Rotation Shake Up Works as Raptors Speed Past Pacers

The Toronto Raptors seem to have found something special in Dalano Banton who took over backup point guard duties against the Indiana Pacers

There were no expectations of Dalano Banton when the Toronto Raptors decided to make him the 46th overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. It’s not just that rookies rarely make an impact in the NBA and second-round picks even less so, but Banton was just barely on the radar coming out of college. He’d bounced around a pair of middling college programs, first at Western Kentucky and then at Nebraska, and wasn’t projected to be drafted in most mock drafts.

Suddenly, though, it looks the Raptors have found something special in the Rexdale native. Just five games into the season, Banton has already shown he deserves NBA minutes, and on Wednesday night Raptors coach Nick Nurse surprisingly rewarded him with backup point guard duties ahead of veteran Goran Dragic.

And it worked, as Toronto blew past the Indiana Pacers to clinch 118-100 victory in Scotiabank Arena.

The moment Banton checks into games everything seems to speed up. Usually that’s a bad thing for rookies, but with Banton it seems to work. He demands the ball. If you’re too slow, he’ll clap insistently begging to pick up the pace, as Khem Birch found out. And when he does get the ball, he’s beelining it down the court, trying to create in transition for his teammates.

Dalano clapped like 10 times to get the ball from Khem 😂 pic.twitter.com/PbGjND2EDt

— Vivek Jacob (@vivekmjacob) October 27, 2021

"I think the biggest thing is he's injects an easy basket or two into the game pretty quickly," Nurse said. "There's moments when they're hard to come by whether it's just the other team playing great defense, lack of execution, getting a great shot that doesn’t go in or whatever and he seemed to get one to the front of the rim or get somebody one to the front of the rim to kind of keep us rolling."

He nailed two transition layups in the third quarter before draining an above-the-break three-pointer, scoring seven of his career-high 10 in the third quarter alone.

"It’s one of those things you either have it or you don’t. I saw it the first couple times I saw him play, again, the speed and the length," Fred VanVleet said of Banton. "From Day 1, I just told him to shoot the three, that’s probably his only issue he’s gonna have and he stepped up and knocked two down, 2-for-3 tonight. He’s gonna be a problem if he knocks those down."

Defensively, there’s still work to be done, but at 6-foot-9 he has a bigger margin for error than most point guards. Early in the game he got fooled by T.J. McConnell at the rim and one of Toronto's coaches pulled him aside to coach him on on how to better defend the tricky McConnell. Moments later, McConnell came off another screen, but this time Banton recovered and used his Inspector Gadget arms to reach over and block the 6-foot-1 McConnell from behind.

THE DENIAL FROM DALANO pic.twitter.com/xslCoLGb7R

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) October 28, 2021

Dragic will certainly find his way back into the rotation eventually, as will Malachi Flynn, but if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Banton should be getting those backup point guard duties until something changes.

Steady Freddy Bounces Back

After a strange 17-assists, eight-turnover night on Monday, Fred VanVleet was far more effective against the Pacers. For the first time this season, his three-point shot was falling consistently. Six of his 10 field goals came from behind the arc, doubling the number of made three-pointers he had all season.

Maybe more impressive though, VanVleet had a Kyle Lowry-esque rebounding night, grabbing 10 rebounds including four offensive boards, to go with 26 points and a team-high plus-20 for the night.

"My rule is if it gets below head-level it’s mine," VanVleet joked. "Anything up there by the rim is – somebody else gotta go get that one."

Attack Mode OG

OG Anunoby continues to be at his best when he’s in attack mode, aggressively trying to get downhill and bully undersized defenders. He repeatedly took advantage of great post-up position, spinning around and laying it in with a baseline move or attacking closeouts with baseline blow-bys. When the Pacers decided to recalibrate and send help his way, 6-foot-7, 232-pound Anunoby, found cutters, hooking up with Khem Birch for a layup and Scottie Barnes for a mid-range floater in the first half.

OG too quick for ya pic.twitter.com/BwUBWJhEbG

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) October 27, 2021

Anunoby finished the game with 25 points and five steals.

905 Shuttle Up & Running

The shuttle between Scotiabank Arena and Mississauga’s Raptors 905 facility is up and running this season. Toronto sent Justin Champagnie and David Johnson down for Wednesday afternoon’s G League practice, but the two were back in attendance for Wednesday night’s Raptors game. Ideally, Nurse to be able to send any underutilized players down to the G League to get some work in whenever possible.

“If there’s a stretch of games where you’re not [playing], we’d like you to get some reps and some live games once their games get going especially,” Nurse said prior to Wednesday's game. “If there are some light days of practice because of a heavy game schedule, might go down and get some longer practice sessions with them as well.”

Up Next: Orlando Magic

The Raptors will wrap up their homestand with a much-anticipated matchup against the Orlando Magic. It’ll be the first time Scottie Barnes, the 2021 fourth overall pick, and Jalen Suggs, the 2021 fifth overall pick who Toronto shockingly passed on in the draft, will share the court together.