Kelly Olynyk and I are not so different, really. We’re both Canadians in our thirties. We both like to play basketball — Olynyk at the NBA level, me at a handful of local Hamilton pick-up runs, which are basically the same. And our backs are both prone to flaring up from time to time.
This past summer, I put myself out of commish for about a month because I, uhm, got up sort of awkwardly off my couch. Olynyk, meanwhile, put his back out ramping up for his 12th season in the pros. Again, we’re pretty much the same guy.
Because I’m so intimately familiar with the hell that is mid-thirties back pain impeding your ability to hoop, I’m finding myself genuinely inspired by Olynyk these days. After missing the first quarter of the season nursing his lumbar system back to full health, and then spending the next 10 or so games looking as though he could barely move, Olynyk’s finding his groove again, looking much like the tank-threatening, offense-greasing veteran he was for the Jazz before they shipped him to Toronto at last year’s deadline.
Tuesday’s win over Orlando marked the high point of his Raptors tenure to date. Eating up 22 minutes of front court time while Jakob Poeltl struggled both with his play and foul trouble, Olynyk was essential to one of the more impressive offensive evenings the Raptors have turned in all year — a 113.0 half court offensive rating, 90th percentile among all games this season, against the league’s 7th-best half court defense per Cleaning the Glass. Olynyk’s modest 12-point, 3-rebound, 3-assist line on 4-of-6 from the floor doesn’t quite do his immense impact on the game justice.
He wound up a PLUS THIRTY-NINE in his minutes on the floor; he didn’t just ride the wave of the Raptors’ comeback from a 32-11 first quarter deficit, he was one of the causes of it. Olynyk entered the night bringing a negative impact in his minutes over the course of the season; the team was 1.9 points worse per 100 possessions in his time on the floor compared to when he sat, dragged down big time by that early spell where he looked rickety as all get out. After baking Tuesday’s plus-minus masterpiece into his season-long number pie, Olynyk’s on/off different is now +5.3 — a 7.2 swing in one game!
We should also probably talk about the fact that Olynyk blocked four Magic shots on Tuesday, doubling his season-long total. Despite the Magic taking 39% of their shots in the game at the rim, they canned just 51.9% of them. That Olynyk was a big part of Toronto’s sturdy work around the rim should earn his physical therapist a raise. And yeah, Olynyk is still prone to conceding hilarious blow-bys from time to time, but all told, his defense has held up surprisingly well considering the Raptors are lacking a true defensive big man to pair him with in his minutes. Opponents this year are shooting 55.3% at the rim against K.O., 7.7 percentage points lower than league average, and he’s tied with Jakob Poeltl for third on the team in terms of overall on-court defensive impact behind only Scottie Barnes, who’s lapping the whole team, and Davion Mitchell.
His back is so unquestionably back.
Whether his newfound spryness ignites a pre-deadline surge of trade interest from contenders remains to be seen, and if the Raptors can get some real value for him, they should strongly consider it. But if they opt to hang onto their locally raised vet into next season, it seems Toronto can expect Olynyk to be something close to his connective best as long as his back stays warm.
Like Steph Curry gave hope to a generation of scrawny youths with shooting touch, and as Raps legend Oliver Miller once laid the path for Thicc Kings everywhere to pick up a basketball, Olynyk is giving a push to 30-somethings with general back shittiness everywhere to get off the couch, stretch it out and lace ‘em up. If Olynyk can hoop like this after months lying prone, why can’t your run of the mill aches and pains sufferer do the same?
I’m not sure an NBA player has ever spoken so directly to me.
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Today on the podcast Vivek Jacob and I talked about a really fun win over the Magic, where Scottie Barnes looked like a two-way star, the offense got humming, and the bench chipped in big time. Enjoy the show!
