SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Even without childhood friend and teammate Scottie Barnes around for the start of his first multi-game road trip in the NBA, Toronto Raptors rookie Jonathan Mogbo is feeling comfortable.

Barnes has been seeing specialists about his broken orbital and might meet the Raptors this weekend in Los Angeles (not to play, to be clear), but Mogbo has found his footing on the young team. He’s already referring to people he didn’t know a few weeks ago by nicknames. Team veteran and designated wise man Garrett Temple is “G-Temp.” Long-time assistant coach Jim Sann is “coach Jimbo.”

With Sann instructing and Temple getting up reps alongside him, Mogbo is getting up at least 100, if not more, 3-pointers per day. Famously, Mogbo took just two 3s in his two NCAA seasons. In nine NBA games and only 159 minutes, he has already tripled that total, although he hasn’t drilled one since opening night. It’s a long-term process, so nobody will get too worked up about it.

Still, given Mogbo’s near-total inexperience as a long-range shooter, you would imagine it would take up most of his head space.

“The shooting part is pretty simple,” Temple, dealing with back spasms, said in the visitors locker room after the Raptors lost to the Sacramento Kings. “You get a lot of shots up (in practice). And (in games) when you’re in the corner (and) you’re open, feel good, shoot the ball. The other part is a little more complicated, but that’s what the NBA is for.”

“The other part” really needs to be pluralized. Although he is spending a chunk of his minutes as the backup centre to Jakob Poeltl, he also plays next to him, so he must learn how to space the floor as a wing. Still, he cannot just hang out on the perimeter, because he will be ignored as a shooter, so he has to get his timing as a cutter down.

Defensively, he has to learn how to defend in the middle, the biggest responsibility on that end — and that is before you get to having to soak up some possessions against the likes of Nikola Jokić and Domantas Sabonis in the last three games. He also must go out on the perimeter and switch out on to guards liberally.

Positionally, the NBA has largely simplified over the last decade, closer to two or three defensive roles than five. Offensively, with an emphasis on pushing the pace, and the Raptors trying to lean on that especially hard, there aren’t as many intricacies to master.

For a second-round pick who went to four different post-secondary schools in four years, it is a lot to figure out at the same time in the best league in the world.

“I’d probably just say more (NBA centres are more) skilled. Their IQ for the game and they’ve been here for a long time, so (they know) the ins and outs about playing centre,” Mogbo said before the game against the Kings. He suffered a hip pointer in the fourth quarter, not returning “Physicality is for sure a little bit different. I feel like I got stronger over the past year. That’s pretty good. And I feel like we’re doing a great job with putting me in the position I need to guard.”

For perspective, the journey the Raptors would like Mogbo to travel is likely similar to Pascal Siakam’s, without considering the two-time All-Star’s evolving post game and the spin move that helped him unlock it. Before that, Siakam was looking like he could become a multi-positional defender who could space the floor well enough to play with other big men.

Head coach Darko Rajaković believes Mogbo could eventually guard across the positional spectrum and play any frontcourt position offensively. Due to the Raptors’ parade of injuries and lack of depth behind Poeltl, many of those minutes have come at center. His most common minutes are either against unquestioned centres such as Sabonis or the Lakers’ Jaxson Hayes or bigger forwards like Charlotte’s Miles Bridges or Denver’s Aaron Gordon. Heading into Thursday’s play, Mogbo had 22 deflections in nine games, recording them at the seventh-highest rate for any player who has logged at least 100 minutes this season.

“What he cannot forget about and what is the baseline for him, and for our whole team, is playing hard and getting the best of every possession,” Rajaković said. “And while doing that well, learning the league, learning personnel and getting better.”

As with Siakam, Mogbo’s motor is obvious. At the end of the first quarter in Sacramento on Wednesday night, Mogbo stripped the ball from Kings backup big man Alex Len, who had just grabbed a rebound off of a Jamal Shead miss. The carom went to RJ Barrett, who missed a short floater, but Mogbo was there to clean it up.

There are scenarios in which you would like to see Mogbo find angles to get his shot off at the rim, but he is a very good passer in tight spaces. A little too often, he is hesitant to rise immediately after the catch. However, his vision earned both Chris Boucher and Ja’Kobe Walter easy buckets against the Kings. He is also a natural with the ball in transition, finding an open Chris Boucher after drawing a second defender on the move. Boucher missed the shot, but it is the type of solid, if unsexy decision Mogbo has consistently made when the Raptors are running. That will become more valuable as the Raptors improve their team-wide shooting.

GET UP @j_mogbo 😤 pic.twitter.com/DVes1et25y

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) October 30, 2024

Mogbo is averaging nearly two assists per game despite playing fewer than 18 minutes nightly. That might not sound impressive, but Mogbo has just the eighth-most time of possession on the Raptors, not including Immanuel Quickley. That suggests a player who makes good, quick decisions.

“He has a motor that is not necessarily seen at first glance,” Temple said. “And he has a knack for the ball, the ability to rebound and has a little playmaking skill set in terms of passing and handling the ball that people may not expect. Defensively he can be a pest. He has the ability to play small-ball (centre), which will really bode well for our team, but his career in general with his ability to jump.”

“Every time that we put him on the floor,” Rajaković added, “he makes stuff happen.”

Jonathan to DJ in transition 🌊🌊 pic.twitter.com/SyfXJi1yB2

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) October 27, 2024

It is very early, but the Raptors have won Mogbo’s 159 minutes by 21 points. He has the best individual net rating of any rotation regular. They grab more offensive rebounds and play at a faster pace when he is on the floor rather than on the bench. In other words, he helps them play in their preferred style.

While he can hold his own defensively on the perimeter, he is in the development phase inside. He got stuck in no man’s land trying to guard a pick-and-roll off of a faked handoff between Kevin Huerter and Sabonis, resulting in a dunk for the latter. He is built sturdily, but doesn’t provide a serious impediment when a player as big as Sabonis wants to get inside. He has more work to do there.

“Learning the physicality, learning how to maneuver around it,” Mogbo said about defending the best centers. “I feel like I can use my speed and my quickness to help myself out and put myself in an advantage here. They obviously have a bigger size on me, (more) weight. So just trying to outsmart them.”

Of course, players such as Sabonis and Jokić are as smart as they come. That is what the reps are for.

He is off to an encouraging start as he gets hit with a lot of information in a little time. His hustle is always there, his instincts are good and the reps should help with his interior defence.

That brings us back to the simple thing: his shot.

“I just give him tidbits every now and then. Don’t (belabour) the point because at the end of the day, nobody wants to go out there with a lot of things on his mind,” Temple said. “He’s made it this far by being the type of player he is. Obviously, everybody has some parts of their game that they can improve. And for him, he can really expand his game by just being able to knock down corner 3s especially. So just tell him, ‘Put the work in man and trust it.’ We’re in a situation where he has the ability to miss shots and it’ll be OK. So just shoot it.

“If he has a 3-point shot — if it can become decent, serviceable — then he can have a long career in the NBA.”

(Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)