Raptors vs Hornets

03/29/2025 12:55 AM

TORONTO — For long stretches of the first half against the Charlotte Hornets Friday night, the Toronto Raptors were able to put three capable shooters around Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl. 

It makes perfect sense. They are the Raptors’ two most important players, but in Barnes’ case, he’s not a very good three-point shooter, and in Poeltl’s, he’s a non-shooter entirely.

But with Immanuel Quickley, Jamison Battle and the improving Ja'Kobe Walter on the floor, things seemed to fit. Battle and Walter would start some or most sets spread wide to the corner, and with Quickley having the ball at the top, there was plenty of room for Poeltl to act as a screener or work with the ball as a passer in dribble hand-off actions, and still leave space for Barnes to operate. 

It worked, too, in the moments that Cole Swider, who the Raptors recently signed on a 10-day contract, was on the floor with Barnes and Poeltl as well. 

It's something the Raptors would love to do more: spread the floor with quality shooting. It can come internally — Walter hit three triples on seven attempts and has made nice strides there in his rookie season. Or it can come externally, such as getting lucky with someone like Swider, who has shot 44.7 per cent from three on nearly 10 attempts a game over three G-League seasons, but hasn't been able to gain traction in the NBA yet. 

He’s hopeful that can change here in Toronto. 

"They’ve had a great track record of having two-ways get converted to contracts and guys with contracts getting converted to bigger contracts," he said with knees wrapped in ice after playing his first game at Scotiabank Arena. "So super excited to be here. I think it could be a great opportunity."

The Raptors are locked into a lot of meaningless basketball between now and the end of the regular season on April 13. 

But that doesn't mean that it has to be useless. The Raptors’ 108-97 win over the visiting Charlotte Hornets was a case in point. 

The Raptors executed well defensively, holding the Hornets to 40.6 per cent shooting and generating 19 points off 18 turnovers. They were at least passable in their offensive execution, shooting 44 per cent from the floor (dragged down by converting just 14 of 44 threes) and making just six turnovers of their own against 28 assists.

Poeltl led with 24 points and 12 rebounds on 12-of-14 shooting, while Immanuel Quickley had 19 points and nine assists. Scottie Barnes had 18 points and six rebounds and helped hold Miles Bridges, the Hornets’ rugged forward, to 11 points on 4-of-20 shooting. 

Friday’s outcome shouldn't materially impact the draft lottery positioning. The Raptors have largely missed out on any opportunity to finish with anything higher than the seventh-best lottery odds, and even with the win over Charlotte, remain five games clear of sliding backwards into eighth.

But there are still gains to be made.

The Raptors have had some nice wins from a player development point of view this season, for example, one of them being Battle, the undrafted shooter out of Ohio State who earned an exhibit-10 deal out of Summer League, was promoted to a two-way deal out of training camp and signed a three-year deal for $5.25 million on Feb. 7. 

But you can never have enough shooting, and the Raptors — who rank 29^th in the NBA in three-point attempts and makes — need more. 

A good shooter is hard to find, it would seem. But then you see the likes of Duncan Robinson (Miami), Sam Hauser (Boston), Max Struss and Sam Merrill (Cleveland) and Joe Harris (a second-round pick who led the NBA in three-point percentage twice before injuries derailed his career), and it's clear that capable NBA players are out there, sometimes in plain sight. 

So it's no surprise the Raptors used a 10-day contract on Swider, a six-foot-eight wing who has shot the ball great at every level except the NBA. 

A cynic would point out that given the premium put on three-point shooting across the league these days, there must be a reason that someone with his size and stroke is now on his fourth NBA team, having been passed over by the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons. 

The other view is that there are few jobs harder than staying ready and being able to knock down threes in limited NBA minutes, and all someone like Swider needs is an opportunity to feel comfortable, and he'll be able to make shots at the NBA level, too. 

It hasn't happened yet. Before last night, in 28 NBA games over three seasons, Swider, 25, had shot just 29.8 per cent from three on just 1.7 attempts per game.

He knows it, too. He's so close he can feel it. But the shots have to go down when the opportunity presents itself. 

"That’s the obstacle that I have to overcome. Right?" he said Friday night after going 2-of-5 from the floor and 1-of-4 from three in his 19 minutes off the bench. "Guys like Duncan Robinson (an undrafted career 40-per-cent three-point shooter who is in his seventh season with Miami), all these (shooters) if they get 10 attempts, 12 attempts, they're gonna make their fair share, right? 

"And I think that that’s what I’ve mastered in the G League and in college as a starter. But that’s my next obstacle. I've got to overcome in the NBA to make it and prolong my career. So that’s something that I think about all the time, something I work on in the summer … but I have faith. I mean, I put the work in. I try and do all the right things."

The Raptors see the potential. He's got good size, moves well, and is physically strong enough to at least compete defensively at the NBA level. And the idea of surrounding Barnes — or Barnes and Poeltl — with additional shooting is enticing. 

"When you have more shooting on the floor, it helps with your spacing. I also do think that it helps with your ball movement as well," said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. "Because when you have great shooters on the court, defence is going to be more intense on a close out, which is going to create more driving opportunities and more driving-and-kick opportunities. So I think it’s very important to have those guys on the floor, and you know, especially when they’re making shots. That’s really good."

Swider's only made three Friday came as he sprinted to the corner midway through the fourth quarter, caught a skip pass from Quickley and knocked down a clean look. It's the way it's supposed to work. 

But making shots isn't everything. Sometimes, even being present as a shooter and drawing defensive coverage can make a player effective. Battle was 0-of-5 from deep, but he's earned the trust of the Raptors, in part because everyone knows that when he gets some daylight, he's going get a shot up. He's hoisting nearly 10 attempts per 36 minutes. 

It's an example for Swider: make or miss, you have to shoot, believing that the makes will come. 

"One of my G-League coaches this year, he came to me saying 'have an open fist mentality.' And the first time I heard it, I was like, What do you mean by that?" Swider said. "He’s like, you know, when you’re all clenched up and you want it so bad? Just relax, don't clench your fists.

"And I felt like I’ve been like that in some of my situations when I get NBA minutes, right? I want it so bad. But having an open fist mentality, you can focus on other things, other parts of the game," said Swider. "You can breathe a little bit. And then when the shots come, they come. Try everything you can to knock them down, and hopefully, it happens for you." 

That's the message the Raptors are also trying to communicate. They would like nothing better than their organization to be the one where his ability to shoot in the mid-40s from three on high volume at the G-League level translates to the NBA, but forcing anything won't help.

"The most important thing is not to put too much pressure on himself that he needs to make threes," said Rajakovic. "I know that he’s a great shooter, like there is no doubt about that. … He just needs to relax, be himself, and, you know, let the ball fly."

If only it were that easy, a shooter like Swider would not have four games left on a 10-day deal to try and prove that he can do just that.