National Basketball Association

Jared Sullinger's Injury Could Be A Big Problem For The Toronto Raptors

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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With Jared Sullinger missing time, the Toronto Raptors will once again have their resilience tested.

The Toronto Raptors had a relatively quiet summer. Their biggest decisions were to let Bismack Biyombo walk and bring back DeMar DeRozan.

To shore up their big-man rotation, they took a chance with signing Jared Sullinger.

While it was a low-risk signing, the team did not leave themselves with depth to deal with an injury to their bigs. Especially with the departures of both Biyombo and Luis Scola.

While Sullinger isn’t necessarily a core piece to the team, he is an important piece of the puzzle and was slated to be the team’s starting power forward.

Any plans he had on having a breakthrough season and making an impact for Toronto will have to wait:

Sullinger suffered an injury to his foot in the Raptors’ preseason opener against the Golden State Warriors. It’s a disappointing setback, especially when you consider Sullinger came into camp healthy and in great shape.

There has not been a definitive timetable set for a return, although team president Masai Ujiri had this to say:

Losing Sullinger hurts Toronto not only for his lost production, but the strain it will put on an already strained situation. Sullinger was going to serve as the starting power forward, but likely would have seen time as the backup center.

The Raptors now head into the season with Jonas Valanciunas and Patrick Patterson as their only proven big men. Behind them there are the two rookies in Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl. With Sullinger out, those two will likely shoulder the bulk of his minutes.

They may also use Lucas Nogueira, who has shown flashes of strong play, but largely has not been NBA ready.

The other option Dwane Casey will have is to turn to small ball. DeMarre Carroll is capable of playing power forward for a stretch, but it’s unclear what impact that will have on the team’s defense.

To this point in his career, Valanciunas hasn’t found a way to not be a liability on the defensive end of the floor. To have a successful small ball lineup, you need a defensive anchor to cover up for going small.

Casey mentioned that Patterson will be the front-runner to start at power forward. But he also mentioned that they will likely also give starts to Siakam. Patterson historically has performed best in limited minutes off the bench.

So it would make sense that Casey would try to keep him in that role. With that being said, the idea of Siakam starting highlights just how thin Toronto’s bigs are.

At 22 years old, Siakam is more polished than most rookies. In his final season at New Mexico State, he averaged 20.2 points and 11.6 rebounds per game. His feel for the game and motor have already made an impression during preseason play.

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But there is an adjustment period for all rookies, and growing pains are to be expected. Those growing pains could hurt the Raptors. Especially with the margin between them and a hungry Boston Celtics team being so small.

The burden will once again fall on Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan to overcome the flaws of the roster with their scoring. But they also need Valanciunas to step up in a big way.

To this point in his career, he hasn’t had a season where the Raptors were better with him on the court per his on/off numbers. With two rookies backing him up, odds are that the team is better with him on court this season.

But the quality of his substitutes aside, he needs to start making an impact on the defensive end. If he continues to look lost out there, the Raptors rotation of bigs will look even shakier.

So while Sullinger’s lost production alone may not be a big deal, the ripple effect may cause Toronto to fall down the standings this season. Last season they showed resilience when it came to stepping up in the absence of injured players.

Maybe they will be able to do that once again this season.

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