After a dismal 1-6 start to the season, the Toronto Raptors are beginning to find their footing, thanks in large part to the improvement of some key role players.
It hasn’t been a great month for the Toronto Raptors to start the 2020-2021 campaign. Sluggish play and lacklustre defence led to some surprise losses early on, and that skid had some people wondering if it might be time to consider a semi-rebuild. They seemed to have righted the ship somewhat, despite a loss in their most recent contest to the Indiana Pacers. Over the last ten games, they have a 6-4 record, and they’ve looked like a much more engaged ball club on both ends of the floor.
It’s important to note that the Raptors are by no means out of the woods yet; five of those six wins came against teams below .500, including victories against two depleted teams in Dallas and Miami. The Raptors are still sitting outside the playoffs in a much improved Eastern Conference, and have yet to beat a top team so far this season. Nevertheless, things have at least been starting to trend in the upward direction in Toronto, and a big reason why is the fact that several role players have shown signs of turning their poor play around.
These three Toronto Raptors players have really started to turn a corner and play well
Perhaps no player heading into the season was, or is, as important to the Toronto Raptors’ fate than Anunoby. While we all essentially knew what we would get from the likes of Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam, the fourth-year forward represented the sort of wild card that could significantly raise the team’s ceiling if he took the leap many expected he would take offensively.
Through the first seven games, it didn’t look promising. Anunoby was shooting just 29 percent from three, while averaging 12.9 points per contest. Those numbers simply aren’t good enough if this iteration of the Raptors is going to be successful. Since then, however, Anunoby seems to have gotten his game on track. Excluding a sub-par performance in the loss on Monday, he had previously upped his scoring average to 16.6 PPG over a nine-game stretch, while shooting over 50 percent from beyond the arc, not to mention a brilliant 30-point-performance in a big win over Indiana this past weekend when the team was shorthanded.
The elite defence will always be there with Anunoby, but he must become a more reliable offensive weapon for the Raptors to truly make something of this season. Anunoby probably won’t be the next Kawhi Leonard, but if he can elevate his game to the level of a Shawn Marion prototype, it would be exactly what the doctor ordered for a Toronto Raptors team that can struggle to score. Anunoby still has a ways to go offensively, but his recent improvement has been a huge key for the team’s uptick in play.
Norman Powell
The enigmatic Norman Powell is beginning to return to the player that was third on the team in scoring last season. He’s eclipsed the 20-point mark four times in the Raptors’ last six games, previously doing so just once. Over the last ten games starting with the team’s victory in Sacramento, Powell is shooting 39 percent from downtown on almost six attempts per game, while averaging 16.7 points per game.
Powell’s +/- stats are also very telling. Through the first seven games when the team was 1-6, he was a minus in six of them. Over the last ten? He’s been in the negative just three times. When Powell plays well, good things usually happen for the Toronto Raptors.
Powell’s aggressiveness on both ends of the floor he gives the Toronto Raptors an added dimension. His ability to attack the basket and get to the free-throw line provides the team with a scoring punch that they need, especially with the offensive void left by Ibaka and Gasol. Powell tends to try to do too much on occasion, and he’ll make a bone-head decision from time to time, but overall he’s been looking like the player Raptors fans expect him to be lately. That trend needs to continue.
Aron Baynes
The Raptors’ biggest offseason addition was downright putrid to begin the season, so much so that he got benched by head coach Nick Nurse, receiving three straight DNP-CD’s during their trip out west two weeks ago. Baynes was brought in to fill some of the void left by the departed Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, and though he’s still been a massive disappointment so far, he’s at least beginning to show signs of playing positive minutes.
Baynes had his best game of the season in the win against Indiana on Saturday, with 12 points and 7 boards, and followed it up with 9 points on 4/9 shooting in the loss on Monday. He was a +5 in just 23 minutes in their win over Miami, and overall seems to look a little bit more comfortable meshing with his new team over the past week. Ultimately though, Baynes still needs to vastly improve his offensive output and start making a real impact if this team wants to be successful.
Luckily for the Toronto Raptors, the well-documented emergence of Chris Boucher has taken some of the sting out of Baynes being a no show so far. Still, they desperately need the Aussie to contribute more. If Baynes can return to the form he had in Phoenix last season, he’ll provide the team with some much-needed help on the boards, while providing a big body as a matchup play against teams with good centres.
At this point, anything will be better than what he’s showed early this season.
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