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Coaches often say it is not important which players start, but that is simply not the case. The starting five is almost always the five-man unit that plays the most minutes together in any given game. If it does not do well, it puts a team in a significant hole.

The Raptors current starting unit — Kyle Lowry, DeRozan, Terrence Ross, Amir Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas — has been a liability for the Raptors. Heading into Monday’s game at Indiana, it has allowed 0.4 points per 100 possessions more than it has scored. It is also the lineup Dwane Casey has used most often.

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For the Raptors, this is not especially surprising: Unlike a lot of the league’s best teams, the Raptors rely on their depth, rather than a small core of rotation players. It is likely that their bench would be their strong suit, regardless of its composition, because those lineups are more talented than their opponents’ benches. As well, developing Ross and Valanciunas as players is a priority for the Raptors, hence their continued presence among the starters. However, they are two of the most uneven players on the roster.

Most good teams lean disproportionately on successful lineups. Of the teams with the 13 best records in the league, only three — the Raptors, Bulls and Mavericks — have their most frequently used lineup rated below plus-7.9 points per 100 possessions. (Memphis is a tricky outlier, since their new starting lineup with Jeff Green has struggled, but it has played fewer total minutes than their old starting lineup with Tony Allen.)