{"id":429184,"date":"2026-01-24T01:01:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/429184\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T01:01:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:01:22","slug":"raptors-jamal-shead-processing-at-winning-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/429184\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors’ Jamal Shead processing at\u00a0winning speed\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first\u00a0blush, Jamal\u00a0Shead\u2019s box score numbers\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0jump off the page.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 7.3 points, 5.6 assists and one steal\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0averaging per game seem pedestrian, and\u00a0not much\u00a0of\u00a0an improvement on\u00a0the 7.1-point, 4.2-assist, 0.8-steal line he logged during his rookie season.\u00a0The efficiency numbers paint a worse picture: 36.7 per cent shooting from the floor, 33.5 per cent from three and a 46.2 per cent effective field goal percentage \u2014\u00a0which\u00a0accounts\u00a0for the value of both two- and three-point shots \u2014\u00a0that\u00a0ranks\u00a0in the 10th percentile according to Cleaning the Glass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That might be pushing it, but otherwise, Shead is deserving. The sophomore\u2019s development has taken a significant leap this season.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0making better decisions faster,\u00a0succeeding on the margins and\u00a0driving\u00a0winning\u00a0for the Raptors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s\u00a0rare for rookies to win their minutes. Shead\u00a0didn\u2019t.\u00a0And\u00a0probably the\u00a0single greatest indicator\u00a0of\u00a0his\u00a0transformation\u00a0is the swing\u00a0in his\u00a0on-off differential. Last season, the Raptors were minus-5.4 points per 100 possessions when Shead played, among the worst\u00a0on the team. That number\u2019s soared to plus-7.9 now, second-best on the team\u00a0and\u00a0sixth in the NBA among point guards, sandwiched between\u00a0Tyrese Maxey and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But\u00a0the way\u00a0he achieves it\u00a0is\u00a0polar opposite\u00a0of those two superstars.\u00a0While they score highlight-reel buckets, Shead wins in areas that are less noticeable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the biggest is his ability to get to the middle of the floor and make the right pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shead\u2019s always been fast.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0been using his outlier speed to bolt past defenders\u00a0to more threatening areas of the floor since his rookie season.\u00a0What\u2019s\u00a0different now is that his processing has caught up.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last season, when Shead blew by his defender, he often stopped\u00a0well\u00a0short of the rim\u00a0and settled for a short-mid range push shot or floater.\u00a0The results were middling
\u2014 he shot below league average on them at 42 per cent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This season, he\u2019s traded those looks\u00a0for optimally timed and placed passes. Shead had 67 assists in 2024-25 from the\u00a0short-mid range area of the floor (within 14 feet of the basket, the same distance as the free throw line). He has 62 so\u00a0far at just over the halfway point of the current campaign.\u00a0Meanwhile,\u00a0the\u00a0percentage of his\u00a0shots that come\u00a0from that area of the floor has dropped from 30 per cent to 23 per cent season over season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Getting into the teeth of the\u00a0defence\u00a0and making a good pass\u00a0has immense value. It draws teammates\u2019\u00a0defenders, opening them up for shots,\u00a0allowing them to attack closeouts with drives,\u00a0and can even\u00a0set up wide-open cuts and lanes to the rim. Collapsing a\u00a0defence\u00a0and finding the right man creates advantages.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few years ago, when highlighting Scottie Barnes\u2019 remarkable playmaking prowess, Raptors Republic\u2019s\u00a0Samson Folk pioneered the term\u00a0\u201cadvantage assists.\u201d\u00a0The idea is that not all assists are equal. Some are easy passes, where the player on the receiving end does all the work to beat their defender and score. Others put teammates in\u00a0advantageous\u00a0positions, serving up layups or wide-open shots on a silver platter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It makes perfect sense.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0also still imperfect, not accounting for wide-open shots that were set up and missed, but how many of a player\u2019s assists can be classified as \u201cadvantage assists\u201d is a good barometer of their true playmaking ability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are examples of passes that did nothing to create an open shot, but are credited as assists:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\"\"\/\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Now, here are passes that came after manipulating the\u00a0defence,\u00a0opening up\u00a0advantageous\u00a0shots:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\"\"\/\"\"\/<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0plain to see that advantage assists are more valuable. The\u00a0concept should be far more prevalent in how we view and evaluate basketball\u00a0playmaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During his rookie season, 41 per cent of Shead\u2019s 316 assists could be reasonably classified as advantage assists. This season, that\u00a0number is up to 51 per cent.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a marked jump in\u00a0playmaking\u00a0for the 23-year-old.