Raptors: 3 fun lineups when Pascal Siakam and Yuta Watanabe return

2. The Traditional Lineup

• Fred VanVleet
• OG Anunoby
• Scottie Barnes
• Pascal Siakam
• Khem Birch

Bench: Dalano Banton, Gary Trent Jr., Svi Mykhailiuk, Chris Boucher, Precious Achiuwa

This is the dreaded “We need one of each position” lineup. It’s fair to argue that in a true 1-5 lineup, OG isn’t a natural shooting guard, but if Trent plays the perfect high volume scoring Sixth Man guard, we’re going to roll with it a little here.

Here, Siakam gets to play with the ball on the wing and elbow more and let Birch work for the offensive boards. This lineup allows Toronto to have three (potentially four) players who can walk the ball up the court and initiate the offense.

It allows for a strong mix of shooting and cutting capable of breathing some life into a half-court offense that has so far been Toronto’s biggest Achilles heel.

This could be a great offensive lineup for VanVleet. His passing has been lovely, but if Fred can get a little time off the on-ball, run-the-play gig, his shooting rhythm has a better chance to reappear more consistently.

The Toronto Raptors could go old-school with this lineup.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows though. This lineup benches Trent, who decided to randomly become Gary Payton this season. His stellar defense is less valuable than when he’s out there disrupting the other team’s starters. Having this many capable starters off the bench is a good problem to have, but it’s not necessarily the right decision.

As for Watanabe, Trent sliding to the bench keeps him out of the lineup with Mykhailiuk keeping his place at the backup 3. I’m a firm believer that Watanabe deserves a shot when he gets back, but there’s an equally valid timeline where Svi’s recent hot streak continues. If this is the lineup Nurse wants, Yuta may get stuck riding pine for the sake of the hot hand.