The Toronto Raptors are sitting pretty with the best record in the Eastern Conference, and for the most part, the credit would go to DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. They are, after all, the undisputed leaders of the team.
But they aren’t a part of the Raptors lineup that, unexpectedly, leads the league in net rating (points scored minus points allowed, per 100 possessions). According to ESPN’s Zach Lowe, of the 95 five-man lineups to have played over 100 minutes this season, the most productive one by that measure has been Toronto’s Bench Mob:
That’s right: Fred Van Vleet, Delon Wright, C.J. Miles, Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl are the five players that have outscored their opponents most effectively across the entire NBA. Only two other lineups -- the Timberwolves and Rockets starting lineups -- have a net rating over 20.0 points. You can see the stat leaderboard for yourself here at NBA.com.
A caveat: this stat, while widely trusted as a measure of on-court productivity, doesn’t account for the fact that the Raptors’ bench plays most of its minutes against opposing benches. The Raptors’ starting lineup, which is probably still the better lineup in a vacuum, isn’t ranked as highly because they, obviously, have to compete against their opponent’s best players.
But the point stands that whenever head coach Dwane Casey has called for his bench, they have consistently destroyed their opponents. They aren’t DeRozan or Lowry, but the bench guys have, in their own respect, been a revelation.
Maybe the craziest fact: other than the 13 year veteran Miles, every one of those players are in the first three years of their NBA career. The young guns are alright.
