Raptors Talk Potential Starting Lineup Changes & When To Expect a Shakeup If Struggles Continue
The Toronto Raptors can hear the chatter.
The team is well aware of how disappointing the starting lineup has been this year and how much talk there is about potential changes. Dennis Schröder, in particular, knows his name is being discussed in a potential swap with Gary Trent Jr. But for all the talk about changes, don’t expect a move quite yet.
“Definitely, we're talking about it. It's not something that's completely off the table,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said Tuesday following practice. “I would like to give another game or two, a chance for our guys to try to figure it out because they are committed to change things.”
At this point, making a change would merely be to shake things up. Toronto’s starters have certainly been bad and getting alarmingly worse as a group. They’ve been outscored by 4.7 points per 100 possessions when they’re on the court this season and over the last 10 games that Net Rating has dropped to -14.2.
That said, there’s nobody whose play warrants some sort of promotion. Scottie Barnes, Pascal Siakam, and OG Anunoby aren’t going anywhere. Precious Achiuwa isn’t coming for Jakob Poeltl’s job and considering the Raptors went so long looking for a center, it seems highly unlikely the team is going to bench its lone traditional big man.
The obvious move would be to swap Trent into the starting line in place of Schröder to provide the kind of offensive floor spacing this team is thirsting for, but Trent has done nothing to show he deserves that kind of role. He’s shooting 38.2% from the field this year, the lowest number since his rookie season, and his 10.3 points per game is the worst number he’s posted since his sophomore season. That’s not to mention Schröder’s defense has been much better than Trent’s this year.
“When we lost games earlier in the season people said it was the bench, now they’re saying it’s the starters. At the end of the day, we’re 12 guys and everybody who hits the floor has to be ready,” Schröder said Tuesday. “I heard somebody said maybe we should (change the starters). We’ve just gotta be better as a team.”
That’s been the sentiment throughout the roster.
“I think collectively we need to be better. We have to help each other,” said Siakam. “I think for me, we have the personnel to do it. So we've got to do it together.”
But at a certain point, the reality of the situation has to sit in.
Toronto has played 19 games this year with the same starting lineup and the results have been disappointing. To keep running back the same group over and over again expecting different results is getting increasingly ridiculous. If this season is really about assessing what this roster has in terms of talent and fit, maybe it’s time to simply make a change for the sake of change to see what comes of it.
