Sean Woodley here, the host of the daily Locked On Raptors podcast, with your daily Locked On Raptors newsletter. Each day we bring you the biggest stories about the Raptors and the NBA, including the hottest links to other stories you need to read. Plus, Josh Lloyd delivers daily fantasy notes to crush your league.
RJ Barrett’s found success both on and off the ball. How good will he be when he blends the two?
Nov 18, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors guard RJ Barrett (9) battles for the ball with Indiana Pacers guard Quenton Jackson (29) during the fourth quarter at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn ImagesNick Turchiaro/Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
RJ Barrett’s been setting the scene for his 15-point burst to close out the Pacers on Monday all season long. Filling the playmaking vacuum left behind by Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley and Kelly Olynyk’s long-term absences, the pass has been Barrett’s best and most surprising weapon this year. Live-dribble skips, pocket passes, patient dump-offs, and lately, even some behind-the-back flair — the depth of Barrett’s dish package has been ever-expansive while shouldering the weight of the Raptors’ offense.
Scoring has come a little less easy during this stretch of ultra-usage, which is to be expected for anyone scaling up in responsibility. Until last night’s 13-of-21 effort, his true shooting percentage for the year sat just below 50%, a rough mark made palatable by his creativity in setting the table for others. His deadly array of rim finishes have been scouted and dulled by extra layers of help; his three-point accuracy slashed by a heightened need to let it rip off the bounce — a shot he nearly eliminated from his chart post-trade last season after never really finding success with it in New York. He tried as many pull-up threes (3) last night as he did in 32 games as a Raptor to close 2023-24.
Per Cleaning the Glass, Barrett’s averaging just 1.03 points per shot attempt — a 10th-percentile mark among forwards — while carrying the highest usage rate among anyone in his player cohort. And yet, it’s hard to imagine where the Raptors would be without Barrett doing the thankless grunt work to guide this offense, nobly trading in his own shooting percentage to lift that of his teammates. They’d damn sure be worse than 3-12.
Barrett got to harvest the fruits of his selflessness in the fourth quarter Monday night. With a familiar script taking shape for a Raptors team that’s carried plenty of leads into the last 12 minutes but hung onto precious few, Barrett ditched the pass to close out Indy himself.
Aided by the roll gravity of Jakob Poeltl, the play-finishing monster he’s helped create, Barrett found wide open pastures within the claustrophobic part of the floor he operates from, his head bobs, off-beat handle, and ever-present threat of a dish to the lane leaving the Pacers interior defense on edge and off balance. Barrett scored 15 of his 39 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the final frame. It was a hard earned run of “my turn” basketball for a guy whose spent the last three weeks softening defenses so others can cook when he calls their number.
With word expected this week on the injury status of Scottie Barnes, among other injured Raptors, the question of where Barrett fits into a more healthy version of team is about to come into focus. The answer seems pretty simple, honestly.
It’d feel wasteful to fully relegate Barrett to the off-ball, transition-rampaging, play-finisher gig he excelled in last season. The gains in his pick-and-roll craft can’t be ignored. While his lack of pull-up juice and general finishing issues as the primary probably indicate leading man duty is a bit of a miscasting, you can’t turn your nose up at league-best numbers running the most popular play in the sport.
Of course, the beauty of Darko Rajakovic’s egalitarian system is that it defies the hooper-brained logic of stacking guys up in a prescribed pecking order. Everyone’s emboldened to get in on the creative fun.
Even with Barnes and Quickley back, there will be room for Barrett to carve defenses up with the ball on his string. Quickley’s value is largely tied to way he can flip-flop between on and off-ball roles. Barrett-Barnes pick-and-roll should be similar headache for defenses as Barrett’s connection with Poeltl. Most notably, a third credible initiator offers a way out of the muck for Raptors reserve groups, stuck in a ditch for half a decade. Militantly staggering Barnes and Quickley is possible, but tricky. Barrett credibly running offense gives Toronto more choice, and alternate backbone tandems to trot out with bench guys on their flanks.
Like a sub shop adding a new topping to their lineup, the potentially tasty combos grow exponentially with Barrett being viable with or without the ball in his hands. He’ll need to weather for a bit longer as the sole engine driving this offense, but once his brothers in ball-handling return, the unleashing of Hybrid RJ awaits. It might just be the best version of him yet.
