The Toronto Raptors have decided to rip the band-aid off early.
Sure, it might look clunky Monday night, but the Raptors have decided to throw Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett into the fire with spots in the starting lineup against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The two will make the start following just one shootaround with the team earlier Monday morning.
“Obviously, it’s impossible to put everything in very quickly but both of those players are players of impact and we want to use those guys to the best of their ability,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said pre-game. “I would not read way too much starting, not starting, coming off the bench because that’s going to be an ongoing process figuring out who plays well with who and how are we going to create the best chemistry possible.”
In the past, Toronto has opted to bring along new players a little slowly. Marc Gasol and Gary Trent Jr., for example, both came off the bench in their first games after being acquired by the team. Rajaković, however, seems to view this situation differently, opting to move Trent and Dennis Schröder back to the bench in favor of Barrett and Quickley.
Schröder will likely slide into the sixth-man role as Toronto’s lead point guard off the bench. He’d played in that role behind Scottie Barnes in two of Toronto’s three games before the trade with New York.
