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What is up, fellows, thermonuclear
affers. I am Dan PAVALLEI coming at

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you with a first time guest who
was kind enough to agree to hop on

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the podcast for an inaugural old debut. We'll see if he realizes it will

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be a mistake in just a few
minutes. It is the great, the

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legendary Samson Folk. He creates great
podcast and written content for Raptors Republic.

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Follow him on Twitter at sam Folk, that's at samfo l KK, and

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follow Raptors Republic. The content coming
out there is just YouTube. Writing is

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incredible at Raptors Republic, spelled exactly
as it sounds. His bio says your

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favor writer talker. He is indeed
one of my favorite basketball talkers. So

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Sampson, thank you so much for
agreeing to come on. How are you

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doing doing good? Extremely happy to
be on. And the compliment I said

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I was keeping tucked away is that
your set of topics slash info was the

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best I've ever received pre podcast.
So if Blake Murphy is listening from the

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Raptor Show, it's better than his
Google doc. I was very impressed,

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not only like good questions, but
you layered in your own info, your

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own knowledge about that stuff, and
I was for a person who's not on

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the Raptors beat, just based on
what you have written, you're observing things

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that aren't being observed by everybody over
there. So impressed that well one,

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thank you so much too. It's
always nice to hear that people don't hate

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the outlines, because when I do
Team look Aheads before the season, where

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we do like seventy minutes on every
single team, my outlines can be like

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eight hundred nine hundred words, because
I want the people who are following these

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teams intomately to realize, like,
hey, you're watching this team more than

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I have. You know so much
more about them. But I'm not just

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coming on to talk about you know, can the Raptors now trade? Gary

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Trenchjunior wears Bruce brown headed. So
I want you to know that I do

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put thought and research into it.
But it's also I mean, it's good

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prep for me. But it's nice
here that you don't hate it, because

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I've been told by some people they
don't like to receive them anymore because they're

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too long. So if they want
to go off the cuffin, they're not

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mean about it. But it's just
I want our I want the guests to

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know that, like, hey,
you're not coming on to just another like

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I'm trying to get you to say
like some hot, taky things, and

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the outlines are like my way of
showing that I had I had one of

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those this year, actually just just
one, because I don't I don't do

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podcast guests stuff that much. But
I did have one where like the promotion

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of the podcast afterwards, I was
like, Yo, what the hell is

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going on here? So yeah,
kind of funny. So you don't do

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a lot of guest spots, I
would assume that, like you're bumbar are

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you just bombarded with requests and you
can't handle them all? Because that's how

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I've approached a lot of radio requests
now, Yeah, just because they come

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in so in such volume after the
Super Bowl over here, and they're always

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like, hey, can you come
on in like ninety minutes after the deadline's

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over, and it's like, no, sorry, Yeah, I'm pretty picky,

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to be quite honest with you.
Well, now I feel even more

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special that you agreed to agree to
come up. Actually, Caitlin has told

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me before that she thought you were
like one of the best in the world

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at what you do. So when
you asked, I was like, I

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have been told that Dan is extremely
good at his job, so I figured

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my ego is just getting a compliment
from CC is a big deal. And

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she has mentioned she has mentioned you
off air and on air when we do

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our Little Pacers contacts. So she
was actually the one that turned me on

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to you a couple of years ago. So thank you for coming on.

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We are here for the Toronto Raptors. Though I think is that anyone can

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see based off your background, I
have to start with the trades, and

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I've listened to a couple of the
pods that you've recorded, since it does

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seem like you were much warmer on
the OG return rather than the past Gal

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return at first, and so it's
kind of a twofold question of what are

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your general impressions coming out of those
moved and have they changed it at all

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since the initial just reactions that you've
had. I think that Bruce Brown having

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a reportedly hot market could change it
because this is something I wondered about too,

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because there's like trade valor. You
know, Rudy Gobert has immense trade

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valor because he got like this huge
package. Pascal Siakam's trade valor was lower,

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but if you consider Bruce Brown not
his own trade tree, but like

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a branch of Pascal Siakam's trade tree, and it ends up being not like

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three late first, but it ends
up being maybe like two mid first,

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because you get something back from Bruce
Brown, and there's like a player in

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addition to let's say, like maybe
it's I don't know if Jordan Lara will

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be on the Raptors. I don't
know what happens with anything like that,

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or Kira Lewis, but we'll see. But I do think that the Raptors

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and the Knicks, despite being engaged
in a petty, litigious fight with one

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another, they managed to thread an
incredible needle that doesn't often get threaded in

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the NBA, and that the Knicks
are obviously what are they like ten and

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two? Since the Trader eleven and
two, they've been awesome. Og pugs

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into their offense perfectly and their defense
perfectly. He elevates them in many ways.

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And the Raptors got two guys NRJ
and Emmanuel quickly that obviously elevate what

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they're trying to do and help them
kind of change up the I don't know

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the future in a way that makes
you think that those guys can be part

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of the now and the future,
and in a way that the fans love,

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in a way that the front office
loves. And that's a hard needle

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to thread, to be quite honest
with you, especially for an expiring contract.

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A guy who's very good, but
a guy who will probably never be

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selected as an All Star in OG
and then Pascal, who is obviously around

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all star impact and has like all
star accolades and all that kind of stuff

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all NBA as well. You get
a package that you could probably by the

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time it runs out, do you
in the three first round picks, you

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know, most of them being late. Does that equal to better players than

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like RJ and Emmanuel quickly you would
presume not. So it seems a little

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bit l liked, especially based on
what I was hearing during the summer and

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based on pass packages I've heard.
So I was really really impressed with the

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OG return immediately, I was underwhelmed
by the Pascal return, and I still

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feel that way. But you know, no crying over spilled milk or something

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like that. I will say very
quickly on the litigation between the Nicks and

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Raptors. The fact that Rj' shooting
like a zillion percent at the rim is

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kind of proof that the Raptors aren't
really collopting anything that they might have taken

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from the Knicks. So I feel
like that should just be thrown out on

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this basis alone. You did mention
though, that in part you were impressed

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because of the Og return since he
was an expiring contract. Both of these

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guys were expiring contracts. Making these
moves was smart just because we saw what

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happened with Fred van Fleet. But
do you think they waited too long and

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that at either either in the sense
of one they could have gotten more for

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even both Og or Pascal, or
just two because why did we wait so

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long to kind of clarify that we're
trying to reorient around Scottie Barnes. Yeah,

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I think that it's tough because everything
is relational. You wonder if when

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they go into trade talk's Massia says, you know, I let Fred walk.

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You have to trade to get Og
Andnobi because I'll let somebody walk.

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You have to trade to get Pascal
Siakham because I'll let somebody walk. You

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wonder about the impact of that stuff
or OG being traded. Like for example,

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last year, what I heard was
that it was Evan Fournier and three

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late first for OG. That was
the trade that was offered. That's what

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I heard. I think that Emmanuel
Quickly and RJ. Barrett is better,

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even if Precious at you and Malchai
Flin are involved in that. I also

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heard that, you know, you're
looking at a couple first round picks Buddy

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and them Hart in the summer for
Pascal, I consider that better than what

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the Raptors got here. So I
think that they upgraded in the OG sense

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waiting and the Knicks obviously were able
to give more because the Knicks really liked

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the look of their team and thought
adding OG was very meaningful. And the

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Pacers, and just because of you
know, Pascal not Massai having to apologize

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to a Massai saying like not talking
with passcal over the summer. Yeah,

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you know, relationships. You know, they obviously still have a very strong

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bond, but the relationship stuff,
the interpersonal stuff in the meantime deteriorating Pascal,

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the messaging around him from the you
know, the front office being confusing

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and a little bit like distant at
times that affected it, and I think

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the Yeah, so I think that
they upgraded on one by waiting and lost

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out on another. And it's really
hard to be a GM or a president

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or all that kind of stuff and
make decisions because none of them are made

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in a vacuum. But we have
to view all of them in a vacuum

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to observe anything, because there's like
information, a symmetry always that's like,

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that's like the job. So combining
both, I think they made out pretty

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well. Although I think that it's
possible that instead of trading for Yaku Purtle

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last trade deadline, they could have
perhaps pivoted earlier and would have probably a

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more stalked cupboard, let's say,
and there wouldn't be the debate of do

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we want this pick to convey this
year? Do we want it to convey

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a big one? YEAHM team let
it convey this year, just because I

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don't know enough about the draft,
but people aren't too high on it.

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And if you have a couple other
first in the draft anyway, you can

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take your shots. So I team, I don't know where you land.

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I was actually listening, well,
the podcast you recorded with s Bearhini and

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you guys were having that combo.
I can't remember where you land, but

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I'm team let it convey this year. Sure, and just to that point,

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like and you would have heard me
make this point on the podcast.

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But when we were talking to Masai, and he talked about during the Yakub

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trade, like a year ago at
this point, how he didn't like the

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twenty twenty four draft. And then
he was asked like, well, you

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have three picks in the twenty twenty
four draft potentially, and who knows what

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comes back in the Bruce Brown trade, could be four. And then when

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he was asked if he likes the
twenty twenty four draft, Masi was like,

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oh, Dan Tolzman is gonna you
know, he's gonna kill me.

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He's on my shoulder because he doesn't
like the draft. And he didn't want

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to say it because he's like,
well, should I publicly lower my ability

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to like leverage things and trade talks
by saying, you know, so a

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lot of people have thoughts about this
draft. I think probably it's maybe better

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to convey. Yeah, I am
still shocked that even though he's on an

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expiring contractor that they didn't get a
little bit more as in one of the

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blue Chippers from the Pacers, or
even like You've mentioned this a bunch of

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time, Andrew Nemhard would have been
like a fantastic get for them, And

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I'm just the discussion around, like, well, now you have to max

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out Pascal for probably four years,
and I'm just like, well, duh,

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Like Pascal's an All NBA player and
he's just so good, and I

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guess nationally I land higher on Pascal
Yakam or all these other people are just

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concerned about his next deal, and
I was like, give me the next

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three or four years of passcal at
Maximni. So I thought they were gonna

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get more for him. I thought
that Ogno betrayed at the time was basically

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a win win, and it certainly
looks that way right now. But because

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you got Picks as the meat and
potatoes of the package for Pascal and then

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it was very player based for OG, what does that say about their overarching

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direction? Now? So I wrote
this piece where I was kind of talking

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about like do the Raptors go faster
or slow in regards to team building?

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And I think it's they have the
ability to do whichever one they want.

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Like you look at the Raptors when
they won the championship. They were trying

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to for years and years and years
build a team around Kyle Lowring Demarta Rosen

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that eventually became a contender, and
they made a trade Terrence Ross and a

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first round pick for Serge Ibaka and
Serjabaka at that point in time, was

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meant to legitimize a power forward spot
that hadn't been legitimized since Chris Bosh.

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Years. In between those two things, you had Tyler Hansbro and Jared Solinger

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and all these guys, you know, kind of as intern power forwards.

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But it ended up being that Sergeabaka
didn't win a championship as that guy.

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You win a championship as a bruising
backup center who kind of obliterated the Warriors

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as Pascal Siakam stepped into that power
forward role. On top of that,

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you had a trade that worked then
and in the future. You had talent

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acquisition, and that's what Emmanuel Quickly
and RJ. Barrett are supposed to be.

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And then you have a trade like
Grieves Vazquez gets traded to the Bucks

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because the Bucks want to legitimize their
backcourt, and you end up getting two

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picks that end up being o Jannanobi
and Norm Powell. Norm Powell becomes a

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guy via the draft talent acquisition in
the draft that allows you to trade Terrence

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Ross. Everything's relational. I think
that the Raptors will be at their best

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making decisions not from the point of
like, hey we're going specifically through the

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draft, or hey we're trying to
acquire guys that helps Scotty now, but

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based on opportunity, because that's what
it is. And also they were only

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able to do that for Serjabaka because
Orlando had put themselves in a weird team

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building corner that they had to trade
out of and Raptors took advantage. So

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I liked that they got both types
back. Obviously, it would be cool

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if they had gotten like I think
themhard would really would have sewn up the

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backcourt in a really tidy way.
I think he and Quickly could have like

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won a lot of minutes together,
and they could have tried to push for

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play in maybe not this year,
but definitely next year. That kind of

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stuff. It would expedite rebuilds,
et cetera. But I think having access

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to both gives them flexibility, and
what they did from a team building point

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of view, I thought they built
their team into a corner under the housing

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of Vision six' nine. That
it was some players only had surplus value.

