Raptors Ready to Focus on Development Following Embarrassing Loss to Grizzlies

The Toronto Raptors are looking toward a summer of development following a disastrous loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday

Is it too early to start looking toward the summer?

The Toronto Raptors are barely past the halfway mark of the season, but the writing is on the wall. Sure, they’re going to try to win. Nobody is calling it quits on the season quite yet, probably a wise decision considering Toronto likely owes its first-round pick to San Antonio this year. But let’s, for a moment, look ahead.

The next few months are going to be about building the foundation of whatever this new era becomes. It’s about figuring out what Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, and Gradey Dick can provide and trying to get them to the best versions of themselves at some point in the not-too-distant future.

“I’m learning about Scottie. I'm learning about Quickley. I'm learning about RJ. I already started preparing the summer plan for those guys.” Raptors coach Rajaković said before Monday’s 108-100 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday. “I'm already putting (together a plan) for them and for our whole roster, what (the) focus needs to be in the summer, what they need to add to their game.”

For Barnes, that means becoming more comfortable being Toronto’s primary offensive weapon. There’s no more Kyle Lowry or Fred VanVleet or Pascal Siakam here to help with the offensive load. There are no more questions about who The Guy in Toronto is.

That means making Barnes a more efficient version of himself.

How?

“It’s a lot of things, it’s not just a finishing package, but also post-up game and shooting threes and shooting threes on the move and putting him in right situations that he can come off pin-downs and make good reads,” Rajaković said. “It’s a lot.

“And the program we’re gonna put in for him and the rest of the guys, it’s not something that you master in one summer, it’s not something that you master in one season. It’s a vision and goal (for) how our team and the roster should look one, two, three years from now.”

Since trading Anunoby, Barnes has struggled a tad. His scoring is down, and his offensive efficiency has tumbled. Before the deal, Barnes had a True Shooting percentage of 58.7%, slightly above league average. Over his past 12 games coming into Monday night, that number had fallen to 53.8%, 4.3 percentage points below average.

Part of that has been a bit of a three-point rut Barnes has found himself in lately, but the 22-year-old forward is still trying to figure out what he can and cannot do offensively, especially since Siakam departed.

At his best, Barnes looks unstoppable. He opened the game with a savvy cut inside and scored an easy floater. He’s too big to defend with a smaller guard and if you double-team him, he’s happy to make brilliant passes to his teammates. At one point, he whizzed a perfect pass out of the low post to Gradey Dick who missed a corner three-pointer. He even nailed a rare pull-up three in transition, stepping into an above-the-break three right over Jaren Jackson Jr. to cut Memphis' lead down to just nine in the third.

But at times, Barnes is still too willing to settle.

He takes far too many mid-range shots considering his physical gifts. In the second quarter, for example, he hit a turnaround jumper from further than he should have been. He settled for another 19-foot turnaround jumper in the third. Yes, they went in, but the process could have been better for a player of Barnes’ caliber.

Barnes did assert himself more in the second half as he’s wont to do. He got to the line repeatedly in the third quarter, a skill he’s going to have to continue to develop over the rest of the season. He turned a post-up against David Roddy into an easy layup for Thad Young as Toronto pulled within 13 midway through the fourth.

Of his 22 points, 14 came in the second half but between a lackluster defensive effort from Toronto and Memphis utter domination on the offensive glass, the Raptors never had a chance.

"We were not connected offensively or defensively," Rajaković said. "Everybody's kind of walking on eggshells. At the start of the game, all the turnovers that we had, it's a question of focus and it's the question of bringing that effort to the game. That was lacking for the start of the game."

Then there’s Toronto’s other future cornerstone Quickley who is still trying to find his groove in a bigger role with the Raptors too. His scoring efficiency has dropped since joining Toronto and his playmaking has room to grow. Against the Grizzlies, he had four of Toronto’s 11 first-half turnovers and wasn’t involved in the offense nearly as much as he should have been.

“It’s a learning process for him,” Rajaković said pre-game. “Just finding that balance. He needs to be aggressive; we need him to be aggressive, we need him to take threes, we need him to take more threes.”

Rajaković said he wants Quickley taking as many as ten three-pointers every night. It’s what Toronto needs with so few adequate shooters on the court.

Against the Grizzlies, Quickley took just one three-pointer in the first half and six in the game, finishing the night with just eight points on 3-for-13 shooting.

"He’s got to see opportunities. I felt that he had a couple of opportunities to get them up that he that he did not take them," Rajaković said. "Also I think that the team needs to look for him more as well, that guys gonna be more aware."

The biggest bright spot lately has been Barrett who has been phenomenal since his return home. He showed it again Monday night with a 29-point performance on 12-for-18 shooting.

The rest of this season is going to require some patience.

There are going to be more lowlights than highlights and the reverse standings don’t even mean that much considering Toronto’s pick situation. But the Raptors are looking ahead to brighter days. The summer is coming and with it should be development. It’s just going to take some time.

Up Next: Los Angeles Clippers

The Raptors will have a few days off before Kawhi Leonard comes to town Friday night for a 7:30 p.m. ET game against the Los Angeles Clippers.