Your preferred starting 5

[zZero]

LOOOOLLL good one buddy! Yeah let's just bring Russell Westbrook off the bench too!

so RW=DD?

DD is the reason why Raps are stuck on threadmill while his play makes the game unwatchable.

Equal? Yeah right. Lowry AND Derozan are both better then Westbrook. Higher character guys, unselfish, Westbrook is just a stat stuffing ball hog he knows nothing about winning. So happy we don't have players like him.

Id take RW + a scrub SG any day of the week instead of Lowry and DD, what are you talking about? RW is beast, he carried team full of scrubs to the playoffs in the WEST

[whoknows]

LOOOOLLL good one buddy! Yeah let's just bring Russell Westbrook off the bench too!

so RW=DD?

DD is the reason why Raps are stuck on threadmill while his play makes the game unwatchable.

Equal? Yeah right. Lowry AND Derozan are both better then Westbrook. Higher character guys, unselfish, Westbrook is just a stat stuffing ball hog he knows nothing about winning. So happy we don't have players like him.

you should post your opinion on general board as a trade...non-Raps fans will laugh you off.

And it is laughable to think the playoffs chokers DD or KL are in the same class as Westbrook when it comes to winning, skills, toughness....

[Axe Dragon]

Went with Lowry, Norm, DD, Sergey, JV.

Norm showed us the value of having another triple threat on the floor. Given the minutes, I think he can put up 15, 5, and 4 on a good percentages while playing good defense.
JV is still needs to start, but I think should be subbed out early and used as a threat with the 2nd unit.
Ibaka is there to play defense, the odd post up and as a spot up shooter.

Lowry and Derozan as primary/secondary options.

I second this...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[steve001]

Why do people think Poetl is anything but a C? As it stands he's 3rd string centre behind JV and Ibaka who will split time at the position.

[bigmandinky]

Man does nobody know how to read sarcasm nowadays lmao? The guy saying DD and Lowry are better than Westbrook because they are high character is clearing not being serious. Yall needa get out more

[slothrop8]

After watching for 5 years, why do people still think JV is a good fit for the starting lineup?

Strictly a function of maintaining the impact of the Lowry+bench unit. That unit plays pace and space with pressure defense style that requires the bigs to be far more mobile. Move JV to the bench and into that unit and you are getting rid of the one clear advantage this team has developed these past few seasons; they'll be forced to slow the pace down, abandon show and go P&R defense while adopting the zone/sag P&R defense that the starters play, and they lose their rim runners for earlier offense. The bigs that work in that 2nd unit have always been in the mold Amir/Biz/PPat/Psycho T and not the JV/Scola/Gray/Stiemsma variety.

I have to disagree. Without getting into all the 5 man lineups as the sample for each configuration are so small and instead rolling it up to just Lowry+Slow Big X ON and DeRozan OFF

Lowry+JV ON and DD OFF was 100.3 DRtg and + 12.4 NTrg in '15-'16
Lowry+JV ON and DD OFF was 97.1 DRtg and +12.6 NTrg in '16-17

Lowry+Scola ON and DD OFF was 103.4 DRtg and +4.2 NtRtg in '16-'17


The samples are even smaller for playoffs with Lowry +Slow Big X ON and DD OFF - but the defense is actually even better in the playoff samples than in the reg season. The success of the Lowry+Bench units has far less to do with who the big is and far more to do with the fact that it's Lowry and the team in general getting to play without DeRozan on the floor. When Lowry is playing and DeMar is not, we are a powerhouse with pretty great defensive numbers - regardless of the big - because DeMar is not killing our team D. It's very likely that Lowry and any 4 other Raptors who fill those Lowry + Bench minutes slot in the rotation will do extremely well as long as DeMar isn't one of the 4.

[Local_NG_Idiot]

After watching for 5 years, why do people still think JV is a good fit for the starting lineup?

