Morning Coffee - Nov. 18, 2024

RJ and Poeltl giving us hope | Agbaji lessening the sting of trading Siakam | Tatum travelled on game winner

RJ Barrett’s passing as Toronto Raptors’ main option has been revelatory - The Athletic
As pointed out by Keerthika Uthayakumar, seven of Barrett’s 15 assists against the Celtics were to Poeltl. Poeltl had two prolific games over the weekend, putting up 60 total points on 28-of-39 shooting. Barrett was a big part of that.

Barrett’s best offensive trait is his physicality, and he has used that to prolong pick-and-roll sequences by getting his defender on his hip or behind him. In a credit to Poeltl, he has been ready to shoot. Over the weekend, Barrett used the left-handed pocket bounce pass, the right-handed pocket bounce pass and used Poeltl’s presence as the pair improvised in semi-transition to find him over the top. He also used the threat of Poeltl’s push shot to get closer to the rim for his own shot.

“He’s a beast,” Barrett said. “And we’re a team that likes to get in the paint. I think a lot of times we’re getting in the paint, we’re finding him, and (then) he’s gonna float people to death. And then at the same time, if we … (go) up strong, you miss a shot — the big man tries to go block, he’s there for the rebound.”

Barrett had some other absolute dimes this weekend: a behind-the-back pass to Agbaji for an open 3 attempt, a lob for Bruno Fernando and a baseline pass to Chris Boucher off a drive to his right. Those are great passes for Barrett to have.

A lot of those types of passes are for main options. If and when Barnes and Quickley return, Barrett will be, at most, an equal-opportunity creator with those two. That is why his interplay with Poeltl is so crucial. The Raptors don’t have enough shooting to be a spread pick-and-roll team, but is easy to imagine the ball being dumped into Poeltl after a primary action yields nothing, and Barrett taking a handoff from the big man to run an impromptu pick-and-roll — maybe Dick and Quickley helping create even more space.

Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl has played phenomenal lately. That doesn’t mean it’s time to trade him - Toronto Star
Poeltl’s play on offence is of absolute importance to a Raptors team missing linchpins Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley.

The seven-footer is a great connector with the ball at the elbow in an offence predicated on ball — and player — movement. He sees cutters from the wing or along the baseline, which is where the bulk of Toronto’s scoring comes from because there’s a dearth of three-point shooting (the Raptors are 25th, averaging 33 per cent). Poeltl’s finishing at the end of screen-roll action has been a revelation.

He doesn’t finish with rim-rattling dunks and he’s hardly a constant lob threat, but he’s deadly in the paint and crafty enough to crash the glass at the right angles.

“We’re a team that likes to get in the paint, so I think a lot of times we’re getting in the paint, we’re finding him, and (know) that he’s gonna float people to death,” Barrett said. “Then at the same time, if we go (to the rim), we take a fall, get up strong, miss a shot, he’s there. The (opposing team) big man tries to go block, he’s there for the rebound. He’s getting on the rebounds, and he’s finishing.”

It’s hard to imagine Poeltl keeping up this torrid play for the rest of the season. But watching how methodically he’s dealt with the NBA’s best centres so far, it’s not like he’s going to completely disappear.

Pascal Siakam trade looking better for Raptors these days - Toronto Sun
One of the first-round picks was dealt to Utah for Canadian veteran Kelly Olynyk and former lottery pick Ochai Agbaji, which seemed like a reasonable decision. Though Olynyk has missed the first 14 games with a back issue, he’s still expected to be a key reserve and good locker room leader. Toronto inked him to an extension. But it’s Agbaji’s play that is making the Siakam trade look a bit better.

The 24-year-old wing has been one of the NBA’s most improved players. He’s tasked with guarding top offensive players every night, but has shot 52.2% from the field on offence, including 44.3% on three-point attempts. He’s hit a league-high 21 corner three-pointers, shooting 53.8% on those attempts and two-thirds of his shots in the restricted area, third-best on the team. It’s very early of course, but after playing his worst basketball post-trade last season, Agbaji has completely turned things around. He still has another cheap year on his rookie deal and the Raptors will be able to match any offer after that should he head to restricted free agency if not signed to a new deal.

The 2024 first-round pick acquired for Siakam that the Raptors kept landed them Ja’Kobe Walter. Walter has barely played due to a shoulder issue that was later re-aggravated, returning him to the sidelines, but the team is high on his potential.

Finally, the swing piece that could determine what kind of trade the Siakam deal ends up being for the Raptors is currently looking a lot more promising than it did last January. Back then Tyrese Haliburton looked like an ascending superstar, the Pacers were the NBA Cup runner-up, Siakam was looked at as the piece that could make them a contender in the watered down East. Meaning the final first-round pick heading to the Raptors, a 2026 selection (protected if it lands in the top 4 in either 2026 or 2027) looked like it would be a late one. But while Siakam has thrived and is off to his best shooting start yet ahead of Monday’s game, Halliburton has been banged up for months, the team’s depth has been tested by injuries (particularly up front) and the Pacers started just 5-7 before hosting Miami on Sunday. The draft two summers from now is a while away, but the Raptors have to feel a lot more excited about where the pick might land than they did at the time of the trade.

Dyson Daniels, Tyler Herro and 8 more players to know from NBA season’s first few weeks - The Athletic
Agbaji’s jump shot has always looked like a thing of beauty in pregame warm-ups, but in his third season, it’s finally translating to games. After making just 34.6 percent from 3 in his first two seasons in Utah and underwhelming in a late-season cameo after the trade deadline, he’s emerged as a solid starter in Toronto by knocking down 47.9 percent from distance in the early part of the season.

