What is Kraka, Lakin Fellow, Thermonuclear a Eppers. I am Yampa Valley
coming at you with some more hoops talk. Before we get started, we're
gonna discuss I guess, Lakers, Raptors, and bulls on this podcast so
highlighted. I set off to do one team and I have like eighty windows
open now and did a bunch of research and notes trying to decide which team
to focus on. I'm just gonna focus on all three because they're all pre
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try to say at the top of every podcast, for the most part,
let's get into some talk here. Let's begin with we'll go with the Lakers,
just because we only talk about Lakers on the podcast, anyone who is
familiar with us, but just a little bit topical with the ad right foot
injury that he suffered over the weekend. Initially World Cup News Dump, the
Lakers said he was going to be out a month, but then it came
out that it could be indefinitely, and then Brian Windhorse on The Hoop Collective
podcast Monday said, it's not good. It's not a sprain ankle, it's
not a spraying foot from what I understand, it's something a little more concerning
than that. Maybe we'll know by the time I'm even recording this podcast like
or that it's out and you're listening to it. That's no bueno for the
Lakers. It's it's it's fucking terrible. Is really the They're able to beat
the Wizards without him on Sunday, but it's the you know, the Wizards.
So I Anthony Dames was this sucks because Anthony Dame was playing probably the
best basketball of his career, if not close to it kind of a finite
stretch. So he didn't want to say it was the best basketball of his
career, which is looking at the way that he was hitting some really difficult
shots and just creating for himself the chemistry that he built up with Russell Westbrook.
It's a blow. It's a monstrous blow. And now we pivot.
Russ didn't play and son I didn't see the Wizards game, but Russ didn't
play in the Wizards game. I believe he and Lebron without idea on the
court, they're they're up to a minus one point six points per one hundred
possessions this season. Just something to monitor. I think you're in a situation
now with Russ and Russe and a d had developed some really nice chemistry when
Lebron wasn't on the court. Now those minutes are just Russ and Thomas Bryant,
and so the Lakers specifically on the offensive end this year, when Thomas
Bran and Lebron have played together without Anthony Davis, they're pumping in one and
twenty two point nine points per one hundred possession. So the offense has been
fine, the defense has been in the fifty first percent. Tile They've been
mainly surrounded by Austin Reeves and Lonnie Walker, and then they rounded out with
some sort of guard in there. Maybe it's Russ that lineup has not been
good. Maybe he's Dennis Shrewder. At this point, Patrick Beverley could be
sprinkled in there. But it seems like, you know, the crux of
your main lineup now is going to be like your best lineup, I should
says Walker, Reeves, James and Bryant. I think also by extension,
if Brian's able to space the floor, that's not you know, he's not
a proxy for a d but that's the that's at least opening up the floor
in the front court. He's not going to replace anything that Anthony Davis does
on a defense, which is certainly going to be a problem, but at
least opening up the floor in the half court for a guy like let's say
Lonnie Walker, who I think and you could say this for Russ too,
But Lonnie Walker becomes more important because of his creation an ability to put pressure
on set defenses. So you look at him and Lebron as maybe driving forces
of this offense apply makes Dennis Shrewder a little bit more important to this team
as well too. So I don't know that the Lakers are just gonna be
able to survive this stretch without Navy Davis because we don't necessarily know how long
it's going to last. If it's a month, I mean, that's a
long enough time I thought. I said the Warriors would probably be done.
If Steph is going to wind up missing a month, it's supposed to be
a few weeks. We'll see what happens. Lakers are thirteen and sixteen,
twelve place, They're right there. I mean, they're one loss back of
the play in. As I'm recording this, like that's not the end of
the world. But the Western Conference, you just don't I mean, this
season really don't have any margin for error. What's also impactful here or this
will impact how the Lakers approach the trade deadline. I would imagine Lebron was
asked about this on Sunday and he said, that's a question for Polinka,
But you know that he's gonna want them to trade the picks, probably more
than ever now, just to supplement the help. But you're also in this
weird conundrum at the same time where it's like, well, you don't have
Anthony Davis, Like, what is the target via trade? The buddy healed
Miles Turner one with Russell Westbrook makes a little bit more sense now, maybe
because you don't have a d right away, especially if he could miss an
indefinite amount of time, But it also makes less sense because of how important
Russ has become off the bench and his shot creation has all of a sudden
been a boon for this team. I think I can't remember who first pointed
that out on Twitter. I think I want to say it was Jackson Frank,
but I hope I'm not miss missiting that. And that was a great
point, is that you just can't throw Russ away. Willy nilly. There's
a trade that Grant and I will talk about on a separate podcast. That
might make more sense for Lakers because you're getting shot creation in there, and
if you're going to give up Russ, that's what you have to do.
