What is up, fellows, thermonuclear affers. I am Dan PAVALLEI coming at
you with a first time guest who was kind enough to agree to hop on
the podcast for an inaugural old debut. We'll see if he realizes it will
be a mistake in just a few minutes. It is the great, the
legendary Samson Folk. He creates great podcast and written content for Raptors Republic.
Follow him on Twitter at sam Folk, that's at samfo l KK, and
follow Raptors Republic. The content coming out there is just YouTube. Writing is
incredible at Raptors Republic, spelled exactly as it sounds. His bio says your
favor writer talker. He is indeed one of my favorite basketball talkers. So
Sampson, thank you so much for agreeing to come on. How are you
doing doing good? Extremely happy to be on. And the compliment I said
I was keeping tucked away is that your set of topics slash info was the
best I've ever received pre podcast. So if Blake Murphy is listening from the
Raptor Show, it's better than his Google doc. I was very impressed,
not only like good questions, but you layered in your own info, your
own knowledge about that stuff, and I was for a person who's not on
the Raptors beat, just based on what you have written, you're observing things
that aren't being observed by everybody over there. So impressed that well one,
thank you so much too. It's always nice to hear that people don't hate
the outlines, because when I do Team look Aheads before the season, where
we do like seventy minutes on every single team, my outlines can be like
eight hundred nine hundred words, because I want the people who are following these
teams intomately to realize, like, hey, you're watching this team more than
I have. You know so much more about them. But I'm not just
coming on to talk about you know, can the Raptors now trade? Gary
Trenchjunior wears Bruce brown headed. So I want you to know that I do
put thought and research into it. But it's also I mean, it's good
prep for me. But it's nice here that you don't hate it, because
I've been told by some people they don't like to receive them anymore because they're
too long. So if they want to go off the cuffin, they're not
mean about it. But it's just I want our I want the guests to
know that, like, hey, you're not coming on to just another like
I'm trying to get you to say like some hot, taky things, and
the outlines are like my way of showing that I had I had one of
those this year, actually just just one, because I don't I don't do
podcast guests stuff that much. But I did have one where like the promotion
of the podcast afterwards, I was like, Yo, what the hell is
going on here? So yeah, kind of funny. So you don't do
a lot of guest spots, I would assume that, like you're bumbar are
you just bombarded with requests and you can't handle them all? Because that's how
I've approached a lot of radio requests now, Yeah, just because they come
in so in such volume after the Super Bowl over here, and they're always
like, hey, can you come on in like ninety minutes after the deadline's
over, and it's like, no, sorry, Yeah, I'm pretty picky,
to be quite honest with you. Well, now I feel even more
special that you agreed to agree to come up. Actually, Caitlin has told
me before that she thought you were like one of the best in the world
at what you do. So when you asked, I was like, I
have been told that Dan is extremely good at his job, so I figured
my ego is just getting a compliment from CC is a big deal. And
she has mentioned she has mentioned you off air and on air when we do
our Little Pacers contacts. So she was actually the one that turned me on
to you a couple of years ago. So thank you for coming on.
We are here for the Toronto Raptors. Though I think is that anyone can
see based off your background, I have to start with the trades, and
I've listened to a couple of the pods that you've recorded, since it does
seem like you were much warmer on the OG return rather than the past Gal
return at first, and so it's kind of a twofold question of what are
your general impressions coming out of those moved and have they changed it at all
since the initial just reactions that you've had. I think that Bruce Brown having
a reportedly hot market could change it because this is something I wondered about too,
because there's like trade valor. You know, Rudy Gobert has immense trade
valor because he got like this huge package. Pascal Siakam's trade valor was lower,
but if you consider Bruce Brown not his own trade tree, but like
a branch of Pascal Siakam's trade tree, and it ends up being not like
three late first, but it ends up being maybe like two mid first,
because you get something back from Bruce Brown, and there's like a player in
addition to let's say, like maybe it's I don't know if Jordan Lara will
be on the Raptors. I don't know what happens with anything like that,
or Kira Lewis, but we'll see. But I do think that the Raptors
and the Knicks, despite being engaged in a petty, litigious fight with one
another, they managed to thread an incredible needle that doesn't often get threaded in
the NBA, and that the Knicks are obviously what are they like ten and
two? Since the Trader eleven and two, they've been awesome. Og pugs
into their offense perfectly and their defense perfectly. He elevates them in many ways.
And the Raptors got two guys NRJ and Emmanuel quickly that obviously elevate what
they're trying to do and help them kind of change up the I don't know
the future in a way that makes you think that those guys can be part
of the now and the future, and in a way that the fans love,
in a way that the front office loves. And that's a hard needle
to thread, to be quite honest with you, especially for an expiring contract.
A guy who's very good, but a guy who will probably never be
selected as an All Star in OG and then Pascal, who is obviously around
all star impact and has like all star accolades and all that kind of stuff
all NBA as well. You get a package that you could probably by the
time it runs out, do you in the three first round picks, you
know, most of them being late. Does that equal to better players than
like RJ and Emmanuel quickly you would presume not. So it seems a little
bit l liked, especially based on what I was hearing during the summer and
based on pass packages I've heard. So I was really really impressed with the
OG return immediately, I was underwhelmed by the Pascal return, and I still
feel that way. But you know, no crying over spilled milk or something
like that. I will say very quickly on the litigation between the Nicks and
Raptors. The fact that Rj' shooting like a zillion percent at the rim is
kind of proof that the Raptors aren't really collopting anything that they might have taken
from the Knicks. So I feel like that should just be thrown out on
this basis alone. You did mention though, that in part you were impressed
because of the Og return since he was an expiring contract. Both of these
guys were expiring contracts. Making these moves was smart just because we saw what
happened with Fred van Fleet. But do you think they waited too long and
that at either either in the sense of one they could have gotten more for
even both Og or Pascal, or just two because why did we wait so
long to kind of clarify that we're trying to reorient around Scottie Barnes. Yeah,
I think that it's tough because everything is relational. You wonder if when
they go into trade talk's Massia says, you know, I let Fred walk.
You have to trade to get Og Andnobi because I'll let somebody walk.
You have to trade to get Pascal Siakham because I'll let somebody walk. You
wonder about the impact of that stuff or OG being traded. Like for example,
last year, what I heard was that it was Evan Fournier and three
late first for OG. That was the trade that was offered. That's what
I heard. I think that Emmanuel Quickly and RJ. Barrett is better,
even if Precious at you and Malchai Flin are involved in that. I also
heard that, you know, you're looking at a couple first round picks Buddy
and them Hart in the summer for Pascal, I consider that better than what
the Raptors got here. So I think that they upgraded in the OG sense
waiting and the Knicks obviously were able to give more because the Knicks really liked
the look of their team and thought adding OG was very meaningful. And the
Pacers, and just because of you know, Pascal not Massai having to apologize
to a Massai saying like not talking with passcal over the summer. Yeah,
you know, relationships. You know, they obviously still have a very strong
bond, but the relationship stuff, the interpersonal stuff in the meantime deteriorating Pascal,
the messaging around him from the you know, the front office being confusing
and a little bit like distant at times that affected it, and I think
the Yeah, so I think that they upgraded on one by waiting and lost
out on another. And it's really hard to be a GM or a president
or all that kind of stuff and make decisions because none of them are made
in a vacuum. But we have to view all of them in a vacuum
to observe anything, because there's like information, a symmetry always that's like,
that's like the job. So combining both, I think they made out pretty
well. Although I think that it's possible that instead of trading for Yaku Purtle
last trade deadline, they could have perhaps pivoted earlier and would have probably a
more stalked cupboard, let's say, and there wouldn't be the debate of do
we want this pick to convey this year? Do we want it to convey
a big one? YEAHM team let it convey this year, just because I
don't know enough about the draft, but people aren't too high on it.
And if you have a couple other first in the draft anyway, you can
take your shots. So I team, I don't know where you land.
I was actually listening, well, the podcast you recorded with s Bearhini and
you guys were having that combo. I can't remember where you land, but
I'm team let it convey this year. Sure, and just to that point,
like and you would have heard me make this point on the podcast.
But when we were talking to Masai, and he talked about during the Yakub
trade, like a year ago at this point, how he didn't like the
twenty twenty four draft. And then he was asked like, well, you
have three picks in the twenty twenty four draft potentially, and who knows what
comes back in the Bruce Brown trade, could be four. And then when
he was asked if he likes the twenty twenty four draft, Masi was like,
oh, Dan Tolzman is gonna you know, he's gonna kill me.
