Will the Raptors find consistency on defence?

Amit Mann and Louis Zatzman discuss why the Raptors have been unable to find a rhythm on defence and whether they will find their form this season. Full episode gauging their confidence on Fred' shooting, team defence, front office tweaking roster, Malachi Flynn staying in the rotation and more is on the "Raptors Over Everything" podcast feed.

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AMIT MANN: What is your confidence that the defense will improve once Toronto is fully healthy? I say that in the sense that night by night, game by game, we know what they're going to be giving us each game.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: I would say my confidence is a seven.

AMIT MANN: 7 out of 10?

LOUIS ZATZMAN: They just had too many-- yeah, they have too many good defenders to not be a relatively good defensive team. Fred VanVleet is not the All-NBA-caliber defender he once was. I think we can say that with relative confidence based on how he's played all season.

He can still be a good defender. And he was a very good defender last night. I don't think we can expect very good every night, but at least good.

OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam are world leaders on that end. Precious Achiuwa slots in right with them. Scottie Barnes has been better off ball--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: --a little-- here and there. And on ball, we've seen him better. Like, he can be better than he is. And he has been just disastrous on the ball. But all of those players can play good defense. They can all do it together, even--

AMIT MANN: Sure.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: --maybe. So I think-- I have confidence they will play good defense most of the time.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: But on the games when they play good defense, maybe the 3-point shot will go. Maybe Fred doesn't score. Maybe his driving is gone. Maybe Pascal doesn't hit those mid-range-- it's like, there's so many ifs because--

I was looking through the list. And I was like, oh, you know, I'm 6, 7 on almost-- I'm confident about everything. But 70% on its own is great. But when you add, like, eight 70 percents together--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: --the odds of that-- like, flip a coin, a weighted coin, 70% chance of heads. You flip it seven times in a row, what are the odds of getting seven heads? Anyway, I'm getting way ahead of myself. I'm talking about seven-- confluence of things. We only talked about one.

AMIT MANN: I understand what you're saying. And my problem with this team from the get go-- and this is-- I'm unsure why they didn't look at addressing this during the offseason, is like, OK, so your halfcourt offense, it is at a point where it is impacting how good your defense can be. And it's not just the fact that transition defense, transition opportunities for the other team, it puts stress on your defense. Like, that's one point.

But from a morale standpoint, if you keep on missing shots, your defense is going to suffer, right? It is deflating, in the same sense that when you're making shots, you get a little pep in your step, and things are feeling good.

And more often than not, in most games, right, the shooting has not been good. The halfcourt offense process, I don't think has been where it should be. I think there is something to what they're trying to create.

I just think they have to perfect it. They have to do it with a little bit more purpose, a little bit more intent. And I haven't really seen that consistently yet.

And I think that is a difference maker in how good the Raptors are going to be this year and the years coming forward is, how good can you make your halfcourt offense with teams and players-- or players that just don't necessarily have, like, the typical skill sets that you would need for dribble penetration, making 3-point shots? And do you have the kind of time just to wait on your [MUTED] hands here, saying, well, hopefully, they just get better at it? Like, maybe you have to make a switch.

But in the end, I mean, they are a very good defensive team. Like, OG Anunoby-- I mean, last night, the first possession, you could really see it. Like, he jumps a screen on James Harden. Joel Embiid's rolling to the rim. OG recovers there and pokes the ball away. It's, like, little stuff like that. Like, he is such a huge, impactful player on that side of the ball. And he's going to make them better, no doubt about it.

I wonder-- you mentioned Precious Achiuwa. And I don't-- maybe you know better than I do, but I don't think they've used him in drop very much this year. And I really liked that look last season. It's been more of a switching manner. And also, they haven't really put him into that upper tier of players that, OK, you're going to get 25-plus minutes. He didn't have that, I don't think, at any point this season.

He's been kind of in the tandem with Chris Boucher. They both come in. And depending on how the minutes go with Precious-- and mind you, he's shooting 17% from 3, not great. So he hasn't been put in that tier.

But defensively, obviously, he's very impactful. But I wonder if he's going to be put into that position when he does return. And he's also going to need a few weeks, few games to get himself right.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: Yeah, so he's a guy-- before I talk about the actual X's and O's, the Raptors just don't have a lot of problem solvers right now on the defensive end. OG Anunoby is that. You plug him in, he fixes mistakes. Pascal Siakam is that.

Precious is that as well. And when Pascal was the only one, the defense was disastrous. You add OG Anunoby in, you saw how good it was against the Sixers.

You can be confident because they intentionally create problems. How many defenses do that? And they say, look, if we just muddy the waters, we put blindfolds on both teams, we're going to trust that we're going to navigate that better than you.