Raptors' belief in defensive identity crucial with offence a work in progress

Well, they don’t have a self-esteem issue, let’s just say that. 

When it comes to their level of self-belief regarding how good they think they can be on the defensive end the Toronto Raptors are firmly in ‘shoot for the stars, land on the moon’ territory, and the moon is a distant second option. 

Just this week, for example, we’ve heard Raptors reserve Precious Achiuwa proclaim that he’s one of the very best – like five best – defenders in the NBA. 

“No, I am one of the best defenders [in the league],” Achiuwa said this week. 

Any particular reason? 

“I mean my length, my athleticism, my quick feet, my speed, my agility,” he explained, accurately given his ability to move which is not seen often among players who stand 6-foot-9, as he does. “I think that is what separates me. I know I’m not an average defender. There’s not five guys in the NBA that guard [positions] 1-through-5. I don’t care what team you go look at, but I know I’m one of those five guys. I’ve guarded MVP’s that are 5’s, MVP’s that are 4’s, point guards that were all-stars. So I’m comfortable guarding every position and like I said there’s not five guys in the NBA that can do that.”

Then we’ve had Scottie Barnes say he’s one of the league’s best defenders, and wholeheartedly buy into head coach Darko Rajakovic’s assertion that Barnes – another spectacular athlete who stands 6-foot-8 -- could win the DPOY award in his future. 

“I've been saying I was a great defender,” Barnes said. “I just feel like I don't really get that recognition as I should. But yeah, I feel like I'm a great defender. I can guard anybody on the court. You see me, I can go one through five anybody on the court. You see me I can go to one through five. I pick up full court sometimes. I do it all on the defensive end.” 

Then there’s OG Anunoby – himself remarkably agile given his powerful 6-foot-7 frame - who also has a the DPOY award in his sites, as he should given he was an all-NBA defender last season and his long track record as a wrecker of worlds, as Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards might attest after the Raptors wing held him to 8-of-27 shooting in Toronto’s opening night win on Wednesday night.

It follows that a team with three big, athletic, switchable wings who are willing to talk publicly about being all-NBA defenders and DPOY contenders better be very damn good on the defensive end. 

The walk – or in this case the slides, close-outs, second efforts and physicality – better match the talk. 

Most of the discussion, since Rajakovic was hired to take over from former Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, has been around how he can re-shape how his team plays offensively in the half-court where the Raptors have struggled the past couple of seasons. 

Given that the team hasn’t done much to reshape the roster to address some of the shortcomings that explain that – primarily a lack of floor spacing created by elite perimeter shooting – doing it as Rajakovic preaches with more precise ball movement and off-ball cutting will likely be a work in progress. 

Against the Timberwolves the Raptors' half-court offense generated a measly 72 points per 100 possessions, per cleaningtheglass.com, which would rank it in the lowest possible percentile. For context last season where the Raptors half-court offense struggled so mightily, Toronto generated 98 points per 100 possessions.

“[We’re] trying to play a different style of basketball with different spacing, with different principles,” said Rajakovic. “So it's going to take some time for all of our guys to start feeling comfortable in that And for me also to figure out how to best use our personnel.”

The Raptors will get another chance to smooth out those wrinkles Friday night on the road against the Chicago Bulls and then again Saturday when they host Nurse and the Philadelphia 76ers as part of a rapid-fire open to their regular season with six games in nine days, but in the meantime, their defence might have to carry them. 

Like his players, Rajakovic is optimistic it can. 

“I think we can be really, really good defensively,” he said. “It's the tenacity that our guys are bringing, versatility, multiple players being really, really good defensive players … I think this year NBA should save themselves worry and give our starters five rewards for being best defensive players.”

He was joking about the last part, but maybe not entirely. 

A big part of being a good defensive team is not having any weak defensive players that can be targeted in pick-and-roll actions, triggering the need to over-help and get into the kind of desperate rotations that so often result in breakdowns. 

Rajakovic certainly has that option. His closing lineup on Wednesday featured Achiuwa, Barnes, Anunoby and Pascal Siakam – no slouch defensively when he’s locked in -- as a big, agile and athletic group of forwards with point guard Dennis Schroder who is a tenacious on-ball defender at the point of attack. The Raptors held the Timberwolves to 20 points in the fourth quarter on 8-of-26 shooting. 

Rajakovic’s toolbox doesn’t run out at that point, however. Centre Jakob Poeltl is an upper-echelon defender on both an individual and team level, which is a big reason the Raptors used draft equity to acquire him at the trade deadline last season and signed him to a four-year contract for $84 million in the summer. Jalen McDaniels is another long, active and switchable defender at 6-foot-9 and even Gary Trent Jr. has a proven ability to be a disruptor with his ability to accumulate steals and deflections that help make up for his relative lack of size and occasional off-ball lapses. 

You could see it all come together at different points on Wednesday, such as a possession at the four-minute mark of the first quarter when Siakam, Schroder and Achiuwa took turns stifling first Edwards and then Timberwolves guard Shake Milton for most of the possession. 

Or late in the fourth quarter when the Timberwolves were in transition and Trent Jr. slowed the ball long enough for Barnes to come out of nowhere and rise up for the last and most spectacular of his team-high and career-high tying five blocked shots. 

This is why the Raptors talk might end up being more than just early-season optimism and bravado. 

Last season the Raptors were great at making plays on the defensive end – they finished second in the league in forcing turnovers – but they were often over-aggressive and out of position if they didn’t come up with the ball.  The book on the Raptors was that if you could withstand their initial swarm, easy buckets would follow. Toronto ranked 29th in the league in the opponent’s effective field goal percentage.

If there is one Raptor not prone to hyperbole it is Poeltl. The veteran Austrian is more given to plain truths, but when it comes to the Raptor's potential defensively, even he can’t hide his optimism. 

“I think we can be really elite. We can be one of the best defensive teams in the NBA,” he said. 

“Why? Because we’re bought into it. We have the individual skill, physicality, whatever you want to call it, for it. I think we've got really smart defenders. Just really not much we're missing on defence. We can guard a lot of different systems. We can guard [by] switching. We can stay with our own.”

In many things, it starts by speaking it into existence. The Raptors haven’t been shy about doing that with their defence but even after one game, there is reason to believe.