Raptors Need an Identity With Rotations Still in Flux This Season

The Toronto Raptors came into the season preaching the value of deep rotations and bench depth. They’d seen their starters run into the ground under previous coach Nick Nurse and swore this season would be different.

“Definitely I like using more players,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said back on media day. “I like using five players on the bench. Certainly nine. And I like definitely more guys in (the) rotation.”

If only it was that easy.

For a little while this season Toronto tried that. The Raptors ran a 10-man rotation with developmental minutes for rookie Gradey Dick and 25-year-old Jalen McDaniels. There was a genuine effort to limit the starters’ minutes and play more bench players.

But then came the losses.

That’s not to say Toronto’s starters have been great this year. The first unit has actually been quite disappointing, but Toronto’s bench hasn’t exactly helped the situation. The group ranks ninth worst in the league with a -1.6 net rating this season.

Monday showed what happens when you play your best players for more minutes. Not that a 114-99 victory over a short-handed Charlotte Hornets team is anything to get particularly excited about, but Toronto rode Scottie Barnes and Pascal Siakam 39 and 36 minutes, respectively, and unsurprisingly it helped. More to it, the Raptors tweaked their rotation so much that Jakob Poeltl’s minutes tumbled to just 15 in a matchup that was evidently not in his favor.

In fairness, Toronto’s roster has been unusually healthy this season. The starting lineup has played together in 22 of the team’s 26 games and the lone starter injury to OG Anunoby came following a mishap doing household chores. It’s hard to know exactly if that’s correlated to those starters playing fewer minutes, but less playing time certainly can’t hurt their health.

“That's a testament to our medical staff but also us working together to try to manage those minutes,” Rajaković told reporters pre-game Monday. “I always look at the long-term benefits for the player, for the team, for the organization, and for everybody. I think that every single night running guys to 38, 40 minutes, it's really, really hard. But on certain nights if that happens, it happens.”

Against the Hornets, Toronto tweaked Barnes’ rotation pattern. He came in to start the fourth alongside the second unit in typical fashion but unlike normal, Toronto decided to push his minutes and keep Barnes on the court for the entire fourth quarter.

“I felt good today. Body felt great. I was able to push myself through it,” Barnes told reporters post-game. “Wasn’t tired at all. Like I said, it worked out today. Was no problem at all.”

But Toronto has to figure out what the organization is looking for this season. If the goal is to win games, the path forward is simple: play your best players more. The more minutes for Barnes, Siakam, and Anunoby the better. But if the goal is to develop the roster, sticking with the bench through the ups and downs makes sense too.

The Raptors need to find an identity for this season. When they do, these rotation patterns should make a lot more sense.