Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey is extremely excited about his new team going into the 2015-16 season. After getting swept in the first round of the playoffs last season, Toronto has made some key additions this offseason and they expect to finally be able to make it out of the first round for the first time since the 2000-01 season. Along with the additions of DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph, among others, the Raptors expect to also change up there lineups and style of play a little bit this year too.
Casey stated earlier in the offseason that he believes that the league is trending towards smaller lineups and that he will likely go along with that trend most likely at the expense of Jonas Valanciunas, who led the team in win shares a year ago.
Now Casey has reportedly said that the Raptors plan to have both Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan play off the ball more often this season in the hopes of getting them better shots according to Doug Smith of the Toronto Star.
"One thing we're trying to do was take the ball out of Kyle's hands, take the ball out of DeMar's hands and now we have a playmaker once that does happen," said Casey.
The idea of taking the ball out of Lowry's hands more is interesting because he is the point guard and the Raptors best facilitator. The premise behind taking the ball out of Lowry and DeRozan's hands is to have less isolations on offense and more ball movement so the team can get better shots. Despite the additions they made Lowry and DeRozan are still the two best scoring options Toronto has so it is smart of Casey to try and get them to score as efficiently as possible.
Last season Lowry was an All-Star for the first time as he averaged 17.8 points and 6.8 assists per game. The problem is that his shooting percentage was down to 41 percent from the field and 34 percent from three. DeRozan also saw his shooting numbers go down last season despite averaging 20.1 points per game. DeRozan also shot 41 percent from the field but just 28 percent from three.
Lowry and DeRozan are both great scorers but they are also both coming off of inefficient scoring years. The days of isolations dominating the NBA seem to be coming to an end as the teams that move the ball the most seem to have the most success. The Raptors' additions this offseason gives them more offensive weapons and the ability to play their best two offensive players off the ball more often to get them better shots than they were getting last season.
