Since Barrett’s injury Raptors offensive rating has plummeted to last in the league

[C_Money]

We’re 25th in bench scoring. And that’s with Mamu putting up 10 PPG. Everyone else needs to step it up.

[johanliebert]

There's only one big on the roster.

Depends on how you define a "big."

CMB is very definitely a PF type player even if he's a little short. He has the reach and the power. Really big guys give him trouble, of course, but that mostly happens when we run him as an undersized 5. Mogbo is pretty clearly a 4, and not terribly undersized for it. Sandro is a big. Poeltl is a big.

After that, for sure, we lack anything I'd call a big. We use Scottie like one at times and we run a series of guys at the 4 who are really 3s, though that's common enough in this era. Still, we definitely lack size. Don't know that I'd say we only have one big, though that's perhaps an overly semantic response, heh.

I'd classify CMB and Mamu as wings.

[bboyskinnylegs]

I think we should consider starting Mamu while RJ is out.
IQ/Scottie/BI/Mamu/Yak

I think that gives you more continuity relative to what RJ gives you vs what the wings off the bench provide.

[DonMega]

RJ please come back. This team is a gaping hole without you.

[tsherkin]

I'd classify CMB and Mamu as wings.

Interesting. Is it just because Mamu likes to slash and shoot from deep? And what about for CMB, is that height-based?

[PushDaRock]

RJ still not putting weight on that right leg hopping around the congo line, he's probably not close to coming back.

[Jakay]

It's the way he scores that's important. Why be arrogant when you don't even understand the post lol.

Attacking the basket is an unimportant way to score?

I stand by my arrogance.

I think he was trying to point out that what RJ brings as a scorer isn't replicated by our other guys. The rim pressure, the off-ball cutting, the amount of shots he gets in the RA, his value in transition, etc. And that's quite accurate. I think that's what he meant by "unique to our roster," rather than trying to describe him as unique in the broader league.

Barney can correct me if I'm wrong, but that's how his posts have read to me, and that makes plenty of sense.

Yup, you're right, and Barney, sorry, I did totally misread your post. not even sure how I managed the takeaway that I did.

[LoveMyRaps]

Read on Twitter

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Ya… he’s not coming back for a while. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s out till February.

[Mattatron]

It just shows that we're in dire need of another playmaker next to Barnes when Barrett is out. Has nothing to do with him as a player overall. Just the lack of another playmaker.

[MiamiSPX]

Read on Twitter

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Ya… he’s not coming back for a while. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s out till February.

I noticed this also and thought there is no way he is playing anytime soon. Hope we are wrong, we need him back asap.

[dhackett1565]

This feels a little overblown. The Charlotte game we had a 113 ORTG in regulation, fell apart in OT. Last night we had a 118 ORTG.

Reality is we had a few bad shooting nights, missing open threes. 28% against CLE, won anyway, 19% against Indy, won anyway, 31% and 30% in the back to back, lost those games with bad defence (118 DRTG in each, the first a stinker, the second an obvious no-Jak experience). Finally shot 37% last night and had another win in spite of not playing great because at least SOMETHING went right.

We're at 36% from three on the season. Take that 36% and apply it to each of those first 4 games without RJ and you get these ORTGS:

CLE 108 actual -> 117 with average shooting
IND 96 -> 109
CHA 110 -> 114
NYK 97 -> 104

That would have taken our average ORTG for the 5 games to 112.4, which would rank 20th. Not great. But hardly the disastrous ranking that has actually showed up. A lot of that is shooting. And this just looks at 3 pointers, feels like we've missed a lot of other good shots too.

RJ definitely has an impact, how could he not? But the magnitude of that impact is being a little overblown by some coincidental bad shooting luck and some very tiny samples being taken very seriously.

[YogurtProducer]

We’re 25th in bench scoring. And that’s with Mamu putting up 10 PPG. Everyone else needs to step it up.

Kind of misleading, as we are also 21st in bench minutes
AND
Bench PPG is kind of a useless stat, as team composition can drastically sway that, and typically teams with higher bench PPG are worse teams lol.

