What offensive advantages Raptors hold over 76ers

Amit Mann is joined by Yaron Weitzman of Fox Sports to discuss what advantages the Raptors have on the offensive end vs. the 76ers and how they can bait Joel Embiid away from the basket. Listen to the full preview episode on the Raptors Over Everything podcast feed.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: The Raptors, just so everyone knows, you probably already do know, 3 and 1 against this 76ers team this season. And I found it interesting that they actually haven't seen the Raptors fully healthy, yet, because OG and Fred haven't played in a game against the 76ers since November 11. That was a game where Fred hit that shot, and he was doing that Sam Cassell dance. It was awesome. It was hilarious.

YARON WEITZMAN: [LAUGHS]

AMIT MANN: Yeah, either of those guys, they haven't played against the 76ers since that one. And so that kind of gets into-- starting with the Raptors, I'll start with you. What do you think are the advantages for Toronto on the offensive end of the ball? What sticks out?

YARON WEITZMAN: When they have the ball, you're saying? When Toronto has the ball?

AMIT MANN: Yeah, when Toronto has the ball, yes.

YARON WEITZMAN: So, what are the advantages? That's a good question. Well, so the Sixers-- I'm answering more holistically. right, And then we'll get to it.

But the Sixers, one of the issues, especially with Thybulle being out now for a few games, but the Sixers killed their depth with that trade--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

YARON WEITZMAN: --which is what happens, right? Like, the Sixers can't put five guys on the floor who are all to 2A players, which sounds really basic.

AMIT MANN: No, I get it. I get it.

YARON WEITZMAN: It's a problem, right?

AMIT MANN: Yep.

YARON WEITZMAN: So even if Thybulle's playing, he can't-- I mean, Nick Nurse would leave him 40 feet, you know-- he would, like, leave him open, 40 feet open, if you want to, on offense, right? Exactly.

AMIT MANN: He'd be a mile away. [LAUGHS]

YARON WEITZMAN: Danny Green, Danny can shoot well. He can't dribble.

AMIT MANN: Mm.

YARON WEITZMAN: His defense is-- you could probably-- it's not what it used to be. But fine, you want to count him as a two-way player. Like, these other wings are not. Even Maxey, I love him. Maxey is unbelievable. Maxey is a defensive liability. Harden, we know. Who are the other wings? They don't even have other wings, right? Like-- [LAUGHS]

AMIT MANN: Yeah, Tobias Harris is-- yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

YARON WEITZMAN: Yeah. Tobias Harris can-- they tried him with Pascal. And I have a feeling we're gonna see that a good amount, especially with Thybulle out because--

AMIT MANN: Mm-hmm.

YARON WEITZMAN: --I'm guessing they're not gonna want to put in-- I know, now, Toronto has the ball. But I'm guessing they're not gonna want to put and beat on him the entire game like that. So to answer your question, going back to being, like-- it's more of a dilemma the Sixers have to face, right, in terms of who are we playing on the floor. So what are we giving up?

Let's say we have to worry about Toronto's offense. Are we gonna put in-- let's say we're in Philly. Gonna put in Thybulle? We're gonna play Danny Green? We're going to put in-- I mean, Niang is OK. [INAUDIBLE] really be attacked. Maybe play Shake Milton a little more. I don't really know. I mean, they don't really have the horses, right?

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

YARON WEITZMAN: How are we gonna deal with Embiid. Like, our entire defense because-- Philly's entire defense, because they have these weaknesses, especially on the perimeter, is basically Embiid anchoring the whole thing and propping the whole thing up by dropping back, playing drop coverage--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

YARON WEITZMAN: --and just being the brilliant--

AMIT MANN: The Rudy Gobert. The Rudy Gobert rule.

YARON WEITZMAN: Correct.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

YARON WEITZMAN: He's brilliant at that. He's great, physically, and his basketball IQ, it's unbelievable. Unbelievable.

AMIT MANN: Facts. Facts.

YARON WEITZMAN: Watch him guard a pick-and-roll and just do the dance. And he talked about this on-- what, he's done like 15 podcast recently. But, like, the cat-and-mouse game and stuff like that--

AMIT MANN: Uh-huh

YARON WEITZMAN: --like, he is absolutely-- it's art, watching him do that. But if you do that, then who's guarding Pascal?

AMIT MANN: Mm.

YARON WEITZMAN: Does that mean Tobias Harris is guarding Pascal? I mean, if you put Embiid on Pascal Siakam, then are you giving-- Siakam, excuse me. Then are you opening up the lane? Are you taking away your safety net, the thing that props up all these other guys? And these are the dilemmas that Philly is going to have to solve. But I think Toronto, like, they can put guys on the floor, where they could put forth guys, whatever you want, VanVleet and OG--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

YARON WEITZMAN: --Pascal, and Trent, like, guys who can attack and who can create stuff. I think we end up seeing points where, like, oh, wait, Philly, like, this guy-- Philly is having trouble matching up on the floor. I think that's what we're going to have to see.

AMIT MANN: Mm-hmm. This really does all center around Joel Embiid, also, on this end of the court, too--

YARON WEITZMAN: Yep.

AMIT MANN: --offensively, for the 76ers. But it's about, like, he can't be everywhere. And so how do the Raptors--

YARON WEITZMAN: Exactly.

AMIT MANN: --use that to their advantage?

YARON WEITZMAN: That's a good way to put it.

AMIT MANN: With Fred, he's only played one game against the 76ers. You probably know that he hasn't been great since he hurt his knee. Like, he's been really, really, really up and down.

It's been kind of depressing to see, actually, because he's lost his burst completely. And side to side, his defense, it's gonna be there. And I think he's going to be-- he's going to make a big impact there, on the defensive end. But offensively, he'll go 4 for 12. Then he'll go 6 for 8. And it's just, like, absolutely everywhere.

