Toronto Raptors: Preseason Shot Distribution?

The Toronto Raptors are 5-1 so far this preseason.  That is very good.  No one is claiming that the preseason is a certain indicator of how things will go during the regular season.  Starters are not playing as much as they normally would be and reserves are getting more minutes so coaches see what they have in deciding how they will set up the rotation moving forward.  But there are things that we can take from the preseason games and hope they don’t develop into trends.  What we have noticed, aside from Tyler Hansbrough‘s wonderfully crafted backtrack from Metta World Peace on Monday, is some shot distribution questions that we hope are more a product of preseason basketball than a barometer of how the offense will run come November and beyond.

Terrence Ross really taking advantage of his minutes: Again, we can not be certain of what coach Dwane Casey wants here.  Ross is supposed to be instant offense off an uncertain bench and he was a top 10 pick last year, so he has talent.  He was wildly inconsistent last season, so it is natural to expect that he needs more time than, say, Rudy Gay, and Casey recently said that Ross is still just learning the game.  The last two games he has put up 15 and 14 shots, respectively, with his last game featuring a stunning 13 of his 15 shots as 3s.  One could ask why we have a problem with this, as you can’t really argue with the results.  Ross is shooting 43 percent in these games and is seemingly creating the instant offense that they need and cannot consistently expect from either Tyler Hansbrough or Landry “who’s coachin’ this team” Fields (if you are unfamiliar with the reference, check out my last column on the Raptors bench).  The potential problem we see is the fact that Ross is putting up 9.6 shots per game in just more than19 minutes per game.  He averaged 17 minutes per game last season and that is bound to increase.  At that current rate, we could expect Ross to put up more than 10 shots a game.  The Raptors need confidence from Ross, but that type of volume shooting could be taking shots away from others, which brings me to our next concern.

Jonas Valanciunas simply not taking enough shots: Anyone who has read my previous columns or will continue to read my columns on the Raptors knows that I think the world of Valanciunas.  He is the future, the present and both coach Casey and new GM Masai Ujiri seem to echo that sentiment.  Our biggest concern when watching the Raptors last year was that they were not doing a good enough job of feeding Valanciunas and letting him make things happen.  To be fair, his foul trouble would sometimes preclude that from happening, especially early in the season.  We already have concerns about how a full season of Rudy Gay may hinder Valanciunas and this preseason has done nothing to quell our reservation.  In 23 minutes per game this preseason, Valanciunas is shooting 63 percent … on five shots a game.  We know there is going to be no shortage of shots from Rudy Gay, DeMar Derozan or, apparently, Terrence Ross.  There is no further analysis necessary; if Jonas is your centerpiece, make him your centerpiece.

Yes, we do have some concern with a Toronto Raptors team that is 5-1 in the preseason, but we do have to assume that some of this is due to it being just that, the preseason.  However, lack of success in seasons’ past means that the Raptors are not worthy of benefit of the doubt.  In our mind, Jonas Valanciunas’s place in the offense will be the first thing we look for when the season starts.  Hopefully, the outlined concerns will have been rendered moot and you can go about criticizing us for making a big deal out of some meaningless preseason games.

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