Strictly a function of maintaining the impact of the Lowry+bench unit. That unit plays pace and space with pressure defense style that requires the bigs to be far more mobile. Move JV to the bench and into that unit and you are getting rid of the one clear advantage this team has developed these past few seasons; they'll be forced to slow the pace down, abandon show and go P&R defense while adopting the zone/sag P&R defense that the starters play, and they lose their rim runners for earlier offense. The bigs that work in that 2nd unit have always been in the mold Amir/Biz/PPat/Psycho T and not the JV/Scola/Gray/Stiemsma variety.

I have to disagree. Without getting into all the 5 man lineups as the sample for each configuration are so small and instead rolling it up to just Lowry+Slow Big X ON and DeRozan OFF

I'm not a huge fan at all of individual on/off as it doesn't take into consideration the role of the player, the time of the game they are on or off and the level of competition they are playing against. However, I'll play along for the sake of debate:

Lowry+JV ON and DD OFF was 100.3 DRtg and + 12.4 NTrg in '15-'16

That's 300 possessions for an entire season so you are basing this premise on less than 4% of a game's possessions?

How about also looking at the control of Lowry+Biz ON DeRozan OFF to see if the numbers stay consistent?

970 possessions with that combination, a 95 DRtg and a +16.5 NetRtg. That is more than triple the possessions (over 12% of game possessions) with a big jump in defensive rating and a massive jump in NetRtg

Lowry+JV ON and DD OFF was 97.1 DRtg and +12.6 NTrg in '16-17

Lowry+Scola ON and DD OFF was 103.4 DRtg and +4.2 NtRtg in '16-'17

Scola wasn't on the team in '16-17 season. Did you intend for this to be part of '15-16?

for '16-17 PPat's and Ibaka's #s show far better NetRtgs in that same scenario.

The samples are even smaller for playoffs with Lowry +Slow Big X ON and DD OFF - but the defense is actually even better in the playoff samples than in the reg season. The success of the Lowry+Bench units has far less to do with who the big is and far more to do with the fact that it's Lowry and the team in general getting to play without DeRozan on the floor. When Lowry is playing and DeMar is not, we are a powerhouse with pretty great defensive numbers - regardless of the big - because DeMar is not killing our team D. It's very likely that Lowry and any 4 other Raptors who fill those Lowry + Bench minutes slot in the rotation will do extremely well as long as DeMar isn't one of the 4.

Your argument that attempts to shift this from "slow big" not being an issue to a "DD on the floor" issue doesn't hold up once you check the control of "slow big+Lowry" (in this case JV) vs "mobile big+Lowry". (in the cases I provided, PPat/Biz/Ibaka).

Again, I'm not a big proponent of this type of individual on/off analysis as there are just so many flaws based upon the dynamics of the game.

[Basketball_Jones]

so RW=DD?

DD is the reason why Raps are stuck on threadmill while his play makes the game unwatchable.

Equal? Yeah right. Lowry AND Derozan are both better then Westbrook. Higher character guys, unselfish, Westbrook is just a stat stuffing ball hog he knows nothing about winning. So happy we don't have players like him.

you should post your opinion on general board as a trade...non-Raps fans will laugh you off.

And it is laughable to think the playoffs chokers DD or KL are in the same class as Westbrook when it comes to winning, skills, toughness....

What about character? Derozan and Lowry are model citizens and are loyal to Toronto. That alone makes them deserving of max contracts. Plus Derozan is probably the best one on one scorer in the NBA today, maybe in the last ten years. Lowry is the same level of Steph Curry. Would you take Curry over Westbrook? One has a ring, the other doesn't and is a selfish stat stuffing ball hog. I admire the team play and attitude of Lowry/DD.

[Senbonzakura]

Lowry
Derozan
Cj miles
Ibaka
Poeltl

This is what I want.

