Should The Toronto Raptors Explore A Lineup Change?
With the Toronto Raptors’ regular starting lineup being a liability throughout the year, should a major change to the lineup be made?
There haven’t been many problems as of late for the second-place team in the East, the Toronto Raptors.
The team’s 22-7 record since the beginning of the calendar year is the third-best in the NBA (just behind the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs) and their highly functioning offense ranks third across the league as well, per NBA.com/stats.
Additionally, they’ve weathered a flurry of injuries and the recent addition of Jason Thompson has given the Raptors some much needed depth at a position that has plenty of question marks.
Though one major problem the Raptors have had all throughout the season has only grown since we’ve returned to action from the All-Star break and with just 20 games left in the season, should a major change be made to the team’s starting lineup?
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Of course, the team’s most-used starting lineup hasn’t been the one we all envisioned before the beginning of the season as the team has been without their major free agent acquisition from the offseason, DeMarre Carroll, for more than half of the season.
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Due to Carroll’s absence, Raptors head coach Dwane Casey has regularly turned to James Johnson to round out the regular starting lineup, made up of Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Johnson, Luis Scola and Jonas Valanciunas.
The problem with this starting five is that it’s regularly been a weakness for the team as the lineup had a minus-2.9 net rating per 100 possessions in the 213 minutes it was used before the All-Star break.
Despite the problems set from the insufficient lineup, the Raptors had regularly overcome the problem leading up to the All-Star break and Casey had continued to roll with the lineup even after the break.
However, the problem has grown bigger for the Raptors since returning from the All-Star break and the lineup now has a minus-9.3 net rating per 100 possessions in the 92 minutes it has been used since the All-Star break.
It hasn’t had much of an effect on the team’s record since returning from the break, but why is the lineup performing worse now than it was before?
The reason has been the team’s defense.
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Leading to the All-Star break, the Raptors’ defense ranked ninth in defensive rating (101.5 points per 100 possessions) in the NBA. That has since fallen as the team’s defensive rating has plummeted to 25th in the NBA (110.4 points per 100 possessions) in the games played since returning from the break.
Yes, there’s a huge difference in sample size, but it’s a familiar warning sign as the team’s defense struggled to remain effective after the All-Star break last year, which ultimately fed into the team’s collapse by the end of the season.
Now Casey did make a change to the team’s starting lineup this past Tuesday night against the Brooklyn Nets when he replaced Luis Scola with Jason Thompson and while it worked well for the Raptors, it was mostly used to give Scola a night off.
Nonetheless, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Raptors’ starting frontcourt of Valanciunas and Scola creates more problems for the team than it provides solutions.
Continuity is key for teams throughout the season and the Raptors haven’t let the drawbacks from the starting lineup affect their performance for the most part.
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Yet with roughly a month left in the regular season and the playoffs looming, it might be best for Casey to explore a change going forward if they don’t want to continue this current trend.