The Raptors 905 season by the numbers
The Raptors 905 capped off a scintillating second season by taking the NBA D-League Finals 2-1 over the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. This is really uncharted waters for the D-League as most expansion teams take three plus years just to become a winning team, let alone sniff the Finals.
The 905 were clearly not your standard second-year franchise however. Former NBA legend Jerry Stackhouse was at the helm, they ran a style and pace counter to the rest of the league and despite losing some of their key players during the playoffs, they still persevered and came out on top.
Instead of writing up a run of the mill season recap The Step Back decided to break down the Raptors 905 season by the number. Enjoy.
182
Brady Heslip never lacked confidence in his jump shot and this year Coach Stackhouse really let him loose on the league. Heslip finished first in 3-pointers made and shot a healthy 41.9 percent from deep to boot. Not only did this mark lead the league, but it also landed Heslip in second place all-time for 3s made in a season! Troy Daniels of the Memphis Grizzlies (RGV Vipers when he was in the D-League) holds the all-time mark at 246 3-pointers made. In Heslip’s rookie season he played in The System with the Reno Bighorns and he was on pace to make an unreal 285 3-pointers but left after 20 games to pursue an international deal. Heslip is a 3-point specialist, but this year showed he can run the point a little as well, so look for him to get some legit overseas offers this summer.
131
Edy Tavares was a godsend for the 905 early in the season. He was waived by the Atlanta Hawks and signed with the D-League quickly, went on waivers and the 905 snatched him up. He anchored their defense all season and led the league with 131 blocks! He also took home season accolades like Defensive Player of the Year, All-Defensive Team, All D-League First Team and was a D-League All-Star on top of that. At 25-years-old and a legit 7-foot-3, he was one of the top prospects in the league all season and on the eve of the NBA Playoffs the Cleveland Cavaliers signed him.
98.8
The 905 were the only team in the entire league to hold their opponents under the 100-point mark for the season. This league in general plays a run-and-gun style, with a ton of scoring and little defense, but that perception is shifting as the league takes on more NBA tendencies. The last three D-League champions each had the league’s best defense so while offense is flashy and gets noticed more, defense has the last laugh. Stackhouse and the 905 preached defense all season and even without Axel Toupane, Edy Tavares and Will Sheehey in the Finals run, their team defense held firm.
40
Imagine winning a championship in professional basketball without a single player inside the top-40 for points per game. This would never happen in the NBA. Really this is a testament to the style the 905 employed as they ran an eight-man rotation (eight guys played 20 minutes or more!) with only 10 active players each night. Most D-League teams run a six or seven man rotation, so while the team’s top scorer on the season — Axel Toupane at 16.1 points per game — was lost to an NBA deal, Stackhouse just plugged in another guy who was ready to contribute due to the minutes he received early in the season.
39
It’s all about winning, right? Well, yes and no at this level. The ultimate goal for a D-League coach is to develop the NBA players the parent club is sending on assignment, get your rostered guys more exposure and if all goes well, win some games and possibly a championship. The 905 won 39 games (39-11) and now have the second-most wins for a single season in league history! Again, it’s just their second season in existence! Had the Sioux Falls Skyforce not just set the record with 40 wins last season, this would be getting even more hype, but 39 wins is stellar nonetheless.
37.6
Teams are constantly on the lookout for 3-and-D players and while the 905 didn’t have a ton of guys who fit this mold, their entire team took over the 3-and-D mantra. Their 3-point efficiency at 37.6 was the second-best mark during the regular season. They were led by sharpshooters Brady Heslip and E.J. Singler on the 3 portion and Toupane, Tavares and C.J. Leslie helped hold down the fort on the D portion.
READ MORE: CJ McCollum Twitter Q&A spectacularaganza
31
Somehow Bruno Caboclo is still only 21-years-old. I thought for sure, he was at least 27 by now because this was his third season in the D-League and his second consecutive season spending the majority of the year with the Raptors 905. Last year Caboclo put up bigger offensive numbers (due to more playing time), but this season he made strides in defensive awareness, his confidence and his ability to take coaching and implement it on the court.
He finished the season averaging just 9.9 points per game while shooting 41.3 percent from the field. However, in Game 3 of the D-League Finals Caboclo was magical. He finished with a career high 31 points on 12-of-17 shooting, including 5-of-7 from 3-point land. He hit an array of step backs, floaters, driving dunks and deep, deep 3s to suck fans back into the “maybe he can actually be good” thought process. He still isn’t ready to help the Toronto Raptors, but it will be interesting to see how the Toronto brass handle him moving forward.
17
This is only the second season of this franchise’s existence and they own the longest road winning streak in the league’s 16-year history. Last year they finished the season with six straight road wins and in 2016-17 they didn’t lose a road game until February! All in all they combined the two seasons to take 17 straight road victories before the Grand Rapids Drive ended their ridiculous streak with a 122-115 win over the 905 in early February.
12
Edy Tavares earned a ton of accolades during his lone season in the D-League and you can add second all-time in blocks for a single game to his tally. In late March, the Raptors 905 held a block party headlined by Tavares who finished with a monstrous 12 blocks. Fab Melo (RIP) owns the all time record with 14 blocks.
6
Assignees from the NBA are becoming commonplace among all affiliates and the 905 were no different as they had Bruno Caboclo, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, Jakob Poeltl, Jared Sullinger and Delon Wright spend time with the 905 this season. They finished second in this category as only the Chicago Bulls assigned more players, with seven. Their assignees played a pivotal role in winning the championship as VanVleet, Caboclo and Siakam all had big performances in the Finals, and Siakam took home D-League Finals MVP.
2
Players sign with this league with one major goal in mind, and that’s the NBA. The 905 finished with two NBA call ups this year as Axel Toupane earned deals with the Milwaukee Bucks and New Orleans Pelicans, while Edy Tavares signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the NBA Finals run. If we get technical we can add a third call up as Jarrod Uthoff was an affiliate player for the 905, but was traded to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and ultimately signed by the Dallas Mavericks. Yes, the 905 ran a technical, defense-focused system but they also had a lot of talented players on their roster.
Next: Raptors 905 win D-League Finals, hug your brothers
1
Seasons under Jerry Stackhouse. And D-League championships. This team was something special all season long. They persevered through the rigors of a 50-game season, the pressures of making it to the next level, losses to injury, losses to the NBA and ultimately came out on top, as brothers. Last year, Dan Craig took the head coaching job with the Miami Heat’s affiliate in Sioux Falls. They ran the table going 40-10 and winning the D-League championship, and he returned to Miami as a lead assistant. Here’s to hoping — unless he gets a head coaching job — we get the privilege of seeing a Stackhouse led team for at least one more season in Mississauga.