The Raptors Point Guards are Rolling

From Louis’ piece:

“Toronto entered the season as a top-half driving team, both in terms of drives per game and field-goal percentage on those drives. But peek deeper under the hood, and all is not well off the bounce for Toronto. The Raptors aren’t getting deep enough on drives, frequently ending up in the mid range rather than deep in the paint. From there, players like Immanuel Quickly are opting for floaters, Brandon Ingram and Barnes for jumpers. But few are actually getting layups. (Other than Barrett, who as a result of his driving deep into the paint has long been a uniquely beneficial cog of Toronto’s offence.) And as a team they’re hitting those pull-ups quite well, for now, but that’s not creating juicy passing opportunities. The team passes on a huge portion of its drives, but it is 24th in assist rate out of drives. The team is driving, but it isn’t creating enough advantages or easy buckets out of those drives.

Ingram isn’t solving this particular deficit. He’s scoring exceptionally well on drives, but he isn’t creating too much for teammates, and nor is he creating layups for himself. While he is hitting his middy jumpers like no Raptor since Kawhi Leonard or DeMar DeRozan, he isn’t shifting the defence on those drives. At least, not enough.

And Barnes’ drives have fallen off a cliff. He’s averaging 5.2 drives per game and shooting 34.5 percent on those drives. That’s basically half as many drives as he averaged in each of his last few seasons and more than a 10 percentage point drop in accuracy. He’s just not reaching the paint with the ball in his hands. While Barnes is playing phenomenally so far this season, this is one area in which his output has declined.”