Projecting The Raptors’ Rotation: Who Stays, Who Goes Next Season?

Projecting The Raptors’ Rotation: Who Stays, Who Goes Next Season?

The Toronto Raptors are seemingly setting out with a goal of making the playoffs next season. But what’s the rotation going to look like for the team that hopefully gets them to that position? Let’s get into it. Welcome back everybody. This is Amateur Sports. It’s a YouTube channel that is completely dedicated to providing you with Toronto Raptors content in videos and in live streams. So, smash that like button if you enjoy along the way. Subscribe for more content just like it. But I’ve had a few questions regarding the Raptors and what the rotation should be looking like for next season. So, let’s go through the entire thing. And judging by the two years so far with Dark Rayakovic as a head coach start of the season, they kind of want to feel out a little bit more of the pieces within the team before making really those decisions to cut down rotation. So, it’s not that big of a difference, but they’ve started the season lately with 10 players in rotation. They’ve kind of whittleled it down just one less spot down to nine as they progress through the season as they get more trust for the guys that they actually want to play. And we’ll go off with the starters of course to start things. But the bench is where things get a little bit more interesting and maybe where more work needs to be done. So make sure you stick around until that section of the video. But starters it kind of writes itself at point guard. It’s obviously going to be Emanuel Quickley. There’s like not going to be any conversations about oh do you slide quickly down? Do you move Jamal Shed into the starting point guard position like this is not going to happen. Manuel Quickley is the point guard. Finished the season really well for the Raptors. Obviously had the injury issues, but I think keep your faith in this player. Allow that contract to age. I think it will age gracefully with the cap going up and with Emanuel Quickley. Hopefully having a healthy start to the season, he’ll get back to the levels that Raptors fans were expecting. So absolutely the starting point guard there. Now, positionally, like other than point guard and center, I don’t care like a ton about the positions because like there’s a guys who can play different roles in this group here. But basically on the wings, there’s no real outandout shooting guard type of player. But if we have to label someone as a shooting guard, it would be RJ Barrett. Now, there’s going to be conversations about the fit with this starting five in just a second here and its inclusion with RJ Barrett and rumors are already starting to pop up about the Raps potentially shopping RJ Barrett. I’ve spoken about it a lot on this channel. I don’t love the fit. I like RJ Barrett as a player. There’s a lot of talent there, but there isn’t a positional need for a player like him that much. But it looks like it’ll be difficult to trade him and get the value that you’d want to get out of a player of his ability. Therefore, I expect the Raptors to start the season with RJ Barrett in the starting five. In the forward spots, you can put them in either position. I mean, maybe you had more so Scotty Barnes, the power forward. will say the small forward is going to be Brandon Ingram. That is also very very obvious. He is going to be one of the starting forwards for the Raptors. They shelled out not like a lot like honestly for a player of his ability, but they gave, you know, a good sum in the trade in order to get Brandon Ingram to the team. And the expectation is he’ll be able to play like an all-star and be the leading driver of this offensive unit for the Raptors this season. And just this style of player, guy who can go and get buckets, guy is going to create his own shot in mid-range, get us out of some tough situations offensively where maybe the team goes a little bit cold. He can find that bucket for you. It’s a type of player that I’ve really wanted on the Raptors for a long time. They finally have it. I’m excited to see how he gels next to the power forward in the starting five here, which is going to be Scotty Barnes. Obviously, Scotty Barnes going to start for the Raptors as well. down year a little bit offensively, but a big year on defense for him and I think that’s going to carry over very very well into next season. Uh little bit of a sour taste for Raptors fans to to know the Raptors did everything to get Scotty Barnes to 65 games played. We didn’t expect any AllNBA votes, which he didn’t get, but not a single alldefense vote either. kind of stings again knowing they really really tried to force out the 65 games for him. But hopefully maybe some accolade discussion for him next season. But regardless, the accolades don’t concern what actually happens on the court. Scott Barnes is fantastic on defense and hopefully playing next to another high caliber player on offense like Brand Ingram helps unlock the form that he showed to make an all-star team in 2023. The center of course is going to be Yaka