Best Raptor-related information of the year

Courtesy of Basketball Prospectus

I don't want to use too much of their information here (they deserve the hits), but suffice to say, it is the best stuff I've read this year. It's simple, concise, and has some pretty interesting stats.

Essentially, they noticed the same thing I noticed a few weeks back (and that Hollinger wrote about last week): The Raptors are the best offensive team in the league, and the worst defensive team.

Where they expanded on that was how they compared Toronto's offence and defence to the league average (providing a bit more year-over-year context). The results were staggering:

"It's very early, but so far the Raptors have both the best offense and the worst defense since the merger, as measured by percentage above or below league average.

TOR 09-10 +9.5%
Dal 03-04 +9.5%
Phx 04-05 +8.6%
Dal 01-02 +7.8%
Phx 06-07 +7.4%
Dal 02-03 +7.4%
Sac 03-04 +7.2%

If nothing else, the Raptors have a pretty good shot at being the best offense that was not run by Steve Nash, a title currently held by the 2003-04 Sacramento Kings. Yet their defense has been even worse relative to the league.

TOR 09-10 -9.6%
Lac 98-99 -7.8%
Sea 05-06 -7.6%
Den 98-99 -7.5%
Orl 03-04 -7.1%
Dal 92-93 -7.1%

Needless to say, none of those other teams made the playoffs. In fact, three of the five changed coaches midseason. Only one of the five coaches made it all the way to the next year (the Clippers' Chris Ford)."

By "the merger," they were referring to the NBA/ABA merger in 1975.

That's amazing stuff, and it was a great read.

Raps win! Raps win! Raps win!

The Raptors scored a lot of points against a below-average defensive team last night. This, apparently, is cause for celebration.

I'm celebrating. But only because it allows me to vent about my problems with mainstream journalism.

A prominent Toronto writer used last night's game as evidence to make the following points:

1. The Raptors aren't that bad of a defensive team

2. Andrea Bargnani is not that bad of a rebounder

I don't even know where to begin, but for consistency's sake, let's look at the first point.

This writer believed that the Raptors get a bit of a bad rep on the defensive end because they play at such a fast pace and there's so many possessions in their games. Factually, that is an incorrect statement. The Raptors have had 95.4 possessions per game this season, ranking 14th in the NBA.

The writer then went on to say that Toronto's defence has shown enough glimpses of being "passable" to expect that it will be "passable" on more nights than not for the rest of the season. This is, again, factually incorrect. The Raptors defence has not been passable, it's been bad, historically bad (as John Hollinger put it, last week). Even after that "solid" effort last night, the Raptors are dead last in the NBA in defensive efficiency, allowing 113 points per 100 possessions. The next closest team, the Hornets, are allowing 109 points per 100 possessions. In other words, the Raptors are going be dead last in defensive efficiency for awhile, and no matter how loosely you define "passable," that ain't passable.

About Bargnani's rebounding: He ranks 52nd out of 61 centres in rebounding rate this season. That is bad. I'm not going to expand on that.

Here's the thing: This writer used a couple micro-moments from last night's game and extrapolated on them to make his points. However, it's such a deceiving way to talk about a game. Consider the following:

Jose Calderon has been criticized for being a below-average defender this season. But last night, Calderon had a great play where he anticipated a pass and picked it off for the steal and lay up. Later on in the game, he stepped up from the weak side to take a charge... two great defensive plays from a player that deserves more credit for his work on the defensive end.

Those plays were made up but you get the point. Just because I eat salad every once in awhile, doesn't mean I'm a healthy eater.

You can't cherry pick particular plays in order to make overall statements about a player or a team. You need to consider the entire package.

How are the Toronto Raptors not like the Boston Celtics?

Let me count the ways.

1. Toronto Raptor players are actually likable, as people.

2. Toronto Raptor players would get technical fouls for clapping in the face of an opposing player. Boston Celtic players are somehow immune to this call.

