Raptors double down on size and playmaking with Thad Young addition

The Toronto Raptors have a type, and their newest addition fits it. Thaddeus Young is a big, long, versatile, high-feel forward with a 6-foot-9 frame and 7-foot wingspan, so you would be forgiven if you thought he was already a Raptor prior to Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.

He wasn’t, but after the Raptors traded Goran Dragic and a protected first-round pick (1-14 in the 2022 NBA Draft, and 1-13 for the 2023 draft) for Young, Drew Eubanks (who has since been waived), and the Detroit Pistons' 2022 second-rounder, he is now.

In pure value terms, the Raptors moved back approximately 10 spots in the 2022 NBA Draft to land the 33-year-old Young (who is on an expiring deal), his bird rights this summer, and cap space to add a 15th player to the roster while staying under the luxury tax. Young may not be the sexiest addition when it comes to his name-brand recognition, age and short-term contract, but he is exactly the type of player the Raptors value, and there is a reason for that.

“Thaddeus is a known commodity around the NBA. For us, we’ve followed him for a while. We’ve made a few attempts to get him via trade in prior years,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said about Young. “We felt like this was a good situation where we’re bringing him into Toronto. And we think this is a good situation where he really complements the core. He kind of complements more than tries to substitute what they’re doing. Part of the philosophy for us was maintaining and respecting what this group was doing, and (figuring out) how we can add to it.”

Young is averaging 6.1 points, 2.3 assists and 3.6 rebounds in 26 games this season with the Spurs, while shooting 57.8 percent from the field. But despite his underwhelming raw stats, Young could help the Raptors a lot, both on the court as a switchable defender and smart playmaker and off the court as a seasoned veteran who could help the young Raptors as they make a push for the playoffs. Does he push them over the edge in a playoff round? Probably not. But considering the low asset cost and the value he brings off the court, it’s easy to see why the Raptors wanted to bring Young in.

“I think he's a high-level professional, obviously, just being in this league for this long. He's developed into a leader and I think you saw that probably even with Chicago the last few years,” Webster said, referencing his time with the Bulls from 2019-2021.

“And then the defensive versatility. Obviously, we like that ability to switch, he's disruptive, has good hands. And then on offence, I think he's a smart player and he can pass a little, he kind of knows where to be,” Webster said. “And so, in that sense, we felt that off the court in the locker room, helping some of these guys grow, but then also on the court still being a productive player.”

On the court, despite failing to carve out a large role for himself on the young and rebuilding Spurs this season, Young is just one year removed from averaging 12.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.3 assists (to 2.0) turnovers on the Chicago Bulls, where he was a central hub of their offence coming off the bench for 24.3 minutes per game. Bulls coach Billy Donovan put the ball in Young’s hands at the elbows and in the short roll and asked him to take advantage of his passing chops, and he was successful as a high-usage creator, having one of his most productive and efficient seasons of his career. In fact, Young has grown a lot as a playmaker recently, placing in the 90th percentile or better for big men in assist rate and assist-to-usage rate during the past two seasons.

The question is: how will the Raptors use him? With an excess of bigs and a lack of shooting to bring off the bench — assuming the starting lineup stays the same, which Nick Nurse alluded it would ahead of Thursday night’s win over the Houston Rockets — Nurse will have to get creative in how he utilizes Young while still finding minutes for Precious Achiuwa and Chris Boucher, ostensibly bringing three power forward-sized players off the bench, which is to say nothing of the often-injured Khem Birch. Nurse believes the three can play together, but noted he plans on keeping the ball in the hands of VanVleet, Siakam and Barnes rather than running the bench offence through Young like the Bulls did.

But Young’s fit is still a lot cleaner than it might look. While he is not the floor-spacing guard that many thought the Raptors would target, he can thrive on both sides of the ball as a heady veteran with a versatile skill set.

Offensively, while Achiuwa and Boucher are both finishers, Young is more of a playmaker who can put those guys in good positions to succeed, considerably helping the Raptors’ lacklustre bench, which scores the fewest points per game of any NBA bench this season (22.9 per game), and assists on the fewest percentage of each others’ buckets (10.0 assist percentage, or just 4.0 per game).

