"I would not take this anymore" let me leave Raptors for good

Darko Rajaković talks Raptors’ Starting Lineup & Why Scottie Barnes Can’t Be Toronto’s Lead Guard

The Toronto Raptors have seen the starting lineup struggle this season but if Scottie Barnes can’t be the lead point guard then there’s no easy solution

The starting lineup for the Toronto Raptors this season isn’t successful.

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It’s not breaking news.

Coming into the season it wasn’t hard to see that Toronto’s group might struggle. The starting lineup looked like a basketball team from the 90s with non-shooters and below-average three-point threats spread across the court. The fit was obviously clunky, and the numbers can’t be particularly surprising.

Toronto’s starters, Dennis Schröder, OG Anunoby, Scottie Barnes, Pascal Siakam, and Jakob Poeltl, have been outscored by 3.1 points per 100 possessions this year. That makes the group the ninth-worst lineup of any team’s most-used lineup this season and their offensive rating of 105.8 is the fourth-worst of the league’s most-used lineups. Only Detroit, Memphis, and San Antonio’s most-used lineups have been more offensively inept than Toronto’s starting unit.

“I still believe in our guys. I still believe that this group can figure it out and do a better job,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said Thursday. “The last five games with the starters on the floor, we did not do well. They’ve got to be better.”

The Raptors have begun to move away from their starting lineup within games more quickly. Gary Trent Jr. is coming off the bench earlier and joining the team in starter-led lineups either as a replacement for Barnes or Anunoby. While those in-between lineups have been far from perfect, they’ve been better.

Toronto’s offense has been 8.3 points per 100 possessions better with Trent on the court this year compared to when he sits, and the Trent-plus-starters lineups all have had a positive net rating regardless of the combination.

But don’t expect the Raptors to move away from their starting lineup anytime soon.

Siakam, Anunoby, and Barnes aren’t going to the bench. This organization went long enough without a center that moving Poeltl into the sixth-man spot doesn’t seem appealing. Schröder, in theory, could come off the bench, a role he’s filled earlier in his career, but that doesn’t seem particularly interesting to the Raptors either.

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There’s a reason Toronto has played just 92 possessions with Barnes as the team’s de facto point guard without Schöder or Malachi Flynn on the court this season. While those lineups have been successful, posting a +36.1 net rating, per Cleaning the Glass, the Raptors aren’t ready to turn the reigns over to Barnes as the full-time point guard quite yet.

“You need a guard who is going to help alleviate the pressure, bringing the ball up the floor,” Rajaković said of the lineups without Schröder or Flynn on the court. “When Scottie is just by himself on the court, sometimes teams are just going to pick up full court, make it hard for him to bring the ball.

“He needs someone to help him. I think he’s good at handling the ball in pick and rolls and making decisions and it’s definitely part of his development doing that more and more. I just think sometimes having another guy who is capable of bringing the ball, getting us set and organized is helpful.”

And so Toronto is stuck.

Either the Raptors prioritize shooting and spacing in the starting lineup and try to slide Trent in there or they opt, as they have, for the kind of ball-handling and offensive organizational skills that a lead guard like Schröder brings.

Darko Rajaković talks Raptors’ Starting Lineup & Why Scottie Barnes Can’t Be Toronto’s Lead Guard

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