Fitting Brandon Ingram into Raptors' offence will be Darko Rajaković's defining task

New York Times

11-02-2025

HOUSTON — On the evening of his first full day with his new team, Brandon Ingram sat in his stall in the visitors' locker room in Oklahoma City with a book cracked.
Ingram was reading 'Stillness Is The Key' by Ryan Holiday, a book that preaches the Stoic concept of slowing down as the world spins on its axis of chaos. Good advice, in general.
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Within Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković's offence, however, movement is the key. (A word of warning: Do not make this dad-adjacent joke upon your second meeting with Ingram. You will receive a pity laugh from the lanky star, for which you will feel fortunate. You'll feel a pang of regret more strongly. To be clear, that's how we guess that scenario would unspool.)
'Our basic core principles, how hard we want to play, especially on the defensive end, and our willingness to pass the ball and play without the ball on the offensive end (are things that are) universal,' Rajaković said initially when asked about Ingram's fit within the Raptors movement-heavy offence. 'Then when you have different types of players … you start adjusting and making the right decisions to help everyone on the court.'
This is what Rajaković has been preaching since he became the Raptors' coach in June 2023. At that time, it was a reaction to the stagnant offence that featured far too many isolation possessions for the Raptors' talent. While he couldn't completely change the offensive identity of the Pascal Siakam/OG Anunoby/Scottie Barnes team he led for two months, he leaned into their offensive strengths in the post to create a workable, if unspectacular offence despite a notable lack of perimeter shooting.
That team was likely heading for a breakup to start the year, though. Unless the Raptors got off to a great start, Rajaković was largely passing time until the rebuild started. With Ingram's arrival, the Raptors hope they are building something that will last. That makes incorporating Ingram, whenever he returns from his ankle injury and, more crucially, to begin next season, the defining challenge of the coach's tenure in Toronto.
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If Rajaković can blend Ingram's shot-making with the movement-centric attack the coach has been teaching, he could be in Toronto for a long time. If not, Rajaković —who has one more year on his contract after this one but could be in line for an extension — might have a hard time sticking around. Ingram's arrival heightens expectations, going from 'losses are lessons' to a desire to be functional and competitive. Figuring out how to marry Ingram's skills with Barnes' and RJ Barrett's strengths will go a long way in determining if the Raptors get there.
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'I think it's going to be a process. I think there's going to be a lot of work that we need to put in,' Rajaković told The Athletic at the University of Houston on Saturday. '(Ingram) is very open. He's very willing to accept what this team is doing. And he already started using his voice with the team and talking in the film sessions. He's opening up, which is great. I really respect that.
'All of us, we want the same thing. We want to win. And winning demands certain things. I think he will embrace that without any problem — ball movement and body moment. I think he's a very, very unselfish player. I think that he's a player that can see the court really well. And I think that's going to be the driving force for us when we get him on the court.'
Before getting into the X's and O's, Ingram should help the Raptors solve their most glaring issue: half-court offence. The Raptors rank 22nd this year and 24th last year in the half court, according to Cleaning The Glass. To further drive that home, the Raptors rank just 23rd in offence when the scoring margin is within five points in the game's final five minutes or overtime, according to nba.com. Not coincidentally, the Raptors' 6-16 record featuring 'clutch' situations is second to last in the league.
A lot of that is simply not having a player who can create his own shot whenever he wants. Barnes prefers to pass, and his touch in traffic is poor for a player of his stature, despite a notable improvement this year from the short midrange. If Barrett doesn't get all the way to the paint, he prefers push shots to jumpers. His scoring efficiency is way down this year.
Barnes is shooting 43.5 percent on 23 field-goal attempts in clutch situations, while Barrett is at 38.6 percent on 44 attempts. (He has also made just 13 of his 22 free throws in those situations, something that has to improve.) Immanuel Quickley's presence in just three of the Raptors' 19 games featuring clutch situations has not helped. Quickley is the Raptors' most dynamic shooting threat.
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Ingram shot 48 percent on looks between 10 feet from the rim and the 3-point arc last year, an excellent number for tough shots. He doesn't live at the free-throw line, but he shot better than 80 percent when he got there every year he was with the Pelicans.
'He takes pressure off all of us,' Barnes said. 'Being able to score the ball, get downhill, teams got to respect him. He's a respected player in this league, and with all the things that he can do, he's gonna take pressure off RJ, gonna take pressure off me, gonna take pressure off (Quickley).'
While Ingram has to be able to adapt, it will be on Rajaković to make things work. Assuming all three of Ingram, Barnes and Barrett are in Toronto to start next season, it could be a crowded ecosystem. Barnes can operate as a handler or screener in the pick-and-roll, but his poor shooting makes it tough to leave him away from the main action. Barrett is most effective when catching the ball off a handoff near the paint with a full head of steam. Jakob Poeltl, who rarely shoots from outside the key, is often setting those screens.
Meanwhile, Ingram has a reputation as a ball-stopper, a player who prefers to survey the floor in front of him. He is not selfish: He has averaged more than 5.6 assists per game over the last four years. They just don't usually come in a Raptors-style manner.
This year's Raptors rank fifth in passes per game, seventh in assists per game and third in potential assists. Last year, when Ingram played 64 games and Zion Williamson played 70, the Pelicans ranked fourth in passes made, but 13th and 16th in assists and potential assists, respectively.
Last year, Ingram averaged more than four seconds per touch. After the three point guards who often take the ball up the court, Barnes leads the Raptors at 3.39 seconds per touch.
The Raptors will want Ingram to speed up his processing.
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'Watching film with him, talking to him (about) what we're doing, watching his film, watching our film, getting him to understand what we're trying to achieve as a team,' Rajaković said of what he will do while Ingram remains out of the lineup. 'So there are going to be a lot of conversations there.'
By acquiring Ingram, the Raptors made a bet on his talent, knowing they were getting a discount on the acquisition cost because of his pending free agency and injury history. The front office and the medical staff will have to do what they can on those fronts to make this work.
There is an obvious question of fit, too, with Ingram coming to Toronto. It is on Rajaković to get through to Ingram, and to maximize the odds of the Raptors' bet hitting.
(Top photo of Brandon Ingram: Alika Jenner / Getty Images)