Otherwise you might just be better off leaning into shooting and seeing like, well,
can we take on the last year Buddy Heal's deal and we'll just use
like the Nun Beverly package to do that, Like that could be a route
for them to go, and maybe the Pacers are more amenable if they don't
want to pay Healed next season. But so it's it's one. The question
becomes are they more or less likely to move the picks now? And I
think they're less likely, just because it seemed like they were sort of circling
the drain on scenarios there to begin with, or at least maybe waiting for
some to crop up closer to the February ninth deadline. And maybe that could
always happens where there's where's there's no brainer scenario that we're just not even considering
right now, and maybe Bradley be Able demns a trade or something in January
and you know, then yeah, you go and get Bradley Beal because of
it. Now, it just feels less likely because ad is slated to miss
at least a month, in which case, look, by the time he
gets back, the Lakers will definitely be better than the Spurs and the Rockets
in the West, And that's really the only team you could be confident in
saying they'll be better than. I mean, Minnesota is one games that Rudy
Gobert and and Karl Anthony Towns at this point. The Warriors, I mean
they beat the like whatever version of the Raptors is now without steps, so
that's yeah, whatever there, But like, you know, maybe you could
if the Warriors sort of trail off, you still do have Lebron James has
been quietly really good, quietly really good recently for Lebron James. That's such
a weird thing to say, But it also feels it feels like we're not
talking enough about some for some reason. Shay just hits a game winner,
and it feels like we also stopped talking about him before that. And the
Edward has been playing really well, hasn't really been seeing a lot of attention,
and Lebron has been playing really well. It just doesn't feel like those
three you're receiving enough attention. Shay at least got it at the top of
the season, and then Edwards had it for like kind of the wrong reasons
at the beginning of the season. I digress. Does this change the calculus
though? If you are deciding to move the picks, is would be my
is the question I'm more interested in, because I just think they're not going
to now at this point that you're just gonna sit tight or maybe again like
the Beverly Nun second round pick something, what does that get you? If
anything? Maybe they explore that does this make you more inclined to be okay?
Well, given a D's injuries, like it's not just about Shakras,
Like we need a big in here too, and so is there a way
to do you start looking at it. I mean, you can get Miles
Turner with the Nun Beverly package if you're including the picks as well, if
the Pacers don't have to take on Russ and you're still giving the picks,
so you're give them both picks. I thinks they're not gonna trade Miles turn
from one first round pick. I'd be shocked if they did that. If
it was two, and like that's the package is built around the non Russ
You're not you can't ask for compensation for those expiring contracts like they're just small
or even roughs. At this point, it's different because his contract is so
large, even if he's been playing a lot better, you can't. You
can't just reroute him, and any team that's acquiring him is not acquiring him
to keep him. And so that's why there's some level of compensation involving getting
off his expiring contract. At this point. You could explore that scenario,
but doesn't make sense. Okay, now we have Miles Turner. Then when
a d comes back and that should work, we can close with both of
them. But if something happens, they d again. That's how we have
Miles Turner. But is there almost a hollowness in doing that? Now,
if AD's gonna miss six weeks, eight weeks, you just have a chance
and not like to still miss not just the playoffs, but the play in
tournament. And that's the dilemma the Lakers are in. So I would not
expect them to move the picks, but I would expect this to change the
calculus. In the event that they do that, it's either going to be
now more so than it was before, Oh a star became available, or
we might even see this skew. Okay, maybe it's one and honestly both
the picks, but maybe it's one pick, and they're just like, oh,
we really need to fortify some of our front court depth here because something
always happens to Anthony Anthony Davis. It's never the same injury, but his
chronic injury is getting injured at this point, and it's just it's a blow
to Lakers because he was playing so great. You never want to see anyone
get injured, but he was. You know, I didn't have him in
my MVP discussion just yet. I was probably waiting to see how he played
a little bit longer. And also, you know, would the Lakers be
relevant enough for him to continue playing at that level for an extended period of
time. Who knows there. So I'm the Lakers are just fascinating from that
perspective, I find them very like, I don't want the word is I'm
not interested in them as a basketball team as much now without Anthony Davis on
the court, I am still kind of entruyed, like, oh, can
