RealGM

Now that we are in development mode I really hope Darko plays an all bench unit instead of doing staggered minutes. There is real value in having consistent rotations and guys playing with each other. For the last few years we have gone away from that and staggered the 2-3 rotations players from the bench unit with starters. With injuries / foul problems this strategy causes too many lineup combinations and lack of continuity. One time our bench unit was Pascal/Powell/Jakob/FVV/Delon and having them play together with consistent and predictable minutes helped with their development.

I can see a similar lineup with Brown/Dick/Ochai/Nwora/Olynyk being as productive. We should even use Nwora in the same way we deploy Barnes. I see the same offensive skills.

The Raptors bench since the deadline:

K Olynyk: 19.0 MIN, 8.8 PPG, 4.0 REB, 2.8 AST, .487 FG, .250 3PT, .857 FT
G Dick: 21.0 MIN, 13.7 PPG, 2.3 REB, 0.8 AST, .604 FG, .556 3PT, 1.00 FT
O Agbaji: 15.5 MIN, 7.0 PPG, 1.7 REB, 1.0 AST, .455 FG, .353 3PT, .857 FT
B Brown: 25.1 MIN, 7.7 PPG, 2.5 REB, 2.5 AST, .450 FG, .182 3PT, 1.00 FT

Scottie Barnes with these 4 is still a slight negative, but at least they don't seem to be getting slaughtered once parts of the bench come in, which is an improvement over earlier in the year.

The bench only lineups weren't really primarily designed for development. The change to a ball movement offense that year came about because of the need to make DeRozan useful in the playoffs (he routinely got bottled up without the necessary skills to overcome it in playmaking). The bench mob was just a surprising ancillary benefit that came out of actually running an offense for once.

I don't like it for this cycle of the team because Barnes remains the only thing that matters - the one development should be centered around - and the only times he gets to play his suited role as a playmaker in the middle of the floor is when Jak is off the floor. He needs to play with KO more. I'd be fine with it if KO was starting, but since he isn't, you want to maximize the time on the floor with lineups that make sense (i.e. the ones without Jak).

The Benchmob was unique. They were so good, they could have been a starting 5 at the time and be competitive. A luxury a Team seldom has.

It all fell apart with the Kwahi trade, which brought the Chip. But it wasnt the same afterwards without CJ and Poeltl and guys moving into the Starting 5.