Let Wright/Powell run pick and roll with JV off the bench and look for him in the post. JV will be able to contribute more offensively this way and his defensive issues will be less exposed. Will make things easier for Wright/Powell too and put less pressure on them to score. The starting lineup already has DeMar (30% USG), Lowry (25%), Ibaka (20%), there's not really room for much usage for JV there. Would rather have Poeltl who is already better defensively and won't need a lot of touches offensively.

I'd really like to see the primary starters be:

Lowry/DD/CJ/Ibaka/Poeltl

then the two main bench lineups be:

Wright/Lowry/Powell/Siakam/JV
Wright/DeMar/Powell/Siakam/JV

Imo we'll have way less lulls offensively doing this and be better on the defensive end. If JV starts we'll see way too much of the Wright/Powell/DeMar/Siakam/Poeltl lineup which has poor spacing and no real inside scoring option or good pick and roll partner for the guards. That's a nightmare offensively.

EDIT: Don't mind swapping Norm/CJ in these lineups either. My main thing is JV should be 6th man

[slothrop8]

Strictly a function of maintaining the impact of the Lowry+bench unit. That unit plays pace and space with pressure defense style that requires the bigs to be far more mobile. Move JV to the bench and into that unit and you are getting rid of the one clear advantage this team has developed these past few seasons; they'll be forced to slow the pace down, abandon show and go P&R defense while adopting the zone/sag P&R defense that the starters play, and they lose their rim runners for earlier offense. The bigs that work in that 2nd unit have always been in the mold Amir/Biz/PPat/Psycho T and not the JV/Scola/Gray/Stiemsma variety.

I have to disagree. Without getting into all the 5 man lineups as the sample for each configuration are so small and instead rolling it up to just Lowry+Slow Big X ON and DeRozan OFF

I'm not a huge fan at all of individual on/off as it doesn't take into consideration the role of the player, the time of the game they are on or off and the level of competition they are playing against. However, I'll play along for the sake of debate:

Lowry+JV ON and DD OFF was 100.3 DRtg and + 12.4 NTrg in '15-'16

That's 300 possessions for an entire season so you are basing this premise on less than 4% of a game's possessions?

How about also looking at the control of Lowry+Biz ON DeRozan OFF to see if the numbers stay consistent?

970 possessions with that combination, a 95 DRtg and a +16.5 NetRtg. That is more than triple the possessions (over 12% of game possessions) with a big jump in defensive rating and a massive jump in NetRtg

Lowry+JV ON and DD OFF was 97.1 DRtg and +12.6 NTrg in '16-17

Lowry+Scola ON and DD OFF was 103.4 DRtg and +4.2 NtRtg in '16-'17

Scola wasn't on the team in '16-17 season. Did you intend for this to be part of '15-16?

for '16-17 PPat's and Ibaka's #s show far better NetRtgs in that same scenario.

The samples are even smaller for playoffs with Lowry +Slow Big X ON and DD OFF - but the defense is actually even better in the playoff samples than in the reg season. The success of the Lowry+Bench units has far less to do with who the big is and far more to do with the fact that it's Lowry and the team in general getting to play without DeRozan on the floor. When Lowry is playing and DeMar is not, we are a powerhouse with pretty great defensive numbers - regardless of the big - because DeMar is not killing our team D. It's very likely that Lowry and any 4 other Raptors who fill those Lowry + Bench minutes slot in the rotation will do extremely well as long as DeMar isn't one of the 4.

Your argument that attempts to shift this from "slow big" not being an issue to a "DD on the floor" issue doesn't hold up once you check the control of "slow big+Lowry" (in this case JV) vs "mobile big+Lowry". (in the cases I provided, PPat/Biz/Ibaka).

Again, I'm not a big proponent of this type of individual on/off analysis as there are just so many flaws based upon the dynamics of the game.

Yes, 15-16 data for Scola - my typo. Yes, the Lowry+Biz numbers from '15-16 were great at +16.5 NtRtg. My point was broader though - the performance will fluctuate up and down depending on context and groupings - but ultimately as long as DeRozan is not out there and Lowry is - that group is going to do great.

