Does Nick Nurse need to give bench players longer leashes?

The Toronto Raptors have struggled to get consistent bench production all season but Malachi Flynn ran with the opportunity he received when Fred VanVleet was out. So does Yuta Watanabe deserve a chance to find a flow within the rotation? Follow Yahoo Sports Canada for all your Raptors coverage.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: Pivot right now to Nick Nurse and level of concern about his offensive mentality, and how it may hurt the offense. But also thinking about a player like Malachi, even like a Yuta, who I think hasn't really been given a fair shot this year, despite the fact that the Raptors really need shooting and he's not exactly a liability on the defensive end. Like with [? Svi, ?] it's cool that he got a new opportunity with the Raptors because of injuries.

But defensively, he's not the same player that Yuta is, right? But then Yuta, like, you know you're going to get on the defensive end. You just weren't really sure about the offensive end. And he's been a bit up and down this season. He had some injuries, but I look at him over the past-- this past five games, he's four of eight from 3.

He did miss a shot against the Cavaliers, oh, damn. But yeah, players like these two. And I wonder if there's potentially a bit too much of an emphasis on defense at some times because of how woeful their offense is. Your thoughts? Concern level?

KATIE HEINDL: Yeah, I think it's probably a deep again. Not like, not the scream. Not the screaming squat, but the mid deep, because--

AMIT MANN: Don't worry, there's going to be a scream here. Just so everyone knows. There will be a couple of screams in here.

KATIE HEINDL: I have to admit, I'm trying to think ahead to what we said we're going to talk about, because I was like, I kind of want to save the screaming squat for when I really mean it, you know? I don't just want to throw it out there.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

KATIE HEINDL: This, to me, a little bit feels like Nick Nurse kind of returning to like, resting on his laurels a bit. Returning to formulas that have worked in the past and expecting the same kind of results. Because yeah, historically, I'd say even that spurts of last season and in seasons past, but basically, under Nick Nurse's tenure, defense-- good defense has always been generative to the offense, right? Like, we've just seen that time and time again. With ball movement, I think, in transition too.

But it's not having the same spark or effect with this group. And I mean, that's understandable. It's a completely different group. So to a degree, you're asking them to follow the same formulas, that, yeah, they should get some of this stuff down. But you're maybe not playing to their strong suits the same way of the group that you had before this that you knew really well.

Like, Nick Nurse knew previous iterations of the Raptors really well from when he was an assistant coach with them, you know? He saw all those like, what they were capable of defensively. So I think you've got a lot of younger players now. The length is a question. Like, maybe the way your current schemes don't actually work to emphasize the length. Or you're not really helping your guys utilize length to the best of their ability.

And maybe these guys like, this sounds pretty rudimentary, but they're younger. They're really fast. And they probably are just more concerned with playing-- they want to play offense more, right? And sometimes I think you should lean into that, right? Because you might get results.

It might go the other way. Offense may be generative of defense in that sense, because you're asking them to buy into something that they like and like performing a little bit more. So there's something stagnant, for sure--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

KATIE HEINDL: --to me about it. And I don't know. I think what makes it a deep squat for me is I don't necessarily know the-- like, Nick Nurse has maybe dug himself into a little bit of a hole with this one.

AMIT MANN: I hear what you're saying. I didn't say during the zone segment, but I felt like there's been a bit of zone fatigue from them on the offensive end.

KATIE HEINDL: Yes, zone fatigue.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. And I mean, us as a fan base, for sure. But I think every time they see it, they're just like holy, another zone? And because like, the spacing and how fast the ball moves-- you want it to move pretty fast, with zone defenses. But because of the lack of shooters, it's not probably moving the way that it should because they just can't get in the paint properly. There's not enough threats.

And so defenses are staying home quite a bit. And so it does become very stagnant. And the offense overall, though, I mean, we've-- I think we've talked about the offense of Nick Nurse's for the past few seasons.

Like, it is pretty isolation heavy. That's how he likes to get the ball moving. Is it right? I'm not sure because he's had success with it with Kawhi Leonard, and then they won a championship. So it's a tough one to say. We're going to get to pass in a second--

KATIE HEINDL: But that's so specific, right?

AMIT MANN: I know.

KATIE HEINDL: So specific. Yeah.

AMIT MANN: But it was his first season. So he's like, I did it. You know, it worked, right? Pascal is top five in isolation possessions. And he's taken a step this year in his offensive side of the ball with his mid-range and everything. So he probably thinks that we can still do this. And even Fred's up there too in terms of isolation possessions. And Fred isn't really an isolation player, necessarily.

He can do it in certain matchups, but Pascal is like probably the only player who can probably get it against anyone. Well, Fred can do it against some guys, and when he doesn't do it very well, you get those possessions against like OKC at the end of the game, where he gets like blocked by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. So you're right. I think probably they do-- they could benefit more from playing a person like Yuta Watanabe.

And I say this because I mean, I feel like if he is the person who isn't going to hurt you defensively, right? And on the offensive side of the ball, he has shown an ability recently that he can actually hit a 3. And that early on this season, I actually didn't even mind that they weren't playing him because it got to a point where their starters were so good that they're like, I mean, if all these guys are cool playing 37 minutes, let's just roll with them. Because they're going to at least hit the shots. And again, they're half court offense isn't good anyways.

But if he is hitting his shots, like that game against the Cavs he played four minutes. I watched the four minutes just before we started talking and I'm like, Yuta didn't really do anything wrong. Yeah, he missed a shot, right? It was a play ran for him, and he missed it. But then he didn't play after that. And that was at the end of the first quarter, early second quarter. He didn't get another stint after that.

Meanwhile, the Raptors are struggling on the other side of the ball, trying to score on offense. Because they don't have enough three point shooters. They shot like 23% or something like that and they're shooting 32% from 3 since the all-star break. And you have a person like him, who is not going to hurt you offensively-- or defensively, and could actually hit a shot or two for you. And also--