There are some things the Toronto Raptors can’t control right now. There are other things they are in control of every night. In a 112-101 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday, both groups were on full display.
What the Raptors can control, night to night, is the level of their effort and intensity. After laying an egg in the season opener, the Raptors bounced back Friday with what head coach Darko Rajakovic characterized as out-teaming the Philadelphia 76ers. Some nights, against a shorthanded team like Philly, that and a few good performances may be enough.
Against a fully healthy and rested Wolves team with championship aspirations, it wasn’t. That doesn’t mean the evidence of that energy level isn’t notable. On the second night of a back-to-back and still down five players, the Raptors played every bit as hard as Rajakovic is asking them. They defended hard. They kept a larger Minnesota team off the offensive glass, for the most part. They hit the floor for loose balls.
It took Minnesota the entire 48 minutes to put Toronto away. Every time they thought they’d built enough breathing room, Toronto found a spark – from Jonathan Mogbo in the second quarter, from some great Gradey Dick offence, from Scottie Barnes picking it up down the stretch – and kept it a game. If nothing else, they were annoying, limiting Anthony Edwards until they couldn’t, somehow finding a way to get more points in the paint despite the size disparity, and refusing to let a deficit as large as 22 put them away.
If you’re asking a team to control what they can control, and giving a damn is most within your control, the Raptors delivered two nights in a row.
Of course, setting the bar there is a huge shift in perception and expectation for this organization, enough that writing like that felt arresting for the author (though it is almost Raptors 905 season, too). Moral victories are for minor league coaches, and so on. But what if half your rotation is actually supposed to be the minor league team?
Because there are things the Raptors can’t control right now. RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Kelly Olynyk, Ja’Kobe Walter, and Bruce Brown all remained out. The Raptors desperately need Quickley’s ability to provide some scoring punch from the point guard position and give some breath to what is generally suffocated spacing.
They badly need Barrett’s ability to punch into the paint from the second side, helping the team force some offence below the free-throw line. Olynyk won’t be a panacea for bench units alone, but the absence of his playmaking is felt firmly, and even his size is missed against bigger opponents like Cleveland and Minnesota.
More to the point, though, the Raptors – on the court in this moment – can’t control what the roster is. They don’t have the size to bang with a lot of teams, and while Bruno Fernando had a decent second half after five rough halves to start his year, it’s probably time to embrace the benefits of a smaller second unit with more Mogbo. Most teams that are nominally smaller get the benefit of better spacing, but the Raptors don’t have enough shooting, either, making it hard to keep up when another team gets hot or when the Raptors can’t find their way inside.
It’s hard to look at a game like this and hang too much on the players available, who didn’t decide to go the rebuild route and didn’t injure their teammates. (That’s not entirely true; Walter’s injury came from a pre-camp collision with Barnes.) If there’s something within their control they absolutely have to do better with, it’s turnovers, as they coughed it up 20 times for 27 Minnesota points. Some of those will just come with inexperience and unfamiliarity, especially in a pass-heavy offence, but a number of miscues through three games have been tough to forgive, and it’s the one thing Toronto’s done to get in their own way.
Saturday’s game was a fun one, one that shows Rajakovic has more early buy-in from the group than it appeared in their opener. They don’t have the bodies to pull off a major upset right now unless everything breaks right. It’s a reality of what this season will be, and an “acceptable loss,” while unfamiliar in these parts for the last decade-plus, is back on the messaging menu.
Here are some other notes from the game.
Gradey Dick has a career night
Not only did Dick score a career-high 25 points, he did so while showing off a varied and exciting offensive profile. Sure, Dick hit four threes, and those will always be the most important shots for him on a team that needs his outside shooting like they do. Dick’s ceiling, though, is about everything else he can potentially do when a defence tries to run him off the line.
