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Why is Pat McCaw playing so much for the Raptors? – Raptors Republic

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5 years ago

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When two people see the same thing, they still don’t always agree when asked to recount what it was. That disparity in reality is a constant in our political world today, but it’s just as visible in sports. Pat McCaw is one such guy for the Toronto Raptors, such a lightning rod of disagreement that his talent is less in the eye of the beholder than the beholder himself.

When it comes to McCaw, there is a disconnect between the Raptors coaching staff on one hand and Toronto fans and media on the other. Nick Nurse has always displayed trust and belief in McCaw as a player, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. In only the second game back after a long injury, against the Brooklyn Nets on December 14, McCaw played 29 minutes, fifth-most on the team. He followed that up with 22 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Fred VanVleet’s absence explains the high minute totals, but McCaw seems to be a fixture in the rotation.

Though he shot one-of-seven from the field against Brooklyn, missing all five triples he attempted, the Raptors won his minutes by 11 points despite only winning the game by eight. McCaw’s contributions were a popular topic among media and on Twitter, and Nurse summarized to the media after the game why McCaw played so many minutes.

“I just liked Pat’s energy on defence,” said Nurse. “[Spencer] Dinwiddie and [Joe] Harris, give him a chance to guard one of those two, probably their biggest threats out there in the game, and he was doing a really good job of fitting in on the offensive end.”

Fitting in on the offensive end? That may seem generous from Nurse, but it’s been the company line for a long time. Almost since the Raptors acquired McCaw, Nurse has consistently emphasized his intelligence.

“[I] really like Pat as a player, he’s just such a high-level IQ guy,” said Nurse in October. “He’s always making the right play on defence, he brings a little bit of juice on offence because of his cutting and his passing on offence. And he’s really got great feet. He can chase people and get underneath them and slide his feet and put some heat on some people… He’s got a really unique basketball body, right? Really fast feet, slender but strong enough to break through some things. He gets around screens, misses screens and he’s right back in his guy’s chest. He’s good, I thought it was really good to have him out there. Again, I think the IQ level for him is super high.”

Despite the praise from Nurse, there are arguments to be made against McCaw. His offensive shot-making is questionable. Despite a relative explosion against the Cavaliers, finishing two-of-two from deep, McCaw remains an unwilling shooter. Over his career, he’s shot 72-of-295 from three, which is less than 25 percent. He can’t create his own shot. He has solid numbers finishing around the rim, but he takes so few shots there that it doesn’t overcome his lack of scoring from other areas. To McCaw, though, that doesn’t completely limit what he offers.

“Once my shots start falling it’s gonna be scary, but being able to make plays, be a team player, that’s the biggest thing,” he said. “My defensive awareness, what I bring on the defensive end, is what our team needs. The energy, the effort that I give, each and every possession.”

That shot-making that may or may not become scary is another area of disagreement. While critics can only point to his in-game woes, Nurse and McCaw have a wealth of other data to which they can refer. Famously, the team claimed that Siakam was a good shooter long before that actually manifested in games, and Toronto could make that claim because of the data available from shooting drills, practices, and other such areas of information. None of that is available to those outside the team. But Nurse claims McCaw’s numbers outside of games are promising.

“He’s really shooting the ball well,” said Nurse earlier this season. “He’s going to get some opportunities. We’re going to see that surface at some point here, I’m sure.”

Perhaps the Cleveland game was the start of McCaw’s shooting prowess starting to show itself in actual games.

McCaw’s defensive acumen is another point of disagreement. To critics, he’s actually not fantastic at getting around screens, often smacking into them when tasked with going over. He has effort and length, but too often his freelancing results in open opportunities for his offender. Some publicly available numbers would offer evidence to that point. The team has a defensive rating of 102.9 when he’s off the floor and 105.0 when he’s playing. For a defensive specialist, that’s not fantastic, but it’s not problematic. He’s a role player, probably eighth in the rotation when Toronto is fully healthy, so it’s totally understandable that Toronto would be similar defensively with him on or off the floor.

But when he plays, Toronto’s offensive rating plummets from 109.3 to 104.1, the second-biggest drop among rotation players. It is important to note that because of injury, McCaw has only played in five games, so one good or bad game would swing his on-offs dramatically. Still, according to the numbers, his inability to score in the half-court hamstrings the team, and his defense, though fine and occasionally great, doesn’t offer enough back the other way. Those same realities in the on-offs were true last year as well, when McCaw played a larger number of minutes.

Those numbers don’t seem to concern the Raptors.

“Pat is special defensively, [at] play-making, [with] his size, the way he drives and gets to the paint,” explained Gasol after the Nets win. 

McCaw himself says he doesn’t pay attention to the numbers: “No, I really don’t [pay attention.] What I can control is the only thing I can control. So going out there and playing 100 percent on both ends. I’ll start making shots, but defensively going out there and giving it every possession is all I can really control as a player. That’s what my team looks for me to do, and that’s what I go out there and do every night.”

Perhaps McCaw’s minutes and his trust from the organization and his teammates derive from his structural role on the team. McCaw is a floor-raiser. His usage rate of 9.9 percent is the lowest on the team and ninth-lowest in the NBA among players who play 15 minutes or more per game. Fans and media members see a player who doesn’t do anything as a mark against McCaw, but perhaps the team sees his low propensity to finish a possession as a positive; McCaw’s low rate of using possessions gives more chances to the team’s stars in Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, or Fred VanVleet. That McCaw has the highest turnover ratio in the league, given the same 15 minute per game cut-off, at 21.9 percent, chips away that argument. If McCaw doesn’t hit triples, and often turns over the ball, then it’s much harder to justify a low usage rate as a positive. To that end, McCaw has the third-lowest plus-minus on the team, at minus-five. In comparison, the Raptors have outscored opponents by 155 on the season.

A variety of numbers condemn McCaw’s game, but he doesn’t pay attention to the numbers. “Not really. Just the game [itself]. The numbers are gonna come, especially if I’m playing hard, they’re gonna come.”

Even if the numbers don’t come, it appears McCaw has earned the trust of the Toronto coaching staff. Even a generous reading of his game would show that his defense is good, if not fantastic, but it doesn’t do nearly enough to offset his offensive difficulties. Somehow, that is not at all the reading of the coaching staff. There’s a wide disconnect. That’s often reality in the NBA when one group has far more data, insight, and knowledge than another. But it’s still strange in the case of the Raptors, where fans and pundits have learned over a decade to properly appreciate a unique future Hall of Famer in Kyle Lowry. We’ve learned to applaud Marc Gasol for his offensive contributions without spending too much time on his points per game. Why, then, is there such a disconnect when it comes to Pat McCaw? It’s hard to say, but it’s valuable for fans and especially media members to start trying to find answers.




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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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17 hours ago

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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1 day ago

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

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