Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic isn’t oblivious to the calls to modify his starting lineup, but he’s not prepared to make any changes yet. In a media session on Tuesday, Rajakovic said he wants to give his current starting five – Dennis Schröder, Scottie Barnes, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, and Jakob Poeltl – “another game or two” to figure things out, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca.
The five-man group has a minus-4.7 net rating in 270 minutes so far this season. As Lewenberg observes, the starters have been outscored in six of the Raptors’ last seven games and the club lost all six of those games. If there are no positive steps forward within the next couple games, it sounds like Rajakovic is open to shaking things up.
“It’s not something that’s completely off the table,” he said today.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Eric Koreen and John Hollinger of The Athletic teamed up to examine what it would look like if the Raptors become trade deadline sellers, weighing the trade value of players like Siakam and Anunoby. Hollinger also digs into what a trade sending Siakam to the Hawks might look like, suggesting a package of a couple first-round picks (Sacramento’s lottery-protected 2024 pick and Atlanta’s own “lightly protected” 2029 selection), De’Andre Hunter, and Bogdan Bogdanovic in exchange for Siakam and Christian Koloko.
- While Jericho Sims got the starting nod in the Knicks‘ first game without center Mitchell Robinson, Isaiah Hartenstein played more minutes than Sims did and was part of the closing lineup, notes Fred Katz of The Athletic. Katz takes a closer look at what Robinson’s extended absence will mean for New York, exploring whether additional lineup and rotation tweaks may be necessary if Sims continues to start.
- Celtics forward Jordan Walsh has yet to make his regular season NBA debut, having spent much of his rookie season so far in the G League. According to Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston, head coach Joe Mazzulla – who has said he wants to see Walsh focus on defense and impacting the game without scoring during his time in Maine – is keeping tabs on the rookie’s progress. “We get an email after every game,” Mazzulla said. “Craig [Luschenat], our guy who works with our player development, and [Maine head coach] Blaine [Mueller] are in constant communication and then we have constant development checklist of what’s important to us, where we want him to be at the end of the season, where we want him to be in a year from now.”
Knicks have been giving up too many points. Mitch out is going to hurt, I think.
Everyone wants a big trade. I would like to see them get a backup for Randle.
That Siakim deal looks terrible for both sides.
Firstly Toronto if they trade Pascal would be going into a rebuild/retool and both Bogdan and Hunter wouldn’t fit around Giddey Barnes and OG. The two first round wood be nice but broth would fall around 15-20 ish.
As for ATL, Hunter can easily be replaced with Johnson Bey and so on but Bogdan has been solid for them off the bench, you want to give up 2 of your top 8 players and 2 firsts for a guy on an expiring deal…. Doesn’t sound like a great deal
An out the gate idea would be OKC who apparently have interest in Markeneen.
Imagine
Bertans, Giddey, Micic and 2 firsts for Siakim
Then line up
SGA Dort Williams Pascal Chet
Toronto gets Giddey and 2 firsts that’s pretty decent
Your not getting Giddey for 2.5 months of Pascal, maybe two late firsts though.
The Hollinger deal is a very good for TOR, but pretty lame for ATL, unless they’ve soured on Hunter. Siakam being the better player between him and Hunter in Hollinger’s amatuer hour analysis is neutralized by the position value and the rental/cost factors. I don’t see Siakam’s contract (which is all that’s being traded) as warranting a package like that, although I’m sure Ujiri does. The latter might make it difficult to do a more reasonable deal centered on Siakam and Hunter, which I think almost has to help both teams this year.