Transcription
Hello Raptors fans and welcome back to Raptors Report. I'm your host Julian and today we're going to be looking at the upcoming Raptors versus Cavaliers series. Um I'm very excited to be watching it soon and I hope you are too. I'm going to give you some information on the matchup and what I think will be the sort of pivot points of this series and the important matchups and all of that sort of stuff. So without any further ado, let's jump right into it.
So, I think a lot of this matchup between these two teams is going to come down to the different styles that these teams play. So, the Cavs in this series have a very big halfcourt offense advantage. Uh they've got two really good creators, uh Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, and uh off of the bench pretty good, uh creator as well for a bench guard and Dennis Shruder. and they have a lot of shooters uh guys who can stretch the floor out and good offensive uh big men uh who can set screens, catch and finish. So they have a really good halfcourt attack. Uh the Raptors half court offense on the other hand is pretty poor. Uh they don't have enough shooting at all of their different positions and they don't really have the same level of creation uh that the Cavaliers do. So those are that that's obviously big point in the Cavs favor.
On the other hand, the Toronto Raptors are a much better transition team. They get out way more often and they don't have very big uh transition liabilities. There are a lot of players on that team who are going to be problems in transition that the Raptors might be able to exploit. So, the biggest questions in this series, I think what it's going to come down to are is going to be the Raptors halfcourt defense versus the Cavaliers half court offense. And the other thing that it's going to come down to is the possession war. Uh, and that is uh, you know, rebounds and turnovers. So, the Raptors will win if they can slow down the Cavaliers half court offense uh, enough while dominating the possession war. So creating a lot of turnovers and getting a lot of rebounds, a lot of offensive rebounds. The Cavs will win if they can take good care of the ball and rebound the ball while at the same time just really exploiting the huge gap in three-point shooting and creation. Uh so basically it will come down to a half court battle and if the Toronto Raptors half court defense isn't good enough, they'll just be able to walk all over the Toronto Raptors. But if the Raptors are able to turn them over a whole bunch, uh they can be extremely efficient in transition.
Um, another thing we got to look at is uh the matchups. So, I think at the guard spots, I mean, it is pretty clear that the Cavaliers have a big advantage there. Um, they've got two guys at those guard spots that can and three if you count Dennis Rutder. He has been good in the playoffs in the past, but you know, you can't really depend on him. He's very up and down as we saw with the Toronto Raptors. Let's talk more about uh Donovan Mitchell and uh James Harden. Those guys are obviously excellent creators. They can create for themselves. They can create for their teammates. They can play in isolation. They can play in the pick and roll. They can uh you know, Mitchell's a little bit better off of the ball than Harden is, but they can do that as well. They can shoot both of them. So, they are you know, they've got an advantage there.
The Toronto Raptors on the other hand have an advantage uh in terms of size uh especially towards uh the front court. Uh Ingram Scotty uh Sandro Mamu Kellishvilli those guys are kind of matchup problems for the Cavaliers. They are guys with you know uh that require size be put on them. Uh but that size also has to have good foot speed. you can't really put a big on any of those guys uh and hope to get a good matchup out of it. Um so the Cavs have two rotation players uh that can guard forwards like that's really what those guys are. Ingram, Scotty, and Mamu. Uh they are forward- sized players on offense. And those are the the only two guys on the the roster for the Cavaliers who can guard that that type of player are uh Dean Wade and Evan Mobley. And uh in switch situations, you know, you could probably put Allen on um Scotty Barnes or Ingram or Mamu in a pinch, but it's not a matchup that you're going to be looking for. Uh Keon Ellis is a guy they brought in. Um he is a good wing defender, very disruptive as well. He can get in the passing lanes, he can, you know, create turnovers and all that, but he's 6'4 and he's like 190 pounds and he's not going to be big enough really. you don't want to be playing him against uh Mamu or Scotty or Ingram. Uh Jaylen Tyson is also a good defender. Uh but he's also 66. Um probably be more comfortable with him taking those matchups, but it's still a matchup advantage in my opinion for the Toronto Raptors if either of those guys are going to be guarding uh the Toronto Raptors uh bigger front court.
Uh Dean Wade is really important here. Uh he is their kind of forward defender and he is a good role player. He is a pretty good defender. Uh like he can move. He's, you know, big and strong. He's 6'9. Uh can move his feet. He he's he's a solid player, but he has to be able to show that he can match up against Brandon Ingram. Of course, they're going to send help on that matchup, too. They're going to mix it up, but Dean Wade has to be a positive in that matchup, and that's going to be a big question mark here. Um I think that you could put Moy onto Ingram. I think that that that's a possibility. I I thought about that and you know Moy is fast enough but if that happens then you know maybe you're getting a good matchup uh with Scotty Barnes uh on the inside uh or maybe if you know Moy is the only big on the floor maybe pulls him out of the paint you you may you may not want that to happen so it could open some stuff up. So Dean Wade is is very important in this series.
