'Cobra, shark, eagle': Raptors making life miserable for opponents with steals

MILWAUKEE — When it comes to theft and general defensive mayhem, the Toronto Raptors represent one of the NBA’s most dangerous neighbourhoods.

Want to casually bring the ball over centre, allowing your offence to get set up and comfortable?

Prepare to have your pocket picked.

Want to spin through the lane to evade that pesky first defender?

Expect another one, two or even three Raptors to swarm and take what’s yours.

Want to find some relief from the Raptors' constant pressure, to have the hornets leave you alone even for a minute?

Don’t get your hopes up that a cross-court pass will solve your problems. It’s just as likely one of the Raptors has been shading from the weakside, waiting for a rushed, slightly off-target pass so they can take the interception all the way to the house.

It is the Raptors' way, the art of the steal.

But what looks like high-intensity chaos is actually the product of study and design. There is precision in the pursuit, method to the madness.

There is terminology and technique: cobra, shark and eagle. It’s where mindset and intent meet.

“We work on when guys are driving, showing hands until they present the ball, swiping it out,” says Jamal Shead, whose 61 steals last season was 11th among bench players and whose 11 steals through eight games this season rank third. “We work on it a lot. Stabs at half court, doubles, whatever you can think of, we work on it.”

It hasn’t happened overnight. The Raptors' commitment to taking the ball away from their opponent has been a work in progress that began to show results in the middle of the 2024-25 season when their ball-hungry approach transformed them from one of the league’s worst defences in the first half of the season to one of its best — statistically — after the all-star break.

The Raptors, who are in Milwaukee to face the Bucks on Friday (8 p.m. ET, Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet+), draw their inspiration from nature’s predators.

‘Eagle’ simply means being present in the passing lanes with arms extended wide.

‘Cobra’ reflects the need to time their strikes at the ball for maximum effect.

“It’s quality over quantity,” says Shead. “Don't be a woodpecker, reaching every time. Be a cobra. When you do try (for a steal), make sure.”

And 'Shark'?

“Shark is like blood in the water. Just hunting. Like, once you see a guy that's not the strongest ball handler, a guy that usually likes to spin — we talk about those things and then when we see it, we react,” says Shead.

The granular focus is the result of study by the Raptors coaching staff, looking at the value steals provide and identifying where and how they can be generated most consistently.

“We're spending a lot of time coaching and teaching those things and preaching to our team, and we have a group of guys that really accepted that, and they want to play to that style,” says Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic.

They don’t just swipe at the ball randomly; they have different methods for different situations. A ballhandler driving for a lay-up? Swipe down at the moment the ball is going to be exposed on the gather. When playing square to the defender on the perimeter, the play is to reach sporadically but without sacrificing balance.

“We're always looking for those opportunities to have those attacks on the ball, and we have series of drills and we have terminology for each of those situations and how we're gonna create those,” says Rajakovic. “It's been something that Coach Ivo (Raptors assistant coach Ivo Simovic) installed for us, and they're working great for us.”

Through eight contests, the Raptors are averaging 11.5 steals per game, which was third in the NBA as of Thursday and would shatter the franchise record of 9.4 per game set in 2022-23 and 1997-98.

It is more than the 2024-25 Oklahoma City Thunder and 2025-26 Detroit Pistons — two of the more successful ball-theft defences in recent years — averaged and would the most by any team since the Boston Celtics averaged 12 in 1997-98.

The Raptors lead the league in turnovers forced overall (20.1, which is up from 16.1 last season) and it’s one of the primary reasons the team is third in fast-break scoring and fifth in points off turnovers.

And most of this has been accomplished without Kawhi Leonard, one of the most effective ball hawks in NBA history. He has played only two games this season (although he has accumulated seven steals).

But not everyone sees the Raptors as the intersection of skill, talent, effort and planning.

Some just see a team that pushes the limits of what’s permissible so far and so often that they get away with murder. Figuratively.

“I mean you guys can see it,” harrumphed Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick after the Raptors forced his club into 22 turnovers and made 11 steals on Sunday night. “Like some of those turnovers are because we're legitimately getting fouled. Like it's not like 'Was that a foul, was that not a foul.' … What they do is they pick you up and then they grab the arm you're not dribbling with and then they try to steal the ball from you … It's really hard when you when you have play teams like this that are just fouling every possession.”

The Raptors do lead the NBA in personal fouls (27.3 per game) and opponent free throws and are second in opponent free-throw attempts per game, so it’s not like the referees are ignoring everything. They are also areas the Raptors will need to clean up if they want to improve from the NBA’s 14th-rated defence to the fifth-rated defence they had last season.

But it’s not like they’re going to apologize for being aggressive. If it costs them a few calls, so be it.

“We try to play as physical as we can,” says Scottie Barnes, who was ninth in the NBA in steals last season and is fourth through eight games this season. “We foul, but they're also trying to sell calls all the time, too. I think it goes both ways.”

Their focus on stealing the ball has in some corners elevated the craft to a high art. Ja’Kobe Walter has stated that one of his goals this season is to lead the NBA in steals, although leading his own team might be almost as hard.

Walter thinks of steals the way most of us think of pizza: there are no bad steals, but some are sensory experiences to be savoured.

“Getting an on-ball steal one-on-one? That's probably one of my favourite things to do in a game,” says Walter, citing his open-court rip from Chicago Bull guard Josh Giddey in the season opener that turned into an uncontested dunk for Barnes as his favourite among his 11 steals so far this season.

“I'd rather do that than a lot of other things, honestly, because it's just like me versus another guy, but I did better than him in this situation, you know? I won the battle, and that's something that gets me going.”

Shead is of the same mind.

But does he not have a shred of sympathy for his fellow point guards when they get their pockets picked mid-court? Is there not a brotherhood of sorts?

“No, the only brotherhood I got with point guards are the ones on this team,” says Shead. “Everybody else can kick rocks.”

But even within the Raptors lineup, there are different approaches. Collin Murray-Boyles isn’t picky about the how or the why, for him it’s all about the what: steals as calories that must be consumed.

Murray-Boyles averaged 1.5 steals per 36 minutes last season — fourth among rookies with at least 50 games played — and is on the same pace this season. He is also among the NBA leaders in deflections.

“A steal is a steal. That's all I care about,” said Murray-Boyles. “As long as we get the possession, that’s awesome.

“…I feel like our defensive principles puts us in position to get those steals and we want to generate a lot of steals, generate a lot of deflections, and convert them into offence and transition opportunities.”

Barnes doesn’t claim to have any strategy around how he gets his steals other than adhering to the Raptors' system and letting the good things happen.

“That’s because his wingspan is six-nine or whatever, sometimes he just gets his hands on the ball,” says Shead.

“My wingspan is seven-three,” corrects Barnes.

“My bad,” says Shead, “But he can do things other people can’t."

Fair point.

Barnes says that a good number of his steals come organically, such as when he’s defending the post and runs around opposing centres to deflect post-entries. Sometimes he’s the beneficiary of the effort by the Raptors' guards.

“I'm just usually trying to do my job, and sometimes they just give you the ball, it just come right to you,” says Barnes, who also was among the league leaders in blocked shots last season. “You'll be guarding and they lose the ball and you pick it up. Just because of how hard you're playing and the physicality, the pressure that you're playing with, sometimes they just lose the ball. Sometimes it's fronting the post. Sometimes it's just denying (the pass). They think they see an advantage, and we just make a play on the ball. “

Simply put, if you come into their neighbourhood, be prepared to lose something round, orange and valuable.

Cobra? Shark? Eagle?

For the Raptors, it’s all in their nature.