of you. The Jazz were putrid. But in such a low-stakes battle, it would have been nice for the Raptors to have found latent skill development outside of a few bright moments.

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