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Fifty-five percent from the field. Nine-for-12 from three-point range. Thirty fast-break points. The Sixers literally ran roughshod over the Raptors yesterday and the numbers tell the story. It's a story that's been told and re-told recently. No matter how you slice it, this doesn't look like a playoffs-worthy team right now.
If they keep this up, the Raptors might not be a playoff team next month. They're just two games ahead of ninth-place Charlotte right now and they still have 21 games to play. Their next four games are on the road and if they can lose at home to the Sixers, they can certainly lose on the road to anyone.
Clearly, this team needs a shake-up. They've lost five of their last six games and they fell behind by at least eight points in the first quarter in all five of those losses. You probably see where I'm going with this, but here's the starting lineup I'd like to see against the Lakers on Tuesday: Jack, Weems, Turkoglu (if healthy), Johnson and Bosh.
This isn't about placing blame on anyone, it's about changing something that's not working. In DeMar's case, I hope that having him come off the bench will take a bit of pressure off him and allow him to "just play". As for Bargnani, he's basically a sixth man in a center's body anyway so why not see how he does in that role? Also, I kinda want to give him a virtual kick in the ass to see if he gets the message that he needs to earn his playing time by giving maximum effort on defence and on the boards.
Amir Johnson showed us in Friday's win over the Knicks that he's capable of playing sufficiently "under control" so that he can log 25-30 minutes without fouling out. Furthermore, the Bosh-Johnson frontcourt combo is the Raptors' best defensive pairing, as you can see by these 2009-10 Defensive Ratings (points allowed per 100 possessions) compiled by our stats guru, Supersub.
DRtg for Bosh and Bargnani: 113.43
DRtg for Bargnani and Johnson: 110.94
DRtg for Bosh and Johnson: 107.05
Of course, I'm wasting keystrokes trying to make the case for taking Bargnani out of the starting lineup because I don't believe for a second that there's any chance of that happening. Even if Jay Triano thought it was a good idea, I don't think he has the balls to do it. I think we all know Mr. Colangelo wouldn't like that very much. 
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