Speaker 1: What is up, fellows?
Speaker 2: That goes Imdan Valley coming at you with another twenty
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: NBA season look ahead.
Speaker 2: We are nearing the end. This is number twenty six.
We're onto the Toronto Raptors. I have the distinct pleasure
this year being joined by Samson Folk of Raptors Republic.
Follow him on the Twitter machine. It's at Sam Folk
with two k's so spelled exactly as it sounds, sam
fol kk. As a quick note, there won't be like
a preamble intro. I had to wind up cutting that
for certain like quality purposes. So anyone who's a fan
of just getting to the point and not hearing that conversation,
you only have to hear this intro.
Speaker 1: We dive right into it after this.
Speaker 2: Just a quick reminder, as always, go check out the
other look aheads, bounce around, have a good time with them.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of work. We've done a really
good job this year.
Speaker 2: I say that every year, but I think they continue
to get better and better every year, and that's we
owe it all to guests like Samson.
Speaker 1: And if you haven't already, why haven't you.
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We appreciate that. Ratings and reviews on Apple even if
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Speaker 1: Those go a long way.
Speaker 2: If you've done all those things, join our discord. Continue
to tell people about us, and you should join our
discord because we are going to run our over under competition.
Speaker 1: I'll be putting out the doc for.
Speaker 2: Everyone to fill out for that in discord probably later
this weekend. We're recording this on This is releasing on Friday,
October eleventh, So join our discord. You can be a
part of that. There's a lot of great discussions that
happen in there as well. That's enough out of me, though,
Let's get to a boatload of Toronto Raptors talk in
advance of the twenty four to twenty five NBA regular
season with the one, the Only mister Samson.
Speaker 3: Folks.
Speaker 1: Let's start here with the Raptors.
Speaker 2: What did did you make of how they went about
their off season where it was just basically about talent retention?
Speaker 3: I think it made sense. I think especially when you consider,
like we're a long way from Massai Zieri saying believe
in this city, believe in yourselves. After Kawhi left, uh
free agents didn't start pouring in because the Raptors had
won a championship, the vaunted G League pipeline that they
had built crumbled as a musk pipeline as it were,
something like that. I mean, it just things didn't pan
out the way that they thought they would. So it
makes sense. Like you trade for Manual Quickly, you have
to retain them. You trade you like you get guys
in house, even if you're overpaying relative to the market
or whatever it might be counting numbers, you have to
retain guys. You have to keep talent on the roster.
And also I thought, like getting in Davion Mitchell especially,
we'll get more into this, but with his success playing
off of Fox and Sabonis in those more limited minutes,
I think you could probably act to you know, maybe
there's a fact simile there between Quickly and Scottie. Maybe
there's room for that to work out. You get a
couple extra Trizit guys in the second round. They're trying
to build it back up after they didn't get to
for a few years. So retain the talent, see what happens,
play some good basketball once everyone's healthy, and we'll see
where it goes.
Speaker 2: I know they're banged up, even by like the preseason
injury inundations that we've been hit with.
Speaker 1: That's super unfortunate.
Speaker 2: You've mentioned that they're pretty clearly building back up. I
think everyone agrees that they're rebuilding. But they're fascinating to
me from the perspective of most teams that are kind
of beginning or in the early middle stages of a rebuild,
don't have all these guys that have agreed to their
second contracts starting their second contracts, maybe on their third contracts.
What if anything, or how if in any way do
you think that impacts their direction is at all? Does
it increase the likelihood that they're trying to make this
more of like an accelerated build?
Speaker 1: Am I just reading too much into the contract situation?
Could they also I framed it?
Speaker 2: They seem like they're built to react to how good
they are, aren't more so than like, oh, we're proactively
heading down this.
Speaker 3: Path bang on? I think built to react to what
they are. They don't know what they are. And you know,
in years past they've used the term give these guys
a platform. It was something that you know, Massign Bobby
would say about Kyle and Damar, And famously, Kyle and
Damar had signed onto their second contracts too before that
team really took off. That team was an older team
relative now, of course, it's not all the same because
Kyle Lowry was famously like the most underpaid elite guard
of his ten years where he was incredible, where he
was giving you roughly all NBA impact year in and
year out. The Raptors have not struck that same gold
mine here. But they're just they've built a team where
they retain the talent they can't lose it. Especially after
you look at like what was happening with Og and
Pascal towards the end of their contracts. Everybody start looking
and wondering like, oh boy, and especially with Pascal, maybe
things didn't come back in a very great way, Like
we didn't get a good trade out of this. It
wasn't the best scenario for us. So keep guys on contract,
believe in the guys, give them a coach who believes
in them, give them a young team, give them from
the upper the front office, not that much pressure. Just
see what happens. If Scotty is an out and out superstar,
things get pretty simple. If our j Barrett is a
twenty two six and four on sixty one percent true
shooting guy, that's pretty good. You can work on defense.
You can learn how to hide him. If Emmanuel quickly
gets up over eight three point attempts per game, let's
a gun. If the extra probe dribble in the lane
sticks around when games are a little bit more tense,
these things can project well. And of course there's young
guys on the roster two who have yet to prove themselves,
who pick any number you want. Maybe a couple of
those guys hit. I guess we'll see.
Speaker 2: This question because I know this is actually your first
look ahead that you've done with us. But I dictate
too much of the terms of this podcast. So I've
been asking everyone, and this team fascinates me from this
professor perspective, because I don't know what your answer is
gonna be, and I pride myself from kind of like
being able to telegraph what the answer is gonna be.
What is the Raptor's biggest storyline that you're going to
be tracking throughout this season.
Speaker 3: Hmmm. So I think initially, when I'm gonna cheat, I'm
gonna talk myself into the answer, and I'll give small
answers until I figure it out. So I think the
initial first one is like the fifth starter because they
pay a lot for their starting lineup. Yakapertle has a
full contract, a full fat contract, Emanuel Quickly full fat contract,
Argieberratt full fat contract, Scottie Barnes not yet, it's like
ten point five this year, but it becomes full fat contract.
It's fine, you sealed deliver Grady Deveon, Oh Chai. It
leans one way if you're you want to be future facing.
And I've watched camp. I was in Montreal with them,
I watched the preseason game. There's a lot of things
that have been going well for him, and his teammates
are allotting his effort, but he's the defense is not
really there yet, so there's things you could go another way.
That's the first thing. But the overall storyline is I
think similar to what a lot of superstars, not stars
superstars go through. Is year three, Year four, you start
seeing how far cisfis can push the boulder up the hill.
And that's kind of what I'm focusing on because I
think Scotty determines the ceiling of this team right because
you look at it like RJ Emmanuel, you'll get Grady
the guys who are considered have higher potential on this team.
Which of those guys could take the number one spot?
None really and I hate doing the number one, number two,
number three things, but which of them could take the
number two spots? That's also pretty key. Yeah, So Scotty
solidifying that ceiling is like, Okay, we have a one,
where we have a two, and then we can build
up from there, easy pasy. That has to be determined.
That helps set the ceiling and the floor of this team.
And it's by far the most important thing that can
keep happening because stars are important in the NBA. As
it turns out.
Speaker 2: You know, I haven't given that much thought because I
just assume I try to find first, I try to
find synonyms so I don't have to use the best
player on the best team. Like the guiding light for
this rebuild feels like it's clearly Scotty Barnes I haven't
really thought about, well, do they have the number two
in place? And so if I'm forcing you to choose,
do you one think that they do potentially have the
second best player on the next really good iteration of
the Raptors. And if they do, is it more likely
to be RJ Barrett or Manuel Quickly? Is there a
dark horse in there? We're not talking Jamal shed is
coming in hot.
Speaker 3: Jamal Shedd is coming in hot, but not for the
not for the second best player on the team. Actually,
I think I go against the grain here because because
everybody was really excited for IQ right after the trade,
and I held on to like the RJ thing and
it went really well, and IQ the defense didn't really
come out in the wash that everyone ooh, he's clever
off ball. I've completely I don't care if anybody ever
tells me again that a guard is like a clever
off ball guy, I don't care anymore. Like it doesn't
I feel like that people just say that hoping that
you haven't watched the Guard and that you know.
Speaker 1: Are you anti shake gilich Is Alexander? Is this like?
Are we unwilling?
Speaker 3: Because Shay does a lot of other things He scores
thirty points per game. You know, he can be overrated
on defense. That's fine or underrated, it isn't it doesn't matter.
But IQ the defense didn't come out in the wash,
the lower pickup point on the jumper, the slower release,
the want to always go right into a jumper. I
think that kind of stuff limited his ability to scale.
We'll see if he's able to overcome that stuff. But
RJ just started scaling, like he climbed the wall. He
was like, yep, I'm first man over boom. He went
for it. And RGIE, I think there's a lot of
stuff that he can clean up, and I think there's
still a lot of stuff he can add to his game.
And he has a willingness you know, I wrote this
in the piece where I talked about his cutting, you know,
to punch the a gap like a full back. And
I love his willingness to get in there. And it's
kind of like that that power forward thing where so
many power forwards of the past who used to chip
in like twelve or fourteen points a game just by
being gritty, being in the right spot, and being comfortable
with physicality. Arje kind of does that from the two
or the three. So he finds his way to impact
and they have to figure out how to make it
easier on the other side of the four for him.
But Emmanuel wasn't good either, So I think, very long answer.
I think RJ is more likely to be the two. However,
I think it's more likely that RJ is a three.
Speaker 1: So then your assumption would be, like this team probably
to go out and find at some.
Speaker 3: Point, Yeah, at some point. What so if guiding light
is one, what is the synonym for two? Supplementary light.
Speaker 1: Like the backdrop?
Speaker 2: I have no idea we're really need to sit in
him for the number two. Let's let's stick with RJ.