He's on my shoulder because he doesn't like the draft. And he didn't want
to say it because he's like, well, should I publicly lower my ability
to like leverage things and trade talks by saying, you know, so a
lot of people have thoughts about this draft. I think probably it's maybe better
to convey. Yeah, I am still shocked that even though he's on an
expiring contractor that they didn't get a little bit more as in one of the
blue Chippers from the Pacers, or even like You've mentioned this a bunch of
time, Andrew Nemhard would have been like a fantastic get for them, And
I'm just the discussion around, like, well, now you have to max
out Pascal for probably four years, and I'm just like, well, duh,
Like Pascal's an All NBA player and he's just so good, and I
guess nationally I land higher on Pascal Yakam or all these other people are just
concerned about his next deal, and I was like, give me the next
three or four years of passcal at Maximni. So I thought they were gonna
get more for him. I thought that Ogno betrayed at the time was basically
a win win, and it certainly looks that way right now. But because
you got Picks as the meat and potatoes of the package for Pascal and then
it was very player based for OG, what does that say about their overarching
direction? Now? So I wrote this piece where I was kind of talking
about like do the Raptors go faster or slow in regards to team building?
And I think it's they have the ability to do whichever one they want.
Like you look at the Raptors when they won the championship. They were trying
to for years and years and years build a team around Kyle Lowring Demarta Rosen
that eventually became a contender, and they made a trade Terrence Ross and a
first round pick for Serge Ibaka and Serjabaka at that point in time, was
meant to legitimize a power forward spot that hadn't been legitimized since Chris Bosh.
Years. In between those two things, you had Tyler Hansbro and Jared Solinger
and all these guys, you know, kind of as intern power forwards.
But it ended up being that Sergeabaka didn't win a championship as that guy.
You win a championship as a bruising backup center who kind of obliterated the Warriors
as Pascal Siakam stepped into that power forward role. On top of that,
you had a trade that worked then and in the future. You had talent
acquisition, and that's what Emmanuel Quickly and RJ. Barrett are supposed to be.
And then you have a trade like Grieves Vazquez gets traded to the Bucks
because the Bucks want to legitimize their backcourt, and you end up getting two
picks that end up being o Jannanobi and Norm Powell. Norm Powell becomes a
guy via the draft talent acquisition in the draft that allows you to trade Terrence
Ross. Everything's relational. I think that the Raptors will be at their best
making decisions not from the point of like, hey we're going specifically through the
draft, or hey we're trying to acquire guys that helps Scotty now, but
based on opportunity, because that's what it is. And also they were only
able to do that for Serjabaka because Orlando had put themselves in a weird team
building corner that they had to trade out of and Raptors took advantage. So
I liked that they got both types back. Obviously, it would be cool
if they had gotten like I think themhard would really would have sewn up the
backcourt in a really tidy way. I think he and Quickly could have like
won a lot of minutes together, and they could have tried to push for
play in maybe not this year, but definitely next year. That kind of
stuff. It would expedite rebuilds, et cetera. But I think having access
to both gives them flexibility, and what they did from a team building point
of view, I thought they built their team into a corner under the housing
of Vision six' nine. That it was some players only had surplus value.
Let's say we're only able to overachieve in very specific context, and other
teams around the league were that is, like, these guys don't have value
as trades. These guys don't have value at wherever else. And it also
meant that as the team changed, they're like floughtsome in the background, They're
like, Okay, how do we get these guys to work in this upcoming
context? And they need more talent acquisition For guys who succeed in a broader
range of scenarios, they need more talent acquisition just to like perform better,
and they need talent acquisition that kind of fits Darko's vision of how he wants
to play, because Darko came into this season with a roster that was ill
fitted to his style, I guess. And also I'm pretty sure when he
came on they told him that Pascal Siakam wouldn't be a Toronto Raptor, right,
so, like not a lot of his messaging or like the offense was
built around him initially, so there will be more unity from everybody and everybody
can work together in harmony to try and make the best decision one step at
a time, and that can be through the drafter through immediate talent, I
suppose. Still, so you mentioned the the darko and like Siaka not being
a prominent part of the office. I'm still so bummed at how that the
relationship just ended between Pascal and Toronto, or even the Messi presser where he
just admitted that you have he got emotional and like Pascal was important to him,
but he basically said, yeah, the communication broke down. We just
weren't talking. And I was like, that's just sad, like just what
it was. It was a big one side that wasn't talking. Pascal and
his team were, so it's just yeah, that's all Massai. Uh So
it's interesting because the flexibility is good and they've set themselves up to do a
variety of things, which Massia has done in the past. You outlaid it
at the beginning of sort of his Raptor's tenure, and then also he did
that with this was basically the mellow trade rolled into one. When you look
at Denver where they got all the picks, but then also these guys where
that one Nuggets team like Gallinari's headlining it and they won fifty seven games or
whatever it was in twenty twelve. But what do you think that does to
their approach for the rest of this season, specifically leading into the next couple
weeks of the deadline, because you have this flexibility. Part of that flexibility,
though, is the Bruce Brown and Gary Trent Junior could be expiring contract
for Bruce Brown because you could have thirty plus million in cap space while keeping
a manual quickly's cap hold. Do you have a sense of how important that
is to them or when you mentioned Bruce Brown's trade value and maybe getting a
first or more back, would they Are they a team that would be willing
to say, oh, you want longer term money on our books, but
you're going to compensate us for that. Yeah, we'll eat up that cap
space. We don't value the financial flexibility that that hard. I think that
it's very possible that that happens. I think that they'd be happy to go
either way. This goes back to like what is advantageous at the time,
But the raptors. You know, Massai was joking about it during that same
press conference we're talking about where you know, he shed tears, he laid
it bare, but he also kind of was laughing, you know, to
himself and with everybody in the room that he's like a lot of the best
free agents on the market, especially free agents not restricted, are guys who
used to be raptors. Like that's just that's just how it is right now.
It's like, I don't know if anybody would consider Kyle Lowry one of
the best, but like Pascal og before Kawhi, like re signed, it
would have been Kawhi. There's like it is kind of funny how that shakes
out. And as far as like taking on salary, trying to pursue guys
with cap space, if they have cap space, I wouldn't be surprised if
they like throw an off or sheet at let's say, like Nicholas Claxton or
something like that. I think that would be an interesting Yeah, he's awesome,
that'd be an interesting way to go. I think having a vertical op
threat is something that helps leverage Scotty's pick and roll stuff, which I'm sure
we'll talk about later. But I think that there's they'd be happy to go
either way. If it is truly advantageous to take you know, salary on,
I'm sure they would. And then if they have money, try to
use it. It's tough to use money when you're not one of like seven
teams in the NBA, but the Raptors are probably not one of those seven
teams. But you try. You see if you can get somebody to come
north of the border. See how that goes well. The money can also
be valuable in the off season four trades if they were looking at trying to
acquire someone they think fits their timeline as an impact player, which is why
I was curious whether you thought they'd be willing to take on money and so
kind of wrap up their approach to the trade deadline stuff. When you're looking
at some of these guys, like a podcast favorite Chris Bouche, Dennis Shruder,
Bruce Brown, Gary Trent Junior, is anyone specifically that you might expect
to be moved or is there even of that group or there? Do you
look at any of those guys and say, well, I'd actually like to
see them stay with this team through this season and into next year. I
think that it could be, like it's possible for as you've got written here,
like Bruce, Chris, Gary, Dennis, any of those guys could
go. Jordan Nora could go. The Raptors. They they're perfectly happy to
like make the move if it's there. Based on interest, I'd say probably
Bruce Brown and Chris Bouche I think are the most most likely. Chris Bouche
is a guy who teams have asked about every year for like three years.
He's had like a healthy amount of interest across quite a few years from like
whether it's like Western Conference contenders or Eastern Conference contenders. People look at him
and think like he maybe could like help swing a couple games down the stretch
of a season. And if he's like playing well and he ends up fitting
the context we want, there's some playoff games that he kind of like snugly
fits into for us. So Chris, I could expect that to happen.
Bruce Brown is obvious. Bruce is really good. He won a championship last
year as like a major player on the Nuggets, and he the way people
view his game and kind of what Darko talked about when Bruce first came over,
Darko was like, oh yeah, I studied dark Bruce's cutting specifically because
I thought he was the best cutter in the league like two years ago,
and that holds true. Bruce is a super cerebral player. He has tremendous
feel for the game. A lot of contenders view him as like a guy
who just plugs right in. So those guys, for sure, I think
have a really strong likelihood. I think Blake also had mentioned on the Raptors
Show that he thought, like Chris was probably there's a very very strong likelihood
that Chris has gone by you know, trader line, so that kind of
stuff. Dennis shrewd. I think that the Raptors value Dennis what he brings
to like stabilize the offense and some of the defensive matchups that he has,
and I think they're pretty okay with like his contract the middle level exception.
