How the Raptors' lack of shooting affects OG Anunoby

The Toronto Raptors have struggled to get reliable shooting from several bench players and OG Anunoby is among the most heavily impacted by the lack of spacing on the court. Listen to the discussion on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed.

Video Transcript

OREN WEISFELD: There's a couple of things. Part of it is on OG, because we kind of touched on this. But when he does get the ball now and when he gets it in isolation situations, I feel like he's holding onto it a lot more. And I think that's because he just hasn't held it very much all game. And so the few opportunities that he has, I think he really slows down the game. Not to call him a ball-stopper, but you know what I mean?

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

OREN WEISFELD: There have been a lot of times recently where he doesn't play within the flow of the offense, and the ball comes to him. And he's like, all right, I haven't had the ball in five minutes. I'm going to take a shot now, which is fair. But it's not good offense, right?

So I think that is definitely part of it. But yeah, I have a hard time figuring out better uses for him because of what you said. Can OG play in the screening role and make good decisions out of the short role? Absolutely.

Can he be a zone-buster? Absolutely. But with the spacing on the floor, it's really hard for him to be put in that position because Pascal is-- I have this conversation with people, if Pascal is spotting up and Chris Boucher is spotting up, and OG is the one in the screen, that's not a lot of spacing. And guys are just going to converge on the paint and take away the roll.

And that's why I think they've gone to Pascal the roller so much recently. Because like you said, his 3-point shot isn't really there. And so it makes a lot of sense for him to be the roller and for OG to be spotting up. So I really do have trouble criticizing the coaching staff for OG spotting up as much as he is because there's really three shooters on this team in Trent, OG, and Fred.

And when you only have three shooters, that is kind of the reality. And that's actually why I'm pretty heavily in favor of the Raptors getting a shooter by the trade deadline, which might sound like a crazy thing to be buyers or whatever. But I'm not saying go crazy. But bring another shooter into this team, and I think the spacing would really, really improve.

And then you can do more stuff with OG as a primary, in the post, stuff like that.

AMIT MANN: It's a fair point. And I don't know how keen Masai Ujiri is on making moves because he could. Obviously, the assets are there. We could go through it right now. A Chris Boucher, a Malachi Flynn, players who you're not really sure are going to be part of your future necessarily. Who knows with Malachi? I mean, Dalano, Malachi, you got to make a decision at some point.

And then you have some draft picks. You have some draft capital that you could use to swing someone, some kind of guard who could help you. And then those, now at that point, now you're like, OK, so in these bench minutes, I could put Gary out there. I could put this guard. I could put Yuta. I could put Kem, OG, whoever.

Now, all of a sudden, there is some spacing. And now OG has room to operate. I feel like still, he's got to make some strides when it comes to his touch around the basket, spacing awareness. It kind of speaks to what you talked about is that sometimes he doesn't just want to take a shot. He's like, I haven't taken a shot in like six minutes, guys. Give me a shot here.

And in those situations, it probably isn't the best shot because the spacing isn't great. But he's like, yeah, but I got this step-back here that I can do. And it might go in. So he shoots it. And it's not necessarily the highest-percentage shot.

So figuring out that kind of stuff would be very useful. But in his post-ups though, he doesn't have a great post game necessarily. He has strength, and that's good. But like Pascal, he learned a spin move. And people love mocking it, OK. But that did get him to 20 points a game.

And OG doesn't really have anything comparable to that. He loves his fadeaway. That's great, but it'd be cool to see him kind of use a bit more of a hop step. And also when you look at, like, a Scottie Barnes, the way he changes directions when he's backing someone down, that is kind of how you maintain your forward movement while also not fouling or getting caught for an offensive foul, because you're constantly changing direction.

You're going left. You're going right. Then you make a turn. And all of a sudden, you're at the basket, and you've got a layup. Obviously, it's not apples to apples because they have different bodies. But those are some suggestions, that I have at least, for OG. That's how you can kind of create some offense, use your body, use your skill.

But like you had said-- we're kind of coming back to this, is that he needs the space to do it. And we haven't seen enough of that necessarily. It would be cool for Pascal to get that 3-point percentage figured out. I think over the last 10 games, he's at 35%. So what he's been doing over the past season-- or you look at what it is overall this year, isn't exactly fair, considering he's at 35% over the past little while, although we're coming off that Suns game where he shot all 5, and all those where open looks. Anyways, he's got to figure that out.

But I would love a situation where now you have OG posting up someone. You have Pascal on the corners. You have Pascal above the break. And he's your release valve. Like you had talked about, OG has made so many strides in his offensive game. And I think he's kind of wrestling with himself a little bit. The Suns game was a perfect example.

He gets the ball against Devin Booker on the perimeter. He's dribbling too much. He gets poked. But then later on in the game, he's posting up Devin Booker. He creates separation around the baseline. And now he's hitting a little Jimmy. And that's where it is. That's like the Kemba Walker example you gave. There's always going to be someone who's going to be a little bit too small to guard Pascal, Scottie, and OG. And in those situations, OG has to execute.