Toronto Raptors make NBA history against Orlando as Scottie puts on his MVP cape

Um, I want our fans to know this, that the most difficult ones are the guys like Scotty to find. Hopefully, one other person can emerge on our team or, you know, you get another one and you're on your way.

I believe that Scotty is the player that's a very unselfish player, team-oriented player. He also brings a lot of intensity for our defense. Uh, he's a good rim protector as well, and this season for him, one of his goals is going to be improving his defense to an elite level to be recognized as Defensive Player of the Year. Heat. Heat. And to be an artist in anything, food, whatever, it depends on how good he is at it. His art is death. He's about to paint his masterpiece. I don't have anything else to say. I'm speechless. I am speechless. I am excited. I am happy. I cannot believe what I just watched.

The Toronto Raptors walked into this game limping. Hospice Raptors. No Brandon Ingram, no Jameson Battle, no Emanuel Quickley. And before the game, Colin Murray boils this out. To the people who know me even a little bit, even if you know me vicariously, even if you know me through the screen, you can't even imagine what this game meant to me to watch Jack Armstrong say the stuff that he did on this stream. Give me a W if you heard it. Give me a W if you have heard me go at Jack Armstrong's neck for five years now for insisting that Scotty Barnes is some sort of combo forward, power forward, he needs to do this and he needs to do that. And all the while, if you remember, even my big beef with William Lou, Blake Murphy, all the Toronto media has always been this insistence that Scotty is a point guard. When I asked Brian Makin, Scotty's trainer, in our first interview, "Is Scotty a point guard?" he unequivocally answered yes. I have for nine years now. This is nine years. You don't understand. You don't understand. I've been watching Scotty since grade 11. Kyle Lowry said he was a point guard. Magic Johnson said he was a point guard. I've said he's a point guard since I watched him. And I've had the entire world tell me I'm wrong. And it's been frustrating. It's been frustrating because there is a gap in basketball analysis that makes people very comfortable in saying because it's not happening, it can't happen. Because this is your role, then somebody must have given you that role for a reason. If you're a great scorer, then no wonder you're averaging 30. But what about the guy who's averaging 30, averaging 20 in a smaller, smaller role, and being a winning player? One of my favorite players growing up was Rasheed Wallace. To any of my basketball olds, you know, Rasheed Wallace could have scored 30 anytime he wanted. Could have done so much more, but he always bought into team. And I've always seen Scotty as that type of guy. I don't know if he's ever going to average 25, 26 points per game, but I do know he just dropped 15 assists. And I do know that the Toronto Raptors just made history today. History.

Think about all the great offensive teams in the league. Think about all the terrible defensive teams in the league. Think about the Charlotte Bobcats, that team. Think about the current-day Washington Wizards. Think about the Brooklyn Nets. Now, imagine if I told you coming into today that two teams vying for a playoff spot in a must-win playoff intensity atmosphere where one team is missing one star, yes, but the other team is missing an all-star, their starting point guard, and probably their two, two of their four best bench players. And imagine if I told you that it was the team that was down four critical bodies that would put on a 31 to zero. 31 to zero. That's not a typo. It's not I did not stutter. 31-nothing run. That is the longest, biggest unanswered run in NBA history. History. 31 zip. Do you realize how bad one team has to be and how much better another team has to be to go 31-0? Oh my god. The film session today is going to be crazy. But I got to tell you, this community deserves this win. And I say this community, not Raptor fans necessarily, but this community. Because this community, I want to share something with y'all. Just give me, give me a moment to say this. There are people. Can you please, for the love of God, stop? Like, this is not, this is not the space for this. Please go away. This moment means a lot to people who are close to Scotty, to the people who are his friends, the people who've watched him come up in West Palm Beach. They have seen this guy get disrespected, left off of lists that he clearly belongs on, all of it. And they have always supported Pittsburgh basketball because they say this is the one place, at least a lot of them. Must be following them. But a lot of them, they say this is the one place that has always supported our son. This is the one place that has always supported our brother. This is the one place that has always supported and seen the vision of what this guy is and understood the process of what he's going to be. Again, he's a deeply unselfish person, deeply unselfish player. If you've ever been a teammate of his, you know that. If you're just a random fan watching in the crowd, you don't understand why this guy doesn't have 30 points every night. And so I have to say, this community has meant a lot not just to push back on the general narrative of Scotty Barnes, but also this community has meant so much to the people who supported Scotty since before he got to Toronto because this is the one place they could always go to that wasn't slandering their favorite player. This is the one place they could always go to that saw the vision of what they saw in grade six when this guy was running point guard.

23 points and 15 assists is not the point. What is the point is the Toronto Raptor offense looking like one of the best offenses in the NBA. A team that has been consistently terrible offensively all year, running it down the throats of a competent, very good defense featuring one of the best defenders in the NBA and Jaylen Suggs, and he couldn't do anything with it. A team where everybody eats. Everybody eats. It wasn't Scotty didn't put on his Batman cape and say, "Let me go out there and score 50, 60, 70 points." Which I'm sure, you know, it's to some degree, if you wanted to, he probably could have. It was the infectious nature of how the Toronto Raptors played basketball tonight. Everybody got into it. I don't know if you noticed this, but even when Scotty went to the bench, the passing didn't stop. It continued. Players who are notoriously tunnel vision suddenly got into it. It was like catching lightning in a bottle. It's almost like everybody just got really comfortable with the idea of this is how we should be playing basketball. And there's one person on this team who for four years, five years now, has insisted that this is the way we must play basketball, and that's Scotty Barnes. His entire beef with Fred Van Vleet was on the pacing and selfishness of how the Raptors played basketball. His disagreements with Pascal, whatever, on the court, not off the court, loves Pascal off the court, but on the court were always about that. His bumping of heads, if you will, with several players on this team throughout the last few years has always been about, "You guys hang on to the ball too much. We got to keep pushing the pace." You could give me a W. How many times have you seen Scotty Barnes in a game like this or when he's been given the point guard duties just say, "Everybody got to eat. We got to be unselfish. We got to move the ball." Scotty has had a vision for how this team wants to play basketball and needs to play basketball to unlock the talent on this team. And his vision is, "All my teammates have 15 points. All my teammates have 15 points. I might have eight points and 14 assists, but my team will win by 20." And how could you not support a person like that? How could you not support a player like that? To me, it feels crazy. It feels crazy to not want to support somebody who wants to support everybody. And that's been a hallmark of my support and advocation for anything in my life. Anytime I find out that you're a big giver, like if I find somebody in my community who does everything for their community, that's the person that I want to put my support into because you should always support the people who are uplifting others. And that is where I say sometimes I've been critical of his teammates for getting in the way because I see it. I see all of it. Even when Scotty is standing in the corner and BI is cooking off the top, it's not like I'm immune to the idea that if these two places were inverted and these two players were inverted, the offense would be better. But there's so much ego in basketball. There's so much preconceived notions in basketball. There's so much anchoring bias in basketball. There's so much stupidity in basketball that you don't understand that when you have a player like this, when you have a passer like this, you need to just put the ball in their hands and trust them. Even if they have four turnovers, five turnovers, they are going to find the right play. And for years, I have said that this is exactly how the Raptors need to play. The Raptors need to play through Scotty. Even when we had Fred, even when we had Dennis, even when we had Pascal, even when we had Brandon Ingram, we added Andram. I said Ingram can play off the ball. Scotty in the corner is a disaster. We must stop putting Scotty in the corner. Now, of course, I am an emotional person when it comes to my favorite player. I've always been emotional about making sure that people don't disrespect this dude. That this is the type of player that y'all are going to see the value of and you're going to be happy you supported him. And once again, I say this is a big W for this community. I do not, you know, this community basically made me. Let's just be honest. I'm not on Player Choice if y'all don't rock with this channel. I'm not on Players Choice having that huge debate with Chill and Ron and Damian and Swiper and all those guys and pushing for the Scotty narrative. But you know what was crazy though? On Thursday, we talked so much about Scotty. We tore up an entire panel episode for the panel to give me an intervention on how I overglaze Scotty and he's not that guy. And I got to tell you, I'm so happy they did that. Because the one thing that happens when people really go at a guy, people re and and I'm obviously like, "You're wrong. You're wrong. He's a top 10 player. He's amazing. Blah blah blah blah blah. He's better than this guy." I was asked point blank. Is he better than Anthony Edwards? I said, "They're on the same level." People thought I was crazy. I was asked point blank. Ben Simmons or Scotty Barnes all-time? I said, "I'll give me peak Scotty." People thought I was insane. But I'm so happy that that episode happened. Not only did 20,000 people watch that episode, 20,000 people will never see this live stream, but 20,000 people watch that episode. And then Players Choice, shout outs to Players Choice. All love here. Thank you to my employer. Thank you, Daddy. They decided to cut that Toronto Raptor segment into a 52-minute standalone video, which obviously now goes to Raptor fans. And that video has 15,000 views. That means 35,000 people listened to a debate in which people tried to tell me that there were 40 players better than Scotty Barnes on Thursday. And then on Friday and Sunday, he came out and blew out two teams as the lead initiator and looks like a freaking MVP candidate. You want to talk about timing? Timing is everything in life. You want to talk about stage presence, that's stage presence. And here I'll say this. Thank you, Scotty Barnes. Thank you for showing up the way that you just did over the last couple games. I hope you keep it up for the rest of the season because for real, for real, if he comes out and he has eight points, four rebounds, and we lose to the Pelicans, that's mud on my face. But sometimes you got to go to bat for the people that you believe in. I went to bat for Scotty Barnes.

But Scotty Barnes was not alone in this game. There were a lot of great performers in this game. This game, I'll set the stage for you. The Toronto Raptors come in undermanned. Vegas still favored the Raptors to win. And I couldn't believe it. I thought the Raptors were going to lose this game. So, no Postradamus on that one. I really did. When when I, when I all day yesterday, I thought the Raptors were going to win this game. I'm like, it's too important. The Raptors were playing great. Scotty's playing point. They're going to win this game. I found out Ingram was out. I'm like, we're cool. Then I found out that Shed was starting at point and I was like, oh, we're screwed. Jameson Battle is very important when Brandon Ingram is out. Jameson Battle and Scotty Barnes are probably the two most impactful players for the Raptors in terms of on-off differential and the analytics were telling me yes, the Magic are playing horribly right now, but there's no way the Magic lose a game like this. And so I thought the Raptors might lose this game. I didn't think it would be a blowout, but I thought probably the Raptors lose by 10. And then 18-14, Jacobe hits the side of the backboard. Darko calls a timeout and breathes fire. Fire. He was breathing fire during that. I think fire escaped his mouth because he was so pissed off. And I have a friend who was at the game today who was probably sitting six rows back of the Raptors bench and they texted me and said Scott, uh, Scotty and Darko just ripped into the team. Now, after that point, which is that little blue blip right there, let's see, where were we at? 18-14. From that point to the end of the game was possibly the greatest. Okay, dude's glazing crazy. You are getting banned. Peace. All right. So from that point on, 18-14, the Raptors managed to get it to 20-20. About a minute and a half later, by the end of the first quarter, it was 38 to 20. That run that we were talking about right here is this right here. At 20-20, the Magic did not score again until the Toronto Raptors had 45 points, but they actually stopped scoring before the Raptors got to 20. So, it was right here, 14-20. 14-20 for the Toronto Raptors for for for the Magic. And then flash forward, it was 45-20. That's insane. That is NBA history. If you were in the, if you were at the Scotia Bank Arena tonight, you just watched the greatest run in NBA history. That is insane.

In terms of who did what tonight, there's so many kudos to go around tonight for the Toronto Raptors. I would like to first start by saying thank you to RJ Barrett for playing a very, very good game. RJ Barrett has caught a lot of strays for me over the last year because, well, for whatever reason, he does not play defense consistently and he chucks so much and he drags the offense, but today R.J. played very much within the offense. He got to the line eight for eight from the free-throw line is truly a magical performance from RJ Barrett. Huge salute to RJ Barrett for that. Amazing. Just an incredible game. I liked his playmaking. I liked his compete level defensively. He closed out to shooters. He was physical with guards. Not perfect by any means, but very competitive effort. Very, very good. Loved this game from RJ Barrett. Yaka Purle played perfectly within himself. Loved his off-ball activity, screen setting, rebounding, everything was dynamite. And by the way, the Raptor starters did not play the fourth quarter. So everything you're seeing here, RJ Barrett 24 points, Scotty Barnes 23 points. All of this work was done within the first three quarters of this game. Jacobe Walter started out a little bit shaky. Hit the back, hit the side of the backboard two times. Ends up finishing the game. Apart from those two corner corner threes, he made all three of his threes after that. Goes four for eight and continues a trend of very positive three-point shooting. And I hope that he keeps keeps on going. Also, a word to anybody who's interested. This Friday, this coming Friday, I will be having a live interview with Jacob's trainer about his process this offseason and what he thinks is going to go right and wrong for Jacobe this offseason and what he thinks he can be, etc. Uh, someone said they're going crazy on Twitter spaces right now. I'm happy. I'm happy to hear that. Jamal Shed, I love this game from Jamal Shed as well. A team-leading plus 34. Apart from Sandra Melbi, 21 minutes for Mamu. Incredible. Plus 47 in those minutes. Mamu was absolutely unguardable tonight. Now it's worth noting that in the last game, it was Sandra Melish and Scotty Barnes with the top two plus-minus leaders. In this game, I have no doubt that that will once again be the same. Just an incredible shot-making masterclass from Sandra Kesh Philly. He and Yakob Purle continue to find positive synergy. And by the way, I have loved, loved that element of what the Raptors have been doing recently and I've actually called for it multiple times this year that I think Mamu is a great fit next to Yaka Purle. They complement each other very well and I'm so happy to see that the Raptors are finally finding that. AJ Lawson gets major kudos, man. Apart from the garbage time minutes, he came in in regulation and gave the Raptors a huge boost. I'm not the biggest AJ Lawson fan. I do not see what some people see in him. But that being said, I think this was an incredible game from him. Just brilliant. Kept the pace up, moved off the ball quickly, cut without the basketball, ran in transition, guarded his man very well. Elijah Martin got rotation minutes tonight. Not just garbage time minutes, real rotation minutes. Grady Dick got rotation minutes tonight. I did not love this first part of the stint for Grady Dick, but overall Grady found a little bit of a rhythm late in the game and garbage time as well. So, good for him. But Elijah Martin deserves a lot of credit. Competed hard defensively. Very competitive effort from him as well.

