Copyright thestar
As statements of intent go, there wasn’t a lot of grey area in Darko Rajakovic’s training camp mission statement. The Raptors’ third-year head coach, in sketching out his vision for the season to assembled reporters, said he wanted his team’s identity to be defence-based. “We want to dominate on the defensive end,” Rajakovic said. “We want to make our opponents very uncomfortable.” Uncomfortable? Four games into the season, it’s safe to say the bulk of Toronto opponents have been anything but. Save for an opening-night thrashing of Atlanta in which the Raptors held the Hawks to 42 per cent shooting from the field, Toronto’s defence has been a long way from dominant. Raptors opponents are shooting a luxurious 52.4 per cent from the field this season — complete with a lowlight reel of straight-line drives at Toronto’s not-so-well-protected rim. Only the sad-sack Brooklyn Nets had surrendered a more generous field-goal percentage heading into Tuesday’s games. Over that span the Raptors had also allowed opponents to shoot an average of 34 free throws a game, third-most in the league. In other words, there’s a fine balance between being aggressive and being reckless. And so far this season, the Raptors haven’t had a lot of luck straddling it. Which raises the question: Is it possible Rajakovic’s good-faith attempts at turning his team into a pack of ball-pressuring hound dogs might turn out to be ill-advised? It’s a little early to say for sure. Defence is in the details, and it’s silly to underestimate the ability of an NBA coaching staff to make intelligent course corrections. There’s no denying the Raptors have been saddled with a challenging early-season schedule. Upcoming games against Houston, Cleveland, Memphis and Milwaukee don’t offer much in the way of respite. And even in the midst of Toronto’s current three-game losing streak, before the Houston Rockets come to town on Wednesday, there are various signs of teamwide buy-in to Rajakovic’s philosophies. The Raptors ranked fifth in deflections and eighth in steals heading into Tuesday. They also ranked first in points in the paint and third in fast-break points per game, a decent sign that they’re having at least some success in converting their hard-work defence into easy offence. The problem is, when they’re not turning defence into offence they’re allowing opponents to run roughshod to the rim. They were made to look particularly hapless in Monday’s 121-103 loss to the Spurs, wherein San Antonio shot 58 per cent from the field and 48 per cent from three-point range. So far, Rajakovic has done the only sensible thing. He has declined to panic and insisted things will be better as players get accustomed to the system. “There’s going to be great nights; there’s going to be nights when we can do better,” the coach told reporters in Texas. Rajakovic’s emphasis on what he calls “ferocity and energy” on defence isn’t exactly an act of creative rebellion. Last season’s NBA Finals featured a couple of teams in Oklahoma City and Indiana that prioritized pressure defence. Copycat tactics being what they are in pro sports, Toronto isn’t the only franchise that arrived in training camp vowing to emulate the virtuous habits of the finalists. Not that anybody is under the illusion that playing such intense defence is easy. One of the knocks on the strategy is fundamental: As much as dogged defence is designed to wear down an opponent, it also wears down those who do the dogging. “(Playing) that way, no chance you can go and play 48-minute games,” Rajakovic said in training camp. “I don’t think with this style of play that we want to have on offence and defence, I don’t think (anybody) can be in shape to play 12 minutes straight, to be honest with you.” There is an antidote to wearing out, Rajakovic said: “Shorter stints. Play hard on both ends of the floor. Raise your hand when you need a little bit of rest, and I’ll get you back into the game. Playing that way, it’s keeping everybody honest and accountable.” Toronto management can also hope it doesn’t get everybody injured. On a team where more than one starter has been dogged by issues around durability, it’s a concern. It can’t comfort anyone that centre Jakob Poeltl left Monday’s game in the second half with back tightness. If the Thunder and Pacers showcased personnel that fit their defensive strategy, it remains to be seen if the strengths of Toronto’s best players mesh optimally with Rajakovic’s hopes of defensive dominance. There have been a few signs, at least, that Toronto’s players recognize they’ve so far failed to measure up to the coach’s mission statement. “I have another level that I can get to, and we just have another level that we can get to defensively,” RJ Barrett said in the wake of the San Antonio loss. “We showed it in that Atlanta game. We haven’t showed it for 48 minutes since. So we’ve got to do a better job of that.”