Yeah, so it wouldn't surprise me if he's stuck around. I know,
like Raptors fans think he gets too much of the ball, but Arco loves
point guards and he loves having point guards move them through their offense. So
I think he sticks around. And Gary, I just think because of what
he's achieved in the past, what he's underwhelmed as currently. I think probably
the inflection of what the Raptors are asking for versus teams trying to take like
a flyer on him as an expiring contract is probably tough to make a trade
happen. So I'd go Chris and Bruce if I had to guess, I
think I probably agree with you, Gary French, and you're still just so
weirdly important to this team even though he's such an imperfect player. So yeah,
yeah, it's He was in such a unique situation two years ago,
twenty twenty one to twenty two, because the Raptors were like, we have
all these players who can playmke. We have all these guys who can score,
but none of them really shoot the ball well. And Gary, they're
just like, hey, you don't really make passing reids. You know,
your defense is like really gamble heavy. You don't really stick your man,
but you can hit catch and shoot threes, and you also can kind of
like boogie woogie and get to like a nineteen foot pull up. And for
a while he was next to like Seth and Steph Curry and Kevin Durant for
like mid range pull ups and like extremely difficult ones. He had a run
of play that was just immense as a shooter, and it started give people
like this outsized look of what his offense was. You know, something I
always disagreed with, but something that picked up steam in Toronto was fans called
him Gary Beal, which is still insane, just absolutely insane. But I'd
like, I'll tell you this much. Gary has an extremely valuable skill that
is kind of shrouded in like a super underwhelming skill set, and he's still
young technically, he still like has avenues to make playmaking reads because he has
so much gravity. He had like, you know, a three week stretch
where he averaged four assists a game because he just decided to make the read
to the guy rolling off of a dribble handoff when he was receiving pressure.
Maybe a team watches that film and says like, Okay, let's make it
happen. Like maybe maybe it's Miami or something that says, hey, we
can do this kind of stuff. But I don't know. He's had a
weird he was weirdly put in such a great spot to just like score the
ball and have all of his limitations papered over by the Raptors, and then
once the Raptors changed the context a little bit, that stuff really started showing
up, especially with like continuous motion offense, a lot of ball screens,
making progressive reads, getting to the next action, like that kind of stuff.
Gary is maybe not best suited for it, but he still can't stripples
and the Raptors like give me, give me, give me, give me.
So yeah, I don't know, man, it's tough. He's also
first team all. I forget how young he is all the time. He
just heard twenty five a week ago whatever, it was, like, he's
just and I remember like two years ago, like he's twenty two, Like,
how was only twenty two? It feels like he was the when he
got traded to the Raptors. Even though the Raptors had drafted mal Chai Funn
that year, even though they had drafted Jenlen Harris that year, he was
their youngest player. Wow, isn't that nuts? That's everyone's mind. I
just because he was traded for Norman Powell. I always just assumed they were
like the same age. That's a stupid way to look at it, but
I just assumed that would be kind of funny if like you had to do
a trade like these guys have to be. There's like a problematic age gap
discourse about NBA trades. Maybe in the next DBA that's the next limitation.
I'll add. I have actual basketball on the court questions for you, though,
as promised RJ. Barrett, who has been I don't know that I've
flip flopped on a player more I was initially teamed. I wouldn't include him
in the Donovan Mitchell trade package. I was out on RJ. Barrett by
the time they actually moved him, so naturally, I've been waiting for his
efficiency to come down in Toronto. It hasn't, and I think it will.
There will be peaks and valleys from the perimeter, but his finishing specifically,
he's at like seventy percent around the basket, per cleaning the glass and
the raptors. I think Knicks fans are sensitive to this, But just based
off what I've seen and having seen a lot of him in New York,
they're doing an excellent job of getting him the ball with heads of steam already
where he doesn't necessarily have to create from stops. Is that one accurate and
two is this Do you think this kind of unlocks because he's always had the
strength and the ability to get there, But you think that the way they
play is built to unlock maybe a more permanently efficient finisher and threat at the
basket. I do. I think that the continuous this is something. Do
you know who polar is? Like the Korean MD on Twitter? So his
name is Polar Fall and he's he's a Korean guy, He's an MD,
and he talks about biomechanics. I co wrote a piece about Scotty Barnes biomechanics
with him once, and he talked about how RJ. Barrett, because of
his biomechanics, is a guy who needs to be put on more curved drives
just because of his physical makeup and how that allows him to kind of like
accentuate his physical makeup and how it makes him better and more explosive curved drives.
Same with like Scottie Barnes and Anenobi for that matter. It's been interesting
to see the raptors get him into motion out of more dribble handoffs. They
run a ton of like weak side stuff to occupy taggers and then put RJ
in high ball screens where he's moving left but can make that sweeping left to
right pass because he's a very talented left handed passer, even if some of
the reads over the course of his career have been underwhelming. That's a big
deal. Also, something that like a couple of scouts and one in particular,
Joshua Codenaara, had talked to me about when RJ got traded there is
that there's more inherent and intuitive lanes for him to fill on the court now
that he's not surrounded by Jalen Brunson and Julius Randall that as the loan left
beyond the court. A lot of the time, he's punching gaps that teams
aren't geared up to defend. So teams, when you play the Knicks,
you're like, Okay, we have Randall, we have Brunson, we have
Barrett. All these guys are looking to punish the left side of the backboard,
and Barrett is now the lone guy doing that on the Raptors. And
the Raptors also went from having og A Nanobi as the third guy, j
Barrett as their third guy, and RJ as far as like taking a live
dribble all the way to the rim, being able to navigate help defense,
being able to make a progressive read is just like OG's the better player,
but RJ is way better at converting those possessions. The Raptors are left in
limbo a lot of the time because they didn't have a guy outside of like
Pascal or Scotti who could take that possession and score on it, or like
take it deep into the paint and make a read to the opposite side of
the floor. RJ is just taking all these possessions that were like dead on
arrival in Toronto and just injecting life into them, and it's resulted in defenses
not being able to gear up for what he's going to do. It's resulted
him breaking through the last line of defense a bunch, getting to his left
hand repeatedly, sometimes without contests at the rim, and also when like and
he's had great reads on when guys are stunting to the lane and when guys
are fully committing. That helps him strike like the perfect middle, the perfect
medium between like making red and attacking the basket. The Raptors have put him
in motion. That's great. He's made like he's shot the ball well as
far as like the jumper that'll probably come down a bit. The floater stuff
will probably come down a bit, but the rim stuff looks so easily replicable
for him going forward. And I talked to him about this the other day,
and like he bristled at the idea that he had Yeah, yeah,
he had bristled at the idea that he had changed. But then but then
later on had mentioned that he likes what the raptors are you, how the
raptors are using him, and he thinks that he fits well in this offense.
And that's that's accurate as far as I can tell, He's been awesome,
sublime based off like him being in motion and then even him being the
loane lefty. Could that, by extension then help I don't expect him to
shoot fifty percent from mid range or whatever it is forever, but could that
help him, like just generate more space from that areator where maybe okay,
maybe this floater accuracy is more for real? Is this mostly going to be
like an at the basket sort of thing? I think I expected to be
mostly at the basket because a lot of the floaters are not a lot like
actually, a lot of the floaters come after spins, and I've been really
impressed that he's been able to get a lot of them down because he's like
spinning, stopping, locating the rim, putting the ball up and against like
pretty heavy contests or like a half spin into the lane from a pinch post
action or something like that. The shot making has been pretty ridiculous from the
floater range. I don't know if that sticks, but that's not even the
meat of like the shot diet anyway. Like it's been a good counter so
far, but they've been really difficult shots that he's been making, whereas the
stuff at the rim for the most part has been like he's getting there.
