Why the Toronto Raptors could have some STAGGERINGLY good bench lineups in 2025-26

Why the Toronto Raptors could have some STAGGERINGLY good bench lineups in 2025-26

On your Tuesday episode of Blocked on Raptors, I’m reunited with VC Jacob to play a stupid little game that is staggeringly fun. You are Locked On Raptors, your daily Toronto Raptors podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hey, what’s going on? and welcome to another episode of Locked On Raptors, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. It is Tuesday, August the 5th, and I’m your host, Sean Woodley. I’ve been covering the Toronto Raptors now for 11 seasons on various platforms, covering all my work over on Blue Sky. You can find the show on Instagram. You can join us in the Lockdown Raptors Discord server. As always, free to join. Link in the description of the podcast. Come hang out with the freaks. Uh, of course, today’s show, it’s brought to you by our friends over at Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockedmbba at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. And today on the show, we’re playing a stupid little game with the guy with whom I love to play stupid little games who did a wonderful job carrying the show while I was off changing diapers and stuff for six weeks. VC Jacob is back, Big V. How the hell are you pal? It’s lovely to be on screen with you again. It’s great to be on screen with you again, too, buddy. It’s good to see you. Uh, you know, it’s great to see that you haven’t lost too much sleep, but uh, I am looking forward to talking rappers with you. I I watched your episodes and caught up on all your takes, so we are ready to go. Yeah, man. Uh, I’m glad that I did not come back to a hostile takeover. There was some talk of that. Uh, and so I’m glad that uh, I wasn’t locked out of the accounts or anything like that. Thank you. You’re very kind. And, uh, yeah, man. Let’s uh, let’s roll here. By the way, I I lost a lot of sleep. Maybe I’m putting on a good face. Thank you, Ballzac Coffee from Costco. Get that big bag, baby. Um, but uh yeah, it’s uh it’s lovely to be back talking hoop. Let’s get into it. Today on our stupid little game, we are going to do a thing from like early sports internet where remember you get like a graphic where it’s like you got to build uh your ultimate team with this many dollars and all these players have dollar numbers assigned. Not a very original concept, but we’re going to do it through the lens of Toronto Raptors lineups. I’ve deci assigned a dollar amount to every player who figures to be a rotation player or has a shot of being a rotation player for the Raptors this season. And we’re going to try to assemble three staggered in between transitional lineups. That’s the way it’s going to work. There’s not going to be all starters here because that’s too damn expensive. Uh and we’re going to try to pick lineups that are actually going to win their minutes in the coming year. We will keep track of this. we will come back and determine a winner at uh lineup roulette uh with a budget uh at the end of the season. Let’s go big. Let’s just first we’ll take a look at the dollar amounts then we’ll talk a little about the sort of reason why we’re doing this and the Raptors specific situation that could lead to a lot of staggered lineups this season. But uh for those listening, it’s on screen if you’re watching on video. if you’re listening on audio. Uh $5 assigned to Scotty Barnes, Brandon Ingramman, Yakob Purle, the three guys who I think drive the most winning play or will drive the most winning play on the team. Four bucks for RJ Barrett and Emanuel Quickley. Three bucks for Oayabaji and Grady Dick. Two bucks for Jacobe Walter, Mamu, and Colin Murray Boils. And then a buck for Jamal Shed, Jameson Battle, and Jonathan Mobo. Garrett Temple is free. I also misspelled Garrett Temple’s name on the thing. I fixed it. I forgot to upload the fixed version. I’m an idiot. Either way, uh the reason why we’re doing this here, Big Fee, is this Raptors team, I think it’s pretty clear, is going to be staggerheavy this coming season. They’ve got five starters who all talented, but maybe the fit is a little suspect and a bench full of extremely unproven guys who I think will be better served playing with better players and kind of filling in the gaps between those better players as opposed to doing the hockey change thing. This is not going to be 2017 18 with the bench mob and five, you know, five bench guys coming in and schooling other teams. That was like a once in a generation anomaly of a lineup. I don’t think we’re going to see that again this year. If we do, awesome. That sounds fantastic to me, but I doubt that’s what we’re headed for. Uh, do you agree that staggering is going to be the name of the game for the Raptors? And do you think this can be a strength for the team or does this maybe point at sort of a weakness with a starting five that’s maybe a little bit janky? Yeah, I think honestly all of the above. I think there are maybe potential fit issues with the starting lineup and I think