On the Magic side, there is not a lot, not a lot to like. Not a single Magic player cracked 20 points. Paulo Banker had nine points tonight. If you remember that wondrous episode, everyone just couldn't stop talking about how Scotty had nine points. I can't believe Scotty had nine points on four for 10 shooting, four for 11 shooting against the Pelicans. Well, at least Scotty gave you 12 assists and incredible defense. Paulo gave you five turnovers. So to anybody who is ever going to tell me that Scotty Barnes is not better than Paulo Bankro, please get your head checked and get yourself institutionalized immediately. It is not close. It hasn't been close in years, but there was a time, I will remind you, that Scotty Barnes was put into the top 35 players in the NBA and Paulo was considered top 10. That is how much people overemphasize role. That is how much people overemphasize points per game. But do a little quick check. The Magic have never, not one year in Paulo's career, been better with him on the court than off the court. This is a franchise whose best player is Franz Wagner by clear miles who has been trying to justify picking Paulo Banchero first overall and putting the ball in his hands. Now Paulo had a very impressive playoff showing last couple of years, made some threes. When he's not making threes like he did tonight, 0 for five, he is completely useless. Uh, and yeah, shout outs to Damian, but Sabonis is flagrant and I need apologies for that. That is just I don't think I'm ever going to get over having to hear on a national broadcast that Trey Young and Domantas Sabonis are better than Scotty Barnes. Like, people, people really need to watch these games. Shout outs to Jad Howard off the bench provided a little bit of, you know, and Mo Wagner getting off a little bit. And Jaylen Suggs, man, I like Jaylen Suggs. But five turnovers was not it. The Magic were extremely turnover prone tonight with 27 turnovers and the Raptors only had 10. That is only part of what went right and wrong for these two teams. Let's take a look really quickly at the team stats before we get into the film breakdown and then eventually we will get to the callers. Daryl is patiently waiting and I can't wait to talk to him. I think it's going to be an incredible conversation. Daryl, hang tight. And if you have like a heart out or something or like if you're running out of time, just private message me and I'll stop the film session to get you on. I do want to hear what you have to say. You're obviously a very longtime community member here. We've been talking Daryl and I have been talking since before Scotty was drafted. That's how crazy this is, right? Daryl and I have been talking about Scotty since before he was drafted. And yeah, more than anything, I want to share this moment with the people who've really supported him all the way through. That feels support, that feels important to me.

The Toronto Raptors, 44 rebounds to 36, which was very good. The Toronto Raptors shot 45% from three without Brandon Ingram, without Jameson Battle, without Emanuel Quickley. What does that tell you? You know what that tells me? Do you know what that tells me? That tells me that Scotty Barnes creates good threes. Scotty Barnes and Yakob Purle create good threes. I've said this forever. It's the greatest conundrum is that these two players do not shoot well from three or do not shoot threes at all in Yakob's case. And yet they are positive for three-point shooting. The Raptors' three-point shooting was much better when Yaka plays well. And that is the fundamental disagreement that I have with almost every person who covers basketball other than maybe Ben Taylor, maybe a few others as well, which is that three-point shooters don't necessarily create great three-point shooting. And that's, that sounds stupid. That sounds really dumb. That's like saying great rebounders don't create great rebounding. No, it's not quite that. Scotty creates great transition flow. Scotty creates great early lookouts. Scotty creates great side-to-side actions. Scotty creates great advantages. And tonight, Scotty was an incredible scorer as well. Very efficient pull-up threes, dunks, posters, everything. Whoop-de-doo, circus shots. Scotty gave you everything tonight. But most importantly, I think the ball moving and the ball has energy. When the ball touches dot dot dot dot dot, the offense gets a lot less predictable. The defense doesn't know what hit him. The defense could not have predicted on any given possession where the shot was going to come from. The defense didn't know Scotty was going to pull up from three. The defense didn't know Yak was going to dive below. But you know what? What happens when Emanuel Quickley and Brandon Ingram play? The defense always knows where the ball is going. And that's why the efficiency goes down. Turnovers, 11 to 28. My goodness. 11 turnovers to the Raptors and this is true. Will Hall of Famer Scotty needs to be our point guard immediately. Also, we have a super chat from one of Scotty's biggest fans, and that's Bill Withers, always with the Scotty support in the super chat. Super chats. These are the games we wait for. Scotty has MVP impact on this team. Also, shout out Tatum breakout game. Big shout outs to Jason Tatum doing the Raptors a bit of a favor by wiping out the Charlotte Hornets. Also, I'm not wrong, I'm early. I said Jason Tatum will be just fine. And I insist that the Boston Celtics' best player is not Jaylen Brown. And the Boston Celtics just whooped back-to-back teams that are good teams without they beat the Pistons, if I'm not mistaken, and then they beat the Hornets. They whooped the Hornets. So, yeah, it I'm not saying two games are everything, but please stop overstating the importance of Jaylen Brown. I feel like when I listen to people talk about Jaylen Brown and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the same question, in the same equation, it's just like, I think you should go follow hockey. Like, I think that might be the prognosis here. The Toronto Raptors win the blocks differential. They win the steals differential by a by 500%. 20 steals to four. 41 assists on 54 field goals. There was a point where Scotty checked out in the third quarter where I think the Raptors had 113 points at that point and the stat came up. Scotty scored or assisted on 57 of the Raptors' 113 points. Quick fast math. That means for the entirety of the game that was actually in the balance, Scotty Barnes scored or assisted on more than half the team's points. 57 times two is 114. The Raptors had 113 points. That is insane.

Okay, let's quickly get to the film breakdown and then we will get to the callers. I cannot wait to hear from everybody today. Okay, so here's a little bit of what I was talking about before the game. Okay, so first of all, let's take a look here. I said, "Point Scotty is about to be tested." Orlando 13th and Detroit second are two defenses that a bigger playmaker with high hips and sometimes loose handle would traditionally struggle against. If he succeeds against these two teams, we're going to have to have serious convos. So, we're having serious convos. Hey, man, you got to appreciate the consistency right now. It's a fun fact that somebody brought up that R.J. Barrett is averaging 23 points per game without Brandon Ingram. And this is where I say facts and stats need to be checked and double-checked. Okay, I did the check. R.J. has played two games without Brandon Ingram. So, if we're going to use small sample size bias in games where R.J. and BI don't play, Scotty is averaging 31 points per game. All right. And in games that Emanuel Quickley is not playing, Scotty Barnes is Jason Kidd. Okay. So, yeah. Uh, here I asked everybody, who do you think is going to win this game? And hey, man, most of you got it right. Here are the Raptors' top leaders in terms of net differential. You can see Jameson Battle right up there at plus 11.8, Scotty Barnes at plus 8. That basically means that the offense-defense per 100 possessions is this much better plus or minus with these guys on the court than off the court. Grady Dick surprisingly is third. RJ Barrett is fourth. Quickly is fifth. AI was sixth. AI is no longer here. Jamal Shed is barely neutral. Sandra Mailey, who started out the season overtly positive, has actually moved down to negative. Yaka Purle is negative one. Colin Murray Bole's negative 3.4. Brandon Ingram is negative 4.5. And then we just go from there. And this is all garbage time is filtered out. Kind of makes you think who's really carrying the offense, who's really carrying the defense, but I wanted to put some of these numbers into context. And so I did. So in terms of the net on-off with low leverage minutes filtered, Jameson Battle plus Scotty Barnes are very important. In the 800 minutes, when both are off the court, the Raptors have a negative-8 net rating. That's basically a bottom five team in the league for those 800 minutes. Now, I want to stand corrected. It's not a bottom five team. It's actually worse. So, let me show you what I mean. So, the Raptors have a net rating total, and it will go up obviously after this game by a lot. It might, it might go up to plus two after this game. It's ridiculous how, how big a blowout this was. The Raptors have a net rating of plus 1.7, which is good for third. It's tied with the Lakers for 13th or 14th in the league, depending on how you look at it. With Scotty Barnes on the court, it is plus 3.9, which is good for ninth in the NBA. Without Scotty Barnes on the court, it's negative 4.1. That's good for 23rd in the NBA. So with Scotty on the court, we're kind of on par with the Wolves and Rockets. And that's with some negative players on the court with him. I really do believe that Scotty with the right cast of players, like if I put Scotty on the court with Jaden McDaniels, Chet Holmgren, Jaylen Suggs, Derrick White, like if I can create a roster around him of my choosing, I think Scotty could be plus 14, plus 12. Like it, it I think he has Jokic-level potential because he provides so much more than Jokic on defense. Um, yeah. So, without him, you're basically in the Grizzlies, Pelicans tier. Just to put that into context. Now, I was very disappointed to hear before the game that, you know, all the guys that would be out because I said, "Oh, no. The point Scotty experience is over after one game. Pence was wrong again. Maybe I should lose that name. I can't believe Vegas favors the Raptors in this game with Ingram, Quickly, CMBB, Battle all out." Now, that was a little bit tongue-in-cheek because yes, while I did believe that the Raptors would face a very huge uphill task with this game, I also wanted to emphasize that Vegas understands Scotty Barnes is our best player even if fans don't. If Scotty Barnes was out of this game and all four of those players were playing in this game, the Magic would have been favored in this game. I can almost guarantee it. So, yes, the Magic are playing not so great. Yes, they're missing Franz Wagner, but to be missing that, that many high-paid, high-impact, like between Brandon Ingram and Emanuel Quickley alone, you're talking about 70, 72, 73 million missing from your lineup. With CMP and Jameson Baller, you're talking about two of your four best bench players missing. Having to play Grady Dick in and of itself is such an overt negative because he's so bad defensively. So, I don't know. Early on in this game, Scotty Barnes wanted to show you what was up. Scotty Barnes in his little Jokic bag here, draws the double off the drive, by the way. So, self-initiates, drives past Paulo. This is a big mistake by the Orlando Magic that they decided to guard Scotty Barnes with anyone but Jaylen Suggs. If I was Jamal Mosley wanting to stop Scotty Barnes, I would tell Jaylen Suggs, "You on him all night long." Unfortunately for the Magic, I am not Jamal Mosley. And thankfully for the Raptors, I am not Jamal. Jamal Mosley is not me because I think there was a way to slow Scotty down a lot more in this game, but Paulo is so weak defensively that Scotty was just able to destroy him. And here RJ Barrett, little pump fake is all it takes to get Tristan Da Silva to bite on it and we're out. And I said, "Is this a point guard?" Oh, I'm look, I make no secret of the fact that I am not going to be graceful. Okay, when I made that video last week, I said, "When this turns around, don't you worry. I will have zero chill. I am not going to be graceful. I don't care if you think I'm an [ __ ] I don't think if you think I'm the worst person on earth. You can't I don't even care if you unsubscribe and say, 'I can't listen to this guy, you know, basically pat himself on the back for two hours.' You're going to listen to it. I don't care. I'm sorry. The Raptors' entire media needs to apologize to this man for doubting him the entire time. Okay? The entire panel needs to be like, immediately contrite. I want the first two minutes of the panel on Monday to be a to be a moment of silence for the basketball IQ on that on that platform. I want it to be a moment of silence. I want it to be like, we are just going to sit here and really contemplate the crimes against basketball intelligence that we committed on Thursday. I don't even care. I don't care. The chill is off. Is this not a point guard? Is this a point guard? Let me know. Let me know. Maybe I'm tripping. Is this not a point guard? Take three defenders onto you. Split the defense and find the guy right underneath the basket. Put it right in his hands for the easy score. Now, this is before the Raptors turned it around. You're going to see a little bit of what Scotty Barnes was able to do. Number one, Paulo didn't just have nine points by himself. Scotty created that because Scotty guarded Paulo a lot. And here, Scotty Barnes playing a little hot potato passes to Yaka Purle. And once again, we get the ball back to Scotty Barnes. And here, he's going to pass to Grady Dick. Now, of course, Grady Dick has a wide-open shot, but why would he ever take a wide-open shot when he could do a circus layup and miss everything? But here he's not even gonna get the circus layup because he drives right into Jones Suggs, which is technically borderline insanity. Now, in years past, sometimes when a play like this happens, I feel bad for Scotty, obviously, because he created a perfectly good opportunity and his teammates are too stupid to understand it. However, Scotty also feels bad for himself and usually sulks. He won't get back on defense. He'll be like, too busy like yelling at the referee, maybe looking down his teammate, etc., etc. But this game felt different because Scotty didn't look off anybody. He immediately got back right on defense and said, "Okay." And shout outs to Grady Dick for at least making a competitive effort to slow down Desmond Bane. And here Desmond Bane is just going to miss this. And welcome to 14 seconds of life for Scotty Barnes. Here I said, self-generated threes for Scotty Barnes. Look, man, step right into it. I don't recall anyone getting an assist on that. And just in case you thought it was a fluke, let's do it again. Let's do it again. Paulo Banker, step up. Step up. When you're guarding an all-star, step up. You should know. Apparently, you're an all-star, too. Here, I said the ball is moving. Oh, not before I victory lapped and said, "Anyone who thinks Paulo Scotty is even remotely debatable better watch this game. [ __ ] out of here." I truly believe it. Now, listen, the ball absolutely moved tonight. It wasn't just Scotty at all. Mamu, uh, Jameson Battle, sorry, not Jameson Battle, uh, Jamal Shed. There were so many catalysts for positive side-to-side accurate movement. The ball was humming. It was on a string. The Raptors need to bottle this energy and play like this forever. Now here, watch how quickly Scotty is able to get this up. Now, this is where I say this is why he is a point guard and Quickly is not because Quickly gathers this and slows it down and kills the advantage. But Scotty sees the numbers and the numbers are, we have a young team that's athletic and is able to run past people. And look, Jamal Shed misses Grady Dick here to find Jameson Battle open and Battle. Sorry. For Lawson, you can tell missing Jameson Battle and Lawson instead of taking three is going to make this clean pass to Sandra Mama and he's going to get the three. Look at how again, if you're watching this game again, if you're someone who recorded this game, if you're someone who was at this game and maybe has a chance to watch it again, if you're watching it on 30 30 Raptors and 30 afterwards, I want you to see how many times the ball went left to right on an offensive possession from start to finish. Here, Scotty starts the possession on the right side of the court, right? Sends it to Jameson. Uh, St. My god, this Jameson Battle thing is like crazy. Sends it to Jamal Shed. Jamal Shed sends it to the right side. We cross that. The minute you cross the paint on a possession, look at the defense. Look at the offense. The entire defense is huddled guarding nobody. Paulo is guarding nobody right now. Goa is guarding nobody right now. He's trying to chase out to Grady Dick and nobody is guarding the left side of the floor. The Raptors go from right to left so well with Scotty Barnes. And here it results in a clean three for Sandra Bomb and Keller Spiel. Let the victory laps continue. I said 18-0 run for Scott, uh, for for the Toronto Raptors. Oh my god, I was so excited. And I'm also so excited that we have a point guard who finally threw this pass for Scotty Barnes. Fred Van Vleet. That is a Fred Van Vleet. Trey, thank you very much. I was calling, I made film sessions for years calling at Raptors point guards for not throwing this pass and Scotty just stopped running in transition because no one ever threw this pass. Well, shout outs to Jamal Shed. I said, "Dear Emanuel Quickley and Brandon Ingram, watch your team." And I mean it. Watch your team. Tonight, you might, you might assume that the Raptors really needed those guys. And I would have walked in thinking, "Yeah, like you could really use those guys on this team." But unbelievable. Now, not all assists are created equal, and not all great passes are going to result in assists. Scotty could have had, I mean, he had 15 assists tonight. Scotty Barnes could have had 23 assists tonight. I think I counted it up, 23 or 24 assists. And when I say could have had, I don't mean he threw a pass to somebody who was widely contested and the guy missed the shot. No, I mean he created a wide-open look for someone under the basket and they got stripped or they got fouled or they just lost the ball. This is a wide-open look. The defense has his back turned to Sandra Meli. This is as wide-open a three. This is completely uncontested. This is a practice three that Scotty just found him for and he misses. Right. But look at the pass. Watch the wraparound. Do you see that little whip? Do you see the English on this pass? They're trying to tell me Ben Simmons is a better passer than Scotty Barnes. Yo, Ben Simmons, respect, but Ben Simmons made like I'm sorry, this game is an exhibition of Scotty Barnes's passing in so many ways. And a play like this is just going to be lost to NBA history because he didn't make the shot. But look at the pass and look at the shot it generated. It is impressive. What about this one? Getting it right past Joan Suggs. What a risky pass. But holy [ __ ] Like you take a look here. Actually, I'm going to criticize this. I would have gone down further. I think he passed too early here. There's no way Carter is going to recover on that. You could have split the defense better, but here he still gets RJ an open shot. And R.J. makes it with a right hand. Good job, RJ Barrett. I don't love that pass. It resulted in an assist, but I don't love it. Unbelievable. Okay, we already saw that one. Okay, I said the unselfishness is infectious. Just like selfishness is infectious. Just like defense is infectious, unselfishness is often infectious. Scotty passes to R.J. Barrett to run the break here. RJ Barrett passes to Yaka Purle and Yaka Purle gets a wide-open layup. Love it. Terrible defense for the Orlando Magic. Terrible transition commitment here. More victory lapping. I said, "Have you ever seen a video age more like milk than this?" Do me a favor. Do me a favor. You're also doing PC a favor. So, if you're a PC fan, you're also going to be doing PC a favor. Go to this video, "Scotty Barnes Isn't Who You Think He Is," and let Players Choice know who you think Scotty Barnes is, because there's a lot of comments there that are ripping your franchise player to shreds right now. So, I want you to go there and let them know. Let them know. Run your victory lap. Don't. This whole grace [ __ ] is so overrated. Be petty as [ __ ] Today, I give you permission to be petty. Be petty because the way that they disrespected this man, yo, I had people close to Scotty telling me like, "Yo, that platform was mad disrespectful to Scotty today." And I'm going to be like, "You know what? Let's wait and see. Go to that. Go to that." Yo, I'm not even kidding. Hold on. Let me pull it up. I will put the link in. Me too, Gabe. Me too. Me too. Hang on. I'm going to show up. I'm going to show you what video I'm talking about. I'm going to show you the comments. Go check this video out. And you know what? Listen to the points. Maybe they're making some good points. Maybe I'm just being an [ __ ] on. Is it audio? Is audio missing? It says my browser lost link to audio, which could be a big problem, man. Okay. Yes, the comments are ridiculous on this one. Um, absolutely. Also, you just found out that I liked my own comment. Shout outs to you. Uh, Pen has a really condescending attitude for someone spewing nothing but slop. Okay, cool. Yeah, too bad. Okay, let me, let me, let me uh. It says your browser lost connection. Try sharing your screen again. Restart your browser. Restart your browser if this continues to be a problem. Hold on. Uh, let me try to refresh this and see if it works. Did you all hear that? Did y'all hear the ad? Okay, so we have lost audio on the screen share, which is a big problem. That's a big problem because I need to share what Jack Armstrong said and I won't be able to do that. Let me, let me, let me just see if I can do that for a sec here. Uh, hang on one sec. Okay, let's just get through, let's get through some of these plays and then we will, if I have to, I'll restart my browser and hang on. That's rude. Okay. Okay. One sec. Okay, once again, Scotty Barnes just giving Mamu freebies all night long, right? This is a wraparound if I've ever seen one. Mamu is wide open here. Just can't finish. Can't finish. This happened a lot tonight. Uh, here I say zero level score. By the way, look, this is what y'all have been wanting. You're saying be aggressive, Scotty. Be assertive, Scotty. Okay. Well, here you have Goab Bataz. And far too many times Scotty Barnes does not attack this matchup. And I think that's a problem. And here Scotty Barnes takes the foul, gets hit by two players, goes to the line. Good job, Scotty Barnes. Make both free throws. This is the play y'all have been waiting for. Did I hear Jack Armstrong say sick, wicked, and nasty? Who's the last player you heard sick, wicked, and nasty for? That was Chuck Schwarzki, Vince Carter. Sick, wicked, and nasty. Them Florida boys really are like them the hoopers, right? Like Florida hoops is underrated. Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, and now Scotty Barnes. Shout outs to that. I said, "I've never seen anything age worse in four days than this ever." Let me know if you can hear this. Can y'all hear that? Did y'all hear that? Just let me know. If you can't, I literally have to restart my browser because the next few things, no audio. Okay, gotcha. So, I'm going to be back in less than a minute, but the rest of this is not possible without audio because I need y'all to hear what um Daryl. Yo. I need you to hold it down for a minute. I want you to give your take. I'm going to let you go one-on-one while I restart my browser. Are you cool with that? Sure. Let's do it. That's why this community rocks, man. All right. I'm going to say a bunch of stuff that's going to maybe possibly not get you in trouble. We hope. Just, yeah, go for it. All right. Yo, what's going on, Raptors fans? And I see in the chat some people that are maybe not Raptors fans. This was satisfying. Okay. So, here's a question I'm going to pose to you guys. Which would be more satisfying? And I'm talking mostly to you married guys out there, but which do you think would be more satisfying? Jack Armstrong in the third quarter talking about Scotty the way that we've all talked about Scotty for years or your wife sitting you down saying, "Listen, babe. You were right."