3. Toronto Raptor players are not superhuman. They cannot leave a game in a wheelchair, and return mere minutes later as if nothing happened.

4. Boston Celtic players can defend... very well. Toronto Raptor players... cannot.

And the fourth point is what I'm going to talk about today. I want to compare the defences of the Raptors and Celtics. There are some qualitative, uhhhh, qualities that are obvious. Intensity, intelligence, and aggressiveness seem to be the staples of Boston's defence. Find the antonyms of each of those words and you'll find the staples of Toronto's defence.

But is there a way to quantify the differences (other than just by the simple, usual metrics - i.e. points per game, field goal percentage allowed, etc...)? Let's find out.

(courtesy of 82games.com)

INSIDE VS OUTSIDE

Toronto Raptors' head coach Jay Triano made defending the paint a huge point of emphasis for this team throughout the pre-season and early in the regular season.

That has translated to the fact that the Raptors have forced opponents to take 63% of their shots as jumpers.

This is one of those numbers that seems well, completely useless without a point of reference.

Here's your point of reference: Boston Celtic opponents are forced to take 72% of their shots as jumpers.

And not only do the Celtics force more jumpers, but they force more missed jumpers as well. Here's the total breakdown for outside shots:

TOR opp: 63% of total attempts, 47.4 FG%, 67% of made FG are assisted

BOS opp: 72% of total attempts, 43.3 FG%, 62% of made FG are assisted

Now the breakdown for inside shots:

TOR opp: 54.8 FG%, 36.1 PPG

BOS opp: 51.6 FG%, 25.6 PPG

SHOT CLOCK ANALYSIS

From looking at the breakdown of their defences in terms of how much time is left in the shotclock, it's pretty clear that the Raptors have trouble defending early in the clock (or conversely, that the Celtics focus on defending in those first 10-15 seconds of the clock.

Consider: In the last 9 seconds of the shot clock, the Celtics actually allow more points per game than the Raptors.

However, let's look at how they break down in the first 15 seconds:

TOR opp (0-10 sec): 39% of attempts, 57.0 FG%, 36.8 PPG

BOS opp (0-10 sec): 36% of attempts, 50.9 FG%, 28.5 PPG

TOR opp (11-15 sec): 26% of attempts, 53.8 FG%, 23.1 PPG

BOS opp (11-15 sec): 28% of attempts, 45.2 FG%, 19.3 PPG

That's a combined difference of around 5% in field goal percentage, and nearly 23 points per game!

The following sentence isn't groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination, but good NBA defences are good at taking away the first or second option on a play. They will be happy if the weak side player in the corner is forced to take an open three with 4 seconds left in the clock. There's a reason that player (think DeMar DeRozan in the corner) is the weak side option. He's usually a pretty weak offensive player.

I also think this has a lot to do with perimeter defence (namely, pick & roll). Scoring early in the clock implies scoring a lot off your first move (which is increasingly the high pick & roll in today's NBA). This is an indictment not only of Toronto's perimeter players, but also Bargnani & Bosh, who are pretty weak when it comes to helping on the pick & roll (I won't get into the technical aspects of that here).

FOUL BREAKDOWN

One other thing I want to make note of... and I'm not even sure what it really means. Check out the foul breakdown for these two teams:

TOR: 158 shooting, 136 personal, 29 loose ball

BOS: 131 shooting, 105 personal, 17 loose ball

That's a difference of 70 fouls!

Now that is very unexpected, and counter-intuitive. Based on the fact that Boston is so much more aggressive than the Raptors defensively, one would expect to see more fouls called against the Celtics.

Here are two possible explanations:

1. Boston's reputation as a good defensive team provides them with the benefit of the doubt from officials.

2. Boston's intelligence, and overall basketball IQ as defenders gives them the ability to defend without fouling (I'll call this the anti-Bargnani effect).

To be honest, I think it's probably a combination of the two factors. And unfortunately, there's pretty much no way of measuring this.

