Title: Five Raptors offensive stat trends to keep an eye on
Date: November 3, 2023
Original Source: Sportsnet
Synopsis: In my latest at Sportsnet, I took a look at five early-season trends in the Raptors offense that I’ll be keeping an eye on as the sample grows.
TORONTO — The NBA schedule-makers did data-oriented Toronto Raptors fans a favour early on, stacking six games in the first nine days of the season.
The Raptors went 2-4 in those games and probably should be 3-3, despite a tough stretch of opponents. Although that .500-ish performance level should be familiar, how they’ve gotten there has been extreme — the Raptors have been the best team in the league limiting opponents’ effective field-goal percentage and have the worst halfcourt offence in the league. I hope you enjoyed late-90s basketball.
It’s still quite early to draw conclusions. Team-level stats don’t begin to stabilize until around the 20-game mark, and thought we can learn important things early at the individual level, some progressions or regressions need a large sample to make conclusions.
This early, you’re looking for three things: How extreme is the change, how well does it line up with the priors and if there’s a good underlying explanation for the change.
With that in mind, today we’ll look at five stat trends on the offensive side that I’m keeping an eye on over the next couple of weeks. If they continue, we’ll dive deeper into their root causes and takeaways. Early next week, we’ll look at the defensive side.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 