I apologize. I take accountability for what I said." Which one is more satisfying, do you think? Might be one of the toughest questions you've ever had to answer, huh? Jack, everyone's saying, "Jack." Yeah, man. That was so That was so nice, man.

Listen, look at this, guys. You guys in the chat are awesome. There we got one we got one person who's actually married in here. He's like, "Sorry, my wife Shout out to you, Lesie Curion. That wipe option is just pure fiction. All right, we got another married guy in here. Yeah, you just proved it. RPG Sheep, shout out to you, man. Yeah, this is a good one. This is a good game because a few days. Okay, Rob's back. I'll hold that thought.

>> Okay, Darl, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna bring you back in about six minutes. Cool. >> Cool. No worries. Okay. Okay. Hopefully the audio works now. Thank you so much to Daryl for filling in. Uh, man, this community rocks. I I really cannot. It's been a rough few days, man. I got to tell you, this day this these two games were very very much needed for me at least. Um, here I said, can y'all hear the audio now? Hold on one sec.

>> Is he better? Did you better? >> Did y'all hear that? Please, God, tell me. Yes. Oh, thank God. Okay, good. Okay.

>> Still better than him. >> LeBron's still better than him. >> But don't you think better than him? >> But don't you think his future should be better than Scotty? Yes. >> You know what I would love? You know, you know what would be a great is better than him as well. >> You know what I was gonna say before I got cut off there? I said, 'You know what I would love? I would love for a professional NBA coach to come on here and tell you how good he thinks Scotty Barnes is. But instead, I heard Damonte Sabonis is better than him, and I completely lost my mind.

>> Damn, >> better than him. >> Are we going for >> I nearly broke my door by whipping my mic into my door. I literally took the mic like this and I threw it into my door. I've never done that before. That's probably the most offensive thing I think I've ever heard. Who did you say? Who did you say? Donus.

>> Hey, chill. On this Tuesday, we were just trying to go for 20. Now we damn about to go for 40 on a Tuesday. >> I see. >> Uh, it was Thursday, so Ron does not know what day it is, but I want to let you know that on Friday, um, Scotty Barnes put him in their place, and then on Sunday, he, uh, he buried the shovel. Okay. I'm very excited for that. I've never seen anything age worse in 4 days than this ever. Honestly, I've I've seen some takes age very poorly. Very poorly. I don't think I've ever seen anything age as poorly as that.

Now, I want to share with you what was possibly my moment of the night. It wasn't Scotty Barnes playing well. It was hearing a broadcaster that I think has been one of the most consistently down on Scotty, critical of Scotty, disrespectful to Scotty, uh, in the Raptors media space. He's annoyed me with his presence on Bob McAuen's show in which he talks about Scotty Barnes. He talks about him as like an unserious guy who doesn't, you know, he doesn't know where he's going. He doesn't know what he's doing all the time. He has attitude issues, blah blah blah blah blah. He doesn't respect his leaders. And I always thought Jack was very stubborn. And what I'm gonna say is that I very much appreciate that Jack said what he said because it really allowed me to remember that I used to really like Jack Armstrong. I used to like him. I've met him multiple times, shaken his hand. I've talked to him. I used to really like Jack. And to hear to hear Jack kind of harp on Scotty so much as the media was already beating down on him and he was struggling didn't feel right with me. But then I heard Jack say something that gave me chills. And I think a lot of people DM me immediately when they heard this and say, "Did you just hear what Jack Armstrong said? I need you to listen to what Jack Armstrong said, but I also need the monetization money from this live to not go uh to copyright and the NBA. So, what I'm going to do is the graphic is not important. Like what is on screen is not important. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to put this and I'm going to let you listen to what Jack said and we're going to listen to it twice.

Oh, >> Scotty Barnes now has seven assists. He is hooping Matty D. Look at this right here. Martin, >> look opposite. Look at he turns. Beautiful job. Shot prep is perfect. Great job. Look, you watch Detroit play. Who's got the ball all the time? G. >> Okay. You watch the Lakers in their prime. >> Barnes is a point guard. I just want to have you guys just hear that one more time just in case you can't hear it. He said when you watch Detroit play who has the ball all the time and Matt Develin, you know Kate Cunningham when you watch the M and he says when you watch the Los Angeles Lakers in their heyday who had the ball at the time Magic Johnson. Scotty Barnes is a point guard. And I was just like, "You mean he's not Draymond meets Aaron Gordon?" Like I've been saying for five [ __ ] years. Do you understand the catharsis that I feel right now? I nearly jumped. I couldn't believe it. I pinched myself to make sure I hadn't died. Okay, you got to understand. If you know me at all, you understand what that moment meant. Holy shoot. Unbelievable. Just katharsis. I'm sorry. It's just katharsis.

I said Magic general manager Jeff Welman realizing he was one pick away in 2021 from drafting a real superstar. That's just me being petty. I said Scotty Barnes letting you know that the Paulo discussions are over. Let me mute this for a second here. Jamal shed beautiful pass. Loved it. Loved it. Scotty getting a gift back after giving so many gifts. and Paulo Vancero. You Yo, Paulo went up. Scotty went up, but one of these guys got way further up. And honestly, I'm going say this. I think I'm disappointed by that dunk. Dunk on him harder. Flex on him a little bit. But Scotty doesn't respect Paulo like that. Scotty saves his flexes for Kevin Garnett. Sorry, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Jiannis Andrempo. Scotty is not [ __ ] flexing on Paulo because he doesn't see Paulo on his league. That's not that's not his league. I said keep the foot on their necks. Beat him by 50. Again, this pass was from RJ Barrett. Little pocket pass to Yaka Purle. No rim defense by Wendell Carter. Hapless, disgusting display of basketball from the Orlando Magic. I said up 33 and you can tell Scotty is still pissed they didn't find him earlier in transition. Now watch this play. This is very interesting. This happens a lot. Now here Scotty is going to contest this three by Tristan Dilva and it's a good contest. Good contest side contest without fouling just enough huge human being coming at you coming in your field of vision and Tristan Dilva misses this badly. This is a dynamite three-point shooter. This is the one guy you don't want to lose. and he makes a great contest on the ball here. And you can see right here, Scotty is gone. So RJ, if he were maybe a little bit more passing inclined, immediately throws this up to Scotty. Scotty gets a wideopen dunk. The Magic are totally not back. But R.J. does not throw it. And we get Grady Dick and Jaylen Suggs has recovered by this point and is thinking Grady's just going to miss this. And as Scotty was going back down the court, he threw up his hands looking at RJ and Grady as if to say, "What the fuck?" Again, it's good that your franchise player, even up 33 points, is not coasting.

Speaking of franchise players, these are some of my favorite players in NBA history. Joe Keem Noah, Janiskmpo, Draymond Green, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Garnett, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen since 1985, 1986. This is an entire list of players who have 400 assists and 100 blocks. Michael Jordan did it once. Scottie Pippen did it once. Dwayne Wade and Joe Joe Noah did it once. Scotty Barnes has now done it once. Draymond did it twice. Giannis did it twice. And Kevin Garnett did it six times. Think about all the players in NBA history that didn't do this. Think about LeBron James. LeBron never did this. Think about Tim Duncan. Tim Duncan never did this. This is a crazy list, but it's so rare. Nicola Yic didn't do this. So, apparently Nicolola Yokic has never had 100 blocks in a in a in a in a series or in a season. Okay.

Now, once again, Jack Armstrong is going to say something and I'm going to have to put this banner back up, but Jack basically doubles down on what he said earlier. Take a listen to what Jack had to say this time.

>> Now it's I said early in the broadcast, I'll say it again. >> He is your lead dog. >> He is your facilitator. He is your Kate Cunningham. He is your Magic Johnson. >> He is your lead initiator. He is your Cade Cunningham. He is your Magic Johnson. I'll go one step further. He's a better passer than Kate Cunningham. But I'm just happy to be at the table. You know what I am? I am a person who has been deprived of water for 6 years. And while I believe that you owe me 500 gallons of water, I'm just happy for a glass. Okay? But I 100% think he's a better pastor than Kate Cunningham. And I have felt that way since they were at Mom Bird. So that's just where we're at. Okay? But you know what? You want to put him in Kate Cunningham conversations, that's certainly better than putting him in Brandon Ingram conversations. So I'm cool with it. Okay.

Now, one of the things that I really love being a Nicolola Jokic fan is all the little intangible stuff that Nicolola Jokic does. And one of the things that Nicolo Joic does is the game within the game. Scotty Barnes has not really been doing a lot of game within the game stuff through his first three years. So, I was a little bit like, I wonder if he ever figures out that there is a game within a game, that momentum is something that stars need to manage a little bit better, pace, and and you know what? This year, I've noticed that he really started to understand the game within a game. This is the game within a game. Advantages are really small. Now, watch this. Number eight holds the ball for a second too long. You'll often see that when the referee holds it too long or an opposing player holds it too long, Nicolage is very, very quick to say, "That's a go, go, go, go, go, and he demands the ball." Right? Well, here you're actually seeing Scotty Barnes count the seconds that number eight holds the ball. And now he turns around to the referee because when number eight drops the ball, he says that's a delay a game. And you can see Scotty Barnes is the person to call the tech on number eight. Then he proceeds to go to the line and he ends up missing the free throw. But nevertheless, Scotty Barnes shooting 90% from the free throw line is something we can take since the All-Star break. This might have been the This is the play that got me like absolutely out of my seat. Like I just couldn't believe that he made this shot. The Raptors are up 40 at this point. Watch how quickly Scotty pushes this off a make. Again, people mistakenly assume the transition is only off of a miss. But sometimes you can go off a make. And Joic does this all the time when he sees the defense kind of disorganized. He'll just chop it up and he'll he'll go right down the middle. And here Scotty is so much faster than Yic. Wishes he could he could do this. And look, beats number eight off the dribble, takes one shoulder into him, draws the foul, and then throws the circus shot up and he's so happy. Look at that big smile, man. Uh I feel happy for him, man. That's good. That's good. That was a crazy shot. I can't believe he made it. But, you know, take the foul, get to the line. Very good. I said the vibes are back.

