Fresh off an extension this offseason that will keep him under contract with the Toronto Raptors until the 2030 offseason, Jamal Shead has really made that deal look worth it over these recent games. With Immanuel Quickley sidelined for their last two games, Shead has been tasked with starting and has done an excellent job in both, driving Toronto’s offense and being an elite playmaker.
Over this two-game stretch, Shead has turned the ball over just four times to 27 assists. That’s not a typo.
His creation for his teammates, ability to get Jakob Poeltl going offensively in the pick-and-roll, and gravity as a passer have been on full display. This is nothing new to anyone familiar with Shead’s play, as he has been an elite playmaker every step of his Raptors career.
Shead has displayed a ton of the traits this team needs in a starting guard, between his passing, defense, energy, and ability to get hot as a scorer, with 13 of the Raptors' 26 first-quarter points Monday night. The issue is his efficiency. Putting the ball in the hoop at a respectable shooting clip has been Shead’s Achilles heel as a pro and is preventing him from being a starting point solution for the Raptors.
Jamal Shead's shooting struggles are killing his starting point guard potential
After starting off incredibly hot against the Grizzlies, shooting 4-of-5 from the field in the first quarter, he shot 2-of-12 the rest of the way. I’m in no way saying to blame Shead for that loss, but if he had made two more shots, not only would he have shot 45-plus percent from the field, but Toronto also may have been capable of a fourth-quarter comeback.
We’ve seen this story before, and honestly, it was a theme all of last season. It’s still hard to determine whether it’s simply Shead being too small to consistently get his shot off and capitalize on clean looks or if it’s more about poor execution and skill level as a shot maker. Either way, it’s not just hindering his development into a top-tier backup guard, but also preventing the Raptors from potentially handing him the keys as their long-term starter.
With Quickley under a ton of fire for how poor a job he’s done running the Raptors offense, all Shead really has to do to make him expendable is be efficient. That was known coming into the year. Shead is way cheaper, is a better decision-maker and passer, and is miles ahead of IQ defensively. The efficiency was the one piece.
But instead of trending upward, his efficiency has only gotten worse the more his usage has risen. Shead went from 40.5 percent from the field in his rookie season to 36.7 percent last season and 36.4 percent this season. The same goes for his outside jumper, which has regressed from 32 percent in his first two seasons to 27.3 percent this season.
For Shead, no one was ever expecting him to be a hyper-efficient scorer because of his size and the way he is able to impact other parts of the game outside of being a scorer. But the bar was still to at least be in that 40-ish percent range from the field and 35-plus percent from deep, not what he’s doing right now.
Shead will always bring value as a backup, whether the shots are falling or not. However, for him to take that next leap as a player and potentially earn a starting role, he needs to start seeing his efficiency trend upward.
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