Toronto Raptors: How Stanley Johnson can earn minutes

Play in the G-League

As of right now, this might be the thing that is least likely to happen given the amount of injuries that the team is dealing with. They will need as many players active as they can get. However, this shouldn’t be dismissed as something that shouldn’t be considered.

Before playing a single game for Toronto, Stanley Johnson said that the player development program played a huge part in his decision to sign here. Most of that credit should come from the work that the Toronto Raptors G-League affiliate has done. Six current Raptors on the 15 man roster have played for the Raptors 905 including two starters (Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet), and the G-League MVP and DPOY last year (Chris Boucher).

It may not be a preference for someone who signed a guaranteed deal and expecting to be a part of the rotation, but it certainly is better than playing 3.4 minutes per game. Oshae Brissett, a two-way player, has already played more minutes in the past 2 games than Stanley Johnson has in his total of 8 games. Just by showing a strong effort on keeping plays alive and making the right read was enough for him to get playing time.

A G-League assignment could be a better way for Stanley Johnson to get minutes and could ultimately act as a confidence booster the same way Oshae Brissett did. If Brissett keeps this up, the Raptors could look to change his two-way contract into a guaranteed roster spot, which would result in somebody getting waived or traded for that to happen.