TORONTO — The Raptors have rewarded Jamal Shead with a three-year, $24 million extension after the guard spent last season proving that apparently you can lead the NBA in an entire statistical category without being introduced before games.
Shead recorded 345 assists off the bench, the most by any reserve in the league.
Toronto noticed.
The achievement has confused traditional basketball logic, which previously suggested players needed to be starters before accumulating numbers normally associated with starters.
Shead simply ignored that.
“He kept checking in and immediately passing to people,” one fictional Raptors staffer said. “Eventually there were 345 of them.”
Toronto views Shead as an important part of its backcourt and rewarded him accordingly.
His teammates reportedly congratulated him before asking whether leading the league in something technically requires a starting job.
Apparently not.
The Raptors now have one of the league’s more productive reserve playmakers locked into a long-term role.
Shead is expected to continue creating offense whenever he enters the game.
Toronto has not ruled out eventually starting him.
For now, though, the formula is working.
Other bench players have been encouraged to simply lead the NBA in something.
Management says extensions will follow.
