Patience paying off for Toronto Raptors’ OG Anunoby

Nick Nurse is no stranger to receiving random, out-of-the-blue text messages from OG Anunoby.

This past summer, for example, something to the effect of “Hey coach, how do I get on the floor in the fourth quarter?” popped up on Nurse’s screen from the 21-year-old’s number.

After a stunted start to the year, missing most of pre-season and three of Toronto’s first eight games for personal reasons, multi-faceted second-year forward OG Anunoby has taken off in Toronto’s past three games,  (Rick Madonik / Toronto Star)

“I’ll say, ‘You need to defend and make shots,’ ” Nurse remember. “He’ll be like, ‘I do that already.’ So that’s funny. But there are other topics as well.”

Defending and making shots are just two of the things Anunoby’s doing well these days.

After a stunted start to the year, missing most of pre-season and three of Toronto’s first eight games for personal reasons, the multi-faceted second-year forward has taken off in Toronto’s past three games, notching 11 or more points in each of those contests. It is no coincidence that the Raptors’ bench, which dominated in Toronto’s win over the New York Knicks on Saturday night, has started blossoming with Anunoby.

It is amped up aggressiveness that sticks out to Anunbody’s teammates and coaches, across the board.

“I feel like he’s awesome finishing through contact,” teammate Delon Wright said. “He’s real strong, so I think that’s pretty easy for him.”

Added Pascal Siakam: “I like the way he’s not hesitating, just playing his game. He’s really talented and he’ll just continue to get better every game. We want him to be aggressive and shoot the ball.”

He is also getting pointers from Kawhi Leonard, who Anunoby said is the NBA player he would most likely model his game after.

“If I ask him a question, he’ll answer it. And if he sees something, he’ll tell me,” Anunoby said.

Good health helps, Anunoby said, who is no longer feeling the effects of a torn ACL suffered in January 2017. Without that worry, he is “trying more” when it comes to being forceful. He is also more comfortable with his rookie season behind him. With that, the team is running more plays for him this season.

As for those closing minutes, Anunoby has logged 81 fourth-quarter minutes in the 10 games he has played, behind only Fred VanVleet in that category for the Raptors. That is only 106 fewer fourth-quarter minutes than he logged all of last season.

Nurse has been saying for more than a week that Anunoby coming into his own was only a matter of time, pointing to his strong performances in summer league as proof that he had made strides on the court heading into his sophomore season.

Anunoby is proving his coach right so far, but Nurse still sees areas where he can improve.

“I think he can score off the rim a little more and I think he can score from the post a little more and the reason that’s important is that, with all the switching going on, if he’s getting involved and stuff and they’re switching a smaller guy into a more same size guy, maybe even, somebody bigger, whatever, he can go inside and we can throw it to him in there and he can use his athleticism and his body to bounce people and put it in the basket,” Nurse said.

Nurse cringes at the sound of the word “second unit.” He wants make this Raptors team more fluid. But the supporting cast of Anunoby, VanVleet, Jonas Valanciunas, Wright and C.J. Miles is once against drawing eyes to the so-called Bench Mob.

“I think there are a couple of pieces falling into place … Fred is a big key in that second unit having him back and JV has been really good there too,” Nurse said. “It has been interesting to see. For the time being that group is playing well together. We’ll see how long that ‘time being’ lasts.”

One thing the coach would like to see more of from that group is sharing the ball, using a collective offence to produce their points rather than relying on individual play. He watched the lineup do just that against the Knicks and liked what he saw, but it will take time and planning to perfect.

“You’ve got to talk about it, you’ve got to work on it, you’ve got to show it in film and you’ve got to hope they have a willingness to do it,” Nurse said. “Some of it is, too, just making sure we’re not going to so many possession in a row with just playing, we run some of our triggers that kind of get people in the right spots to get the offence in motion before we kind of start playing. I think that encourages some ball movement.”

Laura Armstrong is a sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @lauraarmy

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