The Raptors could conceivably use Young like they used Marc Gasol (or to a lesser extend are using Barnes), initiating from the elbows as people screen and cut around him; and they can put him in the pick-and-roll, asking him to make plays out of the short roll, where he is an elite passer and could help the Raptors improve on their league-average amount of corner threes (9.0 percent), and a good finisher, shooting 60.2 percent from 2-point range this season.

More likely than not, though, the Raptors will ask Young to set screens and to make quick reads when the ball finds him, which is what he already did in San Antonio, averaging under 2.0 seconds and 1.0 dribbles per touch while still averaging 2.3 assists per game, getting the ball off quickly but smartly. Young is also an elite offensive rebounder, averaging 3.9 per 36 minutes this season, and he can punish mismatches, which he will have plenty of playing beside Toronto’s gluttony of big wings, so he doubles-down on the Raptors' strengths of having multiple big playmakers who can attack mismatches and crash the offensive boards in order to save their half-court offence.

On defence, Achiuwa and Boucher (along with Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby) can guard the bigger and better players, allowing Young to be disruptive off ball (his steal rate has ranked in the 90th percentile or better every year since 2011-12). And Young is still strong and smart enough to play the switchy, rotation-heavy defence the Raptors demand. As a smart veteran with defensive versatility, it shouldn't take him too long to fit into Nurse’s switch-heavy system, another benefit of adding a veteran like Young midway through the season.

“I think my favourite thing about him is he’s gonna be versatile on the defensive end so we won’t have to change any of the things we’re doing. Once he picks ‘em up and has some time with us, he ought to be able to execute all the things we want him to on that end,” Nurse said about Young.

Perhaps the most appealing part of Young’s game is that he is a reliable veteran, and as this team makes a push for the playoffs, that is exactly the type of player they need at the forward spot. As much as Boucher has improved and as successful as Achiuwa has been recently, neither of those guys can be depended upon to close out games as a small-ball five in a playoff series, and Birch hasn’t been available or in rhythm all season. Young, on the other hand, gives Nurse a reliable small-ball five option who can set screens and make good decisions — one who has played in big moments before and won’t get overwhelmed, helping the Raptors not only make a run to the playoffs, but potentially scare an opponent in a seven-game series.

And that is what this all comes back to: rewarding the Raptors for overperforming expectations this season and giving them a real opportunity to not only get to the playoffs, but to be competitive there. I wrote a couple of weeks back about why playoff experience is so important for young players, when Nurse said:

And so, when weighing how much you like the trade for the Raptors, fans have to consider whether it's worth moving back approximately 10 picks in a draft that is not considered very deep in order to get a player who makes your bench better and therefore increases your playoff chances. Based on how much I value playoff experience — and just sitting in on film sessions and learning how to game plan and adjust is experience — I think the answer is yes, especially considering that Masai Ujiri and the Raptors front office have proven they can overperform their draft slot and get the same type of player in the early second round that they would have in the late first.

“That’s the value play here,” Webster said. “You slide a little bit in the draft and you pick up a player that you think is gonna help you. Historically, it’s an area in the draft where we’ve operated in the past. Realistically, we don’t see a ton of incremental change between those picks.”

The other reason this trade benefits the Raptors is because as difficult as it is to quantify, off-court leadership matters to NBA teams, even ones with the positive culture and great leadership the Raptors have. Young brings a maturity and sense of leadership to the Raptors they don’t currently have as by far the oldest and most experienced player on the roster. Sure, Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam are the on- and off-court leaders of the team, but you still need more veterans in the locker room to mentor the young guys and to bring different experiences to an incredibly young Raptors team, which Young does. By all accounts, he is a great locker room presence who will be able to help the Raptors when the going gets tough.

“I think it helps when you get a veteran, you get a guy who knows how to be a pro, a guy who continues to make his way in the league, maybe not always under the best circumstances, but he must be doing something right to continue to stay in the league and be a pro and play a role and all those things,” Nurse said about Young. “I’m sure he’ll have some good tips and words of wisdom and maybe just habits that he’ll be able to pass along.”

The trade for Young essentially marks the end of the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade from last summer, culminating with the Raptors landing Young and Achiuwa for Lowry, who was likely on his way out anyways. You can quibble with the value on that deal all you want, but the Raptors got two players who can contribute to the Raptors now (in the case of Young) and in the future (in the case of Achiuwa).

As the Raptors continue rolling as winners of eight straight games, the additions of Young and Achiuwa will help determine just how far they can go this season. It should be fun. Come along for the ride.

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