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On today’s podcast, I’m joined by Vivek Jacob to recap the Raptors’ 130-119 win over the Pacers, with thoughts on Barrett’s 39-9-5 outing, Jakob Poeltl keeping his heater rolling, skinny jeans, All-Star possibilities and more.
The Sixers are no longer just bad, they’re cornered
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) looks on against the Miami Heat during the third quarter at Kaseya Center|Photo by Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Look, I held off as long as I could, told myself it was only an awkward start. I looked to silver linings, to the tendency that things going wrong for this long tend to right themselves. I looked to the surrounding conditions for clues and when none revealed themselves, I decided to stay positive but now, it’s time: time to talk about the Philadelphia 76ers.
Beyond what Sixers fans know intimately and don’t need reiterated (things are bad), the mood around the franchise is starting to feel closer to cornered than merely frustrated. Last night, after a third quarter collapse against the Heat in Miami, the Sixers held a postgame meeting that lasted over an hour. The game already had a bizarre feel to it, Philly led by 19 before being down 20, and Joel Embiid went from being listed as doubtful to starting. No one on the Sixers roster looked especially comfortable, a trend that’s emerged throughout the team’s first full month of regular season play.
Slipping now to the bottom of the Eastern Conference, with a record of 2-11 I still feel the need to double check as I write this, one thing has become abundantly clear — the Sixers don’t have room to hedge.
There’s no scapegoat to pin the team’s shoddy performance on, not this early in the season. Even when healthy, and Embiid, George and Maxey are on the floor together, it’s been for naught. Both the teams wins came in arduous overtime, one without George and both without Embiid. The Sixers win against the Hornets was missing Maxey completely.
Here’s a problem I’ve wondered about since Daryl Morey landed George in what was declared an undisputed win for the franchise and the best move of the offseason — what about Philadelphia’s role players? To clear the books for cap space enough to sign George, Daryl Morey liquidated the team’s working roster — 13 of the team’s 15 man squad became free agents. Tobias Harrias and Nicolas Batum may not be spring chickens in NBA terms, but they provided the mechanical support the Sixers are now woefully lacking. This isn’t the Sixers only problem, that much has been made clear, but it’s a big one.
Katie Heindl is a credentialed NBA and WNBA writer, her bylines have appeared with The New York Times Magazine, SLAM, The Athletic, Yahoo Sports, Dime, Rolling Stone, among others. She writes the bestselling Substack, Basketball Feelings and is working on a book of the same name.
Home and Away
Analysis RJ Barrett’s passing prowess has become “revelatory” for the team. (The Athletic, subscription required)
Draft Cross your fingers, Raptors fans. SI’s latest mock draft has Toronto landing the top spot (and expected No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg).
Biz Former NBA stars Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady are looking to buy a minority stake in the NFL’s Buffalo Bills (CityTV)
Must Read Knicks forward OG Anunoby says he’s tired of being known for his defensive prowess. (The Athletic, subscription required)
Locked On Raptors
3peat (ICYMI)
Don’t let these episodes pass you by — stay locked in with the latest Locked On Raptors podcasts.
Thursday — Would you rather be the Raptors or Sixers for the next 5 years? w/ Trill Bro Dude Sean is joined by Trill Bro Dude from the You Know Ball podcast to talk about the Raptors and Sixers, both near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, but with very different outlooks both now and in the future.
Wednesday — What’s More Likely?! featuring Hot Take Heindl Sean is joined by Katie Heindl (Locked On Newsletters) to play a few rounds of our favourite parlour game: What’s More Likely?! We get into either-or questions about Jakob Poeltl’s future in Toronto, how the Raptors stack up with the Bucks and Sixers, and who will start more games to close the season between Ochai Agbaji and Gradey Dick. This episode also features the debut of Hot Take Heindl, the greatest take artist to ever live.
Tuesday — RJ Barrett plays closer vs. Pacers; Raptors snap 7-game losing stream Sean and Vivek Jacob (Raptors in 7, Sportsnet) talk about the Raptors’ 130-119 win over the Pacers, RJ Barrett’s masterful work on the ball and where it fits into the team when Scottie Barnes comes back, Jakob Poeltl’s heater and The Good, The Bad & The Hmm from Monday’s game.