CONCLUSION

I've concluded that the Celtics are a much better defensive team than the Raptors. I've also concluded that it will snow at some point this winter in Toronto.

BONUS COVERAGE

I looked at every team in the NBA to see how many jumpers they force their opponents to take. Only four teams force fewer jumpers than the Raptors:

Lakers 62%

Nets 62%

Hawks 61%

Thunder 60%

With the Lakers and Hawks, I almost feel like it's intentional. "Oh, you want to go inside on Josh Smith and Al Horford or Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom? Go right ahead!"

And when you look at the top of the list, you see teams with sound defensive principles, sound defensive athletes, and good coaching:

Celtics 72%

Heat 70%

Spurs 70%

Cavs 69%

John Hollinger must read Caldeford

John Hollinger at ESPN picked up on a trend I wrote about last week. Don't believe me? Just read the title of his insider only article: "Toronto Raptors' first in offense, dead last in defense"

Other than the Canadian/American differences in how we spell offence & defence, that's pretty much the point I made in last week's article.

Since the article was an "insider-only," I don't want to link to it too much, but here's one positive thing he wrote:

As I said, it's still early, and perhaps the Raptors can clean some of these things up once they play a good stretch of home games. Eight of their first 12 games were on the road, and against fairly strong opposition, too -- their opponents' win-loss record when not playing the Raptors is .544.

Another thing he touched on which I'm not sure I've talked about via blog (though I know I've openly complained about it to other Raptor fans) is the dreadful play of Jarrett Jack. Simply put, he's been awful. Consider:

307 NBA players have qualified (i.e. played enough minutes) to be ranked in terms of PER. Jack ranks 304th with a 5.59 PER (15 is considered league-average, Chris Paul leads with a 33). And speaking of dreadful PERs, this brings me to my stat of the day:

STAT OF THE DAY

Toronto has two players who play significant minutes that rank in the 300s in PER (Jack & Antoine Wright - 302nd).

That is just awful.

How can they improve? Stop shooting the three. Between the two of them, they take about one three-pointer every four minutes. However, because of how dreadful they both shoot the three (roughly 32%), they only make a three about every 12 minutes.

Triano needs to tell these guys, "Listen, I don't care how open you are, if you catch the ball at the three-point line, I want you to shot fake and drive EVERY TIME."

CALDERON THEORY

This has probably been talked about elsewhere, but I think I have an idea why Calderon is slow out of the gates this season. First, the facts:

- Lowest PER since his rookie season

- Lowest 3pt% since his rookie season

- Lowest assist rate since his rookie seaosn

- Lowest rebounding rate ever

- Lowest FT% ever

- Lowest steal rate ever

And we haven't even begun to talk about his defence, which is actually the worst part of his game (as Mr. Hollinger & Mr. Grange have pointed out)

So here's the thing, if you watch Calderon play basketball, there's one thing that really sticks out to me: He's not a natural basketball player.

There's some guys who just step on the court, and just have it. A certain tempo or feel or touch that never goes away. You get a sense that Carmelo Anthony could walk away from basketball for a year, come back and score 30 in a night just because of that "touch." Same thing with Ray Allen or Dell Curry when it comes to their jump shot. Or Jason Kidd could walk in and run a team just like that. Well, Jose is not one of those players.

He is, however, (based on an outsiders perspective) extremely intelligent, and an extremely hard worker. And he's worked on his craft as a professional basketball player for 12 months a year pretty much every year over the last decade. You just need to look at his numbers to see how he's improved year-after-year from 2004-09.

Well, I think the (forced) summer off hurt his game. I think he's someone that needs reps. I think his shot is a "mechanical" shot. He doesn't succeed based on feel. He succeeds based on hundreds and hundreds of repetitions, reps he didn't get this past summer.

I think you'll see his game peak in mid-winter this season (offensively, that is).

Responding to Comments, and a Couple Exclusive Clubs

Before I move on to other things, I wanted to respond to a few comments left by people after reading the Bosh: Max Contract / Max Effort article.