Uh the backup big situation is also going to you know tilt towards the Toronto Raptors. Uh the Cavs like the Cavs like to stagger uh Mobly and Allen. They'll play them together. They'll stagger them as well in order to have to to prevent having to play Thomas Bryant too much. Thomas Bryant is, you know, he's a big body. Uh he's not like super tall, but he's very stout. Um but he's a horrible defender in space, so he can't defend away from the basket, meaning that the Toronto Raptors are going to have, you know, faster big men than uh the Cavs off of the bench. So, can you exploit that match up? The Thomas Bryant matchup. Thomas Bryant has his own strengths and weaknesses. He's good rebounder. Uh, he can play next to the basket, but, you know, I'm putting the Raptors ahead in that category in terms of the backup big. So, now this is the playoffs, of course, and rotations shrink and they're going to be a little less punished. Uh, not having a really good backup center option, the Cavs are because, as I mentioned, the rotations are going to be smaller. They're going to be playing their top two guys, Moly and Allen, more often and and you know, they get time off between the games. They're going to be able to recuperate. This is go time. They're going to be playing their top guys more minutes.
But maybe the Toronto Raptors could get like a fatigue advantage here if the Toronto Raptors uh, you know, were able to sit Scotty uh for a little bit longer during the game. uh, you know, having Purle and CMBB and Mamu uh available to come off of the bench and uh play major minutes in the front court, you could get different matchups, maybe one matchup will work and the Cavs might not have a counter punch to that. Uh if the Toronto Raptors find like a really exploitable matchup in any of those front court situations, then the Cavs don't have a ton of options uh in order to address it. They they are a little weaker in the front court outside of their top two. I think that the Toronto Rappers should try and play uh bigger lineups um than the Cavs and a lot of that will be to try and create mismatches on offense and try and limit how many guards the Cavs can play at any given time. I think that the Cavs are going to try and play small, uh, be able to use their full rotation of of guards and wings, and I think that the Toronto Raptor should counter that by playing larger lineups like lineups with CMBB, Mamu, uh, Scotty, uh, Ingram, like these are bigger guys, and the Toronto Raptors can have a bunch of them out uh, at the same time, and I think that that will help them win the the possession battle. I think they could gain a distinct rebounding advantage if they're able to play big and not get too punished uh by the shooting of the Cavaliers. And I think that that kind of plays into what the Toronto Raptors should be looking to do in this series, which is decisively win the possession war. Uh I think that they should try and outrebound the Cavaliers and they should try and create as many turnovers as possible uh against the Cavs so that they can run, get out in transition, and just get more shot opportunities. A lot of the time, offensive rebounds lead to a better uh shot attempt than the original shot that you get. So, if you can get a whole bunch of offensive rebounds, you know, your offense is going to look better.
Now, in terms of defending, uh this is going to be pretty interesting because I expect um the Toronto Raptors to put Scotty Barnes on James Harden. That's what they did when they played against the Clippers this season. they had Scotty Barnes either as the primary defender or in certain situations they would switch and Scotty would be left uh guarding James Harden on the perimeter and there were good very good aspects of it and some that weren't as good. So, against the Clippers, when Scotty was guarding Harden, he had a couple of problems navigating screens, like the Zubot screen in particular, uh, in the pick and roll, uh, he was able like he got pushed off of that screen and, uh, James Harden was able to get a free lane into the paint. Um, I don't think that's going to be as big of an issue. Uh, I I don't think that Jared Allen is going to be uh providing the same level uh like the same quality of screen as Zubots did because Zubots is a lot bigger, like a lot beefier than Allen is. So, you know, maybe that won't be as much of a problem. Uh, they also used blitzes uh on Harden when Shed and Mamu were on the floor. Um, and that is uh something that I think that they can continue to do. uh against the Cavaliers. So, Harden is a very good passer, but I've been looking at some of the Cavs games uh uh in advance for this, doing some scouting, and in particular, one of the games that I looked at because they they have a very disruptive defense as well, was uh their game against the um the Thunder, which the Thunder won. And in that game, they had a lot of success uh with two different strategies um that they would sort of use at different times. So they would put Isaiah Hartinstein into a deep drop and then invite James Harden to turn the corner and go to the rim. You know, James Harden is a good scorer and he did score a number of times on that. But then they also mixed in some um blitzes and some hard hedges in order to get the ball out of his hands. And when they did that, they were able to generate turnovers. In fact, they jumped out to a huge lead just based on the turnovers that they were creating with these kind of traps that they were setting for James Harden. Um, so I think that that is something that they can utilize. I think that hard hedging and uh, you know, blitzing the pick and roll is something that you're going to have to play by ear. If you feel like you can get a big advantage out of it or you trust your rotations enough, I think that that is something that you can mix in.
