Another Round of Raptor Report Cards

I guess some news actually did break in the NBA last night, but it was sad news and not stuff I like to write about. Damian Lillard was announced to be out indefinitely with a blood clot issue in his leg. Really sucks, especially for a 35 year old player. I've been a Bucks hater for his entire tenure there, but hating isn't fun or doable when a guy gets injured so please get well soon Dame, the NBA is better with him playing.  That being said, let's grade some more Raptors! There's some more prominent second year Raptors that need grading, we won't stop this exercise until everyone has a grade. I think I'm going to continue to order this roughly by amount of time spent with the team just cause that's how I've done it so far. Gradey is out of order, I'm making this up on the fly, whatever. Lets get into it!

RJ Barrett: B

21.4/6.5/5.6 on 47/36/64

I have to start by saying that I love RJ Barrett, my favorite Raptor in a long time. Something about a guy from Mississauga who demonstrates every day how much he wants to be here just warms my heart. That being said, RJ is a polarizing player in the Raptors space and the NBA as a whole. Similar to last season, RJ Barrett gets downhill better than anyone on the team. The only players in the league who attempt more shots within 5 feet of the rim are Giannis, Zion and KAT, 3 big men. Not similar to last season is how much RJ's improved the other aspects of his game. This is RJ's best playmaking season by a long shot averaging now 5.6 assists per game and frequently being asked to play point guard in a lot of lineups. What used to be forced shots at the rim have turned into kickouts which is awesome for a guy who is so consistent at getting to the cup. RJ rarely takes pull up 3s anymore, 4.6 of his 5.3 attempts per game are catch and shoot 3s where he's shooting a solid 36%. RJ is one of 12 players in the NBA averaging 20/5/5 or better (minimum 40 games), and at only 24 years old, usually that's something a fanbase is overwhelmingly excited about! So why is he only graded B? For all his positive contributions, RJ gives some of it back with his negative contributions. In a lot of games this year he's been a below average defender, often caught ball watching and not giving the effort you'd like to see on that end. I will say that in the last couple of months I have noticed his defense improve a ton, especially as more talented players began to return to the lineup lessening his load. Still, if we're grading him for the whole season, he needs to be knocked a bit for his defense. Another issue is turnovers, RJ still turns the ball over more than you would like. At 3 turnovers per game, RJ is up there with some of the best playmakers in the league, guys who are certainly providing a lot more on offense than RJ is. For all he provides on offense in getting to the rim, RJ does lack creation ability elsewhere on the floor with essentially a non-existent pull up game from either the 3 point line or mid range. Finally, the free throw issues are the most confusing part of RJ's game. For a decent 3 point shooter, it's baffling that he's only shooting 64% on free throws. If he improves this even just to 75% we're looking at another 0.5 ppg, nothing to sneeze at. Still though, despite everyone knowing he wants to drive left and get to the rim, RJ still manages to do it all game every game efficiently and that's nothing to sneeze at. For fans still worried about his fit with Brandon Ingram should they both be on the team next year, in the 7 games RJ overlapped with Siakam he had a 64% true shooting %. I really believe that the less responsibility RJ has, the more efficient he will be. He's adapted his role so many times already in his short stint in Toronto, I really hope they give him a shot to do it again with a winning squad. B for now RJ but in a slightly smaller role next year I bet I'm giving him an A. 

Immanuel Quickley: D+

17.4/3.6/5.7 on 42/31/85

I probably won't have as much to say about IQ as I did RJ, can you tell I spend a lot of my waking hours defending him to haters? For Immanuel, this has been a bit of a season from hell. After getting injured in the first game of the season, IQ came back and promptly got hurt again a couple of games later. With the injuries stacking up in the first half he's only managed to turn in 29 games this year and has spent a lot of those getting his rhythm back. D+ may be harsh, but 29 games is the sample I am grading so I think unfortunately that's fair. In the games he did play, IQ is clearly the best pull up 3 point shooter on the team by a wide margin. Quickley makes 1.4 pull up 3s per game at a very good 39% clip. The next most pull up 3s per game on the Raptors is Gradey Dick with just 0.4 (on a gross 25%, yikes), can you see why the Raptors struggled early in the year? Look around the league and you'll see pretty much every good team has a guy, or multiple, that can create their own shot on the perimeter. It's simply a skillset that is necessary to win in the modern NBA and for the Raptors, Quickley is the only one who can do so effectively until Brandon Ingram comes back. As IQ got back up to speed, his floater which was money in New York, hasn't been falling as much this season. Without the floater game, Quickley is pretty one dimensional, even if that one dimension is essential to the team's success. On defense Quickley has his moments, but ultimately he's a smaller guard who gets taken advantage of on that end and forces the Raptors to consider fit with the other starters when he's the guy they're playing. He's shown flashes of really good playmaking, but generally he's a score first guard, which is OK when playing alongside a guy like Scottie who likes to pass first. Quickley is a good solid player who brings an element to the team that they just don't have without him. He gets knocked this year for availability which hopefully for the Raptors isn't something he gets knocked for again. If IQ can play a full season next year, I bet we'll be singing a different tune. 

That's all for today! I am going pretty willy nilly with how many I decide to grade per day, but I like having something like this to build on whenever I have time so I don't need to think of new ideas, lol. Unless Raptors Nets turns into an exciting thriller, the saga continues tomorrow! Go Raptors!