Chaz believed Bosh would have been offered a max contract regardless of how he played this year. Respectfully, I disagree. If you listened to comments from Bryan Colangelo over the summer, he talked about how few players in the league were actually "max" players, and if you read between the lines, you could tell he was insinuating that the Raptors probably weren't prepared to offer max money to keep Bosh. Also, if you read news clippings over the summer, most of the teams that were interested in signing Bosh were interested in him as a second splash (to accompany either Wade or LeBron James), meaning he wouldn't be getting max money.

Eugene wrote that Bosh & Triano talked about not "settling" for jumpers, and that is the reason for the numbers being the way they are this season. I'm sure they did talk about not settling, but I'm sure Sam Mitchell was saying the same thing over and over again in years past. I think Bosh is just actually "listening" this time around.

Jaime mentioned that we should always be aware of sample size (I couldn't agree more). The fact that Bosh had a summer off before this season could have an affect on these numbers.

Paul believes that I erred in Bosh's assist totals from last season, however, I was referring to assists per 48 minutes, not assists per game. Paul also wrote the following: "Bosh is getting more comfortable in his role as leader. I think that in part is driving his extra effort - to lead by example."

That quote is something you'd never see me write, because it's exactly the type of thing that is impossible to quantify. What does "getting more comfortable as leader" really mean? How would Paul, or myself, or some writer sitting courtside be able to tell that Bosh is becoming a leader (or that this increase in leadership ability is resulting in improved play on the court)?

50/40/90 CLUB

In terms of appearance, style of play, position, etc... it's tough to find two more drastically different players than Andrea Bargnani and Steve Nash. However, when you take a look at their shooting statistics, they're awfully similar:

2pt FG

Nash: 39/69

Bargnani: 38/73

3pt FG

Nash: 18/36

Bargnani: 18/39

FT

Nash: 26/28

Bargnani: 27/29

They've both put the ball through the hoop exactly 83 times this season, and they've both done it with stunning accuracy. They are 2 of just 3 players to hit over 50% of their field goals, 40% of their three-point field goals, and 90% of their free throws (with the third being rookie Ty Lawson of the Denver Nuggets).

Since the 2000-01 season, only three players have finished a season with those numbers: Nash, Nowitzki, and Jose Calderon.

ALL-NBA?

In my last post, I had a throwaway line about Bosh's performance being "All-NBA" this season. It got me to thinking: How quietly is he putting up these numbers? I haven't read one thing from the folks down at ESPN or SI about Bosh's start this season.

But how impressive is it? How rare is a 29/11 line?

Well, since the 1990-91 season, just 9 players have averaged a 25/10 over the course of an entire season (and no one's done it in seven years). Here is the list, in alphabetical order:

Charles Barkley (x2)

Tim Duncan

Patrick Ewing

Karl Malone (x6)

Shaquille O'Neal (x10)

Hakeem Olajuwon (x4)

David Robinson (x4)

Chris Webber

And in those 29 seasons, 20 1st team all-NBA selections, 5 2nd team all-NBA selections, and 4 3rd team all-NBA selections. Oh, and five MVP awards too!

ALL-O, NO-D

The Raptors lead the league in offensive efficiency. The Raptors are last in the league in defensive efficiency.

Everyone used to talk about how the Suns had the best offence and worst defence in basketball for all those years, but in actuality, their defence was middle-of-the-pack (it only seemed bad because of the pace played by Phoenix).

So when was the last time a team was actually the best offensive & worst defensive squad in the NBA?

According to basketball-reference.com, it was 28 years ago, the 1981-82 Denver Nuggets had an offensive rating of 114.3, and defensive rating of 113.9.

They finished ten games above .500, and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

I think most Raptor fans would take that performance right about now.

