Transcription
Hello everyone. It is Kenyan here, Basketball Rewind, and we are here for another day to talk about Raptor stuff today. How are you guys doing? Really quickly, I'm good. I'm good. How are you? How about you? As you can see, there's a lot of cords going on, but we're powering through. Do after watching Kaishan George shot form last night? I'm doing fantastic. What a beautiful shot he's got, man. It's like Picasso in a painting when he shoots the basketball. See the ball come off his fingertips, the rotation, right? I mean, let's be face. We haven't exactly been privileged to a ton of great shooters the last few years in Toronto. So, it's nice to see that. Very true. Very true, coach. Yeah.
Today we're going to be talking about Emanuel Quickly, of course, and we're going to go through if there are any audience questions at the very end. Save them to the very end. We'll kind of get to it. So we're not ignoring you, but we just want to focus and get through this as quickly as possible. Um, and anything that is pertinent to the conversation, we will get to. But yeah, um, that being said, let's just get into it.
Emanuel Quickley is the man of the hour. And the real question is, can he? You know, he had a down year last year. We're going to go through some of the stats. How can he improve? How can he be, I don't want to say useful, but in a sense, I guess, how can he contribute to winning and impact winning in the role that he is? And if not, can he impact it in a better role in the future? What does that role look like? Because I've heard a lot of people suggest there are pathways to get him there, and I agree. But then that begs additional questions. So, um, before we get into any stats, what do you guys think?
Oh, boy. I mean, this one's a loaded question because it comes down to what is, what is Emanuel willing to sacrifice to become the player that could be the most effective player for this team? That's what it comes down to. Like, as much as like you could coach them up, as much as you like, you can kind of give them all the different, you know, pep talks and speeches, as much as you like, it comes down to the player and what can they kind of break certain habits or certain ways they like to play for the betterment of the team. That, in some ways, is the biggest question actually for the entire season. Him specifically, or does that question for everyone? Question because unless that question gets answered in a way that could help the team, we going to be, we going to be in some AJ Deanska talks real quick. Yeah. And I think it's not just Emanuel Quickley. I think the only person that you don't really ask that for, outside of like, can they be healthy, is Brandon Ingram, because I think at this point, it seems like the team is more about, at least on the surface and the lip surface that's being paid for it, how to fit around him. Right.
Well, as you as you informed me the other day, I didn't realize he had gotten that high up in average. I thought he was more like 23 some, you know, he's tickled 25 almost. So you got 25 point per game scorers rolling around the place. It's like, yo, you know the quote, the old LeBron line, it's fit in or fit out, like at that at this point. So like, you're not sitting around here saying we're going to kind of pull back. But then again, this is Darko. We had a guy average 24 game and we decided to kind of, you know, um, kind of find a way to minimize his his impact. So with Darko, anything's possible. Let's say before Darko is a bit of a coaching zealot, and that that's the other major question. How much he let Brandon Ingram be Brandon Ingram? Those be those are the two biggest questions I think going into the season. And then for IQ, it's like, how do you nudge him into the role that he's supposed to be? So, uh, coach, your your your quick thoughts, and then we'll just jump right into it and go through some of the uh, the numbers, the good and the bad.
Well, I think there's been two narratives around IQ over the last year or so. One is, well, he's overpaid right now for what he does. And two, well, he's a good player who's been hurt. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt to say he's a pretty good player who's been hurt, but he's got to show something this year. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt last year because last year was a bit of a mess all around. So, quickly, I can make an argument he's pretty darn important to the success of this team. And this is why. He's got a skill set that nobody else has on this team, especially the starting lineup. The the above the break pull-up three. He's probably going to be the best one at doing that. We know catch and shoot threes, he's very, very good. He's always going to be around that 39, 40% from three anyway. And that's something that we just don't have a lot of. So, right, I think he's got to get stronger. And kind of like what what Beyond said is, how is he going to fit in with Brandon Ingram, with RJ, with Scott? He's a lot of scorers around him. He's gonna have to kind of take a bit of a step back maybe in terms of the scoring punch that he can give because I've seen him drop 40 when he was with the Knicks. He came in off the bench, I think one time, and so we know he could put up points. We know he can shoot. I think my my concern always with him is is the little floaters that he puts up in the lane. Um, that's a bit of a a concern that he's not really going at the hoop as much. I like to see him get to the hoop more because he can shoot free throws, which is again something we don't do very well besides Grady Dick, because we got two or three other starters between Scotty, RJ, and Purle. Not so much Scotty, because his free throw shooting has improved, but between RJ and Purle, you can't have two guys around 60%. That's really tough. But IQ can shoot free throws. So, I think just with his particular skill set, it's going to be important to their success this year.
Yeah, I think last year he averaged 86. I'm not sure what that noise is, so hopefully you don't hear. We do, but it's okay. It's construction or something or some sort of jets flying. Uh, but yeah, there it's uh he scored 38 points or 38% from deep. Uh, only 42% from the field overall. Um, I mean, if you look at the shot chart, um, it's it's not really great, um, you know, in terms of where he's getting his points and and having it be very diversive. Um, so I I there there are definitely some challenges. I some people have suggested that he should be more of an off-ball role, and I'm going to put the shot chart uh just simply from stat muse up on the screen. We can kind of go through it a little bit. Um, there are some places like over here on the corners where on the right he's not shooting equally from both sides on the I guess this is the right hand corner if you're looking down the court, he shoots 50%. That's good, but that's also on low volume. A lot of his things are above the break threes. Yeah, which is from this area he's shooting better, which is 45%. That's solid. Um, he doesn't shoot equally from both sides. But the problem is once you get into the mid-range, it's like two of five, one of one. Uh, nothing from this area, one of four, you know, 15 shots here. And then mostly around the hoop, it's 50%, which is should be closer to 55% if you're going to make it any sort of way being effective. Do you guys thoughts?
