BURSTThe Toronto Raptors have never started a younger group of players than they did on Thursday.
This year, their 30th as an NBA franchise, has been all about looking to the past — both the parts worth honouring and the parts that would be better left forgotten if they weren’t a prelude to better days. Three decades is a long time to accomplish just about every anomaly of record, and the Raptors have certainly started worse lineups. But believe it or not, given the tone of the fanbase with Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper waiting in June, they’ve also been far more aggressive than this in starting a less-than-their-best group. Aron Baynes as the starting small forward, things of that nature.
Still, a franchise that spent its first two decades constantly looking to the future had never started a group younger than the 22 years and 187 days that a returning Scottie Barnes, Jonathan Mogbo, Ochai Agbaji, Gradey Dick and Ja’Kobe Walter averaged. Ironically, their G League affiliate, Raptors 905, started a significantly older starting five at the G League Showcase in Orlando earlier in the day.
“That’s crazy,” Agbaji said with a smile after being informed he was the oldest starter.
It went about how you’d expect, with a 101-94 loss to a Brooklyn Nets team that is, at an organizational level, doing what they can to slow down their 11-16 start.
For example, the Nets recently traded Dennis Schroder for a net of two extra second-round picks, a nice piece of asset rehabilitation after taking him on in a salary dump from the Raptors at last year’s deadline. They’ve been cautious with the return of several injured players and were without Cam Thomas and six others in this one. The Nets had cooled off from their 9-10 start by nature of regression, but their front office is also pulling some of the same levers we’ve seen the Raptors pull late in the Tampa Tank or last year, trying to put a thumb on the scale of their eventual lottery odds.
(The Nets and Raptors feel destined to do this forever. It was the Nets whom the Raptors beat in the Ben Uzoh Triple Double Game on the final day of the 2011-12 season. That win hurt the Raptors lottery odds, landing them Terrence Ross instead of a shot at Damian Lillard. The Nets, meanwhile, didn’t get enough lottery fortune to keep their pick, allowing Lillard to go to Portland thanks to an old Gerald Wallace trade. The Raptors instead traded a pick for Kyle Lowry to resolve their point guard position. I love transactions.)
To be clear, the Raptors’ inexperience alone isn’t a proper excuse for losing this particular close game. (Injury caveats momentarily, though Brooklyn had some of their own.)
The Nets are not very good, and the game was very winnable until the final minutes. Cam Johnson and Ben Simmons largely out-executed the Raptors in the game’s closing moments, with Toronto’s screening actions to help Scottie Barnes — and Barnes’s aggression against those switches, in-kind — proving ineffective to match punches. The Raptors were uncharacteristically hammered on the glass at both ends, didn’t play as well in transition as their youth normally dictates, and actually won the three-point battle but couldn’t finish in the paint whatsoever, shooting a paltry 50 per cent in close.
The absences explain some of this away. RJ Barrett and Davion Mitchell were late scratches with an illness and a shoulder strain, respectively, thrusting heavier minutes onto the rookie trio of Walter, Jamal Shead and Jamison Battle. All three provided a mixed bag with some highs and lows, but even if they’d been great, that group can’t yet replace Barrett’s ability to create for himself or others, and Mitchell would have been one of the better options to turn the tap off on Johnson.
More notably, Jakob Poeltl missed the game with a bilateral groin strain, and even if he’s not the team’s best player, he is the most difficult to replace, outside of Barnes. There is nobody on the roster who can approximate his skill as a screener, as a post defender, as a rebounder, or even as a ground-bound roll threat. Kelly Olynyk is still fairly fresh from injury, and while he can replicate some of Poeltl’s passing verve on the offensive end, he’s an inferior defender.
Mogbo drew the start in Poeltl’s place, making him the most interesting watch on the night. The Raptors opted to start relatively small, having Mogbo as the de-facto centre on Nic Claxton, with Barnes on Simmons, allowing the Raptors to freely switch Brooklyn’s primary initiating option. Claxton was ejected in an odd moment when he launched a ball into the stands, and Brooklyn’s bench bigs are larger, able to scoop up rebounds at both ends. (If not finish; Day’Ron Sharpe had an all-time tough game finishing on his chances at the rim.)
The options Mogbo brings as a smaller five are still intriguing. Defensively, the team has been better with him on the floor, as Toronto gets switchier and more aggressive, with their ability to force turnovers skyrocketing compared to a more conservative approach with Poeltl. The utility of that option can be matchup-dependant, and Mogbo works well defensively alongside Poeltl, too, but a Barnes-Mogbo defensive frontcourt could be an intriguing option in time.
Offensively, Mogbo’s skill level provides room for real optimism. He’s studied players like Draymond Green to see how they use their aggression and playmaking to make it work as an undersized five, and Mogob’s ability to flash into space and make quick reads as a passer projects well. There’s more space in the NBA game, but Mogbo’s still learning that those spaces close quickly.
“It’s definitely faster. College, you know, you have some time,” he said before the game. “I feel like that’s what we’ve got to do, if you’re in that position as an undersized five: Just use your IQ and quickness and it’ll be fine.”
There were moments Thursday when it looked more than fine. Mogbo tallied four assists, including a couple of zippy kick-outs from the middle of the floor to shooters. He also worked well with Barnes and Dick in one of the team’s favourite screen-the-screener actions, finishing a lob from Barnes with authority. At the same time, there’s a swath of floor in the area between the rim and the elbow where Mogbo is still figuring out how and when to attack, and learning the touch on those tougher floaters.
“There is a lot, for sure, for him. He is learning a lot and every time,” head coach Darko Rajakoovic said pre-game. “When you learn different positions that he’s played lately, different matchups, at some point it comes to you slowing down a little bit with your aggressiveness. But we are working through that, and we want him to be aggressive, we want him to be forceful and when he does that, he’s the player that we like.”
The Raptors learned a lot through their so-called Vision-6’9” era, and just because they eventually moved off of Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby ahead of the trade deadline last year doesn’t mean those lessons went out the door, too. They’ve learned the importance of a stabilizing centre like Poeltl, to be sure, and Thursday affirmed his impact. Still, the general idea that having more long, skilled, switchy forwards makes you versatile at both ends remains true. Mogbo’s development will remain a key in feeling out how big a part of this next era such looks can become.
Those are unknowns the Raptors will continue to probe throughout the season as health and necessity dictate. For Thursday, there were a few important “knowns” loudly confirmed: Even a fun, young team isn’t very good when playing without almost all of their quality veteran players; the youngest starting lineup you’ve ever played might have trouble closing out a close game even against a similar-calibre team; and yes, if the Raptors really need to during their light end-of-season schedule, they’re just a few absences away from being able to lose games against bad teams.
Most important in any of that is the continued exposure and opportunity for an expanding handful of young players. That will help with their development and with the team’s evaluation of their readiness to contribute in the near future, when the hope remains that the “youngest starting lineup in team history” is a stepping-stone footnote when they look back on “eras night” in their 40th season.
