Toronto Raptors: Whose stock is up/down, including Kyle Lowry’s tanking stock
Serge Ibaka – Stock Up
It’s been a great season for Serge, and while he hasn’t featured in this column for a few weeks he’s still playing at a very high level of basketball. Some of the best of his career to be exact.
Ibaka is averaging 16-7-1 on the season, this past week he’s averaging 14 points, six rebounds and just north of one assist. It’s been pretty much as you were for Serge, his productivity is under the radar at this point, but is still effective every night.
He struggled to match up defensively on the glass against Tristan Thompson, Thompson hounded the offense glass all night and treated himself to seven offensive rebounds on the night.
The Raptors have struggled consistently to defend the boards this season and rank 27th in opponent offensive rebounding, Ibaka being a little more forceful might buck that trend but it lies more on the Raptors currently gang-rebounding – a large portion of those offensive rebounds are long rebounds.
His game against the Cavaliers was pretty standard, like most of the team and still managed to finish with a +20 rating on the night. Ibaka had his way from mid-range and took what he was given for most of the night.
Ibaka once again had his way from mid-range against Denver too, he went 5-5 from two-point range and forced Nikola Jokic into some awkward defensive sequences. Jokic had his way with pretty much anyone who matched up with him on the night, I have to mention his passing which is out of this world. Is he already THE best passing big man of all-time? I think there’s definitely a case to be made.
Wednesday night was a great night for Serge, he handled Joel Embiid incredibly well all evening. Embiid was double-teamed in the paint for most of the night and Ibaka was often at the center of the action. Embiid shot 0-4 from three and you can debate how much of that was up to Ibaka competing and forcing him to work the ball inside. Ibaka had 18 points, including a few more mid-range jumpers.
As far as I’m aware, Serge is shooting 2,000-percent from the elbow. (Editors note: Ibaka might not be shooting 2,000-percent, but he is shooting 72-percent from 16-24 feet, meaning an Ibaka mid-ranger is more efficient than any Raptors’ three-point shot. Take that for data)