So we talked a lot about the stuff he was doing,
and I think being in the raptor's motion offense, being
in transition more that helped him a ton taking like
following all the way to the basket on his actual drives.
Some of the stuff came down a little bit, a
little bit of the efficiency from the perimeter after we
recorded what are you specifically looking at to see? I mean,
at this point it does feel well, actually, let me
start here. At this point, it kind of feels like
the finishing stuff just might be real?
Speaker 1: Is that? Would you so real?
Speaker 3: Man? Okay, it's you know, egg on my face if
it's not. But I think it's real. You. I watched
like before he came well after he came over. I
had watched the decent amount of RJ in New York,
and then I watched MOREE in New York. There's a
lot of tough finishes there. But also he flubbed a
lot of stuff, and I don't know if that became
like a mental thing. I don't know what happens. But
he's very strong, and he's he's very good with his
left hand, and so I kind of wanted to dispel
the notion that he only goes left because he actually
is a more efficient and more voluminous driver going right. Now,
he still finishes left, but he's so strong at his position.
He's so willing to you know, box guys out of
his space and go up there uncontested, and like, if
you're not over six foot eight and two hundred and
thirty pounds, RJ probably can you know, evacuate you from
the space and finish. And also, you know, I wrote
about it at the end of February, the higher pass
percentage that he's introduced into his drives. When I looked
at how many advantage assists he gave as a raptor
versus Nick, the percentage went it almost doubled. It was
like twenty six percent versus forty four percent. He was
making that reads he's a little bit more patient in
the lane. He's a little bit more confident finishing. I
think all that stuff manifested and it sticks around. And
the piece I just wrote yesterday about his cutting, he
was cutting twice as often in Toronto as he was
in New York. He scored almost on three times as
many cuts in Toronto as he did in New York
in just six more games. So this kind of stuff,
the motion offense, you know, the blade cuts, the forty fives.
You know we talked about Caitlin. The Pacers always used
funky guys in the dunker spot guards. RJ is a
pretty like nifty dunker spot guy. There's a lot of
stuff trending in the right direction for him to score
the ball. Darko the other day told me I could
go a full quarter, wouldn't drop a single play for RJ.
He'll figure it out.
Speaker 2: It's good stuff, just night and day from the stuff
he would think about him while he was in New York,
and you think a lot I had to do with
personnel overlap in spacing, redundancies. But it's wild to hear
Darko say something like that or felt complete opposite.
Speaker 3: In New York, they don't run a lot of stuff
for RJ. Like a lot of it is him just
being garbage man. And usually garbage man isn't like the
two or the three as far as like the position
on the court. But I mean you pick up garbage,
You pick up garbage.
Speaker 2: Glittery sanitation worker. Maybe that's what we refer to the
number two. Sticking with then synonyms rather than asking where
you think he should develop, what's the next frontier look
like for him, or that you'll be looking at, Oh
can he add this or can he polish this off
a little bit more?
Speaker 3: It is defense. Now RJ has a little bit more size.
Then you know, I was maybe a bit of a
hypocrisy here where I'm saying I don't care if a
point guard is clever offball. I care if RJ is
clever off ball because he's strong enough to stick in
against seals and post switches, and he's also not that
fleet of foot at least going sideways and like letting
the barn door swing open and stuff like that. So
being able to be gritty in the lower half of
the defense with digs, with being attentive with making sure
that like you're efficient in your steps to dig, you're
efficient in your steps to get back out to the corner.
And it's like, I know, the Raptors haven't fully adopted
the run and stop type of close out. They like
the stutter stop close out still, but there's a lot
of stuff that he can clean up on that end,
and how the Raptors use him to kind of protect
against his foot speed weaknesses on the perimeter, and how he,
I guess takes to their new approach. That kind of
stuff I'm really interested in. I think that is the
next frontier for Archie Barrett is becoming survivable on defense.
Speaker 1: Mattuel quickly, you mentioned him already. Where do you sort
of land with his playmaking? I thought there were a
lot of nice flashes in Toronto when Yaka Perto was healthy.
That certainly helped. And I think even just having guys
where you don't didn't see as much.
Speaker 2: Of this New York it felt like anecdotally of just
even lifting or just kind of moving off the ball.
Speaker 1: It served him well in terms.
Speaker 2: Of his options, and maybe simple are just making more
available reads for him. But do you they paid him
forget about the number two stuff. They paid him like
someone who should probably be able to run the offense
like an actual for General. Do you see that level
of playmaker in him and what still kind of needs
to happen for him to get there?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's paid like an All Star guard and it
starts this year, and you know it's it's not the
most fun way to get basketball, but it's a consideration
as far as being like a de facto for General.
I actually don't think he's fully that guy. I do
think what you said that he showed more playmaking jobs
in Toronto than he did in New York. There's some
like the assist to usage stuff didn't go crazy, but
the assist percentage went up and the assist numbers went up.
The Raptors are a little bit of an assist farm,
though they like they had over twenty five assists in
like thirty straight games or something like that. They broke
a franchise record and they were terrible. This is a
bad team. They lost sixteen games in a row. But
a manual I think did a much better job of
getting deeper into the lane with a live dribble. I
think that having Yaka Peardle is really like Yaka Purdle
is a very underrated pick and roll big man. He's
one of I think the best in the league at
laying down the screen providing the simplest pass, which isn't
the lab, which isn't the over the top, it's the
pocket pass. Most guards have it in their bag, and
especially for a manual, going right, the pocket pass is
very easy. Purdle the catch, the twist and the pivot
through and the step through. He finishes like seventy eight
percent of his field goals there. You're gonna get your
numbers juiced. That's great for a manual. As far as
like really manipulating the defense far into different spaces, I
don't know if he'll do that, and I don't know
if he can do it like possession in possession out.
But I think the cool thing is a manual is
a tremendous catch and shoot operator. He moves off the ball.
The Raptors run a ton of shallowed double drag for
Scotty Barnes running a pick and roll and guess who
the shallow cut is. So many times Emmanuel quickly going
out to the left right, So he is not He's
not a de facto for general I do think, however,
though he does enough for general ling, he does enough
light guiding that he can also step into a lot
of supplementary lighting for Scotty Barns, and he can do
so very easily in a way that not every point
guard can.
Speaker 2: You also mentioned him taking the extra dribble getting deeper
into the paint. Is there, like do you see the
ability for that.
Speaker 1: To go even further?
Speaker 2: Like do the raptors want to have the spacing to
encourage it if he's going to be.
Speaker 1: On the ball to start those possessions.
Speaker 2: Because I think his rim frequency in Toronto was eighteen percent,
which was a pretty big uptick from where he was
in New York, which I think was twelve percent last season.
But that's still not like a super high number. And
he does have a tendency. You know, it's fine when
the floaters kind of fallen, but like the kind of
bailout on a dime and chuck up the floaters when
you're in the lane, and that's not necessarily always good
to flying. So is there like, do you see the
potential for that sort of rim pressure supplementary rim pressure
to continue to uptick.
Speaker 3: I think it can a little bit. But as far
as like becoming a big time rim pressure guard, no,
I don't think so. I think that he's not able
to finish through contact very well. And when I say contact,
I'm not saying like free throws and one. I'm saying
when the defense is legal, when they've beaten you to
the spot and you either have to like kind of
blow through somebody's shoulder to get around them and keep
your line, drive straight, don't let it wideen your angle
so that you step wide, and so that you know
the weak side rim protector is actually on you by
the time. You have to be able to blow through
that shoulder and stay on a straight line or go
up and bounce off a guy and finish in there
like that. That part of his game is not super strong,
and you see that represented in a lot of the
best rim pressure guards. He is, however, like he got
better at it over his time with the Raptors, and
it was something that a lot of people were paying
attention to, like, as you said, eighteen percent versus twelve
or thirteen percent. This is still low rim frequency, even
even for a guard, right right, And he still like
is around thirty percent in the short mid range, which
is high frequency even for a guard. Being the free
throw line is something that I thought he got a
very friendly whistle in Toronto. I wonder how it goes
over a full season. If he'll get the same trips
to the line, I'll be interested. But you know, there's
something to say about like, at some point you are
the player you are, He's he Before he made the
trip from New York to Toronto, he was fourth in
the NBA in floaters made, and he shot like fifty
nine percent on them in half the season in New York.
That's great. A fifty nine percent is good on floaters.
It's not really great on layups. Typically you want to
be over sixty percent. But he has a talent. He
has to be able to use it. I think the
most important thing is probably how he play makes out
of those packages rather than expecting like big rim pressure guy.
But we're splitting hairs a little bit. You know, there's
things he can improve on, for sure. But he is
a slight guard.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Is you mentioned that you thought he got a friendly
whistle in Toronto, which is kind of funny because his
entry there kind of coincided with the game shifting and
how it was called, and we have I don't know
if it's confirmation, but it seems like, okay, that's going
to continue to be an emphasis moving forward. Is he
someone then if you're worried about his ability to finish
through contact, could that adversely impact him in ways that
we haven't really seen manifest then Yet, if you thought
he got a friendly whistle last year.
Speaker 3: I think if more physical defenses introduced were allowed that
Emmanuel Quickly is one of the players who will struggle
with that like and that doesn't mean he's not a
good player. Emmanuel Quickly's good. He has a lot of
really great NBA level bolence, But physicality is something he
struggles with. It's why I'm sure you've seen him in
the playoffs. Guards who struggle with physicality typically they get
leaned on during the playoffs and use Typically he a
big dip. Guys who are a little bit more reliant
on free throws. Guys who are a little bit more
reliant on not having guys kind of like get into
the hips, get into the waist. I think it would
have an adverse effect on him. You'd have to figure
out counters. Maybe that means he shifts If that sticks
around in the NBA, I don't know. The reffing kind
of goes everywhere sometimes. If that sticks around, maybe that
means he transitions more into off ball stuff for the
long term look of his future. And maybe that means
that Scottie Barnes, who is extremely physical, gets to be
extremely physical towards his defenders, and maybe that means he
can take on more of the like initiator stuff. I'm
not exactly sure, but I do think that would damp
in a little bit of his let's say creation stuff.