Um, I will go back to something coach said earlier, the above the break three. I think how they apply that shot throughout the year is going to be a a real test of a couple things. One, the Darko philosophy of ball movement. And two, the the natural tension that happens with your top scorer and your point guard, especially when your point guard isn't your top scorer, you know, because there's going to be a point where if if say he's having a rough night shooting and he and he tosses up seven or eight of those, you know, maybe maybe four or five of those above the break, let's keep it be a little more conservative. You might get a few spot-ups, but say right he stops about four or five of them and you know, say all night he hasn't been hitting him, at some point, you know, the scorer is like, can we just run a play and get me the ball in my spots? And, you know, and at some point Darko is be looking like, dude, can we move the ball around? And that's one of the few times where I think this season where Darko and Brandon Ingram might be on the same page where it's like, yo, dude, you need to fall back. And that's why I went back to my initial thought about how much can IQ kind of hold back him just being a natural instinct to score than actually facilitate. He's have to find a way to pick his spots better. And I think that tension showed up last year when he came back on and no word, you know, we saw it immediately. You know, this I made the comment last week for R.J.'s discussion that when IQ was playing, let's face it, Grady's numbers dropped. Just the fact. All right. So, like, you know, so obviously Grady's no offensive player like Brandon Ingram, nor does he have the clout like Brandon Ingram, but that was something that was a little bit concerning seeing how that was playing out. I was like, well, let me get it straight. Like Brady in this case, at some points were having about 20 a game, shooting like some ungodly number from mid-range. I know people say, oh, you know, it was, you know, it was like teams caught with him. I don't buy that one bit. Teams didn't catch up with him. I'm sure if we look at the stats once Scotty and especially once IQ came back, his shot attempts just dropped like a stone. That's what it was.
Can I actually show you something real quick? Go ahead. Which adds to what you're saying? So someone actually showed me this, um, uh, so shout out to them, of course, data baller, and it has like lineup data to show like how lineups shift with or without players, certain players in the line or not. And this to me is stark. It gets to the root of what you're saying is that with and without Grady, or you know, Emanuel Quickly, with and without Grady, you know, he plays a bit better without Grady, but like it's more or less it's the same. But then Grady without IQ is a completely different player. That his shooting is better, the TS is better, the free throw attempts is better, the three uh percentage is better. Every single one of these stats is significantly better, including his ability to attack and get to the rim and finish at the rim. Isn't that interesting? That discrepancy was huge, especially with IQ off and Grady on. That's it was bigger than the other than the reverse. Exactly. And why I think that that's really interesting is because a lot of people are trying to suggest that he turns into some sort of form of a shooting guard. And I think I I don't know how to think about that because he might be the best shooting guard on the team, but that might not be the best long term, but it might be best in the short term or the aggregate.
Let me ask you this, guys. Do you think if you had to just look at the team, pick whoever you want, what do you think he's not saying what option he is as far as like on the scoring totem pole? I'm talking about more like what just in your own instinct, you know, would you say he is the, you know, first, second, third, fourth best offensive option on this team as far as like if you had to give the ball to someone, not saying what the breakdown would be, just when you look at their games, where would he sit?
I mean, I almost want to say like depending on what you're asking for, like if it's a late game three, maybe it he's higher up on the totem pole, but like if you're just talking about overall running an offense or getting a bucket, there's a reason why we didn't see him get, you know, sometimes Purle's elevated higher than him to be perfectly honest. I don't know if people agree with that in late game situations, but Well, yeah, I guess that's the way you know what that's actually a great way of phrasing a confidence meter. If you had to get a bucket, which guy you feel you could run a play for that can get you a bucket? Where would you, whether it be from himself or creating for others? I would say he's probably fourth on on on the starting line. Fourth on that that particular me. I think it's on that point it could I can make an argument he might be fifth. Yeah. I trying to be nice here, but yeah, because it's like if he's going to play an off-ball role, that's that then he's he's not going to be the top three guys, right? The top three guys are going to expect to take if if needed, can they commandeer the offense for a section of time to be able to create for others? And he just doesn't do that. He doesn't have he's he's fast, but he doesn't have the lateral like agility in his dribbling, and he's probably one of the best handlers on the team. Um, he just does not have that, and so that's that's where my concern comes from.
