Defensive star’s offence has caught up with the rest of his game
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Finally, the Raptors have a viable nine-man rotation. It starts with what has been one of the most effective group of starters in the entire NBA since Jakob Poeltl was acquired, but extends to Gary Trent Jr. and Chris Boucher bringing solid play from the bench. If Precious Achiuwa can find his game too, along with Will Barton, who hasn’t yet gotten into a groove, the starters won’t even have to be as dominant as they have been for the Raptors to pile up some wins.
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O.G. Anunoby was great again and continues to reward the front office’s decision to hang onto him at the trade deadline. Anunoby had been going through his worst offensive stretch of the season in the weeks before his injury, and after some early wobbles as he got his rhythm back (40% shooting from the field, including 26% on three-point shots, 13 turnovers, -17 in his first six games back), Anunoby has paired his standard elite defence with elite offence as well. In his last five games, Anunoby has averaged 20.4 points on sizzling 69% shooting, including 58% from three. He’s even hit 89% of his (limited) free throw attempts in that time. He’s still turning the ball over a fair bit (11 turnovers), but he also has 11 steals and is +28.
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Anunoby’s lone issue remains his ability to stay on the court. There’s no question that when he does play Toronto is a far better basketball team on either end of the floor than when he doesn’t.
He’s now second on the team (nearly even with Trent) in both catch-and-shoot three-point makes (1.8 a game) and percentage (39.6%).
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AROUND THE RIM
- Achiuwa didn’t play at all, with Christian Koloko getting 12 minutes, Boucher 35. Nick Nurse basically rode the starters and Trent, with each of the top six playing at least 29 minutes.
- Each game has 240 available minutes. Toronto’s top six played 196 of those. Nurse even made the slightly unorthodox move of playing Fred VanVleet and Trent for two entire quarters each. Can’t remember seeing that before. But it worked. The rotations were fluid and effective and these Raptors appear to be finding a groove.
- Toronto moved 1.5 games up on Washington for the privilege of hosting a play-in game and within 0.5 of Atlanta for eighth (which would mean a likely date at Miami with the way Brooklyn is freefalling).
- I don’t have a vote for the All-NBA teams this year, which will definitely save some stress. It’s really tough to figure out how it should work this year. You really need to cheat and put Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic on the first team together (which I know breaks with some tradition) to be fair. It’s pretty ridiculous to leave one of them off. But Gilgeous-Alexander, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, James Harden and Luka Doncic all have great cases for the All-NBA first team don’t they? Who really deserves the spot? And does Siakam deserve to not make any of the teams? Jaylen Brown? Kawhi Leonard? Tyrese Haliburton? Jimmy Butler? Bam Adebayo?There are so many deserving choices. If you asked me today who I’d pick, it might look like this, and sorry, but I’m going regardless of position where the frontcourt is concerned:
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FIRST TEAM
Joel Embiid
Nikola Jokic
Giannis Antetonkounmpo
Stephen Curry
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SECOND TEAM
LeBron James
Jayson Tatum
Luka Doncic
James Harden
Damian Lillard
THIRD TEAM
Domantas Sabonis
Pascal Siakam
Jimmy Butler
Donovan Mitchell
De’Aaron Fox
That leaves Anthony Edwards and Jaylen Brown out. Siakam edged them by a slim margin. Kawhi and Kevin Durant and Devin Booker missed too many games. Haliburton was a tough omission too, as was Jalen Brunson. Finally, Ja Morant’s off-court issues didn’t factor in at all. I just feel like he was better last year, took a step back, and hasn’t been better than the other guards. The guard field is about as deep as it’s ever been.
And if somebody forced me to leave off one of the two centres, I’d actually put Jokic on the second team and keep Embiid on the first team, which seems insane. Tatum would probably leap to the first team in that case.
THREE STARS VS. THUNDER
1 Pascal Siakam
2 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
3 O.G. Anunoby
Honourable mention: Scottie Barnes, Gary Trent Jr., Jakob Poeltl, Jalen Williams.
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