For last year - all NTrtg and all with DD OFF:

KL/PS +17.9
KL/PPat +12.7
KL/JV +12.6
KL/LN +11.4
KL/SI +10.5
KL/JP +10.0

It's ultimately not likely to matter alot who the big is with that Lowry group - it's very likely to be very successful.

[Rapcity_11]

so RW=DD?

DD is the reason why Raps are stuck on threadmill while his play makes the game unwatchable.

Equal? Yeah right. Lowry AND Derozan are both better then Westbrook. Higher character guys, unselfish, Westbrook is just a stat stuffing ball hog he knows nothing about winning. So happy we don't have players like him.

you should post your opinion on general board as a trade...non-Raps fans will laugh you off.

And it is laughable to think the playoffs chokers DD or KL are in the same class as Westbrook when it comes to winning, skills, toughness....

Jesus man, the dude is being sarcastic. It's his thing. It's played out...but it's his thing.

[Local_NG_Idiot]

Yes, 15-16 data for Scola - my typo. Yes, the Lowry+Biz numbers from '15-16 were the best at +16.5 NtRtg. My point was broader though - the performance will fluctuate up and down depending on context and groupings - but ultimately as long as DeRozan is not out there and Lowry is - that group is going to do great.

For last year - all NTrtg and all with DD OFF:

KL/PS +17.9
KL/PPat +12.7
KL/JV +12.6
KL/LN +11.4
KL/SI +10.5
KL/JP +10.0

It's ultimately not likely to matter alot who the big is with that Lowry group - it's very likely to be very successful.

A NetRtg drop of 4-5 Pts/100 POSS is the difference of being an average ranked NetRtg team and a bottom 5 of the league NetRtg team. A NetRtg increase of 4-5 Pts/100 POSS is the difference of being an average ranked NetRtg team and a top 5 team. So I think you need to define "not likely to matter a lot" and "likely to be very successful" since we've seen that the correct combination in the Raps second unit can have more than a +4-5 NetRtg effect.

Because the Raps are void of elite talent (97th percentile of the league type talent) they have relied on that second unit to apply pressure on their opponent which forces that oppenent to a) watch their 2nd unit to get murdered and hope their 1st unit can close the gap or b) play their top end talent heavier minutes and hope they don't wear out by the end of the 4th. If you are pushing towards a full opinion that the 2nd unit isn't an utmost priority to the Raps regular season winning and which bigs that play on that unit is inconsequential to it's success, I would welcome a full breakdown of that analysis.

Ideally, I would like to see the majority of Ibaka's minutes shadow Lowry's substitution pattern so that they both play longer minutes together with the 2nd unit than the 1st. With those two, I would hope to see Wright at the point, CJ as the other wing and whoever is the best player/fit between Siakam/Anunoby/Caboclo. At this point in this team's progression of how the supporting cast is being built, I don't think there is room for all 3 of JV/Poeltl/Bebe and at least one of them (there's an argument that it could be 2) has no place in the 10 man rotation.

[OAKLEY_2]

Lowry
Derozan
Cj miles
Ibaka
Poeltl

This is what I want.

Let Wright/Powell run pick and roll with JV off the bench and look for him in the post. JV will be able to contribute more offensively this way and his defensive issues will be less exposed. Will make things easier for Wright/Powell too and put less pressure on them to score. The starting lineup already has DeMar (30% USG), Lowry (25%), Ibaka (20%), there's not really room for much usage for JV there. Would rather have Poeltl who is already better defensively and won't need a lot of touches offensively.

I'd really like to see the primary starters be:

Lowry/DD/CJ/Ibaka/Poeltl

then the two main bench lineups be:

Wright/Lowry/Powell/Siakam/JV
Wright/DeMar/Powell/Siakam/JV

Imo we'll have way less lulls offensively doing this and be better on the defensive end. If JV starts we'll see way too much of the Wright/Powell/DeMar/Siakam/Poeltl lineup which has poor spacing and no real inside scoring option or good pick and roll partner for the guards. That's a nightmare offensively.


