Toronto Raptors pressure meter: Which big names must step up?

1. Gary Trent Jr.

The Raptors have to be very disappointed with how Trent, who could opt out of the final year of his contract in the offseason, has started the season. While he’s always been a streaky shooter, he picked a bad time to author one of the worst stretches of his Raptors career.

Ever since Toronto’s domination of the Spurs at the beginning of the month, Trent has topped 12 points in a game just one time and shot under 40% from the field three times. Trent, who was supposed to be the team’s No. 2 3-point shooter behind VanVleet, is shooting 21% from deep in November and has made just 3 of his last 15.

Gary Trent Jr. has been disappointing for the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors have been much worse when Trent has been on the floor, showing that the defensive improvements he made have either disappeared or gone into hibernation. With very few players who can create shots for themselves on the bench, Nurse is going to give Trent tons of minutes.

Nurse had enough of Trent against the Pacers, as he saw his minutes reduced in the second half while Dalano Banton and Malachi Flynn were able to fill in for him. Hopefully, this sends a warning to Trent and gets him back in the saddle as a shooter.

Pressure rating: High