The Search for a Max Contract leads to Max Effort

About two months ago, I wrote the following:

"I think I was as guilty as the next person when it came to selling Chris Bosh short... One of my tried and tested ways of evaluating Bosh last season was saying "he is what he is." If you looked at his career numbers, it looked as if he had peaked or plateaued already as a NBA player. But this comparison shows that a player just like him took a leap at age 26, so maybe we shouldn't evaluate the modern NBA player so quickly. I think a big thing that's forgotten with modern NBA players is how old (or young) they really are. If Bosh played four years of college ball, he would be just a three-year NBA veteran right now.

Do I think Bosh will ever win an MVP award? No, probably not. But I think there's a whole lot of people who are ready to say goodbye to Bosh come 2010, and maybe they should re-think that position after reading this."

I wrote that after discovering some interesting parallels between the career paths of Bosh & Kevin Garnett, and I thought of it when I was going over the amazing numbers CB4 is posting so far this season.

But then I got to thinking, is Bosh's leap just the result of a natural career arc? My pessimistic side feels like some (or all) of Bosh's leap has a lot to do with his upcoming free agency. But is there any way to build an argument that Bosh is simply "trying harder" this year? That he might have had this ability in him all along? That he merely wasn't working hard enough in years past? Let's see what we can come up with by looking at the great numbers over at 82games:

Assists per 48 minutes

09-10: 2.5

08-09: 3.1

07-08: 3.4

06-07: 3.2

05-06: 3.2

04-05: 2.4

03-04: 1.5

Well, here's a bit of information. Bosh is looking for his own shot almost more than ever. It's the first time since 2004-05 that his assists per 48 minutes are below 3.0. While this doesn't prove that he's "working harder" this year, it does suggest that he might be thinking about padding those point totals a bit more than in other years.

Foul Percentage

09-10: 30%

08-09: 18%

07-08: 20%

06-07: 19%

05-06: 20%

04-05: 20%

03-04: 16%

Now we're getting somewhere. Prior to this season, Bosh's career-high in foul percentage (that's a measure of how often he draws fouls on the offensive end) was 20%. He's beating that by 10% this year.

Some would counter that a player's foul percentage would rise as his respect among referees increased, or that it would rise as the player grew stronger (such as with Bosh's off-season workout regimen). However, if it were a case of earning the respect of officials, you would expect to see a slow rise from his rookie season. And if it was the case of putting on weight & muscle, you would have expected an increase last season (early season reports last year suggested Bosh put on 15 pounds or so then as well).

Inside Shots

09-10: 51%

08-09: 36%

07-08: 42%

06-07: 41%

05-06: 38%

04-05: 39%

03-04: 38%

La piece de resistance! This is the percentage of Bosh's shots that came in the paint area. And I'm sorry, but I don't think there's any explanation for these numbers other than the fact that Bosh is simply working harder this year. Again, if it was due to the off-season workout regimen, or adding strength, you would have expected to see a bump last season. Instead, he shot a career-low 36% of his shots from the inside. Some would say he's just finally learning post moves, or he's becoming a better ball-handler. But skills like that don't appear overnight. You refine, and add to your game piece-by-piece, and therefore would expect a gradual rise in these numbers from year-to-year.

DO I (OR YOU) HAVE A RIGHT TO BE ANGRY AT CHRIS BOSH?

That's the question I'm having a tough time answering. At the end of the day, the team is receiving the benefits of having a top five player in the NBA. Even if his performance is driven by selfishness, he's still performing. And regardless of whether fans should expect maximum effort from players every practice, game, and season, Bosh (or any professional athlete) is never required to give 100% effort.

But, it's always frustrating (or infuriating) whenever an athlete (periodically) shows an ability to reach a higher gear. Why not just always play in that gear? Why is the potential of a max contract needed to get your best effort? Isn't 14 million dollars per year enough to motivate you?

On another note, if you're convinced that he's simply dialing it up a notch this season for contractual purposes, it raises some serious flags if you're Bryan Colangelo. If you sign Bosh to a 5-year contract extension, will you get five years of the jump-shooting, passive, happy-to-be-a-20/10 Chris Bosh that we've seen over the years? Or will you get five years of the hyper-aggressive, athletic, getting-to-the-basket, 25/12 1st team all-NBA Bosh?