Speaker 2: And what what if you recalibrated his defense too, Like
what is your expectation or hope for what he can
turn into defensively for this team?
Speaker 3: Then geez, that's a tough question because we haven't we
haven't seen it like we it was bad. It was
really bad in Toronto. Every time he played a good
point guard it went really poorly. He wasn't sticky, he
didn't offer much resistance, and the off ball stuff when
the defense was already bad and the Raptors were bad team.
It doesn't really ask players to like be the best,
you know, be the best off ball defender. You can
be like guys are less engaged. We'll be honest. That's
why the G League looks the way it does. Like
you know, ball pressure guards look great in the G
League because you know that's one thing you can control.
But the team defense, the scheme at large is just
like cobbled together. The Raptors were half a G League
team from lots of h so there's lots I'm waiting
to see from quickly. It wouldn't It wouldn't surprise me
if he was like an above average guard defender, but
only slightly. But if that happened, I would be overjoyed.
I'd be like, oh, this is great, this is awesome.
I wouldn't be like, wow, I never saw this coming.
But I think it's more likely he probably is around
average or below average because he really does have I
saw him struggle a ton at the point of attack.
Now there's room for him to be really good, you know,
not toothless, but toothfull, you know, on digs and he
you know, wingspan plus size. He's not a short guard either,
especially at the point guard position, so to be in
lanes to make sure that passes out to the corner
of the wing have more arc on them, they'd go
less direct. Like that kind of stuff can always be there,
you can deter, but really the point of attack there
so much remains to be seen.
Speaker 2: I think he can actually be a lot better. And
I'm wondering if you mentioned one the talent around him
with the Raptors, a fielding and G League roster. There's
also and you would know more about this just being
you know, being more in tune with the games in general,
having that mid season switch, like going from one team
to the other. I don't know how much that impacts
your ability to then like grasp everything that's happening and
the stuff. A lot of times when I would see
him in Toronto where he's getting burned, it felt like
this wasn't that stark. But you remember that Chris Paul
meme where like Steph Curry has him on Twister, it
just felt like Emmanuel quickly was operating from his back
heels too much, like he was almost ready to fall
over in space lot And I'm just wondering if better
talent around him, for sure, but if just more familiarity
with the Raptors in general, if you see, I hate
using the phrase lot.
Speaker 1: We're just trying to come up with synonyms for everything.
Speaker 2: But like a more effective a man, like a more
consistent version of Emmanuel Quickly this year, because I never
watched him in New York, not once, and maybe so
like three seconds of his games. But I really do
think like that is someone who I always looked at,
and he has the aesthetics like, oh he was It
wasn't even the off ball stuff. It felt like he
was feisty and that he would be able to hold
his own in a lot of the point of attack situations,
whe even if it came to navigating screens. So I
would still hold out hope that I think he could
be better than what you were seeing in Toronto. But
he is, like I wouldn't describe him necessarily as super strong.
It's like he has good size and we've already kind
of mentioned it, so that's certainly a concern too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, if you're worried about him, or if you
think being on his heels was a problem, the Raptors
at Media Day Darko has talked about it a lot.
They have DJ Carton, who is a great ball pressure
guard at the G league level, remains to be seen
at NBA level, Jamal shed who is like a prodigious
ball pressure guard at the collegiate level, and Davion Mitchell,
who is one of the best ball pressure guards in
the NBA. The Raptors said that the most important defender
on the flour for them is no longer the low man.
It is now the ball pressure the guy who is
applying it. They're making a big change. I think so
Emmanuel as the head of the snake, defensively should be
on his toes, so hopefully being feisty and fleet a foot,
you know, hopefully that that works out. I mean, if
he was good defensively, it changes everything, like it really does.
But if he's bad defensively, it's like, well, damn, this
is tough to work around now because Emmanuel RJ. Grady,
that's like one of those guys as to guard.
Speaker 2: I do recognize that there could be kind of the
played in New York inflation here whereas they do one thing.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, he's in the garden man, he's gritty.
Speaker 2: Like I don't think anyone ever thought he was an
all defense defender league wide, but I'm sure there were
like Knicks fans or media that would have made the case.
Speaker 1: I even think r J.
Speaker 2: Part was probably his best defensive season. I think was
as a sophomore and he was like he was good,
and it was portrayed and I'm not calling out Knix,
Fens or anything, but it was portrayed nationally as like spectacular,
and it almost takes away from yeah, you did say something.
I didn't send this to you on the outline. It's
not even necessarily raptors related.
Speaker 1: Are you noticing it.
Speaker 2: Changed at all on how NBA team seem to maybe
be building their defenses where it feels like typically it's
you kind of start from the inside out as your base,
And it does feel like when you look at certain
teams the Pelicans could be won, even maybe the Rockets
last year, it feels like teams might be more apt
to build it from the outside end, where you're talking
about using the head of the snake or like ball
pressure more so than like trying to rely on like
not not even funneling towards room protection, but necessarily building
around and it doesn't have to be an elite big man.
Speaker 1: But we see so many defenses.
Speaker 2: Try to build their bases around bigs in general.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the reason for that might be that
the best offensive players. Like, for a long time, there
was a certain level of speed and influence a defense
could put onto a player driving downhill and players driving
downhill it was very It used to be pretty roped.
There wasn't like that creative playmaking or scoring out of it.
Like guys wanted to get to their spots. They know
what it looked like. And if you see this counter,
you get it. Now you have, like, on average, at
the point of attack, like a guy who's like six
for four with a six to eight wingspan, blindingly quick.
Really can I curse?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Really gives a shit on defense. And not only do
you have faster bigs and bigs who have their head
on a swivel for a law of opportunities for a laydowns,
all that kind of stuff, but the rear view can
tests and the way that teams play the lanes now
is they're really trying to catch up to guys who
operate just on a different cerebral level going downhill and so,
and this is kind of a Celtics thing. If guys
are so goddamn good at once they get past their
first defender, Like it's it's insane to me how many
guys turn five on fours into like sixty five percent
field goal. They just like it's it's there every time.
They're like, Okay, Derek White, Drew Holiday, Jalen Brown, Jason like,
let's just fucking form the wall. Make sure they can't
get to that point, Like we have to keep the
guy in play, and that requires more of that outside
in building. And that's why, you know, and Jason Tatum's
rebounding is really underrated, so they can get away with
him at the four. But you know, guys are too
good at passing. Now, guys are just too damn good
at passing, so you need to keep them farther away
from the basket and hope that they shoot a lot
because and I think that might be informing the defensive change.
Maybe maybe this you should ask Caitlin this question. I
bet she has a really insightful answer.
Speaker 2: I'm happy I got to ask you, because even the
nick seem like they're trying to do it, like they're
like at least a facsimile of it. So it's something
I've thought about a lot over the past couple of months.
But you did mention the Raptors defense. And so after
playing all that time under Nick Nurse Forresa, seeing just
hyper aggression from them, they were definitely more conservative last year,
And now you're mentioning that they are talking about kind
of making the most important defender the ball pressure guy.
So as if fair, now we're gonna see a more
are they gonna try and strike a medium like what's
gonna be Toronto's defensive identity this year?
Speaker 3: God, I don't know, because you say things. We all
say things, you know, everybody says things. When the Raptors
were hyper aggressive, it was before Pascal's defense took like
a downturn. It was when oj Ananobi was still you know,
he playing very hard on the Rappers, still an all
NBA level defender. Fred van Vliet, who had one kind
of down year defensively in Toronto but immediately became like
an insane pest once again in Houston. They the wonderful,
beautiful half season of precious at you. I mean when
they play by the way.
Speaker 2: Following that half season, that offseason, I picked him to win,
So I think we're talking the twenty two offseason, right.
I picked him to win Most Improved Player in twenty
not work out so well for me.
Speaker 3: We're a Precious believers, brother, I still believe in it.
There's a lot of latent stuff going on there for Precious,
but they had a lot of defensive talent on the
roster and they were just a better team. Now I
don't think they have the same like definitely not on
the wing. Wings are important to ball pressure. As it
turns out, they don't have the same level of wing
defenders and we probably won't even get to see exactly
what they want to do early on because they still
have so many injuries. Like RJ is injured, Bruce Brown
is injured, Emanuel Quickly is still nursing his thumb. Jacoby
Walter and RJ both a chromio clavicular joints stressed and strained.
We'll see what happens once they're fully healthy, but at
the very least they have Davion Mitchell, Emmanuel Quickly, DJ
cart and Jamal Shad and Scottie Barnes and Yaka Purtl
in the back line. Also, it wanes from game to
game but he can have some pretty impressive ball pressure
games too, So we'll see all that shakes out. Yeah,
I don't know, like because words are words.
Speaker 2: Has Yaka Purdle at all? I've never been with the
quip peers. I've never been a super Just like, Oh,
Yaka Purdle's like this amazing NBA center. I wasn't thrilled
with the contract the Ractors gave him. I didn't think
it was backbreaking. Has he become a little underrated on
the defensive end at all? I think the raw rim
protection numbers are throwing people for a loop because they've
slipped over the past couple of seasons. But if you
want to dig into numbers and you look at like
teams get to the rim less when he's on the court,
and they shoot worse overall when he's on the court,
especially last season. I don't know if it's because the
Raptors were just working from such a low baseline, But
for the stuff that he's able to do, is it like,
what is the actual value of Yako pertl on de Like,
what is the proper way to evaluate Yaka Purdle through
a defensive lens?