Lebron lead them through this stretch? And what happens if he don't like,
if Lebron is winning basketball games for you with this group, or if this
group was just winning basketball games tree without Anthony Davis, that's probably gonna put
more pressure on YouTube. Then move those picks, because oh we get Ampty
Davis back, and if we could get players or players who actually help and
deep in this rotation, perhaps we could make some noise in the Western Conference,
especially if there's pullback in Dallas or Minnesota or you know, Golden State
with Steph being at That's where I'm at on the Lakers, though, Let's
go to the Chicago Bulls, who let up one hundred and fifty points on
Sunday to the you know, very to the shorthanded Minnesota Timberwolves. I mean,
my god. Zach Lavine called it embarrassing. The Bulls have lost a
whole bunch of games lately. Over their past twenty games, they are nine
and eleven. No, they're eleven. They're excuse me. Their Bulls are
over their last twenty games six and fourteen, and they are twentieth in offense,
twenty second in defense. They are they feel like a clusterfuck at this
point in the worst possible way, and I don't really know how to go
about fixing them, and a lot of people have put them on blow up
watch. I'm renaissent to say Team sh blow it up. I'll talk about
it, and I enjoy talking about it. But what does blow up mean?
Let's go into specific You can't just blow up a roster in theory.
You need to find takers to the players you're trying to move, and the
moves need to make sense for you. That being said, Brian Winnhorse again
did say on the Hoop Collective, it's going to be something that's going to
be discussed more and more. The bulls is downfall. I think you're going
to start You're going to see some bulls stuff coming here. They could wait
a little longer, but they also could take advantage of the fact that there
are no sellers right now, and if they were to sell, they may
be able to do well in the market. I think we may be seeing
that discussed a lot more coming up. I agree with him in the sense
that I think sellers, if they're willing to act early, might be able
to get more since they're allowed to set the market and there are other teams
that tend to wait around. But I just I don't know what a tear
down looks like for this team, or I guess we know what it looks
like. I don't know if they're going to be ready to go that route.
I think they'll look at the top four protective pick they owe to Orlando
and think that they're doing the Magic more of a service than themselves. At
this point, they need to write it off as a cost. Maybe you
finish with a bottom four record gives you about a coin toss of keeping that
pick, and perhaps you keep it. But if you don't, it's just
there's value in Okay, well, who did we move and what did we
get for them? It? Does Vooch have any value as an expiring contract,
I honestly don't know. I think Zach Low was talking to Sarah Kustock
on his podcast about could they get like a first and a prospect for him
or something, and I even thought that was from the nets. I just
even thought that was like or true rotation players in a pick or something.
I even thought that was a high cost for Vooch, who's been better this
year and stretches the floor. But I just don't know that He's someone especially
headed towards free agency, you give up real value for it. Perhaps you're
getting off a contract you don't want. That'd be something to consider. There's
Demard Rozen that's narrows cropped up specifically with the Lakers. He'll have value.
He still remains per in predictable, one of just the most overwhelmingly valuable clutch
players in the league this season. So there's you know, that's He's definitely
someone who I think would garner value. I don't know, is he going
to get you two first round picks? Probably not. He ranks first,
by the way an inpredredictables, clutch probability at it as I record this,
so win probability at it. Excuse me, but you could move him.
Zach Levine would be the big one. That's the guy that I look at
and say, okay, well they are blowing it up. He has four
years in one hundred and seventy eight point one million dollars left on his deal.
He is He's just looked off especially lately, and his defense has been
bad Chicago sometimes as Joe Calli actually absolutely went in on him in a recent
article after that loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. I don't think it's just Leavine
who is culpable. I think that this is just an issue of a team
that was kind of built around like, no, you weren't going to protect
the basket, and they're not. Like they're not doing a good job of
that with Voos, with Andre Grummond. But their defense has just been such
a disaster because they don't have the same level as disruption of disruption as they
had last year when you had Caruso and Lonzo together for at least a stretch
on like this season where Lonzos yet to play, and now Caruso's kind of
just out there on his own. I think I would assume maybe has slipped
a bit defensively. Not having Javonte Green during in the game against the Timberols
really hurt them, and so it leaves Caruso sort of on this this island.
