The Toronto Raptors played an intrasquad game at Simon Fraser University on Friday, just days before their pre-season opener on Oct. 8 against the Sacramento Kings.
One of the biggest on-court questions for the Raptors is who will start at point guard for them. Will it be Scottie Barnes or Dennis Schroder?
The Raptors may have revealed their starting during their intrasquad scrimmage.
Dennis Schroder ran with ‘team black’ along with Jakob Poeltl, Scottie Barnes, O.G. Anunoby and Pascal Siakam:
Fwiw … Dennis Schroder runs with ‘team black’ along with Jakob, Barnes, OG and Pascal. GTJ is on ‘team white’ with Malachi, Boucher, Thad and McDaniels. pic.twitter.com/q97fjHsMWM
— Michael Grange (@michaelgrange) October 7, 2023
With Schroder, the Raptors get a traditional point guard. He’s the team’s best ball handler and someone who can setup and organize the offense. He can also guard his position well enough.
“Dennis just does a great job of running the team,” Rajaković said Friday.
The only downside of Schroder starting will be the lack of floor spacing. Schroder isn’t a good three-point shooter, Barnes showed a much improved stroke during the intrasquad game but his shooting percentages still need to improve, Poeltl is not a shooter, Siakam’s shooting is inconsistent so the only above average shooter would be O.G. Anunoby in the starting lineup. If Gary Trent Jr. comes off the bench, the Raptors lose offensive firepower as he’s one of Toronto’s better shooters.
There’s still time for the Raptors to sort out their rotations, so it’ll be interesting to keep an eye on how things play out.
B/R gives Raptors offseason an “F” grade
Bleacher Report recently gave the Raptors offseason an “F” grade. They cite the Raptors losing Fred VanVleet for nothing, starting this season with Pascal Siakam and O.G. Anunoby set to become unrestricted free agents next summer and not picking a direction as reasons for giving them the grade:
“Had the Raps conducted a fire sale this offseason, this grade would have been higher. Had they locked up Siakam, kept VanVleet and added vets with an intention to win in the short term, this grade would have been higher. Because they failed to choose either path, and because next summer might be even more painful and disjointed than the one we just witnessed, we have to go with a failing grade.”
The Raptors are no strangers to being written off and counted out. They’re going to have to go out there and prove the media pundits wrong this season.
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