The shot is easy because of the work he's putting in as a driver,
whereas like the floater shots, I'm like, this is insane touch. I've
never perceived RJ as like an insane touch player. You know, you listen
to the podcast you mentioned, you probably heard me mention he's been below average
everywhere on the court, every quadrant on the court except for one year from
three. This isn't a guy who screams like incredible touch, but he screams
like good enough touch with good driving, and we're seeing the realization of that
in Toronto, which is awesome. Is there anything else that you found surprisingly
good or surprisingly concerning about his fit so far as auster you've done with him
shooting sixty six percent from the foul line or something like that. No,
Like, I don't know, rapt defense should be you know, they watch
the team led by Pascal Scotti and og so the Raptors for like, I
don't know, a third of the season we're shooting what like seventy percent as
a team from the foul and so RG missing free throws ay man, I
could care less. What I really like is like he's a high free throw
rate player, and I love high free throw rate players, not in like
the grimy grifty sense, but like, I don't know, it's really good
to get to the line. It's a It's a huge feature of an offensive
players skill set, and RJ does that. I've been pretty impressed. Not
only that he has like the you know, lefties always have like a special
quality because they are they're always like superhuman with their left hand. They can
make like these crazy hook passes. They can like always have like an immense
amount of strength to whip the ball across the court. But R Jay has
also made like these really good live dribble push passes out to the left side.
And while I talked to you know a couple of times about making those
left to right passes to open up the floor. If you're getting the help
from the left side a dig down there, that push pass to above the
break or the corner pretty important and he's made that too, So that's been
that's been encouraging because I didn't see a lot of push passes when he was
in New York. I haven't seen a ton of push passes when he was
playing with Team Canada and FEBA, So you know, guys work on stuff
that doesn't show up on the court anyway. This might be something he was
working on for a long time, but that's been cool to see as well.
Yeah, his live dribble passing was always, it's always, to me,
been so inconsistent that that would be my concern. But he's I was
looking before, and he's like passing on forty percent of his drives, which
is just by far and away. I know it's only a few games at
this point, but that's by far and away a higher share than he was
ever doing in New York and I'm sure there will be those fits in Burth
where he gets his tunnel vision or is just trying to spin to nowhere,
but the fact that he's already doing that so much more frequently, in addition
to just he's gone from thirty eight percent shooting on drives to fifty percent shooting.
And some of that, like you said, is ridiculous shot making,
but it's also the rim volume is up, and this was a player who
was getting to the rim at a pretty high clip for his position to begin
with. So that have both the share of his shots at the rim coming
up in addition to the efficiency just feels like an absolutely massive deal, not
just for the Raptors but his development overall, because he's been one of the
most divisive younger players essentially since entering the league. It's it's been cool.
I'm very very happy for him, because yeah, it's and I love when
players are good. Like I love when players are good. You don't root
against players, contrary to popular belief that anyone of his team's roots against certain
players not not my style, I suppose the Emmanuel quickly experienced. I'm enjoying
it in general just because it's more of a manual quickly, and his role
was repressed in New York just based off the rotation, but also Tibbs's unwillingness
to be too experimental or inventive, his floater will start falling. He's been
like a jolt of adrenaline for the offense at points. Is there anything that
has stood out to you though early on about his fit or do you have
concerns or thoughts about what does this player project as when looking as a I
don't want to say a lead initiator, but like your secondary initiator next to
Scottie Barnes. Yeah. I think Emmanuel and RJ evan the opposite experience as
far as like usage. RJ takes a trip like down the hierarchy gets a
little bit less, is putting like super advantageous positions and has just been super
charged as a score in that case, like he gets like twenty touches less
per game than Emmanuel and Scottie do, and he's just been scoring the hell
out of the ball. Emmanuel has to like take on all this extra usage,
has to not be like a bench score a spark plug guy. He
has to suddenly like guide a team through most of its you know, most
of its sets. He has to set everything up, he has to come
down the floor call everything out, Okay, here's what we're doing repeatedly,
and his assist percentage has ballooned. Now the Raptors have like extremely high shot
quality everywhere on the court. Darko I think has done a great job implementing
offense. They are an assist farm to some degree, like anybody can walk
in as a point guard and get assists for the Raptors. Den Shruder was
doing it all season and big shot out to Darko for donating twenty or twenty
five dollars for every cyst to kids hospitals, which is cool. But on
top of that, Quickly i think has underwhelmed as a driver. I'm excited
to see what that look like with Yaka Pearl back in the fold or like
a legitimate screening thig, because I know Indiano is the team that makes the
least amount of contact on screens. Like the League over they slip, they
slip, they slip, but the Raptors, outside of Yaka Purdle, they
slip a lot. Like asking Emmanuel quickly not only to come in and be
like the lead guard now and say like, Okay, you're the guy who
makes a sleep, but saying you're bigs for the large portion of when you
start doing this, it won't be Yaka Pearl and Pascal Siakam and Scotti Barnes.
It'll be like a lot of Jantay Porter and that Young. It's a
big ask, and I've been surprised, I guess at how little two man
actions they've gone to between Scotty and Emmanuel. That's something I want to see
supercharged but on its face, and I was never I didn't think Emmanuel Quickly
would be a future All Star necessarily. I wouldn't be surprised if he made
like one or two, just because if you're on a really good team,
if the Rappers are really good, I would suspect. He features heavily,
He bangs like crazy, He plays awesome off ball defense. He clearly can
like playmake that kind of stuff. But his his driving game, I think
is perhaps underwhelming to a lot of Raptors fans who thought, like Quickly,
like he gets downhill, but you don't notice that, Like his touch at
the rim is like he's over extend, over extending himself a lot. He
picks up his dribble really early. Like that's something I talked to Eric Spolstra
about and that stuff is like really really important for lead guards to like control
the ball, keep alive, dribble, to keep the potential for playmaking live
longer on plays put yourself in very dangerous positions. And he's kind of like
he's leaving meat on the bone and he'll start eating more of that meat once
he has a better screener, obviously, but right now, like there's clear
limitations in his game. He but he's also shooting the hell out of the
basketball like forty five percent from three. So the Raptors have put him in
a really difficult position, I think, and he's struggling a little bit at
some point. The stuff particularly as a driving force for the Raptors. But
can that stuff improve incrementally, of course, immediately with the return of Yaka
Purtle, I think so. And can it become like more than palatable over
time? I think so? And then you just reap all the extra awards
from a guy who has like really heady off ball defense, a guy who
is you know, on his face, one of the best three point shooters
in the NBA. Oh yeah, So that kind of stuff is really good.
I'm still really happy with Quickly since then, but there's like clear limitations
to his game that he'll work on overtime. I'm sure, what do you
think will end up being the best type of big to put beside him to
maybe streamline or optimize the play making. Is it a vertical threat. Is
it someone like a Yaka Purtle who could decision make and so good at like
reading to where he needs to be in space without the ball? Is it
a pick and pop threat? Is there like do you lean one way or
the other with with what type of big could maybe unlock his live rible playmaking
the most? I think it's I think it is a guy like Perle.
I think it is a guy like Hartenstein. I thought he had great chemistry
with hart and Stein, particularly like second units were killer with those two on
the court. Yeah, like a lot of the screen flipping, like a
lot of the get actions, like a ton of that, like intermediate stuff
that he's been able to like dip, duck and dodge around Hartenstein as they
kind of wheel and deal as a two man action. I think there's room
for he and Yaka Perl to do a lot of that. I think there's
room for he and Scotty Barnes to do a lot of that. You know,
last season, among the high volume dribble handoff partnerships, the sixth most
efficient one in the NBA was Gary Transjor and Scotty Barnes. If you can
get the sixth most efficient high volume with Gary trans Junior and you can't mind
the partnership of Emmanual Quickly and Scotty Barnes for more than it's worth, I
think you're making a mistake. As like a front office and a coaching staff.
I'm sure we'll see more of that coming soon. But I think Yakub
is a really, really tidy fit with Emmanual Quickly, and the way they
played together in the short little spurt made me feel a lot better about having
both those guys locked up going forward. Of course, the Raptors can try
and pivot from Yakup, but I really like Emmanuel and Yokup together. I
think they make sense. I think that they complement each other a lot.
And I think that Emmanuel he has played with that vertical threat in Mitch Robinson.
He has played with like some of these like Stocky or clever bigs in
Hartenstein and Perdl, and I tend to think like just as emmanual as a
guy who's trying to get his own game off and a guy who picks up
the ball to early heading downhill because you want you want the late pickup.
You want the late you want to like you want to open up your lob
threat then you keep your dribble alive. If you pick it up too early,
you know, then you get stuck in the photo range. The rear
view contest is all you have to worry about, and the dropping big or
like whatever wherever the big is in position can start kind of like getting back
to cover the lob. I think that it makes the most sense for manual
to be in the pick and roll making plays as like a pocket passer or
a light dump off rap pass because he's picking up early or anything like that,
or a skip out of it. So I think Hartenstein, Perl,
that's a decent archetype for a manual to fit in with. I like it.
