Raptors get tough lesson on why size is so valuable for winning teams

TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors welcomed back a couple of old friends on Wednesday. 

Are they ever missed. 

This is no comment on Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett, whom the Raptors received in the Dec. 30 trade that saw OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa (along with Malachi Flynn, since traded to Detroit) head to the New York Knicks.

Both Quickley and Barrett have played well for the Raptors. 

But any team is going to miss Anunoby, an all-NBA defender who can credibly guard four positions, space the floor offensively with his shooting and be a problem as a super-sized off-ball cutter. That he does all of that at six-foot-seven and in the range of 230 pounds makes it all the better. Anunoby is big for his size, as they say. 

The Knicks certainly miss him: New York is 15-2 with Anunoby in the lineup and are waiting anxiously for him to recover from elbow surgery so they can get him back on the floor for the playoffs. 

The nice thing about Anunoby being out in his first game back in Toronto since the trade was that he could show how sincerely delighted he was to be by the video tribute the Raptors had for him the first quarter, an honour for the six-plus seasons he spent with Toronto after being drafted in 2017. 

But the Raptor miss Achiuwa too. At six-foot-eight he can guard three positions, if not four, and is athletic enough to play either centre or power forward on the other end. He was locked in when the Raptors put up their tribute for him at the start of the second quarter but was all smiles and hugs as he made his rounds before the game catching up with old friends. 

He made sure the grab a plate of pasta pre-game too. “The chef they got here is fire,” he said. 

Anyway, the thing about the Knicks, who have weathered a long stretch of injuries to key players — bruising forward Julius Randle has been out since January 29 with a shoulder injury and centre Mitchell Robinson played Wednesday night for the first time after a 50-game absence due to an ankle injury — is that they’re a huge basketball team. 

Adding Anunoby and Achiuwa only made them bigger. 

The Raptors? Well the version that took the floor against the Knicks was a tiny team, by NBA standards, but the trade for Quickley and Barrett made them smaller, just like the trade that sent six-foot-nine Pascal Siakam to the Indiana Pacers did. 

Scanning the Raptors roster — even when fully healthy — and the list of players who have ‘good’ size runs out pretty quickly. Centre Jakob Poeltl, out indefinitely after surgery on his finger, probably classifies as average for his position, but that’s something. Scottie Barnes, out indefinitely after surgery on his hand, is a big wing who plays even bigger in every sense.

But after that? Barrett and Quickley (reconditioning after personal leaves) aren’t really physical players, and while Chris Boucher (knee injury) throws what weight he has around with fearless abandon, he still working with just 200 pounds stretched over his six-foot-nine frame. The Raptors' injury issues got worse when Ochai Agbaji — who can at least play above the rim at six-foot-five — left the game in the first quarter after a scary fall on an alley-oop attempt. 

In contrast, the Knicks seem to be giant everywhere. Robinson was their starting centre at seven-foot and 280 pounds before he got hurt. His minutes were taken up by Isaiah Hartenstein who goes seven-foot-one, 270. When he was injured the Knicks still had Achiuwa — who started 17 consecutive games and at one point played more than 40 minutes in six straight starts. And even then the Knicks could look to six-foot-ten Jericho Sims if necessary. 

Even their players who don’t measure as big play well beyond their size. Jalen Brunson leverages his six-foot-two, 200 pounds so cleverly even Kyle Lowry would be proud. Josh Hart is just six-foot-five, but he’s powerfully built, athletic and one of the best rebounders of his size in the NBA. 

“I like a big team,” says Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau. 

The benefits are apparent. The Knicks lead the NBA in offensive rebounding, as just one example. 

They certainly had their way against the undermanned Raptors Wednesday as New York had 15 offensive rebounds to 11 for Toronto, though it was 10-3 in the first half as the Knicks led by 21 after two quarters on their way to a 145-101 blowout win. It was the largest home loss in team history — breaking the mark the Raptors set earlier this month — and was the Raptors' 12^th-straight loss and 13^th in their last 14 games as they fell to 23-50 on the season, giving them their first 50-loss season since 2011-12. The losing streak is the third longest in franchise history and longest since they lost 13 straight in the 2010-11 season. The team record is 17, which was recorded in the 1997-98. 

Fun times. 

Meanwhile the Knicks improved to 44-28, winning their third straight and seventh time in eight starts. The fourth-place Knicks work to solidify home-court advantage and keep an eye on chasing down third-place Cleveland or second-place Milwaukee in the East. 

And the Knicks' overall team size is one of their advantages. The Raptors aren’t exactly playing great basketball right now — 37-year-old Garrett Temple had 15 points off the bench and led the team in hustle plays, and rookie Gradey Dick had a career-high 23 points while Kelly Olynyk had 13 points, seven rebounds and eight assists while trying to avoid getting overwhelmed at centre. 

But it’s exacerbated by giving up physical advantages at almost every position. 

“It was a little bit of effort,” said head coach Darko Rajakovic of the problems with his team’s performance. “But like when somebody's like twice your size, there is not much that you can do especially like rebounding [when] Mitchell Robinson checked in on the court, he looked like a giant out there. But this is the moment that we're in and we've got to find a way.”

But being big means more than just having an edge on the offensive glass, although it was hard to overlook moments Wednesday when the six-foot-five Temple had to battle for position with Robinson or the way Achiuwa was able to bounce his way to 19 points, 12 rebounds and two blocked shots off the bench for the Knicks. 

Being big is almost a state of mind. The Knicks play with a certain confidence and toughness, knowing that every position they likely have some kind of edge on their opponent. 

“We have a lot of bigs, it’s very different [than Toronto], I’d say that.” said Achiuwa. “A lot of times it’s just nice to have another big guy out there.” 

Or lots of them. Or being big at multiple positions. 

The Raptors' rebuilding process is just starting. How long it lasts will depend on all kinds of variables: can Dick become a steady rotation player in his second season? If they keep their draft pick in June can they get lucky and hit on a quality player who can be part of an NBA rotation sooner rather than later. Is there a trade or free-agent signing that can provide unexpected dividends? 

But it’s worth keeping in mind as the off-season approaches and the Raptors' future comes into sharp focus that most of the best teams in the NBA are big across the board, the Knicks foremost among them. 

The Raptors have gotten smaller all season.