Uh, the Raptors are also a team that likes to switch pick and rolls. And I think that'll be really effective when it is Scotty Barnes and CMBB in the front court. Uh, and when Purle and uh, Mamu are kind of off the floor. I mean, Scotty Barnes is maybe even the primary defender on James Harden. So, if he is covering a big and you have maybe, you know, um Jacobe Walter guarding uh James Harden, then he's not even going to want to have a screen come up uh because it'll just put Scotty Barnes onto him, right? Same with uh CMB. Is he going to even want to have a screen come over when he knows that they are just going to switch and have uh CMB guard him? Uh, so that is like an advantage that the Raptors have uh when they have that lineup going, which is why some people are suggesting that they start them. I don't know if I'm there yet, and I'm going to get to why that is. Switches essentially turn a pick and roll into like either a an isolation when the ball handler has the ball, or it it can turn into a postep because there's a a mismatch uh when you have a small guarding a big in the post. although that is more difficult to exploit because it's harder to uh do a post entry feed uh because the help defense can commit more like you can literally just have a guy run into the post as soon as the ball leaves the the uh ball handler's hands. Like you have to be pretty close in order to throw that pass without it getting picked off. So that is a really good option for them uh is switching the pick and roll as long as they don't have a really exploitable matchup. Like you do not want to switch uh when Purle is on the floor. You do not want Purle uh in space against Harden or uh uh Donovan Mitchell. It's just not a good idea. When Ple and Mamu are on the floor, they should be hedging and they should be uh blitzing, not switching. Do not switch. The blitzing can work, but you need to have your defense on a string. You need to have the help defense ready to come and help out in on the role. Importantly, this is um, you know, something that they already do, but it's going to be interesting to see if they can uh adequately pre-switch screens, like avoid having Purle come into the pick and roll entirely. And they do this quite a bit. Like they try and identify who is going to be used in the screen enroll and then have uh, you know, either Scotty or CMB uh go out uh onto the perimeter in that play so that it's not an advantage situation where Purle is guarding on the perimeter. But it's going to be a cat-and- mouse game uh on the defensive end to try and figure out how the Toronto Raptors are able to guard that pick and roll uh with Harden uh and Donovan Mitchell. Um, but there's potential that the Toronto Raptors could do it very well and they're going to have some time to experiment with lineups and also different coverages and and find the sweet spot, but they're going to have to fine-tune things and figure out what works and what doesn't pretty quickly. Uh, otherwise, you know, they might just get blown out of the water.
Uh, the Raptors should be trying to run on makes and misses. They need to win the the rebounding battle so that they can end a possession and get out onto the break. um they need to be turning the Cavs over and part of that is going to be, you know, an aggressive help defense uh scheme that can uh generate turnovers. So, like I don't think that they can be too scared of the Cavs um shooting. Like I think that there there has to be a healthy balance there where they're not staying entirely home on the shooters. They're playing in the passing lanes, taking a couple of risks and hoping that they can recover in time uh onto the Cavs shooters. they've got to be a little risky and and try and mix it up that way so that they can get out in transition. The Raptors this season were top three in terms of uh frequency that they got out in transition, which is obviously very good, but only the 45th percentile in terms of points per possession. That is okay. Like it's obviously not ideal, but the fact is is that they're getting out in transition and generating those uh opportunities because even like a bad fast break is better than what the Toronto Raptors are able to generate in the half court. So, I I'm okay with it trying just trying to push the pace and and get those easy baskets. I think that in transition and in semi-transition like a lot of the time uh teams are able to kind of stop the ball but even in that situation you can get crossmatch scenarios where you know you have a big cover covering a small or let's say you have a really favorable matchup like James Harden that James Harden is a a terrible uh transition defender. uh if he's in space uh one-on-one in transition, he's he is not stopping the ball. Uh you can get all the way to the rim. You basically want to find him on the fast break and just take the ball right at him to the rim. um and this is something like that the Raptors can exploit. As I mentioned, the transition game, a lot of the time teams can stop the ball in transition, but they can only do it by creating some kind of mismatch. And uh, you know, the Cavs are going to try and hide Donovan Mitchell and James Harden on defense, but sometimes you can't do that in transition and the Raptors are going to want to try and exploit that.