For example, in the top 15 bench scoring teams in PPG there is 4 teams above .500.
On the other hand, in the bottom 15 bench scoring teams in PPG there is 12 teams above .500

High bench PPG =/= good

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

This feels a little overblown. The Charlotte game we had a 113 ORTG in regulation, fell apart in OT. Last night we had a 118 ORTG.

Reality is we had a few bad shooting nights, missing open threes. 28% against CLE, won anyway, 19% against Indy, won anyway, 31% and 30% in the back to back, lost those games with bad defence (118 DRTG in each, the first a stinker, the second an obvious no-Jak experience). Finally shot 37% last night and had another win in spite of not playing great because at least SOMETHING went right.

We're at 36% from three on the season. Take that 36% and apply it to each of those first 4 games without RJ and you get these ORTGS:

CLE 108 actual -> 117 with average shooting
IND 96 -> 109
CHA 110 -> 114
NYK 97 -> 104

That would have taken our average ORTG for the 5 games to 112.4, which would rank 20th. Not great. But hardly the disastrous ranking that has actually showed up. A lot of that is shooting. And this just looks at 3 pointers, feels like we've missed a lot of other good shots too.

RJ definitely has an impact, how could he not? But the magnitude of that impact is being a little overblown by some coincidental bad shooting luck and some very tiny samples being taken very seriously.

This. If the 5 games we started the season didn't prove that we're trash, why does a four or five game sample with out RJ prove how needed he is? If we won in Charlotte and didn't lose to the Knicks what would that mean to RJ's value? If RJ comes back and he's rusty and we go on a 4 game losing streak, do those four games make it all his fault and mean we're better without him, no. So, as usual DHacket is on the money. Our SG's didn't score well in RJ''s absence. Gradey, Jakobe Struggling, Battle not getting any minutes, and are not things that make RJ a better player- it just means we have a glut of soso SG's behind RJ.

[VanWest82]

This feels a little overblown. The Charlotte game we had a 113 ORTG in regulation, fell apart in OT. Last night we had a 118 ORTG.

Spoiler:

Reality is we had a few bad shooting nights, missing open threes. 28% against CLE, won anyway, 19% against Indy, won anyway, 31% and 30% in the back to back, lost those games with bad defence (118 DRTG in each, the first a stinker, the second an obvious no-Jak experience). Finally shot 37% last night and had another win in spite of not playing great because at least SOMETHING went right.

We're at 36% from three on the season. Take that 36% and apply it to each of those first 4 games without RJ and you get these ORTGS:

CLE 108 actual -> 117 with average shooting
IND 96 -> 109
CHA 110 -> 114
NYK 97 -> 104

That would have taken our average ORTG for the 5 games to 112.4, which would rank 20th. Not great. But hardly the disastrous ranking that has actually showed up. A lot of that is shooting. And this just looks at 3 pointers, feels like we've missed a lot of other good shots too.

RJ definitely has an impact, how could he not? But the magnitude of that impact is being a little overblown by some coincidental bad shooting luck and some very tiny samples being taken very seriously.

Some of it is definitely 3pt variance, but part of the issue is the offense has looked different at times.

Our pace has slowed down a touch from 101 to 98 (RJ on court 103), and I'd argue there's been less easy baskets overall. We've also seen passing go up from 294 to 301 / game last 5 which isn't a big jump but it feels like at times things are harder due to lack of quality off ball movement when RJ isn't out there leading to us having to make more passes to get a quality look. It just feels harder.

wrt threes, I do think it puts pressure on the offense when one of your volume takers goes out. RJ isn't the best shooter, but he's an aggressive C&S taker who makes 2+ threes most games and adds another good passer and driver to line ups to facilitate good ball movement.

I'd also argue RJ's absence has impacted BI specifically. Those guys seemed to develop a good chemistry in camp and I don't think it's an accident that we've seen more questionable shot taking from BI since RJ's been out - gone are the Jordan passes on RJ cuts.

[tsherkin]

This feels a little overblown. The Charlotte game we had a 113 ORTG in regulation, fell apart in OT. Last night we had a 118 ORTG.

