The Toronto Raptors have had an avalanche of injuries to start the season.
RJ Barrett missed all but the first few minutes of preseason action and the first three games of the season for Toronto. Immanuel Quickley was injured in the season opener and hasn't been back since. Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown Jr. have been out all four games thus far, with Olynyk still days away and Brown weeks. First-round pick Ja'Kobe Walter missed all of preseason and the start to the regular season before being sent to Mississauga.
Now it gets worse; just as Barrett is returning, Scottie Barnes is going to miss at least one game and potentially more with some sort of eye injury. Dr. Ali Rendely laid out that the time Barnes miss could span a couple of days or up to a month.
As a result of all of these injuries to rotation players, the Raptors have had to reach deep into the roster to field a team and compete. They have 15 players on the roster and everyone one of those who are healthy have stepped in for rotation minutes at some point, plus one of their two-way players in Jamison Battle.
The third-string Raptors looked outmatched in their first game, a 30-point home loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but have bounced back to look respectable in the last three games. They beat the short-handed Philadelphia 76ers, hung tough with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and took the Denver Nuggets to overtime.
Who has impressed enough by stepping up that they deserve to factor into the rotation even when the Raptors get back to full strength? Let's look at three players, ordered from "deserves a look" to "you have to play him."
No. 3: Jamison Battle
It was somewhat surprising at the end of preseason for the Raptors to waive undrafted center Branden Carlson; he didn't have a particularly impressive preseason, but his skillset of a shot-blocking big who could space the floor made a lot of sense for this roster. Instead, the Raptors signed another undrafted rookie, Jamison Battle out of Ohio State, to take his place.
Battle has not been anything more than what he needs to be, which is a solid 3-and-D wing. The Raptors appeared to be short of those heading into the season, and a modern roster needs as many as they can get. He is playing 15.5 minutes per game thus far, hitting 38.5 percent of his 3-pointers and playing active defense.
The Raptors will benefit from sprinkling in a few minutes for Battle as it opens up the lineup combinations across the roster. They can get 50 games out of him, which means a lot of opportunity to deploy him, especially early on this year.