Now here, see the good thing about Scotty Barnes is he doesn't insist on being the only playmaker on the court. He'll give RJ Barrett chances. He'll give Jamal shed chances. He doesn't need to manufacture everything for you. Ball dominance is not something that's necessarily a great thing in basketball. We were just, you know, in a group chat yesterday. We were having a private debate about who is really better for passing, Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett. Garnett was a lot more ball dominant, but I really feel that Tim Duncan was very underrated as a passer. Even though he had a lot of turnovers and stuff, I just felt like Duncan did a lot of what Scotty Barnes does, which is he shifts the ball side to side. And here he sees that RJ Barrett has a mismatch. That's a very small player. And here, take the foul and the ball goes in. And look at these two. You know how back You know how long back this relationship goes? Eight years. Eight years. Eight years ago they played each other in Florida. RJ Barrett won that night. R.J. gets traded to Scotty's team. Doesn't know it's Scotty's team or clearly hasn't figured it out yet. But I think tonight everybody in the building knew whose team they were on. That's good. That's good. The vibes are back. I said before checking out Scotty scored her assisted on 57 of the Raptors 113 points. I mentioned this before that is good for 51%. I said Jamal with the ups. Scotty with the legendary Sy. And here look at this. Did you know that Jamal shed got ups like that? And look at Scotty Barnes. So happy man. He was excited. Everyone's excited. Super happy. Okay, I said cook. Grady up 50. Raptors officially hang on to fifth seed and we are officially 10 games over 500. Grady, this is Grady's game. This is Grady's game. Mid-range pull-ups, turnarounds. That's Grady's game. Standing in the corner, not good for Grady either. I I kind of hope here's here's my hope for Grady. I understand he has significant limitations as a defender. I understand all of it. I've been down on him, out on him many times. I believe that maybe maybe there's a chance if he works out, it'll be on a second contract and hopefully that'll be a really cheap second contract for the Raptors.

Okay, now we're going to bring Daryl on, but quickly just address one super chat. Miriam, thank you so much. Miss Booth, have you noticed the last few games Scotty has been all about business, letting you know he should be running point? Keep the hat off, Rob. There is a small community in my DMs. Marian Booth is a part of that community. Several of Scotty's, you know, friends are part of that community. I have like a couple of you Raptor fans part of this channel or part of this community and every time you know something is said or something happens or whatever that's like the little support group that we have. It's not a group chat but it's just a series of conversations that have been going on for five six years. I could scroll back through my DMs five years ago about slanderous articles that were written about Scotty and all that stuff. And I got to tell you, there have been moments where Scotty has shown out and been so universally in that moment celebrated. The game against San Antonio in year three comes to mind. The game against Cleveland earlier this year, the game against Boston when the Raptors have lost. But it's almost like there's such a perceptive disadvantage that he's at when it comes to convincing this fan base that he is really a franchise player that not only does he have to play super well, it has to be against a great team or a considered good team or a playoff team and the Raptors have to win by 40. If it took this type of game for you to see that he could do this, then that's fine. But there are people that I've been talking to for five years, six years, seven years, and we've been saying Scotty can do this the whole way through. And I'm just happy that the world will finally recognize what this guy is, which is a point guard. Because again, if he has nine assists tonight, people are just glossing it over. Now, he had 15 assists. Think about all the assists he could have had tonight on a more talented team. Think about all the assists he could have had with a more vertical pop athlete. The Toronto Raptors need to take a long hard look. Scotty Barnes may not be He might be the most lowmaintenance star that I've ever seen in the NBA. He doesn't ask for anything. He plays any position you want him to. Guards every single position on the court. Guards the toughest matchup every single night. Doesn't complain. Gets injured. Doesn't make excuses. Doesn't come out in the media. Darko has to make excuses for him only to have Will will Lu say Darko is lying. This is a the exact opposite of LeBron in so many ways. Loves his teammates, cares about his teammates, wants wants to celebrate his teammates, doesn't play for stats. But I got to tell you, man, the stats matter. The stats matter because Scotty's had games like this before. He has. He's had games where he's put on an incredible playmaking master class, but the numbers just don't show up. Maybe the Raptors only win by four and nobody cares. Maybe it's against a bad team. Maybe it's against a good team and the Raptors lose. And once again, nobody cares. People have been looking for reasons to validate their initial suspicion that Kade Cunningham is a franchise player since he was drafted. They were willing to go through three years of hell with him. The longest losing streak, one of the longest losing streaks in NBA history. And they still came out to the conclusion that Kade was that dude. And Scotty can win as much as he can and he can outperform Cade every single time and he can lock up everybody and can be the second best defender in the NBA, but people will still say it's still Draymond Green. So, I'm glad that tonight that narrative hopefully shifts, but it's on Scotty because Jack Armstrong said something else in this broadcast. He said he's got to keep doing this. Even when those other guys come back, he has to control the offense. But now, the first time ever, Jack Armstrong, the broadcast crew, media pundits, openly saying Scotty Barnes is the point guard, Esr Barhaney, I haven't heard Samson folks say it yet, but you know, they they've always, you know, Raptor Republic, shout outs to Raptor Republic, they do good work. They've always said Scotty's not a point guard. Maybe if their opinion changes and Espondi Arborhane's opinion changes and Jack Armstrong's opinion changes, then enough pressure can be created that could not have been created by me alone cuz I'm not in that media room. I can't ask Darko those questions in front of everybody and have everyone start thinking about what I'm saying. So maybe everyone has heard me say this before and they've laughed at it. They've they've scoffed at it. But maybe what it takes is for Scotty Barnes to have 60 70 assists in a four or five game span for people to finally say, "Oh [ __ ] he really is a point guard, isn't he?" But you know who's known he's a point guard his whole life? His mom, his trainer, his friends, his college coach, me. Literally anybody who can view Scotty from the lens other than the one created by the Toronto media or the NBA media at large.

Okay, Darl, what is up, my friend?

>> Hey, hey, how's it going? >> I'm great. >> Dumb question. It's great. It is. >> I'm great. >> Things are looking up. >> I'm so happy. >> So, this was this this was a very satisfying game. Not just, you know, Yeah, this is a very satisfying game. And not because of the blowout win. How weird is that, right?

>> Okay. Why is it satisfying? Well, several reasons. Uh, first of all, imagine I mean, I know you're not married, but you do have a longtime girlfriend, so you you're going to know what I'm talking about. When you stepped out for a minute and I took over, I posed a question to the chat. I'll pose the same question to you. Were Jack Armstrong's comments about Scotty more satisfying? Or would it be more satisfying if your girlfriend sits you down and looks you in the eye and says, "Babe, you were right. I was wrong. I take accountability.

>> Jack Armstrongs. >> That's what the chat said, too. >> Yeah. So, I mean, that's that's that's the thing, right? Like a blow a win is nice, but the validation when for years these people have been saying the opposite of what you are other like those of us who are like-minded have been saying about Scotty is just it's so nice. And then the cherry on top, the postgame interview with Kayla Gray. Did you watch that? She interviewed Scotty and she brought up, "Scotty, you just passed Fred Van Vleet on the alltime Raptor scoring list."

>> Yes. >> 23. >> Can you believe it? >> So funny. Oh my god, >> you are getting my live reaction to this. I did not know that. Talk about satisfying. Like that's the mother of all cherries on top, right? >> Oh my god. I got I got arrested Scotty's mom about this. That's funny. >> No. How appropriate, man. How appropriate. And as like and he did it playing the game as the as the point guard that the Raptors have always needed. Like it's just everything about this everything about this is just like it's just so ironically perfect. I don't know how to describe it.

>> First of all, shout outs to Kayla Gay. Literally my favorite. Okay, her and Mike Roach are my favorite and Amber close close third are my favorite people in Raptors media period. So if anybody knew the meaning of that question, it was Kayla. That was not an accident. >> No, I know. And Scotty, to his credit, did not react at all. I mean, that guy's got a poker face. >> Yeah. >> No, it was good. >> Now, the whole Do do you know what Do you know what I would have said if I was Scotty Barnes? >> Yeah. What? >> I would have been like, "Bitch, I told you." >> Right. Look right into the camera and you said, "This is petty me. I told you. >> No, man. >> Oh, that is so satisfying. Fred was here longer, too. >> Way longer. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Scotty's not a scorer, right? >> Right. Oh, man. That that that is that is wild. >> Yeah. And you know what's weird? I usually don't watch the TSN broadcast because I can't stand listening to Jack. I've been against Jack for years and this time I turned on the TSN broadcast. I was watching it and man, I'm glad I did. Can you imagine if I'd missed all of that?

>> Unbelievable. >> That was nice. >> Uh Scotty bigger than all of us. He didn't even react. Here's the thing. There's something I've noticed about Scotty, and this is just going back years. He has I I think among all the gifts that he has, I think his greatest gift is patience. He has like a psychotic vision for what he's going to be and he doesn't care what he is right now. It doesn't phase him at all. He has like how this season ends, whether he has 12 points, 15 points, 50 points, it doesn't change how he works. It doesn't change how he approached the offseason. He never gets satisfied. After winning rookie of the year, he worked even harder that offseason only to have the Toronto media question his work ethic. But after making All-Star, he worked even harder. Like like this offseason, he worked even like he just keeps working harder. And I think that's why he doesn't get so torn down by the, you know, the day-to-day stuff. I think we could all probably learn a little bit from it, you know, because I do. I I I I am more reactionary than I care to admit sometimes. Like that panel debate on Thursday. I had to sleep for 4 hours after that. I was so emotionally exhausted after that. I couldn't believe what I had just listened to. I couldn't believe how disrespectful it was. And I was just like, "Okay, I'm just going to go to sleep. This is this is exhausting." Whereas Scotty probably would have said, "Okay, there's 50 players better than me. Cool." Cuz he knows in 10 years all of these things are going to be wrong. Yeah.

>> So, it doesn't matter. >> I have a question for you. What makes Scotty a point guard? I've been thinking about this recently. Is it because he looks like a point guard or because he thinks like a point guard? Um, he definitely doesn't look like a point guard. He looks like a center. Uh, he has more anthropomorphically, is that the right word? or just his physics, the physics of him are closer to Dwight Howard than Fred Vanble.

>> Yeah. >> Um, >> so what made Jason Kidd a point guard? He looked like a point guard or he thought like a point guard. >> Well, Jason Kidd to his to his credit did look much more like a point guard than Scotty as well. I think Scotty sees like a point guard. I I'll go away from thought and like I'll just pick option C. He sees like a point guard. He sees and he feels and he thinks like a point guard. Everything intangibly, his brain is like a point guard. Um, I always say you see the game through the position that you play very often. If you're a big, if you learn the position as a big, you're going to see the po you're going to see the game inverted. You're going to see it from the post out because that's your vantage point. So everything is going to be post out. Everything. Even if you're a big who plays above the break, you're going to still think m middle center post. If you're a wing, you're probably going to think wing, which means you're going to think about filling in the lanes. You're going to think about slashing. You're going to think about corner threes. You're going to think about that stuff. When you're a point guard, you're always thinking center. You're always thinking center of the court out. Like there's a there's a there's a field of vision that a point guard has when when they cross the free throw line that this is the court, this is the basket, and there's kind of like a diamond shaped perspective on how to mold the offense and manipulate the defense to create the pass. It's a little bit like thinking like a quarterback. You know, quarterbacks >> like >> see gaps. Quarterbacks need to know where their receiver is going to be. like 3 seconds before they throw the pass. There's an anticipatory element to it, but they also need to factor in where the like I don't know football very well, so I'm going to talk about it like a complete casual, but like they're going to have to know where their def where their defense is. They're going to have to know who is rushing at them or running at them. They have to understand who might intercept the pass. They need to understand how much separation based on how fast my wide receiver is going, right? How much space and separation and how much wiggle room do I have to throw this pass over the hand that will likely intercept it? And where do I need to throw that pass based on the trajectory of these six elements? That is special. Tom Brady is special. Patrick Mahomes is special. Magic Johnson is special. Jason Kidd is special. Steve Nash is special. LeBron James is special. And there's nothing positionally defined about being special. Nicolola Joic is special. Arvda Sabonis was special. Arvdas was not a point guard. But the vision for the game is knowing where and what will happen with definitive certainty. Sometimes you're going to be wrong because the calculus it can be wrong. But when you get to the point where 97.8% of the time you can anticipate correctly where the defense and offense will be two seconds from now, you have a gift cuz two seconds is everything in the NBA, man. Yeah. So this is Yeah. This this I guess speaks to my point that I'm trying to eventually get to. and bring it home. Emanuel quickly looks like a point guard. He shoots threes like a point guard. He handles the ball more or less like a point guard. He is not a point guard. Why? His mentality is not a point guards. His vision and thinking is not a point guards. And I believe that Scotty is a point guard because every every cell in his body is screaming to do point guard things. And it's not like he's like, "How can I do point guard things?" His cells are screaming, "This is what I this is what my instincts are telling me to do." And all of those things are point guard adjacent. Now, he doesn't look like a point guard. He's got a high center of gravity. He doesn't have quite the the the shift or the tight handle that traditionally point guards have. And that's why I ask, is it because he looks like a point guard? No. When he's playing, he doesn't look like a point guard, but he undoubtedly is a point guard. Now, people I think when they say he's not a point guard, what they really mean is he shouldn't be in he shouldn't be put in the point guard position because his skill set isn't good enough or elite enough to be a traditional point guard. I think that's where people get thrown off. They say he's not a point guard when actually what they mean is that he's he'd be a better forward than a point guard because of his skill limitations or his physical limitations.

>> That doesn't change the fact that he is not a point guard. >> But I don't think the skill limitations are independent of the roster context around him.

>> Like I' I've mentioned this before, right? The stretch big and the guard screener. These two archetypes of players could unlock all the pockets of space you need. Now, there is a certain level that your handle needs to get to to sufficiently run against any amount of pressure in the NBA. I believe Scotty has a sufficient speed and handle to do this, but not without help, not without a screen. He's not just going to live cook his guy off the dribble, burst past him like John Mor. I don't even think John Mor can do that right now. Trey Young certainly can't do that right now. Defenders are too good. Okay, but how did Magic do it? Magic wasn't just beating people off the dribble. Magic slow grinded his way to the basket. Magic was able to manipulate defense with his eyes. He was able to see ahead. He was able to push in transition. He was able to throw kick aheads. And Magic played with James Worthy and Kareem Abdul Jabbar instead of Cam Burch and Precious Aua. And there are big gaps between those types of players. And you know, I even think about Matt I even think about Michael Jordan. There was a question posed to Kevin Durant the other day and said if you played in the Bulls offense in 1995 92 let's say you you were the you were the player instead of Michael Jordan operating in the mid post next to Scottie Pippen Dennis Rodman Horus Grant Bill Cartwright Craig Hodgeges Steve Kerr you look at the entire roster that they had spacing galore the triangle unlocked everything. All Kevin Durant would have to do is just be a 7 foot demon in the mid post and no one could stop him. And he said, "How many champions could you have won six championships?" And he said, "Yes." Now, I disagree. I think he would have won four, but four is a lot more than two. And two is a lot more than the zero that people actually give him credit for. The point here is not that Kevin Durant is better than Michael Jordan. It's just that if you give him a similar context in a similar era, the skill set is replicable. If you gave Scotty Barnes, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and James Worthy with Pat Riley as his coach, and that reckless pace offense that they ran with Showtime, would he be as good as Magic? No. Be damn close. And he'd be a way better defender.