We started falling apart in the 4th, with a massive scoring drought. But yes, you're on-point. We had some missing starters, we had some rough shooting. We also had the impact of losing RJ.

It's more than just Barrett, no doubt.

[JCP11]

RJ is missed offensively but not defensively. Our offense suffer without him but we defend at a higher level without him. The issue is that after RJ we don't have anyone that can replace his scoring. We drafted Gradey to be that guy but he's too inconsistent, Jakobe is too streaky and Ochai is a zero offensively right now. Dark gave Battle a chance recently and he didn't take advantage of it.

Someone needs to take advantage of this opportunity, hopefully it's Gradey.

[Tha Cynic]

This feels a little overblown. The Charlotte game we had a 113 ORTG in regulation, fell apart in OT. Last night we had a 118 ORTG.

Spoiler:

Reality is we had a few bad shooting nights, missing open threes. 28% against CLE, won anyway, 19% against Indy, won anyway, 31% and 30% in the back to back, lost those games with bad defence (118 DRTG in each, the first a stinker, the second an obvious no-Jak experience). Finally shot 37% last night and had another win in spite of not playing great because at least SOMETHING went right.

We're at 36% from three on the season. Take that 36% and apply it to each of those first 4 games without RJ and you get these ORTGS:

CLE 108 actual -> 117 with average shooting
IND 96 -> 109
CHA 110 -> 114
NYK 97 -> 104

That would have taken our average ORTG for the 5 games to 112.4, which would rank 20th. Not great. But hardly the disastrous ranking that has actually showed up. A lot of that is shooting. And this just looks at 3 pointers, feels like we've missed a lot of other good shots too.

RJ definitely has an impact, how could he not? But the magnitude of that impact is being a little overblown by some coincidental bad shooting luck and some very tiny samples being taken very seriously.

Some of it is definitely 3pt variance, but part of the issue is the offense has looked different at times.

Our pace has slowed down a touch from 101 to 98 (RJ on court 103), and I'd argue there's been less easy baskets overall. We've also seen passing go up from 294 to 301 / game last 5 which isn't a big jump but it feels like at times things are harder due to lack of quality off ball movement when RJ isn't out there leading to us having to make more passes to get a quality look. It just feels harder.

wrt threes, I do think it puts pressure on the offense when one of your volume takers goes out. RJ isn't the best shooter, but he's an aggressive C&S taker who makes 2+ threes most games and adds another good passer and driver to line ups to facilitate good ball movement.

I'd also argue RJ's absence has impacted BI specifically. Those guys seemed to develop a good chemistry in camp and I don't think it's an accident that we've seen more questionable shot taking from BI since RJ's been out - gone are the Jordan passes on RJ cuts.

The issue im seeing is we’re overcompensating by forcing the ball more to Ingram to isolate which is unnecessary. RJ is an opportunistic scorer, not someone who created for others. You could run back door cuts for Ochai or Walter more.

We’ve had back to backs and the team has also looked exhausted.

RJ is definitely better than anything our bench players have given us though.

If we had another big, I think we could start Mamu at the 3 and he can give you most of what RJ gave you.

[rapsincr]

i think the paint offense and transition offense difference is real, but the outside shot has gone to shiz and that ingram has gone super cold.
also our defense is 3rd in the NBA since he went down.

so ye, i dont think its as simple as our offense sucks without RJ.

[Top10alltime]

That's because the team outside Scottie Barnes sells in big games. We can't ask future Rasheed Wallace (ended Lebron's 10 point streak) with better offense, to step up his game on offense even more. That's what Brandon Ingram is supposed to do, and Brandon Ingram is not helping as much as people say he is.

Get Scottie a teammate that will help maximise his role. He (somewhat like Cade, but on both ends) is an emerging star player. He just needs the right teammates (what BI is supposed to be).

[TheDunc]

RJ must be watching and noticing how much of an impact he has on this team. This team goes through scoring draughts routinely, RJ and IQ are the only guards that can put up 20. Alot of nba teams have multiple guards who can drop 20 any night