it is going to be optimal for Darko. uh when you look at the weaknesses of the bench and the inexperience that’s still there to have two starters on the floor at all times and you know I’ve said this before in a mailbag episode that I would be pretty shocked and frankly I think you’d have to ask questions of Darko if you know you can if you see stretches of play uh where you know four of the five starters are on the bench and you know what is there really a need for that unless there was like a Kyle Lowry plus bench lineup that absolutely blew you away. Uh there would be no reason for that to happen. And the other thing I’ll throw out there is, you know, if you look at the way the Raptors played defense down the stretch of last season, if you look at the way they played defense over at summer league, it’s going to be a lot of intense ball pressure. Uh, and I think that would make you lean in favor of short shifts where players can go as hard as they can, uh, and then get a breather, come back in, you know, and I think if we see more of that, obviously you’re going to have to balance it out with players who kind of like to find a rhythm uh, over a course of say 8, nine minute stretches, uh, we know obviously Steph Curry’s probably at the top of that list of guys who just likes to play the entire first quarter and just find Um, so the Raptors will have their own guys who kind of like to do that and so you’re going to have to strike that balance. But I do think all of that lends to, hey, let’s have at least two of these five starting guys, you know, between Quickly, RJ, Ingram, Scotty, and Yak out there on the floor at all times. With you 100%. It’s not like it’ll be, you know, we’re sounding the alarm bells the first time we see a lineup with one starter and four bench guys. But if it does become a recurring trend, then certainly it is like, is this a best use of the strengths of this roster? I think the strengths, like we talked about, I think the starting five, there’s talent in there, and I think, you know, there’s still I’m not sold that the fit’s going to be miserable. I think there’s a chance they have a positive net rating together. Maybe not like an enormous positive net rating, but I think the offense can be good enough. I think Scotty Barnes and Yaka Purle as the backline on the defense could be good enough that it can be a lineup that wins minutes for you if not, you know, dominating other teams. But I do think the strength is that there’s a lot of different skill sets on this team, especially within the bench guys. You have lights out shooting with Grady Dick, Jameson Battle. You have switchable defense and playmaking with Colin Murray Boils and Jonathan Mo. You have it just like straight three and D play with Ochaya Baji. I think you can kind of fill in the gaps between the starters and not only kind of give those bench guys a chance to kind of shine, but also give those starters moments within games where they can kind of take the ball, cook a little bit with the stuff that they do best that maybe they wouldn’t otherwise get to do when they’re playing with the full freight of starters. And so, let’s get into it here, Big V. Um, I want to uh throw it to you first. Throw me a lineup here to kick things off. Again, the rules here, we got to stay under 15 bucks. I’ll bring it back up. I fixed it, by the way. Garrett Temple’s name is spelled correctly now baby that’s producing on the fly. Uh we have again five bucks for Barnes Ingram Purle, four bucks for Barrett Quickley, three bucks a Baji Dick, two bucks Walter Mamu Murray Boils, and a dollar for Shed Battle and Mobo. Give me your first lineup. Again, it’s got to win its minutes. We’re going to tally at the end of the season. There will be bragging rights on the line. Who you got? So, for me, I’m super curious to see a team that has length, that has some decent scoring, uh, but can absolutely defend. And for me, I went with Jamal Shed. Mhm. Jacobe Walter. Okay. Brandon Ingram. Okay. Colin Murray Boils. And Scotty Barnes. I like it. And I like it a lot. Yeah. And I think obviously you’ve got the chemistry between Jamal Shed and Jacobe Walter and you’ve got the intense ball pressure that they’ll bring together in the back court. I think we’ve seen in summer league that they need some offensive help. So you’ve got Brandon Ingram there to be the release valve. You’ve got obviously Scotty Barnes in there. And so you’ve effectively got your two best players out there. And then you’ve got Colin Murray Boils who obviously as a rookie, we still have some pretty good expectations of him defensively. And he teased some of that at summer league. And whatever he gives you on the offensive end, he’s still, you know, maybe he’ll show you some of that rim pressure. Maybe he he’ll have some nice finishing off of, you know, whatever Ingram and Scotty are able to create. Uh and so I just think it’s a really nice mix of players. I think there’s some really great length uh between that front court of uh Ingram, CMB, and Scotty. And then of course uh you got Shed and Jacobe. We nearly lined up on our