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Let's say we're only able to overachieve
in very specific context, and other

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teams around the league were that is, like, these guys don't have value

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as trades. These guys don't have
value at wherever else. And it also

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meant that as the team changed,
they're like floughtsome in the background, They're

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like, Okay, how do we
get these guys to work in this upcoming

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context? And they need more talent
acquisition For guys who succeed in a broader

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range of scenarios, they need more
talent acquisition just to like perform better,

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and they need talent acquisition that kind
of fits Darko's vision of how he wants

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to play, because Darko came into
this season with a roster that was ill

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fitted to his style, I guess. And also I'm pretty sure when he

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came on they told him that Pascal
Siakam wouldn't be a Toronto Raptor, right,

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so, like not a lot of
his messaging or like the offense was

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built around him initially, so there
will be more unity from everybody and everybody

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can work together in harmony to try
and make the best decision one step at

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a time, and that can be
through the drafter through immediate talent, I

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suppose. Still, so you mentioned
the the darko and like Siaka not being

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a prominent part of the office.
I'm still so bummed at how that the

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relationship just ended between Pascal and Toronto, or even the Messi presser where he

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just admitted that you have he got
emotional and like Pascal was important to him,

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but he basically said, yeah,
the communication broke down. We just

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weren't talking. And I was like, that's just sad, like just what

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it was. It was a big
one side that wasn't talking. Pascal and

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his team were, so it's just
yeah, that's all Massai. Uh So

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it's interesting because the flexibility is good
and they've set themselves up to do a

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variety of things, which Massia has
done in the past. You outlaid it

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at the beginning of sort of his
Raptor's tenure, and then also he did

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that with this was basically the mellow
trade rolled into one. When you look

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at Denver where they got all the
picks, but then also these guys where

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that one Nuggets team like Gallinari's headlining
it and they won fifty seven games or

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whatever it was in twenty twelve.
But what do you think that does to

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their approach for the rest of this
season, specifically leading into the next couple

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weeks of the deadline, because you
have this flexibility. Part of that flexibility,

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though, is the Bruce Brown and
Gary Trent Junior could be expiring contract

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for Bruce Brown because you could have
thirty plus million in cap space while keeping

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a manual quickly's cap hold. Do
you have a sense of how important that

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is to them or when you mentioned
Bruce Brown's trade value and maybe getting a

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first or more back, would they
Are they a team that would be willing

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to say, oh, you want
longer term money on our books, but

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you're going to compensate us for that. Yeah, we'll eat up that cap

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space. We don't value the financial
flexibility that that hard. I think that

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it's very possible that that happens.
I think that they'd be happy to go

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either way. This goes back to
like what is advantageous at the time,

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But the raptors. You know,
Massai was joking about it during that same

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press conference we're talking about where you
know, he shed tears, he laid

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it bare, but he also kind
of was laughing, you know, to

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himself and with everybody in the room
that he's like a lot of the best

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free agents on the market, especially
free agents not restricted, are guys who

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used to be raptors. Like that's
just that's just how it is right now.

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It's like, I don't know if
anybody would consider Kyle Lowry one of

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the best, but like Pascal og
before Kawhi, like re signed, it

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would have been Kawhi. There's like
it is kind of funny how that shakes

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out. And as far as like
taking on salary, trying to pursue guys

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with cap space, if they have
cap space, I wouldn't be surprised if

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they like throw an off or sheet
at let's say, like Nicholas Claxton or

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something like that. I think that
would be an interesting Yeah, he's awesome,

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that'd be an interesting way to go. I think having a vertical op

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threat is something that helps leverage Scotty's
pick and roll stuff, which I'm sure

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we'll talk about later. But I
think that there's they'd be happy to go

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either way. If it is truly
advantageous to take you know, salary on,

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I'm sure they would. And then
if they have money, try to

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use it. It's tough to use
money when you're not one of like seven

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teams in the NBA, but the
Raptors are probably not one of those seven

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teams. But you try. You
see if you can get somebody to come

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north of the border. See how
that goes well. The money can also

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be valuable in the off season four
trades if they were looking at trying to

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acquire someone they think fits their timeline
as an impact player, which is why

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I was curious whether you thought they'd
be willing to take on money and so

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kind of wrap up their approach to
the trade deadline stuff. When you're looking

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at some of these guys, like
a podcast favorite Chris Bouche, Dennis Shruder,

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Bruce Brown, Gary Trent Junior,
is anyone specifically that you might expect

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to be moved or is there even
of that group or there? Do you

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look at any of those guys and
say, well, I'd actually like to

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see them stay with this team through
this season and into next year. I

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think that it could be, like
it's possible for as you've got written here,

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like Bruce, Chris, Gary,
Dennis, any of those guys could

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go. Jordan Nora could go.
The Raptors. They they're perfectly happy to

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like make the move if it's there. Based on interest, I'd say probably

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Bruce Brown and Chris Bouche I think
are the most most likely. Chris Bouche

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is a guy who teams have asked
about every year for like three years.

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He's had like a healthy amount of
interest across quite a few years from like

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whether it's like Western Conference contenders or
Eastern Conference contenders. People look at him

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and think like he maybe could like
help swing a couple games down the stretch

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of a season. And if he's
like playing well and he ends up fitting

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the context we want, there's some
playoff games that he kind of like snugly

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fits into for us. So Chris, I could expect that to happen.

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Bruce Brown is obvious. Bruce is
really good. He won a championship last

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year as like a major player on
the Nuggets, and he the way people

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view his game and kind of what
Darko talked about when Bruce first came over,

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Darko was like, oh yeah,
I studied dark Bruce's cutting specifically because

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I thought he was the best cutter
in the league like two years ago,

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and that holds true. Bruce is
a super cerebral player. He has tremendous

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feel for the game. A lot
of contenders view him as like a guy

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who just plugs right in. So
those guys, for sure, I think

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have a really strong likelihood. I
think Blake also had mentioned on the Raptors

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Show that he thought, like Chris
was probably there's a very very strong likelihood

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that Chris has gone by you know, trader line, so that kind of

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00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:22,519
stuff. Dennis shrewd. I think
that the Raptors value Dennis what he brings

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to like stabilize the offense and some
of the defensive matchups that he has,

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and I think they're pretty okay with
like his contract the middle level exception.

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Yeah, so it wouldn't surprise me
if he's stuck around. I know,

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like Raptors fans think he gets too
much of the ball, but Arco loves

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point guards and he loves having point
guards move them through their offense. So

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I think he sticks around. And
Gary, I just think because of what

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he's achieved in the past, what
he's underwhelmed as currently. I think probably

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the inflection of what the Raptors are
asking for versus teams trying to take like

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00:20:57,400 --> 00:21:03,079
a flyer on him as an expiring
contract is probably tough to make a trade

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happen. So I'd go Chris and
Bruce if I had to guess, I

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think I probably agree with you,
Gary French, and you're still just so

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00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:15,880
weirdly important to this team even though
he's such an imperfect player. So yeah,

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yeah, it's He was in such
a unique situation two years ago,

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twenty twenty one to twenty two,
because the Raptors were like, we have

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all these players who can playmke.
We have all these guys who can score,

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but none of them really shoot the
ball well. And Gary, they're

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00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:34,920
just like, hey, you don't
really make passing reids. You know,

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00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,240
your defense is like really gamble heavy. You don't really stick your man,

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00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:41,799
but you can hit catch and shoot
threes, and you also can kind of

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00:21:41,799 --> 00:21:45,480
like boogie woogie and get to like
a nineteen foot pull up. And for

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00:21:45,559 --> 00:21:52,319
a while he was next to like
Seth and Steph Curry and Kevin Durant for

319
00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:56,200
like mid range pull ups and like
extremely difficult ones. He had a run

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00:21:56,240 --> 00:22:00,640
of play that was just immense as
a shooter, and it started give people

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00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:03,960
like this outsized look of what his
offense was. You know, something I

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00:22:03,039 --> 00:22:07,079
always disagreed with, but something that
picked up steam in Toronto was fans called

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00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:14,079
him Gary Beal, which is still
insane, just absolutely insane. But I'd

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like, I'll tell you this much. Gary has an extremely valuable skill that

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00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:26,359
is kind of shrouded in like a
super underwhelming skill set, and he's still

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00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:33,400
young technically, he still like has
avenues to make playmaking reads because he has

327
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:37,119
so much gravity. He had like, you know, a three week stretch

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00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:41,960
where he averaged four assists a game
because he just decided to make the read

329
00:22:41,039 --> 00:22:45,319
to the guy rolling off of a
dribble handoff when he was receiving pressure.

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Maybe a team watches that film and
says like, Okay, let's make it

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00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:52,599
happen. Like maybe maybe it's Miami
or something that says, hey, we

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can do this kind of stuff.
But I don't know. He's had a

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00:22:56,599 --> 00:23:00,839
weird he was weirdly put in such
a great spot to just like score the

334
00:23:00,839 --> 00:23:06,400
ball and have all of his limitations
papered over by the Raptors, and then

335
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:11,000
once the Raptors changed the context a
little bit, that stuff really started showing

336
00:23:11,039 --> 00:23:15,119
up, especially with like continuous motion
offense, a lot of ball screens,

337
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,000
making progressive reads, getting to the
next action, like that kind of stuff.

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00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:22,920
Gary is maybe not best suited for
it, but he still can't stripples

339
00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:25,839
and the Raptors like give me,
give me, give me, give me.

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So yeah, I don't know,
man, it's tough. He's also

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00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:32,920
first team all. I forget how
young he is all the time. He

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00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:34,039
just heard twenty five a week ago
whatever, it was, like, he's

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just and I remember like two years
ago, like he's twenty two, Like,

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00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:41,319
how was only twenty two? It
feels like he was the when he

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00:23:41,359 --> 00:23:44,799
got traded to the Raptors. Even
though the Raptors had drafted mal Chai Funn

346
00:23:44,799 --> 00:23:48,079
that year, even though they had
drafted Jenlen Harris that year, he was

347
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:53,000
their youngest player. Wow, isn't
that nuts? That's everyone's mind. I

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00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:56,039
just because he was traded for Norman
Powell. I always just assumed they were

349
00:23:56,079 --> 00:23:59,200
like the same age. That's a
stupid way to look at it, but

350
00:23:59,319 --> 00:24:03,279
I just assumed that would be kind
of funny if like you had to do

351
00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:07,359
a trade like these guys have to
be. There's like a problematic age gap

352
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:11,680
discourse about NBA trades. Maybe in
the next DBA that's the next limitation.

353
00:24:11,799 --> 00:24:15,319
I'll add. I have actual basketball
on the court questions for you, though,

354
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:19,519
as promised RJ. Barrett, who
has been I don't know that I've

355
00:24:19,519 --> 00:24:23,880
flip flopped on a player more I
was initially teamed. I wouldn't include him

356
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:26,880
in the Donovan Mitchell trade package.
I was out on RJ. Barrett by

357
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:30,519
the time they actually moved him,
so naturally, I've been waiting for his

358
00:24:30,559 --> 00:24:33,160
efficiency to come down in Toronto.
It hasn't, and I think it will.

359
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:38,960
There will be peaks and valleys from
the perimeter, but his finishing specifically,

360
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:42,640
he's at like seventy percent around the
basket, per cleaning the glass and

361
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:45,880
the raptors. I think Knicks fans
are sensitive to this, But just based

362
00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:48,559
off what I've seen and having seen
a lot of him in New York,

363
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,359
they're doing an excellent job of getting
him the ball with heads of steam already

364
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:56,160
where he doesn't necessarily have to create
from stops. Is that one accurate and

365
00:24:56,279 --> 00:25:00,359
two is this Do you think this
kind of unlocks because he's always had the

366
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:02,960
strength and the ability to get there, But you think that the way they

367
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:07,079
play is built to unlock maybe a
more permanently efficient finisher and threat at the

368
00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:11,240
basket. I do. I think
that the continuous this is something. Do

369
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:17,599
you know who polar is? Like
the Korean MD on Twitter? So his

370
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:22,519
name is Polar Fall and he's he's
a Korean guy, He's an MD,

371
00:25:22,079 --> 00:25:27,319
and he talks about biomechanics. I
co wrote a piece about Scotty Barnes biomechanics

372
00:25:27,319 --> 00:25:32,160
with him once, and he talked
about how RJ. Barrett, because of

373
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:37,160
his biomechanics, is a guy who
needs to be put on more curved drives

374
00:25:37,599 --> 00:25:40,759
just because of his physical makeup and
how that allows him to kind of like

375
00:25:41,039 --> 00:25:48,079
accentuate his physical makeup and how it
makes him better and more explosive curved drives.

376
00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:55,519
Same with like Scottie Barnes and Anenobi
for that matter. It's been interesting

377
00:25:55,559 --> 00:26:00,079
to see the raptors get him into
motion out of more dribble handoffs. They

378
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:06,000
run a ton of like weak side
stuff to occupy taggers and then put RJ

379
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:10,160
in high ball screens where he's moving
left but can make that sweeping left to

380
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:14,440
right pass because he's a very talented
left handed passer, even if some of

381
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:18,440
the reads over the course of his
career have been underwhelming. That's a big

382
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:22,079
deal. Also, something that like
a couple of scouts and one in particular,

383
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,599
Joshua Codenaara, had talked to me
about when RJ got traded there is

384
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:30,000
that there's more inherent and intuitive lanes
for him to fill on the court now

385
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:34,480
that he's not surrounded by Jalen Brunson
and Julius Randall that as the loan left

386
00:26:34,519 --> 00:26:37,880
beyond the court. A lot of
the time, he's punching gaps that teams

387
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:42,079
aren't geared up to defend. So
teams, when you play the Knicks,

388
00:26:42,599 --> 00:26:47,440
you're like, Okay, we have
Randall, we have Brunson, we have

389
00:26:47,559 --> 00:26:51,640
Barrett. All these guys are looking
to punish the left side of the backboard,

390
00:26:52,079 --> 00:26:55,440
and Barrett is now the lone guy
doing that on the Raptors. And

391
00:26:55,519 --> 00:27:00,119
the Raptors also went from having og
A Nanobi as the third guy, j

392
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:03,200
Barrett as their third guy, and
RJ as far as like taking a live

393
00:27:03,279 --> 00:27:07,640
dribble all the way to the rim, being able to navigate help defense,

394
00:27:07,839 --> 00:27:11,559
being able to make a progressive read
is just like OG's the better player,

395
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:15,640
but RJ is way better at converting
those possessions. The Raptors are left in

396
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,440
limbo a lot of the time because
they didn't have a guy outside of like

397
00:27:19,519 --> 00:27:23,599
Pascal or Scotti who could take that
possession and score on it, or like

398
00:27:23,759 --> 00:27:26,279
take it deep into the paint and
make a read to the opposite side of

399
00:27:26,319 --> 00:27:30,200
the floor. RJ is just taking
all these possessions that were like dead on

400
00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:37,319
arrival in Toronto and just injecting life
into them, and it's resulted in defenses

401
00:27:37,799 --> 00:27:40,640
not being able to gear up for
what he's going to do. It's resulted

402
00:27:40,759 --> 00:27:44,480
him breaking through the last line of
defense a bunch, getting to his left

403
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:48,440
hand repeatedly, sometimes without contests at
the rim, and also when like and

404
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:52,359
he's had great reads on when guys
are stunting to the lane and when guys

405
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:57,200
are fully committing. That helps him
strike like the perfect middle, the perfect

406
00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:02,519
medium between like making red and attacking
the basket. The Raptors have put him

407
00:28:02,559 --> 00:28:06,519
in motion. That's great. He's
made like he's shot the ball well as

408
00:28:06,519 --> 00:28:10,160
far as like the jumper that'll probably
come down a bit. The floater stuff

409
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:15,119
will probably come down a bit,
but the rim stuff looks so easily replicable

410
00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:18,480
for him going forward. And I
talked to him about this the other day,

411
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:23,680
and like he bristled at the idea
that he had Yeah, yeah,

412
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:26,519
he had bristled at the idea that
he had changed. But then but then

413
00:28:26,599 --> 00:28:30,160
later on had mentioned that he likes
what the raptors are you, how the

414
00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:33,559
raptors are using him, and he
thinks that he fits well in this offense.

