Toronto Raptors after 11:
pg: steph curry, marcus smart
sg: smart, jaylen brown, paul pierce, ray allen
sf: james johnson, brown, dunleavy, pierce
pf: patrick patterson, carl landry, ersan illyasova, bobby portis, kg, james johnson
c: brook lopez, patterson, portis, kg
What I like about this team is that there's a lot of versatility- multiple players can defend multiple positions. Besides a backup pg, backup 7fter, and lebron james, what else do you think is wrong with the Raptors?
Really like Patterson and Johnson - badly needed infusion of defensive ability.
Your big problem now is possessions. Patterson/Lopez is a bad rebounding tandem. And their back-ups are either too old, too gimpy or too green.
Then on the wings you have a bunch of old fogies who will struggle to rebound or create turnovers. Leaves you very dependent on 3 guys - Smart/Johnson/Brown - with major shooting/scoring issues for D and quickness, which really crowds the court for your 2 big guns.
Yes, I really like that as well. The starting lineup looks much more balanced.
I love the defensive energy and rebounding of Smart and James Johnson. Having two such highly skilled jump-shooting big men as Patterson and Brook Lopez will ease any offensive concerns with them as a starting duo on the wings.
I like Carl Landry as your best option at backup center (as your roster stands right now). I like him and Ilyasova as Toronto's main bigs off the bench. Very dangerous duo offensively. Then Portis as the 5th big man. KG as the 6th big.
The bench on the perimeter needs some work. A backup PG. I agree that Jaylen Brown is your best option at SG for the time being because he is the only one quick enough to defend that position. Then have Pierce and Dunleavy duke it out for the backup SF minutes. There are still plenty of options of useful bench guards available at PG and SG so you can address them with your final picks if need be.