first lineup. I will say I I think the one sort of hole I would poke in your lineup is that’s a grim shooting scene if Jamal Shed is not knocking down like 36% of his catch and shoots. And so I swapped out Jamal Shed for another $1 player and that’s Jameson Battle. So, I’ve got Barnes, Ingram, Walter Battle, Murray Boils. I think you have enough collective playmaking there between Barnes, Ingram, Murray Boils, even Walter in secondary situations to put the ball on the deck to make something happen, you know, on the second side. I think there’s enough there that that can be functional enough on offense. And I think the just the space and breath that Jameson Battle provides as just a dude, you know, is out there to knock down 40% of his threes and take every single open look that comes his way. Uh I I think to me that is uh a slightly more shooting friendly, offense friendly version of that lineup. But that lineup is what like I I think we’ll see some version of those four players, Barnes, Ingram, Walter, and Murray Boils play together. I think it will be nasty defensively and I can’t wait to see it. I just think uh the addition of shooting and frankly some size there battling there, you know, I don’t think he’s a slouch defensively necessarily. He’s not like a lockdown guy, but he’s functionally big enough to kind of fit in with those guys. It is almost vision 69 come back to life a little bit just with you know three-point shooting. What a what a beautiful thing. Uh and so uh we’re pretty close in our first lineups. We’ll see if we uh deviate at all going into our second and third lineups. I also want to talk a little bit about Scotty Barnes with the bench uh which was a struggle big time this past season. We’ll get into all that coming up here in just one second as we continue along our uh what is it? Lineups on a budget. Uh we’ll find a better name for it. I didn’t think of it. It’s just a stupid little game. Okay, we’ll do it more coming up next. Today’s show is brought to you by friends over at Fivehour Energy. 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Before we do that, though, Scotty Barnes, he he’s someone who last year like extremely extremely struggled with just him plus three bench or four bench guys or even three bench guys. I think his ability to drive winning minutes kind of no matter who he’s playing with is going to be kind of a huge deal. Do you have optimism that with this sort of reshaped roster with some improvement from rookies who lost minutes because rookies lose minutes um and you know secondyear guys who get better in Grady Dick for example like do you think there’s a pathway here for better in between lineup production from Scotty Barnes than we’ve seen? Yeah, for sure. And I think this is part of why you want to stagger the starters. And I think you want to just have Scotty playing with better players. And whether that’s the internal growth of the rookies and coming along in their sophomore and third year uh seasons or if it’s just by having, you know, guys like RJ or Yak or Quickley or Ingram out there with him. Uh I think that’s going to promote better play from these secondary lineups. I think that Scotty is someone who needs that. I think, you know, we’ve seen offensive stretches where when he’s playing with those bench lineups, it’s the offense just gets stuck in mud and there’s nowhere to really go and create. Um, and I think that’s where he probably needs the most help. Uh, and I think now with this added talent, uh, and maybe even, uh, some more confidence from the bench guys, cuz let’s face it, even with a Grady Dick, like that’s not someone you were looking at as a bench guy last season because of how much he had to play. And so now he’s an option off the bench. Uh, Ochai should have increased confidence. Jacobe Walter should have increased confidence. And so I think just that added offensive support is gonna be able to promote uh you know the offens offensive efficiency of those lineups and then I have full confidence that he can at the very least stabilize or even enhance whatever defend defenders are around him. Yeah, I have so few concerns about Scotty Barnes on defense. It’s crazy. He was so damn good last year and it’s one of I I think you know it’s fair the Raptors were bad. No one watched him in the back part of the year. But I do think Scotty Barnes becoming an ender of worlds defensively is one of the more undertalked about sort of development stories of any player in the league last year. And I think this is the year where that could really start to, you know, pay pay dividends. Let’s uh go to our second lineups here. I’ll go first with this one. No Scotty Barnes in this one for me. I’m going with a tried andrue twoman combo as the backbone of this lineup that has won its minutes together in their entire time together. Now, they haven’t played a lot of games together due to injury and tanking and more injury. But Emanuel Quickley and Yaka Purle, they win their minutes when they’re on the floor together. Back in 2023 24 nearly 900 possessions together. They were plus 6.9 uh net rating