415
00:28:33,599 --> 00:28:37,799
And that's that's accurate as far as
I can tell, He's been awesome,

416
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:42,160
sublime based off like him being in
motion and then even him being the

417
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:47,000
loane lefty. Could that, by
extension then help I don't expect him to

418
00:28:47,039 --> 00:28:48,559
shoot fifty percent from mid range or
whatever it is forever, but could that

419
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,279
help him, like just generate more
space from that areator where maybe okay,

420
00:28:52,319 --> 00:28:56,880
maybe this floater accuracy is more for
real? Is this mostly going to be

421
00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:00,920
like an at the basket sort of
thing? I think I expected to be

422
00:29:02,079 --> 00:29:07,559
mostly at the basket because a lot
of the floaters are not a lot like

423
00:29:07,599 --> 00:29:11,039
actually, a lot of the floaters
come after spins, and I've been really

424
00:29:11,119 --> 00:29:12,799
impressed that he's been able to get
a lot of them down because he's like

425
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:18,680
spinning, stopping, locating the rim, putting the ball up and against like

426
00:29:18,759 --> 00:29:23,079
pretty heavy contests or like a half
spin into the lane from a pinch post

427
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:27,119
action or something like that. The
shot making has been pretty ridiculous from the

428
00:29:27,119 --> 00:29:32,319
floater range. I don't know if
that sticks, but that's not even the

429
00:29:32,359 --> 00:29:34,720
meat of like the shot diet anyway. Like it's been a good counter so

430
00:29:34,799 --> 00:29:40,039
far, but they've been really difficult
shots that he's been making, whereas the

431
00:29:40,079 --> 00:29:42,400
stuff at the rim for the most
part has been like he's getting there.

432
00:29:42,599 --> 00:29:45,720
The shot is easy because of the
work he's putting in as a driver,

433
00:29:47,119 --> 00:29:49,799
whereas like the floater shots, I'm
like, this is insane touch. I've

434
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:55,000
never perceived RJ as like an insane
touch player. You know, you listen

435
00:29:55,039 --> 00:29:59,400
to the podcast you mentioned, you
probably heard me mention he's been below average

436
00:29:59,559 --> 00:30:03,359
everywhere on the court, every quadrant
on the court except for one year from

437
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:07,720
three. This isn't a guy who
screams like incredible touch, but he screams

438
00:30:07,759 --> 00:30:12,319
like good enough touch with good driving, and we're seeing the realization of that

439
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:18,480
in Toronto, which is awesome.
Is there anything else that you found surprisingly

440
00:30:18,519 --> 00:30:22,400
good or surprisingly concerning about his fit
so far as auster you've done with him

441
00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:25,680
shooting sixty six percent from the foul
line or something like that. No,

442
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:29,079
Like, I don't know, rapt
defense should be you know, they watch

443
00:30:29,119 --> 00:30:33,160
the team led by Pascal Scotti and
og so the Raptors for like, I

444
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:37,720
don't know, a third of the
season we're shooting what like seventy percent as

445
00:30:37,759 --> 00:30:41,079
a team from the foul and so
RG missing free throws ay man, I

446
00:30:41,119 --> 00:30:44,359
could care less. What I really
like is like he's a high free throw

447
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:48,559
rate player, and I love high
free throw rate players, not in like

448
00:30:48,599 --> 00:30:52,839
the grimy grifty sense, but like, I don't know, it's really good

449
00:30:52,839 --> 00:30:56,720
to get to the line. It's
a It's a huge feature of an offensive

450
00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:00,359
players skill set, and RJ does
that. I've been pretty impressed. Not

451
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:03,680
only that he has like the you
know, lefties always have like a special

452
00:31:03,759 --> 00:31:07,359
quality because they are they're always like
superhuman with their left hand. They can

453
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:11,880
make like these crazy hook passes.
They can like always have like an immense

454
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:14,920
amount of strength to whip the ball
across the court. But R Jay has

455
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:18,119
also made like these really good live
dribble push passes out to the left side.

456
00:31:18,599 --> 00:31:22,119
And while I talked to you know
a couple of times about making those

457
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:26,839
left to right passes to open up
the floor. If you're getting the help

458
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:30,200
from the left side a dig down
there, that push pass to above the

459
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:33,839
break or the corner pretty important and
he's made that too, So that's been

460
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:38,000
that's been encouraging because I didn't see
a lot of push passes when he was

461
00:31:38,039 --> 00:31:41,839
in New York. I haven't seen
a ton of push passes when he was

462
00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:45,559
playing with Team Canada and FEBA,
So you know, guys work on stuff

463
00:31:45,599 --> 00:31:49,519
that doesn't show up on the court
anyway. This might be something he was

464
00:31:49,559 --> 00:31:52,680
working on for a long time,
but that's been cool to see as well.

465
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:56,319
Yeah, his live dribble passing was
always, it's always, to me,

466
00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:00,880
been so inconsistent that that would be
my concern. But he's I was

467
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:04,519
looking before, and he's like passing
on forty percent of his drives, which

468
00:32:04,519 --> 00:32:07,400
is just by far and away.
I know it's only a few games at

469
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:08,720
this point, but that's by far
and away a higher share than he was

470
00:32:08,759 --> 00:32:12,640
ever doing in New York and I'm
sure there will be those fits in Burth

471
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,960
where he gets his tunnel vision or
is just trying to spin to nowhere,

472
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:20,319
but the fact that he's already doing
that so much more frequently, in addition

473
00:32:20,359 --> 00:32:22,480
to just he's gone from thirty eight
percent shooting on drives to fifty percent shooting.

474
00:32:22,519 --> 00:32:24,799
And some of that, like you
said, is ridiculous shot making,

475
00:32:24,799 --> 00:32:28,440
but it's also the rim volume is
up, and this was a player who

476
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:30,480
was getting to the rim at a
pretty high clip for his position to begin

477
00:32:30,519 --> 00:32:34,160
with. So that have both the
share of his shots at the rim coming

478
00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:37,599
up in addition to the efficiency just
feels like an absolutely massive deal, not

479
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:42,440
just for the Raptors but his development
overall, because he's been one of the

480
00:32:42,519 --> 00:32:47,200
most divisive younger players essentially since entering
the league. It's it's been cool.

481
00:32:47,279 --> 00:32:52,279
I'm very very happy for him,
because yeah, it's and I love when

482
00:32:52,319 --> 00:32:57,279
players are good. Like I love
when players are good. You don't root

483
00:32:57,319 --> 00:33:00,319
against players, contrary to popular belief
that anyone of his team's roots against certain

484
00:33:00,319 --> 00:33:07,759
players not not my style, I
suppose the Emmanuel quickly experienced. I'm enjoying

485
00:33:07,759 --> 00:33:09,759
it in general just because it's more
of a manual quickly, and his role

486
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:15,200
was repressed in New York just based
off the rotation, but also Tibbs's unwillingness

487
00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:21,519
to be too experimental or inventive,
his floater will start falling. He's been

488
00:33:21,559 --> 00:33:24,960
like a jolt of adrenaline for the
offense at points. Is there anything that

489
00:33:25,279 --> 00:33:30,720
has stood out to you though early
on about his fit or do you have

490
00:33:30,839 --> 00:33:35,319
concerns or thoughts about what does this
player project as when looking as a I

491
00:33:35,359 --> 00:33:37,640
don't want to say a lead initiator, but like your secondary initiator next to

492
00:33:38,039 --> 00:33:45,039
Scottie Barnes. Yeah. I think
Emmanuel and RJ evan the opposite experience as

493
00:33:45,039 --> 00:33:51,920
far as like usage. RJ takes
a trip like down the hierarchy gets a

494
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:55,720
little bit less, is putting like
super advantageous positions and has just been super

495
00:33:55,839 --> 00:34:00,720
charged as a score in that case, like he gets like twenty touches less

496
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:05,359
per game than Emmanuel and Scottie do, and he's just been scoring the hell

497
00:34:05,359 --> 00:34:08,119
out of the ball. Emmanuel has
to like take on all this extra usage,

498
00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:13,239
has to not be like a bench
score a spark plug guy. He

499
00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:16,199
has to suddenly like guide a team
through most of its you know, most

500
00:34:16,199 --> 00:34:20,039
of its sets. He has to
set everything up, he has to come

501
00:34:20,079 --> 00:34:22,800
down the floor call everything out,
Okay, here's what we're doing repeatedly,

502
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:29,840
and his assist percentage has ballooned.
Now the Raptors have like extremely high shot

503
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:34,119
quality everywhere on the court. Darko
I think has done a great job implementing

504
00:34:34,159 --> 00:34:38,239
offense. They are an assist farm
to some degree, like anybody can walk

505
00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:42,159
in as a point guard and get
assists for the Raptors. Den Shruder was

506
00:34:42,199 --> 00:34:45,599
doing it all season and big shot
out to Darko for donating twenty or twenty

507
00:34:45,599 --> 00:34:51,599
five dollars for every cyst to kids
hospitals, which is cool. But on

508
00:34:51,639 --> 00:34:58,840
top of that, Quickly i think
has underwhelmed as a driver. I'm excited

509
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,480
to see what that look like with
Yaka Pearl back in the fold or like

510
00:35:02,519 --> 00:35:07,639
a legitimate screening thig, because I
know Indiano is the team that makes the

511
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:12,039
least amount of contact on screens.
Like the League over they slip, they

512
00:35:12,039 --> 00:35:15,239
slip, they slip, but the
Raptors, outside of Yaka Purdle, they

513
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:19,639
slip a lot. Like asking Emmanuel
quickly not only to come in and be

514
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,280
like the lead guard now and say
like, Okay, you're the guy who

515
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:25,440
makes a sleep, but saying you're
bigs for the large portion of when you

516
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:29,840
start doing this, it won't be
Yaka Pearl and Pascal Siakam and Scotti Barnes.

517
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,119
It'll be like a lot of Jantay
Porter and that Young. It's a

518
00:35:32,159 --> 00:35:37,119
big ask, and I've been surprised, I guess at how little two man

519
00:35:37,159 --> 00:35:40,800
actions they've gone to between Scotty and
Emmanuel. That's something I want to see

520
00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:46,679
supercharged but on its face, and
I was never I didn't think Emmanuel Quickly

521
00:35:46,679 --> 00:35:51,079
would be a future All Star necessarily. I wouldn't be surprised if he made

522
00:35:51,119 --> 00:35:53,559
like one or two, just because
if you're on a really good team,

523
00:35:54,039 --> 00:35:58,280
if the Rappers are really good,
I would suspect. He features heavily,

524
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:02,440
He bangs like crazy, He plays
awesome off ball defense. He clearly can

525
00:36:02,559 --> 00:36:07,079
like playmake that kind of stuff.
But his his driving game, I think

526
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:13,320
is perhaps underwhelming to a lot of
Raptors fans who thought, like Quickly,

527
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:15,840
like he gets downhill, but you
don't notice that, Like his touch at

528
00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:20,559
the rim is like he's over extend, over extending himself a lot. He

529
00:36:20,639 --> 00:36:23,360
picks up his dribble really early.
Like that's something I talked to Eric Spolstra

530
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:30,000
about and that stuff is like really
really important for lead guards to like control

531
00:36:30,039 --> 00:36:32,719
the ball, keep alive, dribble, to keep the potential for playmaking live

532
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:37,760
longer on plays put yourself in very
dangerous positions. And he's kind of like

533
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:43,400
he's leaving meat on the bone and
he'll start eating more of that meat once

534
00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:47,360
he has a better screener, obviously, but right now, like there's clear

535
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:51,760
limitations in his game. He but
he's also shooting the hell out of the

536
00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:54,760
basketball like forty five percent from three. So the Raptors have put him in

537
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:59,760
a really difficult position, I think, and he's struggling a little bit at

538
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:02,639
some point. The stuff particularly as
a driving force for the Raptors. But

539
00:37:04,639 --> 00:37:08,440
can that stuff improve incrementally, of
course, immediately with the return of Yaka

540
00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:14,679
Purtle, I think so. And
can it become like more than palatable over

541
00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:17,159
time? I think so? And
then you just reap all the extra awards

542
00:37:17,199 --> 00:37:22,119
from a guy who has like really
heady off ball defense, a guy who

543
00:37:22,199 --> 00:37:23,880
is you know, on his face, one of the best three point shooters

544
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:28,920
in the NBA. Oh yeah,
So that kind of stuff is really good.

