Some Thoughts About an 0-6 Road Trip

 YIKES! So the Raptors went on a 4 game road trip out west facing the Nuggets, Kings, Lakers and Clippers. Lost all 4 of those. Sandwiching the west coast trip was a game on the road against the Hornets, L, and a game on the road against the Bucks, also an L. For those of you struggling to keep up that's 0-6 on the 6 game road trip, even for a tanking team that's tough to swallow. Despite the losses, I watched every game, destroying my sleep schedule in the process and because of that, you have to hear my thoughts: 

Gradey Dick Exploring His Game

The biggest positive to come out of the season so far has been Gradey Dick performing admirably in an expanded role. With the injuries to Scottie and IQ, Dick has been thrusted (sorry I can't help it) into the number 2 and sometimes number 1 scoring option on offense for most of these games. Coming into this season, if you told me Gradey would have to take on this kind of role, I would've expected it to be extremely ugly. So far, it's been awesome! Gradey showed what he can do off ball is legit, like a lot of great shooters he never stops moving, forcing the defense to chase him around and expend resources tracking him down. He's a great cutter and this season has shown he has some craft in his layup package finishing in a variety of ways at the rim. Although he is shooting 37% from 3, Gradey's best skill this season in my opinion has been his midrange pull ups. Multiple times a game Gradey will stop short and take a fadeaway mid range jumper that has been absolutely money. Per NBA.com, Gradey is shooting 54.1% from the mid range this season. Among players who have attempted 30 or more midrange shots this season, Gradey leads the league in midrange shooting percentage. On top of this, Gradey is currently tied for 3rd in the league in midrange field goals made behind only DeMar DeRozan and Brandon Ingram. You can see why Raptors fans can get excited about this player, when the chips are down in the playoffs you need guys who can score in a variety of ways. Gradey's length and quick release give him all the tools to be an elite midrange scorer in the NBA and through the first 11 games this year, he's already showing he is.

Ochai Agbaji Would be in Any Team's Rotation

Another huge positive you can take from this road trip has been the emergence of Ochai Agbaji as a legitimate rotation player in the NBA. This is another one that if you told me at the beginning of the year I wouldn't believe you. Last season we saw in Ochai a player who works hard and is athletic on defense, but is absolutely lost on offense which overall makes it difficult to find minutes for him. This season has been a completely different story. Still bringing it on the defensive end, Ochai's improvements on offense cannot be understated. It isn't as though Ochai is doing anything crazy out there, he doesn't break down defenders off the dribble or make a bunch of contested shots, but he has been sound and fundamental on offense in every single game so far. In transition Ochai runs the floor hard and has clearly worked on his finishing game shooting a career high by a mile from 2 point range. Ochai with his athleticism has always been a great cutter, but finishing has always been a weakness once the ball finds him. This season that has turned around completely with Ochai doing a better job either finishing in light traffic or kicking the ball out and keeping the offense flowing. Most impressively, Ochai is summoning his inner PJ Tucker and through 11 games he leads the league in corner 3s made. Although Ochai is shooting just 26% from above the break, he is shooting 62% from the corners with nearly 2 makes per game from those spots. Last season Ochai was a 3&D archetype without the 3, this year so far the 3s are falling and he's understanding his role much better. On the 6 game road trip Ochai averaged nearly 16 points per game on 59/54/75 shooting splits. There isn't a team in the league that couldn't use a player like this and I am thrilled to see him in our rotation going forward. 

RJ Needs to Make Adjustments

I was actually talking to my brother about this yesterday, RJ's entire game right now is predicated on grinding hard and getting to the rim. In RJ's first 4 games, he played spectacularly putting up 29/7/6 on 59% true shooting, since then in his last 5 he's averaged 15/6/4 on 41% true shooting. As mentioned, RJ's best skill is getting to the rim. With most of the Raptors' other playmakers injured, RJ has been forced to create a lot of those opportunities himself rather than getting the ball on cuts or coming off screens. Because of this, teams have adjusted to just essentially letting RJ blow by the initial defense and just meeting him with size at the rim. At the moment, RJ is not a threat to pull up from mid range and teams are more than willing to let him take off the dribble 3s. With not as many guys that need the attention of opposing defenses, teams can just sit on the 1 thing RJ does at an elite level and practically erase his impact. A lot of this gets alleviated with Scottie Barnes back in the lineup taking some of that defensive pressure off and allowing RJ to go back to thriving off ball, but until then it will be interesting to see if RJ can counter this defense. I've heard it mentioned that young DeMar DeRozan had similar issues until he developed a midrange game, this is a tall ask for RJ as DeMar is one of the best to ever do it from the midrange, but developing any kind of off the dribble shooting game will be essential for RJ to take that next step as a scorer. 

Obviously there's a lot more than that to come out of the disappointing road trip but I thought I'd take a positive spin on things. Without their centerpiece Scottie Barnes, the Raptors could have floundered and gotten smoked in all of these games. They showed great fight and are doing what they can to use the skills of the players they do have to their advantage. The 3 guys mentioned, even RJ, have been awesome this year and are giving us a reason to turn on the TV every night. More articles will come about other strong performers like Davion Mitchell and Jakob Poeltl who both have been great their roles as well. 2-9 but I really do think there's some things to be encouraged about. When this team gets whole again I think they can go on a little bit of a run and get some better results. No article tomorrow, wisdom teeth coming out so I will see you all on Monday after my Steelers hopefully smoke the Ravens!!