Now, in terms of the Toronto Raptor half court offense, uh one of the things that they should be trying to do is uh getting the Cavs guards into a pick and roll situation with Emanuel Quickley and Yakob Purle. I think that they've got to try that. I think they will try that. um they are going to try and exploit that kind of matchup uh in the half court and I think that it it could bear fruit for the Toronto Raptors if they can get like a decently effective breadandbut play in the half court that they can go back to for easy points. I think that this this uh series might be a a little bit closer than you would otherwise think. Um, obviously the Cavs are able to lend help in uh the half court a lot more effectively than the Toronto Raptors are because the Toronto Raptors aren't as good of a shooting team. So, it's always going to be a little bit more muddy for the Toronto Raptors because they don't really have the same type of spacing. Um, so, uh, I I think that they can get favorable matchups, uh, matchups that they like, uh, in the half court, but it will be all about punishing the help defense of the Cavaliers. If they send a body over, uh, the Toronto Raptors should be trying to get open three-point looks for good shooters. So, I'm talking like uh, Quickley, Jacobe, Mamu, Brandon Ingram, maybe RJ if he's feeling it that day. Those are the guys that should be getting open three-point looks. and if they're able to exploit that by hitting those shots or if you know you can create some chaos and you can get some cuts. Uh cuz a lot of the time if you send a help defender or if you have a guy waiting in the gap trying to lend some help uh on drives if there's a mismatch cuts are a good way of exploiting that as well. It's not just all about the shooting. There's also like good opportunities for dump offs and uh postups. Um, postups are something that I could foresee working quite well in this series because there's going to be a lot of cross matches and there's going to be a lot of size disparity with the Toronto Raptors. Uh, if Scotty Barnes ever gets a smaller player put onto him, I really want to see him go to the the post up. I want to see him uh force the defense to come over and help uh so that he can use his passing. I think uh the Cavs are going to try and get away with having multiple smaller players on the floor and the Raptors really cannot let them do that.
Um, and uh, you know, the I I'm trying to talk in generalities here because we could get into as like a ton of um, you know, discussions about players and uh, this player versus this player, that player versus that player. But I wanted to just kind of talk in generalities in order to sort of sus out the themes that I think are going to be present in this series and and what it's going to come down to. But this is going to be a creative series. Um, it's going to be that clash of styles that I've talked about many times uh with the Raptors this season. Uh whether the Raptors are going to be able to be that run and gun team that's able to generate a ton of turnovers that's very disruptive, very good defensively and you know just just enough contribution in the half court to get over the finish line. Uh or whether the Cavs are Cavs are just going to be able to shoot the lights out. um basically just force help defense with their two superb creators and then kick it out to a really good three-point shooter. Uh like is that going to be deadly for the Toronto Raptors defense? We're going to see the adjustments. Like I could foresee multiple players on both sides just being played off of the floor. Like is Purle going to be able to stay on the floor defensively? Um, are some of the backup guards like is like Max Streus, uh, Sam Merrill, uh, Dennis Shruder, are those guys going to be able to be effective? Will having shed on the floor, will it be feast or will it be famine? Uh, Jamal Shed is sort of the bellweather for how uh, the Toronto Raptors uh, do during a game? And part of that is just because he is very much about that possession war battle, the transition battle, and he is very much not about the halfcourt game. Uh, so like if he's playing really well, the Raptors are running, he's making assists, he's generating turnovers. If the Raptors aren't playing well, you know, it's because Jamal shed, they're helping off of him every possession down the floor. And your creators uh are being swarmed by help defense.
So, I I'm really interested to see which team comes out uh on top here, like which team is going to have the advantage because I I I think the Cavs are favored. Like, I don't want to mislead you. the Cavs have the advantage uh on paper right now, but I I really need to be able to see whether the Raptors can exploit some of the areas where they are the strongest and whether the Cavs are able to exploit the areas where they're the strongest. There's going to be a lot of back and forth. I think that there will be uh times when the Raptors don't score for like four minutes just because their half court offense is so crapola. But then I think there will be like those avalanches that we see during the season where they're able to stack up multiple stops slash uh turnovers uh able to score in transition. Maybe somebody gets hot from three, that kind of stuff. So I'm really intrigued to watch this series. I think it should be a very rewarding one and uh hopefully the Raptors are able to come out on top.
There's so much to talk about here. I'd love to know what you guys think about this series. Please let me know in the comments. uh whether I missed anything, whether there are things you disagree with, let me know. Um, but as always, yeah, this is that's the episode. Um, please leave a like and subscribe if you haven't already. Really helps the channel grow, helps the algorithm know that this is content that other Raptors fans would like to watch. And also, please watch the podcast. We do it every Monday, uh except this coming Monday because there is a game. We'll be pushing it back a day, doing it on Tuesday as we uh usually do when there's a game on Monday. So, come by, hang out with the other people in the chat uh at the time at 8:30 on Tuesday. Or if uh you can't catch it live, just go on Spotify or YouTube the day afterwards. You can watch the whole thing there. Uh also, please join the Discord. There's a link in the description. If you're on Discord, you might as well come and join. There is a uh big uh Raptors fan base there uh talking Raptors and NBA. So, come on down there. And as always, thank you for tuning in to Raptors Report, your source for in-depth Raptors content.