Do you think just because you mentioned Yako purl a few times now,
do you think that makes then Yaka Peerle more critical to Toronto's future? With
this new iteration that it seems to suggest just because I think you look at
it and it's okay. You have RJ. Scotty in IQ, and that
feels like the core that you would lock down. You're going to try and
retrofit the roster from there. Do you think Perle belongs in that tier of
player or is it more of a fluid placeholder type of situation with him?
I think probably fluid placeholder feels more accurate. But placeholders can be very important
while they placehold. And I think it's really important for guys, particularly like
guards, to get reps with good bigs. Yeah, because like you could
get like man, you get like nine hundred pick and roll possessions, And
if you have a good big setting screens, if he's not like opening up
the passing window and maintaining it as a roll or keeping the space properly,
if he's not like helping you out like four hundred, those possessions could just
be like nothing. Like you're not getting to read the defense the way you're
supposed to do, You're not getting downhill the way you're supposed to. You
don't even start thinking about Okay, now I seal, Now I put a
guy in jail and work from here, so having Perle as a guy to
like run through reps with, I think will be tremendously helpful. And also
like if if you want to move on and get a guy different than Perdle,
okay, but I think he's a very important placeholder at this point in
time. And also because Scotty has played a ton of minutes at the five,
because the Raptors have been getting absolutely clabbered without Yakub. Just for guys
health, just for guys to like be put in their normal positions or expected
positions. Having a center to you know, take the beating of the front
court over the course of eighty two games is also extremely important too. Have
do you have any insight into or have you given any thought about the next
and manual? Quickly contract and if the organization has a walk away point because
restricted free agencies become so prohibitive for outside I get mad at outside teams all
the time for not just throwing offer sheets and forcing rival teams to pay more.
I like that gamesmanship. That's something I've always would have been a fan
of. Quickly does feel like someone who's good enough where you look at some
of the teams that might have cap space if it's Detroit, if it's Orlando,
if it's San Antonio, they could come in with I don't know if
they would go to the max, but even if they did, like the
Raptors clearly traded for him with the intention of like, well, we're just
gonna pay what it cost to keep him, right because he was the centerpiece
of that deal. I think that like the Raptors aren't expecting gamesmanship like a
whole bunch like that level of like if like pay him the max or we
will. These are a high stakes, like for a team that wants to
build, and like, obviously that's incredible gamesmanship, Like it's it's it's very
clever, it's very like cunning, but it's also you know, the Raptors
did that once upon a time to the New York Knicks. They said,
oh, we're gonna give Landry Fields all this money, so you have to
match and we're gonna get so you can't afford Steve Nash and the Knicks we're
like, he has uncurable nerve damage in his elbow. Here you go.
And also you don't get Steve Nash either, He's going elsewhere. And the
Raptors were like, well, damn that's like they're like, okay, so
Landry Fields can't shoot anymore. That sucks for us. We paid him a
bunch of money, especially in that cap environment. It can backfire when you
play those games. The Raptors have seen that for sure. I if somebody
threw Emmanuel the Max, I don't know, I eat my hat. But
like there are teams that like, I don't know, you look at the
match, that's a really good example. Why wouldn't the Magic throw some money
at him? But I think that's I think they'd they'd match, because how
do you not match? How do you train Og and Pascal and have Fred
walk and then especially like you have Massia on the phone after the trade being
like we love the fit with Scotty and then you and I'm sure they sold
Scotty on it. They've done a ton of messaging around Emmanuel quickly, and
then they're just like we didn't want to pay him as much as Orlando wanted
to pay him. Would be tough, like really tough, yees match would
be like four and one fifty three from an outside team, which is just
a massive number. But I would just it's first, all's not my money.
I don't care. I'm never going to root for like owners save money,
I would just pay him. But Scottie Barnes has gotten a lot of
national love this year, which runs counter what happened last season in the face
of the league. Your face that by the way, that dark old rat
one of the most iconic ones of all time. I was asked to rank
it for a mailbag we did, and I was like, I don't know
where it actually ranks, but it's an eleven out of ten. I enjoyed
it. I enjoyed it so much so with Scotti, and he is my
most improved player as of right now. I saw Makaius Duncan was kind of
starting the Joelle embiid for most improved player bandwagon, and I'm sure a ton
of people aboort it. Caius, look, I can't. I like when
I find out that I agree with Macius before knowing what he thinks. It
makes me feel good. Like if it's you or Kasey Schrueper, I don't
know what you guys think, and I find out what we agree, it's
great. This would be one I just diverged from on him. It's Scotty
as of now for me, what has in let's start with the offensive end.
What do you think is what's been most impressive for what stood out the
most about his growth offensively this year. So there's two big things. The
first one is that you know, I've done this thing. I don't think
I'll do it this year, but I've done it for his rookie season,
in his sophomore season, where I watch every possession back and I track everything
that's going on, and I write these big pieces, and he was really
by the numbers. He really struggled in the pick and roll last year.
That wasn't a place where he took a big step, And largely he struggled
because he was facing unders, he was facing switches, and he was facing
push switches, and he didn't really know how to initiate initiate against all that
kind of stuff and it really made him struggle as a half court scorer.
So with that, Scotty was a guy who this season has been emboldened by
Darko with more pick and roll possessions. Scotty is a guy who has made
you know, incremental leaps as a driver and playmaker and in between shot maker
and all that kind of stuff has coalesced into where the numbers are much better
than they were last season when you account for like playmaking and scoring, and
he's facing a more diverse set of coverages, and because of his shooting leap,
he's actually facing a more like he's facing more aggressive coverages that really help
him take advantage of his height as a passer and so like you even see
like these plays where he like wiggles downhill like snakes the pick and roll can
playmake like because just because of who Scotty is as a playmaker, he can
play make to the above, the break behind him, he can go to
opposite corner, same corner, dunker spot, wherever it needs to be,
he'll play make two. He's been really impressive there. Those types of steps
as a lead initiator are huge, and part of that is like having a
little bit better handle getting through the reps, understanding how defenses are going to
try and treat you, you know, kind of being proactive as a playmaker
and a scorer to like hedge against to what they want to do. And
then on top of that, a big reason why Scotty has been able to
score more in the half court because he has limitations as a dribbler and like
from a standstill to create stuff. I think that being able to hit above
the break threes just means that he gets to take more shots in the half
court and those I know it's come down like thirty seven percent on above the
break threes is great yep, and on high volume. Right. So that's
fantastic And that has been for Scotty, a guy who came into the league
and scored on offensive rebounds, cuts and in transition, and then his second
season offensive like offensive rebounds cuts in transition. He'll get fifteen points a game
doing just that basically until he's like thirty six. I'm sure he'll He just
is able to do that. He's like he's a physical He's a beast out
there. He's tough to contend with. He's so confident with a live dribble,
particularly with his left hand going downhill in transition. He just forces the
defense to make decisions. He'll always score there in the half court, though,
when there's like help defense present, guys are gapping him, all that
kind of stuff is showing up. He might struggle to navigate those situations at
this point early on in his career. But what simplified all that is just
hitting threes, and it's thirty six point seven percent right now. It was
thirty eight and above for a really long time. It's been twenty nine percent
since the trade was made. I think just because of how good his touch
is and has been since he came into the league. It's like at the
rim or short mid range, he's passable. From the free throw line,
I think that he is like a passable, too good above the break three
point shooter. That's a massive step, because he shot twenty nine percent from
three last year. It's just it's something he struggled with immensely and he just
made this huge jump. And the type of jump he made is typically not
made by wings. It's typically not made by guys in their third year.