545
00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:32,360
I'm still really happy with Quickly since
then, but there's like clear limitations

546
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:36,280
to his game that he'll work on
overtime. I'm sure, what do you

547
00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:38,880
think will end up being the best
type of big to put beside him to

548
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:42,920
maybe streamline or optimize the play making. Is it a vertical threat. Is

549
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:45,679
it someone like a Yaka Purtle who
could decision make and so good at like

550
00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:49,039
reading to where he needs to be
in space without the ball? Is it

551
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:52,519
a pick and pop threat? Is
there like do you lean one way or

552
00:37:52,519 --> 00:37:55,360
the other with with what type of
big could maybe unlock his live rible playmaking

553
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:59,920
the most? I think it's I
think it is a guy like Perle.

554
00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:04,000
I think it is a guy like
Hartenstein. I thought he had great chemistry

555
00:38:04,039 --> 00:38:07,400
with hart and Stein, particularly like
second units were killer with those two on

556
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:09,119
the court. Yeah, like a
lot of the screen flipping, like a

557
00:38:09,119 --> 00:38:13,320
lot of the get actions, like
a ton of that, like intermediate stuff

558
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:16,079
that he's been able to like dip, duck and dodge around Hartenstein as they

559
00:38:16,159 --> 00:38:20,000
kind of wheel and deal as a
two man action. I think there's room

560
00:38:20,039 --> 00:38:22,360
for he and Yaka Perl to do
a lot of that. I think there's

561
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:24,599
room for he and Scotty Barnes to
do a lot of that. You know,

562
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:30,639
last season, among the high volume
dribble handoff partnerships, the sixth most

563
00:38:30,679 --> 00:38:34,920
efficient one in the NBA was Gary
Transjor and Scotty Barnes. If you can

564
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:38,719
get the sixth most efficient high volume
with Gary trans Junior and you can't mind

565
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:43,960
the partnership of Emmanual Quickly and Scotty
Barnes for more than it's worth, I

566
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:45,920
think you're making a mistake. As
like a front office and a coaching staff.

567
00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:49,800
I'm sure we'll see more of that
coming soon. But I think Yakub

568
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:53,679
is a really, really tidy fit
with Emmanual Quickly, and the way they

569
00:38:53,679 --> 00:38:58,119
played together in the short little spurt
made me feel a lot better about having

570
00:38:58,519 --> 00:39:00,400
both those guys locked up going forward. Of course, the Raptors can try

571
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:05,440
and pivot from Yakup, but I
really like Emmanuel and Yokup together. I

572
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:07,599
think they make sense. I think
that they complement each other a lot.

573
00:39:08,079 --> 00:39:14,519
And I think that Emmanuel he has
played with that vertical threat in Mitch Robinson.

574
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:17,440
He has played with like some of
these like Stocky or clever bigs in

575
00:39:17,519 --> 00:39:23,880
Hartenstein and Perdl, and I tend
to think like just as emmanual as a

576
00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:28,199
guy who's trying to get his own
game off and a guy who picks up

577
00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:31,320
the ball to early heading downhill because
you want you want the late pickup.

578
00:39:31,599 --> 00:39:36,360
You want the late you want to
like you want to open up your lob

579
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:38,599
threat then you keep your dribble alive. If you pick it up too early,

580
00:39:39,159 --> 00:39:42,559
you know, then you get stuck
in the photo range. The rear

581
00:39:42,639 --> 00:39:45,800
view contest is all you have to
worry about, and the dropping big or

582
00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:49,360
like whatever wherever the big is in
position can start kind of like getting back

583
00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:52,159
to cover the lob. I think
that it makes the most sense for manual

584
00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:57,440
to be in the pick and roll
making plays as like a pocket passer or

585
00:39:57,480 --> 00:40:00,559
a light dump off rap pass because
he's picking up early or anything like that,

586
00:40:00,679 --> 00:40:05,639
or a skip out of it.
So I think Hartenstein, Perl,

587
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:08,320
that's a decent archetype for a manual
to fit in with. I like it.

588
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:13,119
Do you think just because you mentioned
Yako purl a few times now,

589
00:40:13,199 --> 00:40:17,639
do you think that makes then Yaka
Peerle more critical to Toronto's future? With

590
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:21,760
this new iteration that it seems to
suggest just because I think you look at

591
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:23,320
it and it's okay. You have
RJ. Scotty in IQ, and that

592
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:28,000
feels like the core that you would
lock down. You're going to try and

593
00:40:28,079 --> 00:40:31,440
retrofit the roster from there. Do
you think Perle belongs in that tier of

594
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:36,800
player or is it more of a
fluid placeholder type of situation with him?

595
00:40:37,159 --> 00:40:44,440
I think probably fluid placeholder feels more
accurate. But placeholders can be very important

596
00:40:44,519 --> 00:40:50,079
while they placehold. And I think
it's really important for guys, particularly like

597
00:40:50,199 --> 00:40:54,679
guards, to get reps with good
bigs. Yeah, because like you could

598
00:40:54,679 --> 00:40:59,559
get like man, you get like
nine hundred pick and roll possessions, And

599
00:40:59,639 --> 00:41:04,840
if you have a good big setting
screens, if he's not like opening up

600
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:08,599
the passing window and maintaining it as
a roll or keeping the space properly,

601
00:41:09,039 --> 00:41:13,960
if he's not like helping you out
like four hundred, those possessions could just

602
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:17,159
be like nothing. Like you're not
getting to read the defense the way you're

603
00:41:17,159 --> 00:41:20,760
supposed to do, You're not getting
downhill the way you're supposed to. You

604
00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:22,440
don't even start thinking about Okay,
now I seal, Now I put a

605
00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:28,679
guy in jail and work from here, so having Perle as a guy to

606
00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:31,400
like run through reps with, I
think will be tremendously helpful. And also

607
00:41:31,519 --> 00:41:36,800
like if if you want to move
on and get a guy different than Perdle,

608
00:41:37,199 --> 00:41:40,119
okay, but I think he's a
very important placeholder at this point in

609
00:41:40,199 --> 00:41:44,719
time. And also because Scotty has
played a ton of minutes at the five,

610
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:49,320
because the Raptors have been getting absolutely
clabbered without Yakub. Just for guys

611
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:53,000
health, just for guys to like
be put in their normal positions or expected

612
00:41:53,039 --> 00:41:58,639
positions. Having a center to you
know, take the beating of the front

613
00:41:58,639 --> 00:42:02,119
court over the course of eighty two
games is also extremely important too. Have

614
00:42:02,199 --> 00:42:07,000
do you have any insight into or
have you given any thought about the next

615
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:10,639
and manual? Quickly contract and if
the organization has a walk away point because

616
00:42:12,159 --> 00:42:15,960
restricted free agencies become so prohibitive for
outside I get mad at outside teams all

617
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:20,159
the time for not just throwing offer
sheets and forcing rival teams to pay more.

618
00:42:20,159 --> 00:42:22,199
I like that gamesmanship. That's something
I've always would have been a fan

619
00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:24,960
of. Quickly does feel like someone
who's good enough where you look at some

620
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:29,159
of the teams that might have cap
space if it's Detroit, if it's Orlando,

621
00:42:29,239 --> 00:42:31,119
if it's San Antonio, they could
come in with I don't know if

622
00:42:31,119 --> 00:42:35,840
they would go to the max,
but even if they did, like the

623
00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:37,360
Raptors clearly traded for him with the
intention of like, well, we're just

624
00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:40,480
gonna pay what it cost to keep
him, right because he was the centerpiece

625
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:52,480
of that deal. I think that
like the Raptors aren't expecting gamesmanship like a

626
00:42:52,519 --> 00:42:58,320
whole bunch like that level of like
if like pay him the max or we

627
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:02,280
will. These are a high stakes, like for a team that wants to

628
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:07,159
build, and like, obviously that's
incredible gamesmanship, Like it's it's it's very

629
00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:13,000
clever, it's very like cunning,
but it's also you know, the Raptors

630
00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:15,000
did that once upon a time to
the New York Knicks. They said,

631
00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:19,320
oh, we're gonna give Landry Fields
all this money, so you have to

632
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:22,000
match and we're gonna get so you
can't afford Steve Nash and the Knicks we're

633
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:28,639
like, he has uncurable nerve damage
in his elbow. Here you go.

634
00:43:29,079 --> 00:43:31,920
And also you don't get Steve Nash
either, He's going elsewhere. And the

635
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:38,159
Raptors were like, well, damn
that's like they're like, okay, so

636
00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:43,800
Landry Fields can't shoot anymore. That
sucks for us. We paid him a

637
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:47,239
bunch of money, especially in that
cap environment. It can backfire when you

638
00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:52,000
play those games. The Raptors have
seen that for sure. I if somebody

639
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:57,079
threw Emmanuel the Max, I don't
know, I eat my hat. But

640
00:43:57,239 --> 00:43:59,719
like there are teams that like,
I don't know, you look at the

641
00:43:59,719 --> 00:44:04,280
match, that's a really good example. Why wouldn't the Magic throw some money

642
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:08,679
at him? But I think that's
I think they'd they'd match, because how

643
00:44:08,679 --> 00:44:13,719
do you not match? How do
you train Og and Pascal and have Fred

644
00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:17,239
walk and then especially like you have
Massia on the phone after the trade being

645
00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:21,679
like we love the fit with Scotty
and then you and I'm sure they sold

646
00:44:21,719 --> 00:44:24,599
Scotty on it. They've done a
ton of messaging around Emmanuel quickly, and

647
00:44:24,639 --> 00:44:28,880
then they're just like we didn't want
to pay him as much as Orlando wanted

648
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:32,239
to pay him. Would be tough, like really tough, yees match would

649
00:44:32,239 --> 00:44:35,800
be like four and one fifty three
from an outside team, which is just

650
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:37,519
a massive number. But I would
just it's first, all's not my money.

651
00:44:37,559 --> 00:44:40,000
I don't care. I'm never going
to root for like owners save money,

652
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:45,400
I would just pay him. But
Scottie Barnes has gotten a lot of

653
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:49,079
national love this year, which runs
counter what happened last season in the face

654
00:44:49,119 --> 00:44:52,360
of the league. Your face that
by the way, that dark old rat

655
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:54,079
one of the most iconic ones of
all time. I was asked to rank

656
00:44:54,119 --> 00:44:55,920
it for a mailbag we did,
and I was like, I don't know

657
00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:59,639
where it actually ranks, but it's
an eleven out of ten. I enjoyed

658
00:44:59,679 --> 00:45:05,400
it. I enjoyed it so much
so with Scotti, and he is my

659
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:07,280
most improved player as of right now. I saw Makaius Duncan was kind of

660
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,800
starting the Joelle embiid for most improved
player bandwagon, and I'm sure a ton

661
00:45:10,800 --> 00:45:16,880
of people aboort it. Caius,
look, I can't. I like when

662
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:20,440
I find out that I agree with
Macius before knowing what he thinks. It

663
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:22,039
makes me feel good. Like if
it's you or Kasey Schrueper, I don't

664
00:45:22,079 --> 00:45:23,519
know what you guys think, and
I find out what we agree, it's

665
00:45:23,519 --> 00:45:27,760
great. This would be one I
just diverged from on him. It's Scotty

666
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:30,199
as of now for me, what
has in let's start with the offensive end.

667
00:45:30,199 --> 00:45:34,000
What do you think is what's been
most impressive for what stood out the

668
00:45:34,039 --> 00:45:39,199
most about his growth offensively this year. So there's two big things. The

669
00:45:39,239 --> 00:45:43,079
first one is that you know,
I've done this thing. I don't think

670
00:45:43,119 --> 00:45:45,599
I'll do it this year, but
I've done it for his rookie season,

671
00:45:45,599 --> 00:45:49,719
in his sophomore season, where I
watch every possession back and I track everything

672
00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:52,239
that's going on, and I write
these big pieces, and he was really

673
00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:57,920
by the numbers. He really struggled
in the pick and roll last year.

674
00:45:58,079 --> 00:46:00,280
That wasn't a place where he took
a big step, And largely he struggled

675
00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:05,880
because he was facing unders, he
was facing switches, and he was facing

676
00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:09,000
push switches, and he didn't really
know how to initiate initiate against all that

677
00:46:09,039 --> 00:46:15,000
kind of stuff and it really made
him struggle as a half court scorer.