Speaker 3: I think that he was overrated defensively for a long time, okay,
and underrated offensively because for too long everyone got so
goddamn comfortable thinking like, well, if he doesn't shoot, it's
not super offense. But Yaka Purtle is a very good
offensive center for greasing the wheels for everything you want
to do, for screen setting, for finishing everything around the rim,
and you can operate a lot of elbow basketball with
him as the hub. The Raptors, they really benefit from
what he provides offensively. Defensively, things have slipped. I think
some of that is to do with, like, I don't know,
you've probably felt it in your own life at general
malaise when you're going through like a patch of life
where you're like ho hum, you know, when you're not
playing on like a super good team, and Zion is
coming down the lane, less impetus to like put your
body between the you know, the unstoppable force. And I
think he does have trouble on the perimeter now more
than he used to, and so that and it's not
a whole bunch, but I think he has a little
bit more trouble on the perimeter than he used to.
I mean, the open practice I just went to at
McGill University, Kelly Olinic took him for all he was worth,
Like Yakub had a lot of trouble with this point
forward Kelly Olinik, who was thirty three and was shredding him.
But his room protection stuff, I still think is good.
And big bodies are big bodies. Big bodies good in basketball.
Speaker 2: I think in theory, if there's going to be a
boatload of mall ball pressure in front of him, how
does that impact his job? Then defensively for Toronto, doesn't
that in theory could leave him kind of needing to
do too much on the back line.
Speaker 3: Then you're asking the right question. And I'll tell you Dan,
this is the exact question I asked Yakam and he
refused to answer it. I said, hey, we're talking about
a whole bunch of ball pressure. How does that impact you, Yakub?
And he was like, it doesn't really And I was like,
surely that can't be true. And he did the thing
where players are like, well, it depends on schemes. I'm like,
I know, it depends on schemes. Yeah, but I would
just I love for you to like go a little
bit deeper on this for me. But he refused. I
think it will require him. It depends on how especially
since their ball pressure guards will be smaller a lot
of the time, you know, crowding from behind won't be
as big a thing. I assume Yakub will be stepping
up a little higher in the defense and that might
be trouble. But since Scotty, it could effectively turn Scotty
into the back line guy A lot more often is
that Yakub is the big man who steps up. Then
if he allows the blowby or if a guy kind
of gets around him, they have to widen their drive.
That means that Scotty is the little man. He has
more time to come over, and that Yakub can trail
back into the paint for boxing out, for rebounding, or
for laid down passes, to guard that kind of stuff.
I think he's capable of doing it. I wish I
had a quote from him saying this kind of stuff.
But you know, they don't have to They don't have
to give us anything. Honestly, it just doesn't matter what with.
Speaker 2: These raptors guys kind of Styny and you were talking
last year, and I'd read your piece before we recorded
that pod about you asking r J Barrett to kind
of like what's changed or how he's changed. He's like busy,
he says, I haven't changed. I'm so RJ or something.
They don't want to elaborate for you.
Speaker 1: What's up with that?
Speaker 3: Well, sometimes they do. It's just it's just if you
get them on a certain Yakub never wants to, Like
Yacub never wants to elaborate for me. A lot of
players do. And RJ has actually been really good, uh
and really great this season to start. We'll see how
that kind of shakes up. Scotty will not elaborate anything ever,
which is unfortunate because like he'll go do it on
Twitch or something. But I'm not digging through a Twitch
stream for quotes. I just said, God, I couldn't put
about Kick.
Speaker 1: I just heard of Kick. What's kick?
Speaker 3: Is he on? Kick? Oh? I think Kick is a
hell hole.
Speaker 1: I think it makes sense.
Speaker 2: I just I didn't even know it existed until a
few days.
Speaker 3: Ago, So I'm pretty sure Kick is like the debaucherous
streaming site.
Speaker 1: All right, he's not on there.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: I only saw because there was a social media influencer,
because Twitter is a mess now with the algorithm.
Speaker 1: I crashed his uh.
Speaker 2: McLaren and film the whole thing and he got kicked
off Kick for doing it. Was the the tweet reporter.
Speaker 1: I was like, the hell is kick.
Speaker 3: If if? Now this is just a cursory glance into
if my brain remembers from passive information. I think Kick
is funded by Steak the crypto casino, and I think
they have like so much money because they get kids
to gamble like I think, wait wait wait. But also
allegedly in case I don't know alleged everything alleged, I don't.
I don't know well enough. Anyway, We're we've gone far field.
But anyway, sometimes you get stymied. Sometimes you get really
good stuff. I'm hoping that this year I get really
good stuff. And thank you to Darko, who is usually
very forthcoming with me, and that's I really appreciate Darko
for that. But yeah, players don't have to say anything.
They don't owe us anything. They just have to be there.
Speaker 1: They don't. But uh, I kudos to you and the
other people.
Speaker 2: I say this all the time in the podcast where
I stopped doing on site work like him pushing for it,
like right around the pandemic. Obviously, I never tried to
go back because I hated the logistics and the like,
not the politics of it. But yeah, well there's politics
of it, and I'm not willing to play that game.
But so kudos to you for continuing to power through
the what could be bland answers.
Speaker 1: Although yakab to his credit, I saw him getting the
oh you can't say the koy port out loud.
Speaker 2: Type thing when he said that was great, we're not
a attacking the championship. I was like, hell, yeah, like
that's the case we claim to want candor let him
say it.
Speaker 1: I liked it. It's sorry to take us on that tangent.
Speaker 2: But they're big man rotation because we're talking about yakub
When you look at kind of the primary bigs on
this team, they don't have like a like we're talking
about how they might defend.
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem like they have.
Speaker 2: A type of big man rotation where they could even
like have an identity that's consistent across the board with
yakub Ko, my guy Chris Bouchet. So what do you
sort of make of the big man rotation? Is there
one of I guess if Kelly Olinic is cooking like,
you know, Utah Jazz point center Kelly Olinick. He's not
gonna fall by the wayside, But is there the potential
for Chris Bouchet to kind of fall out? Or like
what do we sort of make of that primary Raptors
you know, big rotation.
Speaker 3: So this is flex tape. The name Scottie Barnes is
crudely drawn over it when he slaps it in front
of the big leaking hole and it's like, hopefully this works.
I think Scottie Barnes does a lot of heavy lifting,
and so does Yaka for that that big man rotation.
Kelly struggled a lot at the Olympics. I was crestfallen
by Kelly's performance at the Olympics. To be quite honest
with you. He was not good offensively or defensively, and
I thought both of those I thought that context, that
environment should benefit his game on both sides of the floor.
Maybe he has a really good season, but he was
really bad defensively last year. Again, everybody on the Raptress
was really bad defensively last year, especially when the team
was so injured. So who knows, really, maybe they find
different ways where they can kind of like keep things
a little bit more penned in I'm not exactly sure.
Chris Bouche is a positive bench player in the NBA
and he got it. Yeah, and he got sat a
lot last year, a lot of did not play coaches decision.
I gotta be honest, man. You know you talked about politics.
We talked. I said politics. There's politics here in the
Chris Bouchet thing. I don't know anything confidently enough to
speak on it, but I can simply point to like
the cloud of politics and be like, happening, something happening,
something is and has been happening with Chris Bouche, who
is on merit like, definitely you have to get minutes,
and he just didn't. And this year it's like you
still can't get a quote being like, yeah, Chris is
part of the rotation. This guy is definitely good enough
to be part of the rotation, and yet we dance
around it. So I'm not again politics Chris Bouche. He
might not be as good as he once was. And
again it's hard to tell. Because the bench player on
a bad team, things change. A lot of this stuff
is contextual, but that's an interesting thing. I'm paying attention
to It's like, what the hell is happening with Chris?
Speaker 2: So do we need to have some sort of a
who gets more minutes this year? Bruno Fernando or Chris
Bouchet type discussion? I really didn't think we needed to.
Speaker 3: It will be Chris okay, good, but maybe not as
big a home runs as you think. I don't know.
It was so weird last year. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: He will remain one of my siren songs forever though.
Speaker 2: This is either terrible podcasting or fantastic podcasting.
Speaker 1: But I haven't I asked you a specific question yet
about Dotty Barnes. Let's return to that synonym.
Speaker 2: So he didn't really play much after you and I
last talk, so anyone should go circle back to that
discussion we basically talk about there was across the board
improvement from him, Like I feel like you seldom see,
even at that point in your career where we expect
improvement from a player, such comprehensive improvement. What is the
next front tier for him?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 2: When you look at where arenas in which he could
still improve.
Speaker 3: I think the free throw line is the I'm writing
a piece. I'm going back over all of Scotty's picking
roll possessions so I can have a more definite because
when I looked at him last time, it was not good,
and I didn't feel good saying that in you know
the coverage I gave, which was like, hey, things are
not going well. He's having trouble beating the push switch.
But now, and this is a bit of the piece,
is like, well, he's more confident in his handle. He's
more patient against switches. He's such a talented passer that
when teams kind of wall up at the start and
you look to seal and get in behind that sealed
drags a guy, he flings it to the corner. If
there's any type of hesitation on the defense's half that
they kind of want to Okay, we we showed aggressively,
but we want to get back. Now he attacks that
more readily. It's led to less switches against him, and
in the same way that you know, second spectrum says
Scottie went from getting like no stop short closeouts as
a shooter to getting like more and more long closeouts.