when they were on the floor together. Uh they were really good on offense and good on defense. Uh those lineups in those uh in that stretch after the trade before Yach got hurt. And then last year in a season where quickly missed a lot of time and they were just clearly like throwing the season by the end of the year. A team that lost its minutes gargantuanly over the course of the entire year. Uh they were plus 0.5 together in quickly in Purle minutes as well. They won their minutes when those two played last year despite a pretty rough context. And uh yeah, I just think like pullup shooting guard, good pick and roll finishing big man. It’s a good combination. And I think the screening Purle provides for Quickly is really effective for getting him downhill into the teeth of the defense where he can make things happen with the floater, the the driving kick game that I think maybe gets a little slept on as a thing he’s good at. Um I I just think that’s a good backbone. And then in between it’s a $4 guy and quickly five bucks for Purle. I spent three bucks on Grady Dick, two bucks on Jacobe Walter and two bucks on Mamu, baby. We’re going big in the front court. We’re going all in on shooting with Grady, Quickly, Walter, and Mamu around Purle. I think this lineup, if you throw it out at the start of second quarters against opposing uh second units, maybe, you know, obviously in actual practice, you might even see RJ Barrett make it into this lineup at some point. Obviously can’t do it for the purposes of this exercise because it’s too darn expensive, but like I think just quickly Purle run it out against second units to start second quarters. You’re going to just completely blow teams away. And I I think you know leaning all in on the shooting is a pretty good way to do it with this group as well. It might be a bit tricky defensively, but you’re up against second unit, so I don’t really care. Uh, what do you think about this lineup? You have something similar in your quiver. Yeah, I think that’s a fun lineup. We actually So, my third lineup was going to be a quickly Yock centered uh lineup and so Okay, so let’s let’s let’s talk about it now. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Uh, so the only one I’m swapping out is uh I left Mamu out and I brought uh Jonathan Mobo in. I had the defensive concerns. So, I’ve got Quickley, Walter, Grady, Jonathan Mo, and Yakapurle. I think you’ve still got enough shooting in there between Quickly, Walter, and Grady. I I think defensively now if you have Mo and Yak in the backline, that’s something that alleviates, I think, a lot of the burden off of Jacobe. Uh because I think then you’re kind of stuck with him as the only good perimeter defender. And I think Mobo has been really good defending pick and rolls. Uh I think it still allows Yak to kind of be the best version of himself and Grady to be the best version of himself too. And I think it just alleviates a lot of the concern there. Mo his biggest concern is the finishing around the basket. Um, and so I think having Yak there, having that pick and roll chemistry between Quickly and Yak, uh, is going to take away some of that and he can just crash the offensive glass and, uh, you know, get you some. Yeah. And so, uh, I just went a bit different with, uh, Mobo instead of Mamu. Yeah, sure. I, you know, I thought about Mobo in there, too, just for budgetary reasons. I I just think um you know I’m fascinated to see what Purle looks like with a four next to him that can just bomb threes. Like and look, I’m not I don’t know how you feel about Mamu. Like I’m not out here thinking he’s going to be some kind of like revolutionary player. He’s on what the minimum like he’s he’s not going to like totally change the game for this team. But I do think there is just like the element of having a dude out there who you know is just going to let it rip. And I mean the above the break stuff with him is the really encouraging part. Like most of his threes come above the break. He shoots very well on them. I think 38% above the break last year. Like that that’s a like you could pull the top off your offense a little bit with that. And I think next to Yaka Purle with the finisher that he is and if you throw a couple guys in there who can make something happen on on a second side action with with Grady Dick who we know can put the ball on the deck and get to the rim. Hasn’t finished super well but I think in that spacing environment he’s going to see less help at the rim. Same for Jacobe Walter, a guy who we know can kind of put the ball in the deck and get to the cup. I I think there is a pretty like harmonious ecosystem within that lineup that yeah, you might give back some stuff defensively, but uh Mamu Purle has just a front court. It’s just been so long since we’ve seen like modern spacing in the Raptors front court. And you know, it’s not to say that’s the only thing that matters. I’m as excited for that look as I am for Murray Boils and Barnes to just kind of defense it up without any shooting. But um yeah, where you at on Mamu as far as like how effective you