Written By: Ilijana Popovic
Edited By: Damien Cheung
This year, the Raptors rotation has seemingly been getting smaller and smaller every day. The starting five, consisting of Fred VanVleet, Gary Trent Jr, OG Anunoby, Scottie Barnes, and Pascal Siakam, have been averaging around 35-40 minutes every night. VanVleet (38.2 mpg) and Siakam (37.6 mpg) even hold the top two spots within the league for minutes per game, while Barnes and Trent Jr take the 11th and 21st slots. Bench pieces like Chris Boucher, Khem Birch, and Precious Achiuwa have seen the floor and average around 20 mpg, but other than these three, it is rare to see another face in the line-up.
This Raptors team has been going through the ups and downs of injuries all season long. Through the Raptors 67 games played, Siakam and VanVleet have missed 13, Anunoby has missed 25 (and counting) and Birch has missed 26. Not a single rostered player has been available for every game this season, but Boucher’s 65 games played is a team-high.
Everybody keeps talking about this unfortunate series of events, how just as the Raptors were finally becoming healthy and going on a run, players got injured again and halted it. With every player getting an insane number of minutes every night, should injuries not be expected to come with it?
Let’s take Fred VanVleet, for example, an all-star. Night in and night out he leaves it all on the floor, and more often than not, it pays off. Then shortly before the all-star game, his knee started acting up. He missed the final game before the All-Star break. Then he was given limited minutes in the All-Star game, only playing 9 of them. VanVleet returned for two not very pretty games post all-star break, only to show up on the injury list for 6 games afterwards, to recover from the injury that was seemingly caused by the large amounts of play time he had been managing.
Injuries considered, why is Nurse so resistant to turn to his bench when the minutes have clearly been taking a toll on the starters?
The Raptors bench has statistically been the worst in the league. This could be from lack of playtime, lack of experience, or whatever else, but in the limited minutes given, nobody had shown to be stepping up and deserving of more playtime. The exception to this being Malachi Flynn, who showed signs of struggle at the beginning of the season but has since more than proven himself with his recent play. In Fred’s absence, Flynn was handed the starting spot.
Flynn was the Raptors' first-round draft pick in the 2020 draft. In April 2021, he won the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month, and he seemed to be a very promising young guard to the Raptors fanbase. Coming into this season, the Raptors had a lack of depth at the guard position with the departure of Raptor great, Kyle Lowry. Flynn was largely expected by the fanbase to help fill the hole, only to start the season with numerous DNP’s, followed by some subpar performances in limited opportunities.
Despite the slow start to the year, Flynn kept training hard, ensuring he would be prepared for the next opportunity he received. When he finally got that chance, he was ready, and as Gary Trent Jr said, “he was staying ready so he didn’t have to get ready."
Flynn recently started 4 games before straining his hamstring, sidelining him indefinitely. In those games, he averaged 5.5 assists and 16 PPG on 57% shooting in nearly 36 MPG. He proved that he can be a real asset to the team when given the chance, especially now that the team is short at the point guard position.
It is very unfortunate for him to have been bit by the injury bug during what some may call the best stretch of basketball he has ever played. Although, when a player has been seeing very limited floor time and then is suddenly thrown into playing 36 mpg, injuries are no surprise.
The Raptors have gone 5-5 since the all-star break, and it is the time of year when teams make the final decision on what their end of the season goal is. What path will the Raptors choose to follow?
Toronto is still young and will continue to develop. Going for it and gaining playoff experience could be highly beneficial for the young players. However, with the team having recently traded away their lottery-protected first round pick in return for a Pistons/Bulls swap-worst second round pick which likely ends up toward the back of the draft, they could look to end the season on a weak note instead.
The Bulls are currently among the top teams in the conference, so the likely late second round pick is a big jump from the pick in the 15-20 range the Raptors would have otherwise had. With lottery protection on that first rounder (top 14), and the Raptors being in the 7th seed, do they go for the playoff experience or tank to get their pick back?
Tanking should not be something teams constantly go for, but in some cases, it works out for the best. The Raptors are a young, developing team. In the future, they will be back at the top of the league, but they need a few years to get there, they aren't there yet.
If they were to make it out of the play-in and into the first round of playoffs, what is the expectation? Basketball is a game about winning and doing what it takes to win. Winning the title is the ultimate goal, but this year it simply isn't attainable.
The Raptors can either go to the first round, lose to a top team in the East, and are now out of a potentially very valuable draft pick, or they tank just enough to gain a top 14 pick, get their first rounder back, select a young asset, and work to develop them and create a better team for next season.
The Raptors are dealing with many injuries. They are barely scraping by as it is, and the starters who play 35+ mins will eventually reach exhaustion. Other teams use bigger lineups during the season and shorten it up come postseason to make sure nobody is out of gas, allowing them to be at full strength. The Raptors will already be tired out by then, after running a playoff style rotation all year. The Raptors are giving all they have right now just to make the playoffs, and if it has them in the 7th seed, is it enough for a deep playoff run?
That is up to Masai Ujiri, Bobby Webster, Nick Nurse and the team to decide. Will the team even be healthy in time? Fans will just have to wait and see!
Comments