Accuracy is paramount for Agbaji since he’ll never be a high-usage player, but he’s also made an impact inside the arc by focusing more on transition and rim attempts and ditching the other stuff. He’s only taken two shots between 10 feet and the 3-point line all season but is shooting 64.4 percent at the rim.

On the third year of his rookie deal, Agbaji establishing himself as a 3-and-D guy would go a long way toward getting his deal extended this summer. His emergence has been much needed on a paper-thin Raptors roster reeling from other injuries at the wing.

NBA Players Who Deserve More Hype (and Minutes) This Season - Bleacher Report
Be honest: Unless you're a Raptors diehard, you have not been watching Toronto this season, especially since Scottie Barnes went out with an orbital fracture. That means you have likely missed the come-up of Gradey Dick. After a slow start in his rookie year, he began to take off after the All-Star break last season. Dick has not looked back and carried it over to the start of 2024-25.

So far, Dick has shown why the Raptors took him with the 13th pick in the 2023 draft. He has taken his scoring up from 8.5 points as a rookie to 19.8 points per game this season. That includes three 30-point games.

The giant leap for Dick has not come from improved three-point shooting or field-goal efficiency, though. His minutes have gone up by a third from 21.1 minutes to 30 minutes this season, and he has used that time to get to the free-throw line. He has gone from averaging 0.9 attempts last season to 4.3 this season. In the Emirates NBA Cup game, he went to the line 16 times on his way to a career-high 32 points.

It is easy to lose sight of what is happening up north, but that means the development the Toronto Raptors are doing with Dick is going largely unnoticed. He deserves more hype than he is getting.

Raptors 905 weekly preview: Welcome home - Raptors Republic
The stars for the 905 after the first week of hoops have easily been the guard duo of Kennedy Chandler and D.J. Carton.

Chandler leads the junior Raptors in scoring with 22.0 points, tacking on 7.7 assists, 4.3 rebounds, 2.3 steals, and 1.0 block per game.

The 22-year-old pushes the pace, picks up ball handlers full court, and gets to the paint frequently. His 48.1 percent field goal percentage is largely bogged down by the rough start from beyond the arc, where he is only shooting 28.6 percent on only 2.3 attempts per game.

Chandler’s running mate, Carton, has been the complete opposite, cashing in at a 46.2 percent clip from downtown on 6.5 attempts. The two-way player leads the team in dimes with 8.5 per game, adding 21.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.0 steals.

The 24-year-old missed the 905’s last contest with a sprained ankle, and it remains to be seen when he will return.

Another standout from last week was Montreal, Que. native Quincy Guerrier. Starting in all three games so far, the rookie is averaging 16.3 points, 8.7 rebounds (leads team), 2.0 assists, and 1.0 steals. The 25-year-old plays with physicality, is athletic, can guard multiple positions, and ultimately plays his role to a tee.

Dial 905: College Park Skyhawks Series, Ulrich Chomche unleashed, and Branden Carlson’s call-up - Raptors HQ
It was just a matter of time before a team picked up Branden Carlson. All it takes is for him to show that he can make his perimeter shots and be a neutral defender for the most part. Carlson did just that, putting up 14.3 points, 8.7 boards, three dimes, and 1.7 blocks. He also shot 42.9% from the perimeter on 4.7 attempts per game. He was decent defensively but not as much of a threat around the rim as Chomche. Still, given the space and some runway, he’ll block lazy shots and intimidate more than enough.

Carlson has some limitations; otherwise, he would’ve been drafted despite being on the older side of the NBA draft. He’s gonna need to get stronger, as demonstrated by former NBA player Tony Bradley, who abused him down the block when they went head-to-head. He’s also a Kelly Olynyk rebounding all-star, essentially a Luke Kornet starter pack before Kornet reinvented himself as a gimmicky rim fence.

However, in today’s NBA game, Carlson’s skill set is much more critical than having a bruiser like Tony Bradley, or heck, even Bruno Fernando, who’s an undersized beefy centre that struggles to shoot without his hand touching the rim. Even at 25 years old, there’s a case for the Raptors to continue investing in Carlson’s development, given how hard it is to find someone like him in his position. A developed rotational player version of Carlson would make Scottie Barnes’ life much easier, as the team suffers from spacing issues for the entire game. The Raptors currently don’t have any prospect depth at the centre position outside of Chomche that’s expected to be part of the team’s future, so either this loss was a miscalculation, or otherwise, the Raptors have a much “grander” plan.

NBA Admits to 4 Missed Calls in Raptors-Celtics L2M Report - Sports Illustrated
Jayson Tatum traveled before hitting a game-winning three-pointer to lead the Boston Celtics past the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night, according to the NBA's Last 2 Minutes report.

It was one of four incorrect calls made by the officials in the final two minutes of regulation and five minutes of overtime, the league said. Had Tatum been correctly called for moving his pivot foot, Toronto would have regained possession in the final seconds with a chance to beat the Celtics.

There was, however, another incorrect call on the same play that should have gone against Toronto. Moments before Tatum traveled, Davion Mitchell should have been called for a personal foul when he bumped into Jaylen Brown who was trying to set a screen for Tatum. There was no foul called on the play, but the league determined Mitchell delivered enough contact to warrant a foul.

The only other incorrect calls came late in the fourth quarter.

Jakob Poeltl should have been called for a three-second violation with 26 seconds to go in the fourth. On that same play, Tatum should have been called for a personal foul when he initiated contact with Poeltl's lower body as the Raptors big man attempted to gather for a shot attempt. Neither call was made and the play ultimately resulted in a turnover as Poeltl stumbled and the ball bounced out of bounds.