In a matchup of the old versus the young, the Toronto Raptors played host to the New Orleans Pelicans to open the 2019-20 NBA season. Fans were treated to an overtime affair, but first-overall pick Zion Williamson ‘s injury meant the matchup lacked the jazz many had hoped for.

The night’s second matchup, the battle of LA, made up for the star-power the first game lacked. LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, and Anthony Davis all played their roles in a back-and-forth game, but it was the Clippers who ultimately came out on top.

If opening night was any indication, NBA fans are in for one of the most entertaining NBA seasons in recent memory.

Ibaka’s stubborn offensive game

With Marc Gasol struggling to start the season, Serge Ibaka has seen a good share of minutes off the bench, especially on the second night of a back-to-back against the Bulls on Saturday. Most of his usage is as the screener in the 1-5 pick and roll, which allows him to either roll to the basket or pop out.

After receiving the pass in the pick-and-pop, Ibaka usually sizes up him man to take the jumper without dribbling. If the shot isn’t there, he almost always pump fakes before putting the ball on the floor and trying to drive for a finish at the rim. This works from the midrange, where is Ibaka is an above-average shooter and defenders often bite on his pump fakes. Occasionally, however, Ibaka elects to pop out beyond the arc.

This is where the problems begin.

Ibaka seems to decide the shot he will take very early when he is behind the arc. He isn’t a great three-point shooter and rarely shoots the three unless he is left on an island, so his defender (should) know better than to bite on his pump fake. This leaves Ibaka’s defender anticipating a drive and in solid position to contest.

Here, Wendell Carter Jr. does exactly that: he refuses to flinch on the pump fake, stays in front of Ibaka on the drive, and bothers him enough to force the airball. If Ibaka didn’t have tunnel vision for his shot at the rim, he might have noticed Powell wide open for three when Ryan Arcidiacono gambled for the steal, or Terence Davis Jr. under the hoop for a dump-off pass.

Ibaka’s stubbornness wouldn’t be a problem if he spaced out to the midrange after setting screens; however, with all of the Raptors’ ball handlers preferring to drive rather than shoot, don’t be surprised to see these frustrating plays at least a few times every night.

The Raptors’ new starters

The departures of Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green meant Nick Nurse would have to revamp the Raptors’ offence without the team’s most potent isolation scorer and three-point shooter from the season prior. Together, Leonard and Green combined for 30% of the team’s field goal attempts (FGA) per game last season, which would have to be distributed by Nurse this year.

As expected, Pascal Siakam has seen the largest increase on the team. He now takes the lion’s share of the team’s shots, almost doubling to 24% from 13.2%. Lowry has seen a similar increase as well, attempting 5% more of the team’s field goals than he did a year ago.

(Interestingly, Lowry has done this with no meaningful change in his usage rate—while also averaging 6 more points per game. He’s done a good job of taking shots in the rhythm of the offence and getting to the line more, doubling his free throw attempts from last year.)

So, where have the other half of Leonard and Green’s shots gone? Fred Van Vleet and OG Anunoby have dived them up amongst themselves.

Van Vleet has been playing like he did in the NBA finals as opposed to how he did the rest of the playoffs. He’s been aggressive as the pick and roll ball handler, exploiting mismatches, and shooting aggressively. To some extent, he has taken over for Kawhi’s ball-handling duties.

Likewise, Anunoby has taken over for Green as the team’s floor spacer and corner shooter. He rarely handles the ball or has play calls for him, but patiently waits on the weak side for kick-outs. It has served him well so far, allowing him to average 12.3 points through the first three games of the season.

If both Van Vleet and Anunoby can keep this up, the Raptors will be in good shape this year. The best-case scenario would be Normal Powell playing himself into favour and receiving more shots since he is the team’s best isolation threat when Siakam and Lowry are on the bench. Seeing Gasol receive some low-post touches would be nice as well.

Ilyasova’s aggressive charge drawing

Last year, Milwaukee’s Ersan Ilyasova led the NBA with 49 charges drawn. The difference between him and second place Blake Griffin was 19 charges—the same as the difference between Griffin and 28th ranked DeMarcus Cousins. In fact, over the past three seasons (since the NBA first made the stat available as part of their “hustle stats”), no player has drawn more charges than Ilyasova, who has amassed 117.

Most players simply avoid drawing charges—who can blame them for getting out of the way when an NBA player is barrelling down the lane at full speed. Furthermore, the difference between a charge and a blocking foul is razor-thin, but the swing is very large, with the former being an offensive foul and turnover while the latter usually results in an and-1 opportunity.

However, the players that do seek out charge drawing opportunities—Ilyasova, Griffin, Lowry, pre-injury DeMarcus Cousins, and a younger Anthony Tolliver—all do so in an extremely aggressive manner. They rotate early and often from the weak-side to set up in front of the charge circle, and when on-ball, shuffle their feet aggressively to beat their man to a spot on the perimeter.

Ilyasova is perhaps the most aggressive charge-drawer in the NBA today, and it’s not hard to catch. On the defensive possession after a score against Houston, Ilyasova set up three times to draw a charge in the span of 8 seconds—all without surrendering an advantage to the offensive. First, he stops Harden in his tracks at the foul line, then he stymies Gordon’s isolation attempt on the perimeter, before finally cutting off McLemore at the elbow.

Ilyasova didn’t draw a charge on the possession, but his aggressiveness (and reputation) forced the offensive to think twice about taking another step towards the basket. Unfortunately, Ilyasova committed a blocking foul the next time around trying to do the very same thing.

Banner image courtesy of Forbes