Purle. As I said, the starting five is simple. It writes itself. Yakob Purle. The only real like NBA caliber center on the roster, like true center on the roster, is Yakob Purle. And he’s a very good one. There’s a lot of teams in the NBA who’d really love to have a center like Yakob Purle. Fantastic defender, uh, fantastic at finishing at the rim, fantastic rebounder, fantastic in the pick and roll, good passer out of the high post. Like his screening ability, his passing ability at the high post allow him to space the floor for his teammates even though he can’t shoot. But, you know, alongside Purle not being able to shoot, there is a lack of floor spacing with this unit, which is why I question the fit overall of this group together. This is just by far the five most talented players in the roster. That’s going to be your starting five for the team. You’re going to have to work out the King. Manual Quick is going to have to shoot a ton of threes. We’re going to have to see maybe an upgrade in volume of Brandon Ingram threes. Maybe Scotty Barnes can continue to take threes, but maybe more catch and shoot threes. RJ Barrett was pretty good off catch and shoot threes last season. and it was pretty efficient like above 35% on threes for Barrett. So if everyone’s kind of chipping in which we kind of say every year and it doesn’t really work maybe the spacing can work to a certain degree but even like people who are excited about Barrett and still want to keep him here. I it’s not that I dislike Barrett, it’s just the fit is a little bit clunky with this team and I think that this is going to be the starting five regardless of the draft and regardless of what happens the offseason. I don’t think we’re going to trade Barrett just yet, but I think we’ll learn very quickly that, okay, when we see this group together, we’ll notice the drastic change that does need to happen, but maybe we just need that visual confirmation in order to make it so. And like I said, the draft still needs to happen. So, this bench unit is likely going to going to change. But as it stands, this is what the rotation would be looking like, which should highlight where some of the areas of concern are for this team. I don’t think whoever the Raptors draft, I don’t think that player is going to be in the starting five and challenging one of the five starters that I’ve mentioned. But off the bench, first two names off the bench for me going to have to be Grady Dick. The shooting is going to be very, very beneficial to that unit. Like we could see still the units where Scotty Barnes, the first player, subbed out. Therefore, he gets some more time with the second unit kind of leading that second unit. But inserting Grady Dick and just that additional shooting into that lineup would be very, very interesting. The issue does stem now from defense because there is a bit of a lack of defense in the starting five as well beyond Purle and Barnes. But hopefully there is work put in on that in the floor for a player like Grady Dick who did struggle a lot on defense last season. But I think that the spacing is pivotal to be the first name off the bench. But Jamal Shed should be close to follow. Having that more pure point guard in rather than Emanuel Quickley, having Jamal Shed’s defensive ability, uh, passing ability where there does need to be some work is can Jamal Shed continue to show a little bit more from three. That is going to be vital for his development and vital to how effective he can be in the NBA. But I think he’s done enough to warrant that sort of role. Then we get a little bit more hazy. I think you’ve got to have Ocei coming off the bench because of how good he is defensively and because of how good he was shooting from three last season. Was one of the best corner three-point shooters in the NBA last season, one of our better defenders certainly on the roster. But I think you’ve got to have that in which makes it very difficult to find the right fit for Jacobe Walter who probably also is coming off the bench as one of your top nine. But then now what you’re dealing with is okay there’s no out-and-out shooting guard in the starting five but off the bench Grady Dick I mean shooting guard small four but I would consider his play type his style to be that of a shooting guard I would say the same for Oceabaji who can play down as a three and even in extreme cases can play down as a four but like in this bench unit if you’re playing Grady Dick if you’re playing Jacobe Walter if you’re playing Oceabaji yeah Baji can play as the four but that’s also sacrificing a lot size for the team. So that’s where some difficulties could arise there because I think Jacobe Walter is good enough to continue to get minutes and should continue to get minutes. But the fit is just a little bit complicated. If there is a 10th guy in rotation just because you need size, just because you need somebody to fill that role as a backup center sometimes, Jonathan Moa kind of has to do it, which I know leaves out guys like Jameson Battle who you kind of want to get in. And I think he’s definitely going to be