Yeah. Yeah. Ingram for me is number one because he's the guy I think can get you a bucket. And nice. So RJ depends on how he's playing that game. It's very much determinant on if he's rolling that game, maybe. So because he seems to go left sometimes. No, everyone knows he's going left. They don't stop him. Scotty depends on how they use him this year, quite honestly. If if they're going to use him an ice overall, I'm going to say no. And then IQ, he could be as high as two or three. He could be as low as four for me. See, I I I mean, I don't want to get too much into this, but like I had Purle ahead of him actually. You know, I'm looking to get a bucket, I can run a pick and roll for Purle in this game. Purle above. I mean, that that Yeah, that flip shot of his. No, I know for Ple, you know, me and Purle already, but that flip shot his like automatic from about six feet. Yeah. Soft touch, right? Like that like Yeah, you can blink your eyes and run that play. He's going to hit it pretty much almost like, you know, six or seven out of 10 times in a way. It's kind of like, um, how JV would be where it's like, okay, if you absolutely need, he has something that's go-to that's consistent that you would go to. Exactly. So the Yeah. So I would put him head in that sense if I had to get a bucket, you know, and I think right now, quite honestly, I prefer Grady. Give him off a floppy or anything like that. Give Grady any type over over that. And I think then it's like battle between him and Scotty, depending what mood Scotty's in. I might have him below him. I might have him above him. I don't know. But they're fighting out for number five in my mind.
Yeah, I think I think Scotty at least has ways to use his strength if he if he's up for it to like try to like create something, whether or not it's going to be finished well or not. But that's another conversation for another day. So yeah, I just think, um, to the point that I just made, it's like I if he's going to be a point guard, then he has to do a much better job of facilitating the offense. And currently, he's just not doing that. is not able to do that. Um, and then maybe it gets into like why and like what's going on. Um, I won't go into like the the catch and shoot numbers. Those are fine. I don't think that those need to be digged into. Um, but there's definitely some times where, and I'm going to put this back on, uh, on the screen. There's there's definitely some times. By the way, can you guys see the the the screen? You can see it. It's just small. Okay. Is that better? Mine's loading, but that's okay. That's Yeah. Yeah, here we go. I got you. Yeah. Okay. So, like here's a good example. I'm not going to show all of these, but here's a good example where you can see him and there I believe he actually passes it off to Scotty down low. This is not, I mean, for a offense that's supposed to be predicated on ball movement and lots of like cuts and stuff like that. There's not a lot of stuff going on here, and then as soon as he he dip he dips it in, he's just kind of like just sitting there watching it unfold. I want to see more movement from these guys. Like at this point, I don't care, right? Like the the play is done, but like I want to see more engagement from like here onwards.
Yeah, that particular at this point, like it's not a done deal. The play is not done. Mhm. That particular play though, that was a mismatch play. I don't I and that's a good that they he picked that up because Scotty is, you know, three feet from the hoop. That's ideally what what you want to get. But yeah, if this wasn't if Scotty wasn't trying to post up uh on a mismatch there, then the question is what what would this look like? Yes. Now, and Scotty here did a good job in I guess if you want to call it transition. It's kind of a slow transition because it's like 14 seconds on the clock, but but Scotty does a good job here of of establishing position and getting and and as you said, it's a mismatch. But my thing is IQ off the ball. He passes off the ball. It's like, okay, yes, it's a mismatch, but like the defender's already like rec partially recovered and there's already a double team. Like, are you just going to kick it? Just sit there? Or are you assuming that he's going to get to the to the line here? Like what what what's going on?
Yeah, okay, I'll say this. in defense of that particular play for IQ there, you know, I think where he's situated is actually fine in my mind because like there's got to be some court balance and like so I would be concerned because God knows the Raptors last year had plenty of scenarios where no one's back in this case off a rebound and then it's like a guy's got a wide open layup drill or or dunk contest the other way. So at least he's in the position where a point guard would be to make sure that if something happens, he's the backline defense the other way. So I'm not killing too much. I think the part you're showing there is that I concerns me is is like sometimes he isn't aware of like the matchup situation. That one's actually a good one that show that he showed, but I sit there watch him where it's like two things that point guard has to have in my mind if you're going to run an offense. One, you got to understand what the matchups are and two, you got, you know, it's three things. Two, you got to know who's got the hot hand. And three, you got to be aware of like who hasn't been fed for a while. And IQ struggles especially on those last two. I've sat in here watch many times where a guy's feeling it and IQ's down the thing and he he up one of these beyond the, you know, pull-up threes. I'm like, "Dude, you just ran two, three straight plays in this case with a matchup with X player. Run it again." And I know there's a bit of a philosophy of new school basketball where we just run our offense. Doesn't matter. But as we saw, it's funny enough when we get the playoffs and the later the playoffs get, we find in this case here, it gets old school real fast. It's like all the cute plays y'all ran in like December and like February, that'll mean squat in June. So run the play if the guys got the got the matchup and run it till they can't stop it. The other thing that drives me crazy probably even more so is and this is where the Grady discussion came in as well as others. I'm not just saying Grady. I'm sure if you put Walter and others, the numbers may not look much better is like guy man, you can't lose a guy man, especially a guy's an offensive player man, and he hasn't seen the ball for like six minutes now. Is there any play that uh that I can go to that uh illuminates that type of situation just so I can kind of bring it up?
