Raptors Explain Strict Emphasis on 0.5 Basketball & How It's Played

The Toronto Raptors are spending extra time in practice emphasizing quick decisions and their new 0.5 offense

For Scottie Barnes, this new Toronto Raptors “0.5 offense” is really quite simple.

The less-is-more approach that head coach Darko Rajaković discussed on Media Day has so far been exciting for the team. The goal is quicker decisions, more ball movement, and less stagnant dribbling.

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“It’s not that hard. If the next guys open, pass the ball. If you feel you have a driving lane, you’ve got to make that read instead of holding and stalling the ball,” Barnes said Thursday following practice. “I feel like it helps us all to make quicker and better decisions, helps us dribble the ball less, it’s the smart thing to do.”

Often the reads can be made before the ball is even swung to you, Barnes said. It’s simple defensive awareness and understanding what the opposing team is trying to do that allows for those split-second decisions to be made.

“If the defense is sagging off of you, you shoot the ball, if they’re in a shift and you see an open lane, just catch and go off the rip, if they’re playing high and there’s nobody in the corner, it’s one more [pass]. Easy read,” Barnes added. “I feel we’re all smart enough basketball players to make those reads.”

During practices, Rajaković is strict about making sure the ball is moving quickly and freely. If there’s a pause for too long, practice stops and mistakes are corrected, said Thad Young. That’s different from a lot of other coaches, Nick Nurse included, who would let the play continue before correcting mistakes later.

“Guys are receptive to that, and I think that's the biggest thing, like, him putting his foot down,” Young said. “Kind of like making us, like, okay, let's pass the basketball, pass it around a little bit more, okay, that was a good shot, but let's get an even better shot. Like those types of things are what we need to put emphasis on.”

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