think he can be? Do you think he’s like going to be part of the regular rotation for this team or is he someone who might kind of wax and Wayne in terms of whether he’s in the good graces or not? Yeah, I think he’s going to be a pretty situational player. I think that, you know, he’s if injuries become a factor, if there’s, to your point, a desperate need for some spacing, you know, say it just happens to be one of those nights where like Jacobe and uh Abaji are just like ice cold and so you know, you try to get some more spacing in there, some more shooting in there. Uh maybe you’re getting zoned up. Yeah, exactly. Like I think those are the opportunities that are going to present themselves for Mamu. Uh I do think just based on the little I’ve watched, it’s kind of like to your, you know, in terms of what helps your lineup, it’s like offensively he can kind of be that spacing five, but defensively you probably don’t want him against fives. and the Raptors are well suited to do that with, you know, whether it be Scotty or mobile being able to take on some small five uh responsibilities and then whenever you have Yak out there. So yeah, if you’ve got Yak out there, then you know it kind of works where Yak’s operating inside, Mambu’s giving you the spacing and then defensively you still have Yak protecting the inside uh and then uh M not doing that. Uh yeah, anytime you can not have him protecting the rim, I think will be good. And I don’t think there’ll be really many lineups where he is asked to protect the rim. He’s going to be out there with one of Purdle, Scotty, or Momo, I think, at all times, or or Murray Boils, right? Like I think it’ll be pretty rare that Mamu was your last line of defense. And if that is the case, something horrible has happened. Um we’re going to come back on the other side here. Big V got one more lineup to run through. Uh I finally have RJ Barrett involved in the lineup. I I think, you know, working with the bench might be a place where he can find some success this year. We’ll get into that. Close things out coming up in just one sec. 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Uh, so we’ve got Jamal Shed, Oiabaji, Jameson Battle, Scotty Barnes, and Yaka Purle. So I wanted to have a Scotty and Yak lineup. Okay. Obviously to afford that, I had to have uh Jamal Shed at the point uh get Oai Abaji in there. Uh and you know, Darko won’t be operating on a budget, so he’ll likely just have Grady Dick in there instead of Jameson Battle. Uh, but I’ve gone with Jame Jame Jame Jameson Battle to make the budget work. Uh, I think this is a lineup that uh, you know, you need some shooting. So, you’ve got uh, Abaji and Battle in there. We’ll see what Jamal Shed gives you this season. Uh, and then I just think that the Scotty and Yak chemistry is pretty solid. I think that especially defensively, uh, this is a lineup that can insulate in insulate battle, uh, and can also really just rev it up between Shed and Abaji and Scotty and Yak. Uh, as you can tell with most of my lineups, I kind of skew defense first. Uh, and yeah, I think it’s a fun lineup. I I do have some honorable mentions uh, that include RJ, but unfortunately, he did not make my top three picks. I I uh I like that lineup. I included RJ in my third lineup because I I think it’s an interesting opportunity to talk about him running with the bench. But first, you talked about kind of leaning defense with a lot of your lineups and very much you did with this one as well. Uh I asked this question to Mike Pena last week and I might just ask this question to every single guest who comes on the show for the next little while because I think it’s really interesting. Will the Raptors finish higher in offense or defense next year? Big V. Man, that is a great question. I am someone who feels like the Raptors still have to prove what they really have defensively because again, second half of last season, they went up against a lot of weak teams. Uh, and if you just filter out for when they played the strong teams, the defensive rating was still not great. Uh, so I I think they’ve still got a lot to prove on that. Uh, and then I think Darko, uh, you know, for as much as we’ve seen, uh, the uptick in assists and the passing and all that, it has not translated to offensive efficiency. And so, uh, you know, it it looks prettier, but the results haven’t necessarily been there. Uh, I will lean, uh, towards the defense being better. Mhm. Uh just because I I feel like, you know, if we can just see Scotty and Yak play consistently uh and then you throw in the other guys uh and you throw in uh the fact that you know you’ve got some strong defenders off the bench as well. Um I think that this should be a better defensive team. Uh, but to your what makes it a good question is the fact that, you know, the same way I’m talking about Scotty and Yak having playing time together, it could just be, hey, quickly play 70 games and uh, all of a sudden the offense looks a lot better. Yeah, I I do think there’s going to be a lot of power in just having a full season of Quickly and Ingram playing