Any particular game in general? Okay, the one that I think of and obviously it's hard kind of harsh on IQ, but it's the only one. It's the one that just jumps out me the most was that that first game he came back last not last season, the season before. I think the Clippers game. Was that was this this season or last season when he came back? Ideally, it's this season because I have all the stuff up for this season. So, and the West Coast trip. I just remember he came back. It must have been this season. Yeah, I think this season. The West Coast trip. It wasn't It must have been this season. Yeah, because I was going and it was the West Coast trip. And I think he came back and all of a sudden, because I remember one of our our spaces friends, he and I were saying the same thing. Those numbers about to dip the moment he comes back. And right on Q, that Clippers game, which was a very close game. I'm looking at the highlights right now, actually. Just like he we just like forgot like this dude was a like 23 a game like a week ago. Like what the hell are we doing? Yeah, it was that was that was issue. But just before you move on to that particular play there, I'm going to give IQ some credit on that one because who made the mistake on that play? I don't know if it was Claxton or Sharp. Those guys were out the three-point line guarding Purdles. So Scotty was able to get that mismatch in the middle of the key. Had they come back into the key because you don't have to guard Pearl at the three-point line, IQ can't make that pass in the paint then and then you break it up, right? They have to reverse to Purle and it's like, well, you know what? I'm going to come to the foul line so I don't stay back in the key and then okay, Purle, you can have the ball all you want. That's what they they must already that must been where they already given um was that the game you were at? Was that the game you were at? No, no, I'm talking about that what that that particular clip was it may not have been IQ wasn't playing. No, I think the second one. Yeah, that point they already given the memo in this case to um to to um to my to my man coaching there, Jordi. So So here's here here's another one where it's like to your point, you have your best shooter on the floor that is you you've now sunk everything in and instead of passing the ball, you're tunneled vision and you're not passing it out. Like this dude's wide open and the closest defender that would be able to is Harden, who's not necessarily the best perimeter defender in the first place.
Yeah, that's one of those plays you have to know where Grady's at because when he's going in his peripheral vision is probably not good to see Grady. It's good to see whoever will be at the other 45. So, opposite of Grady. He might be able to see that. But yeah, that's just one of those I know where I think the the proper term is court mapping, just for people to know. Um, and I think you're yeah, to your point, the the court mapping needs to be better there.
Yeah. So those the type of things are very difficult. It's very difficult to kind of coach someone's instincts out of them. And it's a struggle for a lot of guards and I don't know and better guards than him I've seen struggle with this. I don't know like how this is gonna play out because and the thing is, it's so strange that Darko would love to have a point guard plays that way, but he but he doesn't have a point guard plays that way. He has the opposite. Yeah. Like I'm looking at this play too and it's just like, okay, I get it that you're trying to get something quickly in trans, no pun intended, in in transition, but at the same time, it's like you're going this is not necessarily a mismatch. You're not really good at finishing inside. You're going against one of the better post defenders in in in the league. Honestly, you do actually have a step on him, but you're going so fast that you can't even slow down the ball enough to have, you know, to either kiss it off the glass. So, what do you do? You're basically throwing it off the other side of the glass right into their hands.
Yeah, ideally, hindsight's 2020. He comes to a jump stop, he fakes, Zubac jumps, you get you get an A1. Or you dribble in, you pull back, which is a move I wish more younger players would do. You That last po point is my issue is that he typically does not necessarily uh what what do you call it? Like he he he picks up his handle. He doesn't survey the court. Yeah. He's he's not a Steve Nash. He's not like good at probing in and out. He just probes and then he just goes and then makes a decision. And it's like a pre-ordained like I'm going to do something and then sometimes he like panics and will pull up his dribble and either take an ill-advised shot or he's going for a floater, but he's not Trey Young from floater. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I think this is, um, there is the irony of, um, I this is my last point on this. I just leave it this with him, and I think defense is a whole another discussion. But, um, I will say this, when it comes to that open gym with Messiah, the irony that you said you couldn't wait for them to play together. Well, there's two sets of irony. One is that as as coach mentioned last week, they don't run stuff with the two of them. But the second thing is what both of them lack in this case is what the coach that they have desires more than anything else. Oh, them on the court. Yeah. He wants a floor. He wants a floor general, a true floor general as a point guard or whoever, you know, case would be. And they tried Scotty with it. It wasn't a great experiment. And IQ is naturally not one. So neither one of them, which they wanted to be their core in this case, don't have that instinct.
Yeah. Yeah. It's it's so to for so basically we're all in agreement that he needs to become more of an off-ball role uh to be successful, but then that leaves your team without a potential floor general. So to comments like this that is, how do you get that floor general? Because that is a good question. Um, because if you're going to be top six, you need a you need a floor general and you need to be consistent.
