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The Snapchat video from Quincy Guerrier had ended, but Rajeev Toutoux needed to replay it. He thought he saw something different about Guerrier’s shot, something subtle that Syracuse’s sophomore forward and his former roommate at Thetford Academy didn’t have the previous season. 

For a second time, he watched Guerrier balance his phone in front of his laptop screen, filming a clip from practice earlier that day. Now Toutoux knew he saw it: the softer roll off the fingertips, the elbow that bent closer to the 90-degree angle it needed to have, the shot that, altogether, looked smooth. It was July, midway through Guerrier’s first offseason in Syracuse, and the shooting adjustments were starting to come together.

He worked on that shot, and has continued to, with assistant coach Adrian Autry, using additional free throws after practice to sharpen his form and release. Then, the pair turned their attention to helping Guerrier create his own shot off the dribble, floaters and his 3-pointer. They needed to refine Guerrier’s all-around shooting abilities, transferring what he did at Thetford and in SU practices into game situations. 

It helped Guerrier blossom into more of the player, the pure scorer, that he was recruited to be. He’s gone from the Orange’s sixth man last year to their focal point on offense this year. From 6.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game to 15.7 and 9.1. From an NBA Draft afterthought to potential second-round pick, if he decides to declare after the season. For those closest to Guerrier — including head coach Jim Boeheim — Guerrier has always been this type of all-around player. It just took time for everything to surface at Syracuse (11-6, 5-5 Atlantic Coast).

“Even if coach is telling me to not shoot it or whatever, I just need to do what I need to do,” Guerrier said earlier this season. “If I’m open, I will take the shot. If I’m not open or whatever, I will find a way to score or to make a play for my teammates.”

When Guerrier played for the Canadian Under-17 World Cup team in 2016, he fit the prototype wing head coach David DeAveiro looked for. Guerrier was selected to the final roster, a group of 13 players to compete in Zaragoza, Spain for two weeks in the summer, but he rolled his ankle and only played four games. During a pre-tournament in France, though, DeAveiro used Guerrier as someone who entered and knocked down shots against zone defenses. 

The Canadian offense relied on penetration, kick-outs and getting to the rim in transition, especially with a 24-second international shot clock, and Guerrier’s skill set meshed perfectly. 

“In today’s game, he’s probably the ideal stretch four,” DeAveiro said. “Someone who can shoot the 3 and play inside if he needs to. ”

Quincy Guerrier laughs with assistant coach Gerry McNamara. Courtesy of Dennis Nett | Syracuse.com

The year before, Toutoux met Guerrier and noticed the same thing at Thetford. Guerrier and Toutoux ended up on the same team in Thetford’s end-of-season tournament that all the players participated in. Toutoux was one of the team captains, and drafted Guerrier in the final round, telling him to not bring the ball up, to just pass and go straight to the corner.

But when they started living together the next year, they formed a “little-brother, big-brother relationship,” Toutoux said, spending hours sitting next to each other playing NBA 2K and Call of Duty — while also heading down to the gym to work on Guerrier’s offensive game.

They spent sessions before school and after dinner solely focused on shooting, while using Thetford’s team practices in between to hone his approach in game situations. Toutoux noticed that Guerrier particularly struggled in his one-on-one game, not reacting quick enough after dribbling for an extended amount of time to make a split-second decision to create an open shot.

In team practices, head coach Ibrahim Appiah continued to make sure Guerrier maintained that “ideal stretch four” reputation over the final two seasons. He threw Guerrier bad passes before shots during practice, or didn’t make him shoot until he was fatigued at the end. If Guerrier said he hated a certain basketball, Appiah made sure he grabbed that one.

“’What’re you going to do when you’re at Virginia and you’re playing with a basketball that you’re not used to and you hate it?’” Appiah would ask Guerrier. “‘Are you gonna sit there and cry and ask the ref to change the basketball, or you’re gonna make it work?’”

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Appiah did that because when Guerrier lost his shooting rhythm, he needed to rediscover it in unusual circumstances. And in his first season at Syracuse, he didn’t have any flow. Didn’t look like he even wanted the ball on offense, Toutoux said. Repeatedly, he watched from home as Guerrier got a mismatch down low after a switch — or against an undersized defender — but continued to operate with his back to the basket. “Face him up,” he told Guerrier, over and over and over again.

“I think he was more in observation mode,” Toutoux said.

After Guerrier’s first game at Syracuse where he shot 0-of-4 from the field in 13 minutes, Toutoux asked him why he didn’t shoot more. Boeheim didn’t want him to, Guerrier replied.

Toutoux understood. Syracuse had Elijah Hughes, Buddy Boeheim and Joe Girard III, all players who presented better shooting options than Guerrier at the time. Boeheim limited Guerrier to attempting high-percentage shots, securing a defined yet limited role, and effectively banned him from attempting 3-pointers. His role was to rebound, subbing in when Marek Dolezaj or Bourama Sidibe entered foul trouble, but not much beyond that.

In the few attempts Guerrier did have at outside shots, though, he failed to connect. His 3-point percentage dropped, and dropped, and continued to drop until it settled at 12.5%.

This season, though, that’s changed. After not attempting a 3-point shot in 14 of 32 games in 2019-20, that’s only happened once. Guerrier’s converted 30.2% of his long shots, and has the 43rd-best offensive rating in the country, per KenPom. It’s been easier for him to prepare mentally for his role, Appiah said, because he knows exactly what it’ll be: 30-plus minutes, and a position where he can ensure SU’s offense goes through him.

Quincy Guerrier crossovers against a Pittsburgh defender. Guerrier finished with three points and five rebounds in the matchup. Courtesy of Rich Barnes | USA Today Sports

The first glimpses of the new Guerrier surfaced during the season-opener against Bryant. Midway through the second half, Guerrier swung his arm near the right elbow, motioning for Girard to dish it inside to him. He backed into a Bulldogs’ guard who was two inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter. This time, he turned to face his defender, spinning his way down to the block and finishing a layup.

That exact move — the face-up, the spin, the layup was something Guerrier and Toutoux talked about a lot last season. Toutoux noticed that Guerrier, while playing the four, attracted mismatches against guards, and Guerrier worked on it with Appiah in the one workout they’ve had together since March. The gym they were at had no rim, but their ball-handling and mobility drills ensured that explosiveness could transfer over.

Then, the next game against Niagara, Guerrier rolled off a screen, took a pass from Dolezaj and hit a 3-pointer. And by the time the Orange left Piscataway, New Jersey on Dec. 8 after a loss to Rutgers, Guerrier had already surpassed the three 3-pointers he made as a freshman.

“If he’s going to a mid-major, he’s probably as a freshman playing more minutes,” DeAveiro said. “But because he’s at Syracuse, it takes time and the physicality of playing at that high level, they’re just not used to it. So it’s an adjustment period.”

But after Toutoux finished watching the Snapchat video of Guerrier’s new shot in July, he wasn’t immediately excited about how it’d transfer over to games, he said. It was just practice, just Guerrier and Autry, just an empty court with no ACC defender pressuring him on the dribble and closing out on the shot. It was mostly form shooting, since Guerrier was still recovering from offseason groin surgery, and he’d need to wait until the games started.

Then, the season began and the double-doubles started coming. The 3-pointers. The disappearing extra step defenders often gave him behind the arc. The 20-point games, the 18-point-and-16-rebound ones, the repeated reminders that, maybe after all, the player Guerrier had always been was starting to emerge.

“Now, I can see it,” Toutoux said, “that there’s a change.”

Published on February 10, 2021 at 11:42 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @CraneAndrew