News - Toronto Raptors - Dylan
Finding our defensive identity
At week 7 the Raptors were sitting 11th place in the conference with a record of 11-14, as of this article the Raptors have gone on an 11-game win streak and are 6th with a record of 22-14 how did we manage this sudden turnaround? In a team with Steph Curry at the point you'd expect defense to be the last stat listed but defense has become our identity.
Weeks 1-7 we were a heavy offensive team sitting 1st in the league in Offensive efficiency and 27th in Defense efficiency but the heavy offense approach was not leading to wins in the column. Some of the losses could have been made up had Durant not missed 2, 5 game weeks and Curry also missing 1 of those 5 game weeks but the data was telling that we needed to make a change and find more defense for this team, a trade had to be made.
Out
Rui Hachimura, 6-8 record
8ppg, 4rpg on 40/46/84 splits in his time with Toronto. Rui, we had envisioned as a good fit to this roster with his slashing ability and elite spot up 3-point shooting. However, his defense despite being an ok NBA defender has not been carried over into 2k and he's basically a traffic cone leaving us with 2 holes in our defense between Rui and Curry.
In
Harrison Barnes, 11-1 record
The ultimate veteran, a true plug and play type player. 7ppg, 3rpg, 1.1spg on 48/50/85 splits Barnes has now almost been with us as long as Rui was and the difference between the team has been night and day. Barnes is a quality defender and has been hyper efficient with the limited touches he gets playing alongside Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry.
Since acquiring Harrison Barnes, the Raptors have found a real defensive identity, and the wins have followed with a 8-0 record across the last 2 weeks.
Week 8 - 3rd in Defensive efficiency, 7th in Offensive efficiency, 3rd in Net efficiency
Week 9 - 3rd in Defensive efficiency, 5th in Offensive efficiency, 1st in Net efficiency.
A massive turnaround which we hope we can keep up for the rest of the season and puts this team where it belongs. Contending for the NSL Championship.
In other Raptors news, we also made 2 trades bringing in Robert Williams and Kobe Brown for Kevon Looney and Andrew Nembhard. This move had more meaning than just wanting more defense on the roster though, with Looney expiring end of year and Nembhard's contract set to spike to 20m a year meaning we would have been pushed into the 2nd apron as soon as site flipped making any roster moves really difficult to navigate. In return we brought in an injury risk but elite when he plays Robert Williams III who is contracted into next season and Kobe Brown who still has 3 more years on his rookie deal giving us financial flexibility and allowing us to not have to chase a big man in free agency and be able to put our points toward other roster needs.
Another move was made using players who had been out of our rotation for a few weeks to take a chance on former #2 draft pick James Wiseman. Luke Kornet, Jaylen Nowell (No NBA contract) and Vit Krejci went out in return for Taj Gibson who we flipped to a team we knew to be in dire need of a PF for roster legality and brought back Sam Merrill to add some shooting to our bench and James Wiseman the former number 2 pick who as a starter has completed seasons of 15ppg, 12rpg and 2bpg he's a real 2k gem and well worth the gamble on his team option being picked up and will be a massive addition to this roster if he does return.
Go Raps!
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