Yeah, but they also want Scotty to handle the ball too, a fair amount. I'm sure they do. Do they still want that? I'm sure Darko does. I'm not sure about that, but you know, yeah, I I'm not sure. I'm not sure about that at all. I don't I think that was just done out of the fact of, um, maybe some front office pressure and the fact that they didn't have a lot of cards to play because IQ's hurt most of the season. You don't have the I don't think Yeah, but I don't think I don't think that's the natural instinct of Darko to give that ball to Scotty. I'm just saying I don't think I don't think so. But fair enough. We have different opinion that one. But now if everyone's healthy at the start of the season, which is this the first season IQ is actually going to start where he's actually healthy. Let's wait because last time it was looking like that. But preseason, right? So, make sure you cross your fingers on that because I don't want to hear I don't want to see some uh I mean, it's only technically two seasons to be fair. So, yeah. But yeah, he walked into training camp last year with a wrist brace on and then he got hurt the first game of the year. So, yeah, but you know, some people's grandma or whatever have a wrist brace. So, you know, let's compare that to to an athlete at age in in the prime of their career and say that that's not a problem. But, uh, my grandma has, you know, or my aunt has arthritis. It's not a problem at all. Um, uh, so I mean, yeah, going back to this, um, I do pay for analytics. I'm not going to share, uh, for those, uh, proprietary, uh, analytics on screen. Um, you know, one that is that people have shared in the past as crafted, uh, and and you can see like on the defensive end is where I have my main concerns. Um, now this gives like an aggregate score essentially of all these different, uh, advanced analytics, LeBron like Darko essentially, and like aggregates them into like this, um, but effectively across most metrics, he doesn't score well as a defender. No, he's a below average defender, but again, I think Beyond made this, this puts him at like literally just above just above average, barely like, but the to the point Beyond made last week about R.J., because I was saying how, you know, R.J.'s is a pit pretty pitiful defender, but the whole team kind of are full of bad defenders. Mhm. Yeah, we we were bottom five for two-thirds of the year. As as Samson said, which, you know, is good to recognize it now. I don't think that it's it's been any different for the past couple years. That's not a shot of Sansman, by the way, but, uh, he said that, uh, you know, no one was helping anyone last year. Well, no one was helping anyone for the past couple years that Darkler's been here. Period. Right. That's the philosophy of the team. Yeah. That's how he believes it should be now. Unless you have like the '92 Bulls in this case here, and the Dobermans running out there where you can do so. Yeah. You get away with it there. Well, not with this bunch, but they continue to think that they could play this type of way. Oh, you're talking about the '94 feet. Yeah. Yeah. Or even just guard your own man yourself and no one comes to help you, right? Which is the old Pat Riley philosophy, right? We don't double. Okay. All right, Pat. Jerry Sloan, too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It might keep on getting double nickels on you. We don't double. All right. Keep doing your thing. Right. But that Jerry Sloan's another one like that. Funny enough, both of them felt the wrath of 23 when they didn't want to double. But at some which cost him the game six, the finals, funny enough, because he didn't want to double B. Russell, you know, to give it to someone else. No, no, no. We don't double. Okay. But at some point, you have to look at the type of squad you have and realize, you know what, we don't have talented enough defenders to play that way.
Well, exactly. The point also interesting that I was just going to make as well. It was Jerry Sloan. He was asked a question one time. They said, what's the worst thing you could say on defense? He said, help. Help. Yeah. His point was the more that you help off someone, that means someone else is open. Now, you need to have the personnel to guard straight up all the time. Right. Which we don't between between Quickly, Grady, and RJ, that's just possibly the Ingrams, no walk in the park either. That's why I keep telling folks when they give me these these fraud fake defensive stats last year about the last third of the season, I'm like, how many of the guys that are going to be playing this year are going to be get they're eat up most the minutes are are quality defenders.
Yeah, you look at this is a good conversation that I had with someone recently. Um, I just wanted to put the IQ in basically they don't really last year they didn't really help each other. They didn't really harm each other. Um, but and go going back to what you just said about, um, uh, I think you were mentioning about Ingram, was it? Um, yeah, I don't know, man. No, but back to the the champ, the championship team when you had Lowry and Danny Green and Kawhi and Siakam and OG during the season, like you didn't have to worry about too much help because those guys did a pretty good job to stay in front. This group is certainly not that group for a variety of reasons. Almost every one of those guys are above defenders. Ibaka, keep going down the list. You know, like Fred. Yeah. Every single person you have to hide to that point is someone else that you're potentially putting in a disadvantageous position, even if they are like a DPOI level guy, like like, you know, so like this is the reason why I kind of chuckle when I see people even in this chat is top six. It's like, okay, top six. How you take a team like the Lakers who have one, have two defensive liabilities, and they get scorched because of those two defensive liabilities, you know, and that's just with two. We got at least about four or five, maybe six. Yeah. And we and we'll get into Scotty another day. I'll just touch on one aspect. So this is a good just just one thing just to before we go back to IQ and wrap that up. Um, so this is a nice play, uh, run by I guess Darko, and essentially it's to get the Scotty the ball going downhill in the post or whatever against Mobley. So, right there, you've gotten him a good open shot. He has a chance to go down low and kind of boss out Mobley. Now, here's the challenge and for for Scotty, just to preview why I think that, um, there is a lot of meat left on the bone, but like it's on him to to to to yield it, uh, before we go to back to IQ is like, like, okay, you've created some space. All right, let me just go back here. So, you you created some space. I like how he puts his pivot foot and then goes back to turn around. I, um, ideally his natural inclination is actually to pass. So, one of these three shooters actually scooted over. In theory, he'd probably pass to them, but he looks to go up. Now, when he goes back and pivots here, it should actually be a hook shot or something here that he can kind of go back to. But he's now at this point with a guy at Mobley's level, who's DPLY, he has effectively lost that advantage. Yeah. So, it's really again, when I talk about the footwork and getting it better, this is what I'm talking about. Uh, be I don't know if you saw that.
