Raps stick with their ‘bench mob’
Second unit has proven itself in regular season
Using their bench as just a placeholder until the rested starters return to action hasn’t been the case in many months now for the Toronto Raptors.
Right from training camp, this young group and its Bench Mob Dad 31-year-old CJ Miles have been a starting unit in its own right.
They have held leads, extended leads and outright won games for the Raptors.
So on the eve of Game 1 of their Eastern Conference quarter-final with the Washington Wizards, the notion of limiting their impact on games now that the playoffs have begun seemed almost comical to the coaches and players who spoke with the media.
Head coach Dwane Casey, who has been openly challenging anyone who suggested NBA protocol dictates he MUST shorten his rotation heading into the playoffs, remains firm in the belief that what was good enough to get him and his team a No. 1 seed and 59 wins in the regular season is just as good in the second season.
Now Casey is leaving himself some wiggle room here. Factors like, say, Fred VanVleet being questionable for the opener of the series with a sore shoulder courtesy of that illegal screen Miami’s Bam Adebayo threw at him Wednesday would obviously affect the rotation, although VanVleet is saying he will play.
But with all the Raptors being healthy, Casey would like to stick to the script when possible.
“Our record ... we had the No. 1 bench plus-minus in the league, one of the best producing benches in the league and that’s who we are and that’s one of the main reasons I say that and we’ll stick to that; is that going to change as the playoffs go on, if we have to adjust matchups in certain situations?
“Maybe, but we’re not going into it thinking that. It’s one of things we have to read as we go along, if Fred can’t go tomorrow ... if he can’t go. That would change it somewhat.”
But regular season or playoffs, the Raptors are going to stick to the share-the-minutes, share-the-responsibility and literally share-the-ball approach that got them to a regular season record win total.
Not even the cautionary tale of putting too much on a young player come playoff time is going to sway the approach.
Despite an average age of 25.2 years that is bolstered by old man Miles at 31, the Raptors’ second unit has been and will have to be a key cog in any success the team achieves over the length of this upcoming playoff run.
Miles, who has spent more time with the young Raptors than anyone on the team and probably knows them at least as well as they know each other, has no concerns that their youth might make the moment too big for them.
“It’s going to be a little thing,” Miles admitted of a playoff-experience disadvantage, “But the guys we have, they play so hard and they have been prepared. I think it shouldn’t affect them. I don’t think so from being with these guys and seeing the mental approach to the game and how they played all year. I don’t think it will hinder them because it’s the intensity that changes the most (in the playoffs) and those guys already play with an intensity that is top notch which is why we have been so good as a unit. In my eyes, I don’t see that being a problem.”
What most Raptors’ fans probably don’t appreciate — mostly because it doesn’t get talked or written about much — is just how much work went into making this unit the success it is.
VanVleet, Delon Wright, Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl spent the majority of their summer working out together in gyms from Toronto to Los Angeles and even Las Vegas perfecting the flow offence that is at the root of the Raptors’ offensive success this year. By the time they arrived at training camp in Victoria, this quartet were the teachers and the returning vets their students as they showed the DeRozans and Lowrys just how the new offence would work.
Even midway through the season, the bench mob would talk of the starters vs. bench runs in practice and how competitive they were.
Those long summer days in the gym should continue to pay off for the Raptors now that they’re 16 wins away from their ultimate goal.