Raptors must improve defensively to take next step

TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors have taken many paths that have collectively led them to the bottom of the NBA standings, but if and when they emerge, there is only one path forward, and that is to improve defensively. 

The good news is there is nowhere to go but up. Through 12 games, the 2-10 Raptors have consistently been among the worst teams in the league in defensive rating. They were 30th out of 30 on Monday after giving up 123 points in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, but bumped all the way to 28th as of Thursday after a season-best defensive effort in Milwaukee on Tuesday when they held the Bucks to 99 points — the first time Toronto had held an opponent under 100. 

Regardless, the Raptors are surrendering 118.4 points per 100 possessions.

The Raptors finished last season as the 26th-rated defence in a 30-team league but were 29th after the all-star break, so, giving up 119.1 points per 100, so credit for consistency, I guess. 

No one was expecting the Raptors to evolve into the Tim Duncan-era San Antonio Spurs, but there was hope for improvement. So far, the low-hanging fruit remains unpicked. 

The Raptors are more than passable offensively. Before they stalled out with a season-low 89 points against the Bucks, Toronto boasted the 14th most effective offence in the league. They play to their identity as a pass-first, cut-heavy attack, ranking third in passes made and second in potential assists. They rank fourth in the frequency of their cuts and sixth in the number of field goals attempted after cuts. 

Offensively they have a style they believe in and that works, for the most part, missing only volume three-point shooting to take it over the top – the Raptors are last in three-pointers made this season and 29th in attempts. 

But why Rajakovic’s club hasn’t moved the needle defensively is a bit of a mystery. It’s been a point of emphasis – perhaps the point of emphasis – since training camp opened. The Raptors have had plenty of injuries – the latest on Scottie Barnes (orbital bone fracture), Immanuel Quickley (elbow sprain), Bruce Brown (knee), Kelly Olynk (back) and Ja’Kobe Walter (shoulder) is that none of them are expected back in the next week or so — which undoubtedly impacts their defensive chops. 

But the Raptors have had Jakob Poeltl in the lineup all season, an experienced and defensive-minded centre. Similarly having Quickley out of the lineup for all but 14 minutes of the season opener before he had to miss the next eight games with a back bruise and then just two games this past weekend before his recent elbow injury has opened up a lot of minutes for Davion Mitchell and Jamal Shead, a pair of defensive-minded point guards. 

But defence is the ultimate team category. When it’s played well it’s all five on the same page, making the same reads and covering up for any weaknesses. When it’s played poorly, just one person’s mistake can sink the efforts of the other five. 

Poeltl was withering in his assessment after Sunday’s loss in Los Angeles where the Raptors gave up 70 points on 56 per cent shooting in the second half, a game that Toronto had fought back to tie early in the third quarter. 

“We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard … we shouldn’t be making so many mistakes. We have these little miscommunications where we don’t really know what’s going on on the court,” said Poeltl. “We should know how to guard these actions. It’s not like they were throwing stuff at us that we didn’t know was coming. We should know our coverages in these situations and that really wasn’t the case.” 

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, but Poeltl wasn’t pulling any punches either. 

“I think our mindset is in the right place, we just have to get better at executing it,” he said. “I think the groundwork is there, we’re trying to be aggressive, we’re trying to do the right things, we’re just not good at it yet. Especially when you get exposed by more experienced teams. They find loopholes, they find ways to break it down, and we’re not good at adapting on the fly yet.”

Statistically, the Raptors are exceptionally bad in two main areas: 

The first is they foul too much. Heading into Friday’s game against Detroit the Raptors are a distant last in the NBA in opposition free throw rate. They put opponents on the line after 35.4 per cent of their field goal attempts. As a result opponents are scoring nearly three points more per game at the free-throw line (24.8) than the next most foul-prone team in the NBA, the Washington Wizards (22.1)  and 10 points more per game than the league-leading Boston Celtics (14.2) give up.

Just tidying that up – improving to say, the 26th most foul-heavy team in the league – would improve the Raptors' defensive totals by nearly five points a game. Do that and the Raptors would have a look at nudging into the NBA’s middle-third, defensively.

The other area the Raptors languish in actually has to do with their offence. The Raptors are 25th in turnovers and — not unrelated — are 29th  in the number of points they give up off turnovers. 

That might be a price of doing business – if you’re going to encourage a young team to pass and cut and move the ball, turnovers will come with it. The Raptors made 22 turnovers in their loss to the Bucks Tuesday, which turned into 28 points for Milwaukee, a big factor in a 10-point game. 

 “I think we were trying to move the ball. What I thought is that we were turning the ball over in some situations that we're not supposed to turn the ball over,” said Rajakovic. “We've got to be stronger with the ball. Milwaukee specifically, they did a good job of packing the paint, and I think we did not do a good enough job of finding the open man. We were trying to pass the ball, but we were passing the ball into their hands instead of our teammates' hands.” 

Elsewhere the Raptors are mostly just meh, defensively, rather than horrible, which gives room for encouragement. 

The Raptors are actually 14th in defending shots within six feet of the rim, according to NBA.com, holding teams to 0.7 per cent lower than league average. They also hold teams to 1.6 per cent below league average on three-pointers, ranking them fifth in the league. There can be a lot of luck and variance in defending the three-point line, but at least to this stage of the season it’s not opponents cashing in from deep that is the Raptors' big issue. 

Like in most things with this Raptors team, the ‘rebuilding’ label means that most of the issues the team is facing are considered temporary, things to work on rather than mope about. 

And as bad as Toronto was against the Lakers, which prompted Poeltl’s commentary, they cleaned up a lot of those issues — turnovers aside — against the Bucks in their next start. It was the first time they’d held an opponent under 100 points on the season, and the hope is some of the lessons are repeatable. 

“I thought that we did a really good job of packing the paint and building the wall against Giannis (Antetokounmpo) in transition,” said Rajakovic. “I thought that our on-ball defence was really good, and it started with Davion (Mitchell) and Jamal (Shead) and Ochai (Agbaji) guarding their primary ball handlers… our team was aware of a game plan. We knew who are the hot guys to chase them off the line. We know who are the heavy shift guys (opponents the defence needs to load up to, collectively). So learning the game plan and sticking with it was a big part of defensive improvement in their game.”

It was just one game against nearly a dozen where not much of that has been happening, but for the Raptors, who have been one of the NBA’s worst defensive teams dating back to the mid-point of last season, it’s hopefully a place to start.