The complaint heard throughout the nation this postseason is that the Toronto Raptors bench has been heavily lacking production. This isn’t something new as the bench has struggled all year to keep up with the starters.
Various trades through the year (for Kawhi Leonard, Marc Gasol, and Danny Green) saw the Raptors lose the depth pieces that made their bench so strong in order to bolster their starting five.
But even with the loss of key pieces such as Jakob Poeltl and Delon Wright, Raptors management figured players like Norman Powell might carve out a bigger role helping to alleviate some of the stress from lack of depth.