So with Joel Embiid, like, how do you approach that pick-and-roll? And, like, you don't want Joel Embiid coming up to far to the perimeter because, then, what's happening behind you? Nothing good, that's for sure.

YARON WEITZMAN: Mm-hmm.

AMIT MANN: Then, when it comes to driving lanes, like with Pascal and that match-up with Tobias Harris that you mentioned earlier, he was five of eight against Tobias Harris in that last match-up. So once Embiid, again, comes to help, in the event that happens, what's going on behind him? Because the Raptors are just tenacious on the offensive rebounding side of things. Precious Achiuwa--

YARON WEITZMAN: That's a good one. Yeah, that's a good--

AMIT MANN: Yep.

YARON WEITZMAN: Yep.

AMIT MANN: OG Anunobys, like, they know the MO there. This is where they're going to be able to make up possessions and get some easy buckets because they know that their halfcourt offense isn't great. [LAUGHS] It's not. It really isn't.

But I mean, Pascal Siakam, like, going into [INAUDIBLE] over the past little while has really made a huge difference because his numbers are ridiculous. But that's kind of the key to this and how do they use those advantages that they have. Like. a Danny Green on Scottie Barnes, for instance, when that happens-- like, I recall, two different times this season, one being preseason, where Scottie just, like, dunked all over Danny Green, [LAUGHS] which is funny because, actually, Danny allowed him to keep his championship jacket. You hear about that one?

YARON WEITZMAN: I did not. No. What was this, after--

AMIT MANN: Yeah, so Danny got his ring, obviously, right?

YARON WEITZMAN: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: He just got it. But his championship jacket was in Toronto. It's a jacket that Drake or someone or OVO to help out with it. And so OG Anunoby asked Danny. He's like, OK, do you want this or can I give it to Scottie? Because Scottie wanted it. And Danny's like, yeah, sure.

YARON WEITZMAN: I love that question, by the way. That's what I do with my-- my mom does that with be when she's trying go and put it in a closet. Do you want this or can I give it away? But not a championship jacket.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. What's hilarious, though, is that conversation was recent. So Danny was coming to claim the jacket in days, but still OG asked him. And Danny's like, yeah, sure. He can keep it.

YARON WEITZMAN: I feel like that's mental warfare there. You know what I mean? Like psychological warfare, I think that's the plan is. OG's trying to mess around there because knowing he's coming in three days or whatever it is to come get his ring.

AMIT MANN: It's hysterical. But yeah, I've seen those kind of match-ups happen for the Raptors against the 76ers and other teams. The very few teams can match up between their middle of the court with OG, Barnes, and Siakam. There's always a mismatch. And that's where the Raptors create their offense. It's like, all right, so there's six, five guys on OG. Cool, he's going to back them down. He's going to get the defensive rotation. He'll make a smart pass. And Bob's your uncle.

So it's things like that really come to mind for me. It's like how can they get all and beat away from the basket. And once Joel Embiid, if he has to contest or things of that nature, what's going on behind it? Because they really need to be solid defensively and one-on-one.

And if they're not, then you're going to exert drill and be more than you already are going to because you're going to have to play like a bajillion minutes in this series. He plays around 37, I think. That probably has to be around 40 because they can't go eight minutes, nine minutes without him on the court. I don't think.

YARON WEITZMAN: By the way, the other thing mentioning and being the pick and roll in VanVleet, I think this is the interesting part with him being dropped coverage. VanVleet is great in those pick and roll mid-range jumpers. We gave him a three NBA playoff series is where we see those things come back for good reason. Actually, myself, I'm writing a story of VanVleet. That's going to come out during the playoffs, but that's one of the things that's like--

AMIT MANN: Plug, plug, plug.

YARON WEITZMAN: --plug, plug, plug. Last year, you watched a ton of Chris Paul footage of the playoffs last year. Chris Paul, how Chris Paul snaked around pick and rolls and pull up in the elbows and stuff like that. And that's the kind of thing that you can see that the Sixers have been susceptible to in the years past.

Now Brett Brown would be a little more aggressive in the drop, right? We'd see the highlights where he would go all the way down. But that's more for 3-pointers. I think that 17-foot jumper which VanVleet likes, either that's going to be there or you're going to make him be guard you there. But that's a shot that VanVleet is really comfortable taking and really good at.

And in a playoff series, this is a cliche. But the 2's and 3's, it's not getting good looks, especially down the stretch. And the playoff series, I think it would not surprise me if we see one of those games where he hits five of those in the second half.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. And this is where he's held. It comes back into the question because he has increased his range from five feet behind the 3-point line, but is he able to hit those shots? Does he have the reason?

YARON WEITZMAN: And pull them out even more.

AMIT MANN: Exactly. We don't even know. It's really crazy. The game against the Heat where he broke Kyle Lowry's single-season record for most made 3's in a season. He got five 3's, four 3's in the first quarter. Then you go to the next game against the Atlanta Hawks. He was 3 of 12. He couldn't hit anything. The game got really competitive down the stretch because he missed every single goddamn open 3.

YARON WEITZMAN: He's had some great box scores. He's had some funny ones, some big numbers.

AMIT MANN: Exactly, right? But then he gets one more opportunity. Pascal draws a double. There's a kick out. He hits that 3. It's just like, what is going on? Be consistent, please. But then, I mean, he's an All-Star. He's obviously injured, so I don't want to harp on this too much. But the expectations for this team have really increased over the course of the season because of how good they've played.

So it would be unfortunate if your All-Star player, the person that you would think you can count on, is the reason-- for lack of a better term-- why you're not able to get past a team like the 76ers, who are very good but there's an advantage here that you could capitalize on.