The Bulls have just been like I don't want to even say hit or
miss. It's mostly been missed, but like, this is not a team
that you can trust to do anything when it comes to their their transient transition
defense. They have one of the bottom five during this stretch where they are
six and fourteen. They have one of the bottom five half court defenses,
which is like bad in itself. They are, you know, they're not
letting up a lot of second chance opportunities, but teams were just hitting there
their first shots. And when you get to transition, like nope, Chicago
is bottom five there as well during this stretch, and they're not a team
that you trust to get back on defense after they commit a turnover. They're
not a team that even trust to go and get set after these live rebounds
after they miss a shot. And so when you're not even going to be
able to do that, like the baseline level of okay, let's get on
defense during these live balls and then you're just gonna kick in. They're just
fouling a ton right now. I think they were close to bottom ten and
foul rate during this six and fourteen stretch. It gets super tough and you're
not built to fix it because it's, Okay, who is your defensive fulcrum.
It's Alex Carusoe and his hustle, his ball pressure, but like you
need someone below him to depend on, and Patrick Williams as an isolation defender,
like yeah, sure, but like it's sort of just a team disruptor.
No, that's where you and I can't even say you miss Lonzo balls
since he's not gonna play like below that. But when you have two of
Cruise homeball on the court at once, that certainly makes a difference. Having
even having a healthy javantage like that can make a difference too. But it's
not gonna be Vooche. It's not gonna be Drummond. Billy Donovan had a
quote I can't remember where it was from where he was kind of just bemoaning
that he can change the defensive coverage is all he wants, But like,
guys just aren't engaged and they're just getting beat and I think you can see
it. I mean you can see get in all facests to the Bulls defense
if you watched them for a minute. And I think Stephan no of Sporting
News had a really good thread on this on Twitter the other day too.
But there's just like they just look languid. It's just it's inertia on the
defensive end. And like I said, I don't the transition defense lately,
it's not even been like their worst spot, but it just feels egregious on
how they can't even get set after live balls to even get beat in that
scenario in the half court. So this team and when you're dealing with those
issues and like, yeah, you have these talented offensive players and you're still
floating around the bottom tenant offensive efficiency during this twenty game stretch. That's an
issue too, And so it becomes a matter of where do you go to
fix things? If you wanted to write the ship this season, And I
don't know. This is a team that I just don't have a feel for
what they're going to do or how they would even go about fixing it.
Like I can direct what I would do, and that is I would probably
tear it down and say, fuck the obligations to the pick that we have
from Atlanto. Just let's get that out of the way and then but let's
start fresh. I don't think the ownership at the front office is going to
want to do that to everything they've done over the past couple of years and
implies the opposite that Voots trade just I think of accelerated everything that happened after
that. When you look at the de Rosan trade, going after a bunch
of win now players and treating yourself is just sort of this quasi contender or
someone who's on the cuspit when you really weren't. But I do think are
we having a different conversation with Lonzo Ball? Is healthy? Maybe, but
that is the reality of the situation right now. I'm not saying trade Lonzo
Ball for peanuts, but like, you kind of have to recalibrate here in
some way. But I don't know where to begin because I feel like there's
so much wrong and I don't know how to fix. Yeah, you need
the Bulls need to take more threes if they need more shooters on this team,
but like you can go acquire or shooter, but that's not going to
fix your defensive issues unless that shooter also happens to be like an amazing defender.
And so the other problem is is like you could kind of use an
upgrade or you need an upgrade on your front line defensively, but if you're
gonna move Root for that, are you really using Vooch, who is a
valuable player to upgrade at his position? And what's the equity you're including to
do that at this point? And it's probably player based just because you owe
your twenty twenty three pick to the Magic and you're twenty twenty five pick to
the Spurs, and so like, you couldn't trade a first round pick before
Kingdom come at this point, so what are you? What are you doing?
And who is the target? And like, yeah, you could attach
Patrick Williams to somebody, but then like, who are you getting? Like
you need? They're in such a weird spot that I don't see a pathway
to them even being able to make this impact trade. If anyone has ideas
that they think they have a trade, a trade that solves more than one
of the Bulls's issues, you feel free to get at me with it.
