11/9/09
by: Carlos Chaloub
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Last season, the Toronto Raptors' bench ranked 29th out of 30 teams. On average, that bench surrendered 4.2 more points than it produced and was beaten by the opponent's bench in every statistical category imaginable (steals, rebounds, shooting, assists, etc.). The writing was on the wall. The Raptors could not overcome such a big hole in its makeup, and the team floundered badly.
The main culprit in those shortcomings was the backup point guard rotation of Roko Ukic and Will Solomon. While Roko had promise, he was a one-on-one player. Whether he scored or not (often not), the four other players with him were mostly spectators. When your bench players cannot create for themselves, they need to count on the PG to assume that duty. And while Solomon was a decent passer, he was also turnover-prone and killed rallies, if any, as fast as they were started.
Coming into the season, it was clear to all that a decent backup point guard was needed. Bryan Colangelo seized the opportunity by signing Jarret Jack on the free agent market. Everybody lauded the move and expected good things from Jack.
Unfortunately, so far, things have not turned out to be as good as expected for Jack and the Toronto bench. While it's still too early to draw overall conclusions, it is damning to see Toronto's bench get outscored by 3.0 points on average. With good scoring options like Marco Belinelli, solid 2-way players like Rasho Nesterovic, and defensive stalwarts like Amir Johnson and Antoine Wright, Toronto's bench, on paper, should be a lot better than it is right now.
The problem, as I see it, rests on Jarret Jack's shoulders. He was underwhelming in preseason, as the signs were all there to see. He didn't hit a single three-point shot in the entire preseason (0 for 10), he shot miserably overall (TS% of 0.438), was barely decent on distributing the ball, and his defence was not as solid as people claimed it to be. He finished the preseason with a PER of 9.4. But as they say, preseason is preseason. So, he got a pass.
Coming into his seventh regular season game, Jack has been even worse than in preseason. He has the worst PER on the team (6.9), has one of the worst shooting numbers on the team (a true shooting percentage of .464), has a worse Assist% than Roko Ukic last year (17.9%), has the second highest turnover ratio on the team after Amir Johnson (18.8%), and the worst Offensive (92) and Defensive (120) ratings on the entire team. In one word, it's been "disastrous". He currently ranks last in PER among ALL point guards in the league. Instead of helping the team win, he's holding it back.
Fortunately, not all is lost. Jack's career PER is 13.2, so we can all expect a spike in his game at some point during the season, which should translate in a spike in the fortunes of the bench. Currently ranked 23rd in the NBA, Toronto's bench needs to live up to its advance billilng soon if this season is going to have any promise. And Jack is at the heart of the problem and the solution. So, which Jack will show up?
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