Toronto Raptors defensive steals, Digi Mart USA News: The Toronto Raptors have become one of the NBA’s most disruptive defensive teams, with a style built on taking the ball away from opponents. Players and coaches say the approach is the product of deliberate study and design rather than simple chaos.
Guard Jamal Shead, whose 11 steals through eight games rank third in the league, described the team’s drills. “We work on when guys are driving, showing hands until they present the ball, swiping it out,” Shead said.
“We work on it a lot.”
The Raptors’ commitment to forcing turnovers began to show results midway through the 2024-25 season. The team moved from one of the league’s worst defenses in the first half of that season to one of its best, statistically, after the All-Star break.
The team’s defensive vocabulary includes three terms. “Eagle” means staying present in the passing lanes with arms extended wide.
“Cobra” refers to timing strikes at the ball for maximum effect, and “shark” describes hunting a ball handler who is vulnerable to pressure. Shead summed up the philosophy: “It’s quality over quantity.
Don’t be a woodpecker, reaching every time. Be a cobra.”
Head coach Darko Rajakovic said the staff has emphasized these principles. “We’re spending a lot of time coaching and teaching those things and preaching to our team, and we have a group of guys that really accepted that, and they want to play to that style,” he said.
Rajakovic credited assistant coach Ivo Simovic with installing the drills and terminology.
Through eight games, the Raptors are averaging 11.5 steals per game, third in the NBA as of Thursday. That figure would surpass the franchise record of 9.4 per game set in 2022-23 and 1997-98.
It is also higher than the averages of the 2024-25 Oklahoma City Thunder and the 2025-26 Detroit Pistons, two of the more successful ball-theft defenses in recent years.
The Raptors lead the league in forced turnovers at 20.1 per game, up from 16.1 last season. The team is third in fast-break scoring and fifth in points off turnovers.
Most of this has been accomplished without Kawhi Leonard, who has played only two games this season but has recorded seven steals.
The style has drawn criticism. Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick said after the Raptors forced his team into 22 turnovers and 11 steals on Sunday night that some turnovers resulted from fouls.
“What they do is they pick you up and then they grab the arm you’re not dribbling with and then they try to steal the ball from you,” Redick said.
The Raptors lead the NBA in personal fouls, at 27.3 per game, and in opponent free throws, and they rank second in opponent free-throw attempts per game. Those are areas the team will need to address if it wants to move from the NBA’s 14th-rated defense to the fifth-rated defense it had last season.
Scottie Barnes, who was ninth in the NBA in steals last season and is fourth through eight games this season, said the team plays as physically as it can. “We foul, but they’re also trying to sell calls all the time, too.
I think it goes both ways,” Barnes said.
Rookie Collin Murray-Boyles, who averaged 1.5 steals per 36 minutes last season, said the defensive principles are designed to create takeaways that lead to transition chances. “A steal is a steal.
That’s all I care about,” Murray-Boyles said.