So, there's so much to be assumed by that. Scotty grew up, you know, um Scotty's parents split up. That's something that, you know, is more recently has been talked about a lot more in the public media, whatever. Um, when he was pretty young and, you know, Scotty used to still, I don't want to disclose too much about Scotty's relationship with his dad, but you know, at least when he was young, like his dad would take him to games and he would watch and he would also watch Magic Johnson highlights. And he's he's talked about this, you know, like this was how he saw the game. He saw he saw himself in the game. And very often when you're young, you have a we all have hoop dreams. Everyone who's played basketball has thought of themselves as either I'm Steve Kerr or I'm Steph Curry or I'm Muhammad Abdul Rauf or if you're really big maybe I'm Rasheed Wallace, Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett. And I think Scotty Barnes found an avatar for himself in Magic Johnson. And there's a reason why incredibly smart people like Leonard Hamilton have compared him to Magic Johnson. There's a reason why Jason Kid has compared him to himself. There's a reason why Magic Johnson himself has compared him to Magic Johnson. And yet when I say it, boo tomatoes. No man, like this is Magic. Like this is how Magic thrived. Magic thrives with kick ahead side to sides. He he like just because there isn't the same razledazzle. But man, did you watch today's game? Look at the vibe. Look at the energy.

Yeah. >> I can't even imagine if I was a person today who had a game to if I had a ticket to today's game and I didn't go just cuz I'm like it's magic. I I was going to say I would shoot myself. That's probably an overreaction. Like I would be very upset right now. >> You shoot yourself in the toe. >> I I would shoot myself in the pinky. Yeah. Yeah. Like I I would put a hammer to my hand. Like I'd be so pissed off at myself for missing this game because not only was this game a huge blowout, not only was it historic for a multitude of reasons, Scotty careerhigh in assist, largest loss in Magic history, [ __ ] that franchise. Can't stand him. Super annoying. You know, entire fan base is just very annoying. They've been they've been talking about Fron over Scotty, Powell over Powell over Scotty, Jaylen Suggs over Scotty for four years. I'm just like, y'all got three players better than Scotty. And it brings me back to that little bar that you know you love to do. Everybody's better than Scotty Barnes until it's time to be better than Scotty Barnes. Crickets. Crickets. Crickets, you know. So, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at. But anyways, I'm excited. I'm excited that he gets to run point. I'm I'm I'm glad that it's to a to critical acclaim. You know what it is? You know what this actually feels like? This feels like being a fan of 2001 of Space Odyssey in 1970. This is what it feels like.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great film, but the critics are like, "Boo! It's overindulgent. It's over long." Do you see how amazing this is? No, it's boring and slow. Why is space silent? And then and then 45 years later, it's like, "This is the greatest [ __ ] film on earth. It's changed cinema forever." You you know, you know what they should do? They should start handing out Oscars three years after the fact. So today we should be doing Oscars for like 2023 and then in 2029 we can do an Oscar for Sinners because by 2029 it will be confirmed and clear that Sinners was the best film this year. That's just how I feel. And so like you know my little catchphrase, I'm not wrong, I'm early. By the way, a great way to get out of being wrong until it's time to pay the bill. It's like a little credit card. You know what I mean? I'm not wrong, I'm early. It's basically like a like a argumentative form of a credit card. you know, I'm just going to put this on credit and come back in three years and tell you you're an idiot. Um, but yeah, uh, it took long enough, man. Took long enough. Like, we've seen points before.

>> Yeah. >> You know what I wish? I wish that there was a lot more content of people going back and digging through what people have said in the past and bringing it up. It's like not enough receipts are counted. I know it's a lot of work to comb through stuff, but it's like I want to see more of that. I told you so. or what did you say like five years ago? I know there's a little bit of that with like revisiting drafts and re reddrafting people, but that's not I want to see more.

>> I have an entire folder >> digging up. >> I have an entire folder of clips, >> articles, uh tweets. >> It's um Do you know what it's called? >> It's in the title. >> No, no, it's called my Kendrick Lamar bag. Because one day, >> oh my god, that documentary is going to sell out. Time Square. >> Oh man. Yeah, >> dude. No. Like, here's the thing. There's so many times in history where people have been right about something and have been vilified for like just being stupid, crazy, whatever. Can you imagine when when everyone thought the earth was flat and people are like and there was like that one lunatic in the town square who was just like this is a logical impossibility >> I'd be like >> heresy that's that's burn him at the stake you know >> burn him that's it >> burn him for saying such a stupid thing but you know and I think I'm just really excited about Emanuel Quickley having to be in street clothes watching this because at this point if you are Brandon Ingram and Emanuel Quickley if you have seen this to now revert back to how you were playing before this to me signals you must be traded immediately because you cannot be pro team if you do this. It would be one thing to feain ignorance and say I didn't know he could do this. I didn't know that he had this in him. It would be another thing to watch him do it know he has it and then say no but I want my numbers. That would be stupid.

>> Well, this is I mean this is empirical evidence and we've like okay after the Utah game I know after the Phoenix game when the Raptors were so bad and people were saying yeah I love >> I love >> I've never seen I've never seen a player play for the Raptors who makes $32 million that I've ever seen happy out. Like every time he's out, I'm just like really happy he's out cuz I secretly just want him to watch how the team plays without him so that he can learn cuz I I genuinely respect Emanuel Quickley. Like I it may not be clear to people from listening to me. Sounds like I kind of hate the guy. I like him. I think he's a really hard worker. I I respect him for the craft he's put into his game, but if he only knew how much better his life would be if he actually let Scotty run point, Scotty would find him open like he's never been open in his life. He's never played with a passer as good as Scotty Barnes. Respectfully, Jaylen Brunson does not hold a candle to Scotty as a passer. And that's why I said like if you have a common sense about you as an NBA player, if you come on to this guy's team, I would just immediately get Brandon Ingram. Same thing. Brandon Ingram has never played. The last time, the first time Brandon Ingram became a an all-star was arguably his best year ever >> with Lonzo. >> Lonzo. That's what it was. >> And Brandon Ingram dare not challenge the idea that Lonzo is a point guard because everybody says Lonzo's a point guard. and he was getting comparisons to Magic Johnson and he was getting and that's why I say these comparisons are very important because these players are on social media. They hear it. Emanuel Quickley is right now on social media getting tagged probably 45 times a minute in Scotty Barnes as a point guard. Scotty Barnes, he's hearing it now, right? It's and it's not some fringe YouTube channel named Pensar Basketball saying it. It's everybody saying it. the broadcast is saying, the media is saying, I'm sure it's a huge part of the questioning from Darko today. So now you can't, it becomes harder to challenge because there's social shame in doing so, right? Whereas before you could always say, well, who else is going to run point? I have to run point. Right? Now we see who else can, so now you can't. This is a genius move by Scotty Barnes to show out this way the last four games.

>> This is >> Scotty Barnes without evidence >> probably like averaging like 12 assists per game. >> Yeah, >> that's ridiculous. >> Well, I was talking after the after the Phoenix game and the Raptors looked so trash and I was talking to another uh Raptors content creator that I'm friends with and he was he was you know pretty down on the whole team, down on Darko, down on Scotty, down on everybody. And I was telling him part of the conversation we were discussing about Scotty as a point guard and he thinks that Scotty needed to be a lot more uh Raptors Republicish uh get in the paint uh crash and bang score from in close and stay away from the point guard stuff and that the Raptors desperately needed to go and get a point guard. And okay, that's fine. The Raptors were playing like trash. But after then the the after the Utah game, the next game was Utah when the Raptors blew out the Jazz and Quickly was out in that game. And Quickley and Brandon Ingram were both out that game. And this guy that I'm talking to, he thinks that the Raptors should actually try and tank still for a pick and trying to, you know, make the play in and lose the play in if if they could or or even like miss the play in completely. And I was like, well, if if Emanuel Quickley and Brandon Ingram come back quickly, you may get your wish.

>> I'm forgetting the name of the person that I suspect you're talking about, but I think I know who you're talking about. >> It's possible. It's possible. >> Is he hopeful? >> Uh, I mean, he's Yeah. I mean, he's >> Notice my words >> in some ways. >> Is he Is he Canadian? Yeah, he's Canadian. >> Is he a hopeful Canadian? >> I think so. >> Okay, cool. >> I'm not I'm not really picking up on what you're There might be a hint in there that I'm not getting, but >> there is a chance. Anyways, um >> yeah. >> Yeah, we might be talking about the same person. We might not be, but you know what? Honestly, that sounds like most of Raptors media to me. Most of Raptors media.

>> There is one person though in with two people in Raptors media. Three people. Do Am I Raptors Media? Can I can I can I kind of put myself in this little cabal? No, I'm going to sit outside. I'mma sit outside. I'mma be the rebel. Uh-oh. That word has bad connotations in Canada. I'm not going to be rebel media. I'm going to be rebellious in my media inclusion of myself because they didn't give me a press pass this year. So, I'm just going to sit outside the media circle. But there are two people in the media circle who I believe have always known Scotty as a point guard or at least point guarded Jason. And that is, you know, of course Mike Roach and Kayla Gray. So, you know, again, shout outs to the real ones who see it. Shout outs to people who are bold enough to actually talk about it and say it. Um, it's not easy, man. Like, I I got to tell you, social ridicule is really hard for people. It used to be really hard for me, too. You know, for most of my life, like, you know, think

about it. Think go right back to high school. There's a rumor that you're XY Z. There's a rumor you, you know, [ __ ] your pants. Like you, you immediately like go into flashing red. Like it's the most dangerous thing to lose the approval of your entire social circle. And so to get like destroyed in the chat every single day on PC or to have so many negative comments or have people unsubscribe or whatever because you, you say something that they think makes you stupid is not easy. And therefore, I, I understand people who tend to hear what people are saying and say, "Okay, let me just say the same thing. Let me not really think, think for myself. Let me just say what everyone is saying so people aren't too mad at me and I'll differentiate myself by deviating 1% from what they've said." Cool. To each their own. I, I really don't think that that's necessarily analysis. I think that's regurgitation.

>> Yeah. Yeah. And to be honest, I mean, no, the thing that gets me is that nobody on the panel even comes close to understanding this Raptors team as, as you do. And the things that they say like that are, they say it like it's fact or they say it like their opinion should be taken seriously about it when it's just like objectively empirically inaccurate. It's very frustrating. Like, I, I don't know how you deal with that all the time. It's so frustrating.

>> You and I, you and I are cut from a similar cloth. I can, I can sort of tell and I can tell just going back even when we disagreed, I can sort of tell like we saw things. I'm sure if we had a conversation about ceramics, we would arrive to similar conclusions.

>> Probably.

>> Yeah. So I feel that that's why I actually have been your, I've been following you ever since the, the old Facebook days because a lot of ways I'm like, I recognize that thinking, that's how I think.

>> Yeah. So, there's something, um, do you remember, uh, I don't know if you've come across FD Signifier, YouTube content creator FD Signifier.

>> Incredible YouTube content creator. One of my, he is my favorite YouTube content creator. Shout outs to FD. Anyone who hasn't watched FD Signifier, go watch FD Signifier. It might be, if you're super, super left or super right, he's going to piss you off, but if you're open to the middle a little bit, you're going to like him. So FD had this really beautiful thing the other day where he talked about normalizing loud speaking as fact.

>> Like this idea that if you just get to say things very animatedly, very loudly, that people will assume you know what you're talking about. But that's actually weirdly how our minds work. When somebody came into your school, right, to give a presentation and they were very unsure. They were like, "Oh, like, well, you know, I think and maybe maybe that's, I don't remember exactly." You don't trust that person. This person doesn't know what they're [ __ ] talking about. But when you actually talk to people who really know what they're talking about, they, a lot of them talk it like that. A lot of them are like, "I'm not actually that sure, but I think that this is, I posit that this is because people who are genuinely truly experts in their field know that there's a million things they don't know." The truth is that arrogance sounds more like truth than truth in this world. And that's really sad. But when somebody comes into your, you know, um, school and says, "I have the path forward for you, young man." Hey,

>> to Mike Roach in the chat.

>> Mike, you want to call in? You want to call in? I, I just gave you your props. I was giving you props. And uh, Kayla, too. I'm happy for you, man. I, I watched your last video on Scotty Barnes. In fact, half my community sent it to me. Mike Roach, a real one, for sure. I'm going to send you the link right here. If you got like five minutes, just come on and let, let us know. There's like 400 people in here. I would love for them to follow you as well, but the, the link is in the bio if you want to. Sorry, I feel like I'm asking you to sign up for my OnlyFans account. Link in the bio, my friend. Um, the, the, I do not have an OnlyFans account. I promise. Uh, the stream.

>> I, I would not sub.

>> Pure basketball content on OnlyFans, bro. Pure, pure. Uh, but if, if you have two, three minutes, even if you're on your cell phone, if you just want to grace us with your presence, I just want to know what you think. But thank you so much for, for being on our show. Thank you so much for always showing love and thanks for what you do because, because uh, Mike just had a video on Scotty Barnes, I want to say two days ago on his channel and I actually was listening to it today. Come on, man. How, how the hell are you going to put me out like this? I'm going to ban your ass from OnlyFans. Uh, Mike's saying, "Rob is my guy and I care less what the other Raptors media thinks." I appreciate you and, and that, and that, you know.

Yeah, it's been a lonely road, man. Like, I, I have like, very many people in the Raptors media space have privately reached out to me and said, "You're making a lot of sense, but I can't actually like publicly support you because you sound crazy half the time." Uh, but it does feel, it does feel nice when somebody actually says, "You know what? Come on our show. I want to talk to you." You know, I'm never going to get that invitation from Sid 6. I'm never going to get that invitation from JD Bunkas, but I appreciate Mike doing that. That's always, that's always really nice. And again, supporting what's not popular. So, anyways, JD, uh, FD Signifier. So he was saying that it's kind of interesting that he talked about pseudointellectuals and he said that pseudointellectuals are people who are more concerned with sounding smart than being smart. They're more concerned with the appearance and social approval that comes from being an expert than actually becoming an expert in their field. When I talk to Craft Athletics, when I talk to Mike about media, when I talk to any person that I'm ever lucky enough, I remember there was this time I was a, I was working concierge when I was 18 years old and I was a precocious but very smart kid. And I remember thinking, you know, I started looking up and Googling all the residents of my building, which is probably super weird, but I wanted to know like, who are these people? This person's an architect. Oh, wow, this person's a doctor. Oh my god, this person's a neurosurgeon. Okay, it was a really bougie, expensive building and I was a kid from government housing. And so I figured out what these people did and I found out they were investors. They worked at a hedge fund or whatever. And then I would make a point to give them unconventional answers to their questions. So they asked me like, "Oh, how's the sports?" And I'd be like, "I don't really follow that, but you know, this thing happened in the stock market." And I would always make a point that they wouldn't get to talk to me like they talk to all the other security guards. They didn't just get to like do filler conversation and then I would be lucky enough that they would give me 20, 30 minutes in between, you know, they were waiting for something or they're waiting for a delivery or they came down, they just wanted to chat with somebody when they came home. Maybe some of these people lived alone, so they didn't really have anyone to talk to in their house. So, you could dispel some sort of, you know, loneliness that they were experiencing. And I would just listen to them. I wouldn't be talking very much. I would actually just ask really interesting questions that I had of them because when you have a chance to actually listen to somebody who's smarter than you on something, you should try to learn from them, not try to talk down to them. But so many conversations now are not had to be conversed, but rather to be won. We're trying to win conversations in today's media space, right? We're trying to beat someone at a conversation, which is not how a conversation works at all. We don't listen, we wait to talk, but when you're waiting to talk, you're not actually listening. And it's kind of weird. So FD Signifier basically capped it off with this wonderful thing where he basically said that when two people have a conversation, an intellectual and a pseudointellectual. The pseudointellectual is threatened by what the intellectual represents and what the intellectual represents is medicine. What the intellectual represents is basically a reminder of everything the pseudointellectual does not know and will probably never know. And because the pseudointellectual is anchored into the identity that they are intellectual, anything that presents them as otherwise is immediately attacked because it is an attack on their identity. So understanding this, the real solution is not to beat these pseudointellectuals down with facts. They're not concerned with facts. You give them a fact, they'll say it's a false fact. Donald Trump is a great example of a pseudointellectual. You will present him 16 years of data that contradicts his thought process or his philosophy and he'll say, "But you don't have my money." What does your money have to do with agriculture in China? Nothing. But that's what it is. So when you deal with people like that, there's actually no winning, which is what's frustrating because you can't win. And so what you must do when you deal with a pseudointellectual is you must let them have it. You got to let them have it. You just got to say, "Okay, I guess you're right." And you got to walk away because you cannot possibly win that argument. And that's what I learned from FD Signifier.

