Why Raptors are Still Effective With Biyombo Starting
By Demar Grant
The Toronto Raptors lineup with Bismack Biyombo starting doesn’t get enough credit. The loss of Jonas Valanciunas can be — and is being — mitigated through the play of Biyombo.
Since the Jonas Valanciunas injury, and the loss in Game 4, a lot of people have been tentative and questioning whether the Toronto Raptors would still be capable of winning the series without their starting center.
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That feeling was warranted since Jonas was definitely the best player in the series. Valanciunas was averaging 18.3 points, 12.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in the first three games. He was the Raptors best player in the series because he was capable of impacting the game on both ends and has been the silver lining of the Raptors offence since the playoffs began.
Now that JV is out, Bismack Biyombo has taken the mantle of the team’s starting center and the team feels as though it has not missed a beat. The offense of Jonas is gone, but the team still looks and feels the same offensively. Everything just happens to be going in more.
Along with the sprouting offense of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, the Raptors have become a defensive fire blanket for the Heat’s offense. The stifling defence and budding offence is due to Biyombo’s presence on the floor. But since it is hard for counting statistics to really quantify the impact that Biyombo is having on the team, his contributions are largely understated.
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First, lets look at the defense. Biyombo is an amazing defender, much better than Valanciunas in fact. JV is a large man with very long arms but he has limitations defensively due to his lack of athleticism. But in the addition of being large and having very long arms, Biyombo also has agility.
In a league where being mobile and covering lots of space on the floor is paramount, having a big that is capable of moving his feet is a massive addition to a team’s defense. There are two situations in which Biyombo is more effective than Valanciunas and they happen very frequently in this series.
The principle action in this entire series has been the high screen and roll usually with Dwyane Wade and who happens to be the center at the time for the Heat, whether it be Amar’e Stoudemire, Josh McRoberts or even Justise Winslow.
When the center sets the screen Wade is apt to drive to the hoop since he’s a slasher. In this situation JV has to sit back and wait for Wade to come to him, leading to either a semi-open mid-range shot, or a chance for Wade to build speed to get to the rim where JV has to contest the layup.
When Biyombo is defending this action, his superior (at least to JV) athleticism and lateral quickness allows him to chase Wade when he comes off the screen. So when Wade is trying to make a layup Biyombo can do more than just contest the shot. He can meet Wade at the rim while moving at the same speed and block the shot.
Though the Pick and roll is the principle action in the series, there are other plays being executed. When the Heat run post-ups for Joe Johnson and Wade, this gives Biyombo the opportunity to be a help defender. So if DeMarre Carroll or DeRozan get beat on the post up, Biyombo has the opportunity to come over and contest the shot at the rim.
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Valanciunas is capable of doing this as well, but where JV is a lumbering big man, Biyombo is a springy rim protector making him able to get over to contest shots that much sooner. Since Whiteside is sidelined, Biyombo can leave his defensive assignment with more confidence because they are less of an offensive threat.
Here for example, Biyombo can easily leave Haslem under the rim and can fully commit to Josh Richardson at the rim.
Now rewatch those clips and notice how Biyombo blocked the shot. The point is he kept both of those blocks in bounds and they were rebounded by teammates. Usually when a shot is blocked by a center they block it emphatically out of bounds. They think a point needs to be proven, “don’t come in here, it’s my house”.
The type of block that sends the ball out of bounds is pretty pointless in the grand scheme of things because the offense gets the ball back and another chance to hoist a shot. Biyombo adheres to the Bill Russell philosophy of shot-blocking: block the shot just enough to stop its momentum, allow your teammate to get the rebound and run in transition. This combination of defense, athleticism and intelligence creates opportunities on offense for other teammates to score.
For all that Biyombo gets one block, someone else gets the rebound, someone else gets the assist and sometimes Biyombo gets the points for running the floor effectively, but usually someone else gets the transition points. All those other stats don’t exist without Biyombo’s initial controlled block.
On the offensive end Biz is making up for the lack of skill that JV usually provides with an excess of will. It’s no secret that DeRozan and Lowry like to shoot the ball and they recognize that Biyombo is a liability in the conventional sense. The Raptors run really simple offense consisting of either isolations for Lowry or DeRozan, or simple screen and rolls with the center.
Biyombo has an extremely muscular, strong, chiseled body that allows him to be a phenomenal screener. When defenders run into him they tend to struggle to get around his screen which leads to a lot of open looks for the ball handler. In the past, effective screening was an intangible, but since the playoffs started the NBA has finally started keeping track of this in the form of ‘screen assists’ during the playoffs.
Biyombo is second in the league in screen assists with 4.2 per game while only playing 20 minutes per game in the playoffs. Meanwhile, JV is fifth with 3.5 screen assists per game in 28 minutes per game. In less time, Biyombo is generating better and more looks for his teammates than Valanciunas. Since the offence is mostly pick and rolls, and Biz is such a great screener, Lowry and DeRozan are able to get better shots on or off the ball.
In Game 5 specifically, Biyombo’s influence was felt the most. Not only defensively, but you could see that DeRozan and Lowry had shots that were more ‘open’ than usual. JV has a wide body, which is also effective for screening, but he lacks the strength that is also required for a hard screen to get his teammates open.
Notice in Game 5 how everything seemed so easy for Lowry, and especially DeRozan. Look at who is screening for him.
DeRozan needs those little pockets around 18 feet to get the floaters and jumpers he likes or a sturdy screen he can curl off of for his cuts to the rim. While Lowry needs screens he can run off for pin downs or dance around for those beautiful 3’s that the Raptors have been starving for.
Biyombo’s screening can make the difference, changing a shot from what would usually be somewhat contested to a clean look. The result of these better looks is more efficient shooting, something the Raptors have struggled with all playoffs
In those pick and rolls Biyombo doesn’t want the ball passed to him, he has hands made of stone and fails to catch a pass that is not completely on target, so to compensate for that he sets the best screens possible for who ever needs them. For DeRozan, Biyombo is the ideal big man to play with since he never hits the roll man anyways.
By shooting instead of passing to Biyombo, DeRozan actually leverages one of Biyombo’s best attributes, his rebounding. Yes, DeRozan is the new king of the Kobe assist.
By rolling to the rim after setting the screen, Biyombo can work on positioning in preparation for a miss of any kind, and if DeRozan does miss the shot Biyombo is there for the tip-in.
Ultimately Biyombo is making a serious impact on the game even though it’s not visible through the box score. Remember there are more ways to contribute to a winning team than points and assists.
Next: ToT-cast: Breaking Down the Raptors Game 5 Win
The tip dunks and blocks will get recognition but they don’t fully display Biyombo’s influence on the game and why the Raptors are still very effective with him on the floor instead of Valanciunas. If you don’t believe it, Biyombo will prove it one hard screen at a time and one controlled block at a time.