Do the Raptors Have Too Much Depth (Grantland article)

[Marz]

We were incredibly lucky last season with injuries. I expect more injuries this season. I also hope that players will be "injured" even if its a minor injury, so less players play through pain. This is the advantage depth gives. If you don't have it, then you're forced to play your star players heavy minutes through minor injuries that could be further aggravated.

[thead]

Fields does not need minutes, Hayes doesn't need them and Hansbrough doesn't need them. Bruno and Bebe can take the garbage minutes, that leaves a 10 man rotation, which I am very okay with considering how well it works when a team is unselfish.

Lou Williams is icing on the cake. If kicks ass, great, if not. Vasquez gets more time which as the article pointed out is also great.

[thead]

also make Stiemsma the 15th man and he doesn't need minutes either

[MACK11]

Fields does not need minutes, Hayes doesn't need them and Hansbrough doesn't need them. Bruno and Bebe can take the garbage minutes, that leaves a 10 man rotation, which I am very okay with considering how well it works when a team is unselfish.

Lou Williams is icing on the cake. If kicks ass, great, if not. Vasquez gets more time which as the article pointed out is also great.

Of topic but WTF? You think the Cavs will finish 8th place BAHAHAHAH. LeBron by himself could take Philly to the 8th seed

[Scraptor]

Oh shit MACK11 you're going on the list.

And OP if there's one thing I would bet my house on, it's Casey playing 2 point guard lineups. We'll probably see some Lowry-Vasquez-Lou lineups at some point.

I give Casey grief for his endgame and play-calling but from all the interviews I do trust him to know the numbers. He's always seemed pretty on top of the statistical effectiveness of his lineups.

The only area where depth might be a problem is managing egos. Vasquez was already chafing and now Lou Will needs some minutes, so someone is going to be unhappy unless we push Demar down to the three more often.

But we've been super lucky with injuries so let's not worry about too much depth just yet. It's a nice problem to have.

[Bonus Jonas]

Lou and jj should not play every game depending on situation. Like matt Bonner Danny green and the like in san Antonio.

Slow down there, Danny Green is a starter in San Antonio and most definitely will play every game he is healthy enough to play in

[YoungGunRaptor]

We were incredibly lucky last season with injuries. I expect more injuries this season. I also hope that players will be "injured" even if its a minor injury, so less players play through pain. This is the advantage depth gives. If you don't have it, then you're forced to play your star players heavy minutes through minor injuries that could be further aggravated.

Well, we can avoid injuries if Casey chooses to rely on the depth he has. But I honestly cannot see that happening. Demar and Kyle are extremely competitive, and it would be hard to imagine them sitting for extended minutes, especially if the Raptors play comeback basketball on a nightly basis this season.

And to whom it may concern, the Cavs will finish as a top 4 seed in the East.

[ghotte]

In just south of 500 minutes of playing time last season, the Lowry-Vasquez pairing had an offensive rating of 111.1 (the equivalent of the league’s best offense by 1.7 points per 100 possessions) and a defensive rating of 96.2 (better than Indiana’s league-best defense), according to NBA.com

Gotta go with the statistics on this one. I'd be willing to bet that Lowry playing off the ball with Lou as the primary ball handler would yield some matchup nightmares for other teams as well. Lou will get his playing time as he's too dynamic a player. But JJ and TRoss will be the people on a short leash IMO. 2Pat is also too valuable as the primary backup big.

[enlightenment]

This is a disaster for Casey. Every lost game is going to end with, "Why didn't player X have more minutes".

If Vasquez plays a lot and we lose, they'll blame him for not playing Lou or JJ enough.

If Lou plays a lot and we lose, then it becomes not playing Vasquez or JJ enough.

[psrs1]

I hope that DC goes with a tight 8-man rotation for the most part (starters + Vasquez, Patterson and Williams), with JJ & Hansbrough being the distant 9th/10th men. All other players should be fighting for playing time, only getting used for specific matchups. An argument could probably be made for a primary rotation of 7 players (starters + Vasquez & Patterson), with William, JJ and Hansbrough being distant 8-10th men.

Lets face it, Hayes & Fields are nothing more than expiring contracts, who have no future with this team. Bruno & Bebe need significant development time and are likely going to get lots of action in the D-league this season. That only leaves the 15th man, who'll be fighting just to get some of those situational/garbage minutes.

Good post. You nailedit The backup centre issue could be dictated by matchups but I'd rather see JV get more minutes rather than rest. This is the year for JV to shine as long as DC goes easy on subbing in Chuck Hayes.

[Mapko]

In most situations I agree with the bold, but in the Raptors specific situation I'm not sure it really affects any of them other than Hansbrough.

-Amir will get his minutes. That is obvious.
-Lou's playing time may fluctuate, but I still expect him to get his opportunities to be the sparkplug off the bench. Think he'll still get 20+ mpg. So he'll get his chance to produce.
-Hayes knows he's not getting another big contract. He'll be a minimum value 3rd stringer the rest of his career, however long that is.
-Fields will be lucky to be offered a minimum contract, and may not even look to keep playing basketball.

So yeah, it comes back to Hansbrough, who should probably be a backup, not 3rd stringer, on some team in the league. And I don't think Tyler is going to negatively impact chemistry. This problem has been there since last year for him, and he's not complained publicly or seemingly cut himself off from teammates. He might also be the popular pick for the Raptor most likely to get traded this year.

-Excellent points.
I would like to add:
-Amir probably could use more rest;
-Injuries (unfortunately) will produce some minutes for some;
-Trade. Depending on how things go -maybe a trade of Tyler or ??? for a young guy or a draft choice or even 2 for 1 or 3 for 1.

[Jclaw]

I realize I'm on a "stop and smell the roses" vibe but isn't in nuts that the problem that grantland comes up with for us is "too much depth"? This isn't "can DeMar and Rudy play together?", what will they do with Gay's contract?" or worse "are they tanking or not?" This hasn't happened often for raptor fans. Enjoy the ride.

[white men can't jump]

-Excellent points.
I would like to add:
-Amir probably could use more rest;
-Injuries (unfortunately) will produce some minutes for some;
-Trade. Depending on how things go -maybe a trade of Tyler or ??? for a young guy or a draft choice or even 2 for 1 or 3 for 1.

Don't think Amir's minutes will change much though, if at all. He averaged 28.7 and 28.8 for the last 2 years, and he's our most important defensive player.

I agree he could use more rest, but don't think it's going to come from a regular minutes reduction. More likely I hope they just don't let him play hurt as much, so some games he just gets shut down to rest.

[slaw]

Not sure about the premise of this article. There is solid depth on the perimeter but an injury to JV, Patterson or Amir and the front court rotation looks pretty shaky. Ready for 30 minutes each game of Hansbrough for a 2 week stretch?

[white men can't jump]

Not sure about the premise of this article. There is solid depth on the perimeter but an injury to JV, Patterson or Amir and the front court rotation looks pretty shaky. Ready for 30 minutes each game of Hansbrough for a 2 week stretch?

Could be much worse. Also think it would be more like 25 minutes. Hansbrough has been a backup most of his career, and while he might not be a great backup on a good team, he's serviceable. It hurts big time if it's Patterson though, just because of the lack of spacing (too bad JJ isn't much of a shooter as well). Most teams would struggle with an injury to one of their top 3 bigs. There just aren't that many skilled big men.