Trayce Jackson-Davis gave the Raptors what they needed in his debut, but he might give more in the future

In most things in life, you want to hit the ground running. Momentum is important. Effort is important. Keep moving forward. Things of that nature. Trayce Jackson-Davis was placed in the whirlwind of his first trade, and had to find his feet rather quickly with the Raptors.

“My first practice, it was hectic I’m not gonna lie.” Jackson-Davis told me after his debut. “I was a little bit nervous, but Coach Darko texted me afterwards and he said: ‘During the game tomorrow just go out there and play. Play free. Don’t worry about the plays or any of that at the end of the day. You can play hard. You can rebound. Those are things that are always going to translate.’ So, I leaned on that.”

Leaned, then pushed, then rammed. Jackson-Davis blasted towards airborne basketballs in pursuit, nabbing 8 offensive rebounds in only 15 minutes of play. You read that correctly. He brought the ruckus. A double-double in his debut and largely as the result of energy. Go grab the ball. Reset or get fouled. Do it again next possession if you can.

What did Coach Darko think of Jackson-Davis’ rapid sprint toward a double-double: “Nothing. I’m gonna tell you the same thing when he goes with 3 rebounds and 3 points and you’re gonna ask me about him. I don’t want to pass judgement. At this point I just want to let him be. I just want to coach him and help him. I want to build him and see where we go. I don’t want to, based on one good game or bad game, pass any judgement on him. I want to see a good chunk of 10-15 games and see how he grows with us.”

Now, Coach Darko might want to get a lot more Raptors film in with TJD, but I did a good bit of film watching him with the Warriors so I’ll tell you where things can get a little bit better for the Raptors newest big man. In other parts of the game, of course, I don’t think 20 offensive rebounds per 36 minutes is something he can maintain.

If you want to watch the film breakdown instead of reading it, check it out here:

So, I didn’t cut together clips of his offensive rebounding because I thought it was a very evident skill of his game, and obviously many fans will understand that after his debut. However, a couple supporting numbers couldn’t hurt. Over half of his points this year have come via cuts and offensive rebound put backs. The Warriors offered him little in the way of being featured in the offense and I reckon it will be the same with the Raptors. In terms of his offensive rebounding percentage (what percent of his teams misses does he grab while on the floor) he’s grabbing 11-percent. That’s good for the 90th percentile in the whole league. Pursuit. Before he left the Warriors, he was their best interior offensive rebounder – both Jimmy Butler & Jonathan Kuminga were quite good at chasing down the longer ones — and he wasn’t a slouch when it came to helping out on the defensive glass either.

So, the Raptors needed size and a bit of a rebounding boost, he should help. What about their offense? It’s the weakest part of the Raptors collective game. Can he improve it? I’m not entirely certain, but he can definitely maintain their system.

I asked Jackson-Davis if the similarities in styles between the Raptors and Warriors aided in his immediate success with the Raptors: “Absolutely.” Jackson-Davis said. “Being the trigger man, I’m just making smart basketball plays. Attacking when you need to attack. I got guys that wanna throw me the ball up in the sky (lobs), so even though we missed a few we’re gonna get that timing down and it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

The things I’m comparing between the two teams in my question to TJD is the triangle concepts, delay action, and split action that the Raptors and Warriors both run in abundance. TJD was, I think, a fairly talented handoff hub. Even going back to his time in Indiana he’s been able to add a good bit of flair and punch in his decision making. There’s a lot of similarities to Collin Murray-Boyles in terms of how he reads the floor, but he’s a much better screener than the Raptors rookie right now.

A lot of this would be attractive to the Raptors. He quickly filters through options. He makes better contact on screens than anyone not named Jakob Poeltl. He makes good decisions while playing with a man advantage. He can even grab and go to advance the ball quickly up court and help maintain the Raptors quick pace of play, or he can flow directly into delay action above the break. There’s a lot of utility in this.

Now, does TJD quell any of the existing problems the Raptors are having? I don’t think so. He basically doesn’t even take, let alone make jumpers. He is not a significant roll threat, despite the lob catching abilities. It is good that he can go catch a lob, but he isn’t elite in that respect and needs to round out his finishing game. He’s shooting 44% on layups this season, and it was 43% and 55% in years past. Those are really poor numbers from a big man, and he doesn’t dunk enough to justify being a guy who only dunks. It manifests in a hesitancy to finish at times, which is a similar problem the Raptors were running into with Murray-Boyles. The Raptors need a roll threat who scores that isn’t named Poeltl or Barnes. You could even see it in one of Jackson-Davis’ first possessions as a roll man with the Raptors as he passed out of the lane despite Andrew Nembhard being the only one meeting him at the bucket. 60% true-shooting is a welcome sight most of the time, but isn’t actually very good for a big man who mostly dunks.

The most glamorous side of the floor for TJD is, I think, the defensive side of the floor. He’s a very strong mover. Good feet. Flips hips. Has a real knack for timing up drives. His block percentage is quite high, and when I went back to watch all of his shot contests I thought he was quite brilliant at reading opposing players.

Not only is Jackson-Davis athletic enough to meet players at the mountain top and save baskets, but his quick feet allow him to aggressively play the middle as the lone man in 2-on-1 situations. He can stab and prod at ball handlers to create indecision while alos being able to collect his feet and spring up for shot contests or to disrupt lobs at the drop of a hat. He isn’t a towering and dominating at rim helper, but he’s athletic enough and clever enough to navigate a lot of possessions as a backline guy. He’s in the top third of the NBA in how often he contests at the rim. He’s in the 90th percentile in block percentage, and he keeps players below 60% from the field when he contests. All passing marks, or even elite ones.

I think though, my favorite thing about TJD is how he’s able to absorb/corral drivers.

Interestingly enough, despite his mobility, the Warriors played him in drop a decent amount of times. Usually people think of “drop” defense as the home of big, plodding bigs, but Jackson-Davis is able to make it work because he maintains his jumping explosiveness while backpedaling and has a great sense, as I mentioned before, of how to navigate the middle ground between two offensive players. You can see on the plays featuring Keyonte George and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, two explosive guards with very high free throw rates, that Jackson-Davis comfortably absorbs their downhill drives even as they were searching for contact. Coordination and spacial awareness really helps Jackson-Davis navigate these types of plays.

It’s my expectation that the Raptors won’t play him in drop as often, but that his ability to read the game will help in most coverages they put him in. It allows him to be a change of pace with Murray-Boyles defensively, who spends a lot more time switching out.

So, largely, I think the Raptors have a real deal NBA big man with Jackson-Davis. He’s going to play this season, and a lot more if Poeltl isn’t able to find consistency and health with his troublesome back.

A very important sub plot of the Raptors trade for Jackson-Davis is that they have no reasonable expectation to be able to re-sign Sandro Mamukelashvili at the end of this season and they are trying to explore trades with Poeltl. Jackson-Davis, with his friendly team option for next season, is a quality NBA big man who will help bolster their front court no matter where the Raptors go with it.

Also, in the short conversations I’ve had with him so far, he seems great. Really carries himself in an impressive way.

Have a blessed day.

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