For the past few seasons, the NBA has been heading in a smaller direction. The Toronto Raptors haven’t been followers of that trend thus far. That makes sense, since they’ve got a lot of size on their roster. Jonas Valanciunas, Amir Johnson, and Patrick Patterson are all big guys, and they need their minutes.
It looks like the Raptors are looking to go smaller this season though, especially given the acquisition of DeMarre Carroll, and Amir Johnson’s departure to Boston.
Raptors’ head coach Dwane Casey spoke about small ball. From Doug Smith of The Toronto Sun:
“I think the trend now is smaller basketball but I’ve always said as long as the goal is 10 foot high, size matters,” Casey said during an appearance at the team’s summer camp at Humber College on Monday.
“But DeMarre (Carroll) can play the four, the three. He can guard the four position with LeBron James at the four, Carmelo Anthony at the four, Paul George back and at the four. He helps us in that respect.
“You can play Kyle (Lowry) and Cory (Joseph) at the same time, you can play Kyle, Cory and DeMar (DeRozan) at the same time. We’ve got a lot of flexibility as far as our roster is concerned.”
Casey is right to go smaller. The league has gone in that direction, and the bigger lineups are often too slow to keep up. DeMarre Carroll primarily played the 3 in Atlanta, but he will be a good stretch-4. He’s a terrific shooter and a very capable defender. Plus, DeMar Derozen, whose main position is shooting guard, is certainly able to play the 3, and maybe even the 4 for (short) stretches.
