Raptors need to figure out offence vs. zone defence

With the playoffs around the corner, the Toronto Raptors are still learning how they can consistently beat zone defences which they’ve faced more and more as teams look to negate their size at forward. Follow Yahoo Sports Canada for all your Raptors coverage.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: Finally, though, the Raptors in the zone. Yeah. Going back and forth with this one. There are many teams who are-- they're throwing zone-- zone defenses at the Raptors because they want to see if they can, you know, score their way out of it. They want to see if they can shoot their way out of it.

And there have been mixed results. The Timberwolves was an interesting experiment because it's funny that Chris Finch was just going out of his way to zone the Raptors non-stop. Anyways. I think the Raptors did a really good job of moving the ball. And if anyone knows, like, when it comes to being able to beat a zone defense, it's about moving fast and thinking fast.

And for the Raptors, with the zone defenses that they're seeing, you know, you can have your zone buster sets, and they're obviously necessary. You have, you know, Fred curling around the baseline for a 3, things like that definitely got to happen. But for the most part, you know, the hole for the Raptors with the defenses that they're seeing is around the nail.

And you need someone right there who is like a-- who can pretty much, A, make the smart pass, who can score from around that area and yeah, has probably the height to see over a lot of players. So you're talking, you know, one of their 6' 9" players. Thankfully, they have a whole bunch of them.

And you know, over the course of the past few weeks, few months, clearly they've been working on it. I think they have been a lot better at it. And it was-- it's nice to see the strides that they're making, but there's certainly, you know, more that they can do. And I keep on talking about Thad Young because I think this-- this highly of him, that he is a person I think you could put in the middle of that zone, and he is someone that can make that smart pass, who's going to make a really quick read. He's going to find where the open man is.

You know, part of, again, the zone is you've got to know where your teammates are going to be, too. And so you need to have this, like, this connection with them that, OK, so I know Gary Trent, Jr. is heading towards the baseline. I know that Gary's going to be heading back there. I know that, you know, the hole's here and I know OG sees it, too. Because these are all seconds that are going off the clock when you're thinking.

And then the zone is getting-- it's collapsing on you. It's making things tough on your offense, and you just can't have it. So it's cool to see-- it would be cool to see a person like Pascal get an opportunity to be more on the perimeter, because I think because of his skill set and his ability to score everywhere on the court, he has been relied upon to be that guy, you know, at the nail who's organizing the offense, who's finding the open man. And he's been pretty good at it over the past little while. He's really improved.

And you know, a person like Scottie Barnes, he's been able to find those open alleys to-- for dump-off passes, and they've had some synergy. And you kind of saw that against the Timberwolves. And you know, they didn't have Fred in that game and obviously, Fred's shooting pedigree would have been very helpful there. So all this to say that I think they are doing a much better job of finding offense within zone defenses.

They've got to be careful with where they put a Precious Achiuwa and a Khem Birch because you could see it that a team like the Timberwolves, they were kind of cheating off Precious along the baseline because they're like, well, if you want to shoot the 3, we're comfortable with that shot. And so that was again clogging lane, and that was taking-- that was negating passing lanes, driving lanes for a Pascal, an OG, a Gary Trent, and so forth.

So they got to be very careful with when-- or with the lineups that they decide to roll with, right? A Chris Boucher, like I mentioned earlier-- he's one of your only bigs who can legit hit a 3, and he's going to have to continue to do that because it's usually in those bench lineups that teams are going to start throwing those zone defenses at them. And it's going to be interesting to see how the Raptors react to it.

But to their credit, they are getting much better at it, but it's very important that, you know, we talk about personnel and people making the right decisions. You know, if Dalano Banton-- this was a case, actually, against the Timberwolves. Again, if he's standing at the nail and he's wide open, and you kind of have to make that pass.

Like, it's not necessarily about do I want to pass to him, is he going to do OK, is he is going to hit? Is he going to turn the ball over? It's not really about that, necessarily. It's more about, you know, making sure that you keep the zone defense moving, because once they're able to get in position and you're-- and the ball is moving fast enough for the defense, then you get into trouble. You get into a lot of issues because now the zone defense is dictating you.

And sometimes you do just have to trust the player who's wide open to make a smart decision. And that's up-- it's incumbent on a Nick Nurse to put players in the right positions and to put players who are capable of handling the responsibility in that nail position. But there's a lot more offense and schemes that you can roll with off of zone defenses. And I think the Raptors, they're finding their groove a little bit with where the opportunities are going to be.

But there's still a ways to go, I would say, because there's still times where it gets really clunky and they're very stationary, and you have to keep on moving with that zone defense. Because, like I said, you have to keep that defense moving, because if they don't move, then you're in trouble. But again, a work in progress. I see the development. And it's been taking a little while for them to get there, but it's happening.

And they got 25 games before the playoffs and they got to use those opportunities to figure this out, because they will get zone defense in the playoffs. It is going to come. It's going to happen, and it's going to happen down the stretch of games. It's going to happen in those bench lineups, and they've got to be able to get it done. Whether it's a 2-3, a 1-2-2, you have to find where the avenues are and you have to stay composed. And too often this year, they weren't able to do that.

But to their credit, like I said, they are getting better at it. So a shouts to them and a shouts--