678
00:46:15,639 --> 00:46:21,599
So with that, Scotty was a
guy who this season has been emboldened by

679
00:46:21,679 --> 00:46:24,440
Darko with more pick and roll possessions. Scotty is a guy who has made

680
00:46:24,559 --> 00:46:29,920
you know, incremental leaps as a
driver and playmaker and in between shot maker

681
00:46:30,639 --> 00:46:35,079
and all that kind of stuff has
coalesced into where the numbers are much better

682
00:46:35,119 --> 00:46:38,440
than they were last season when you
account for like playmaking and scoring, and

683
00:46:38,599 --> 00:46:44,159
he's facing a more diverse set of
coverages, and because of his shooting leap,

684
00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:49,199
he's actually facing a more like he's
facing more aggressive coverages that really help

685
00:46:49,320 --> 00:46:53,440
him take advantage of his height as
a passer and so like you even see

686
00:46:53,519 --> 00:46:59,239
like these plays where he like wiggles
downhill like snakes the pick and roll can

687
00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:01,679
playmake like because just because of who
Scotty is as a playmaker, he can

688
00:47:01,719 --> 00:47:05,960
play make to the above, the
break behind him, he can go to

689
00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:08,400
opposite corner, same corner, dunker
spot, wherever it needs to be,

690
00:47:08,519 --> 00:47:14,320
he'll play make two. He's been
really impressive there. Those types of steps

691
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:17,239
as a lead initiator are huge,
and part of that is like having a

692
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:22,480
little bit better handle getting through the
reps, understanding how defenses are going to

693
00:47:22,519 --> 00:47:25,400
try and treat you, you know, kind of being proactive as a playmaker

694
00:47:25,519 --> 00:47:30,119
and a scorer to like hedge against
to what they want to do. And

695
00:47:30,159 --> 00:47:32,000
then on top of that, a
big reason why Scotty has been able to

696
00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:37,800
score more in the half court because
he has limitations as a dribbler and like

697
00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:42,920
from a standstill to create stuff.
I think that being able to hit above

698
00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:45,000
the break threes just means that he
gets to take more shots in the half

699
00:47:45,039 --> 00:47:50,719
court and those I know it's come
down like thirty seven percent on above the

700
00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:53,679
break threes is great yep, and
on high volume. Right. So that's

701
00:47:53,760 --> 00:47:59,199
fantastic And that has been for Scotty, a guy who came into the league

702
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:02,559
and scored on offensive rebounds, cuts
and in transition, and then his second

703
00:48:02,639 --> 00:48:07,960
season offensive like offensive rebounds cuts in
transition. He'll get fifteen points a game

704
00:48:08,760 --> 00:48:14,480
doing just that basically until he's like
thirty six. I'm sure he'll He just

705
00:48:14,679 --> 00:48:19,440
is able to do that. He's
like he's a physical He's a beast out

706
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:22,719
there. He's tough to contend with. He's so confident with a live dribble,

707
00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:27,079
particularly with his left hand going downhill
in transition. He just forces the

708
00:48:27,079 --> 00:48:30,239
defense to make decisions. He'll always
score there in the half court, though,

709
00:48:30,559 --> 00:48:35,000
when there's like help defense present,
guys are gapping him, all that

710
00:48:35,079 --> 00:48:37,920
kind of stuff is showing up.
He might struggle to navigate those situations at

711
00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:42,559
this point early on in his career. But what simplified all that is just

712
00:48:42,639 --> 00:48:47,920
hitting threes, and it's thirty six
point seven percent right now. It was

713
00:48:49,039 --> 00:48:52,800
thirty eight and above for a really
long time. It's been twenty nine percent

714
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:57,400
since the trade was made. I
think just because of how good his touch

715
00:48:57,480 --> 00:49:00,639
is and has been since he came
into the league. It's like at the

716
00:49:00,719 --> 00:49:04,320
rim or short mid range, he's
passable. From the free throw line,

717
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:10,039
I think that he is like a
passable, too good above the break three

718
00:49:10,079 --> 00:49:15,119
point shooter. That's a massive step, because he shot twenty nine percent from

719
00:49:15,159 --> 00:49:20,440
three last year. It's just it's
something he struggled with immensely and he just

720
00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:23,280
made this huge jump. And the
type of jump he made is typically not

721
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:29,199
made by wings. It's typically not
made by guys in their third year.

722
00:49:29,719 --> 00:49:34,760
Usually it's like a guy like Julius
Randall who is super streaky and has like

723
00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:37,639
one year where it's very bad and
one year where it's very good. And

724
00:49:37,639 --> 00:49:39,519
then you look at that in like
stat head or something and it says,

725
00:49:39,559 --> 00:49:44,639
this is the guy who made the
jump Scotty making it like twenty nine to

726
00:49:44,760 --> 00:49:49,199
thirty seven. Yeah, kind of
nuts, right, pretty crazy. So

727
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:53,280
that's something that like those two things
are the biggest motivators for offensive change and

728
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:59,519
just having more possessions where he leads
the offense in transition, having more possessions

729
00:49:59,519 --> 00:50:01,920
where he's the guy making the decisions. You're gonna see a big bump in

730
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:06,400
like playmaking. You're gonna see a
big bump in scoring and all that kind

731
00:50:06,400 --> 00:50:09,840
of stuff. So shooting and ball
handling I think has been the biggest steps

732
00:50:09,840 --> 00:50:15,079
he's taken. And that's like a
big deal, huge is there? Have

733
00:50:15,159 --> 00:50:20,320
you noticed anything different about like sort
of his processing speed in the half court

734
00:50:20,360 --> 00:50:22,239
situations, because the thing I noticed
to is it seems like his interior passing

735
00:50:22,280 --> 00:50:25,159
has got a lot better. And
you even said that, mentioned to him

736
00:50:25,159 --> 00:50:29,239
finding guys in the dunker spot,
and I was looking and watching a bunch

737
00:50:29,280 --> 00:50:30,440
of stuff on it, and it
just feels I know, he said,

738
00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:34,719
he can still struggle when he's like
drawing doubles or collapses, but he feels

739
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:37,039
like, I don't want to say
night and day, but so much better

740
00:50:37,079 --> 00:50:38,679
there. And then I even went
and looked it up. But like even

741
00:50:38,679 --> 00:50:42,159
if he's getting it with his back
to the basket, like he has an

742
00:50:42,159 --> 00:50:45,440
assist rate of thirty one plus percent
on elbow touches. This is so I

743
00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:47,719
looked up the field. I want
to be clear, the volume is different,

744
00:50:47,960 --> 00:50:52,960
but only Zion and Jokic have like
at least one hundred elbow touches with

745
00:50:52,159 --> 00:50:57,159
a thirty plus assists rate. That
feels like kind of just a mega jump

746
00:50:57,239 --> 00:51:00,519
for him. Is that something that
you've actually noticed or that I just notice

747
00:51:00,599 --> 00:51:05,199
enough of it during his first two
years. I think that it's helped that

748
00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:09,719
they're like the Raptors didn't cut very
often the first two seasons. I think

749
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:14,639
like you'd see a guy like like
I never got to write the piece actually

750
00:51:14,639 --> 00:51:17,800
since Prescious got traded, to be
honest with you, but player pick last

751
00:51:17,800 --> 00:51:21,599
season, by the way, was
Prescius. Preseason was Precious Chewer that didn't

752
00:51:21,599 --> 00:51:23,519
pan out so well. I really
like Precious still, he don't know,

753
00:51:23,599 --> 00:51:27,599
He's had a couple awesome games with
the Knicks. Something to keep an eye

754
00:51:27,639 --> 00:51:31,719
on. But like Precious for example, was ninety third in points per chance

755
00:51:31,960 --> 00:51:37,480
on cuts last season per second spectrum, right, but he was sixteenth in

756
00:51:37,519 --> 00:51:40,800
frequency, which isn't a lot.
And the Raptors had a bunch of guys

757
00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:45,320
like Og and Pascal and Precious and
Chris Bouchet and Scottie who how do you

758
00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:50,760
get guys who are maybe like massive, finish really well, but are limited

759
00:51:50,760 --> 00:51:52,079
with a dribble. How do you
get them to the rim? You cut

760
00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:55,719
that way they don't have to dribble
there themselves, and make them catch it

761
00:51:55,800 --> 00:52:00,280
high and keep it high, you
know. Same with the Yaka Perdle and

762
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:06,199
the Raptors this season, way more
cutting to help utilize those touches from Scotty

763
00:52:06,400 --> 00:52:09,159
and from Pascal when he was there, right. So that's probably a lot

764
00:52:09,199 --> 00:52:14,039
of the correlation I would expect is
due to cutting frequency. But on top

765
00:52:14,079 --> 00:52:16,760
of that, he is making better
reads. He is drawing a little bit

766
00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:22,039
more aggressive defenses, which means that
he gets to rely on not so much

767
00:52:22,039 --> 00:52:27,199
his shot making, but like his
playmaking. So as a live dribble guy,

768
00:52:28,159 --> 00:52:36,000
there's like getting deeper, being a
little bit more comfortable with contact with

769
00:52:36,119 --> 00:52:38,960
guys crowding him from behind, not
just like in front, that kind of

770
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:43,000
stuff. Those are the small steps
he'll continue taking. But as far as

771
00:52:43,039 --> 00:52:46,840
like being a guy who takes pressure, sees the release valve, finds it

772
00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:52,840
or like figs to the release valve
and finds like the ultimate pass on a

773
00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:58,199
possession, he's so good at that
he's a tremendous and wonderful passer in the

774
00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:01,320
NBA for sure. Kind of stood
out the most to you about his defensive

775
00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:07,320
progression this year. Role change,
Like, I gotta be honest with you

776
00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:14,719
the stuff on ball. I think
there's incremental improvements because Scotty is very active,

777
00:53:15,159 --> 00:53:17,440
He's very long, but he doesn't
have quick foot speed. He's not

778
00:53:17,559 --> 00:53:22,920
quicker than guards. And this isn't
like you know, Florida State versus Gardner

779
00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:25,639
Web where he can just like eat
a guy on the perimeter and like lock

780
00:53:25,719 --> 00:53:30,719
them between you know, a two
foot square. He's getting beat on the

781
00:53:30,719 --> 00:53:35,719
perimeter you know, across his NBA
career. So him learning that, like

782
00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:38,880
I'm not going to just go like
lock a guy up and press and instead

783
00:53:39,000 --> 00:53:44,280
using his length to buffer and allow
for like room to breathe, for him

784
00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:47,480
to like pivot and swivel and respond
to what they do is a big step

785
00:53:47,519 --> 00:53:51,960
he's made. He's still not super
effective, but what the Raptors did was

786
00:53:51,960 --> 00:53:54,719
put him in like this back line
sweeper role. It's it's been different since

787
00:53:54,760 --> 00:53:58,400
the trade a little bit. He
had to guard at the point of attack

788
00:53:58,440 --> 00:54:01,639
more often, but at the start
of the season anyway, the Raptors put

789
00:54:01,639 --> 00:54:07,760
Pascal Siakam on guards more often,
and Ognnobi and Dennis Shooter, and so

790
00:54:07,800 --> 00:54:10,719
Scotty was this back line sweeper that
he's getting almost three stocks a game,

791
00:54:12,199 --> 00:54:16,079
like the other night he had six
blocks. He's a very quick jumper,

792
00:54:16,559 --> 00:54:21,199
a very quick second jumper, which
means he gets to wait longer. And

793
00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:23,800
he has super long arms, which
means the combination of all those things,

794
00:54:23,840 --> 00:54:30,239
and being an aggressive defender means that
like he's gonna try and play make a

795
00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:34,159
lot and he's going to like he's
going to make the play a ton.

796
00:54:34,679 --> 00:54:37,199
You get to wait longer, you
get to track steps. You know,

797
00:54:37,280 --> 00:54:39,840
the longer a guy sits in the
air, the less likely it is that

798
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:44,280
he's going to pass. Scotty being
able to wait as like a quick jumper

799
00:54:44,320 --> 00:54:50,280
with length to like clean like sweep
across the backboard super impressive. His reads

800
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:55,960
like as a ballhawk pretty impressive.
He's just on the back line, you

801
00:54:57,000 --> 00:55:00,480
know, creeping the baseline like a
shadow cat man. He's been so so

802
00:55:00,719 --> 00:55:05,159
impressive to me there and like you
know, at some point he'll have to

803
00:55:06,360 --> 00:55:10,360
do the like Jared Jackson junior thing
where you know you weigh like pursuing the

804
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:15,920
block versus like leaving your man for
like these rebounding positions. The Raptors aren't

805
00:55:15,920 --> 00:55:21,159
good enough for those types of considerations
just yet. But making this step to

806
00:55:21,159 --> 00:55:23,840
where you're already like one of the
best defensive playmakers in the NBA, and

807
00:55:23,880 --> 00:55:29,480
then you refine, refine, refined
from that point of view, I like,

808
00:55:29,599 --> 00:55:32,800
I'm sure you're aware of p d
Web like on Twitter, the scout.

809
00:55:34,360 --> 00:55:37,199
I did a podcast with him right
after Scotty God drafted, and he

810
00:55:37,239 --> 00:55:39,880
said, I know there's a bunch
of on ball stuff, but like this

811
00:55:39,960 --> 00:55:44,599
back line sweeper, this big playmaker
role on the back end thing, that's

812
00:55:44,639 --> 00:55:47,440
what he thought he would succeed at
Lo and Behold and same with Henry Ward,

813
00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:51,679
who is now works in the NBA. But both of them felt like

814
00:55:51,760 --> 00:55:55,079
that was his role going forward.
And both of them are successful scouts at

815
00:55:55,079 --> 00:55:58,760
this point in time, so they
were right. So like, good on

816
00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:02,039
them. For sure. He's been
awesome. I was a shot contest like

817
00:56:02,079 --> 00:56:06,840
that playmaking almement of it has been
fun. He already has more blocks outside

818
00:56:06,880 --> 00:56:09,480
the restricted area than he did all
of last season. Yep, he blocked

819
00:56:09,480 --> 00:56:13,480
like fifteen three pointers or something,
which I would imagine as close to leading

820
00:56:13,920 --> 00:56:16,320
the league, So that stuff has
been super I love defensive playmaking, even

821
00:56:16,360 --> 00:56:20,559
I know sometimes it comes at the
expense of like actual good defensive cup,

822
00:56:20,599 --> 00:56:22,880
but I love it. That's part
of why I love Chris Bruschet. It's

823
00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:27,760
like just the anarchic closeouts that he
still has. So what does the next

824
00:56:28,079 --> 00:56:30,920
front tier look like for him?
That next level of stardom. We've talked,

825
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:34,880
you know, you talked about him
initiating pick and roll? Is it?

826
00:56:35,039 --> 00:56:37,719
You know his pull up jumper was
falling at a very high clean for

827
00:56:37,840 --> 00:56:38,519
good part of the season. That's
kind of come back, is it?

