Marc Gasol is the final piece to the Raptors’ beautiful puzzle

Nothing was guaranteed when the Toronto Raptors acquired Marc Gasol. Could this 34-year-old basketball genius overcome the looming, creaky decline that comes for every player? Would Gasol melt into a culture, scheme, and talent base that was already well off, or struggle to downshift into a supplementary role after years of personifying the Grizzlies’ entire public image?

Toronto made the trade because it needed someone who could butter up an offense that’s been known to go stale while rekindling glimpses of the Defensive Player of the Year who disrupted offenses with fast feet and hummingbird hands. On offense, he could provide passes that keep an opponent trying to focus in rotation. On defense, he could play angles in a way that’d delay the opposition just long enough for Pascal Siakam, Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, and Danny Green to pounce.

Still, everything in Memphis ran through Gasol. He scored, made plays, anchored a solid defense, and helped build an entire franchise’s identity. In Toronto, all of that would disappear. In moments that matter, Leonard, Lowry, and Siakam would do the heavy lifting. Serge Ibaka, who Gasol eventually replaced in the starting lineup, was midway through the best season of his career, too.

A few months later, every question has already been answered. Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri is one of the NBA’s shrewdest dealmakers. The Gasol trade has become one of his best.

Beyond his glorious on-court impact, Gasol is a walking sense of urgency, the grizzled “missing piece” who, aside from winning it all, has seen pretty much everything basketball has to offer. His goals are symbiotic with the organization’s. By themselves, each has endured unimaginable basketball heartache and frustration. Together, they’ve drawn power from that pain and looked unstoppable.

Less has proven to be much, much more for Gasol. In the first round, he averaged 5.6 shots and 8.4 points per game, well below his prior career postseason averages of 13.5 shots and 17.2 points. His usage rate — the percentage of possessions he ends with a shot, turnover, or drawn foul — was 24.0 in previous playoff seasons; this year, it’s 11.7. But Gasol also entered the postseason with an efficiency differential in Toronto that was higher than every single player who logged at least 500 minutes. Their offense scored 12.8 more points per 100 possessions with Gasol, an outrageous positive impact that was second only to Kevin Durant. (In short terms, the Raptors played like a 74-win team with Gasol and a 35-win team without him.)

Those numbers are noisy, since Gasol is playing a majority of his minutes with several top-40 players. That said, they illustrate the way he’s enhanced Toronto’s style without dominating it. He’s displaying ego-free, basketball altruism, the best-case scenario for a team that will ultimately go so far as Leonard, Siakam, and Lowry take them.

This is especially evident with one of Toronto’s quiet strengths all season: their transition attack. According to Cleaning the Glass, they were literally best in the league, scoring more transition points per 100 possessions than any other team, while only four teams rushed into the open floor more often. The Raptors averaged about three more possessions per 48 minutes when Gasol sat, but didn’t pump the brakes for him, either. If anything, they’ve folded him into the tempo instead of it being the other way around. He forces turnovers — directly through steals and indirectly by plugging holes on the opposite side so teammates feel safe enough to take more risks — and the type of awkward shots that let everyone else race the other way. If the easy shot isn’t there, Gasol also directly influences the ensuing action before Toronto’s opponent can settle in. This drag screen illustrates how:

Against Joel Embiid in the second round, Gasol’s individual defense will also be critical. Gasol held Magic all-star center Nikola Vucevic to just 33.3 percent in 191 possessions he defended him through their first-round series, coincidentally the same percentage he held Embiid to during the regular season. The Raptors will occasionally swarm Embiid post-ups with help, but if Gasol can hold his own in single coverage without fouling, this series won’t last very long.

When Toronto has the ball, Gasol dislodges defenders with some of the league’s most effective screens. Staying in front of Leonard or Siakam when they have a live dribble is hard enough without having to dodge a small building that moves (legally, of course).

This is bad news for Philadelphia. The Sixers prefer Embiid to stay in the paint, thwarting drives and coaxing pull-up jumpers. There, he allows help defenders to stay home while limiting the damage often done by dribble penetration. Against Gasol’s two-man game with Lowry, Leonard, Siakam, and Fred VanVleet, though, that drop coverage will be incinerated. This game within the game will keep 76ers coach Brett Brown up at night and could force him to change a coverage Philly executed successfully all season long.

This is just one of many ways Gasol has become the tactical difference-maker for the Raptors, be it in a matchup against the Sixers, Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, or whoever comes out of the Western Conference. Toronto has never employed a big who reads, anticipates, and thinks his way through every possession quite like Gasol. He may not be the player he was in his prime, but he provides a reservoir of knowledge, unteachable feel, and craftsmanship. He treats every play, on both ends, like a Rubik’s Cube he knows how to crack.

Gasol is 270-pound safety pin the Raptors have been seeking, in one form or another, since they began their rise. Defeating them four times in seven tries was hard enough before he became their starting center. Now, with him comfortably locked into an ideal role, a trip to the Finals may finally be in store.