But this team just feels formless right now. I think that's the best way
to put it. I do think if Zach Lavine starts playing better, hitting
more, I don't know if he looks slower this year, but I think
he's gonna start, you know, and even like his shooting percentages, We've
seen players shoot worse than this, but like by his standards, he could
be hitting a higher clip of the shots that he's taking and so you expect
that to come up eventually. And so between him and Derosin, like,
could you be okay with where the Bulls are at on offense? They're able
to open the floor a little bit more with the way that food has been
this year. Sure, defensively it's tougher, and I still think even with
that setup, it can be a slog offensively for them at times. And
so you still need the supplementary shooting on this team. And I just don't
know. I honestly don't know where they're supposed to go from here. I
again, I know what I would do, but knowing their emma, which
is not to you know, to tear it down or rebuild like they wanted
to have this quick turnaround, I just I don't even I don't see what
the next course is for them. And it's that terrible podcasting to not have
a solution here. But even there, they can't even find like the right
starting unit. Like all of their most lineups are just their most used or
most popular lineups, so many of them are just getting absolutely trucked at the
moment. And so it's that gets a lot harder and this isn't and my
point there is so Lonzo Ball, let's say he just came back. Like,
let's just say Lonzo Ball came back. Yeah, he takes care of
the three point shooting at three point volume some of your defensive issues. This
is not just a matter of Alonzo ball isn't here and that's why the Bulls
are where they are. There's just something fundamentally, inherently, incurably flawed about
the makeup of this roster right now. And I think if you were going
to aim to fix it this season, you're looking at making a bunch of
trades, probably mortgaging the future for more so than you already have, for
a return that wouldn't even be ideal. And they are one of my we
need. I think we'll do a podcast on like the most fascinating teams entering
the trade deadline or something. But I am watching them just because they feel
like a team that could be forced to just because they're losing by so much.
I just I would be shocked. And I'll phraze it this way to
close up on the Bulls. If they go full throttle into the tear down,
if they move, I could see them moving two of Voots and Derozen
and then like of Voots, De Rosen and Lavine, and I just wouldn't
bet on it being Lavine, and I'd be curious to see his trade value
based off, how he played this season, history of it, like the
knee issues in his rearview, four years, one hundred and seventy eight point
one million left on this deal. Would you rather have him or Radley Beal's
contract? Yeah, him, he's slightly younger. I think his I mean,
Radley Beal has been better when he's healthy defensively this year, but he's
just Leavine is cheaper, So I'd just be curious, like, is now
even the time to tear down because you're getting pretty good value for de Rosen.
Who else though, Like Patrick Williams has been, he feels hit or
miss on offense, like he'll start to figure some things out, or he'll
shoot really well from three, but it's not on high enough volume. And
then he'll play really good like defense for a few possessions, but then feel
like he's lost if he's not able to just zero win on the ball.
There's just so much weird about this team, and when looking at their individual
stocks, I think at the moment, you could probably get let's say De
Rosen might be might Here's so here's the real question of all the players on
the roster, who is at the peak of their trade value? There would
be there would be de Rosen and peak is sort of relative term here.
I know he's in his age thirty three season, but let's say like you
would get good value for him that you would be comfortable moving him. And
I would say Caruso maybe, who's quietly just by the way during this stretch
averaging everyone sit down a whopping four point two VEO goal attempts per game,
less fewer than two of which are coming inside the arc. But those two
players, yeah, you're confident you could get like net positive but value that
you're excuse me as I whack my microphone all over the place. You're comfortable
that you could get that. Waiting wouldn't improve their value like this is we're
gonna trade. Their value is probably not gonna get much higher than it is
right now. With Lavigne, maybe even with Vucci. Feel that way because
you think there's nowhere to go but down. But like Levigne and Vouch and
even Patrick Williams and Iotasumu and definitely Kobe White at this point like they're not
and Lonzo Ball for sure, you're not going to get there. There's value
in thinking, oh well, if we hold on to something, these guys,
maybe they'll improve their trade value. But maybe maybe that's wishful thinking when
it comes to a Patrick Williams, if it could be definitely thinking when it
comes to Vouchvic. I think it's fine to think that way with Lavigne and
ball specific and that's kind of why I wouldn't expect him to go full throttle
here. And so if you told me to pick the oat, let's set
the over under at one point five of them moving Vouch, de Rosen,
Caruso, Lavigne and Lonzo this season. I'm gonna and I'm not gonna throw
Patrick Williams in there, because I just don't think he gets moved as part
of a cell job. I think that maybe Ioda soon move. That's someone
you move to make a consolidation trader, to make an improvement to your roster.
