Miami Heat Scouting the Enemy: Toronto Raptors

Shouldering the offensive load

Now, we get to the players that will have the biggest burden on them, especially on the offensive end. We start off with the All-Star guard, Kyle Lowry.

Lowry is extremely underrated, mostly in the eyes of a casual fan that just looks at the empty box-score stats, but that doesn’t show the actual value of Lowry. Have a watch of this analysis of Lowry by Ben Taylor of Thinking Basketball. This will show exactly what Lowry does on the court beyond what the stat sheet can actually account for.

This year specifically however, the Raptors may require Lowry to step up his game offensively. In previous years, he had DeMar DeRozan to share the offensive load with and Leonard on just last season.

This year, there aren’t many offensive weapons that it appears that they can go to. He will have to be their primary playmaker and if the Raptors want to aim higher than just being a potential eighth seed in the playoffs, he has to be more than just an All-Star caliber player.

Finally, we get to Pascal “Spicy P” Siakam. The reigning Most Improved Player will most likely be the number one option. He already set career-highs in each of his statistical categories on last season, while even putting forth a significant increase in his efficiency, that saw him go from a 54 to 62 percent true shooting percentage.

He didn’t stop there. In his first year as a full-time starter in the playoffs, he didn’t disappoint.