Each year, the modern NBA gets bigger. Huge dudes make the world go round for the league’s best teams. Without positional size and interior beef, you can probably put to bed any notions of playing in June. But if it’s a high floor you want, you’d better have some kick ass guard play.
Toronto learned this the hard way Sunday night. While the Cavs’ enviable ball-handling trio of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and the inexplicable Ty Jerome kept Cleveland steadily pouring in buckets throughout, the Raptors’ bottom fell out for a few stretches within an otherwise noble effort, and their guards — or straight up lack thereof — were largely the culprit.
Cleveland’s three ball-handlers combined for 68 points and 8 turnovers; Toronto’s traditional guards just 12 points and the same number of giveaways as the Cavs guys. Of course, Toronto only has two such players available right now — Davion Mitchell and Jamal Shead, both of whom have been relegated to bench duty as the Raptors have experimented with a bulky, guard-less starting five.
This was a game screaming for Immanuel Quickley. RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes are doing their best, but their brand of bruising drives won’t do it against a team as big and menacing as the Cavs. Speed and stretch are huge assets against a team build like Cleveland. Quickley’s pull up game would have done wonders helping to pry some size away from the paint, where the Raptors ran into trouble all night (50% shooting despite 42% of their attempts coming at the rim). Without IQ, Toronto too often got mired in trying to play the half court game with a team that’s simply a lot better at it than them — and everyone else, for that matter. Cleveland is the number one half court offense in the NBA by nearly 2.5 points/100 possessions per Cleaning the Glass. Without guard juice, Toronto never had a chance to win that fight.
Toronto’s best moments came from open court chaos on Sunday night, either attacking quickly in semi-transition as Gradey Dick, Jakob Poeltl and Ochai Agbaji each did in spots, or by forcing live-ball turnovers with their absolutely menacing transitional lineups featuring a heavy dose of Barnes, Shead and defensive phenom Jonathan Mogbo. In 10 minutes together, that trio went a +4, played a part in forcing six steals, and planted the seeds of some recurring nightmares for the guys they each guarded.
That’s the kind of thing that is gonna win the Raptors games, even without their best guard, against teams that don’t sport .900+ win percentages. But against this Cavs team, the margins are thin. Offensive micro-naps within the flow of 48 minutes like we saw in a stagnant first quarter, or the opening stretch of the fourth where the better D. Mitchell and Jerome went nuclear, just aren’t palatable without the creative guard power to punch back. Without a doubt, the current iteration of the team can hang with most teams. But for Toronto to take aim at the truly elite, a healthy Quickley is a necessity.
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Today on the podcast, Vivek Jacob joins me to break down the Raptors’ 122-108 loss to Cleveland. See you after Raptors-Pistons tonight!