So stick with those five guys. I'm gonna set the over under at
one point five of De Rosen, Lavigne, Lonzo, Vouch and Caruso.
Did I say that De Rosen, Lavigne, Vouch, Caruso, Lonzo,
Yeah, those five one point five, I'd take the under. That's just
the amount of faith I have in the bulls from office, and I'm not
saying they need to sell low on Lonzo. I wasn't like concluding his name
to make that easier. I wouldn't. I wouldn't trade him now either.
There's if you're gonna tank anyway, Like, let's just see how health he
gets next season. Can he help your team? Can he improve his own
trade value? So throw him out of there and let's set the other four
players at one point five? Him taking me under anyway, that doesn't really
matter there, So bulls panic meter incredibly high for me. Finally, the
Toronto Raptors speaking of panic meters that I didn't see us having to gauge.
I guess at any point this season someone had asked and on YouTube whether the
Toronto Raptors should blow it up. We did in a mailbag. Both Grant
and I came out here preaching patients cautions and it was too soon. We
both look a little bit foolish now, and I certainly feel a little bit
foolish for dismissing the notion that they would ever do it. I'm still not
convinced that they will do it, let me make that clear, but like
they have earned like the talk of oh or they going to blow it up.
They have absolutely earned that. They lost another game on Monday night to
the Philadelphia seventy six ers. It was at least close, but then now
makes sixth straight and the pathway to this team. Yet you could point to
some absences. There are two and nine though over their last eleven and like
o Gianna will, we missed some of that time. Pascal Siakam played all
of those games, but he was working his way back from I think it
was an inductor injury or is that Og had a ductor injury? They both
have an a ductor injury. I can't keep up with all these injuries.
I do try my best there though, so like, yeah, you've dealt
with some absences, like getting nothing from out reporter this year, like that
has to really hurt. But this eleven game stretch has sort of been a
microcosm of all the issues that we were worried about manifesting into one just giant
shit storm for this team. And I think it's fair now to wonder,
well should they go a different direction. Here they are during this eleven game
stretch actually better when I was looking at it, because watching them, you
wouldn't think that they are eighteenth in offensive efficiency that was shocking. Twenty second
in defense, their their half court offense, it's still it's a mess.
It's just a mess they are during this stretch. They're twenty fourth, but
they're twenty ninth and half court offense on the season, they're not. Like
they can still get some second chance points, but like during the stretch,
they haven't been getting a crap ton of them. And so when you're relying
on that, and then you're all of a sudden, okay, you're still
really rely on on transition and you've been okay in transition during this stretch,
how are you going to generate your half court offense? Though? Like you
can get out in transition, but if you're not going to be able to
have a more dynamic half court offense aside from let's rebound our own misses and
really hope that Pascal Siakam can continue to play the way he's playing and then
Fred van Fleet will start hitting shots, it puts you in a conundrum.
And they're just when you watch the way they play, they're not built to
play that way. Here's there's only three teams who use isolation possessions as a
larger share of their offensive touches, Dallas, Philly, and Brooklyn. Those
are probably the three teams you'd expect, right, Like maybe you would think
like Portland or the Clippers would be in there, but those are the three
teams you would predict. However, Toronto, despite being fourth and ISO frequency,
is twenty eighth in efficiency point seven eight points per ISO possession, only
the Bucks at point seven two. That's a red flag, by the way,
and the San Antonio Spurs are worse in that department. They don't have
guys that you can trust hit off the drivel jumpers. And no I'm saying
those need to be haul marks of your offense, but you need to have
that option. The Raptors don't. They are shooting their affective field goal percentage
on pull up jumpers this year thirty nine point eight. Only the Spurs and
the Lakers have lower effective field goal percentages on pull up jumpers. That's just
that's an absolute disaster. And like there are some things that you can envisioned
normalizing Fred van Fleet shooting under twenty six percent from three over these last eleven
games. Gary Trent Junior banged up right now. His shot selection even felt
like it was and he wasn't even like one of their bigger issues then,
but og under thirty percent from three during this stretch. Scotty Barnes has been
all over the place this season. He will have a game like the Nets
where everything seems like it's clicking, the processing speed is up there, he's
attacking, looks like he has great touch. They don't just have moments.
