Title: Raptors Reasonablists, Volume IV, Part III: Who starts when the injuries stop?
Date: March 11, 2020
Original Source: The Athletic
Synopsis: Eric Koreen and I will be doing a semi-regular email exchange column about the Raptors, dubbing ourselves The Reasonablists. The latest edition looked at what the Raptors starting lineup might look like if they ever get healthy and actually have to make that choice.
Welcome to another edition of Raptors Reasonablists with Eric Koreen and Blake Murphy. Throughout the year, Raptors staff writers Koreen and Murphy discuss hot-button issues surrounding the Raptors, but with an even-keeled approach in pursuit of finding a reasonable middle ground. If we have faith in anything, it is that reasonable middle grounds lead to: a) workable long-term solutions; b) increased empathy and understanding for others; and c) more wins — at least more wins when they truly matter, probably. We hold these truths to be self-evident, and we hold these truths to be good truths.
MURPHY: It would be almost funny if it weren’t so maddening. Every time the Toronto Raptors draw closer to health, another injury seems to strike. The season’s injury carousel should, on paper, have been tragic for the team’s 2019-20 chances. What started with minor setbacks for Patrick McCaw and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson expanded to consume first Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka, then Fred VanVleet, then Pascal Siakam, Norman Powell and Marc Gasol. Those six key rotation players have spent the time since rotating in and out of the lineup, playing together exactly zero times since Jan. 28.
Continue reading at The Athletic.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 