Raptors vs. Bucks – What’s It Really Mean

Posted on by Peter Tran
Giannis Antetokounpo Kawhi Leonard | The Dunk Listt

October 30, 2018 – this will be the date where we can say the undefeated Toronto Raptors match up against the undefeated Milwaukee Bucks. I haven’t done any empirical research, but I can confidently assume that this is the first time that this situation has occurred. The Toronto Raptors, who traded their franchise player in DeMar DeRozan during the offseason, are firing at all cylinders at this point. Kawhi Leonard, a top 5 (arguably top 3) player, feels like he’s almost back to where he was 2 years ago. Kyle Lowry is playing 34.5 minutes per game but has immediate back up help with Fred VanVleet and Delon Wright. Add in the sharp shooting from Danny Green, and the defensive tenacity from the young players like Pascal Siakam, and the Raptors have a real contender.

The Milwaukee Bucks finally figured it out – put a bunch of shooters around your MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo and you’ve got a system that will allow the offense to flow. This meant that Malcolm Brogdon would start and play significantly more than Tony Snell, and Khris Middleton would attempt a career high 7-three pointers a game. It’s about damn time that the Bucks brought in a coach that enforce a real offensive strategy rather than denying Giannis pure freedom on the court. Coach Budenholzer’s reign has brought up more ball movement, Giannis absolutely demolishing anyone who stands in his way, and lengthy defenders! Mix in some veteran players like Brook Lopez, Ersan Ilyasova, and Eric Bledsoe, and the Bucks have figured out a structure that brings out the best out of their players.

Tonight’s match up will draw a lot of attention from all members of both the national media and each local market. To me, this game will identify 3 main things: who the best player in the Eastern Conference is, how will the Raptors defend shooting bigs, and what kind of attitude each team goes into the game with.

Who’s the Best Player

This is obviously the juiciest of the three topics. Giannis vs. Kawhi, the Greek Freak vs. the Klaw. Giannis spent the summer working out and experiencing American corn dogs and just reminded us about how loveable of a person he really is. He’s taken his game to another level this year, as he’s been averaging 25 ppg, 14.2 rpg, and 5.7 apg. In a time when it seems like there’s a triple double every night, we cannot take this for granted as he’s doing this while dominating on defense and having the whole offense run through him. He’s the decision maker now, whether he needs to distribute or beat his defender and go inside.

 

Kawhi, on the other hand, stayed quiet all summer. Even after the trade that he wanted all of last season, he barely addressed it. Instead, Raptors fans were left mourning DeMar’s exit from the team, and the unknown status of their new superstar player. All we knew was that Kawhi was happy to be leaving San Antonio, and that he was involved in what seems like one of the best workouts ever. Not everyone gets to work out with the likes of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and CEDI OSMAN!

We’ve come to realize what we should have realized all summer. Kawhi essentially sat out a whole year so the rust was inevitable. There was no way that someone who only played 9 games in the previous year could come back with zero rust, especially a machine like Kawhi. But after telling us that he’s a fun guy, Kawhi has gone out there and balled. Leading the Raptors to a 6-0 record, Kawhi is doing what we saw him do in San Antonio. Control the pace of the game with a flawless mid range game, and play league leading defense.

Defending the stretch 4 and 5

I hope you see what I did there with the Stretch 4. In the past, the Raptors have had issues covering big men who could stretch the floor. The defense was always rooted in falling back to the pin the centre of the court, so the bigs naturally stayed in the lane while bigs had all the open shots they could handle. Now, with the new system, the Raptors will only see Serge Ibaka or Jonas Valanciunas on the floor at once. Gone are the days where we would see both big men trying to cover the 3 at the same time. The split is simple to understand. Serge covers bigs who are more mobile and can move around more (picture a Kevin Love type of player) whereas JV will typically be matched against more traditional big men who are too big for Serge to cover (envision DeAndre Jordan for this one). So far, the Raptors have matched up against Kevin Love, Al Horford, and Karl-Anthony Towns who would actively stretch the floor. It’s not exactly fair to judge off of the Cleveland game because Love is the focal point of the offense. Against Boston, we saw Ibaka play 33 minutes while Valancianus played less than 15 minutes. Finally, against the Timberwolves, well…let’s just say it wasn’t really an issue covering Towns.

The Raptors will be forced to see Giannis at the 5 a lot, at which time Coach Nick Nurse will have an interesting decision to make. Do you try to have Ibaka stay with Giannis and inevitably get beat (Giannis is just faster and smoother, plain and simple), or do you go ultra small as well and put a player like Siakam at the 5 and hope he can stay with Giannis? On the other hand, they’ll also have to deal with Brook Lopez who’s a 7’0 3-point shooting centre who doesn’t feel the need to battle for rebounds. Lopez is the exact kind of big man that would have given the Raptors issues in the past and I want to know how Nick Nurse will plan for this.

Attitude

Horay for old-fashioned qualitative analysis! This is purely an eye-test for everyone who’s watching and will determine who leaves this game undefeated. It’s simple really. Who wants it more. Both teams are incredible on defense (Milwaukee is 2nd in the league, while Toronto is 9th) and on offense (Toronto is 4th and Milwaukee is 9th). They’re both going to be contenders to come out of the East along with Philadelphia and Boston, and they both have the arguably best player in the conference. This game will be more about who goes into tonight with their head on straight rather than going in big-headed thinking they’re on top of the world. The season is still young and both of these teams need to remember that. They need to understand that although it’s only the 7th game of the season, the implications are incredibly high for the winner.

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