together. Like those are probably two of the three, if not the two best offensive players on the team, and they didn’t have those guys for long stretches or at all last year. And so I think yeah, it seems a lot to say, oh, they’re going to jump from bottom five on offense up into like flirting with top 10. I do think, you know, you add two offensive players that skilled to the mix playing the full year with the full compment of other players, which, hey, they might not stay healthy, but I do think they’re more injury insured this year than they have been in years past, just with like similar skill sets layered throughout the roster, like sharks teeth. Um, I I I think there is, you know, if you can get healthy quickly, healthy Ingram, I do think there’s a pretty solid offense in here. That said, I do think they kind of derive their identity from defense. And I think they’re just going to be a bunch of tryhards again. And I think, you know, I lean towards the defense being a little bit better. Um, that’s to reanswer the question I asked Pina last week. I probably I won’t reanswer this question every single time I ask it, but we will ask this to everyone who comes on because I do think it’s an interesting one to ponder. Uh, I believe Pina also said the offense would be better. So, um, we’re getting different answers all around, baby. Let’s go to the, uh, my third lineup, and I wanted to get a couple guys I haven’t gotten in here yet. Three guys I haven’t gotten in here yet. We’ll go, uh, bottom to top in terms of the num amount of money spent on each guy. $1 I spent on Jamal Shed to run point. Two bucks I spent on Colin Murray Boils. He’s basically the small ball five in this lineup. Uh, three bucks I spent on Oiabaji. Two, four bucks I spent on RJ Barrett. And five bucks I spent on Brandon Ingram. So, Shed, Barrett, Ingram, Abaji, Murray Boils. Definitely on the smaller side, but I do like the sort of bookending of two defensive maniacs in Shed and Murray Boils. And then in between, you have some shooting, some offense, and I think for RJ Barrett a chance to actually create with the ball in his hands in an environment where he’s not being overtaxed against good competition. I think, look, when he’s playing with the starters, I basically never want to see RJ Barrett running offense next season. I want to see him in transition, sure, grab and go, finish on the run, not a problem. You’re good at that. And then beyond that, I want to see him roaring out of the corners off of curls, catching at the nail, getting downhill, and finishing. Um, sort of working second side, taking advantage of other people’s gravity, and turning that into something for him. I think it needs to be streamlined. I think he needs to go back to what it very much was in the back part of the season after the trade where his role was very trimmed down. All the fat was cut off and he was laser efficient. And I just think that’s the the recipe for him to be successful in the starting lineup. You can’t be running pick and roll while you have Brandon Ingram, Scotty Barnes, Emanuel Quickley, Yaka Purle all hanging around watching him. It’s just not going to work. Um, in the second unit though, like there was a very real tangible improvement made by Barrett last year when it came to his pick and roll creation and playmaking. Not in a way that I think runs starting lineups, but in second units against bench looks 100%. I think that’s the place you get R.J. his touches. And I think playing with Ingram, him and Ingram, him and Barrett can kind of tag team the creation duties in that look. You have Abaji for spacing and defense. You have Murray Boils for defense and uh rolling and short rolling and all that stuff. Then you have Jamal Shed hopefully, fingers crossed, knocking down some catch and shoots while also bringing his high pickup point nasty defense and all of that. Um, what do you think of this lineup? Do you think this is a world in which RJ Barrett can thrive? Yeah, I think it’s a fun lineup. I think, you know, to your point, uh, the way he’s improved in the pick and roll, the way he’s improved as a passer, you want to get him those reps and you want to get him those opportunities. And so I think uh that’s the biggest part I think for me when I was just trying to figure out RJ lineups, it’s just about hey, how can you get him the defensive protection uh that he needs and and so I think uh yours should do enough of that. Um and yeah, I think you know you have CMBB in there uh you’ve got the length of Ingram in there. Uh, so I I do feel like uh this should be a fun uh lineup. I think the one thing I’ve been thinking about with RJ and Ingram is like when Ingram is out there with RJ, it takes the pressure off him having to get all the way to the bucket, right? Because R.J. is going to be the guy that is going to uh, you know, create that room pressure. He is going to have those opportunities where he’s driving to the basket. So Ingram can kind of be in his most natural role. I I think uh and so I think you’ve got that in there as well. Um on the subject of RJ kind of getting his