Yeah, I did. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. No. Oh, you're good. Make sure I got a charge here. You didn't want to die out when you guys I feel you. Yeah. Um, on a side note, coach, man, you boy, all year we better buckle up, man, because my man's gonna be talking about his man being DPI. He's gonna enjoy that moment for a little longer. But I mean, driving against he got one in the Webby. I'll just say that. That's true. Yeah. But but driving and he gets Moy is going to be a tough thing for anyone. Not I'm not disagreeing what Kenyon's saying because it's right. Guy's got to kind of recognize when to kind of take that jump shot. He's been working on that fade jump shot. That's okay. I would think in the middle of the key. He's actually improved quite a bit on that. So it's hard. You just can't go into Mobley's body right there. You're not going to get a call that way because Mobley's smart enough just to stand there and use his length. So
Well, yeah, he's going to have to have something more in the table than just that fadeaway because if you saw last year around Christmas when he started deploying the fadeaway, it was fine for about three weeks, and then the scouting report started circling around, and then what they started doing, they started crowding him, and that fadeaway was gone by the time you got to the next move. The other thing too is that he uses it against players that he's way taller than. So, for example, if he's against like Trey Young, for example, you don't need to fight away, dude. And I've seen it in the summer, right? Like you, um, you know, just as a quick Scotty, you know, I've seen him face up against guys in summer. Yes, it's like a like a G-League or whatever the heck it is, you know, um, or the Lobster League or whatever, but it's like you're going up against a guy that is not as tall as you. There are other NBA players out there, too, but like this guy's not as tall as you. Just like rise up. Why do the extra fadeaway when you don't have to when the guy's at your chest unless the guy at 8 foot arms?
Well, that comes down to two things, right? It's been what you discussed, the body mechanics, and the other thing is the the the deficiency in dribbling. Yeah. Because if to your point, to rise up in this case here, therefore, you got to be able to, you know, have a quick enough dribble to just explode off the bounce, and he's not it's not a natural move for him. But but he he will have it in a triple threat. But even that in triple threat, I don't think he's a natural enough shooter that he like No. Like some players need a rhythm to get their shot off, right? So for him, he's not a natural shooter. Yeah. He's a rhythm player. He's like you'll see he likes to do the one, two, and then go up. Right. Exactly. You can see him always doing like people learn how to dance the tango. It's like, okay, step one, step two, step three, step four, boom, and I'm good. But to your point, you're in triple threat territory. Now you have to work off the cuff now. I was like, "Yes, sometimes they come out like flatfooted shots where he doesn't have his legs into it, is not a natural a natural thing for him." The the feet definitely need to be set. The only one where it's not set is the fadeaway, and that's why he this is like the it's almost like the trying to turn into a cheat code, but really that is again, it's if he can turn that into a counter now, we can talk. So, it's a good go-to move, but he needs another go-to move now.
Um, but back to Quickly. Um, yeah. So, I I think obviously if he can improve as a defender, point of attack or otherwise, I think that that's good. Um, is there anything else that that you think that I'm missing, um, in terms of ways to like turn him into a so that we covered needs to be a better off-ball player, um, better point of attack? Is there a volume of threes? I know some people like to point to, you know, if he got gets like, you know, 5.43 attempts a game or whatever. I'm gonna go with something else. I think coach will appreciate this. And I'm coming from from a coaching perspective. I'll say that we'll know how well Quickley is doing is if he gets the keys to the second unit. That's a good point. You know, like that's a good, uh, canary in the coal mine. Yeah. Like if he's the guy that's running the second unit with some of the kids and not the guys we think it would be, because I think we tried the Scotty thing. I'm not really sure I want to go down that route again. I think I want to see the Ingram thing. Yeah, Ingram would be a little more difficult because a lot of guys you want to play play the same position essentially as Ingram. So, it's a bit of an awkward fit that way. You know, you know, be him or R.J. probably at the moment. R.J. obviously has the lead a little bit because play with him more often. So, then you say Scotty, but I mean, Scotty may have to be the second unit guy with because then you're working him with CMBB. So, I guess that's where Mamu comes in. It is.
Well, the other person you could run the second unit with is if he plays with Purle at the That's what I was just thinking. Because he loves to run Purle at the high pick and roll, the high post. So that that's where you get to run the you get to run his offense. That's where I can see it playing out. But how does that affect CMBB? I think well, I think in the sense of CMB CB needs to find a mid-range, basically a mid-range. Well, that's his shot though. It is in some ways. I think I would prefer that. Yeah. The only problem is with that is like he'll have to be running off like DHOs with with him, which is fine. Yeah. Be him or Walter or Grady's to some extent. Like that's fine. But I think that's the other person that in some strange way I think I prefer in some ways I'd be curious to see what IQ in the bench looks like or Purle in the bench looks like, because the wing guys are all like I want to see these guys play. I don't want the wing guys running those second units because I the wing guys I want to watch are the second unit and Walter to some extent, CMBB, if you want to call him a wing, you know, and of course Grady. So, if you want all three of those guys to play, you can't have a unit getting run by R.J., Scotty, or Ingram. One of those guys be sacrificed. I would like to see a second unit. Actually, if I'm looking to optimize IQ, it'd be IQ and Purle, Grady and Ochai, and CMB. Now, why you ask that? This the defense like you you're fine, I think, with CMBB and Purle and Ochai for now. You got stretch threes, shooters and Grady and Ochai. Especially set Ochai up in the corner. We know how good he is shooting the three. And I'm just thinking you can run a lot of DHOs with Purle and Grady. I think that would be a second unit I would actually think would optimize him and optimize the team offensively and and defensively. And then you could have Ingram, RJ, and Scotty on the bench. And then they could come in at some point. Then you could put Mamu in within those guys. They get their stretch five. Then you can have someone like Shed. I think you'd be okay. I think you're okay with that. The the Mamu The Mamu acquisitions would still probably be the wrong way. That's a that's a discussion for another day. For sure. I I I uh now that he's here, I do think, um, seeing his release and stuff like that. And yes, it is Euro ball, or Euro basket, but he does seem to have a release that's fast enough that I'm not really worried about it. Um, and he's an NBA vet. He's been in the the NBA for a while, which does there's a level of competency that is needed. I mean, were it still the type of team that you said last time that, um, we're we're we're bringing in someone to be a babysitter on the bench because they don't
Trust, you know, to not be Lord of the Flies. I, I, I don't know that. I just think like, I just think wherever those 10 minutes, I just would prefer to give them a challenge. I just, I'm just like, there's going to be more than 10 minutes. It's going to be, it's going to be, they're each going to get at least 10 minutes. I can tell you that right now.