I mean, like the sixers I think it was I can't remem if it
was an overtime, but like he just chucked up like this float that missed
everything. And so there needs to be a level of patients with him because
he is in his second year and so like I'm not, you know,
de deboarding the Scotty Barnes bandwagon, but like when you can't count on him
to this supremely net positive player. And then that's on top of just not
having enough reliable on ball options in the half court or enough shooting. They're
in the bottom five of three point shooting frequency and accuracy, and that's a
whole other issue. The bench probably been a little bit better than last season
when you're looking at the numbers, but not something you could rely on.
We have Nick Nurse turning to Malachai Flynn all of a sudden because he's so
desperate. And there's the defensive energy too, Like this is a team where
we probably I think we oversell, like the collective need for be like,
oh, go ahead and trade for trade for a big, like the Raptors
need a big the whole, like you know Club six seven and six nine
thing. It might allow you to switch, but Nick Nurse feels like he's
like not even trusted that as much. And the Raptors haven't been as good
as that. We've seen a lot of lazy closeouts from them. We've even
seen them like their transition defense has been disappointing a lot of the time during
this stretch. So I don't know how you look at this team and think,
right, well, they need someone who can end defensive possessions by grabbing
boards, but then also help them with their rim protection because they're twenty eighth
in rim protection, opponents are shooting over seventy percent against them against them at
the rim, And then you look at just like their their overall defensive metrics,
like they're not they're built to be better than they are on defensive When
you look at the season long numbers, they're fifteenth and fifteenth per clean in
the glass. It's not like it doesn't paint this dire situation. But the
Raptors have like one of the seven worst location effective field goal percentages allowed for
the season, and they've probably actually been a little bit better now that I'm
looking at the splits during this stretch where they've just gotten absolutely trucked. But
on the season, you know, they've given up like threes, they've given
up looks at the rim, So there needs to be like maybe a fundamental
change in their defense. Can they afford to be less aggressive at points?
Like? Could that be something that they could really look at? But yeah,
they're twenty ninth in location AFFECTI field goal percentage, which is basically,
what would you expect opponents to shoot based on where you're allowing your shots from.
And because they are allowing there, they allow a bunch of threes and
a bunch of looks at the rim, like they are twenty ninth in that
category. That's a that's another red flags. There are so many red flags
with this team. What is interesting and what I still do believe is that
they feel like they're closer to being able to possibly fix it than or at
least upgrade from the outside rather than just hey, tear it down. And
maybe they do straddle those two lines where it's or not try to upgrade.
But like you could see the moving Fred van Fleet because they don't want to
pay him in Garretter and Junior, but you keep Siakam, Barnes and h
O Giananobi. I think blowing it up would constitute moving Pascal Siakam and I
just he's probably I mean, if we did an all NBA belt right now,
he would be on mine. I think, so how like, why
are you just going to move him when you have that type of a player,
and if you still do believe in Scotty Barnes. I also think there's
a misconception where and uh, you know Rome eighty one eighty had pointed this
out in our discord that he disagree that the Raptors wouldn't move o Jan and
Obi because couldn't they trade him to get like, you know, as part
of a buy play. And I think he's right in that sense. If
I'm missing his point. If his point was something else, I definitely could
see them moving him as part of a buy I think they would strive not
to, but are we sure they're gonna buy? And then if they're not
going to buy or even sure that they're going to sell, like are they
just going to try and float this thing into the off season. I will
say I think that if they were able to get like a mid end shot
creator to help their half court offense, it would go a long way.
I also think that they don't need to get caught up with As I was
saying before, I think we overestimate how much value size can be sometimes,
but I also think we overvalue, like, well, how does this guy
match up against Joel and be in the playoffs? Worry about that when you
actually match up with Joel and beat him. This is all to say I'm
not really ready to talk about Raptors tear down trade yet because I can envision
them being there imminently, so I feel like the conversation would be had about,
oh, where would they trade Fred van Fleet or where would they trade
Pascal Siakam. That has to happen another day, and I don't think they're
actually tearing it down unless they do really entertain Pascal Siakam trade talks. He's
playing at an all NBA level right now. I think you kind of owe
it to your organization to see, like, well, is there anything we
could do that's not ultra disruptors to the future, maybe still optimize this team,
and it's you know, can you make a lower end upgrade and see
if that and check some life where it's not old Christian colocals really are only
big that we can lean on. Sean Holmes is swilding around out there in
Sacramento. Can you look at getting another floor spacing secondary Shock creator is Atlanta?
