The Toronto Raptors are the most disrespected team in the NBA. Some of that is earned, due to their lack of a playoff series win. Their embarrassing defeat last season brought criticism and rumors of changes to the entire front office, coaching staff and roster before the team stood pat with the same core of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.
The Raptors added DeMarre Carroll to bolster a defense that was ranked 25th in defensive rating in 2014-15, but due to severe knee injuries he has only been on the court for 23 games; Toronto needed help from someone on that end besides Lowry. It’s been Bismack Biyombo who has stepped up and played the best basketball of his career, blocking 2.3 shots per-36 minutes and leading the team in defensive rating.
Due in part to Biyombo’s stellar play, the Raptors have moved to ninth in points allowed per 100 possessions, fourth in opponent’s points per game and 11th in opponent’s effective field goal percentage. With one of the league’s best defensive guards in Lowry and one its best defensive bigs in Biyombo, the Raptors can form a legitimate championship caliber defense. Toronto’s greatest asset, though, is their dominance on the boards.
The Raptors are 11th in offensive rebound rate, fifth in defensive rebound rate and seventh in total rebound rate; but the most impressive part of those statistics is that they don’t have a single player who records 10 or more rebounds per game. Both Biyombo and Jonas Valanciunas are good rebounders, but Valanciunas has also been out due to injury. If anything the impressive numbers show a great team effort on the boards, which you need to be successful anyway.
If there was one area where the Raptors needed to improve it would be their three-point shooting. Toronto is ranked just 16th in three-point percentage and 20th in effective field goal percentage, with Lowry being the only healthy dependable shooter from downtown. There’s no reason to believe that Luis Scola — career 30 percent from downtown — will keep up his impressive pace from three-point range while Patrick Patterson and Terrence Ross are too inconsistent to count on in crunch-time minutes. Carroll was brought in because he is one of the league’s best three-and-D players, so if he can’t return from his knee surgery Toronto will need to make a move for a shooter.
Despite the fact that they are not yet on the level of the championship contender, the Raptors have done an excellent job this season of keeping their permanent hold atop the Atlantic Division despite the injuries they have been dealt.
Grade: A-