Really? Yeah, because Purle is not going to be able to play more than 28 minutes a game without risking injury. That's true. That's a good point. There's 48 minutes in a game, so that's 20 minutes of glory. I figure there's going to be some small ball three in there somewhere, right? So, I'm already, and he is small ball technically, but like, I, I prefer, I, well, then that, that's where he hits in, right? Yeah. Or I guess you give Chi some minutes, but then like if Chi, you know, you know what it is, Chi, you get him in early in the game where like the game's not like pressured, and then like you, you, you would close with Mamu or or or into the third quarter and stuff like that when the game gets tighter.
How big is this rotation going to be if we're talking all these dudes? We're talking like 10 guys at least. Um, so let's go through this. This is a good way to, to, to end this off because we're at the 40-minute mark. Yeah. Um, the starters are going to be there. That's five. Yeah. Okay. I am not entirely convinced. I think they're going to try Shed. Shed's minutes are his to lose, but there's a world where they go pick someone up because I've, I keep seeing this Devin Carter stuff floating, and there's a world where we just go get Deon Carter. with that. Um, but let's say, I, I don't know if you for sure. Um, CMBB is going to be there. So, that's six. Grady is going to be there at some level. Seven. Jacobe. Eight. Mhm. Okay. Um, I think, I think that, yeah, the other two guys that you're getting, you tell me. I think it's gonna be Mamu and Chi as nine. Well, he just mentioned, I did not mention OJ. No, there's like 11 guys. There's like 11 guys that might get some minutes, right? Well, no. No, no, not really. But, but, but how, how is, but again, at his position, my argument for Ochai is like, I, I don't see where Ochai's getting minutes. But that's what, that's what I'm trying to figure out because that's technically 12 guys cuz he, because I know you're trying to cut Chi and stuff like, or you count, right? In your version, you didn't even count Shed. So, like, is Shed? I said Shed's a maybe, but, you know, but not, not definitive, and you didn't have them on the list when you. I think that they're gonna give him run, but I don't think that they feel comfortable with that. If you have all the starters and the three, I call the three first-round picks, that's eight. That's, that's eight right there. You're gonna have, in this case here, Mamu ain't paying to sit on a bench. That's nine. No, that's nine guys already. Then Chi is 10. Okay, keep changing at the size. In this case, Shed played enough minutes last year that he will get minutes to start the season. That's 10 guys right there. Oi, to coach's point, seems to be a very beloved player in this organization for some, some way. I find the last dude. You're right. I, so that's 11 guys in the mix already. And then we get to my man, the chamomi, which is 12. 12 dudes. You know where I think it's going to, the battle's going to come down to, and you're not gonna like when we say, and I don't even nobody like it, but it's gonna come down to Ochai and maybe Jacobe because I think Grady, CMB, and maybe Mamu or Shamshi, I think they might be a lock, but I think it's gonna come down to Ochai or Jacobe. Right now, Ochai probably is a better defender and set shooter. All right, and it's gonna come down to who wants to, who, who do they want to pay at the end of the day.
We can close the show then. I know. I, I, for the record, I did preface that. I'm not. This is just me. I don't think they're gonna sacrifice Grady. You're too small. You can't play Jacobe, Grady, and sacrifice. You're too small. Grady's a top. Yeah, Grady's a lottery pick. I know they're not sacrificing Grady. I know that. Yeah. I mean, they already st, he's untouchable a year ago. Now, we'll see who, we're not sure who that was. That was Messiah. That was Bobby. So, we'll find that out very soon. But, nonetheless, we'll be doing that all year, folks. No, we will. I, I know the, the top, the three of the top five uh players and like when they put the lineups out, Ochai was in all three of them of the best lineups they put out last year for what it's worth. I get to see more of OCI here getting, getting shot over. I hear you. But guys, I, so, okay, coach, I'll ask you directly. How many minutes is Ochai getting a game? I mean, that's gonna be the question. I have no, I have no idea. But assuming health, get, take a g, take a gander, take a guess because he, to get some sort of substance, he's gonna have to split time at the three, the two, and the three. 15, 18 minutes. That's a lot of minutes because CB is gonna be the primary backup. Most likely they're gonna try to do it at the three and at the four for CB, get him up to 20, 25 minutes. CNB will be replacing when Scotty's off the floor. Certainly they're gonna play those two together. Yeah. The primary thing at some point. I don't like that. Call you know that. Uh, he is not in the rot. He's not my rotation. Right. Right. Okay. Just want to say that that just to account for him too. But, um, the second CMBB got here. Uh, unless, unless he, there's, he has some aneurysm or something. But until RJ is traded, this is gonna be, I think, a battle between OI and Jacobe. Unless one of those guys are hurt. Yeah. Because if people are very focused on the defensive ability, both of those have it. It's just like, to me, I think Jacobe will win it out because Bobby being Bobby, if he's caring about the cap and people are worried about that, that's where you win out. Sorry, Jacobe. But I mean, Jacob's got better creation skills. There's no, there's no doubt. But Ochai has kind of solid solidified a role in what he can do. That hasn't been quite set in stone yet for Jacob. It's only because he's young. It's only because he's a rookie. But I think two more years at, at, at a significantly lower number than what they're gonna have to pay. Oh, say Oi gets $10 million or something. I don't know. Just tossing out a random number. Yeah. You know, or, you know, whatever. So, I, I just think, um, Kobe for where he was picked, he's gonna be cheaper for the next couple years for that reason. So, yeah. Yeah. No, it's, I think that's gonna be the battle until unless someone pops. Like Beyonce said last week, they need one of those kids to pop eventually.
