It was supposed to be different this season in Raptorland. Toronto’s bench, the least-used in the NBA last season, was supposed to provide head coach Nick Nurse with more options and more reliable production. After Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet co-led the NBA in minutes per game last season, it was assumed there would more significant contributions from the reserves, not to mention the other starters, to lighten the load from Toronto’s two best players.
“I do feel better about our depth this season,” Nurse told reporters at training camp in Victoria.
If he was being honest, Nurse probably had to feel a little worse about it after Monday’s loss in Chicago, when most of the Raptors not named VanVleet put in suboptimal performances on the second night of a back-to-back set.