San Antonio Spurs
Lineup: L.Aldridge, P.Gasol, D.Green, K.Leonard, T.Parker
ORTG: 115.1 DRTG: 104.5
What a surprise? Arguably the greatest coach of all time’s starting lineup is his by unit by advanced metrics as well. There really isn’t much else to say other than that if you replaced Pau with Dedmon here, the numbers would be even more astronomical. Sadly that unit itself hasn’t played enough together, but I think those who have seen Dedmon and Pau play would also agree Dedmon is the better fit. So technically this is the best lineup of lineup options, but Dedmon would be a better shoe-in if I was formulating my own lineup.
Toronto Raptors
Lineup: D.Carroll, D.DeRozan, K.Lowry, P.Patterson, J.Valanciunas
ORTG: 129. DRTG: 102.6
This is something really weird. The Raptors have two lineups with jaw-dropping net ratings, one without DeRozan and one with. I will be the first to admit I do not watch enough Raptor games to judge first hand without stats, but this is a very interesting situation. Also, the 2nd and 3rd most played lineups by Toronto are 100% better than the first one both by net rating and if you were to group them on paper. This is actually a very weird paradox I might need to go in-depth on in a later article.