Raptors Still Getting Accustomed to Aggressive Defensive Scheme

The Toronto Raptors' offseason acquisitions are still getting accustomed to Nick Nurse's aggressive defensive scheme and it's cost them early this season

Back in the preseason Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry was asked a pretty simple question: What do you want this team to be this season?

At first he answered the question with the obvious answer.

"A champion," he said. "That’s an easy kind of a question"

A younger, more cantankerous Lowry might have stopped there and moved to the next question, but Lowry decided to play nice and give a more thoughtful response.

"I’m gonna be honest with you, I think we should become a real-life defensive monster," he said. "That’s what I would like us to become. I don’t want us to be this offensive juggernaut. I want us to a defensive team where every single possession, every single night the team who is coming in knows that it’s going to be a slug-it-out game, and they’re going to get hit, they’re going to get beat up. They’re not gonna be roaming free. That’s one thing I would love for us to become.”

When Raptors coach Nick Nurse replaced Dwane Casey in 2018 it was thought that Nurse was an offensive guru. While that's been partially true, Nurse's biggest impact has come on the defensive end of the floor. He's created one of the most aggressive and adaptable defensive schemes in the NBA. It's worked by wreaking havoc on opposing offences and creating transition scoring opporunities for the Raptors.

But two games into the season, the Raptors certainly don't look like real-life defensive monsters. Instead, they rank 19th in the NBA in Defensive Rating, allowing 111.5 points per 100 posessions, a far cry from their 104.7 Defensive Rating last season.

"I think defence always starts with alertness and readiness. We've been caught not being ready a few times," Nurse said. "There have just been a few too many breakdowns and yeah, it's just probably getting a new group a little more in sync. I think we're moving in the right direction. Again, I know there was some putbacks and some open threes and a couple other driving layups that normally we would cover up and not doing."

On Saturday night, the Raptors were hyper-aggressive in double teaming the San Antonio Spurs' stars LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan. In the past, that kind of strategy has worked for Toronto who has been able to communicate and rotate when necessary to cover up defensive holes. But against the Spurs, Toronto was a step late, surrendering 50 points in the paint and a bunch of 3-pointers off of kickout passes from the paint.

"Defence is never about one guy, it’s always about the team and that’s something we’ve always been good at: covering for each other and things like that," Nurse said. "I think it just comes with effort and communication, that’s all it comes down to and we have a lot of effort but I just feel like we need another gear to be able to be special."

It's still early in the season and looking around the league it's pretty easy to tell something is a little off this year. On Saturday, the Milwaukee Bucks lost to the New York Knicks, the Los Angeles Clippers got blown out by 51 points by the Dallas Mavericks, and the Philadelphia 76ers fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers. So if the Raptors are having some early season struggles it's understandable, but it's also not something they can allow to linger.

The key will be communicating better and getting accustomed to playing with one another.

"It’s just understanding the principles. It’s nothing new in terms of what we’re doing but it’s new in terms of understanding where guys’ strengths are and what we’re trying to force and a couple nuances within that," new centre Aron Baynes said. "Kyle’s a great example of he talks stuff out loud early and it helps everyone. So for myself coming into this, I’ve really gotta do the same and just communicate with these guys."

Considering how much success the Raptors have had by being aggressive it doesn't make much sense to dial that back. It might just take a little time for everyone to get used to. The question is, how much?