828
00:56:38,599 --> 00:56:43,320
That? Is there something on defense? Is there even anything that has to

829
00:56:43,360 --> 00:56:46,480
do with like him fitting in beside
both the manual quickly and RJ Barrett moving

830
00:56:46,519 --> 00:56:52,000
forward, just anything along those lines. I think the biggest thing that scott

831
00:56:52,000 --> 00:57:00,119
It can do is probably the gettable
thing right now is the free throw line.

832
00:57:00,639 --> 00:57:05,119
To me, and like Darko waxed
poetic about it, He's like Scotty

833
00:57:05,199 --> 00:57:10,719
doesn't really flop Scotty. Scotty sometimes
doesn't play to the whistle, Like he'll

834
00:57:10,960 --> 00:57:16,000
start complaining before he'll receive contact,
and it's like he turns to the ref

835
00:57:16,119 --> 00:57:20,519
mid drive, Like he doesn't flop, but he's like looking at the ref

836
00:57:20,599 --> 00:57:23,079
and then turns and like shoots and
like he won't get the call. Sometimes

837
00:57:23,079 --> 00:57:29,039
stuff like that happens. But I
think that his foul rate should come up,

838
00:57:29,159 --> 00:57:32,000
his free throw rate should come up. And for a guy who like,

839
00:57:32,280 --> 00:57:36,079
I don't know. You probably saw
the women Yama versus Scotty game,

840
00:57:36,239 --> 00:57:37,920
one of the early games in the
season where the Raptors had the huge comeback.

841
00:57:38,159 --> 00:57:43,559
Do you remember when Scotty got the
offensive rebound, Jeremy Sohan was on

842
00:57:43,679 --> 00:57:47,599
him and they're supposed to be of
a similar size, and Sohn took the

843
00:57:47,639 --> 00:57:52,280
bump and thought he would meet Scotty
at the rim, but he met the

844
00:57:52,320 --> 00:57:59,239
inside of the rim because Scotty dunked
all over him. Brooke Lopez, like

845
00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:04,079
Scotty had like a twenty point fourth
quarter last season where he was like bashing

846
00:58:04,119 --> 00:58:07,440
Brook Lopez under the rim. He
has, you know laid in the Lakers

847
00:58:07,519 --> 00:58:13,320
game, right before you had Darko's
big, you know blow up, you

848
00:58:13,400 --> 00:58:19,159
had Scottie in stride taking like two
fouls from Max Christi just boom boom,

849
00:58:19,239 --> 00:58:22,280
taking it on the chest and dunking
over him, and he's done that to

850
00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:25,159
Kevin Durant. He's done that against
like burly players, he's done against skinny

851
00:58:25,199 --> 00:58:30,840
players. He's so strong and so
capable of maintaining his line as a driver,

852
00:58:31,400 --> 00:58:35,239
it gets tough. It's tough to
bump Scotty off of his line,

853
00:58:35,639 --> 00:58:37,880
and bumping a guy off his line
is the easiest way to make it.

854
00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:42,960
You know, a shot difficult going
to the rim. So the free throw

855
00:58:43,079 --> 00:58:46,440
rate, I want to see that
balloon, like from now until you know,

856
00:58:46,800 --> 00:58:52,159
the next calendar season of basketball.
I'd love to see that as the

857
00:58:52,280 --> 00:58:55,760
big next step so that he can
pressure, you know, put guys like

858
00:58:57,199 --> 00:59:01,599
in foul trouble, make the internal
parts of defense like quiver at the idea

859
00:59:01,599 --> 00:59:05,840
of him bashing and thrashing in there. But he's also a very control driver.

860
00:59:06,280 --> 00:59:08,639
You know, Og is a guy
who Raptors fans and now Knicks fans.

861
00:59:08,679 --> 00:59:13,360
Like Ogi's first time he tried,
like when the Raptors played the Knicks

862
00:59:13,360 --> 00:59:15,559
again, his first possession was a
charge on RJ. Barrett. Because he

863
00:59:15,559 --> 00:59:20,639
doesn't have the control during his drive, he's brutishly strong. Yes, Scotty

864
00:59:20,800 --> 00:59:24,639
is controlled, like he can walk
you under the rim, which means the

865
00:59:24,639 --> 00:59:29,840
same way Jimmy Butler can walk eyes
under the rim, grift a little like

866
00:59:30,239 --> 00:59:32,480
get some of that craft, and
especially with a guy who's such good touch

867
00:59:32,519 --> 00:59:37,719
with both hands in Scotty like his
contested hookshot percentage, he has always been

868
00:59:37,760 --> 00:59:40,800
near the top of the league,
like Grift a little get to the line

869
00:59:40,800 --> 00:59:45,119
a little bit more often. That's
that's the big next step, and that

870
00:59:45,119 --> 00:59:49,800
one seems so achievable for Scotty,
to be quite honest with you, So

871
00:59:50,039 --> 00:59:53,320
yeah, what do you think of
the job that Darko has done so far?

872
00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:57,320
Like is there maybe one thing that
super impressed you versus one thing that

873
00:59:57,440 --> 01:00:00,400
you're still kind of concerned think he
needs to figure out moving forward. And

874
01:00:00,440 --> 01:00:02,400
I love getting to ask you or
like a Kaitlin Cooper or people who are

875
01:00:02,400 --> 01:00:07,480
just so much more or so much
better at like the technical perspective. That's

876
01:00:07,480 --> 01:00:10,280
why I love asking these questions because
aside from like rotations and lineups, like

877
01:00:10,360 --> 01:00:14,719
I just can't critique coaches with their
schemes like I'm just not I don't have

878
01:00:14,800 --> 01:00:19,639
that level of knowledge. So there
is actually it's in the other room.

879
01:00:19,679 --> 01:00:22,599
But I have my notebook of a
bunch of sets that I have that I

880
01:00:22,639 --> 01:00:30,000
love of Darko's I think that Darko
from an x's and O's point of view,

881
01:00:30,079 --> 01:00:32,280
has done a really strong job.
I think that, like you see

882
01:00:32,280 --> 01:00:36,719
a lot of overlap between so many
x's and o's in the NBA, like

883
01:00:37,280 --> 01:00:39,920
the Raptors run something, the chance
is that, like the Pacers also run,

884
01:00:39,960 --> 01:00:43,679
it is pretty high. There'll be
tweaks and stuff like that. But

885
01:00:44,760 --> 01:00:49,880
it's about frequency, it's about pace, it's about all that kind of stuff.

886
01:00:49,920 --> 01:00:53,039
And what Darko has been able to
do, in my opinion, better

887
01:00:53,079 --> 01:00:57,800
than Nick Nurse was able to do, is Darko has been able to get

888
01:00:57,800 --> 01:01:00,719
guys to buy him on more weeks
action. He's been able to get guys

889
01:01:00,760 --> 01:01:04,679
to buy in on more cutting,
and he's been able to get guys to

890
01:01:04,679 --> 01:01:09,079
buy in on more pace. The
injection of pace is super important an offense

891
01:01:09,440 --> 01:01:15,199
because it means your first action is
being run at like sixteen or fifteen.

892
01:01:15,440 --> 01:01:17,800
It means your second action is run
at like, you know, eleven or

893
01:01:17,840 --> 01:01:22,480
twelve instead of seven or six.
And this means that a defense has to

894
01:01:22,519 --> 01:01:28,840
like overload to stop what you're doing
on that second or third action. It

895
01:01:28,880 --> 01:01:34,840
means like they don't you might have
time to like outpass the rotation because the

896
01:01:34,960 --> 01:01:37,800
rotation, they can pull from anywhere. They can start like xing out,

897
01:01:37,800 --> 01:01:39,679
bringing guys from the weak side to
cover, bringing a guy from like the

898
01:01:39,719 --> 01:01:43,840
paint out to the corner. There's
no more rim defense. But if there's

899
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:45,760
like two seconds of the clock,
that shot has to go up. And

900
01:01:45,800 --> 01:01:52,400
that's the difference between initiating at sixteen
and thirteen is that, like when the

901
01:01:52,440 --> 01:01:54,880
center has to rotate to the corner, you can pump and go and have

902
01:01:55,000 --> 01:01:58,920
time to finish at the rim.
That's the difference it makes. And that

903
01:01:59,320 --> 01:02:01,199
like you have that over the course
of a season, you have a big

904
01:02:01,199 --> 01:02:05,800
difference in points per possession in the
half court. It makes. It makes

905
01:02:05,840 --> 01:02:09,000
a big difference. So he's been
able to with his ethos inject pace into

906
01:02:09,039 --> 01:02:14,760
the Raptors offense, inject timing,
inject more movement. And even when the

907
01:02:14,880 --> 01:02:20,800
Raptors had like Scottie and Pascal and
og and largely the same offense, even

908
01:02:20,840 --> 01:02:24,440
prior to Manuel and RJ coming over, their half court offense started to succeed

909
01:02:24,599 --> 01:02:28,800
at really high levels. Is one
of the best in the NBA. Over

910
01:02:28,840 --> 01:02:32,760
the course of December, with guys
who had under Nick nurse just consistently,

911
01:02:32,800 --> 01:02:38,320
even with Fred VanVleet been like a
really underperforming half court offense. He figured

912
01:02:38,320 --> 01:02:43,480
out with motion, with intent,
how to get these guys to buy in.

913
01:02:43,679 --> 01:02:46,280
It's been rough lately because they've you
know, they're missing Pascal, who

914
01:02:46,280 --> 01:02:51,119
simplified so much of what they do
and it changes the hierarchy and make things

915
01:02:51,159 --> 01:02:55,639
harder. But as far as like
X's and O's on the clipboard, I

916
01:02:55,679 --> 01:03:00,679
think he's been immense Some of the
Atos can use work, like you probably

917
01:03:00,679 --> 01:03:02,599
heard me talk about this on the
podcast, running a twirl action on the

918
01:03:02,639 --> 01:03:07,239
wrong side for Emmanual quickly due to
his preferences as a shooter. That's something

919
01:03:07,320 --> 01:03:10,760
Darko will learn and maybe that's just
something you wanted to see. There's some

920
01:03:10,800 --> 01:03:16,599
stuff I've critiqued Darko on initially because
he basically I don't think he expected to

921
01:03:16,599 --> 01:03:22,639
be coaching Pascal. Pascal wasn't really
part of any of the offense in the

922
01:03:22,719 --> 01:03:27,880
first so separate, especially at the
beginning of the season, what the Raptors

923
01:03:27,880 --> 01:03:31,199
were doing it it looked very similar
to how he's being used with the Pacers

924
01:03:31,280 --> 01:03:35,679
right now, to be quite honest
with you, except the Raptors kept him

925
01:03:35,719 --> 01:03:37,480
above the break and the Pacers are
putting him in the corner a lot of

926
01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:43,599
times now, but that was only
like seven or eight games. He eventually

927
01:03:43,800 --> 01:03:45,679
like figured out how to use Pascal, and Pascal is one of the most

928
01:03:45,719 --> 01:03:52,039
efficient scores in all of the NBA
towards the end of his tenure as a

929
01:03:52,119 --> 01:03:54,719
Raptor, I suppose, and they
really sorted it out. It's been tough

930
01:03:55,000 --> 01:03:59,400
lately, but I think Darko from
that point of view, has been awesome.

931
01:03:59,440 --> 01:04:04,199
And then like rotations and stuff,
I think he's been perhaps too rigid

932
01:04:04,199 --> 01:04:10,039
from a rotation standpoint, like you
know the points in the game when guys

933
01:04:10,039 --> 01:04:13,199
are leaving, you know the points
in the game when guys are coming in.

934
01:04:13,280 --> 01:04:17,280
He's not been so bendable there.
But also he's just this is like

935
01:04:17,400 --> 01:04:21,960
data collection, right, That's like
sometimes I find it hard to critique rotations

936
01:04:23,239 --> 01:04:28,400
from coaches because like they they're just
trying to see something, Like they're not

937
01:04:28,599 --> 01:04:31,239
always saying, like, let's win
these minutes. They don't go to cleaning

938
01:04:31,239 --> 01:04:34,599
the glass dot com and say,
oh, these are the lineups that win

939
01:04:34,679 --> 01:04:40,000
minutes. Good and like as much
as we want to believe that, like

940
01:04:40,360 --> 01:04:43,320
you know, as analysts, or
as fans like we stumble upon a lineup

941
01:04:43,400 --> 01:04:47,159
and say this, fuck, can
you curse here? Yeah? Wants He's

942
01:04:47,320 --> 01:04:50,519
like this fucking guy doesn't know the
team he's coaching, Like, look,

943
01:04:50,800 --> 01:04:55,679
this is your best lineup, play
your best lineup. And when I was

944
01:04:55,719 --> 01:04:59,559
talking to Caitlin, you know,
she used this term the like pigs get

945
01:04:59,599 --> 01:05:03,719
fed, dogs get slaughtered. Is
like that lineup might be succeeding in like

946
01:05:03,920 --> 01:05:08,519
a small sample size or something like
that, but the coaches might be in

947
01:05:08,599 --> 01:05:12,719
their film seeing some stuff that like, well, we hit some threes with

948
01:05:12,800 --> 01:05:15,679
this lineup that might not stay.
And there's also these things that we got

949
01:05:15,760 --> 01:05:18,400
lucky on on the defensive end that
like this might not maintain over time.