He affected change in the defense both as a shooter
and as a pick and roll ball handler. And I
think the pick and roll if he's able to keep
weaponizing his insanely tremendous passing, then I think that can
be such a massive weapon for him. And I still
like at the top, top level, he needs to score
the ball better out of the pick and roll. It's
still not a great aspect of his game, but I
think the pick and roll can be a huge avenue
for him to get downhill, to get to the line.
And that's as far as like a few told people
by year four that Scottie could like be around like
twenty two nine and six, twenty two nine to seven,
something like that. I mean, people would have been like,
what the hell is going and all NBA level defense
for the you know, before he got injured, and while
the team was still competitive, people would be like, what
the hell did Like did they draft draft the best
guy from the draft class? And but that's all well
within play. So you know that uptick and free throws
could could get you closer to twenty three twenty four.
And I know Julius Randall put up like twenty five,
ten and five and everybody said he wasn't good, which
was silly to me, but like that's well within the
realm of possibility. For Scottie Barns in these next couple
of years, but with more assists and more positive, you know,
defensive play and probably a little bit more team friendly style.
He's good, he's great, great at basketball.
Speaker 2: Actually I had to file I don't know if it's
live yet, a prediction like bold prediction you actually believe.
For Bleacher Report, we did a round table and my
pick was I had to do too. One of them was,
I think scott he's going to clear twenty five points
in eight assists this year.
Speaker 1: I think the which for his age.
Speaker 2: I was looking this up before your twenty fourth birthday
or by your twenty fourth birthday. There's not a whole
lot of people that's done it. Luca and Shrey have
done it a bunch. Then you have Oscar, Robert, Tiny
Archibald and John Morant and that's it.
Speaker 1: So he would be the fifth or sixth player to
do it.
Speaker 2: With that being said, I don't know if I have
as big a hope of him getting the line more
frequently as you do. I'm really hoping that some of
the difference can come, Like we're gonna get that pull
up too, to go down at more than a thirty
seven thirty eight percent clip where if defenses are going
to defend him in the pick and roll a certain way,
but I think he can do it. And we saw
the not that this is a harbinger for that, but
the improvement from above the break three point shooting last year.
I know it dipped a little bit, but he was
still close to thirty five percent for the season and
on above the break threes. I'll take it. Also, I
think someone on this team just needs to put up
assist numbers. And there's him, and there's kind of IQ
and I know you said the Raptors are an assist farm.
And there's Perdle, which, by the way, I tend to
just discriminate against Biggs. Warn't Jokic that like to operate
against the elbows?
Speaker 3: A pit's so fake. I'm so glad you brought this up.
And this is always a pet peeve of mine. Dan,
and he trickles down to pick up ball where a guy,
you know, the one guy who's like six ' three,
he's not a very good player, but he's six threes
on the COIs lite. Yeah, give me the ball, and
they're always like, you know, they just nod their head
like cut cut it is such Oh my god, a
big in college or in their first couple of years
makes a high low read and guess what, a high
low read is not a tough pass to make. And
suddenly everyone is like, oh, is this an elite passing big? No,
when did we like start saying that that's elite passing,
that is bottom of the barrel passing. Every big can
run a high low When did this become like a
special part of playmaking. It's so fake, Dan, I'm so
glad you brought this up. It's a pet peeve of mine.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I feel like he's just gonna put up numbers,
and I'm wondering if we could see some sort of
I'm glad I'm kind of anecdotally then my me being
biased against biggs who aren't like superstars that operate at
times from like diebos that it's not completely unfounded. Then
maybe maybe that's what it is. I'm thinking at a
lower level. But it's really this, just this high level
that that's being masked by me not enjoying watching that
stuff exactly.
Speaker 3: Well, everyone thinks it's the passing. It's not the passing.
What makes you special at the elbow is a big
is your ability to set screens and your ability to
bully drive. If you can do both of those things,
it doesn't matter if you can make the high low
read or whatever. How many high low reads come open
the game three? Maybe how many? How many dribble handoffs
can you run that get somebody an edge, that filter
into a corner three or you know, a roll into
the lane or a layup countless and bully drives when
it breaks down. This is the Emir Johnson stuff that
made him so special. He needn't make Hilo pass. There's
no pomping frill in his game anyway.
Speaker 2: Grady Dick, who really we talked about this when you
were kind enough to have me on the Raptor Show
at one point last year to go from whack we
started the season to how he finished the season to
then just even like hinting at different layers other than like,
look at this value as a shooter. I really try
not to watch a ton of preseason because I don't
want to, Like, I just don't want to buy into it,
and most of the time you shouldn't. But Samson, I this, dude,
if the one like the one game I saw from
was any indication like is he gonna just have like
a ton more layers inside the arc and even just
more agency with the ball in his hands this year?
Speaker 1: Then I was especially ready for.
Speaker 3: So you you watched my Kansas probably a little bit,
I'm sure.
Speaker 2: No, I've all my college film work is done like
a crash course before the draft.
Speaker 1: I won't pretend to watch college basketball.
Speaker 3: That's no, that's I'm the exact same way, except when
the guy gets drafted. That's the only like I watched
a little bit going in. You talk to your scout buddies,
say is this guy good? Is this guy bad? It?
Keep it pretty people, pretend you know people about how
much they watch.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest.
Speaker 2: I haven't watched an NBA game since like twenty twelve.
I've smart people like you on the podcast that's able
to ride the coattails of exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's funny. So I tracked all of Grady's shooting,
like I watched all his jumper so I can track
it because I thought that the catch and shoot versus
pull up was a little bit too simple at NBAA.
I love it. It's great that they track that, but
a pull up can be a catch one dribble, standstill
in transition and make that it doesn't exactly it does
for the most part, but doesn't exactly correctly be you know,
belay the info of how difficult a shot was. So
I counted all of his movement shots, and once he
came back from the G League, after he went on
the muscle plan, he came back and over the rest
of the season he was twenty three of fifty one
for forty five percent on movement threes, sprinting off of
pin downs, wheeling off of a flare, sprinting into space,
fading twenty three or fifty one, that's absurd, and from
mid range twenty two of fifty one. These are those
catch you know, maybe a side pick and roll, throw ahead,
dribble into the middle, go run into it, throw it
up like great numbers, really really impressive numbers that agency.
You know. He and to go back to the original thing.
At Kansas, he ran a lot of side picking roles.
Was capable of making the checkdown pass when two guys
came up, was capable of making the mid range, was
comfortable getting into like a little post fade if things
slowed down. He made one on Joe ingles. Last year,
there was some interesting stuff that happened. He has the
skill if he gets his feet past his man to
kind of like make things work. As of right now,
he's not that athletic, and he's not as strong as
he will be when he's like twenty four. I think Grady,
if he fills out, should be able to like muscle
and because he's a big guard, if he plays the two,
should be able to like muscle his way to places
and shoot and play make out of so many different packages.
Right now, he's still having trouble so the agency I
think he will have. I don't know if the efficiency
comes this year. He's still going to get bumped off
of places a lot. But you're picking up on something
real that the raptors like putting him in different areas
and being like, let's see what you can do. He's
a thirteenth overall pick. He's a lottery pick. The raptors
are not like overflowing with young talent. I like that
he has room to try things. He is a streakier
shooter than I would have expected. But there's a lot
of good stuff happening with Grady, especially on the offensive end.
Speaker 2: I wonder if there's just like he threw the throw
a pass in transition, like just he wants you to
know that he just threw this one handed bounce pass
in transition, and so I'm just like, is there more
is kind of this supplementary word of a podcast like
playmaking from him than I would have foreseen.
Speaker 3: So that's real. You can also go to my twitter,
like when I was I caught the really put like
great three point to rim push lob over a defender
to Jonathan Mobo in their preseason game. He's a pretty
damn good passer. The baseline skip. He has the rap
on a baseline out above the break, whether it's a
three point shooter or a forty five cut, like, he's
pretty good at that stuff. He's still overwhelmed by the
speed and physicality a little bit, but the skill of
Grady Dick's game remains really high and the work rate
to use like a footy term is also tremendous. He
finds spaces, he gets himself in the mix. I have
a couple quotes from his shooting that will make it
into or quotes about his cutting that will make it
into a piece. At some point, we had a good
conversation the other day. But Grady's fun. I hope everything
goes well, because if things go well with him, he's
a very unique player in the NBA.
Speaker 2: I think is there something he can do defensively to
ensure his minutes don't kind of wax and wane.
Speaker 3: This year, he said he put on thirteen pounds of muscle.
Everybody was making fun of him like that. He was
in the scrum and manual quickly and RGVT were standing
outside of it mocking him openly, which wasn't They're saying
he didn't put on that muscle, but I think he did.
He has to be stronger because if you saw this
guy's calves, it's like, did you ever I don't know.
I grew up in a small town Saskatchewan. There's like
a farmer who wore rubber boots to work in the field,
and his calves were just so massive that they like
maxed out to the rubber boot entry. He has farmer calves.
Speaker 1: All right, already, Dallas, then.
Speaker 3: He has farmer calves. He does, not, however, have farmer
thighs and farmer upper body. So if it's like if
he saw a kid who was wearing like six pound
weights on his feet. I think that's kind of how
he moves his His calves are so big. He's not
fleet of foot, so he has to get bigger everywhere
else to be one of those like strong guards who,
as we talked about before with Emmanuel, quickly kind of
like exploding through a guy who's in a llegal guarding position.
Grady gets exploded through in legal guarding positions because he's
really great at reading where the offense wants to go,
beating guys to spots. He's just too frail at this
moment in time, and he's not as frail as he
once was. He's just left his teenage years. God, young people,
is that funny? Eventually you reach an age you get
to say that. But getting stronger will do a lot
for Grady because he reads the game so well. He's
just so small right now that his presence does not
act as a big change.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's the sense of where this organization is on?
Speaker 1: O chai Akhbaji is there?