Exactly. Hopefully we rest KL-DD together and go with a full backcourt replacement when going to the bench.

EDIT: Don't mind swapping Norm/CJ in these lineups either. My main thing is JV should be 6th man

[OAKLEY_2]

F'd up. KL-DD-CJ-Serge-Jak works for me. Casey has to take both KL-DD off and if we cough up a huge run so be it. My guess is the bench with Delon-Norm will hold the fort quite well.

[Rapcity_11]

I have to disagree. Without getting into all the 5 man lineups as the sample for each configuration are so small and instead rolling it up to just Lowry+Slow Big X ON and DeRozan OFF

I'm not a huge fan at all of individual on/off as it doesn't take into consideration the role of the player, the time of the game they are on or off and the level of competition they are playing against. However, I'll play along for the sake of debate:

Lowry+JV ON and DD OFF was 100.3 DRtg and + 12.4 NTrg in '15-'16

That's 300 possessions for an entire season so you are basing this premise on less than 4% of a game's possessions?

How about also looking at the control of Lowry+Biz ON DeRozan OFF to see if the numbers stay consistent?

970 possessions with that combination, a 95 DRtg and a +16.5 NetRtg. That is more than triple the possessions (over 12% of game possessions) with a big jump in defensive rating and a massive jump in NetRtg

Lowry+JV ON and DD OFF was 97.1 DRtg and +12.6 NTrg in '16-17

Lowry+Scola ON and DD OFF was 103.4 DRtg and +4.2 NtRtg in '16-'17

Scola wasn't on the team in '16-17 season. Did you intend for this to be part of '15-16?

for '16-17 PPat's and Ibaka's #s show far better NetRtgs in that same scenario.

The samples are even smaller for playoffs with Lowry +Slow Big X ON and DD OFF - but the defense is actually even better in the playoff samples than in the reg season. The success of the Lowry+Bench units has far less to do with who the big is and far more to do with the fact that it's Lowry and the team in general getting to play without DeRozan on the floor. When Lowry is playing and DeMar is not, we are a powerhouse with pretty great defensive numbers - regardless of the big - because DeMar is not killing our team D. It's very likely that Lowry and any 4 other Raptors who fill those Lowry + Bench minutes slot in the rotation will do extremely well as long as DeMar isn't one of the 4.

Your argument that attempts to shift this from "slow big" not being an issue to a "DD on the floor" issue doesn't hold up once you check the control of "slow big+Lowry" (in this case JV) vs "mobile big+Lowry". (in the cases I provided, PPat/Biz/Ibaka).

Again, I'm not a big proponent of this type of individual on/off analysis as there are just so many flaws based upon the dynamics of the game.

Yes, 15-16 data for Scola - my typo. Yes, the Lowry+Biz numbers from '15-16 were great at +16.5 NtRtg. My point was broader though - the performance will fluctuate up and down depending on context and groupings - but ultimately as long as DeRozan is not out there and Lowry is - that group is going to do great.

For last year - all NTrtg and all with DD OFF:

KL/PS +17.9
KL/PPat +12.7
KL/JV +12.6
KL/LN +11.4
KL/SI +10.5
KL/JP +10.0

It's ultimately not likely to matter alot who the big is with that Lowry group - it's very likely to be very successful.

I’ve gone back and forth whether I think JV works in the Lowry + bench unit.

Qualitatively, what L_NG_I is saying makes sense. But it definitely isn’t checking out in the numbers. Agree with Slothrop there. Not sure why 4-5 is being discussed as some sort of measure of the difference in playing JV there vs. not.

