Anunoby, Siakam & Barnes telepathy key to Raptors' success

The Toronto Raptors' big-ball philosophy has been largely successful this season. When it comes to their offence, the trio of OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes executing in their mismatch hunting is vital to unlocking the Raptors' offence.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: --pivot now to another thing that I wanted to ask you about is I think OG and Pascal and Scottie Barnes-- they kind of have to become a little bit telepathic in their-- when they're on the court together, because-- Scottie is great at this. Like, this is one of the things that Scottie is so strong at. And the fact that he's able to do this so early in his NBA career is that his basketball IQ is incredible.

You look at the draft, and there are few players who can kind of measure up to that. And that's a testament to how good the draft is, because it was an exceptional draft. And Scottie Barnes may be on the top when it comes to his basketball IQ. But when Pascal has the ball [? in ?] the post, or when Pascal has the ball anywhere, he is so good at flashing towards the bucket, finding those open alleys, and I think that's good on Scottie's part, but I think probably Pascal and OG-- they can do a better job of doing that on their end.

Obviously, spacing is important. Scottie-- you know, he's getting the ball usually lower in the post, right? Because his 3-point shot isn't necessarily there. But if Nurse is able to get a little bit creative and find ways to get Scottie or OG and Pascal cutting towards the basket-- and you know, timing. Rhythm and timing.

When it comes to cutting, you can't go too early, too late. It has to be on the button. And finding that chemistry between those three, it's going to be crucial, not just this season, but also going forward.

JOSH LEWENBERG: And that's going to come. That's where timing and reps plays into it. And I think what to this point, they've-- those three have only played in, like, I don't know, 10, 11, maybe 12 games together this season? Very few. I think as duos, they've developed chemistry.

And we've seen stretches like, remember when Pascal first came back from the injury and made his season debut and then started to get healthy and start to look more like himself? The big story for like a week or two was, like, oh, my god, look at some of these connections that he and Scottie have had. And look at the chemistry that they're building.

And those like, in duos, OG and Scottie had a bunch of time early in the season to figure it out. And obviously, OG and Pascal have played together for a few years now. But now it's about, as you mentioned, getting on the same page and in the same mind space, basically, as a trio.

But I think more and more we're seeing the vision for-- like, from [? Ujiri ?] and Webster in this front office [? is-- ?] remember when they drafted Barnes, people were asking, well, like does that mean that they're more likely to move Siakam now? How is this going to work?

There are similarities there, to the point where it's going to cause a lot of problems for defenses where those guys do complement each other and work together in a certain way. But I think there's enough differences between them that the chemistry there and the way that they complement each other could really work well, especially if the shooting improvements that we've seen from Siakam this season are sustainable, and if Barnes is, in fact, a better shooter and offensive player then a lot of people thought that he was coming in. I think, yeah, I mean I'm excited to see what those three can build with some time together.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, and it's all about being really crafty, right? And that's not things that you can really teach. You need to just kind of have that intuitively. And I think the Raptors, over the years, this is something that they've instilled in all the basketball players that they bring. And they've got to have a high basketball IQ because when you're on the court, run your plays if you want to, but so much of it is reading and reacting.

And, like you mentioned, Scottie is so good at that. And now with Pascal and OG, I think it's just kind of been down to how can they optimize the lineups so you have some shooting around them. That's why Gary Trent, Jr., is so important right now. That's why Fred VanVleet is so important, because if you want those three to work together really well, you need the shooters around them.

And they've done a decent job, like you said. Scottie Barnes, Pascal, some of those little pocket passes that they've done to each other. The flashes are there, and it's really, really intriguing. They just have to kind of hone in on it. And you know it's high lows, it's clearing a side so there's space for one player, and then you have others cutting towards the basket.

Yeah, it's beating other players down the court, which is something OG did a really good job of yesterday against the Mavericks, beating Tim Hardaway down there, getting low, and then just making buckets happen and just getting into that [? bullying. ?] And they got to figure that out. It's going to-- this is why it's so intriguing what the Raptors are doing, because you can see how it's working. But they just have to kind of, like, crisp it up a little bit.