Speaker 2: Like, I guess the way they want to defend he
makes sense, But you probably want someone who's not what
is he a zero level scorer still at this point?
Speaker 1: So I just I don't kind a f I liked him.
Speaker 2: I saw flashes of just like his initial stint in
Utah Effre he was traded from Cleveland.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, like I kind of see the.
Speaker 2: Theory of mirror, and ever since then, I haven't understood
the theory of ak Baji and so like.
Speaker 1: What's the hope for him? What are your general impressions
of him so far?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have been and I like O Chai Oh
Chai is I think a kind man. He's also what
he was, he the most handsome man in the NBA.
He's handsome, man, He's really handsome. Not a good thing
for his basketball game. Then I'm talking about this before that.
But I've been pretty hard on his game because, as
you say, zero level scorer, he was one for twenty
two in the short made range as a raptor. He
shot what like twenty four percent from three at twenty
two percent from three as a raptor. This is a
guy who was an absolute burner at Kansas two straight years.
Massive volume, great percentages was the defining feature of that
championship run for them, and of his game that got
him drafted in the lottery. I understand why the Raptors
wanted to bet on him because it came with Kelly
Olnik and they didn't want to have six draftees from
this year, which because they ended up with like four
or five. Right o, Chai has a pretty good nose
for cutting. He gives a shit about setting screens as
like a guard slash wing that matters. He understands a
seal to find space, all this kind of stuff he's
doing so much of the in between work. He just
didn't finish anything at the rim. He didn't finish anything
in the mid range, and he didn't shoot well from three.
Guess what. You can't be good if you do that.
And so the hope is that some of that stuff
ends up hitting in the preseason game. At the open practice,
the cuts he made were rewarded with makes at the rim,
even a couple end ones. He's strong, he's very athletic.
Hopefully the touch translates to something. And if he starts
banging triples like he did the Kansas, then like there's
a good three and D player there and a three
D player who will cut, who will scream, who will
provide ball pressure? Now I don't I didn't find him
to be very effective away from the ball. But if
he hits shots, it was a big if in the NBA, right,
like that's that's one of the foundational principles of basketball,
is like make shots, score the basketball. But if he does,
there's so much others good stuff. But right now he's missing,
like the thing, the thing is what he is missing.
But I do like Ochai. It's just been tough, and.
Speaker 2: He did when Utah blew up their team when he
was eventually like traded away at the deadline. Over the
latter half the season, he shot like thirty six percent
from three, not astronomically high, but you know, not in
the twenties, which that was.
Speaker 3: Also what I like to do is when you want
to like understand a player, go watch their career high
and scoring and see what it looks like. And Ojai's
career high and scoring was just catching shoot threes and
very easy ones and like transition layups or dunks. And
I was like, if this because he doesn't shoot it
well from three, if this is like there's no variation
to the game here. And also in Toronto he got
reps to try and create bad news bears, So yeah,
he just needs to make shots. Man, it sucks. I
hope that I'm providing enough nuanced and in depth analysis
around the rest of it, because at the end, I'm
just saying he has to make shots, which sounds like,
you know, shit Henry analysis, But it is what it.
Speaker 2: Is for two degrees away from he needs to want
it more. That's what that'll be the next Yes, exactly.
So I'm wondering if I could just ask you any
early impressions on how they fit with this team, what
they do well, or what type of role they would
play on some of the newcomers slash young young guys
on this team. Let's start with Daveian Mitchell, who I've
become progressively lower on as time has gone on, but
I will acknowledge he will he wear opponent skins like
a like a second skin. That's how he wears his
opponents on defense.
Speaker 3: So if a Sirens song is playing for Chris Bouchet,
what what what is the Davion Mitchell situation for you? Uh?
Speaker 1: What's that?
Speaker 2: Probably the fail drum, Like it's just kind of starting
at an apex and then slowly declines where it's like
oh and then oh, it's like a sudden and then
into a subtle oh no, or the wat wat Watt song.
Speaker 1: I don't actually know if there's a real name to it, but.
Speaker 3: That's where the slide whistle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's the car, the cartoon slide.
Speaker 1: That's the song that's playing.
Speaker 3: Okay, So Damian Mitchell I just wrote a piece about
him today. Uh he like ninety eighth and ninety seventh percentile.
I think it was ninety eighth percentile the lineups where
he played next to Daron Fox, ninety seventh percentile when
he played next to Fox and Sibonis. When Mitchell is
allowed to just vacate all responsibilit he's on offense and
just be like the most annoying, pesty guy on defense,
things go well, only you know, the Kings wanted a
more diverse look. They wanted guys who could do more,
and there were guys who merited looks ahead of Davion,
and Davion saw not only his responsibilities on offense paired back,
but which is what they wanted. They're like, well, he
doesn't really turn the ball over, he moves the ball.
He shot thirty six percent from three. Just like keep
everything so simple, dude, And like you watch his seventeen
assist game. None of it is very inspiring either, Like
it's like, what is the diversity of passes being made here?
He's never in any of his pick and roll plays,
never put more than one point per possession in any
of his seasons, including passes as well. So this kind
of stuff, the creation stuff has never been real. The
scoring has never been real. But if it's just you
sneak him out onto the floor and just say, like,
let's hope it goes well. That's with the Raptors. We're
talking about the fifth starter thing and r J a
chromio clovicular, the AC joint there. I love saying it.
There's stuff there. So the Raptors don't get to go
into the season I don't expect with their starting lineup,
but a good closing lineup potentially for this team, and
maybe this will Maybe there's a candle in the window
for Davion. After you listen to me, say this is
Emmanuel Quickly at the one, Davion at the two, RJ
at the three, Scady at the four, Yakub at the five.
If Grady is struggling defensively still, that could be a
pretty good closing lineup. I suspect. Now, the Raptors are
also a team that will need significant reps in creation
from a backup guard, or at least you would think
they do. And that is where you start worrying about
what it looks like with Davion. Yeah, but if his
role is because how do you let a guy close
games if his role is so small. If you're like, well,
we can play this guy. He just has to be
protected by all the best players on the team, and
we can't ask him to do too much. How do
you go to the other players who are asked to
do more and be like, yeah, so this guy gets
your minutes. Actually it's a tough thing. But there's hope
springs eternal I've heard, and things can always go better.
He has an elite NBA skill and that is a
whole side of the floor that is meaningful. That is
why the candle is in the window. I am excited
to see how it shakes up.
Speaker 2: Well, based off what you say, how they want to defend,
it would seem like he will play it important role
and will actually be impactful.
Speaker 3: It's almost like they retro like they traded for Davion Mitchell,
they drafted and they're like, guys, we actually have the
best media day talking point because we can really point
to two guys. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Uh, I know he's injured, but I'm still thinking about
his gy rating step back in summer League.
Speaker 3: Jacoby Walter, He, man, this was what I thought as
we talked about before taking a cursory glance at prospects
and then a deeper one. My cursory glance at Jacoby
Walter was like, oh man, this guy is really there's
no floor. There's a ceiling though. That's when I watch
his game. I'm just like, fuck, dude, this guy is
boom or bust. Like I like, it's really hard to
imagine him just being like an eighteen minute per game
guard or like a twenty four minute per game guard.
It's like, man, it's the gap the pedal is on
the floor or is not being touched. He gyrating jitterbug stuff.
He will shoot anything he will, and like his step
back will he will have his back to the rim
and he'll turn an air and shoot it after like
running forward into It's just the way he goes about scoring,
and he's slight. It's just like I'm just gonna get
shots up and there's a hope and a prayer that
he fills out and that that jitteriness can benefit him defensively.
The way they talk about him is that he's quite willing.
But again, he didn't get to do camp a chromio curvicular.
The AC joint went for him, and and so a
lot of this is just like Summer League where he
wasn't very impressive. This is what it looked like, you know,
in colleges, like he's getting bumped off his line when
he drives. He like guys make him take wider roots.
It makes shot making more difficult. Off of drives. It
makes you go less into the forward facing like momentum
floater that can also be like the read option into
a lab. It makes you take the floater stepping and
leaning to the outside where it becomes like a bank
or something like that. And and you know helpside defenders
are way more capable of like cleaning that off the glass.
He took a lot of hard shots and I think
he will continue to take a lot of hard shots
in his career. The thing is, and you can you could,
you know, make yourself believe it. He might make a
lot of hard shots and that will allow him to
get enough reps so that he can start to make
them a little bit easier over time. But God, he
makes basketball look difficult, but he also makes it look
like kind of amazing.
Speaker 2: Sometimes there's a chaotic energy to the way he plays.
But and I felt the same way a little bit
about jail and Tyson of Cleveland. But like, when I
watch him, I see someone whose role can be scaled
to a larger context. And I just don't see that
with Jacoby. And again I've watched I didn't watch him
in college. This is I'm basing this off like the
film work after the draft and then Summer League. But
I don't see you're making a face. But I just
don't see a way like Jacoby picturing him and like,
oh he's he's thriving, as like a complimentary score. It's like, no,
he needs to be doing this, you know, batshit ridiculous stuff,
other wise he won't be effective.
Speaker 3: I did a podcast with Trey. We talked about Jacoby
and Jalen Tyson. On the same episode. I literally made
the exact case you just made, Did you really? I
said the exact same thing. I was like, Jalen, it's
very easy to see role. It's easy to see where
he fits. A lot of it makes sense. It was
like Jacoby, not a lot of it makes sense, but
there's a ton of talent, and you wonder what it like,
what it looks like, how much, how many possessions he gets.
We made the exact same point. We just made it
like four months apart.