Rudy Gobert got a good look at it, believe it or not. Twice, Dick went at Gobert after attacking out of the corner, once getting an and-one on a fading elbow jumper against the four-time Defensive Player of the Year and once letting go a baseline floater before Gobert could properly contest. His package of nifty finishes around the paint area continues to impress, too, with a soft touch and more hangtime than defenders seem to expect.
Dick is 10-of-19 inside the arc early on this year.
The backup centre spot, and Fernando’s contract amendment
Mogbo playing just nine minutes was a surprise here. He was excellent against the 76ers and had a really solid stint in the first half Saturday.
The reasoning is almost certainly size-related, as Minnesota brings Naz Reid off the bench and usually staggers Gobert and Julius Randle, so that there are two 6-foot-8 and bigger players on the floor at all times. That’s a lot of size relative to Toronto, and Fernando is the biggest option they have when Jakob Poeltl hits the bench.
Personally, I don’t think it’s a worthwhile tradeoff. Fernando is bigger than Mogbo, yes, and he has some NBA experience that shows he can rebound pretty well and not get run off the floor. At the same time, he’s a known commodity, and that commodity is mostly a third centre. The Raptors are in a rebuild, and a big part of this year is seeing what they have in younger, developing players. Mogbo will surely get his chances – three games is nothing, in the larger scheme, and Mogbo’s going to get some Raptors 905 time, too – but he’s earned more opportunity even in the early going here. Mogbo’s defensive upside and ability to run and make fun reads on offence, even if they’re not always executed just yet, is more interesting even right now than what Fernando can bring against all but the biggest bruisers (of whom there are few on NBA benches).
Downsizing in favour of getting what Mogbo can bring to the table feels like the right move until he shows you it’s not.
As an aside, the Raptors amended Fernando’s contract before determining their final roster. Originally, Fernando’s deal was supposed to become fully guaranteed if he made the opening night roster. The sides agreed to remove that guarantee, so Fernando is playing right now on a contract the Raptors can cut any time before January. Reading between the lines, had Fernando not agreed to that amendment, he may not have made the roster. This buys the Raptors some extra runway to evaluate, especially while Olynyk is out.
Quick hits
• Jamison Battle was in the rotation again, and the hometown kid had nine points and six rebounds – and no fouls! – in 19 minutes. He’s at risk of not being able to join Raptors 905 for training camp this week because he’s too necessary for the NBA club.
• Ochai Agbaji had one of his best all-around games as a Raptor. Occasional back cut and (more occasional) turnover aside, Agbaji showed what it would look like if he could add even a modicum of shooting. He hit 3-of-5 on triples, and whenever the Wolves’ attention lapsed, he was finding cutting lanes to get chances in the paint. He had 19 points on 16 used possessions and was, as usual, excellent in transition in both directions. His role will shrink when the Raptors get healthier, but that presents him an opportunity to really lock in within a role.
• Raptors 905 begin training camp on Monday. I’ll have a full breakdown of the roster here on Monday, but there are two notables before then: Branden Carlson will be with them, and Jahmi’us Ramsey will not. Carlson was waived but went unsigned by other NBA teams, and he had a small enough guarantee on his deal that he was still 905 eligible through what’s known as an “affiliate player” designation. Ramsey, meanwhile, opted to return to Oklahoma City’s program instead of Toronto’s, meaning he’ll lose the $77,500 bonus he was supposed to receive on his deal with the Raptors. That’s a bit of an odd choice on the surface.
• It sounds like Barrett could be back Monday. He was upgraded to questionable Saturday before ultimately not playing. He’s close. Quickley didn’t travel, instead staying back in Toronto to rest and rehab. Walter, meanwhile, is getting closer and considered week-to-week, while Brown is at least a month away from ramping up, and Olynyk is without a firm timeline for his ailing back.
• The Nuggets are here Monday, and they have been off to a shaky start. Losing to the Thunder, who looked incredible, is one thing. Getting edged at home by the Clippers when Nikola Jokic drops 41 is less forgivable. (Norman Powell had 37 in that one!)
• Hope you’re all having a wonderful and appropriately spooky weekend.