The Toronto Raptors are currently the 2 seed in the Eastern Conference but have lost five straight games.

Now, Toronto is just a half game ahead of 3 seed Chicago and one game ahead of Cleveland.

Although All-Star Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan make the headlines for the playoff-bound Raptors, one of the Toronto’s most productive players has been Jonas Valanciunas.

Since being drafted fifth overall in the 2011 NBA Draft, Valanciunas has improved every year. Last season, Valanciunas finished with a Amir Johnson, Patrick Patterson, and James Johnson all average 21 minutes per game or more, but none measure up to Valanciunas’ performance.

Both Amir Johnson and Patrick Patterson grade out slightly above average in terms of PER, at 15.6 and 15.8, respectively, and while James Johnson’s PER of 18.9 is solid, they are all less than Valanciunas’.

Then, in terms of numberFire’s nERD metric, Amir Johnson’s nERD of 3.0, Patterson’s of 5.7, and James Johnson’s of 4.4 are all significantly less than Valanciunas’. Finally, numberFire’s Efficiency metric gives Amir Johnson a score of 1.2, Patterson a 2.2, and James Johnson a 2.5, which are all, again, less than what Valanciunas contributes.

Amir Johnson, Patterson, and James Johnson are all playing good basketball, and all are above average in efficiency this year and rank at least 44th in the NBA in nERD, but none quite compare to Valanciunas, who ranks 15th.

After looking at several different statistics and metrics, it may be wise for Raptors head coach Dwane Casey to alter his rotation slightly to incorporate more of Jonas Valanciunas in order to stop the losing streak and continue the fight to hold onto the 2 seed in the East.