Toronto Raptors internal power rankings: Best of February
Picking the five highest-performing Raptors from the past month as the playoff race heats up.
This season, man. To recap:
- October: Title or bust.
- November: Treading water despite injury.
- December: Tire fire.
- January: Just treading water.
- February: … Going for it, by default?
At an NBA trade deadline when everyone assumed a big move had to be made, one way or the other, the Toronto Raptors checked. They made an upgrade at centre — swapping Khem Birch and a lightly protected 2024 first rounder for Jakob Poeltl — and that’s it.
Though fans clearly love Poeltl, many were confused the Raptors didn’t either a) keep adding after acquiring him (to be fair, the Raptors did just get Will Barton on the buyout market), or b) go the exact opposite way and sell off some high-value players.
To be fair, the early returns have been pretty darn positive. At the moment, the 31-32 Raptors have won eight of their last 10, and are one of the hottest teams in the league.
But the stakes are set. How we end up viewing this season depends entirely on whether the Raptors can get into the playoffs, and what they do once there.
With some huge, high-leverage games coming up in March and April, let’s take a look back at February and zero in on the top five Raptors from the month.
1
Pascal Siakam
February games: 11
Key stats: 26.3 PTS/G, 6.7 REB/G, 5.0
AST/G
The Raptors played just 11 games in February due to the elongated all-star break. Exactly one Raptor played in the NBA All-Star Game. You do the math.
Of course, Siakam’s lofty position on this list hasn’t been granted solely because he was Toronto’s lone representative in the mid-season showcase. Simply put, he was also the team’s best player.
Siakam played in all 11 for the Raptors, and led the team in scoring in seven of them. The high point was a 37-point, 10-rebound, seven-assist performance in a dominant homecoming win over the Spurs on Feb. 12.
(For what it’s worth, he also put up 12 points, seven boards, and five assists in 15 minutes in the All-Star Game to help Team Giannis beat Team LeBron.)
2
Scottie Barnes
February games: 11
Key stats: 14.5 PTS/G, 6.9 REB/G, 4.2
AST/G
A reminder that nothing in the NBA is linear — or simple. Barnes had a dismal November, a solid December, and a fantastic January. That’s the progression you want, right?
Well, things fell back to earth this past month. To wit: His shooting percentage dropped from 50.7 in January to 39.4 in February. He struggled particularly inside the three-point line, hitting just 40.4 of his two-point attempts.
And yet ... he still managed to contribute to winning in profound ways. The final game of the month versus Chicago was a perfect encapsulation of this. Quiet and ice cold through three quarters, Barnes put up eight points and four blocks in the final frame. “Fourth-quarter B” was visible, active, and impactful on both ends, and helped secure a key victory against a conference rival.
Barnes also put up his best offensive performance of the month at the perfect time — a 20-point effort in which he went five-for-six from the field and seven-of-10 from the line in a clutch one-point win over Detroit on Feb. 12.
3
Jakob Poeltl
February games: 7
Key stats: 14.1 PTS/G, 2.0 BLK/G,
.741 FG%
Yeah, he played only seven games with Toronto, and started just six. But he was undoubtedly one of the best Raptors in the month, and made it immediately clear why Masai Ujiri and Co. traded the 2024 first-rounder for him.
Despite playing four fewer games than each of the Raptors’ other core big men, Poeltl finished tied for first on the team in total blocks, tied for second in steals, fourth in offensive rebounds, and fifth in defensive rebounds. It probably goes without saying, but he also finished way ahead of the pack in both field goal percentage and true shooting percentage.
Poeltl gives the Raptors the kind of big, physical presence they haven’t had since they parted ways with Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, and his play in the key on both ends has been a welcome sight both for the fans and the team itself.
4
Fred VanVleet
February games: 8
Key stats: 20.3 PTS/G, 7.6 AST/G, 1.4
STL/G
VanVleet couldn’t have asked for a better statistical start to the month, notching a 34-point triple double in a narrow loss at Utah on Feb. 1 and followed that up with a 32-point, five-three effort in a win over Houston two days later. He also had a 35-point performance on Feb. 12 in the aforementioned nail-biter over Detroit.
But in between there was a three-game slump in which he shot 31.3 per cent combined, and he went 1-10 versus Chicago on Feb. 28 to finish the month shooting just 36.8 per cent overall. So it was an up-and-down February offensively for the Raptors’ backcourt leader.
That said, he kept his assist rate up, and the shaky Bulls tilt came after a three-game absence due to welcoming his third child. Anyone who’s ever been a parent to a newborn knows — making even a single bucket in that kind of headspace is somewhat heroic. Huge free pass.
CHRIS BOUCHER. 🤯🤯
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) February 24, 2023
pic.twitter.com/laSq6MaNkw
5
Chris Boucher
February games: 11
Key stats: 10.8 PTS/G, 6.4 REB/G, 1.3
BLK/G
With apologies to Gary Trent Jr., who struggled with his shot for a good stretch mid month but still managed to hit double figures in all but one February game, Boucher earned his spot here with both his consistency and highlights.
The 30-year-old big came off the bench for all 11 games in February, and was easily the Raptors’ Sixth Man of the Month. He was second on the team in shooting efficiency (after only Poeltl), collected at least five boards in all but one game, and added better than a block per night — all in 21.6 minutes per night.
And about those highlights? See above for an example. Usually guys dunking from the free-throw line in February are doing it in the Slam Dunk Contest — not actual games.
Code and markup by Kyle Duncan. ©Torontoverse, 2023