Toronto Raptors: Lou Williams And The Bench
By Matt Shantz
DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry carried huge burdens for the Toronto Raptors last season. DeRozan finished the regular season having played 3,016 minutes, good enough for third most in the league behind only Kevin Durant and Monta Ellis. Kyle Lowry wasn’t far removed at 2,861 minutes, sitting just outside of the top 10.
Overall, this was a problem for Toronto across the board, as the Raptors played their bench just 16.3 minutes per game. This is despite having a bench that featured Greivis Vasquez, who proved to be a more than capable backup point guard, Patrick Patterson showing he can be a young stretch-four who fits well alongside Jonas Valanciunas, and Chuck Hayes being given preferential treatment by Dwane Casey.
The Raptors already had some talent coming off of the bench, but were still forced to rely upon players like Landry Fields and John Salmons, despite the fact that neither had a reliable shot and that one was incapable of inbounding the basketball.
That brings us to the offseason, where Toronto was desperate to improve upon their depth in order to give players like Lowry and DeRozan some extra rest before the playoffs begin. Thankfully, here is where Salmons proved that he wasn’t completely useless for the Raptors.
Masai Ujiri jumped at the opportunity to take advantage of the Atlanta Hawk’s desire to cut salary for their pursuit of completing a big free agent signing. The Hawk’s would inevitably fail in their pursuit, but not before sending Lou Williams and Lucas Nogueira to Toronto in exchange for the almost fully unguaranteed contract of Salmons.
At the 2013 NBA Draft, Ujiri was active in his attempts at moving into the first round and was rumored to have two specific targets: Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the aforementioned Nogueira. Clearly, Ujiri didn’t give up on his pursuit by bringing the 7’0″ Nogueira to the Raptors.
Nogueira projects to be an active and high energy defender. Just last year he won the Defensive Player of the Year in the Spanish ACB, which is largely believed to be one of the top basketball leagues in the world outside of the NBA. The Raptors hope that Nogueira can complement Valanciunas off of the bench, and provide them with a rim protector that is sorely needed.
In all likelihood, Nogueira will spend this season attempting to earn the trust of Casey, who will almost assuredly prefer to play the veteran Hayes. He does, however, remain a long-term asset who could give the Raptors bench a new dynamic in the years to come.
It’s possible that NoGueira will come along faster than expected, but he is more likely a future asset who will not contribute much in 2014-15.
But Louis Williams? He is the real acquisition in terms of immediate help. It was just a couple seasons ago that Williams finished second to James Harden in Sixth Man of the Year voting while with the Philadelphia 76ers, and followed this by signing a lucrative contract with Atlanta.
Unfortunately for both Williams and the Hawks, Lou would blow out his right knee in January 2012 and require reconstructive surgery on his ACL a month later. He returned last season to play 60 games for Atlanta but proved that he was still not 100 percent.
The good news for Williams is that he improved as the season went on, as April showed to be the best month of the year for him. Despite playing in just 22 minutes per game (his second lowest on a monthly basis), Lou finished with his highest scoring month at 11.6 points per game, highest rebounding at 2.6 per game, best shooting month finishing at a rate of 49 percent from the field, and an incredible 92.9 percent from the free throw line while taking four shots from the line per game.
Now being 19 months removed from reconstructive knee surgery, Williams hopes that he can return to his place as one of the top bench players in the league. If he can, the Raptors bench immediately gets deeper and more dangerous, and should allow for players like DeRozan to see far fewer minutes in order to be better rested for the playoffs.
But even if he doesn’t reach his old form, Raptor fans can take solace in the fact that Williams is at least not John Salmons.