If Ibaka is mirrored to Lowry, we’re going to get minutes to close the 1st and 3rd with Wright/DD/JV + probably Siakam. That will be a disaster. All the DD/Wright minutes need to have Ibaka + Miles to space the floor. Otherwise, the large gains made in the early 2nd and 4th aren’t going to be enough to make up for the carnage to close the 1st and 3rd.

[Rapcity_11]

I think I'd run the rotation like this:

Start KL/DD/NP/SI/JV

Wright for Lowry, Siakam/Poeltl for JV and Miles for Norm with ~4 mins left in the 1st.

Start the 2nd with KL/DW/NP/CM/JV.

Play the rest of the 2nd based on gameflow/matchups. JV out around the 6 minute mark. Lowry out around the 3 minute mark.

Hard to figure out what to do with Poeltl/Siakam until we see them this year.

[OAKLEY_2]

Why do people think Poetl is anything but a C? As it stands he's 3rd string centre behind JV and Ibaka who will split time at the position.

As it stands he is the clear choice number two. Where that goes from here is up to Masai and Jakob. Casey better get with the program is all I can say.

[slothrop8]

Yes, 15-16 data for Scola - my typo. Yes, the Lowry+Biz numbers from '15-16 were the best at +16.5 NtRtg. My point was broader though - the performance will fluctuate up and down depending on context and groupings - but ultimately as long as DeRozan is not out there and Lowry is - that group is going to do great.

For last year - all NTrtg and all with DD OFF:

KL/PS +17.9
KL/PPat +12.7
KL/JV +12.6
KL/LN +11.4
KL/SI +10.5
KL/JP +10.0

It's ultimately not likely to matter alot who the big is with that Lowry group - it's very likely to be very successful.

A NetRtg drop of 4-5 Pts/100 POSS is the difference of being an average ranked NetRtg team and a bottom 5 of the league NetRtg team. A NetRtg increase of 4-5 Pts/100 POSS is the difference of being an average ranked NetRtg team and a top 5 team. So I think you need to define "not likely to matter a lot" and "likely to be very successful" since we've seen that the correct combination in the Raps second unit can have more than a +4-5 NetRtg effect.

Because the Raps are void of elite talent (97th percentile of the league type talent) they have relied on that second unit to apply pressure on their opponent which forces that oppenent to a) watch their 2nd unit to get murdered and hope their 1st unit can close the gap or b) play their top end talent heavier minutes and hope they don't wear out by the end of the 4th. If you are pushing towards a full opinion that the 2nd unit isn't an utmost priority to the Raps regular season winning and which bigs that play on that unit is inconsequential to it's success, I would welcome a full breakdown of that analysis.

Ideally, I would like to see the majority of Ibaka's minutes shadow Lowry's substitution pattern so that they both play longer minutes together with the 2nd unit than the 1st. With those two, I would hope to see Wright at the point, CJ as the other wing and whoever is the best player/fit between Siakam/Anunoby/Caboclo. At this point in this team's progression of how the supporting cast is being built, I don't think there is room for all 3 of JV/Poeltl/Bebe and at least one of them (there's an argument that it could be 2) has no place in the 10 man rotation.

The 2nd unit is a definite priority - every minute DeRozan is not the floor are the minutes where our best opportunity to win games present themselves. As it relates to JV with that 2nd unit - what little evidence we do have over the past two seasons on JV/KL playing together without DeMar is very successful. They actually played at the 2nd fastest of pace of any KL/Big X combo last year and their NetRTg was quite good. We also have mountains and mountains of evidence to suggest that playing DD and JV together is a very bad idea. The jury has come back on that, delivered a guilty verdict, gone home to their families, and returned to their regular jobs - yet Casey is still in court giving his opening argument on that point. If our rotation adjustment ended up being Serge starts at the 5 and plays a bunch of minutes with DeMar - the sample is tiny but Lowry/Serge/DD ON with JV OFF was very successful in a tiny trial in the reg season and worked pretty well in a small sample in the playoffs too.