Speaker 1: That's wild.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I just it was because Jale and
Tyson everyone was talking about what he could do for
Cleveland immediately, and everything I knew about him was he
does all this on ball work, like they don't need
another Karrislvert type necessarily of Kars Lvert's already there. And
then when I was watching, I was like, well, like
I could see him playing a smaller role, and I
thought maybe Summer League was clouding because players in Summer
League and even in the G League, I think I
always have tough time envisioning if their usage is going
to be starkly different in Summer League and G League
sometimes how they translate to the NBA. So I don't
know if I was running into that with your Kobe
where he's like, well, he's not going to be given
that at least I don't think that type of license
in Toronto with some of the shots he was taking
in summerly.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe at some point, like they're definitely hoping. The
hope with Jacoby is that he can be a demon
out of like dribble handoffs. Like you look at his
game and you try and project what it looks like
is like a twenty three twenty four year old. You're like, oh, yeah,
this guy should be. Like he can bounce to either
side of the handoff, he can find a lane, like
he can squirt through a crack, get to like an
inside hand lay. He'll shoot whatever the hell, Like the
guys who can bounce over the top of a dribble
handoff and take the shovel pass and immediately hit a
three duncan. Robinson is one of those guys. It's extremely valuable.
We've seen countless guys do it on the heat if
you have a good dribble handoff. Big that yaka purdle
is that Scotti Barnes will probably develop into at some point,
depends if he goes wingy or big manny. I guess
we'll see Jacoby. You can see him doing that kind
of stuff, but like that's not everything. Malik Monk does
it but he's also an awesome pick and wool ball handler.
Jacoby is not. There's stuff, but yeah, we were like
right on the same track here.
Speaker 2: So Jamal's dad would be another rosand of this team.
And I guess you can tie this into Jacobe too,
like when they're healthy, how much of a rope or
like how much how much exploration is Toronto going to
give these guys in year one?
Speaker 3: Jamal is interesting. He looked so good in the preseason game.
Speaker 1: I thought it was the Raptors. Fans were undided. I
saw the clips going around he.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, he made a difference and he hardly he
hardly had to work out of the half court. He
just like got steals and pushed the ball and he
was a lot quicker than people anticipated. And so when
I talked to Alex Saar, ale Sara was talking about
the speed of the NBA game and getting adjusted to
it and asked Jamal shed that question. He was like, no,
I had to slow down a little bit because I've
been playing davy On Mitchell in practice and which you know,
there could be some truth to that. He was like,
so this turns out Jordan Poole is not as good
as defender as Davian Mitchell. We're learning. So that that
was he was great in his preseason game, but a
lot of it was unbroken plays. A lot of it
was like push pace quick, and the Wizards are not
the Wizards are not great.
Speaker 1: You know who.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So Jamal, it was great to get excited about him.
Lewis Zatsman is writing a big piece on Jamal right now,
I know Blake is also writing a big piece. There'll
be lots of fun Jamal stuff. We're in a lot
of fun information about like you know, the the dog
corollary and all that kind of stuff will come out
like Jamal is he's the he's like the governor, he's
the mayor. He's like the best man you've ever seen
all the well maybe politicians anyway, So stuff will come
out about Jamal and people be like, this is great.
I love this guy. However, he still has to be
able to set the table and create in a half
court setting. I don't expect that to be a strong
part of his game immediately in the NBA. I think,
true to the Raptors form over the past few seasons. Anyway,
the young guys will get looks early on in the year,
then they'll go to the G League for extended time.
I think that's what's gonna happen with Jamal shed But
if he exceeds those expectations, something very good is happening,
although I don't know exactly what because everyone says, well,
you just shoot the ball better and suddenly everything works well.
But like Davion Mitchell had his best three point shooting
year and his minutes dipped, and you know, shooting isn't everything.
It's a lot, but there's different places to shoot from
on the floor, different places to get two. That's my
expectation for Jamal.
Speaker 2: Are there any of like the other kind of non
core guys on this team that you'd like to touch
upon before I foisd you into the Lightning Round? If
you have any uldra sham takes, I will. I'll be
here for them. But anybody else.
Speaker 3: Chamsha nothing yet. And the Raptors even are kind of like, yeah,
we don't know what the hell we're just we liked
him and like he went out there for like two minutes,
got four fouls, you know, speaking.
Speaker 1: Of defensively active. I like it.
Speaker 3: This is a thing. Jared Jackson, Junior Rudy Gobert. These
monstrous defenders. What did they league the lead in? What
did they lead the league in when they first came
in foul rate? You gotta want to hit guys to
be a good defender. He meets the moment. He's perfectly
fine hitting guys. But Jonathan Mobo, I actually, believe it
or not, had the Mobo and the Sham picks for
for anybody who wants to label.
Speaker 1: Did you, Yeah, well you had them like oh.
Speaker 3: The no no. I was like, I'm hearing things. I
can never break something, though not not truly. So Mobo
I think is very interesting. He was smaller upon arrival
to the NBA than as advertised a little bit, and
he has struggled immensely. He's been given a lot of shots,
but there's some you know, it's kind of like that
Ochai thing. He's bigger than Ochai. And it's funny. I
said Ochai's game would be so good if he was
like six foot eight. I remember saying that last year.
And Mobo is like six ' six And on offense,
he plays a lot like Ochai because neither of them
can shoot the ball well, and they both seal screen
and cut really well and they both struggle to finish
at the rim at the NBA level. I wonder if
something clicks for Mobo because he's really interesting, Like he
has a really great hang, dribble and spray pass and transition.
He pushes the ball really well, he has a eight
sense of when to cut, he's a quick jumper. He's
just kind of up against it. Like Jason max Seal
when you watched him battle in the paint, You're like,
this is a small guy who is winning on occasion.
I hope that Mobo wins more than on occasion.
Speaker 2: I suppose are you ready to enter the Cookie Cutter Lightning.
Speaker 1: Round portion of the look Ahead?
Speaker 3: Hell yeah?
Speaker 2: Is there anything flying under the radar about this team
that we have discussed that you think deserves more shine?
Speaker 3: When healthy? Their starting lineup will win a lot of minutes.
Speaker 1: They want a lot of minutes together.
Speaker 2: Those four guys at least together, they won a lot
of their minutes together.
Speaker 1: Well, what a few minutes they played. They won those minutes.
Speaker 2: Together last year, So that is that like creates like
an interesting duality with their direction though to where it's like,
if you're winning those minutes, you might win more games
than you were expecting, and then it's got like, do
we have to break this up in terms of rotate,
Like I just that'd be fascinating. If they're starting five
whoever they slot in as that fifth starter, they're just like,
oh youah, Like we're plus seventeen per one hundred and
they're all healthy and they're playing a bunch together. I'd
just be curious, is like, what's the Raptors record twenty
five games into the season.
Speaker 1: Then if that's what's happening.
Speaker 3: And so the start of their I don't really like
doing schedule analysis, but the start of their season is
pretty brutal. They play like really tough games and RJ
might not be there for it, so that changes things.
Maybe maybe people bring the ewing theory from New York
over to Tonto if they do well. But yeah, I
think their starting lineup is and again it should be.
It's not a cheap starting lineup. Like everybody there is.
Everybody there is good and paid well and they should
win minutes and I think they will.
Speaker 1: It's funny when you frame it like that at the
top of the podcast.
Speaker 2: I've thought about it in terms of these guys are
on their X number of contracts. When you think about
how much they make together, it's yeah, it's not a
rebuilding team starting five.
Speaker 3: Really, No, they like they they're good players who get
paid well. They like they walk around. They're like, we're
supposed to be winning, and Massiah and Darko are like, yeah, yeah,
yacht cubs, Like I've seen this before. He's like, I've
played with the John T. Murray. I know, like, I
know what this looks like.
Speaker 2: So without having seen any games that matter just yet,
what do you view? Is this roster's single biggest.
Speaker 3: Need a wing defender?
Speaker 2: Such a weird thing to say about the Raptors if
you like brew Wind two years, we never would have
thought would be talking about it.
Speaker 3: They have like seven of them, no zero.
Speaker 2: What does the when they're at full strength? What does
the top ten rotation look like? Not necessarily we need
a minute's breakdown, but like who is who is playing?
Speaker 1: You have?
Speaker 2: I'll go through what I think are locks, Like when
you have him iq RJ, Grady Dick doesn't matter when
he starts, Scottie Barnes, Yaka Perle, and then I have
like Ko and Davion Mitchell as locks. So I feel
like there are seven locks on this team and then
they could get pretty experimental there after.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So yeah, IQ RJ, Grady, Scottie, Yakub Kelly is
a lock. I think Davion is a lock unless things
go way south. Bruce Brown is a lock if he
doesn't get traded like they like Bruce. Bruce is really likable,
like truly, Like was he openly discussing being traded from
the Raptors during the season last year. Yeah, he was
where the Raptors entertaining a lot of different conversations from
the Knicks. For example, Yeah, the seventy six ers didn't
get reported, but they were in there too, asking about him,
like their stuff. We'll see if he's on the team,
but he's in there. The rest of it is like
very There's a lot of names on this roster that
like are two ways or Jillie g adjacent or I
think it'll be a revolving door. And I know maybe
that's not an exciting thing to say, but I think
a lot of guys will get looks at those those
final positions, like Brandon Carlson probably gonna see a few games,
Jamias Ramsey probably gonna see a few games, Jamison Battle
I don't know. I'm less, I'm less high on him.
Garrett Temple is on the team. He's gonna play, He's
gonna play some games. They love Garrett. Chris Boushe is
gonna play a little bit o Chai he's in there,
man like Ochai is definitely in there. And anything else
you're just looking at like a you know, it's like
Brandon Carlson, Jamias Ramsey, Jared Roadin, Jamison Battle or Shamsha
Jonathan Mobo, Jamal Shed these names a lot of them.
