How Brandon Ingram has catalyzed Raptors’ offensive surge

The motive why the Toronto Raptors traded for and signed Brandon Ingram was on full show Wednesday night time as he sank a tricky, contested pull-up jumper over Pascal Siakam with 0.6 seconds left to end off the Indiana Pacers. They introduced him in to make arduous pictures. 

By making arduous pictures, Ingram has additionally made offence simpler for his teammates.  

The Raptors’ offence has accomplished a spectacular about-face, leaping from twenty sixth in offensive ranking final season to seventh practically a quarter of the best way by 2025-26, each because of Ingram’s scoring prowess and the cascading impact it is had on others down the roster.  

This comes into focus significantly in a halfcourt setting. Attacking in opposition to a set defence — the place gamers are already matched up with their man and never scrambling again like in transition — has been one of many Raptors’ best weaknesses lately. They’ve ranked within the backside six for 4 consecutive seasons.  

Yet by 19 video games this yr, the Raptors are fifth in halfcourt offence at 103.2 factors per 100 performs (per Cleaning the Glass, which filters out rubbish time). Before their boxing match with the Pacers on Wednesday, they have been second. Even extra, they’re 5.8 factors above the league common of 97.4. The solely full season in franchise historical past the place the Raptors have been additional above league common was 2009-10, at 5.9 factors.  

_{Stats through Cleaning the Glass} 

For as lengthy as the Raptors’ halfcourt offence struggled, the crew lacked a bucket-getter like Ingram. A participant who cannot solely create his personal shot with a stay dribble but additionally make it.  

It counts for a similar two factors as some other basket, however an Ingram turnaround fadeaway over the outstretched arm of the opposing crew’s greatest wing defender actually elicits a unique emotion than, say, a putback or wide-open layup. And whereas it has the identical worth on the scoreboard, Ingram’s spectacular shot-making has a larger contextual contribution.

Scottie Barnes is the starkest instance. Last season, Barnes was the Raptors’ main mid-range artist — he took greater than double the makes an attempt of some other Toronto participant as his taking pictures frequency from that space of the ground ballooned into the 91st percentile, a profession excessive — and he shot a paltry 39.6 per cent on these pictures. 

His total effectivity tanked to a career-worst 52.3 true taking pictures proportion, properly under the league common of 57.6 per cent. (True taking pictures proportion is precisely what it seems like, the true measure of a participant’s offensive effectivity, accounting for the additional level on three-point pictures and for free throws.) This season, Barnes’ true taking pictures has spiked to 59.3 per cent, a profession greatest, as his shot weight-reduction plan has higher match his skills.  

His frequency of working inside simpler play varieties — leaking out in transition, as a roll man, chopping and recognizing up — has elevated. Barnes is setting screens and rolling twice as typically, recurrently slipping them to the center of the ground, the place his outlier passing skill as a ahead has been greatest utilized. When attacking the ring, Barnes has used his mixture of energy and deft contact across the rim to end an additional basket within the restricted space per sport in comparison with final season.  

He nonetheless takes mid-range jumpers, however they’ve come much more typically when defenders sag off him and stay with the shot, or from the open center of a zone. Barnes is taking the mid-range pictures the defence offers him.  

The brawny, six-foot-eight ahead can also be chopping practically twice as typically, taking pictures 15-of-25 (60 per cent) on these makes an attempt. When we consider that his isolation possessions, the place he shot solely 41.7 per cent final season, have been lower in half, it’s comprehensible that he’s averaging the identical variety of factors on fewer pictures.  

RJ Barrett has additionally been a beneficiary of much less demand to create, seeing fewer on-ball reps as a driver and pick-and-roll ball handler. The Canadian wing is able to doing each properly, however his mixed 17.3 possessions completed out of every play sort per sport final season was far too many. That quantity is all the way down to a much more manageable 11.3 now, whereas, like Barnes, Barrett’s chopping is up.  

The frequency is barely a couple of proportion factors larger, however his effectivity is a league-best 1.63 factors per possession (minimal 20 makes an attempt). Barrett has scored on 15-of-20 shot makes an attempt on cuts. Plays like his profitable basket in opposition to the Charlotte Hornets final week, or just like the one under, the place Ingram’s gravity drew an additional defender and the Raptors positioned themselves properly round their new star, are the motive why.

The Mississauga, Ont. born wing can also be averaging a career-high true taking pictures proportion, as much as 60.4 per cent after taking pictures 54.7 per cent final season.  

Barnes and Barrett have been overextended. Now they’re taking pictures which are extra appropriate to their ability units.  

All three of Toronto’s high scorers are enjoying their supreme roles, a prospect that appeared murky to many NBA pundits when the Raptors first acquired Ingram finally season’s commerce deadline. The Raptors remoted lower than some other crew in 2024-25 and Ingram has typically been amongst the very best quantity isolation gamers all through his profession. But as a substitute of conflicting, Ingram’s sluggish play model and coach Darko Rajaković’s “0.5” offence have meshed and located a cheerful medium.  

Ingram is ending the third-most possessions off screens within the league, based on NBA.com. It’s by far probably the most screens he’s utilized in his profession, as Ingram has appeared keen to regulate his sport to Rajaković’s system, using an array of easy actions to get himself into good spots to attain or playmake (he’s an underrated passer).

He’ll typically run off a pin-down display or two (known as stagger screens) out of the nook and both curl it if the defender chases over.

Or step again, pump-fake and go in the event that they go below. 

Another widespread motion Ingram runs is utilizing an Iverson lower, working from the wing space on one aspect of the three-point arc to the opposite, often off a display or two, to assault into open area.  

Running off a cross-screen below the basket right into a pinch-post motion (a post-up on an empty aspect of the ground) has been one other go-to motion, particularly late in shut video games.  

The Raptors have additionally ran an possibility play for Ingram, the place he is been in a position to resolve whether or not to run off a pin-down or a cross-screen from the low block.  

The Raptors are fifth in screens used as a crew within the NBA and first in factors per possession off them (1.26), and Ingram is main the best way.  

The objective of an NBA offence — significantly Rajaković’s motion-heavy, pass-dribble-shoot model — is to create and lengthen benefits. If you beat one participant with movement, screens, passing or dribbling, one other defender should step as much as assist and thus a teammate can be open. Finding the perfect open shot in opposition to a rotating defence, and making it, is the goal.  

But it’s unattainable to realize and capitalize on an benefit each possession. NBA defences can sniff out and foil probably the most artistic set performs and greatest free-flowing sequences. And when the offence stalls out, any person should attempt to beat a set defence one-on-one. Ingram’s skill to make pictures effectively in probably the most troublesome conditions, like when the clock is working down and the crew is out of choices, is invaluable in itself. He leads all high-volume gamers in each mid-range (53 per cent) and pull-up (51 per cent) taking pictures.  

Rajaković has been organising Ingram to succeed, who in flip has arrange his teammates, and it’s all been coalescing into one of many NBA’s greatest offences up to now. It’s additionally made for an entertaining, profitable model of basketball that has been sorely missed in Toronto lately. 

Now the Raptors will see how far their new high-powered offence can take them. Especially in litmus-test video games in opposition to the league’s greatest halfcourt defences within the Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder and Detroit Pistons within the coming months.