Well, and, and that's why I keep saying like when in term, going back to the R.J. discussion briefly, I'm okay with them trading him, but, but if they trade him, they have to be aware of like, is it a contract? If you're bringing in a guard, is it someone that you're gonna move off soon as well? Because you, you might be just tossing in someone. Let's say it's Malik Monk. It's like, okay, well, by Shed, you're definitely not getting minutes, which that might work, but, you know, what I mean? Like, it's like now it's like, is it an 11-man rotation? So, yeah. I think that's a good. Jacobe Walter is not seeing the floor. Uh, I would actually, the role that it's gonna be Shed. It's gonna be Shed. I don't think Monk can run an offense on. I don't think he can run an offense very well either, but like he probably runs it better than Jamal Shed at this, at this point. I watch Monk play since he was 19 years old, 18 years old. I never seen Monk interested in, you know, setting up anybody in this case here. You already had the Quickly experience. Interested in both of them are Kentucky guards. So, there you go. I don't see that. He played with my man there. He and Fox were buddies, right? On. I agree with you. I've tried to tell people that. I don't. So, just for record, I've told you this offline, so you know where where I stand. I don't think either of them can run an offense. I think in general, most Kentucky guards don't run offenses very well. I think Hero does it okay. Uh, but he is he too is not a point guard. Um, well, your, well, your man is my man who runs the championship is probably the only one, but that's why I said in general. Um, and actually technically there's two guys on that team that, you know, my mans and balls, of course, the Chris Paul guard of the league that's gone. Nobody. That's, I don't know if they're gonna have many guys like that. Maybe Darius Garland, I guess. Even still, I see him more still the scoring guard. I, I just, the Chris Pauls of the world are gone. True. Or, um, Young. Yeah, that's why even like a Quickly, because Quickley's Gabe is certainly not Chris Paul. Um, I just think most of the guards that come in the NBA now, it's, it's a lot of the scoring guards, the Steph Curry's and stuff like that. I just don't, I'm not saying that you have to necessarily have it. I mean, we'll see with Kasparis Yakonis. Um, but at the same time, I think that there's a, um, he's a throwback. There's, there's a, there's a happy medium to be had. And I think that if you could have someone who could do the scoring, but also facilitate, and it's, it's, it's not necessarily facilitate as in like looking at the raw numbers. I know I've been on spaces and stuff where people are saying, "Oh, well, this person only had five." It's not about the number. of when you watch the game is, you know, is Grady getting the ball enough, right? Is this person, you know, or does Grady go like, you know, you know, two for four in the first quarter and then he doesn't touch the ball until the last quarter? We saw that a lot last year. Yes. And so, and if you go, people who keep going back to Lowry, Lowry always made sure that everyone, you have to have a running ticker in your mind. And then also, as we were talking about before, have the court mapping to be like, okay, this guy, he's over there, or he's gonna shift over there, which goes back to my issue is that, um, to bring it full circle with Quickly, um, the number one thing I think that he can get better at is, is the angles of attack. I think if he attacks at a better angle with his drives, he's going to be able to open up the peripheral vision more and the court mapping won't need to be as bad. But the thing is, is that when he, he attacks at angle like there, I can't see over there. So it might be shifting it over here. And also do not pick up that dribble. Choose this one over. Pretty much. I was gonna say, I think that that's a good place to. Yeah, that's a wrap. That's a pie. My favorite Lowry is the post. Is is the defending the championship year. Favorite Lowry. Yes. I love that. It Lowry 100%. All right, that's a final word. Uh, coach, I, I'll give it to you. IQ is going to be very important to the success of the team this year because of the skills that he has in my opinion, what he can bring when, when he's healthy, because RJ doesn't have that. Scotty doesn't have that. I don't think Ingram has that. But you kind of need that skill set. So, we'll see how healthy he is and what he can do because I'm sure the guy's gonna be motivated after being hurt all year and hearing the noise of, hey, you're just, you got overpaid, blah, blah, blah. I can imagine that affects a player a little bit thinking you're not worth as much as what you got. Absolutely. Um, and e, and even because we're talking about like, for example, him as a lower option on the floor, that doesn't mean that he won't have the ball. U, so people conflate the two in the wrong way and they're focus like, for example, people are like, you know, RJ had this much usage, blah, blah, blah, he's, he's, he's always on ball. It's like, well, actually, when everyone's there, his usage is closer to 21%. And also it's cuz, you know, part of that usage argument is him going to the line and the free throws are part of that calculation, but that's a conversation for another day.
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