For people who are listening in a Raptors fans, they're
probably like, I don't know who that guy is for
a great deal of them, and it's up to them
to remember the name to make sure you do this.
Speaker 2: I don't want to say, not a compelling question for
this team, but you could take however you want, whether
you think they're going to be trying.
Speaker 1: To lose close games or win them.
Speaker 2: And I know it's to some extent matchup dependent, but
what do you think will wind up being their most
used crunch time lineup?
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is such a good question because it really
I think if they want to win games early on,
it means Emmanuel quickly, Davion Mitchell, RJ. Barrett, Scotty Barnes,
and Yaka Peertle. I think by the end of season
it has to be. And if there isn't, you're asking questions,
why isn't it? I Q Grady RJ, Scotty, Yakub and
I just because like Grady, he cares on defense, but
there's a he still has to catch up on a
lot of stuff. I wouldn't delude myself because you can
trick yourself on defense pretty fast about guys like reputations
swing wildly because we don't really have numbers like that,
and the numbers that we do have are a little
bit superficial. But I think it's.
Speaker 2: Crazy you don't like you don't like citing defensive rating
is an individual to that.
Speaker 3: That's always funny when people do that, They're like, yeah,
did you know Davie Mitchell has one hundred and eleven
defensive rating.
Speaker 2: Okay, I've been battling. They're gonna catch strays right now.
I've been battling not all Kings fans, but citing tomart
Rosen's defensive rating is evidence that he's better defensively than
Harrison Barnes.
Speaker 1: Of the battles of the offseason. The argument, it's not
that Harrison Barnes was great, just that you.
Speaker 2: Could do more things with him on defense than you
could do with tomart Rosen, and he didn't get to
play with Alex Caruso last year.
Speaker 3: That's my that That is a thing. This is like,
this is maybe an r. J. Barrett thing too, is
that if you score the ball well, it happened with Damar,
it happened with Harden, it happened with like every guy.
It happened with Luca, It happens with every guy who
scores the ball really well and gets to stay on
teams and be featured. Part is like eventually they land
on a team that is able to protect them on defense,
and then suddenly, like everybody says, they turned corner. He's like, yeah,
he turned the corner at thirty two, did he at
thirty two?
Speaker 1: At thirty five? Good for him.
Speaker 3: It's it's just like, yeah, they put on a better
defensive team, you know. But yeah, anyway, Uh, I guess
we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2: Is there a weirdo, offbeat, funky lineup you would like
to see Darko try this year?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I want like I would really like to see Iq,
Davion Grady, r J, Scottie, Like, what the hell.
Speaker 1: Just Scotty at the five? Basically, yeah, yeah, I like it,
just what happens. I want to see what Scottie and
Chris Bouchet look like with three guards. So give me Iq,
Jamal Shad and dave On.
Speaker 2: You've talked me into Davion Mitchell again, this isn't okay.
I don't like this is My priors are being shifted
without having watched him extensively in Toronto.
Speaker 1: That's a lineup I would like to see. I don't
know what it would offense.
Speaker 2: I feel like there's a chance could be a little rough,
but I feel like it could cost some havoc defensively
those five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's also to go back to an underrated storyline.
I think the Raptors scored the basketball this year pretty well.
Oh that's that's a bit of a hot take, I think.
But I think they'll score the ball.
Speaker 2: You know what, it's it's the more the bet. It's
really not if you believe in what RJ showed last year,
and we should all just believe in what Scotti showed
last year. To me and you have IQ, who's just
a fantastic offensive player. Grady Dick turned a corner by
the end of last season. Sampson always turning corner before
he was thirty five. Congratulations to him, Like they have
a lot, and Yaka Pertl is one of the better
offensive centers, even though people think he's not dynamic because
he doesn't shoot threes more free throws all that well
for the most part, So like I could see it.
I was more focused on, like, what does this team
look like defensively than like offense.
Speaker 1: I could see them being above average for sure.
Speaker 3: Defensively, God, I had no idea, but there's a lot
that has to remains to be seen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as we record this, Samson, their win total is
set at twenty nine and a half.
Speaker 1: How many games are they winning this season?
Speaker 3: More than that?
Speaker 2: Let's say we are in lockstep. We just published our
win predictions pods. I think I had them at it
was thirty three or thirty four is where I ended
up with them. I think that they're just I mean,
whether they steer, I just don't leave them as a
team that's necessarily prepared to steer out of winning hard enough,
at least at the beginning of the year pre trade deadline,
I thought twenty nine and a half was low.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie it is low.
Speaker 3: They would have cleared that last year really easily. But
everything blew up like family members of you know, players died.
Everybody who was important got injured. People sat out for
extended periods with like soreness, you know, like that all
that kind of stuff. I think north of twenty nine
even though, and honestly, because this start of the season
is so difficult, you get to really test and because
our Jay will be injured for I think at least
a portion of it because he's fully out for the preseason,
will be reevaluated at the end of the preseason. So
and like Jacoby being injured, that doesn't affect win totals.
When does the rookie effect win toal?
Speaker 1: Maybe for other teams it affects their win totals a
little bit, but maybe for other teams.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think the Raptors, especially starting off maybe in
a bit of a hole because of the difficulty of
the schedule and RJ not being there, because like it's
not like RJ is the greatest player in the world,
but it's like who is stepping up behind RJ. That's
a big drop they It might be closer to twenty
nine than it should have been, but if they were
healthy from the start of the season, I probably wouldn't
have any problem going between like thirty eight to forty.
But we'll see how that shakes out.
Speaker 2: I will say it does feel like one team in
the Eastern Conference is going to accidentally, on purpose make
the play in tournament. And I'm kind of going between
Charlotte and Toronto for for mine because I really do
believe that Toronto's rebuilding, but I just look at kind
of top of the roster, I'm like, are they But
I guess that, But I'm also like they need to
get off to a really good start to buy into
the fact that they're not rebuilding. Their direction, like their
real time direction is so fat I throw that word
around too casual, leave about all the teams, but their
real time direction is so fascinating to me because it
feels it just feels so fluids where it's like you
can look at give me any team and I could
probably tell you, like this is what they're like one
year to three year plan is. I can't tell you
what the Toronto Raptors two month plan is I don't
have it.
Speaker 3: They they're they're reactive. You know this is this is
not exactly like they were proactive in some sense proactive
team building is you know, signing Scottie Barnes and and
kind of believe and even that wasn't that proactive because
that where this team is going. Like they made the
decision on og In Pascal pretty late, and that was
I think that's what people objectively thought and honestly, like
there was one offseason where the Raptors didn't talk about
trading Pascal. It was after he made All NBA and
after they went to the playoffs against the seventy six ers.
He wasn't But the season before that they were in
talks about the Raptors were trying to move up to
number three and get one of Mobile or Green. They
thought it was a three player draft. MOBILEI, Green, Cade
Scotty fell to them. They thought Scotty was the best
of the rest. They took him. You got the best
player in the draft. Maybe, hell yeah. But Pascal was
talked about in that trade with Cleveland. Pascal has been
talked about in trades with a bunch of teams. He
was talked about. The package with the Indiana Pacers was
nemhard healed and two first round picks. The Raptors wanted three.
Like a bunch of stuff was happening around Pascal and
they finally pulled the trigger near Well, I guess it
was what January nineteenth or something like that. But this
is reactive now having RJ and him being better than
a lot of people thought. Maybe the Raptors thought he
was this good. I haven't got any word on that yet,
IQ and giving them thirty five million dollars a year
is reactive. It's like, Okay, we got them in. We
got to sign them, retain the talent. Oh. Trian Kelly
is kind of like, hey, what are we doing here?
You know, it's they have a lot of picks. They
just took. Guys. They're like, we'll see what happens. They're
just looking for stuff to happen. They want stimuli to
react to Grady and Scotty. I think is proactive decision making.
So much else is kind of like, oh my god,
what's going on. We got to make decisions, and some
of the best decisions are made on the fly like that.
James Dolan, he said no to Kyle Lowry for Emmon
Shumpert and j R. Smith reactive. Sometimes the best things
happen on the fly. You know, you can plan as
much as you want. I've been rewatching prison break. You
plan as much as you want, but you got to
get in the prison to break out of it, and
then things change.
Speaker 2: Is there anything anyone related to this team basketball and
bat large did not ask you about that you would
like to discussed before I let Uskadado.
Speaker 3: I think, as is, this is what we do every time,
but I'd like to hear your thoughts on Chris Bouchet
before we get out of here.
Speaker 2: I don't have any additional thoughts from last time because
they didn't play them enough for me to expand upon them.
I think that if you're worried about their rim protection,
I think Chris Bouchet could potentially just be the answer.
I think that's in him that year where he looked
like mini Unicorn, where he's hitting threes, and the rim
protection numbers are good, and there's all You have to
appreciate the anarchic energy. It's always going to be being
there and I'm here for I don't care if they
end well or not. I like closeouts that could potentially
end in the fifth row.
Speaker 1: I respect it.
Speaker 3: It's elite, it's a very fun style of basketball. I
appreciate it as well.
Speaker 2: Samson, are you able just to tell our listeners watchers
whatever they call themselves, subscribers where they can find you
and all the fantastic work.
Speaker 3: That you do. You can find me, I guess on
Twitter this is a video podcast. Yeah yeah, so bottom right,
Sam Folk with two k's and that will I put
all my stuff on Twitter, also my thoughts. If you've
liked me as a person, there's there's more stuff there
and then raptors public dot com just for all the
work podcasting, videos, written, work, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Thank you for giving me so much of your time,
more than I told you I was gonna take up.
Speaker 1: So I'm super appreciative of that. And as you know
by the half, I'm sure having your dms to come
back on in the future.
Speaker 3: So thanks Chain as you learned the king of podcasting.
Thank you