Usually it's like a guy like Julius Randall who is super streaky and has like
one year where it's very bad and one year where it's very good. And
then you look at that in like stat head or something and it says,
this is the guy who made the jump Scotty making it like twenty nine to
thirty seven. Yeah, kind of nuts, right, pretty crazy. So
that's something that like those two things are the biggest motivators for offensive change and
just having more possessions where he leads the offense in transition, having more possessions
where he's the guy making the decisions. You're gonna see a big bump in
like playmaking. You're gonna see a big bump in scoring and all that kind
of stuff. So shooting and ball handling I think has been the biggest steps
he's taken. And that's like a big deal, huge is there? Have
you noticed anything different about like sort of his processing speed in the half court
situations, because the thing I noticed to is it seems like his interior passing
has got a lot better. And you even said that, mentioned to him
finding guys in the dunker spot, and I was looking and watching a bunch
of stuff on it, and it just feels I know, he said,
he can still struggle when he's like drawing doubles or collapses, but he feels
like, I don't want to say night and day, but so much better
there. And then I even went and looked it up. But like even
if he's getting it with his back to the basket, like he has an
assist rate of thirty one plus percent on elbow touches. This is so I
looked up the field. I want to be clear, the volume is different,
but only Zion and Jokic have like at least one hundred elbow touches with
a thirty plus assists rate. That feels like kind of just a mega jump
for him. Is that something that you've actually noticed or that I just notice
enough of it during his first two years. I think that it's helped that
they're like the Raptors didn't cut very often the first two seasons. I think
like you'd see a guy like like I never got to write the piece actually
since Prescious got traded, to be honest with you, but player pick last
season, by the way, was Prescius. Preseason was Precious Chewer that didn't
pan out so well. I really like Precious still, he don't know,
He's had a couple awesome games with the Knicks. Something to keep an eye
on. But like Precious for example, was ninety third in points per chance
on cuts last season per second spectrum, right, but he was sixteenth in
frequency, which isn't a lot. And the Raptors had a bunch of guys
like Og and Pascal and Precious and Chris Bouchet and Scottie who how do you
get guys who are maybe like massive, finish really well, but are limited
with a dribble. How do you get them to the rim? You cut
that way they don't have to dribble there themselves, and make them catch it
high and keep it high, you know. Same with the Yaka Perdle and
the Raptors this season, way more cutting to help utilize those touches from Scotty
and from Pascal when he was there, right. So that's probably a lot
of the correlation I would expect is due to cutting frequency. But on top
of that, he is making better reads. He is drawing a little bit
more aggressive defenses, which means that he gets to rely on not so much
his shot making, but like his playmaking. So as a live dribble guy,
there's like getting deeper, being a little bit more comfortable with contact with
guys crowding him from behind, not just like in front, that kind of
stuff. Those are the small steps he'll continue taking. But as far as
like being a guy who takes pressure, sees the release valve, finds it
or like figs to the release valve and finds like the ultimate pass on a
possession, he's so good at that he's a tremendous and wonderful passer in the
NBA for sure. Kind of stood out the most to you about his defensive
progression this year. Role change, Like, I gotta be honest with you
the stuff on ball. I think there's incremental improvements because Scotty is very active,
He's very long, but he doesn't have quick foot speed. He's not
quicker than guards. And this isn't like you know, Florida State versus Gardner
Web where he can just like eat a guy on the perimeter and like lock
them between you know, a two foot square. He's getting beat on the
perimeter you know, across his NBA career. So him learning that, like
I'm not going to just go like lock a guy up and press and instead
using his length to buffer and allow for like room to breathe, for him
to like pivot and swivel and respond to what they do is a big step
he's made. He's still not super effective, but what the Raptors did was
put him in like this back line sweeper role. It's it's been different since
the trade a little bit. He had to guard at the point of attack
more often, but at the start of the season anyway, the Raptors put
Pascal Siakam on guards more often, and Ognnobi and Dennis Shooter, and so
Scotty was this back line sweeper that he's getting almost three stocks a game,
like the other night he had six blocks. He's a very quick jumper,
a very quick second jumper, which means he gets to wait longer. And
he has super long arms, which means the combination of all those things,
and being an aggressive defender means that like he's gonna try and play make a
lot and he's going to like he's going to make the play a ton.
You get to wait longer, you get to track steps. You know,
the longer a guy sits in the air, the less likely it is that
he's going to pass. Scotty being able to wait as like a quick jumper
with length to like clean like sweep across the backboard super impressive. His reads
like as a ballhawk pretty impressive. He's just on the back line, you
know, creeping the baseline like a shadow cat man. He's been so so
impressive to me there and like you know, at some point he'll have to
do the like Jared Jackson junior thing where you know you weigh like pursuing the
block versus like leaving your man for like these rebounding positions. The Raptors aren't
good enough for those types of considerations just yet. But making this step to
where you're already like one of the best defensive playmakers in the NBA, and
then you refine, refine, refined from that point of view, I like,
I'm sure you're aware of p d Web like on Twitter, the scout.
I did a podcast with him right after Scotty God drafted, and he
said, I know there's a bunch of on ball stuff, but like this
back line sweeper, this big playmaker role on the back end thing, that's
what he thought he would succeed at Lo and Behold and same with Henry Ward,
who is now works in the NBA. But both of them felt like
that was his role going forward. And both of them are successful scouts at
this point in time, so they were right. So like, good on
them. For sure. He's been awesome. I was a shot contest like
that playmaking almement of it has been fun. He already has more blocks outside
the restricted area than he did all of last season. Yep, he blocked
like fifteen three pointers or something, which I would imagine as close to leading
the league, So that stuff has been super I love defensive playmaking, even
I know sometimes it comes at the expense of like actual good defensive cup,
but I love it. That's part of why I love Chris Bruschet. It's
like just the anarchic closeouts that he still has. So what does the next
front tier look like for him? That next level of stardom. We've talked,
you know, you talked about him initiating pick and roll? Is it?
You know his pull up jumper was falling at a very high clean for
good part of the season. That's kind of come back, is it?
That? Is there something on defense? Is there even anything that has to
do with like him fitting in beside both the manual quickly and RJ Barrett moving
forward, just anything along those lines. I think the biggest thing that scott
It can do is probably the gettable thing right now is the free throw line.
To me, and like Darko waxed poetic about it, He's like Scotty
doesn't really flop Scotty. Scotty sometimes doesn't play to the whistle, Like he'll
start complaining before he'll receive contact, and it's like he turns to the ref
mid drive, Like he doesn't flop, but he's like looking at the ref
and then turns and like shoots and like he won't get the call. Sometimes
stuff like that happens. But I think that his foul rate should come up,
his free throw rate should come up. And for a guy who like,
I don't know. You probably saw the women Yama versus Scotty game,
one of the early games in the season where the Raptors had the huge comeback.
Do you remember when Scotty got the offensive rebound, Jeremy Sohan was on
him and they're supposed to be of a similar size, and Sohn took the
bump and thought he would meet Scotty at the rim, but he met the
inside of the rim because Scotty dunked all over him. Brooke Lopez, like
Scotty had like a twenty point fourth quarter last season where he was like bashing
Brook Lopez under the rim. He has, you know laid in the Lakers
game, right before you had Darko's big, you know blow up, you
had Scottie in stride taking like two fouls from Max Christi just boom boom,
taking it on the chest and dunking over him, and he's done that to
Kevin Durant. He's done that against like burly players, he's done against skinny
players. He's so strong and so capable of maintaining his line as a driver,
it gets tough. It's tough to bump Scotty off of his line,
and bumping a guy off his line is the easiest way to make it.
You know, a shot difficult going to the rim. So the free throw
rate, I want to see that balloon, like from now until you know,
the next calendar season of basketball. I'd love to see that as the
big next step so that he can pressure, you know, put guys like
in foul trouble, make the internal parts of defense like quiver at the idea
of him bashing and thrashing in there. But he's also a very control driver.
You know, Og is a guy who Raptors fans and now Knicks fans.
Like Ogi's first time he tried, like when the Raptors played the Knicks
again, his first possession was a charge on RJ. Barrett. Because he
doesn't have the control during his drive, he's brutishly strong. Yes, Scotty
is controlled, like he can walk you under the rim, which means the
same way Jimmy Butler can walk eyes under the rim, grift a little like
get some of that craft, and especially with a guy who's such good touch
with both hands in Scotty like his contested hookshot percentage, he has always been
near the top of the league, like Grift a little get to the line
a little bit more often. That's that's the big next step, and that
one seems so achievable for Scotty, to be quite honest with you, So
yeah, what do you think of the job that Darko has done so far?
Like is there maybe one thing that super impressed you versus one thing that
you're still kind of concerned think he needs to figure out moving forward. And
I love getting to ask you or like a Kaitlin Cooper or people who are
just so much more or so much better at like the technical perspective. That's
why I love asking these questions because aside from like rotations and lineups, like
I just can't critique coaches with their schemes like I'm just not I don't have
that level of knowledge. So there is actually it's in the other room.
But I have my notebook of a bunch of sets that I have that I
love of Darko's I think that Darko from an x's and O's point of view,
has done a really strong job. I think that, like you see
a lot of overlap between so many x's and o's in the NBA, like
the Raptors run something, the chance is that, like the Pacers also run,
it is pretty high. There'll be tweaks and stuff like that. But
it's about frequency, it's about pace, it's about all that kind of stuff.