playmaking chops in. I do have uh one lineup with R.J. at the point. Um, and so I thought this would be a bit of fun where you have RJ, uh, Jacobe Walter, uh, Brandon Ingram, CMBB, uh, and Mamu. And so, yeah, uh, you you get some, uh, spacing for Ingram and R.J. to kind of operate. You’ve still got uh kind of uh some room pressure between R.J. and CMB. And then Ingram again is just like in his most natural role. And then Jacobe is just kind of being uh a gap filler for everything else. So I thought, you know, I know that lineup’s a bit funky, but I thought it could be a bit of fun to just see how that Funk it up, baby. It’s the name of the game this year, man. Um Yeah. Yeah. I I think uh look, I wanted Shed in there because I haven’t had Shed in any of these lineups and I didn’t want to totally exclude him. I did exclude my boy Jonathan Mo from all these lineups, which makes me feel sad. Um but like there’s going to be competition for minutes, man. And like it’s going to be I I think pretty tough to crack into that top nine or so and to stay in there. You’re going to have to perform well because there are going to be guys knocking on the door. Not to say that Shed and Bobo aren’t going to get looks this year because I think they certainly will. But it’s going to be a lot of competition which is a good thing. It’s a thing we haven’t seen in quite some time. Um but if there is a concern I have with that lineup I put out there, it is just if Shed’s not hitting his threes, that’s not a lot of shooting around Barrett. And I think we saw last year Barrett needs shooting around him. He needs shooting in the corners to avoid in particular the corners to avoid having what happened last year. If you go back and watch his drives last season, the help is just there all the time. He’s driving left and the dude on the strong side is pinching in because they’re not worried about the shooter in the corner and there’s just too many bodies and arms and limbs for Barrett to score through and it’s why he shot what was it 62% at the rim last year. Not good enough. And so, um, you know, if you wanted to swap in Grady Dick for Oiabaji, get back some defense, I could see it. If you wanted to swap in Jameson Battle for Jamal Shed and have Barrett run point in this lineup, I could totally see it. But I wanted to get my boy Shed in there because he’s fun and I think he’s going to play plenty off the bench because he’s a maniac defensively and that’s what this team’s whole thing is. We will leave it there. Big V, this was fun, pal. Great to play a stupid little game with you. Do you have anything you want to promote for the good people out there? Uh, just the usual stuff. Uh, Raptors and 7 is going strong. Uh, I’ll have some CMBB stuff coming out, so you can look forward to that. And then I’m going to do some player uh I’m doing going to do a combo of like player review and preview uh for next season in terms of uh just like prescribing stuff for, you know, what the team needs and what they should be improving going into next season. So, you can look out for that. Yeah, just your typical offseason stuff. And besides that, uh, all my NBA takes are going up on Basketball Insiders. Oh, yeah. Everyone go check out all Big V’s work. It’s great. Uh, you can find me, uh, in the Discord. It’s where I’m hanging out on, Blue Sky once in a while, but man, posting is sad these days. And so, uh, I don’t do it much because then you have to scroll all the other posts and you get depressed. And so, uh, I’d rather hang out with my uh, little guy at home and that’s more fun. But either way, uh, yeah, Discord, I’m usually hanging out in there, you know, shooting the breeze, all that good stuff, making fun of all the people for their, uh, idiosyncrasies. It’s great. You can come and I’ll roast you, too. Uh, we’ll leave it there. Thanks so much. Talk to you on Wednesday. I think we’ll get Katie Hindle back on the pod this week some point. We’ll also do the pessimist case for uh, you know, the Toronto Raptors this coming season after we did the Optimus look with uh, Michael Penino last week. So, you have that to look forward to. Either way, thanks so much for rocking with the show. Bye-bye.

The strength of the Toronto Raptors in 2025-26 seems likely to be their ability to mix and match starters with bench guys throughout 48 minutes — can it be a recipe for success? In Episode 1920, Sean Woodley and Vivek Jacob play a Stupid Little Game where they attempt to build out 5-man starter-plus-bench lineups that stand a chance of winning their minutes this coming season within a strict budget. Can Scottie Barnes find success sharing the floor with Brandon Ingram and bench pieces in a way Barnes plus four reserves didn’t work last season? Will Immanuel Quickley and Jakob Poeltl be a dependable backbone for Raptors’ bench looks? Does RJ Barrett have a chance of succeeded running offense against lesser opponents after struggling to run the show against starters last year? All that and more as Sean and Big V reunite for the first time in six weeks!

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