You know, knowing that they're in sort of tax dump mode, like
why not stiff around John Collins. They're also like Bodan Magdanovitch. That's someone
who could really help them. I think bog and Bogdanovitch could probably really help
the Raptors as well too. No, he's not gonna do anything for their
defense at this point, but like, you need to address one thing at
a time, and maybe is there like a Noel Bogdanovitch deal to be hashed
out there. They would have to have interest in Gary Trent Junior, and
then you have other money going out. I think Yark Gordon is someone who
could really help this team. So I think that they have options. Now,
would you go out and immediately do that if you see like you can't
really write the ship from within? Maybe not, But I still think even
if the Raptors tear it down, I've seen too much of Oganna Noby talk
in there. Barnes and n Anobi, I imagine, would be the two
players that would be close to off limits. I'd imagine Barnes is off limits
in a non superstar trade, and that they look at oganaobis, Yeah,
we're eventually gonna have to pay him, but he's still sort of plug and
play, and his offensive decision making can be all over the place. And
again he looks a little bit like sluggish. I'm coming back from the deductor
injury. But I think that those are the two if you're rebuilding, those
are the two you keep. And so I see all these teams lusting after
Ogana Noby. There's a reason why, and which is why I don't think
the Raptors would move him. Now if they were Kevin Drampa coomes available again
or Star to be determined that I can envision is on the trade market and
they decide to go out and get him. Yeah, I think that Oganaoby
could be on the table, but moving him feels counterintuitive to the rebuild just
because you have to pay him. That's not scary. He could be movable
on his next deal. It's just the cap is going up. He could
sign his deal like right as that's happening, basically, or just before it's
happening. They'll have a better sense of that market. And it's not like
he's entering free agency this summer. That's an issue that you have to sort
of grapple with, not sort of. That's an issue to grapple with regards
to Fred Van Fleet, with regards to Gary Trench Jr. It's not that
imminent with O Giananobi, and so I would expect this team to probably ride
it out. If I were the Raptors, I'd probably try and see if
I could hit like a single or double. As a mean, it's like,
Okay, we didn't give up any huge equity. So if this doesn't
work out, we need to pivot. But I think that there are steps
that can be taken specifically to improve the half court offense that doesn't necessarily involve
acquiring a superstar, Like let's just get someone who could hit a pull up
jumper and yeah, that's easier said than done. But again, Boia M'donovitch
is floating around out there, and he's someone who could help your team.
I actually think Bogdomodonovitch would be perfect for them. I just don't know how
willing the Hawks would be to listen right now. Given their aspirations, they
probably certainly listen for John Collins, especially if with Gary Trench j you're centering
around it. That could be a route you go though. Just hope John
Collins helps with your rebounding and then gives you another sort of screening but also
floor spacing outlet in the half court if you believe that that's something that can
open up what you're trying to do. What's odd, though, is that
if you trade Gary Trent Junior, you do sort of miss when he's healthy
what he would bring, even if you can be manned by his shot creation
and him taking too many gambles on defense. That type of player someone else
who can put the ball on the floor from the outside in or is confident
enough to hit like take those shots and give you some volume. You kind
of need that, and so then getting rid of him and flipping him into
a big you would really have to trust that o g n and Obey Fred
Van Fleet and Scotty Barnes are going to be the answers for you on the
perimeter of this season, or that you're going to get more out of like
that Outopoord Junior's gonna stay healthy, You're gonna get more of him. We're
precious that she was gonna come back, and you're going to get more of
that from him. I would expect to Seeven remain patient. Rains to be
seen whether that's the right call, But I don't think we're a blow up
mode yet. And I again I want to caution just because they trade Fred
and Fleet, who I think might be him, and Gary Trean Junior there
too most likely to be traded. It's the Pascal Siakam future I'm looking at.
If they show a willingness to entertain offers, they are blowing it all
the hell and I'll be shocked if it's part of the cell they wind up
moving Ogna Nobi. So I'm this is a team that we're probably gonna focus
on. We'll do our trade deadline previews or primers eventually, and there are
a lot of you know, we can get into more nitty gritty targets.
But for now, should the Raptors blow it up? I have no idea,
dude, I would lean no. Still I'm still leaning no. Do
I think they're going to blow it up? I ultimately do not think that
they're going to go that route. That'll do it for this podcast. Hope
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Illie, with the shout out of one you only the indelible Frank you with per