And what Darko has been able to do, in my opinion, better
than Nick Nurse was able to do, is Darko has been able to get
guys to buy him on more weeks action. He's been able to get guys
to buy in on more cutting, and he's been able to get guys to
buy in on more pace. The injection of pace is super important an offense
because it means your first action is being run at like sixteen or fifteen.
It means your second action is run at like, you know, eleven or
twelve instead of seven or six. And this means that a defense has to
like overload to stop what you're doing on that second or third action. It
means like they don't you might have time to like outpass the rotation because the
rotation, they can pull from anywhere. They can start like xing out,
bringing guys from the weak side to cover, bringing a guy from like the
paint out to the corner. There's no more rim defense. But if there's
like two seconds of the clock, that shot has to go up. And
that's the difference between initiating at sixteen and thirteen is that, like when the
center has to rotate to the corner, you can pump and go and have
time to finish at the rim. That's the difference it makes. And that
like you have that over the course of a season, you have a big
difference in points per possession in the half court. It makes. It makes
a big difference. So he's been able to with his ethos inject pace into
the Raptors offense, inject timing, inject more movement. And even when the
Raptors had like Scottie and Pascal and og and largely the same offense, even
prior to Manuel and RJ coming over, their half court offense started to succeed
at really high levels. Is one of the best in the NBA. Over
the course of December, with guys who had under Nick nurse just consistently,
even with Fred VanVleet been like a really underperforming half court offense. He figured
out with motion, with intent, how to get these guys to buy in.
It's been rough lately because they've you know, they're missing Pascal, who
simplified so much of what they do and it changes the hierarchy and make things
harder. But as far as like X's and O's on the clipboard, I
think he's been immense Some of the Atos can use work, like you probably
heard me talk about this on the podcast, running a twirl action on the
wrong side for Emmanual quickly due to his preferences as a shooter. That's something
Darko will learn and maybe that's just something you wanted to see. There's some
stuff I've critiqued Darko on initially because he basically I don't think he expected to
be coaching Pascal. Pascal wasn't really part of any of the offense in the
first so separate, especially at the beginning of the season, what the Raptors
were doing it it looked very similar to how he's being used with the Pacers
right now, to be quite honest with you, except the Raptors kept him
above the break and the Pacers are putting him in the corner a lot of
times now, but that was only like seven or eight games. He eventually
like figured out how to use Pascal, and Pascal is one of the most
efficient scores in all of the NBA towards the end of his tenure as a
Raptor, I suppose, and they really sorted it out. It's been tough
lately, but I think Darko from that point of view, has been awesome.
And then like rotations and stuff, I think he's been perhaps too rigid
from a rotation standpoint, like you know the points in the game when guys
are leaving, you know the points in the game when guys are coming in.
He's not been so bendable there. But also he's just this is like
data collection, right, That's like sometimes I find it hard to critique rotations
from coaches because like they they're just trying to see something, Like they're not
always saying, like, let's win these minutes. They don't go to cleaning
the glass dot com and say, oh, these are the lineups that win
minutes. Good and like as much as we want to believe that, like
you know, as analysts, or as fans like we stumble upon a lineup
and say this, fuck, can you curse here? Yeah? Wants He's
like this fucking guy doesn't know the team he's coaching, Like, look,
this is your best lineup, play your best lineup. And when I was
talking to Caitlin, you know, she used this term the like pigs get
fed, dogs get slaughtered. Is like that lineup might be succeeding in like
a small sample size or something like that, but the coaches might be in
their film seeing some stuff that like, well, we hit some threes with
this lineup that might not stay. And there's also these things that we got
lucky on on the defensive end that like this might not maintain over time.
There's like all those considerations. So especially for a team that's not that not
that good, and I'm not like, oh, if you just play like
these five man lineups, they'd win games. He'd just like they never would
have needed to make the trade exactly, they would have sorted it out like
that kind of stuff. For really good teams, Yeah, nail the lineups,
like, win as much as you can, and it's your responsibility to
sort that stuff out really fast. You know. There's there's not as much
room for air. But for like a first year coach who is instilling a
new system has already seen like ridiculous offensive returns with it. There's been mistakes,
I think on the rotation side. He's admitted as so, but like
these are small things and players love him. He's really well liked, which
is the league. Yeah, well that that was also that's that's the piece
I wrote the other day. Like I with with Darko the last game against
Memphis, Like I'm walking out of the tunnel. Darko like is alongside me,
say shake hands, say hi or whatever. I walk with him to
the court. He goes out and like immediately is embracing Desmond Bane, who
he had a huge role in his development. He's like talking with them.
They share hugs, they catch up all the kind of stuff. I get
a nice little picture of it. We walk to the other side of the
court. He immediately goes to Grady Dick starts going through some of the like
stuff they want to work on with his footwork in the corner. Then sits
behind him, observes what he's teaching all this kind of stuff. He is
a development coach at heart, And he said that's the most rewarding part of
his job when I when I asked him about it, and so that kind
of stuff is really important for a team that isn't a rebuild. And those
are qualities that I think a lot of people expect to be, you know,
in assistant coaches or like dev coaches or something like that. But why
couldn't it be part of what a head coach does, right, is like
making time for guys. And when I asked Taylor Jenkins about it, who
was Darko's head coach in Memphis, he was like, whether you're on a
ten day or whether you're a star, like, he gives you the time.
So that's guys. Guys love him. He and he has bonafides,
like he has testimonials from all over the NBA. He's really well liked.
And also changing from Nick Nurse, who was a tremendous coach, but it
was also kind of like a tremendous ass you know, was that But that
was the problem, right, is like Nick Nurse is really high level coach.
We're seeing that with Philadelphia. But it goes back to that Larry Bird
thing where Larry Bird said a coach only has like three or four years something
like that, right before, like you can grade on each other before,
like it might wear thin. Yeah, and there's not really anybody's fault necessarily,
but Nick Nurse just didn't have the room anymore. He's pretty hard guy
in the media, pretty hard guy, wonderful mess. I was in his
ears, like you want to play for this guy? Yeah, but he's
pretty tough on his players. He asks a lot and that didn't last on
a team that was underachieving, you know so, But he's doing great things
in Philly and Darko I think is helping change the culture to something different in
Toronto, which is something Toronto needed. And I've been a lot of raptors
fans don't like Darko necessarily. I really think it's well, there were a
lot of expectations for this team that I didn't share coming into this season about
like success, and Darko hasn't necessarily coached this team to a bunch of wins,
and like people want to see wins, So there's some stuff like that.
But I think a lot of people who are taking the longer road quite
appreciate what he's been able to do. And I think that there are seeds
being planted that will grow into like plants of success. I don't know where
that's going, but yeah, I think like I've been impressed with the coaching
job so far. To be quite honest, I will say is a far
away observer. Just the aesthetics of the offense are so much more palatable.
And I can't remember whether I thought it, wrote it, or said it
on this podcast, but last year I would describe the Raptors half court offense
is sloggy and clumpy, and this year the sloggy element was gone for most
of it. And it's like to your point about the pace too, is
a lot of people look at their transition frequency from years past and like that
is an element of pace. Like they were twenty seventh in average offensive possessions
time last year after opponents made a shot. This year their tenth and their
fifth since the first trade, which is just like that to me, that's
just more watchable. I don't know the efficiency element, we know that's down
since the trade, but that just makes them more watchable. So I tipped
my cat to him for making the Raptor's offense just more esthetically pleasing for someone
like me. And also, like we talked about that donation. He turned
one of the lowest assists great teams into one of the highest in the NBA
and said, I'm gonna put my money where my mouth is, so you
know, yeah, come back corupt your coach players. That's always a good
motivational tool very quickly. Are you at all concerned about the lack of role
or just how of Grady Dick or just how Grady Dick is played this year?
Is it just you can't necessarily bring yourself to when you're looking at the
opportunity he's had versus his just being a rookie and the context of this team
being in such this perpetual state of lurch, that it's not something that you're
really worried about. Well done, perpetual state of lurch is very good Grady.
I think he's gotten as much opportunity as he deserves. Okay. I
when I was in Summer League and I talked to Grady, one of the
first things we talked about was that he was gassed. The NBA court was
bigger, and Grady in workouts also like conditioning was a thing for him.
He didn't he doesn't. He didn't come into the NBA with the NBA body.