>> It's a very, very good life tip. Absolutely. Sometimes you just got to pick your battles.

>> Absolutely. When you talk to somebody who's a pseudointellectual on race relations or African-American history in America and they say based on their pseudointellectualism and pseudo history that institutional racism and and systemic racism doesn't exist, how do you deal with that? How do you deal with the objective reality that these things are very real and the five million things that you could say about it and everything you'll say? You'll say, "But look at this peer-reviewed journal on this." and they'll be like, "Oh, it's biased. Look at these incarceration statistics." Yeah, but but numbers are wrong all the time. There's no winning. You can't win. It's impossible.

>> No.

>> Well, I'm literally dealing with that right now in my school. My, my uh, my principal and one of the directors are exactly what you're talking about. And it's just, I just gotta, they don't, they don't know what they don't know.

>> Yeah. Yeah.

>> You just got to walk away.

>> Yeah. Teacher Mike is like, "When people don't trust stats and numbers, then what's the point?" Look, I, I got to be honest, a big part of my stats degree and my understanding of statistics is to always question numbers. I always question numbers. Any number you present me, I promise you, I will question it. But always with curiosity and never with judgment. There's always a curiosity of why do you think this number is relevant? What is the source of this number? When was this data collected? How big is the sample size? Again, this is what one sociology elective will get you at U of T. Is at least the baseline understanding of how a sociological study is, uh, is conducted. Uh, Mike's saying, "I'm ready, Rob. Dope. Come on and have a conversation with myself and Darl. This will be fun." There's your link.

>> Oh, sweet. You gonna keep me on? Awesome.

>> Yeah, of course. You're not going to get.

>> I'd love to say hi to Mike.

>> Word.

>> You, you've watched the.

>> Keep quiet though.

>> You don't have to be quiet.

>> No, but the, give the people what they want, man. They're here for Mike.

>> I mean.

>> All right, I'll say hi.

>> What, what is going on? Roach, Roachavelli in the house. Maveli in the house. Okay, we doing Tupac callbacks. Okay. All right. See, this, this is the thing. Daryl is the GOAT in Taiwan, but Mike is the GOAT in Canada. What's up, Mike?

>> What's going on, guys?

>> What's good, my guy?

>> What's up, my man? What's going on?

>> Not much, man.

>> How you feel about this game?

>> All right, hold on. Let me exit. Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna while, while Mike is figuring this out, I wanna, I want to just do a brief little plug for Mike's podcast.

>> This is a man who makes a lot of sense. Um, in my opinion, again, all these things, my opinion, not gospel, but let me just do a quick little show.

>> Can you guys hear me?

>> Yes, we can.

>> Here. Okay, so this is Mike's page, the one Mike Roach. Please go follow him. Been following him since I don't know, since he had like 300, 500 subscribers, 800 subscribers. Nice to see that you are now officially going to be monetized if you're not already monetized.

>> Thank you.

>> I'm not subscribed to you from Pinsari Films. My bad there. Pins Films is now also subscribed to you. Get one more subscriber.

>> Appreciate that.

>> So, um, yeah, I've been on Mike's show multiple times. You can go back.

>> You know what's so funny, Rob? I actually, when I did my live tonight, I think I did like a 40-minute live right after the game and I talked about you on the live. I, I was telling people that I was like, "Yo, I got to get Rob on here because we have some things that we definitely have to discuss because, you know, especially it's, it's crazy. It's like an, it's a blessing in disguise. Daryl, what's going on, my man? How you doing?"

>> I'm great, man. It's great to, great to say hi to you.

>> Absolutely.

>> I love your, I love your stuff, man. Yeah. Long time.

>> Appreciate it, man. I, well, you know, um, Rob, um, so, you know, it's funny because I talked to Rob before the season. We've talked maybe once or twice during the season. Rob was right about a lot of things coming towards the end of the season. So, I'm not, you know, um, for, for the people who follow him, I'm sure they probably know that. Um, but, you know, there's a, I don't know, man. I don't know really know how to explain it. So Rob is kind of like on the outside when it comes to Raptors media people. You know what I mean? He, he is on the outside. I feel like I'm pretty much on the outside as well, which is, which is kind of crazy because I don't, I don't care about being on the inside. Number one, that doesn't do anything for me. I don't, I don't, I kind of just, I follow my own kind of drift and, and Rob does too, which is what I like about him. And it's funny because I tell people as well, Rob's kind of crazy. Rob is kind of crazy. And people, I see all these people and say, you know, Rob's nuts. He says all these crazy things. I says, "I know. That's what I love about him. I love that he says crazy stuff. And the funny thing is, a lot of the crazy stuff actually happens to be true. So that's why I like to follow Rob because Rob is willing to say the things that people are too afraid to say. That's the difference. Rob is a, and, and he sees things that other people don't see. You see, when I look at Rob and talk about the Raptors, he, he has an obsession. And so, you have to watch people who have obsessions with things because they typically will say the things that people don't see. They'll say it. Um, you know, you, you have to, you have to go where the road is going to be, not where it's already been. And for me, Rob is kind of that guy when it comes to Raptors and following the team, right? Because even now, these last couple of games, it's a blessing in disguise to not have Quickley there, to not have him there because, and I'm not saying I'm happy that he's injured or anything like that, but it really gives you the full story of what needs to happen with Scotty Barnes. Scotty Barnes needs to have the ball in his hands. He needs to be the point guard going forward. Period. Scotty Barnes has to be the point guard going forward. He has to be. He has to be. And that's why I've done all these shows and I'm telling people, you know, Scotty, and I've been the one who is saying, you know, Scotty needs to to score more. Forget about the scoring more. Forget about that part, right? He just needs to have the ball in his hands. Quickly can't dominate the ball. Barrett can't do it. Scotty has to dominate the ball. Scotty has to be the ones who, who has the ball in his hands because of what he's capable of doing. And, and people probably think sometimes, oh, you talk about Scotty wanting to score and, and do you know why? Because I know that when Scotty pulls up from mid-range or goes to the basket, they're not going to be able to stop him. It was like, it was like Nerf hoop out there when he was going coast to coast and just dunking out there. It was comical. It was comical. Like he, he drives into the paint. Guy can throw passes behind his head, wrap-arounds. He throw crosscourt passes across to the other side like it's nothing. He has to have the ball in his hands.

>> You know, when, uh, Michael Jordan showed up to North Carolina campus in 1982, James Worthy was already there. And James was Big Game James for a reason. And for like the first two weeks, Michael was just his understudy and just a new kid and a freshman. And he was a good talented player. But after like three weeks, it was pretty clear to most people watching that Michael might be better than James Worthy. But he still didn't get more shots than James Worthy. And then that finals game where he, you know, hits that shot, people were shocked, but the people who had actually been watching those games kind of knew that's the best player on the team.

>> Mhm. And if it was a secret, it wasn't a secret for very long. And it's the same thing with Kobe Bryant and Michael Cooper. There's this old, uh, there's this old thing where Kobe Bryant came in as a 17-year-old. Jerry West watched him work out with Michael Cooper and Kobe killed him. And Michael Cooper was an incredible defender. And Kobe was a 17-year-old high school kid.

>> Yeah.

>> But Kobe didn't come in and start over Eddie Jones. He didn't come in and start. He didn't play over Nick Van Exel. He had to wait his turn. He didn't get his own team until Shaq left. There's a seniority politics thing in the NBA. You don't get to beat the guy until you beat the guy. And sometimes when the guy's already on your own team. So I remind you to any one of us, and I think all of us up here have actually watched basketball seriously for over, for most of our lives. Do you remember what RJ Barrett was at Montverde? Do you remember the [ __ ] people were saying about Brandon Ingram? When he came out, Brandon Ingram was stamped next up, future MVP, future Kobe Bryant, face of the Lakers. Scotty Barnes was a kid watching this happen. He was a 16-year-old who could barely dribble, barely shoot, watching this happen. Now Scotty has outworked the same way Pascal outworked. But Pascal did not usurp Kawhi Leonard. He didn't go up to Kawhi Leonard and say, "Yo, Kawhai, it's me and you." It was like, "That's, that's Kawhi Leonard. I'm Pascal Siakam." But when Kawhai left, you noticed Pascal, 25, 26 point per game guy. Pascal's pretty damn good. Sometimes you got to wait. And there is a pecking order in basketball. And Brandon Ingram, with the way the media has talked about him, you hear it with the way Bobby Webster's talked about him. You hear it. We haven't had a guy like this since Kawhi. Scotty Barnes hears all of this and he's like, "Well, if this guy is Kawhai, then I guess I'm Pascal."

>> I'm not going to take over. Scotty is a, Scotty is like any decision Scotty's ever made on a basketball court other than the lazy closeout that he's too tired to make or the lazy transition thing or, you know, occasionally, 99% of the decisions he's made is to win a basketball game. If he's got a coach that he trusts, a media space that is an echo chamber at this point, resoundingly saying the best path to winning is giving the ball to Brandon Ingram and clearing out to the corner. That's what he's going to do. If you have him.

>> And, and, and you know, it's funny because he'll, he'll just.

>> Insane.

>> Well, here's the thing. Can Scotty have the luxury to go up to Brandon Ingram and say, "Yo, BI, I got a really good matchup. You want to do all the defensive stuff I do and I can do some of the offensive stuff tonight?" No, he can't do that.

>> Cuz Brandon Ingram can't guard like him and he can't, he can't do that with Barrett. He can't do that with, it's not like he can go up to IQ and be like, "Hey, IQ, you want to do all the playmaking stuff that I would traditionally do in this situation and I can do some of the shooting and scoring stuff because Scotty can't shoot like IQ." So, there is a natural flow to how a basketball team around Scotty Barnes needs to go. I mentioned it in today's live earlier this morning. I said the Raptors need three types of players around Scotty Barnes. They need a solid guard screener who can shoot and play on and off the ball. They need an athletic above the rim wing who can run in transition and finish above the rim. Three-point shooting is preferable but optional. And they need a stretch big who can finish in the paint and shoot above the break. Don't need to be dynamite from the corners. Don't need to be a great passer. Just be a reasonable decision maker and don't be a complete bonehead. You get those three players on this team through the draft, through free agency, through trade, you will see a contender next year, the likes of which we haven't seen in Toronto since Kawhi was here. And again, it comes down to what does Scotty need to create the sufficient space to get downhill. Mike, you've met Scotty, you've seen him up close, right? You notice something weird about Scotty. Pascal is 6'9. Scotty's about 6'9. Aaron Gordon's about 6'8, 6'9. Seen a lot of 6'9 guys in my life. I played with guys who were 6'9. I've never seen a guy who was 6'9 whose hips were that high. He is one of the highest-hipped 6'9 guys I've ever seen. You see him standing next to a seven-footer, his hips are exactly hip to hip with him.

>> Mhm.

>> That changes your ball handling completely. The path to Scotty becoming a point guard. He's basically a seven-foot point guard out there, but because his head is not long enough or his shoulders are not high enough, he's not seven feet, but his arms are that of a seven-footer and his legs are that of a seven-footer. So, you're basically talking about a seven-footer. And that's why he is a unicorn and he is what I consider an alien because you've never seen a player who is his team's best one, two, three, four, five. He is his team's best center, best power forward, best small forward, best shooting guard, and best point guard. And that's not to be disrespectful to his teammates, and I hope his teammates can understand this, but at some point, Michael Jordan's teammates at North Carolina just turned around and said, "Okay, that you got it." At some point, Kawhi's teammates in San Antonio just looked around and said, "Okay, you got it. When you arrive, hopefully the whole world registers it." And to hear, to hear Jack Armstrong say, "Scotty Barnes is your Cade Cunningham. Scotty Barnes is your Magic Johnson." on a live broadcast, not once but twice. To hear that and to know that so many people who needed to hear that message are finally going to hear it from a man who has no disrespect to Jack. I know you know him and I know you've had him on your show. He's been actively on the Scotty is a power forward. Scotty needs to get in the block. He's been in that camp the whole time. So, you know, um, again, like you, you said, you're on the outside. I'm on the outside. Yeah, sure.

>> Yeah.

>> Scotty might be the best coach on the team, too.

>> Coach of the year, six. Okay. Sure. Defensive. Yeah. I mean, again, when you combine all the, all what I'm talking about, he, he might, he, you know, Mike, when I watched Scotty as a rookie, now I'd already been watching him since grade 11, so I was a really huge fan. I was very, very pro us picking Scotty Barnes. You knew a lot of people close to him, knew the type of person he was. I was like, man, if the Raptors pass on this guy, they're going to regret it for years. So I'm happy they picked him up. Within one month, he was, he was, he was coaching Fred on the court. He was like, "No, you missed this. Go here." And I was just like, dude, the balls on this guy. Fred is smart. Fred's a champion, but this guy sees what Fred doesn't see.

>> Mhm. That's, that's when you knew he was going to be special.

>> What do you guys think, um, is going to happen going forward here?

>> Well, I said it right.

>> Because it's, it's glaring. It's glaring now. Like, you, you can't, you cannot unsee what everybody just saw. Okay, let me ask you a question. We face the Detroit Pistons next.

>> That's the number two defense in the league.

>> That is also a defense which, by the way, is better without Cade on the court.

>> And Cade will not play, not be on the court. So you're basically facing an OKC level defense. If Scotty has eight turnovers in that game and the Raptors get smacked, does everything just go away?

>> No.

>> You don't think so?

>> Not everything, but it makes a difference. It, it matters. It's not nothing. I don't think it'll be nothing. I think the anchoring bias is real. People don't want to see him as a point guard because it threatens how they already feel about him because they were introduced to him as this Draymond type non-scorer. Thank you, Sam Vassini, for the zero level score thing that echoes very large in some people's minds. And when people like Mike, a lot of people think I'm crazy because of things I said five years ago. I don't say that many crazy things lately. I'm actually pretty hinged. But because people met me staring into the camera saying Pascal Siakam is not a number one option and we need to build around Scotty Barnes and you're stupid if you don't think so. People are like, "This guy's crazy."

