Wolstat

The contrast of watching the Maple Leafs play like heartless, clueless dogs and the Raptors constantly going all out and playing together is jarring.

Rampaging Raptors have NBA Cup fever as meaningful basketball returns 'All the work that we've been putting in is just showing.'

Wrote on NBA Cup fever as meaningful Raptors basketball returns to Toronto. Also, Brandon Ingram looked no worse for wear post-game other than an ice bath for ankles.
torontosun.com/sports/baske...

Screwed up original post somehow.
Best Toronto Raptors starts through 16 games:
13-3 (2014-15)
12-4 (2018-19, 2019-20)
11-5 (2017-18 2025-26)
10-6 (1999-2000, 2001-02, 2015-16, 2016-17)

Meanwhile, incredible stuff elsewhere. Is Jokic the 4? Jonas has always been a power centre, him at power forward would be something.

Cambridge Ontario's own Will Riley gets on the board here in the fourth quarter. Cool for the rookie to play and score at home. Wizards coach Brian Keefe talked up Riley (and Canuck Kyshawn George) pre-game. Franchise is high on both. George having breakout sophomore season.

Tre Johnson was nice at Texas and seeing some flashes of that guy tonight.

Jamal Shead college stats:
127-for-429 from three (.296)
Jamal Shead as NBA rookie:
72-for-223 (.323)
Jamal Shead as NBA sophomore after making first tonight:
17-for-40 (.425)

Didn't think you could shoot 1-for-13 from three with Corey Kispert on your team.

Sandro Mamukelashvili just threw down his eighth dunk of the season already. That's more than he had in 2 of his 4 previous NBA seasons. One season he had 10, high was 25 last year with San Antonio.

Wizards woeful, but things might look a lot different in a year. Sarr, George, Coulibaly, Tre Johnson, Will Riley, maybe Bub nice supporting building blocks. Need to add a Top 3 stud and Middleton/McCollum coming off cap in summer (can use space to get assets for taking on $)

And a weird stat, after two early free throw misses, Barrett is shooting just 51% at the line at home this season. He's shot 83% on the road. Last year he was 10% better at line at home.

Wol-stat of the day:
RJ Barrett entered today fourth in NBA in points per possessions off cuts. Also shooting 77.8% on those plays. And he made a great early cut against Wizards for a bucket.

Some fun facts about the 10-5 Raptors:
- 7th in offence, 3rd in halfcourt offence
- lead the NBA with 21.7 fast break points
- won 9 of 10, 2nd in defence in the last 10
- lead the NBA in avg. speed on defence
- 6th in eFG%
- 1 of 4 teams to rank top-10 in TO rate & opp. TO rate

Raptors star Brandon Ingram says another level will come soon Brandon Ingram has looked quite good in his early days as a Raptor, but is he capable of reaching higher heights? Read more.

Wrote about Ingram's start and how there's a higher level to reach with some insight from teammate Garrett Temple about the Ingram he saw in New Orleans: torontosun.com/sports/baske...

Wol-stat of the day:
Brandon Ingram has scored 292 points in his first 14 games as a Raptor. That's behind only Kawhi Leonard and RJ Barrett (and tied with Rudy Gay) for most for a start to a Toronto career. That's despite not shooting the three well yet.

Wol-stat of the day:
The Toronto Raptors are Top 3 in the Eastern Conference for the first time since the final 40 games of the 2019-20 Covid season.
Never got into Top 3 in 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 or 2024-25!

Surging Raptors win over Hornets thanks to Ingram, Barnes block party Raptors led most of the way but treated fans to an epic ending as winning ways continue.

From last night, Raptors-Hornets takeaways, some love for Kon Knueppel and Co. and I ranked the sad list of best Raptors free agent signings ever:
torontosun.com/sports/baske...

Surging Raptors win over Hornets thanks to Ingram, Barnes block party Raptors led most of the way but treated fans to an epic ending as winning ways continue.

Raptors-Hornets takeaways: torontosun.com/sports/baske...

More coming tomorrow, got good stuff on Brandon Ingram and Jamal Shead, in particular, plus some insight from Immanuel Quickley and Garrett Temple.

Raptors win Scottie Barnes blocks away a Collin Sexton attempt after Miles Bridges misses fadewaway.

Brandon Ingram just found a cutting RJ Barrett for a layup to put Toronto ahead and then blocked 7-foot-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner's dunk attempt. Impressive stuff.

Brandon Ingram thought it was Yul Brynner, not Ryan Kalkbrenner guarding the rim. Dunked on his head.

Also, everyone keeps saying the 2026 draft class is even better than this one, but Flagg, Harper, Knueppel, Edgecombe, Coward, Fears, Murray-Boyles, Queen have all shown either flashes or flat out star quality.

Pretty damn good run of fourth overall NBA draft picks:
Scottie Barnes
Keegan Murray
Amen Thompson
Stephon Castle
Kon Knueppel
Arguably equal or better than the 3rd or 2nd overall guys in same span.

Raptors 57 Hornets 52 at the half.
Ingram/Quickley and Knueppel very good, referees very bad.

It's the assist per game leaders at Toronto since 1995. They all played more than 2 games I was trying to amplify their stats by showing even guys with only 2 or 3 games played here don't average more assists. I do the same things with PPG all the time. Not sure why it's weird.

Weirdest names on the list:
Brent Price
Jonny Flynn (Kahn!)
Kris Dunn

Sandro Mamukelashvili is one of the best free agent signings in Raptors history (it's not a pretty list). Another guy high on the list is in the house tonight, Hornets TV analyst Dell Curry (father of some guy who can shoot the ball well too).

Wol-stat of the day:
Charlotte's LaMelo Ball has averaged 8.6 assists in 5 career games at Toronto. That's the 9th-most by any player (min. 2 appearances).
Pretty good list:
Trae Young
Luka Doncic
Steve Nash
Ja Morant
Chris Paul
Russell Westbrook
Mark Jackson
John Stockton

I'm a North Carolina guy through and through for 30+ years now, but the Duke talent on display is very impressive. Right now. Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett, Kon Knueppel, we'll see Sion James, and there's even a Plumlee still playing.

The Hornets had an awesome draft. Knueppel is an absolute stud, Kalkbrenner is really solid and Sion James was a good get. They need all the help they can get, no playoffs nine straight years, last won a round in 2002.