He is really young. He is a guy who his calves are as
thick as his thighs. He's got kind of slow feet, like he has
to work really hard to get like NBA conditioning, and I don't think he
met that. The Raptors in the New Year, perhaps a little bit before
it put Grady on like a workout program. They want to put on weight,
more muscle, all that kind of stuff, and they like conditioning is
something that I think was the biggest factor for him underperforming his shooting was being
kind of gassed getting around the NBA court being a movement shooter because his brain,
hell of a basketball brain on that guy, Like you watch him make
decisions as a passer, you watch him make decisions as a cutter. It's
it's like in the school of Steph Curry. Always move, always find the
open space, always shape to the ball. Like he's really cerebral in that
way. What that also requires. And people didn't talk about it for the
first couple of years, but everyone finally started talking, like, man,
Steph currys in great and guy starts saying like, I can't guard that fucking
guy because he runs so goddamn much. Grady's brain has been telling him,
like run, find open space, boom boom boom boom boom, but then
he gets the ball and he's gassed. So conditioning has been a big thing
for him that will improve his reads as a like a cutter, his reads
as a playmaker are so advanced relative to what you expect from a shooter or
movement shooter. He just has to make the shots. Defense was always going
to be something that like was not going to be strong right away, and
it hasn't been just waiting on the jumper to fall. And he has so
many He has such a long history of like being a shooter in different context,
whether it's like you're just waiting for it to hit at the NBA level,
And honestly, if he can't shoot at the NBA level, then like
the Raptors misevaluation, all of the NBA misevaluation, like then it's just tough
because all of the all of the cool stuff he does. It's like a
fantastic cutter and a guy who like rebounds way better than most shooters, a
guy who has way more size than most shooters, a guy who passes extremely
well, who like his cut will drag the weak side, and he knows
he's dragging the weak side in, and he knows how he's affecting the four.
All that stuff is so good, but it doesn't mean a lick if
he can't shoot it, and he hasn't been able to shoot it very well.
Do I think he's gonna shoot it? Yes? Do I wish that
like it was better immediately? Sure, But if you're relying on a rookie
to be like a pivotal shooter for you, you're obviously the Miami heat God
damn them, or you're like just you can't rely on that. So it's
been up and down for him. I'm still firmly I hold the Grady stock
in my hand. It's I still feel good about Grady going forward. You
know, it's like, ah, maybe Blake tweeted this, maybe like since
twenty nineteen or twenty twenty twenty percent of lottery picks playing the G League at
this point, so like it's it's not a bad thing. You know.
Raptors fans were like, give me Jerris. Jeris has spent a lot of
time in the in the G League too, right, like elusively almost yeah,
exactly, So I don't feel bad about Grady. I wish he had
more success early on, but like I like Grady. He's got a great
head on his shoulders and you're just waiting on a shooter to start hitting shots
and like some conditioning, some strength, but it'll come around. I'm just
a sucker for the pinballie guys, and he kind of has like a pinball
element. I know you mentioned like he could be slower on defense, like
he'll pinball around on defense too, and so I'm just a sucker for those
types of players, So I'll be rooting for him. Is there anything anyone
about this team I didn't ask you about you think needs to be discussed or
is there any league wide takes or questions or thoughts that you have that you
need to throw my way before we get out of here? Hmm, I
don't who's your favorite player on the Raptors right now? Ooh, it's probably
I mean I love Scott. I mean it's Chris Bouchet that is like the
I'm just a that's like my not so guilty pleasure. But I really I
love a manual quickly. He's just so there's like a suddenness to the way
that he plays on offense. And I love the that just abruption, whether
it's like him in the lane or the way that he's launching is his threes.
And then as you kind of mentioned the the off ball defense is like
I always appreciate players that I enjoy watching away from the action on defense,
and so he's always been like a favorite watch of mine. And look when
he's hitting his turnarounds or like those contested hook shots, those are just I
love those things too. So those are probably my top three raptors guys,
right now, can I just before we get out of here, then Chris
Bouche the player I felt like a lot of the pieces I wrote over the
last three years has kind of been like explaining with film and data how he
wins his minutes and that like as crazy and as like chaotic it might look,
it's like sometimes controlled chaos and like an agent of chaos, that kind
of stuff. Right, But I just like, if you have a soliloquy
on Chris Bouchet, who may not be a raptor for much longer, what's
your thoughts on his game as a whole, like wax poetic about one of
your favorites. As I mentioned before, and I mean you call it controlled
chaos if they's just like an anarchy to the way he plays and if you
don't know what's gonna happen on his close outs. And I've always been the
players who they are not this when you dig into the numbers or some of
their film, but they can be this like the floor stretching rim protectors that
are also going to like their their rim protection isn't necessarily built on IQ.
It's on playmaking, like because you're gonna chase those blocks and those highlight swats.
And he's one of the the ogs, it feels like, of the
past five years or so of doing it from the perimeter like his and sometimes
his closeouts are just like, yes, there could be fauls, but he
could also just like he'll go off to the side and end up with like
the fourth row or something like you just don't know what's going to happen.
And I always thought that he could be a better not necessarily like a catch
and decision mate guy in the lane, but I thought that in the right
context he could be an even better like rim running threat than he's ever been,
just because he did kind of have the sort of the vertical element he
has those like, really, I would you use the word broad shoulders,
Like he could be a better screener at points, so even when the three
point shot isn't falling, and I know his splits are kind of like all
over the place. Ever since he signed that contract, I just still think
he could be an intensely useful player for a good team. And when I
combined that belief with just the fact that there's just this anarchy, it's designed
anarchy, it's contrived anarchy, and I just I love it, Like it's
just it's again, like I said, a not so guilty pleasure is Chris
Bouschet him and uh, just because you're near to the pod. Frankie Lakina
is like my Sirens song. I don't remember. I think I compared him
to like what if Avery Bradley was actually good on the offensive end when he
came into the league, And I just like I'm still smitten, Like I
think there's a fluidity to Frankie Loaquino's, Like these are the players I latch
onto. I think what you mentioned about the pick and roll stuff, we
got that for a little bit in the Tampa season for the Raptors, where
Chris Bouche. He was like scoring the hell of the ball repeatedly all the
time, and a lot of it was like, yeah, he had a
pretty good season shooting the three, but also like pick and roll stuff.
You know, playing with Kyle Lowry helps, but like a lot of those
pocket passes where he's sprinting into the lane vertical pop for sure. I wrote
this piece last year on Chris Bouchet. It was like Chris Bouche, King
of Dunks, where he's like, just because of his esthetics, nobody considers
that, like this guy puts together one of the best like dunking highlight reels
and in the given season, but he did. Last year he had like
twenty insane dunks, just like stretching to the heavens, skyscraping stuff, and
you know, like there's a lot of guys who they take off from like
below the dotted line, but if Chris is on the fast break or something
like that, he'll take off above it. There's just a lot of like
energy and length and it's infectious. He's also a guy who just like I
like Chris a lot. You know, he's a he's very forthcoming. I
find he's very honest within about his game and himself and that stuff is very
humanizing I think. So, yeah, he's an awesome player for sure.
And Frankie Smokes Hell yeah, yeah, Look, Frankie Smoke's back from injury.
It's like the turnaround or the renaissance. Well, I guess it would
actually be just the the career pop it's coming now, that initial one.
And look, it's also fun like with Chris bruchet Is. I know it
was only really the Warriors that weren't a team that they had him and they
got rid of him. But like when you see someone get waved and it's
like they're on an Exhibit ten with the Raptors at one point to turn into
someone who gets there, I did at the time, and I'll stick by
it. I call it one of the best contracts of that summer that he
signed. Like on this deal, I thought it was a bargain. It's
always cool to see that story where it's like, oh, this guy was
on he was waved, he was on an Exhibit ten, and like now
he's has this real contract and is a real member of this team. So
I'm I'm always gonna love them those types of stories too. Yeah, he's
great. Samson, this was great. Thank you for giving me eighty plus
minutes of your time. I really appreciate it. Are you able just to
tell our listeners where they can find you and all the fantastic work that you
do. You can find my stuff at raptors Republic dot com. If you
like the Raptors. I do a live show after every game on YouTube.
On you just type in Raptors of Republic on YouTube if you're interested. And
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if I've ever heard a plug that got me to spend money, necessarily I
had to like go read the work or something like that or watch the work.
But if you like me, hey, that's that's how you support.
So thank you. Mostly just thank you for listening to eighty minutes of Dan
and I talking, because that's a hell of like you've invested into us,
So thank you. Yes, look, I've gotten dms from people whove come
on that they have gotten more subscribers off of coming on the show, so
listeners do the same thing. I don't need to hear it from Samson,
but go subscribe Raptors Republic great writing and podcasting video content over there. The
link will be in the podcast and YouTube description. Samson, thank you so
so much again, rest the short. I'll be pestering you again in the
future, but this was so great. Thank you for coming on.