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What an absolute monster of a weird week for the Toronto Raptors.
Beginning this odyssey, the Raptors suffered a ten-point loss that featured a now routine fourth quarter meltdown to an Oklahoma City Thunder team that was missing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, and even veteran Al Horford. After that embarrassing loss and a couple of days of rest, Toronto calmly decided to obliterate the Golden State Warriors by a franchise-high 53 points — no big deal. As if that excitement weren’t enough, newcomer Gary Trent Jr. popped a game-winning three pointer at the buzzer in Raul Neto’s exuberantly acted face, only to follow that gem up by getting absolutely spanked by the short-handed Los Angeles Lakers who were missing LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and even “veteran” Andre Drummond.
Of course, through all of this week, the Raptors have had injuries and COVID protocol issues of their own to deal with. In some combination over the four games, Toronto was missing Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, DeAndre’ Bembry, Patrick McCaw, Paul Watson Jr., Rodney Hood, Jalen Harris, and OG Anunoby — who admittedly was only missing after being egregiously ejected for flipping Dennis Schroeder ass over tea kettle.
The Lakers and Raptors had to be separated after a physical play between Dennis Schröder and OG Anunoby.
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 7, 2021
Anunoby and Montrezl Harrell were ejected from the game. pic.twitter.com/hBNxjGyWWv
Want some more? Well, as if this Raptors season from hell in Tampa Bay wasn’t enough, this happened!
A wastewater reservoir in Florida is leaking and could flood Tampa Bay and the surrounding area with approx 480 million gallons of polluted water pic.twitter.com/qVoosHdcya
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 6, 2021
Please let this season end and get the Raptors home!
Who’s Hot
Gary Trent Jr., A Very Green Light
Gary Trent Jr., the newest Toronto Raptor, is very much an old school Toronto Raptor: he’s willing to get in the mix during physical altercations; he’s a fan-favourite after a buzzer beater to win in a season that has featured so, so many buzzer beaters that didn’t end up dropping; he says Toronto without the second “t”; and most importantly, he has a green light to jack up long-twos. Is there a record for Toronto falling in-love with a new player? Is it Kawhi after his laugh or Gary Trent Jr. after becoming best friends with OG Anunoby on his first day with the team?
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While Gary stunk it up against the Lakers Tuesday night, here is what his first four games as a Raptor looked like. Oh, and that buzzer-beater? Why not watch it one more time.
Gary Trent Jr. last 4 Raptors games:
— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 6, 2021
21.5 PPG
4.3 3PG
50.0 FG%
51.5 3P% pic.twitter.com/Z1ZRB3qFrK
GARY TRENT JR. WINS IT AT THE BUZZER pic.twitter.com/L5GiM7SdeU
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 6, 2021
If nothing else, the Gary Trent Jr. era in Toronto is going to be extremely entertaining.
OG Anunoby, Top 25 Under 25
As is the time-honoured tradition, ESPN has released a terrible list that omits Raptors players who are clearly better than other players on the list. This year’s Toronto snub goes to OG Anunoby, who despite being, you guessed it, under 25 years old, is not featured on the Top 25 Players Under 25 Years Old.
OG Anunoby's last 8 games
— Jaylen Brown Enthusiast (@gReenbean_26) April 4, 2021
18.6 PPG
6.6 RPG
2.5 APG
2.0 SPG
1 BPG
50/42/77 splits
63.1 TS%
One of the best defenders in the league as well.. pic.twitter.com/9xRHppAEyL
While the tweet above only illustrates the past eight games, those numbers are not terribly far off from OG’s output on the season with the exception of the points, as OG is currently averaging 14.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.8 blocks per game. Those offensive numbers should be enough to get him to the bottom end of the lazy list, but it’s his defensive prowess and ability to guard 1 through 5 — OG is literally the most versatile defender in the league — that should catapult him ahead of the likes of likes of Colin Sexton (25), Lonzo Ball (24), Jarrett Allen (23), John Collins (22), Tyrese Haliburton (21) and Mikal Bridges (17).
Defensive Impact x Defensive Context
— BBall Index (@The_BBall_Index) April 4, 2021
We can up the ante and add in Defensive Role Versatility as well.
So Defensive Context now multiplies Matchup Difficulty by Defensive Positional Versatility and Defensive Role Versatility (all go from 0-100) to calculate a single stat. pic.twitter.com/39kfqI6oCV
Who’s Improving
Aron Baynes, Better off the Bench
It’s fair to say that Aron Baynes was not a successful starting centre for the Toronto Raptors. Very, very fair to say — BUT! — since moving to the bench, Baynes has been remarkably consistent and is managing to find a place both in the offensive flow and the ultra-aggressive defensive coverage that coach Nick Nurse still relies on. In the four game week where Toronto went 2-2, Baynes only managed to average six points and six rebounds per game — BUT! — the newly minted backup centre managed to put up a dazzling +38.
So, not hot, but not beginning of the season frozen tundra either. That type of improvement is paramount to Toronto not bleeding out whenever Baynes plays. Now if only Nurse wouldn’t play Baynes and Stanley Johnson together.
Hey, is that Stanley Johnson’s music?
Who’s Not
Stanley Johnson, A Negative Miracle
Look, it’s important to note that Stanley Johnson is much improved from his previous season with the Raptors, but the team is wholly worse with him on the floor. While Johnson has showed improvements over the season, he’s still capable of some of the more absurd, head-scratching moments in recent Raptors memory. For instance...
I’m not saying this to be an ass. I’m saying this because it’s amazing.
— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) April 3, 2021
Stanley Johnson was a -7 in 20 minutes in a game his team won by 53 points.
Not only was Johnson a -7, he was the only Raptor to finish with a negative rating. Yes, Toronto won the game, so who cares, but moments like this crystalize what has been a very odd Raptors tenure for Stanley.