Stock up, stock down amid turbulent week of Raptors basketball
By Mike Luciano
Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, and the Toronto Raptors have been put through a very chaotic month of December. On top of the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is looming over the season, Scottie Barnes and Gary Trent Jr. have had to overcome the loss of some key role players due to injury.
Toronto currently stands at 13-15, putting them right on the outside of the play-in tournament even though they are a young team working to overcome many of the issues inherent in such a neophyte squad. Playing with 10 players on some nights doesn’t help much either.
The Raptors were a nullified Justin Champagnie buzzer-beater and a clutch Patty Mills 3-pointer away from going undefeated over their last four games. However, some poor play and bad luck in the clutch helped them sink to 2-2 since December 8, preventing them from leaping too far up the standings.
Which Raptors players have impressed in this recent stretch of basketball? Have any players regressed, prompting a need to step up their performance to get back on track?
Stock up, stock down for the Toronto Raptors after a weird week.
Stock Up: Gary Trent Jr.
The Raptors have been watching Trent become a star before their very eyes at just 22 years old due to his knockdown shooting and impressive defense. Trent’s scoring has really shined over the last few games, as he has made up for the lack of depth behind him on the bench.
Trent has averaged 20.8 points and 3.3 assists per game since the Oklahoma City loss, all while making 52% of his shots. Perhaps even more impressively, Trent is connecting on 48% of his 3-pointers despite taking almost eight attempts per game. That’s the scoring that the Raptors paid him $51 million over three years to provide.
Gary Trent Jr. is shooting the lights out for the Toronto Raptors.
Trent’s defense remains elite, as he has averaged 2.8 steals in the last four games. Toronto needed someone to step up with OG Anunoby missing such a long chunk of time, and Trent has been able to provide a somewhat convincing facsimile on both ends of the floor.
The Raptors went into the season lacking shooting, and the Anunoby injury has only made things even more uncertain in that area. Without Trent taking such a huge step forward, Toronto would not have the perimeter firepower to hang with some of these elite teams.