950
01:05:18,639 --> 01:05:24,320
There's like all those considerations. So
especially for a team that's not that not

951
01:05:24,440 --> 01:05:27,719
that good, and I'm not like, oh, if you just play like

952
01:05:27,760 --> 01:05:31,360
these five man lineups, they'd win
games. He'd just like they never would

953
01:05:31,400 --> 01:05:35,000
have needed to make the trade exactly, they would have sorted it out like

954
01:05:35,039 --> 01:05:40,119
that kind of stuff. For really
good teams, Yeah, nail the lineups,

955
01:05:40,360 --> 01:05:44,119
like, win as much as you
can, and it's your responsibility to

956
01:05:44,159 --> 01:05:47,280
sort that stuff out really fast.
You know. There's there's not as much

957
01:05:47,320 --> 01:05:50,960
room for air. But for like
a first year coach who is instilling a

958
01:05:51,000 --> 01:05:56,920
new system has already seen like ridiculous
offensive returns with it. There's been mistakes,

959
01:05:56,960 --> 01:06:00,639
I think on the rotation side.
He's admitted as so, but like

960
01:06:00,159 --> 01:06:04,800
these are small things and players love
him. He's really well liked, which

961
01:06:04,840 --> 01:06:10,719
is the league. Yeah, well
that that was also that's that's the piece

962
01:06:10,760 --> 01:06:15,400
I wrote the other day. Like
I with with Darko the last game against

963
01:06:15,400 --> 01:06:18,320
Memphis, Like I'm walking out of
the tunnel. Darko like is alongside me,

964
01:06:18,360 --> 01:06:20,920
say shake hands, say hi or
whatever. I walk with him to

965
01:06:20,960 --> 01:06:26,039
the court. He goes out and
like immediately is embracing Desmond Bane, who

966
01:06:26,039 --> 01:06:29,679
he had a huge role in his
development. He's like talking with them.

967
01:06:30,000 --> 01:06:31,679
They share hugs, they catch up
all the kind of stuff. I get

968
01:06:31,719 --> 01:06:34,159
a nice little picture of it.
We walk to the other side of the

969
01:06:34,199 --> 01:06:38,320
court. He immediately goes to Grady
Dick starts going through some of the like

970
01:06:38,599 --> 01:06:42,159
stuff they want to work on with
his footwork in the corner. Then sits

971
01:06:42,159 --> 01:06:45,480
behind him, observes what he's teaching
all this kind of stuff. He is

972
01:06:45,519 --> 01:06:48,039
a development coach at heart, And
he said that's the most rewarding part of

973
01:06:48,079 --> 01:06:51,800
his job when I when I asked
him about it, and so that kind

974
01:06:51,840 --> 01:06:55,800
of stuff is really important for a
team that isn't a rebuild. And those

975
01:06:55,800 --> 01:06:59,679
are qualities that I think a lot
of people expect to be, you know,

976
01:07:00,079 --> 01:07:02,559
in assistant coaches or like dev coaches
or something like that. But why

977
01:07:02,599 --> 01:07:04,880
couldn't it be part of what a
head coach does, right, is like

978
01:07:04,920 --> 01:07:09,039
making time for guys. And when
I asked Taylor Jenkins about it, who

979
01:07:09,199 --> 01:07:12,960
was Darko's head coach in Memphis,
he was like, whether you're on a

980
01:07:13,079 --> 01:07:15,639
ten day or whether you're a star, like, he gives you the time.

981
01:07:15,719 --> 01:07:19,840
So that's guys. Guys love him. He and he has bonafides,

982
01:07:19,920 --> 01:07:24,320
like he has testimonials from all over
the NBA. He's really well liked.

983
01:07:24,719 --> 01:07:28,239
And also changing from Nick Nurse,
who was a tremendous coach, but it

984
01:07:28,320 --> 01:07:32,039
was also kind of like a tremendous
ass you know, was that But that

985
01:07:32,119 --> 01:07:36,239
was the problem, right, is
like Nick Nurse is really high level coach.

986
01:07:36,400 --> 01:07:40,960
We're seeing that with Philadelphia. But
it goes back to that Larry Bird

987
01:07:40,960 --> 01:07:44,840
thing where Larry Bird said a coach
only has like three or four years something

988
01:07:44,880 --> 01:07:47,199
like that, right before, like
you can grade on each other before,

989
01:07:47,320 --> 01:07:53,639
like it might wear thin. Yeah, and there's not really anybody's fault necessarily,

990
01:07:54,039 --> 01:07:59,119
but Nick Nurse just didn't have the
room anymore. He's pretty hard guy

991
01:07:59,400 --> 01:08:02,639
in the media, pretty hard guy, wonderful mess. I was in his

992
01:08:02,679 --> 01:08:06,159
ears, like you want to play
for this guy? Yeah, but he's

993
01:08:06,199 --> 01:08:11,199
pretty tough on his players. He
asks a lot and that didn't last on

994
01:08:11,280 --> 01:08:15,319
a team that was underachieving, you
know so, But he's doing great things

995
01:08:15,319 --> 01:08:19,680
in Philly and Darko I think is
helping change the culture to something different in

996
01:08:19,720 --> 01:08:24,760
Toronto, which is something Toronto needed. And I've been a lot of raptors

997
01:08:24,760 --> 01:08:29,439
fans don't like Darko necessarily. I
really think it's well, there were a

998
01:08:29,479 --> 01:08:32,520
lot of expectations for this team that
I didn't share coming into this season about

999
01:08:32,520 --> 01:08:40,119
like success, and Darko hasn't necessarily
coached this team to a bunch of wins,

1000
01:08:40,760 --> 01:08:43,880
and like people want to see wins, So there's some stuff like that.

1001
01:08:43,960 --> 01:08:47,640
But I think a lot of people
who are taking the longer road quite

1002
01:08:47,640 --> 01:08:51,319
appreciate what he's been able to do. And I think that there are seeds

1003
01:08:51,319 --> 01:08:57,720
being planted that will grow into like
plants of success. I don't know where

1004
01:08:57,760 --> 01:09:00,680
that's going, but yeah, I
think like I've been impressed with the coaching

1005
01:09:00,760 --> 01:09:03,319
job so far. To be quite
honest, I will say is a far

1006
01:09:03,359 --> 01:09:06,720
away observer. Just the aesthetics of
the offense are so much more palatable.

1007
01:09:06,720 --> 01:09:09,800
And I can't remember whether I thought
it, wrote it, or said it

1008
01:09:09,840 --> 01:09:13,399
on this podcast, but last year
I would describe the Raptors half court offense

1009
01:09:13,479 --> 01:09:17,439
is sloggy and clumpy, and this
year the sloggy element was gone for most

1010
01:09:17,439 --> 01:09:19,880
of it. And it's like to
your point about the pace too, is

1011
01:09:20,279 --> 01:09:24,640
a lot of people look at their
transition frequency from years past and like that

1012
01:09:24,800 --> 01:09:29,319
is an element of pace. Like
they were twenty seventh in average offensive possessions

1013
01:09:29,319 --> 01:09:33,119
time last year after opponents made a
shot. This year their tenth and their

1014
01:09:33,159 --> 01:09:36,840
fifth since the first trade, which
is just like that to me, that's

1015
01:09:36,880 --> 01:09:40,720
just more watchable. I don't know
the efficiency element, we know that's down

1016
01:09:40,760 --> 01:09:43,760
since the trade, but that just
makes them more watchable. So I tipped

1017
01:09:43,760 --> 01:09:47,239
my cat to him for making the
Raptor's offense just more esthetically pleasing for someone

1018
01:09:47,359 --> 01:09:50,520
like me. And also, like
we talked about that donation. He turned

1019
01:09:50,560 --> 01:09:55,760
one of the lowest assists great teams
into one of the highest in the NBA

1020
01:09:55,920 --> 01:09:59,159
and said, I'm gonna put my
money where my mouth is, so you

1021
01:09:59,199 --> 01:10:01,159
know, yeah, come back corupt
your coach players. That's always a good

1022
01:10:01,199 --> 01:10:05,840
motivational tool very quickly. Are you
at all concerned about the lack of role

1023
01:10:06,039 --> 01:10:11,000
or just how of Grady Dick or
just how Grady Dick is played this year?

1024
01:10:11,159 --> 01:10:14,319
Is it just you can't necessarily bring
yourself to when you're looking at the

1025
01:10:14,319 --> 01:10:18,359
opportunity he's had versus his just being
a rookie and the context of this team

1026
01:10:18,399 --> 01:10:23,520
being in such this perpetual state of
lurch, that it's not something that you're

1027
01:10:23,560 --> 01:10:30,079
really worried about. Well done,
perpetual state of lurch is very good Grady.

1028
01:10:31,039 --> 01:10:36,960
I think he's gotten as much opportunity
as he deserves. Okay. I

1029
01:10:38,000 --> 01:10:40,920
when I was in Summer League and
I talked to Grady, one of the

1030
01:10:40,960 --> 01:10:45,239
first things we talked about was that
he was gassed. The NBA court was

1031
01:10:45,279 --> 01:10:51,199
bigger, and Grady in workouts also
like conditioning was a thing for him.

1032
01:10:51,520 --> 01:10:55,479
He didn't he doesn't. He didn't
come into the NBA with the NBA body.

1033
01:10:55,520 --> 01:10:59,279
He is really young. He is
a guy who his calves are as

1034
01:10:59,319 --> 01:11:01,960
thick as his thighs. He's got
kind of slow feet, like he has

1035
01:11:02,039 --> 01:11:06,960
to work really hard to get like
NBA conditioning, and I don't think he

1036
01:11:08,079 --> 01:11:12,199
met that. The Raptors in the
New Year, perhaps a little bit before

1037
01:11:12,239 --> 01:11:15,760
it put Grady on like a workout
program. They want to put on weight,

1038
01:11:16,159 --> 01:11:20,279
more muscle, all that kind of
stuff, and they like conditioning is

1039
01:11:20,319 --> 01:11:27,359
something that I think was the biggest
factor for him underperforming his shooting was being

1040
01:11:27,600 --> 01:11:31,439
kind of gassed getting around the NBA
court being a movement shooter because his brain,

1041
01:11:32,840 --> 01:11:36,399
hell of a basketball brain on that
guy, Like you watch him make

1042
01:11:36,439 --> 01:11:42,640
decisions as a passer, you watch
him make decisions as a cutter. It's

1043
01:11:42,680 --> 01:11:47,039
it's like in the school of Steph
Curry. Always move, always find the

1044
01:11:47,039 --> 01:11:51,520
open space, always shape to the
ball. Like he's really cerebral in that

1045
01:11:51,560 --> 01:11:56,479
way. What that also requires.
And people didn't talk about it for the

1046
01:11:56,479 --> 01:11:58,960
first couple of years, but everyone
finally started talking, like, man,

1047
01:11:59,000 --> 01:12:02,199
Steph currys in great and guy starts
saying like, I can't guard that fucking

1048
01:12:02,199 --> 01:12:06,960
guy because he runs so goddamn much. Grady's brain has been telling him,

1049
01:12:06,960 --> 01:12:11,600
like run, find open space,
boom boom boom boom boom, but then

1050
01:12:11,640 --> 01:12:15,319
he gets the ball and he's gassed. So conditioning has been a big thing

1051
01:12:15,399 --> 01:12:21,960
for him that will improve his reads
as a like a cutter, his reads

1052
01:12:21,960 --> 01:12:26,520
as a playmaker are so advanced relative
to what you expect from a shooter or

1053
01:12:26,560 --> 01:12:31,000
movement shooter. He just has to
make the shots. Defense was always going

1054
01:12:31,000 --> 01:12:33,640
to be something that like was not
going to be strong right away, and

1055
01:12:33,680 --> 01:12:38,840
it hasn't been just waiting on the
jumper to fall. And he has so

1056
01:12:38,920 --> 01:12:42,960
many He has such a long history
of like being a shooter in different context,

1057
01:12:43,000 --> 01:12:45,119
whether it's like you're just waiting for
it to hit at the NBA level,

1058
01:12:45,600 --> 01:12:49,399
And honestly, if he can't shoot
at the NBA level, then like

1059
01:12:49,880 --> 01:12:58,319
the Raptors misevaluation, all of the
NBA misevaluation, like then it's just tough

1060
01:12:58,479 --> 01:13:01,119
because all of the all of the
cool stuff he does. It's like a

1061
01:13:01,159 --> 01:13:05,319
fantastic cutter and a guy who like
rebounds way better than most shooters, a

1062
01:13:05,359 --> 01:13:10,000
guy who has way more size than
most shooters, a guy who passes extremely

1063
01:13:10,039 --> 01:13:14,000
well, who like his cut will
drag the weak side, and he knows

1064
01:13:14,039 --> 01:13:16,359
he's dragging the weak side in,
and he knows how he's affecting the four.

1065
01:13:17,000 --> 01:13:20,560
All that stuff is so good,
but it doesn't mean a lick if

1066
01:13:20,560 --> 01:13:25,159
he can't shoot it, and he
hasn't been able to shoot it very well.

1067
01:13:25,399 --> 01:13:28,439
Do I think he's gonna shoot it? Yes? Do I wish that

1068
01:13:28,600 --> 01:13:33,399
like it was better immediately? Sure, But if you're relying on a rookie

1069
01:13:33,960 --> 01:13:39,199
to be like a pivotal shooter for
you, you're obviously the Miami heat God

1070
01:13:39,319 --> 01:13:44,760
damn them, or you're like just
you can't rely on that. So it's

1071
01:13:44,760 --> 01:13:49,359
been up and down for him.
I'm still firmly I hold the Grady stock

1072
01:13:49,439 --> 01:13:53,560
in my hand. It's I still
feel good about Grady going forward. You

1073
01:13:53,600 --> 01:13:57,760
know, it's like, ah,
maybe Blake tweeted this, maybe like since

1074
01:13:57,760 --> 01:14:02,079
twenty nineteen or twenty twenty twenty percent
of lottery picks playing the G League at

1075
01:14:02,079 --> 01:14:05,399
this point, so like it's it's
not a bad thing. You know.