>> But talk to anyone. I've calmed down 900% and people will not let me forget the crazy things I said five years ago. Anchoring bias is very real with people. And when people introduce you as the psychotic person, the super fan or whatever, like you're not going to outlive that. Like I always say this as a sort of like a social experiment. Mike, I have a friend, okay? I have two friends.

>> Friend number one is a wealthy philanthropist, okay? He gives to charity and he's he's great with everybody, right? He also went to prison for 10 years for investment. Okay.

>> Friend number two spent 10 years in prison. But he also is a multi-millionaire and super rich. Do you see how the order of information changes how you feel about these two people? Because the first thing you learn.

>> Is he's generous and he's good with children and then you hear, but he went to prison for 10 years. It's just kind of like a brushed pet.

>> But if I tell you that somebody spent 10 years in prison, you already have a framing and a reference based on all your concepts of prison and what 10 years in prison must have represented. I didn't tell you what he went to prison to for 10 years, but I didn't say 10 weeks. 10 years. He did something very serious. So now nothing I say after that is going to matter because you already know him as the guy. That's why ex-cons have a hard time, you know, rehabilitating into society. And unfortunately, the anchoring bias is very real with players as well. When we listen to people, you know, talking about Kevin Durant, what is it that they bring up? Do they bring up the, you know, wonderful "You the Real MVP" speech? No. It's been papered over. It's been completely washed away with, "He's a snake." The Twitter allegations, those are the things that loom large in people's minds. And it, it, it's sad that, you know, things, things just like we, we try to consume content in sound bites and so people have a real aversion to the Scotty as a point guard thing. They really do. I, I feel it all around. And so if he comes out and he has eight turnovers, nine turnovers, I think people are going to say, "See, but you couldn't do it against Detroit." And this is why Emanuel Quickley needs to be a point guard. I, I really believe that. Do, do you think people really think at this point that you would want to go back to that? Like, do, do you think it, do you think it was something that they would more try to do next season or do you think it would just be go back to what it was?

>> I don't think it should ever go back to what it was because where it was wasn't where it was supposed to be. We walked into this season with an understanding that Emanuel Quickley would do a lot of off-ball stuff and you've seen games where IQ will start as a screener with Scotty initiating and then by the second quarter it all goes to [ __ ] and Emanuel Quickley just drags possessions. He's very slow. You know, for a player whose name is IQ and Quickley, he is stupidly slow at, he picks up his dribble constantly. And this is not, and again, like I have a lot of respect for Manny Quickly. I've mentioned this always when I criticize his playmaking. It is largely because it's so frustrating to watch him on the ball because I know what he is off the ball. I know what this guy can be off the ball because I watched it in New York. Now again, there's an ego. There is a major ego here. $32 million to be the starting point guard and you get moved off the ball. This is a real thing. Emanuel Quickley is a proud individual. Nobody who works that hard isn't a proud individual because you work hard when you're proud. I, I've always believed that there is a link between these two things. When you are a prideful individual, you put, you put hours and hours every summer into your craft. It's because you have a sincere pride for how you are represented. And so to finally escape the shadow of Jaylen Brunson and then to be placed off the ball next to a Scotty Barnes feels like a sign, significant demotion. I don't know who needs to talk to Manny Quickly and say, "This is not a demotion. This is actually what's best for your team and this is, by the way, best for you. This will extend your career." It.

>> Should be Darko.

>> Darko should have that conversation. But unfortunately, I think Darko is actually the problem because Darko seems to be obsessed with this idea of small guards, Dennis Schroder, DaVon Mitchell, Jamal Shead. He does not like starting big point guards. He's never liked it. He's always resisted this idea of Scotty being the point guard. And even last game, my fellow countryman, Darko Rajakovic, broke my heart because when he was asked about Scotty's great play at point guard, he brought up, "Well, he had four, four turnovers." This idea of how you feel philosophically as a coach, like every coach has a different philosophy. You're a coach. You have a different philosophy. You know that some coaches overstress defense, some overstress transition, some prefer to play half-court offense, some have certain principles within half-court. Some coaches have a real aversion to turnovers. And Scotty is more turnover prone than Quickly, but that's because he takes chances that Quickly will never take. That's because his speed of processing is faster than.

>> That's what I like. That's what I like. He's willing to take those chances.

>> And he also has significant, like he has a significant talent advantage. Big playmakers. Consider the last few drafts. Victor Wembanyama, Cade Cunningham, Paolo Banchero, AJ, AJ D'Amboise coming up this year, Cooper Flagg. That's the last five number one picks. Assuming AJ is the number one pick this year, what do they all have in common? Positionally large playmakers.

>> Every single one of them is a sufficient playmaker that has an abnormal playmaking talent for their position. Whether they be an actual, you can go back to Luka. People, I think if we could do a redraft, people probably pick Luka or Shai in that draft. You know what Luka and Shai also have? Positive playmaking talent for their position.

>> Mhm.

>> You have that player on your team in Scotty Barnes. He may not be as talented as Luka. He may not be as shifty as Shai. He may not be the scorer that those guys are. He may not be as tall as Paolo. He's definitely not as freakishly athletic as WBY. And he's probably not as smooth right now with his movements as Cooper, but he embodies all the traits that those guys do in so many ways. And we have him and we put him in the corner.

>> Yeah. That, that.

>> Mike, if you're coaching a team, would you ever put your best decision maker in the corner?

>> No. It's wild, man. Listen, when I'm, when I'm on my shows, I, I talk about that. I like, to me, there, I can't remember what game it was. It was a couple games ago, but I've been seeing it and like, they, you have Brandon Ingram at the top of the key and they put all four guys on the baseline and I, I mentioned that on on the show the other day. I was like, "You have Brandon Ingram at the top of the key and you have a talent the likes of Scotty Barnes and you're telling him to go wait at the baseline."

>> Are you insane? And then Brandon Ingram goes and dribbles into three defenders and has a turnover and Darko doesn't mention that turnover after the game.

>> Yeah. Like it, it drives me insane. And you know, it's so funny. I text my wife because I said, "What is, because I have a board in my room where I write stuff down and, uh, I said, "What is that quote that I had on on the board?" and she texted to me. It says, "Build where the audience is going and not where it used to be." You can't go back to that. You cannot go back to that. I'm sorry. You got to go where it needs to go. You, you don't go backwards here. You got to put the ball in the hands of Scotty Barnes. It's, it's, it's, it creates a completely different dynamic for the entire team and system of the team at this point. Just that, that one change completely changes everything.

>> I completely agree with you. I don't see how you can. And, and the thing is, it's, it's crazy because there's only what, eight games left in the season.

>> Yep.

>> So, from that standpoint, I can understand where you're saying, well, you know, we already have something in place here. I, I don't care about that. I say you go where it needs to be, not where you were. You're going into the playoffs now. I can't have Scotty Barnes on the court while guys are dribbling around and setting screens and shooting bricks and, and Scotty's just watching this.

>> The other advantage to having Scotty in the middle of the court is also, like, again, there's a zone in the middle of the court that I reserve. I call it the Jokic zone. Okay, it's three-point line extended down to the paint. Jokic must always move and within that space. You can step two feet out of it, but I don't want you stepping too far out of it. Why? Your scoring gravity and paint finishing will always force at least one player to to stay with you. Your offensive rebounding talent allows greater spacing for your, for your shooters. Your screening talent because Jokic is a great screener and your passing talent and your shooting talent, especially if Scotty can continue to make mid-range shots and can regain some touch from three, is always, you just always want to put your best decision makers in the middle of the court. I don't know, like Ben Simmons was in the middle of the court. Madrick Johnson's in the middle of the court. Cade Cunningham is not standing in corners. And for whatever reason, this team believes that Scotty should be in the corner. They put Scotty in the corner in his second year with Fred.

>> And that was a mistake.

>> Yeah. Right. And I think I genuinely think that Emanuel Quickley, if he just had a slight mental adjustment, could be a perfect backcourt mate for Scotty.

>> Mhm.

>> He's long enough to be a competent guard on multiple guards, you know, point guard, shooting guard. He can, I won't say he's a lockdown defender and vastly prefer Jaylen Suggs or Derrick White to him, but he's a good enough shooter, but he's not a good enough self-creation shooter, at least in theory, because his, his form is a little bit low and his form is a little bit slow. There needs to be greater space for him, which means he needs to get some of the threes that Scotty created from Mamu tonight. Those wide open looks, those off-the-dribble curl looks. And I also think Emanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett are excellent at attacking a tilted floor. And you know who tilts a floor better than anyone on this team? Scotty Barnes with his driving, with his side-to-side action. To anyone, and I said this earlier in the show, so I risk repeating myself here. To anyone who wants to actually understand the mastery of Scotty Barnes's passing, understand that when he initiates offense, that the offense rarely ever stays on the same side. He will go left to right and back to right to left.

>> He does that so often because it throws the defense off balance. Very often the ball will end up with the Raptors with three wide open shooters on the left side and the entire Magic defense on the right side of the court because the ball moves so quickly. And you'll see Scotty's a really great teammate. He's a really good guy. He doesn't, you know, he doesn't come out and say like, "My teammates are idiots because they don't do what I'm saying." But he'll always kindly coach and say, "We need to keep moving the ball. We need to keep playing with pace." He's been saying this for four years. So, as much as I feel vindicated, I'm just like, dude, I feel vindicated. I can't even imagine what this guy feels.

>> His team is finally playing how he has demanded they play forever. So, now Jack said something else. He said, "This can't go away." And you're saying the same thing. This can't go away. We can't go back from this.

>> No.

>> So, how does Scotty Barnes.

>> So, how does Scotty Barnes develop the type of identity confidence to be able to go up to Brandon Ingram and RJ Barrett and Darko Rajakovic and Bobby Webster and everybody and say, "I'm the point guard. Give me the ball. I didn't get a touch four times down the court. I need an explanation. This is messed up." They froze me out for four straight cuts and I got missed every single time. I need an adjustment. He doesn't do that.

>> He just said it. He just said it. He, you, you say it with your play to the point where it's undeniable. You cannot deny that.

>> Will, but will Darko listen to that kind of thing? And Caro's gone right back to as soon as his point guards come back, he'll go right back to that. So, we'll see what happens. I.

>> Go ahead. Go ahead.

>> No, no, go. I want to hear what you have to say. What were you gonna say, Darl?

>> No, I just, like, I, I would love this next game against Detroit. I am salivating for this game. So many questions are going to be answered in this next game. And I, I'm going to be watching Darko's matchups very, very closely. I'm going to be watching the minutes, uh, like the lineups. I'm very, very curious to see what happens because the last two games, it is as undeniable as any empirical evidence you can ever get in basketball, what works with this team. And the last 20 games is also undeniable what doesn't work with this team. And time and time again, Darko has gone with what he wants instead of what works. So I'm really curious. I will remind you that against Utah, and yes, I know it is Utah, but nevertheless, the Toronto Raptors scored 49 points in the third quarter.

>> Mhm.

>> That was a record for the season. Most points of any quarter in this season. It tied most points in any quarter in Raptors history. They ended up winning that game by 16 precisely because the game was blown at the end by the garbage time minutes.

>> Yeah.

>> They lost the third. They lost the fourth quarter by 13 points. They were up 30 in that game.

>> Against the Pelicans, the exact same thing happened. They were up by 30. Tonight, they were up by nearly 60. They are not beating teams, they are destroying teams on both ends. And they are doing it undermanned. I'm sorry. Like, like I think Scotty, you're right. I think Scotty has sent a very loud message. I said it in the last game when Scotty had 12 assists or whatever. Scotty is sending a loud message to Darko Rajakovic. And you know what? To, to the people who've been supporting Scotty for like five, six years, Mike, like, I mean, I'm sure we've talked off air about the people.

>> You know, that I know and like, there's, I can't even tell you, like how many cathartic messages have poured into my inbox over the last like couple of days, just from people who are so relieved to finally see this topic ending and we don't have to talk about it anymore. We don't talk about, is he a center? Is he a power forward? I had like a really long conversation with Blake Murphy at one point. Yeah, I had a really long conversation with Blake Murphy at one point and Blake and I have been really cool since, but it's because I called him and Will Lou out for saying that he was a center, that he's best at center, that he should be used as a center.

>> Yep.

>> They said it on on the Raptor Show. Yeah, they said it like he, he should be best utilized as a center. He's, you know, like, etc. Like he's playing his best basketball at center. And I'm like, you guys are perpetuating a myth, you know, and, and everyone's running with it because you're a super large platform and I think that you need to be more responsible. Now, obviously, I'm cleaning up what I said. I pretty sure I said at that point like, "Y'all are [ __ ] crazy." Um, but, and, and Blake and I had a really long conversation about it. And then it was really about at the time, I think it was like year three and it was really like it was about that interview with David Thorpe where he said Scotty has work ethic issues.

>> I remember that.

>> Yeah. And then Doug Smith ran with it and, and I just remember like feeling so.

>> You went crazy on Doug Smith, didn't you?

>> I went crazy on Doug Smith. I went crazy on Will Lou. I went crazy like before he was doing Hello and Welcome, he was doing the Raptor Show. Like I went crazy on him. I went, I went ham because I know the work guy put in that summer. I had seen it. I had seen clips. I had seen like, I, I talked to his trainer throughout the offseason. Like I know what this guy is.

doing. And and for me to like listen to my favorite player get slandered like that just because he's going through a shooting slump and then to have the double standards of well Fred Van Vleet goes through a shooting slump. No one questions his work ethic. Why Scotty? Pascal Seakum went through a shooting. Do you remember what Pascal Seakum shot in his uh final season with the Raptor? I think he shot like 16 or 18% from three for like the first 10 games. Nobody questioned his work ethic.

It's a lot of media bias though, right? Because these um players talk to people in media and they have their guys and all that kind of stuff. Like you know how it goes.

Well, I mean the media have a job, right, Mike? You're part of the media. So, I'll ask you.

Am I? I don't I don't think I am.

I mean, you used to be.

Well, I I I mean, I guess I am kind of a media, but

I mean, the media knows you like team for I don't know what 12 years. So, it's kind of a weird mix.

I've gotten into trouble because I've kind of been media but kind of been broadcasting and then put out certain stuff.

Isn't what we're doing right now media?

Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, it definitely is.

I mean, like I I remember there was a time when, you know, the Raptors used to have their own independently produced postgame show with Jack and all those guys, right? And there there was like a twomonth stretch where Pinsari Basketball's postgame show outdid them.

I could see that 100%.

So I was like, "Okay, so who's the real media here?" If media's presentation and point is to expose truth, do journalistic work, talk about statistics, then I'm sorry. I think we are the media. Pe like people have come at me and they be like, "You're always against the media. Do you realize you are the media?" So, let's call it new media. We're new media right now. And you're you're doing your podcast right now and you're getting thousands of people, you know, uh, watching you and you got 2,000 plus subscribers. You get Jack Armstrong on there. You've had Alvin Williams on there. You've had Leo Routton's on there, right?

Got everybody.