Anyways, those are questions for later on this season, I think the most timely question in my head is this: Can Bosh keep up this work ethic for 20 games? 40? 60? He hasn't shown an ability to perform like this over an extended period at any point in his career. Now we'll see how much the allure of a max contract really drives him.

Raptors 5-man unit analysis

This post would not have been possible without basketballvalue.com

One thing I'm noticing as we enter a world of basketball where more people are at least "aware" of the other ways of analyzing on-court performance, is how people mis-use these statistics.

For example, a big point was made of how the Denver Nuggets were performing better with Carmelo Anthony on the bench.... thru three games! I think people need to realize that most of these metrics are better served over a longer time period, and shouldn't be used to make snap judgments.

That isn't to say you can't look at them over a short time period, however, take them with a proverbial GIANT grain of salt.

With that in mind, let's take a look at Toronto's five most-used units this season. Though I said these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, I think this type of analysis is more important early in a season for a team like Toronto. Trying to figure out a rotation on a team with 12 new players means there are probably hints within these numbers as to what Triano is thinking.

CALDERON-DEROZAN-TURKOGLU-BOSH-BARGNANI (77 minutes)
Offensive Rating: 111
Defensive Rating: 101

CALDERON-JACK-TURKOGLU-BOSH-BARGNANI (32 minutes)

Offensive Rating: 139

Defensive Rating: 135

JACK-WRIGHT-TURKOGLU-BOSH-BARGNANI (15 minutes)
Offensive Rating: 136
Defensive Rating: 117

CALDERON-JACK-WRIGHT-TURKOGLU-BOSH (14 minutes)

OFF. Rating: 90

DEF. Rating: 132

JACK-BELINELLI-WRIGHT-JOHNSON-BARGNANI (10 minutes)

Offensive Rating: 133
Defensive Rating: 85

WHAT DO THE NUMBERS TELL US?

Toronto's best lineup so far this season features four bench players and Bargnani as the primary offensive threat.

Toronto's least successful lineup so far this season is their "small ball" lineup that features Turkoglu at the 4, and Bosh at the 5.

The Raptors are trying to put DeMar DeRozan in a position to succeed. According to 82games.com, DeRozan has played over 70% of his minutes with Toronto's starting five, where he is the fifth option.

SPEAKING OF 82GAMES

They've started tracking 09-10 numbers, and they're telling a bit of a scary story for the Raptors. Despite a ridiculous start by Bosh (more on him later this week), a great start by Bargnani, and a respectable start by Turkoglu, the Raptors have just a 3-3 record. And it's because of the backcourt. Toronto's frontcourt has a net PER of +12.8 this season, their backcourt has a net PER of -16.3! So it's not just the starters, this is a story that includes the bench. Antoine Wright (when he's at the 3), Amir Johnson, and Rasho Nesterovic have been great off the bench. Jarrett Jack and Marco Belinelli have been below-average.

Anyways, as I said, there is a scary story, and really, the fact that DeRozan, Jack, and Belinelli have been below average shouldn't really come as a surprise. However, Jose Calderon being below-average should come as a surprise. And that is the scary story.

More on him later this week as well.

A compliment, three (3!) stats of the day, and more...

"Yep, Chris Black, I believe his name is, writes that blog. I believe he works for TSN as a producer or something. He doesn't post often but finds angles I always find others have missed and you'll see it creep into the mainstream later. Kid has some talent. Wish he was (more) consistent." - From a Raptorschat.ca message board

People who aren't my friends read my stuff??? I still find that very confusing. ANYWAYS, I was google searching my blog, to see where/how it was being linked, and came across that note. A very nice note by the way, not sure who wrote it, but it is much appreciated, and it is in the inspiration for this 2 a.m. post. Without further ado:

STAT OF THE DAY

The Raptors have started a season with three straight games scoring over 100 points for the first time ever (shhhhhhh... don't mention the fact that they've lost two of those games).

