Sullinger's injury leaves Raptors perilously thin up front
Jared Sullinger was never meant to be a savior for the Toronto Raptors. He was never going to be the long-term answer at power forward. He wasn't signed as the missing piece to propel them into the Cleveland Cavaliers' stratosphere.
For a squad with myriad frontcourt holes to fill after losing Luis Scola, James Johnson, and Bismack Biyombo to free agency, Sullinger was a solid, late-summer value play; no more, no less. But a machine can't function without its cogs, and the Raptors just lost one for an indeterminate amount of time. They have ways to cover for Sullinger's absence, ways to jerry-rig the machine and keep it in working order. But it will take a good deal of creativity, and an uptick in efficiency from the remaining parts. It's next cog up.
"We just have to go with what's there," head coach Dwane Casey said, according to TSN's Josh Lewenberg.
Losing Sullinger might've been an afterthought if there hadn't already been so much uncertainty surrounding the Raptors' frontcourt. As things stand, it throws an already messy situation into even greater disarray.
Starting center Jonas Valanciunas has looked about two steps slow since returning from a postseason ankle sprain to play in the Olympics. His ostensible backup, Lucas Noguiera, sprained his ankle in the team's last preseason game. Rookie center Jakob Poeltl has flashed nice tools, but the Raptors likely planned to have him start the season in the D-League. On top of being penciled in as the starting power forward, Sullinger looked like the Raptors' most palatable option at the backup five spot.
At the four, Patrick Patterson will need to take on starter's minutes (even if Casey continues to stubbornly bring him off the bench), having never averaged more than 27 in his six NBA seasons. DeMarre Carroll can play up a position as a small-ball PF, but the Raptors may be wary of having him bang with opposing bigs, given that he isn't fully recovered from a knee injury that cost him 56 games and his lateral explosiveness last season (Not to mention that Carroll's backup - Terrence Ross - is dealing with injury concerns of his own). Toronto's other rookie big man, Pascal Siakam, is bouncy and active, but also unrefined and overly skittish.
The Raptors were one of the league's best rebounding teams a season ago, and in replacing Biyombo with Sullinger, figured to excel in that department again. Without him, they're going to have to work a lot harder to complete defensive possessions and to keep offensive trips alive. But this isn't just about what they'll lose in Sullinger - it's about ripple effects that will be felt up and down the roster. The Raptors risk throwing their rookies into the fire too soon, and overtaxing their tweener bigs. For as much as Patterson or Carroll can open things up in ways the less rangy Sullinger couldn't, they'll leave the Raptors a bit mushy in the middle.
The coaching staff will have to tinker and experiment to find the right alchemy, and that's how the Raptors will have to get by for the first third of the season, if not longer. It'll be a precarious process, but maybe a fruitful one as well. There are possibilities to unlock funky lineups and opportunities for young bigs to step up. As of now, though, there are no perfect options, and no easy answers.