challenging for one of those spots, maybe ahead of Jacobe Walter as well. There’ll be interesting little internal battles for the Raptors depth and the Raptors bench and who gets those spots. But injuries happen and you need bigger rosters. You need guys to be available to play these games. But you know, as it stands, the five guys who warrant the most minutes off the bench right now are probably Grady Dix Shed, Oi, Jacobe Walter, and Jonathan Mo. And then there is whoever the Raptors draft, whatever position that may be. If it’s a center like K Malawash, it’s easy. Mobile comes out of that 10 and K Malawash goes back in. Then we see how the season goes to start the year and maybe one of those players comes out of rotation. But what we’ve kind of learned looking at this group, there’s no real like absolute gamecher coming in off the bench unless Grady Dick does progress defensively because that’ll just keep him on the floor long. We know he’s talented offensive. We saw how good he was to start the most recent season. So, if that continues to progress defensively, he’ll be very, very effective. But the Ravs have a lot of good players for the bench, but it’s not very topheavy. So, I’m wondering if that’s where they see a potential for an RJ Barrett move just to fill out the roster a little bit better. But again, I don’t quite think that move is going to come this off seasonason for RJ Barrett. But as much as there’s talent here and enough talent to be a playoff team, overall with this rotation I’ve laid out pre-draft, it’s still just it’ll be interesting to see how a coach like Dark Rayakovich can make it work. It’s just not quite seamless fits. It feels a little bit incomplete from a roster construction standpoint. So, there’s going to have to be some creative ways and creative lineups that really maximizes the output of this team. You know, certain things like if Grady Dick comes in for Scotty Barnes, now we have a little bit more shooting. But then, you know, are you missing a bit of defense? Does Jamal Shed come in for Barnes? And then now it’s Jamal Shed sliding quickly down to the two that has a little bit more balance, but now does it still lack a bit of that spacing that you would need for the team? Whole lot of questions here. And I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned from this is what the Raptors need to accomplish this off seasonason. And it’s going to be difficult with the finances at their disposal and just the area they are in. They just don’t attract free for agents. But it has been well I don’t maybe have they ever done it trying to think back. But the Raptors really need to land a successful free agent. like they need to sign a free agent who is going to come into the team and make a difference. It’s not a guy who’s going to be starting getting maybe the heaviest minutes, but like somebody who can come off the bench and do a job that is going to help the team. I can’t even recall a successful free agent signing by the Raptors. So, if you have one, like, please let me know in the comments down below. And I’m not talking about like UT Watonab who yeah he had some good games but was nowhere near consistent enough to to fit into the category of a successful free agent signing. So, that’s going to be a huge difference maker, nailing the draft pick. And please find a free agent who can actually help this team win games. And then like when we’re playing key games hopefully and not tanking, but hopefully they’re playing key games in March, is that guy going to be trusted to get significant minutes in that game? Not closing minutes, not starting minutes, but significant minutes. Are we going to be able to find that guy? We’ll see.

The Toronto Raptors are looking to get back into the playoff picture next season, but what will the rotation look like that will hopefully get them there? Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram are surefire starters, but is there still a place for RJ Barrett? Is there enough talent off the bench to supplement the starting group? Will Darko Rajakovic be able to make it all work?

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0:00 – What will the Raptors’ rotation look like as of now?
1:11 – The starting five is easy
4:53 – How the starting 5 fit together
6:07 – Who is coming off the bench?
9:32 – The bench needs more talent
11:00 – The Raptors need to make this happen

This is Amateur Hour Sports. On this channel, Jacob Gramegna analyzes and breaks down the latest on the Toronto Raptors NBA team from trade rumors to post-game reactions, analysis, and much more. By subscribing to this channel you will be there first to watch and enjoy 3-4 videos a week all focused on this team and on game days Jacob goes live on the channel for a watch party where he interacts with chat, answers your questions, and analyses the game as it happens with play by play and commentary. Join the Amateur Hour Army today by subscribing and consider becoming a member to give extra support to the channel and help create better content more often.

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