ANOTHER STAT OF THE DAY

Yes, it's only three games in. Yes, I know there's no chance this lasts. But... it's still funny.

Take a look at the PER (Player Efficiency Rating) leaders so far this season. Carmelo, Chris Paul, Tim Duncan, and Dwight Howard occupy the top 4 (indicating that despite small sample sizes, this stat does a pretty good job at identifying the best players in the league). Chris Bosh sits tenth, while LeBron is ninth (which is probably a disappointing early season ranking for him). I really don't even know how to say this is in a clever way, so I'll just post the Top 10 (and let your eyes go right to #6).

NBA PER LEADERS

1. C. Anthony

2. C. Paul

3. T. Duncan

4. D. Howard

5. R. Hamilton

6. R. Nesterovic (!!!!!)

7. P. Pierce

8. D. Nowitzki

9. L. James

10. C. Bosh

If I was Rasho's agent, I'd use this and storm into Colangelo's office, and demand a three-year contract extension immediately. But seriously, Rasho didn't get huge minutes in the pre-season but he's come in ready to play every time he's been called upon in the real games. A .615 true shooting percentage, 0 turnovers, and an NBA-best 25.6% offensive rebounding rate are the reasons for his amazing PER. Couple things to keep in mind, we've probably only seen a heavy dose of Rasho because of Toronto's opponents in the middle (Shaq, Howard) necessitated it. But maybe Rasho's play has won him some time even when matchups don't dictate it.

BAD MEMORIES

I wrote the following last December:

MY LEAST FAVOURITE (BUT FREQUENTLY OCCURRING) RAPTOR SEQUENCE

- Opposing point guard penetrates into the lane

- Raptor wing player doesn't stay on his man, but doesn't fully come over to help / double... we'll say he's in defensive "no man's land"

- Opposing point guard elevates, skips a pass over Raptor wing player's head and to the corner... where opposing point guard's teammate casually hits a three-pointer from the corner

I shall call this play: The Anthony Parker Special

Listen, I understand the Raptors have a new-found interest in eliminating points in the paint, and if you were paying attention to how I described that sequence, you'll realize I don't really have a problem with the wing player collapsing. I do have a problem when that wing player doesn't fully commit to help out, and then he's just totally useless ("no man's land"). I'm willing to accept the possibility that in some instances, the wing player may be simply "faking" the help defence and then trying to return back to his defender, but it happens way too often to be a fake every time.

I was reminded of writing that after sitting through a game where the Orlando Magic hit 17 three-pointers against the Raptors.

I was reminded of writing that after seeing that the Raptors rank 29th in defensive efficiency (they allow almost 30 points more per 100 possessions than the Celtics).

Here's the thing. As I've written before, the best teams in the NBA find a way to defend the three-point line. One way or another they either don't let opponents make or take many threes.

So far this season, Raptor opponents are hitting about ten threes per game (30 pts, for those of you doing math at home). The Celtics & Spurs are allowing their opponents to hit about 4.5 threes per game (13.5 pts).

Listen, we know Jay Triano can coach offence - This is the 5th best offensive team in basketball right now, and you can see that Triano knows how to design a set or two (and why so many hoopheads are high on him). But it's one thing to be a wizard on one side of the ball, and it's quite another to be able to run a team on both sides of the ball.

Is personnel partly to blame? Absolutely. Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett have a huge effect on their teams' defensive schemes. In simplest terms, they simplify the jobs of their perimeter-based teammates on the defensive end. And Chris Bosh or Andrea Bargnani just will never have that impact. But last year, the Pistons allowed the fewest threes in the league, and they didn't have a defensive anchor like Duncan or Garnett. So, schemes do have an impact.

LAST STAT OF THE DAY

11 of the top 12 teams in fewest threes allowed last season made the playoffs.