\u00a0Shead currently leads the NBA in assists off the bench, ranks seventh in assists per 36 minutes and has frequently been cited<\/a> as a leader in rim assists.\u00a0The process backs those results up.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally,\u00a0of his 62 assists from the meaty middle, 60 have\u00a0set up his\u00a0teammates\u00a0with\u00a0an advantage. A whopping 97 per cent.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0why\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0been so important that Shead\u2019s turned those inefficient push-shots and floaters\u00a0into playmaking opportunities. He\u2019s shooting 37.7 per cent from the short-mid range over his career and 30 per cent this season\u00a0(11th percentile, per\u00a0Cleaning the\u00a0Glass). His passes from there generate open threes, drives against a tilted\u00a0defence,\u00a0back cuts and\u00a0layups. All far\u00a0superior\u00a0shot types.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shead has also taken his drives further downhill and at times caused larger rotations from\u00a0defences\u00a0than he did last season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s\u00a0an example of what Shead\u2019s drives commonly looked like last season:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Compared to this season:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

This burgeoning playmaking\u00a0is\u00a0one\u00a0reason why\u00a0Shead has paired\u00a0so well\u00a0with Immanuel Quickley<\/a>. The duo\u00a0cover\u00a0for\u00a0each other’s\u00a0limitations:\u00a0Quickley for Shead\u2019s lack of gravity and\u00a0shooting,\u00a0Shead for Quickley\u2019s lack of\u00a0driving prowess, facilitating and defensive punch at the point of attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s\u00a0two point\u00a0guards often share the backcourt to close games. Both have immaculate assist-to-turnover ratios, helping the Raptors take care of the ball down the stretch.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0one of the reasons why Toronto has\u00a0a 15-7 record in clutch games this season, good for fourth in the NBA.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shead\u2019s even started four of the Raptors\u2019\u00a0last seven games alongside Quickley, allowing the Raptors leading guard to shift into a more suitable off-ball role.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0no coincidence that\u00a0Quickley\u2019s record-setting game<\/a>\u00a0against the Warriors\u00a0came while he was splitting handling duties, as seven of his eight triples\u00a0were off the catch. Meanwhile, Shead can also take the assignment of guarding the opponent\u2019s lead ball-handlers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Shead\u2019s always had a reputation as a stellar defender,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0now caught\u00a0up in actuality, with\u00a0his steal rate up, foul rate\u00a0down,\u00a0and him staying in front of his check more often\u00a0thanks to precise footwork.\u00a0His processing speed has caught up on this end, too.\u00a0Shead\u2019s\u00a0doggedness\u00a0also\u00a0stands out\u00a0here;\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0never hesitant to put the pedal to the floor or put his body on the line,\u00a0be it picking up full court or fighting\u00a0hard over screens.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0no wonder that the six-foot guard\u00a0has become a fan\u00a0favourite. His status as an undersized guard that was undervalued in his draft and has outperformed expectations likens him to two championship-winning Raptors: Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet. He even has a penchant for drawing offensive fouls, but in this case, it\u2019s moving screens, not charges.\u00a0Shead ranks second\u00a0with 40 non-charge offensive fouls drawn\u00a0this season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0taking hard contact to win a possession or always looking for his teammates to score first, Shead is the picture of unselfish basketball. His\u00a0pass rate on drives<\/a>\u00a0is fourth in the NBA. His\u00a0assist-to-use ratio<\/a>\u00a0is 98th\u00a0percentile. He shares the rock.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

To be fair, he\u00a0must. Shead is inefficient from every area of the floor aside from above-the-break threes, where\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0shot a\u00a0passable 36 per cent.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0a non-threat at the rim, shooting 55 per cent (19th\u00a0percentile per Cleaning the Glass).\u00a0The\u00a0pesky\u00a0push shot has been sneaking back into his shot diet lately as teams load up less on his drives\u00a0and take away the pass more. His assist-to-push-shot ratio from the short-mid range was even more pronounced earlier in the season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The league has\u00a0started to\u00a0adjust;\u00a0now Shead will have to adjust back.\u00a0Becoming a more dangerous scorer would go a long way in drawing greater reactions from defences. But\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0easier said than done. His\u00a0percentage\u00a0climbing on non-corner threes is a start, and if he can get teams to go over screens against him, it will mean he\u2019s able to access the\u00a0fruits of the\u00a0middle more often.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shead\u2019s come a long way. But if he wants to come anywhere close to following in the footsteps of his spiritual predecessors,\u00a0he\u2019ll\u00a0need another big, unexpected development. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At first\u00a0blush, Jamal\u00a0Shead\u2019s box score numbers\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0jump off the page.\u00a0\u00a0 The 7.3 points, 5.6 assists and one steal\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0averaging per…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-429184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}