The biggest horror show you'll see this Halloween is the Toronto Raptors' offence

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A spooky stats package for this Halloween edition of the Raptors blog. Be careful, because the offensive numbers the team has put together four games in are truly frightful.

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Toronto has hit just 33% of its three-point attempts so far, 21st in the league.

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If you take away Dennis Schroder’s 50% three-point shooting, a major surprise that won’t continue based on his career .338 rate, and his backup Malachi Flynn’s 3-6 work, the Raptors sit at 28.8%.

The variance has also been astounding, with the Raptors having one of the best shooting performances by a Raptors team in years against Philadelphia (17-32 for 53%, including nailing the first seven threes of the game) only to shoot 4-29 (13.8%, the team’s worst shooting outing in several seasons) in Monday’s disappointing loss against Portland.

Toronto has also hit just 69% of its free throw attempts, ranking 26th. Since finishing third, sixth and fourth in free throw percentage from 2018-2021, Toronto has been 23rd and 17th the previous two seasons.

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In all, Toronto has averaged 100.8 points per 100 possessions, which is last. The worst mark in 2022-23 was 108.4 points per 100 possessions. You’d have to go back to 2015-16 to find an offence this ineffective.

Even the NBA’s third-best defence through four games has earned them a 1-3 record because of how bad the offence has been. Plus, defensive stands end with a rebound and despite the strong defence, the Raptors have been the third-worst defensive rebounding team in the NBA. And that’s despite being a big team with size everywhere.

And if you take out the team’s outstanding work in transition (only two teams have been better on the run), you get a sense of how absolutely putrid the offence has been.

They’ve been horrendous on drives (shooting 30% on drives and are scoring just 18 points off drives which is, you guessed it, last).

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Are they passing too much? Toronto ranked first in passes per game, but just 15th in assists (the team is sixth in potential assists though, meaning the bad shooting is hurting them).

There’s only one way to go as the Raptors enter the first full month of the season and that’s up.

AROUND THE RIM

-The Scottie Barnes triple-double against Chicago was his second in just 154 games as a Raptor. Only three Raptors have had more. Damon Stoudamire had three in 200 games, Pascal Siakam has five so far in 474 games and Kyle Lowry had 16 in 601 games. Marcus Camby had two (with blocks) in only 126 games, but it took Fred VanVleet 417 games to get his two triple-doubles and Jose Calderon 525.

– Barnes has 14 stocks (blocks and steals) through four games. Only Anthony Davis (17) and Chet Holmgren (15) have more.

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– The bad for Barnes: Four turnovers per game against just 5.5 assists for a poor assist-to-turnover ratio. The best player in the league (Nikola Jokic) has also averaged four turnovers per game, but he averages 8.5 assists. Only three players have more turnovers so far.

– More good: Dennis Schroder has averaged 8.8 assists, fifth in the league.

– Now stocked with some draft picks via the James Harden deal, will the 76ers try to reunite Nick Nurse with Siakam or O.G. Anunoby? At some point the Raptors need to decide if they are adding, retooling, or rebuilding.

THREE STARS:

1- DeAndre Ayton

2- Pascal Siakam

3- Malcolm Brogdon

Honourable mentions: Shaedon Sharpe, Scottie Barnes

THREE STARS VS. CHICAGO

1- Alex Caruso

2- Scottie Barnes

3- DeMar DeRozan

THREE STARS VS. PHILADELPHIA

1- Joel Embiid

2- Tyrese Maxey

3- Scottie Barnes

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