While I have no proof as I haven't seen enough data of it happening yet to do more than guess - my bet is that's pretty likely starting Ibaka at the 5 and playing JV with Lowry + Bench unit would grade out better for us overall than starting JV at the 5 with DeMar - constantly falling behind, and hoping the Lowry/Serge +Bench unit can bring us back. Serge+KL+Bench might end up better than JV + KL+Bench - though I'm not convinced of that for various reasons - but Serge+Starters seems certain to smoke JV+Starters and that I'm reasonably convinced of given the longstanding shakiness of the DD/JV pairing.

[Basketball_Jones]

The 2nd unit is a definite priority - every minute DeRozan is not the floor are the minutes where our best opportunity to win games present themselves.

[Local_NG_Idiot]

I'm not a huge fan at all of individual on/off as it doesn't take into consideration the role of the player, the time of the game they are on or off and the level of competition they are playing against. However, I'll play along for the sake of debate:



That's 300 possessions for an entire season so you are basing this premise on less than 4% of a game's possessions?

How about also looking at the control of Lowry+Biz ON DeRozan OFF to see if the numbers stay consistent?

970 possessions with that combination, a 95 DRtg and a +16.5 NetRtg. That is more than triple the possessions (over 12% of game possessions) with a big jump in defensive rating and a massive jump in NetRtg



Scola wasn't on the team in '16-17 season. Did you intend for this to be part of '15-16?

for '16-17 PPat's and Ibaka's #s show far better NetRtgs in that same scenario.



Your argument that attempts to shift this from "slow big" not being an issue to a "DD on the floor" issue doesn't hold up once you check the control of "slow big+Lowry" (in this case JV) vs "mobile big+Lowry". (in the cases I provided, PPat/Biz/Ibaka).

Again, I'm not a big proponent of this type of individual on/off analysis as there are just so many flaws based upon the dynamics of the game.

Yes, 15-16 data for Scola - my typo. Yes, the Lowry+Biz numbers from '15-16 were great at +16.5 NtRtg. My point was broader though - the performance will fluctuate up and down depending on context and groupings - but ultimately as long as DeRozan is not out there and Lowry is - that group is going to do great.

For last year - all NTrtg and all with DD OFF:

KL/PS +17.9
KL/PPat +12.7
KL/JV +12.6
KL/LN +11.4
KL/SI +10.5
KL/JP +10.0

It's ultimately not likely to matter alot who the big is with that Lowry group - it's very likely to be very successful.

I’ve gone back and forth whether I think JV works in the Lowry + bench unit.

Qualitatively, what L_GN_I is saying makes sense. But it definitely isn’t checking out in the numbers. Agree with Slothrop there. Not sure why 4-5 is being discussed as some sort of measure of the difference in playing JV there vs. not.

If Ibaka is mirrored to Lowry, we’re going to get minutes to close the 1st and 3rd with Wright/DD/JV + probably Siakam. That will be a disaster. All the DD/Wright minutes need to have Ibaka + Miles to space the floor. Otherwise, the large gains made in the early 2nd and 4th aren’t going to be enough to make up for the carnage to close the 1st and 3rd.

Why does it have to be Wright/DD/JV+? There's already been hints that DD will take on a bigger role from the point and I see no reason to think that a DD/Powell/CJ/Siakam/JV lineup couldn't hold their own for 5-7 possessions to close the 1st and 3rd.

As far a the 4-5 NetRtg diff, that is a measure of NetRtg away from the mean that lands a team in the 85th and 15th percentiles. It correlates very well over years of the stat being calculated where the league mean is very close to zero.

Some of the reasons it doesn't check out in the numbers is because individual player or limited combinations of player's on/off numbers aren't a reliable measure for a players role on the floor based upon the desired style of play. It doesn't factor in the level of competition nor does it factor in the level of teammate playing beside nor does it weight the importance of a possession and the effort level of the players (ie: 1st possession of a game vs. possession in the final minute of a tied game), just to name a few.