Raptors Credit Heart & Hustle For Exciting Start to Season

The Toronto Raptors have outworked teams on the offensive glass but their extra effort has also made them one of the league's best defensive transition teams

Aaron Rose | Nov 9, 2021

It’s been an exciting start to the season for the Toronto Raptors.

Even at 6-5, the Raptors have defied expectations. They’re playing better than Vegas’ 35.5-win total had projected and that’s almost entirely been without their best player Pascal Siakam.

“I’m really happy,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said Tuesday. “We look good. I think we’re tough to beat. I think we’re young and scratching the surface.”

That one game above .500 record comes with a +2.9 plus/minus, suggesting Toronto has been a little bit unlucky this season. Statistically, the Raptors are playing at nearly a 45-win pace, according to Cleaning the Glass, the seventh-best in the Eastern Conference and 12th in the NBA. That’s all while ranking among the league’s worst shooting teams and, if you ask Nurse, getting a little unlucky with some tough breaks.

“You can’t throw everything into one side. I’d imagine there’s some other glaring statistic that’s sticking out in some of those games that we’re losing that balances it the other way. Either we shot it really poorly or they shot a truckload of more free throws than we did,” Nurse said. “That’s probably a good place to start.”

The biggest thing that’s jumped out about the Raptors this season is their hustle, specifically on the offensive glass and on defense. They rank as the NBA’s best offensive rebounding team, grabbing rebounds on nearly a third of their live-ball misses, per Cleaning the Glass. Their 32.2% offensive rebound rate is 6.6% better than league average and 8.2% better than last season.

Traditionally, crashing the glass has meant giving up transition buckets at the other end. But Toronto has spurned that basketball equation. Despite their offensive rebounding prowess, the Raptors also snuff out transition chances better than anyone in the league. They’re letting opposing teams run in transition on just 12% of their possessions, the lowest in the NBA.

“It’s effort. They play really hard, man. It takes a lot of effort to get on the glass and then if you're getting on the glass to still get back,” Nurse said. “Some of the stats are showing you the effort: the turnovers, the offensive rebounding, the defensive transition, they're showing a lot of effort and that's as simple as that.”

That effort is in the team’s DNA, Gary Trent Jr. said Tuesday. It’s what makes the Raptors who they are. It’s why on any given night they

“That’s why I think we’re a really good team,” Precious Achiuwa said. “We play hard, and we cover for each other. We play together, not just on offense but on defense as well. We’re able to cover for whoever goes for the offensive rebound until they get back on defense.”

That’s the benefit of having such a versatile roster. The Raptors can let two or three players crash the glass without having to worry about who is running back in transition to defend. They can defend across positions, so whoever is back defending is just totally equipped to handle an opposing big or slow a speedy guard running downhill.

Things for Toronto are about to get a little bit tougher. Five of the Raptors’ next seven games are against teams who made at least the play-in tournament last season. They’ve been a somewhat unlucky 6-5 against some lackluster teams. Now that grit and grind style is going to be put to the test against some much tougher teams.

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