After seeing Kawhi Leonard's preseason debut on Tuesday, Toronto Raptors fans finally got to see the preseason debut they had really been waiting for Thursday night: Jamison Battle.
Okay, maybe not as exciting as Kawhi Leonard, but it was great to see everyone's favorite No. 77 back on the court, providing elite spacing and being the definition of a glue guy. In his return, Battle put up 10 points and three rebounds while shooting 3-of-5 from the field and 2-of-4 from three-point range in 14 minutes. Any time he was on the court Thursday night, you could see the immediate spacing boost he was providing the Raptors, particularly with their second unit, who had been without his services all preseason.
Even when he’s not making shots, the gravity he brings as a shooter that opposing defenses have to respect helps open up the game for his teammates in a massive way. When I look back at my game notes, I literally wrote, “Jamison Battle is too valuable to this team,” and then on the next line, “Battle may actually be the Raptors MVP.”
Obviously, those are satirical, hyperbolic notes, but that’s how it feels when he’s on the floor: knocking down outside jumpers and opening up more driving lanes because defenders have to respect him.
Battle value as a spacer is A1
I’ve written about it before, but this season Battle is going to have a very important role as Toronto’s primary sharpshooter off the bench. While he may only be the ninth man for this team, he has the ability to be the most valuable ninth man in the league because he brings a skill set this Raptors team doesn’t really have outside of him. If all Darko Rajakovic demands of him nightly is that he shoots 50 percent from three and adds a putback layup in 14-ish minutes like he did tonight, Toronto will be laughing.
And his track record suggests at times he could do way more than that.
Six games into last season, Battle had an insane moment that flipped a matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers in Toronto’s favor. The team needed a spark, and Battle answered the bell with 20 points in 15 minutes of action, shooting 6-of-6 from three-point range. The kicker? He did it despite not playing in the first half and being thrown into the fire cold in the second half.
Oh, and he did almost the exact same thing against the Cavs in Game 3 of their round-one matchup with the Raptors, with another second-half explosion, scoring 14 points on perfect shooting.
That ability to get hot like he’s playing NBA Jam is special, and it makes Battle even more valuable than he already is as a reliable floor spacer for this team. Having a ninth man who is capable of flipping a game on its head if he gets hot from beyond the arc isn’t a luxury most teams in the league have.
For a team questioned for its lack of perimeter shot creation, adding Battle back into the fold was a nice reminder that the Raptors have been playing preseason without one of their most important pieces. While he is expected to be in the back half of Rajakovic’s rotation, the impact he can have in a short amount of time is why he is one of Toronto’s biggest weapons this season.
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