The Raptor’s old “bench mob”, who were so fondly looked upon last season, has now be broken up and distributed piecemeal around the rest of the league. Delon Wright and C.J. Miles are in Memphis, Jakob Poeltl is in San Antonio, and Pascal Siakam is the starter and no longer qualifies for inclusion in a theoretical new “bench mob”. The constant churn of player transactions in the NBA has robbed us of the one thing we loved.
Well, not really. I don’t grow attached to player units in the same way that other people might because I have been burned so many times in real life that I can no longer form meaningful, long-lasting attachments to things. Besides, there’s a new bench mob in Memphis that we can all throw our support behind: Delon Wright, C.J. Miles, Joakim Noah, Ivan Rabb, and Jevon Carter!
After much toil, I managed to look up the stats for that fearsome lineup. They’ve played seven minutes as a unit this season, which might not seem like a lot, but that’s like half a quarter of action. Their offensive rating is 106.3, considerably better than any of their most-played lineups, and their defensive rating is 60.0. For reference, the best defensive rating in the league is the Bucks at 104.6.
J.B. Bickerstaff knows what must be done. Roll out the Wright/Carter/Miles/Rabb/Noah lineup for as long as possible and watch the wins roll in. Seven minutes is definitely not too small of a sample size to judge a lineup with and make this the only possible course of action.