1076
01:14:05,479 --> 01:14:09,199
Raptors fans were like, give me
Jerris. Jeris has spent a lot of

1077
01:14:09,199 --> 01:14:14,000
time in the in the G League
too, right, like elusively almost yeah,

1078
01:14:14,039 --> 01:14:17,359
exactly, So I don't feel bad
about Grady. I wish he had

1079
01:14:17,399 --> 01:14:21,359
more success early on, but like
I like Grady. He's got a great

1080
01:14:21,439 --> 01:14:27,359
head on his shoulders and you're just
waiting on a shooter to start hitting shots

1081
01:14:27,880 --> 01:14:30,479
and like some conditioning, some strength, but it'll come around. I'm just

1082
01:14:30,520 --> 01:14:34,079
a sucker for the pinballie guys,
and he kind of has like a pinball

1083
01:14:34,119 --> 01:14:36,479
element. I know you mentioned like
he could be slower on defense, like

1084
01:14:36,520 --> 01:14:40,720
he'll pinball around on defense too,
and so I'm just a sucker for those

1085
01:14:40,720 --> 01:14:45,560
types of players, So I'll be
rooting for him. Is there anything anyone

1086
01:14:45,680 --> 01:14:47,520
about this team I didn't ask you
about you think needs to be discussed or

1087
01:14:47,560 --> 01:14:51,560
is there any league wide takes or
questions or thoughts that you have that you

1088
01:14:51,600 --> 01:14:57,600
need to throw my way before we
get out of here? Hmm, I

1089
01:14:57,640 --> 01:15:01,439
don't who's your favorite player on the
Raptors right now? Ooh, it's probably

1090
01:15:02,439 --> 01:15:05,119
I mean I love Scott. I
mean it's Chris Bouchet that is like the

1091
01:15:05,239 --> 01:15:11,199
I'm just a that's like my not
so guilty pleasure. But I really I

1092
01:15:11,239 --> 01:15:15,640
love a manual quickly. He's just
so there's like a suddenness to the way

1093
01:15:15,640 --> 01:15:19,319
that he plays on offense. And
I love the that just abruption, whether

1094
01:15:19,359 --> 01:15:23,359
it's like him in the lane or
the way that he's launching is his threes.

1095
01:15:23,359 --> 01:15:25,960
And then as you kind of mentioned
the the off ball defense is like

1096
01:15:26,039 --> 01:15:30,840
I always appreciate players that I enjoy
watching away from the action on defense,

1097
01:15:30,239 --> 01:15:34,119
and so he's always been like a
favorite watch of mine. And look when

1098
01:15:34,359 --> 01:15:38,560
he's hitting his turnarounds or like those
contested hook shots, those are just I

1099
01:15:38,600 --> 01:15:41,640
love those things too. So those
are probably my top three raptors guys,

1100
01:15:41,680 --> 01:15:45,119
right now, can I just before
we get out of here, then Chris

1101
01:15:45,159 --> 01:15:48,560
Bouche the player I felt like a
lot of the pieces I wrote over the

1102
01:15:48,600 --> 01:15:55,640
last three years has kind of been
like explaining with film and data how he

1103
01:15:55,720 --> 01:16:00,239
wins his minutes and that like as
crazy and as like chaotic it might look,

1104
01:16:00,920 --> 01:16:04,640
it's like sometimes controlled chaos and like
an agent of chaos, that kind

1105
01:16:04,680 --> 01:16:09,439
of stuff. Right, But I
just like, if you have a soliloquy

1106
01:16:09,560 --> 01:16:14,880
on Chris Bouchet, who may not
be a raptor for much longer, what's

1107
01:16:14,960 --> 01:16:16,520
your thoughts on his game as a
whole, like wax poetic about one of

1108
01:16:16,560 --> 01:16:20,199
your favorites. As I mentioned before, and I mean you call it controlled

1109
01:16:20,279 --> 01:16:24,079
chaos if they's just like an anarchy
to the way he plays and if you

1110
01:16:24,119 --> 01:16:27,399
don't know what's gonna happen on his
close outs. And I've always been the

1111
01:16:27,479 --> 01:16:30,760
players who they are not this when
you dig into the numbers or some of

1112
01:16:30,800 --> 01:16:34,199
their film, but they can be
this like the floor stretching rim protectors that

1113
01:16:34,239 --> 01:16:39,640
are also going to like their their
rim protection isn't necessarily built on IQ.

1114
01:16:39,840 --> 01:16:44,159
It's on playmaking, like because you're
gonna chase those blocks and those highlight swats.

1115
01:16:44,199 --> 01:16:46,479
And he's one of the the ogs, it feels like, of the

1116
01:16:46,479 --> 01:16:50,640
past five years or so of doing
it from the perimeter like his and sometimes

1117
01:16:50,640 --> 01:16:54,840
his closeouts are just like, yes, there could be fauls, but he

1118
01:16:54,840 --> 01:16:57,319
could also just like he'll go off
to the side and end up with like

1119
01:16:57,359 --> 01:17:00,800
the fourth row or something like you
just don't know what's going to happen.

1120
01:17:00,840 --> 01:17:03,880
And I always thought that he could
be a better not necessarily like a catch

1121
01:17:04,039 --> 01:17:08,079
and decision mate guy in the lane, but I thought that in the right

1122
01:17:08,079 --> 01:17:11,800
context he could be an even better
like rim running threat than he's ever been,

1123
01:17:11,840 --> 01:17:14,840
just because he did kind of have
the sort of the vertical element he

1124
01:17:14,920 --> 01:17:17,119
has those like, really, I
would you use the word broad shoulders,

1125
01:17:17,159 --> 01:17:19,920
Like he could be a better screener
at points, so even when the three

1126
01:17:19,960 --> 01:17:23,640
point shot isn't falling, and I
know his splits are kind of like all

1127
01:17:23,640 --> 01:17:27,000
over the place. Ever since he
signed that contract, I just still think

1128
01:17:27,000 --> 01:17:30,439
he could be an intensely useful player
for a good team. And when I

1129
01:17:30,520 --> 01:17:34,359
combined that belief with just the fact
that there's just this anarchy, it's designed

1130
01:17:34,399 --> 01:17:38,960
anarchy, it's contrived anarchy, and
I just I love it, Like it's

1131
01:17:38,960 --> 01:17:42,039
just it's again, like I said, a not so guilty pleasure is Chris

1132
01:17:42,039 --> 01:17:45,520
Bouschet him and uh, just because
you're near to the pod. Frankie Lakina

1133
01:17:45,640 --> 01:17:49,000
is like my Sirens song. I
don't remember. I think I compared him

1134
01:17:49,039 --> 01:17:53,399
to like what if Avery Bradley was
actually good on the offensive end when he

1135
01:17:53,439 --> 01:17:57,159
came into the league, And I
just like I'm still smitten, Like I

1136
01:17:57,159 --> 01:18:00,960
think there's a fluidity to Frankie Loaquino's, Like these are the players I latch

1137
01:18:00,039 --> 01:18:04,800
onto. I think what you mentioned
about the pick and roll stuff, we

1138
01:18:04,880 --> 01:18:09,399
got that for a little bit in
the Tampa season for the Raptors, where

1139
01:18:09,479 --> 01:18:14,560
Chris Bouche. He was like scoring
the hell of the ball repeatedly all the

1140
01:18:14,600 --> 01:18:16,359
time, and a lot of it
was like, yeah, he had a

1141
01:18:16,359 --> 01:18:19,640
pretty good season shooting the three,
but also like pick and roll stuff.

1142
01:18:20,159 --> 01:18:24,079
You know, playing with Kyle Lowry
helps, but like a lot of those

1143
01:18:24,119 --> 01:18:28,720
pocket passes where he's sprinting into the
lane vertical pop for sure. I wrote

1144
01:18:28,720 --> 01:18:30,279
this piece last year on Chris Bouchet. It was like Chris Bouche, King

1145
01:18:30,319 --> 01:18:35,640
of Dunks, where he's like,
just because of his esthetics, nobody considers

1146
01:18:35,680 --> 01:18:41,039
that, like this guy puts together
one of the best like dunking highlight reels

1147
01:18:41,199 --> 01:18:44,560
and in the given season, but
he did. Last year he had like

1148
01:18:44,720 --> 01:18:50,039
twenty insane dunks, just like stretching
to the heavens, skyscraping stuff, and

1149
01:18:50,399 --> 01:18:55,199
you know, like there's a lot
of guys who they take off from like

1150
01:18:55,359 --> 01:18:58,760
below the dotted line, but if
Chris is on the fast break or something

1151
01:18:58,800 --> 01:19:00,600
like that, he'll take off above
it. There's just a lot of like

1152
01:19:00,840 --> 01:19:05,359
energy and length and it's infectious.
He's also a guy who just like I

1153
01:19:05,439 --> 01:19:10,399
like Chris a lot. You know, he's a he's very forthcoming. I

1154
01:19:10,439 --> 01:19:15,920
find he's very honest within about his
game and himself and that stuff is very

1155
01:19:15,960 --> 01:19:18,520
humanizing I think. So, yeah, he's an awesome player for sure.

1156
01:19:18,520 --> 01:19:23,640
And Frankie Smokes Hell yeah, yeah, Look, Frankie Smoke's back from injury.

1157
01:19:23,640 --> 01:19:26,359
It's like the turnaround or the renaissance. Well, I guess it would

1158
01:19:26,359 --> 01:19:29,840
actually be just the the career pop
it's coming now, that initial one.

1159
01:19:29,840 --> 01:19:31,680
And look, it's also fun like
with Chris bruchet Is. I know it

1160
01:19:31,720 --> 01:19:34,880
was only really the Warriors that weren't
a team that they had him and they

1161
01:19:34,880 --> 01:19:38,439
got rid of him. But like
when you see someone get waved and it's

1162
01:19:38,439 --> 01:19:41,119
like they're on an Exhibit ten with
the Raptors at one point to turn into

1163
01:19:41,119 --> 01:19:44,439
someone who gets there, I did
at the time, and I'll stick by

1164
01:19:44,479 --> 01:19:45,760
it. I call it one of
the best contracts of that summer that he

1165
01:19:45,840 --> 01:19:49,039
signed. Like on this deal,
I thought it was a bargain. It's

1166
01:19:49,079 --> 01:19:51,319
always cool to see that story where
it's like, oh, this guy was

1167
01:19:51,359 --> 01:19:55,159
on he was waved, he was
on an Exhibit ten, and like now

1168
01:19:55,199 --> 01:19:58,560
he's has this real contract and is
a real member of this team. So

1169
01:19:58,720 --> 01:20:01,399
I'm I'm always gonna love them those
types of stories too. Yeah, he's

1170
01:20:01,439 --> 01:20:05,960
great. Samson, this was great. Thank you for giving me eighty plus

1171
01:20:06,000 --> 01:20:09,880
minutes of your time. I really
appreciate it. Are you able just to

1172
01:20:09,920 --> 01:20:13,840
tell our listeners where they can find
you and all the fantastic work that you

1173
01:20:13,880 --> 01:20:17,640
do. You can find my stuff
at raptors Republic dot com. If you

1174
01:20:17,800 --> 01:20:21,079
like the Raptors. I do a
live show after every game on YouTube.

1175
01:20:21,119 --> 01:20:25,239
On you just type in Raptors of
Republic on YouTube if you're interested. And

1176
01:20:25,279 --> 01:20:29,399
a lot of the written work is
paywalled. There's this unique thing for American

1177
01:20:29,439 --> 01:20:34,760
listeners in Canada where basically basketball coverage
is under a duopoly between two big tech

1178
01:20:34,880 --> 01:20:41,479
things, and Raptors Republic is independent. Most of the best writers and analysts,

1179
01:20:41,680 --> 01:20:45,680
the biggest ones in Toronto actually started
with Raptors Republic, and now Raptors

1180
01:20:45,680 --> 01:20:49,520
of Republic is trying to maintain talent. The way we do this is through

1181
01:20:49,560 --> 01:20:55,600
a subscription base, because it seems
like that's the strongest way to I don't

1182
01:20:55,640 --> 01:21:00,720
know, not get everyone laid off, and to not have stuff happen anymore,

1183
01:21:00,880 --> 01:21:05,199
to just have things disappear. We're
trying to rely on I guess crowdfunding

1184
01:21:05,279 --> 01:21:10,239
or subscription model to some degree.
So if you like really good writing from

1185
01:21:10,279 --> 01:21:14,960
like NX as an O standpoint,
a play style standpoint, a unique quotes

1186
01:21:14,960 --> 01:21:19,800
and insights standpoint. That's what we
do. So if I've I don't know

1187
01:21:19,800 --> 01:21:24,239
if I've ever heard a plug that
got me to spend money, necessarily I

1188
01:21:24,279 --> 01:21:28,359
had to like go read the work
or something like that or watch the work.

1189
01:21:29,279 --> 01:21:30,720
But if you like me, hey, that's that's how you support.

1190
01:21:30,800 --> 01:21:34,479
So thank you. Mostly just thank
you for listening to eighty minutes of Dan

1191
01:21:34,520 --> 01:21:40,720
and I talking, because that's a
hell of like you've invested into us,

1192
01:21:40,840 --> 01:21:44,520
So thank you. Yes, look, I've gotten dms from people whove come

1193
01:21:44,560 --> 01:21:47,000
on that they have gotten more subscribers
off of coming on the show, so

1194
01:21:47,159 --> 01:21:50,199
listeners do the same thing. I
don't need to hear it from Samson,

1195
01:21:50,279 --> 01:21:56,279
but go subscribe Raptors Republic great writing
and podcasting video content over there. The

1196
01:21:56,319 --> 01:21:59,960
link will be in the podcast and
YouTube description. Samson, thank you so

1197
01:22:00,000 --> 01:22:01,880
so much again, rest the short. I'll be pestering you again in the

1198
01:22:01,880 --> 01:22:03,800
future, but this was so great. Thank you for coming on.