Yeah, you've got you've gotten everybody. I didn't want to say myself because I feel like I Leo is a Canadian legend and I am me. So, it would feel really weird putting myself in that sentence, but you had a lot of people. And you know, one person that I

Full disclosure though, I I do work with those guys, so it's not like

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah. But they're But they're on your show. And c can I I don't know if you've ever you've ever heard me say this, but do you know who my favorite person in Raptors media is?

Uh you'd have to let me know.

Kayla Gray.

Oh, Kayla Gay is fantastic.

I hope you have her on one day. I would love for her.

I messaged her. I haven't heard back from her. I'm I'm going to have to message her again.

Yeah, she's my favorite. And do you know what she asked? Did you watch Scotty's uh apparent I found out live? I didn't know. Did you watch Scotty's interview with Kayla Gay right after?

Um I did not. I left early because it was such a blow.

You watched it, right?

I'm the one who told you about it. It the cherry on top of the cherry on top of the cake.

Can Can you please for for for Mike and perhaps for the people who showed up late, can you just let them know what Kayla said to Scotty? She made a point to inform him that he just passed Fred Van Vleet on the all-time Raptor scoring list in this game.

It was beautiful. It was beautiful.

Interesting.

Nice moment.

It's a nice and if you understand that dramatic journey that was um that is such a like I don't think that Stephen Spielberg himself could have directed a better story arc than that. Yeah, that's

That's impressively satisfying, you know. Take notes, Ryan Cougler. Like that's that's how you write a story.

I'm kidding. Sinners is amazing.

That was good.

Um,

Mike, Mike, could I can I ask you something about the media? you bring up the media and because you were you had access a lot more than than us obviously than even even Rob, but like how much do you guys or the people in the media chat enough so that you can kind of get a sense of how they really feel about players or a sense of how they really feel about the team or like is it mostly just chatting about your you know what did you do on the weekend or is do you guys like kind of get in depth about how you feel about things? I'm just really curious because I don't have access. So pretty much I'm I'm I'm an independent media podcaster, right? But the thing about it is I have a a unique point of view because I've been at over a thousand games. I' I've I've I've worked alongside Matt Develin, Leo Routins, Jack Armstrong literally every game. This is the first season I haven't worked next to them every game in probably over a decade. Right. So, I'm working in broadcasting. I'm not technically a part of media. I'm there working with a part of the Raptors broadcast team, but all the media is there and I talk to pretty much everybody anyway. But everybody's talking about players and, you know, the games and they're talking about everything. So you get a good sense of their biases or like like why they're they're they they approach certain players a certain way. Okay. Okay. That's good.

Well, Darl, like I mean I may not I may not have the same access to a lot of the Raptors media that that Mike does, but I've been on email chains with almost everyone you can think of.

I've had back and forths and I'm not I'm never going to name names and put names on it because I think private messages should stay private.

Get messages from NBA players. I'm never going to put those out because that's how you lose trust. uh from people. But that being said, I've heard some incredibly uncomfortable things.

So have I. Wild stuff.

Well, we all have with some unfortunate hot mic incidents.

Oh, yeah.

And do you remember the one media person who actually kind of had an issue with what happened then? It was Kayla Gray.

That I remember at least. There might have been others, but everyone's just like, "Oh, we got to defend the media." And Kayla Gay is like, "Yo, this is messed up."

Yeah.

And I And I really appreciate that. Like, I don't know, man. Mike, like the thing is that we we're talking a lot about like social approval and how difficult it is to be the black sheep, if you will, or to stand up for what's right, even when it's not conventional. And I just have like a really soft spot in my heart for people who continue to be themselves even when it is not profitable to do so. Right.

Listen, man. It's tough. I mean, I've been around. I've made mistakes. Trust me, they I've I've made mistakes to the point where it's they've called for my head. They've called for my head. And you know, luckily, um, things turned out in my favor overall. But, I mean, it's it's it's a job like any other job. And it's honestly, if if you don't have I'll say it this way, to a certain degree, you have to somewhat be in line with a certain thinking pattern. Right? I'll put it that way. Like you if you if you're going to be saying certain things and you don't necessarily fall in line, you might have problems. And I think I think that's the way it is kind of everywhere to but you know there's there's certain people who um they don't get intimidated by that. They don't give a damn about that. They're going to say what they have to say. They'll say it when they want to say it. And I've said things where I've been warned by other people. You got to be careful what you're saying there. Oh, you got to be careful. Don't say that thing. Don't say that thing. You said it. They're talking about you in forums now. You said something that was the truth. And even though you know maybe it was, may not be a good idea to say it.

Is freedom of speech really. freedom of like again it's like freedom of speech especially I think um for people who are not in the inner club if you will people who are outsiders right people who don't their dad's dad isn't like the head of you know they don't have they don't have their foot in the door in the way that like from birth like they didn't their dad's dad is not like running a media empire in in Canada and they can just get away with anything for people who have to kind of claw their way through the mud, go through school, you know, do internships, go cover 905, pray, you know, that they get they get into that big media room.

That's what I had to do.

Exactly.

I had to I had to go I had to when I was an intern at at Sportsnet at the same when I was an intern at Sportsnet, I was in the room there with JD Bunkis. JD Bunkis and I were interns at the same time and uh JD was was always very knowledgeable about his stuff. But when they were sending me out on assignments, I was sent out to go cover the Toronto Rock. I was out doing um interviews for the PGA Tour and all that kind of stuff. They didn't just send you out there to go, you know, cover the the Raptors and the Leafs and all that kind of stuff. you got sent on a whole bunch of um different assignments from Toronto Rock and Golf and this and that and the other. You had to put in a a lot of work. A lot of people don't see all of that stuff. They just see you, you know, talking about hoops and stuff now.

Right? But let you say something that goes 25% outside the party line. Suddenly those jobs go away. the access goes away because you represent a corporation, right? And I know like for me there have been a couple of job offers that I've had from bigger outlets before I started this. Um, one is a very big outlet, one is a big outlet in Toronto. I didn't think the pay was right and I really didn't hate I didn't like the creative control that I was being given within that situation was asking like can I say what I want to say or will it always be edited down and curated so that it has to stay within the party line like I'm looking for creative control here and they're just like who the [ __ ] are you to ask for creative control we haven't even given you the job yet so I was like okay I guess I can just do this myself and so we created concern basketball and then got a a lot of people really mad for like 2 3 years, but ultimately it is what it is, man. I've paid off my mortgage.

Mhm.

Tomorrow is the day that I pay off my mortgage.

Congrats, man. That's big stuff right there.

And and while I am very financially

Thank you. And and while I am very scared about what this means for affording groceries next month because I've prepaid a lot, I'm reminded that YouTube created this YouTube created this opportunity for me to talk and be honest. And you know what the cool thing is? Every single time I've always believed this. Every single time someone comes on and is honest, it's very infectious.

I believe that more people I believe I've heard from people within this community message me and say, "You know what? The way you just go out there and tell the truth, no matter how ugly it is, no matter how you look stupid when you say it, but if you tell the truth, I feel much more like inspired to tell the truth in my own life. I'm gonna tell my boss off tomorrow. Then they and then they get fired and then I'm not so happy after. But it it does happen that way and I and I do believe that you know one part of media is obviously to inform people on what's happened but also it is to inform people that there are different ways to think about things. There are, you know, there's different philosophies there's and again like being being part of that machine

A little bit again very little bit for me uh early on I kind of saw the ugliness in it and I was like, you know what? It can create something else. Bleacher Report started as guys, you know, just guys just trying to create something cool, getting people on board. And my girlfriend actually told me the other day, she's like, "Maybe one day you can do something like the panel on this. I'm a part of Players Choice now. I have a huge audience. Like, you know, I'm recognized a lot of places I go and be like, "Oh, are you pen from Players Choice? You Rob from basketball?" I mean, that's cool. So maybe if I keep grinding at this, maybe two years from now, I can build the type of media company that would let you be yourself. Maybe I can be the type of person that can put people in that I trust their vision and I just say, "Go be yourself. Go

You can do it now.

Like I I would I would listen to you 100% if you were on a a show on TV or whatever talking raptors. I would personally uh myself like to to me even you right now as a guy who covers this team and you and you do more content and cover this team more than anybody but how do you not have a media path? Like if you're looking at people who who follow the Raptors, who create content, who are doing shows, who have guests, with the amount of stuff that you put out the way you cover this team, how do you not have a media pass? I don't understand that.

I was exactly what you just said about that the you got to tow the party line if

My point exactly.

Rob does not tow the party line.

My point exactly. Well, what's cool is I believe that players have a lot of control in the NBA. And I know that at least four of the Toronto Raptors currently on this team really like me. So, that's good. Maybe if we can get five or six, we can achieve some sort of critical mass and maybe they'll be like, "You know what? Rob's got to get immediate pass." But I've never asked for special favors. I've never asked for special favors. I'm never going to message a player and be like, "Can you please go to a Raptors, you know, Raptors uh media and ask them to get me a pass?" I don't like pulling [ __ ] like that. Like, to me, it's just like at some point you just become so big it's undeniable.

That's it.

You know,

I think so.

Like, if Okay, right now we do 3,000, 5,000, 6,000 views. Okay, maybe we got to do 10,000 views. Maybe we got to do 20,000 views.

Maybe we got to do 20,000 views in the playoffs for every post game. And then you're just like, "Okay, we can't we just can't not we can't ignore this anymore. This is too popular." Because again, like people don't want to do people don't want to take a risk on something that isn't validated or approved. And I and I do believe that for me taking on a media pass or doing anything involved with the Raptors, I would never want there to be a concession on the truth. That little voice in your head, Mike, that says, "I don't know if I should say this. Someone might get mad at me." That thing is very dangerous.

Mhm.

Because at some point, it's no longer someone might get mad at me. It's I don't know if I'll be able to pay my bills next month. I don't know if I can pay my car payment next month. My mom is sick right now. I can't pay her medical bills. Like the way money can be used to control people. That's like everything that's wrong with the world right now. There's so many people in Hollywood that would have easily talked about, you know, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein and all these people, but they're just like, "Do I want to be the whistleblower and have them destroy my credibility and then be blacklisted and never be and never work again and lose everything I worked so hard for?"

Right?

That's hard. That's hard. So I think we just need a place or we need people to rise to power in this world. Whether they be through media, whether they be through finance, whether they be through government, that believe in actual free speech, that believe in the cultivation of actually good ideas and forward progress for everybody. Um, but yeah, this is getting very big for no reason whatsoever.

This is getting philosophical, but yeah, I'm really happy this run here, guys. Um,

Yeah, but but I hear you. Daryl, it was nice to meet you, man.

Very nice to have a conversation.

We run into each other again sometime.

Yeah, man.

You ever want to come to Taiwan, hit me up, man?

Yeah. I was wondering why it was so damn bright. I was like, man, those must be some nice ass lights you got there or something.

Like,

This is actually my classroom. I'm not even at home. I'm at work.

Really? What time is it there?

It's 11:00 a.m.

Oh, okay. 12 hours. 12 hours ahead. Yeah,

Absolutely, man. Uh, lovely.

I'm hoping I can have you on too soon.

Absolutely, man. You just let me know when you need me on. I will be there and uh we'll talk point Scotty. Let's hope it continues. Let's hope we do well against the Pistons.

And uh thank you to all of your subscribers as as well. They've been great to me. And um you gave me a really nice kickstart to my channel when I started doing this at the beginning of the season. And um I appreciate it, man. I appreciate it. It's it's it's been going well and um I'm just going to continue to kind of grind out and and do my thing. I appreciate you. Thank you, Rob. Speak soon. Thank you, Daryl. Talk soon, my man.

Peace, Mike.

Mike's a really good dude. I would never I would never I would never go out of my way to say someone is a really good dude. I would probably, you know, find a little skirt around and just say they make good content or whatever. But Mike's actually a really good dude. I've had

Um known him for about a year now. And um a little bit more than that actually. And I I always I always look at it as like my moral judgment of you is who you are off camera. You know, are you on time? Are you a good person? What do you say? Do you talk [ __ ] about people? No. Mike's a legitimately good person. Had plenty of conversations with him off camera. He's just a really good person. I'm really happy that this community has supported him the way that you guys have. And I'm sure that people can tell that he's a good person. like you listen to him talk like you can tell there is no lying in that man. So shout outs to Mike man. Uh Brian Scotty's trainer he had this uh little post today which kind of got me thinking. He said if you had any idea I think it was the direct quote was like if you had any idea how many people win when I win you would never call me selfish. And I was just like, damn.

Like that's that's it, right? Like like when you when you are a giver, when you are somebody who creates value for other people, then you winning can never be selfish. So I love that. Anyways, Darl,

That's a massive flex, too. Yo, like I love that.

That's a that's a flex at the same time. It's it's it's

It's showing your Yeah. showing your your character at the same time. I like that. That's good. Good stuff.

It is. Yeah. Apparently AJ Lawson was also on the court when the Mavericks did a 300 run. So now he's been part of the two biggest offensive runs in NBA history. I have to I have to fact check that. I have no idea. Also, the moment you were talking about is right here.

Oh, you founded it.

I did.

On the scoring list, surpassing Fred Van Vleet. I'll ask you simply, what is it that allows you to give more than 100% in every facet of

He legitimately didn't react at all.

Ice cold.

Oh, he's a better man than me.

You know what? I don't even think it's better. I think it's bigger.

Bigger man than me. I would have been like I would have done that, too. But you know what's funny? He doesn't compare himself to Freddy. That's true. That's true.

Um there there's so many there's so many proverbs and so many little, you know, fortune cookie wisdom things on this, but like the the lion does not concern himself with the with the fleeting thoughts of a mosquito, you know, that kind of thing. And and to anyone who's missing the point, Fred Vanita is the mosquito, it's a passing blip. And I always remember how much I used to u crash out over this stuff. I used to get so mad. friend said this about Scotty and um I remember one time I just kind of heard back and it was just like this is small stuff don't worry about it you know and I was like okay okay Scotty Scotty's thinking bigger [ __ ] like he's again the singular vision people get so distracted they get so distracted right they want to go out and become the biggest filmmaker of all time they get a big blockbuster project they forget exactly why they started the whole thing in the first place I think Scotty has like very laser focused on what he wants to do. He wants to win championships. He wants to be the best player he can be. Fred Van Vleet, Nick Nurse, Dennis Schroeder, RJ Barrett, Emanuel Quickley, these are these are mosquitoes in a in a very very very long run. He knows he knows like how many times has Darko alluded to this. Scotty knows what we are doing and he's on board with it. Like Bobby has said this before, Scotty has so much place to grow. Like I think maybe Scotty Barnes just kind of told the whole world he's done waiting. I guess maybe it's just part of

I hope so. I sure hope so.

Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, Darl, any final thoughts?

No, man. It's been a good chat.

Appreciate Mike.

Yep. Can't wait till the Detroit game, man. Can't wait.

Yeah. Um I'm a little bit scared. I have a little too much respect.

What are you thinking? What do you What do you think is going to happen though real quick? Like what do you think is going to actually happen? like is Scotty gonna continue it or is it going to be another one of those like two for 12 shooting nights and a lot of defense but

I don't think it'll be two for 12 but they are so uniquely equipped to make stars look really bad.

And Scotty is not better than the stars that they've made look bad this year like they they've made Shay look bad in the past like do you remember Assar's rookie season when he just clamped the [ __ ] out of Shay Gildish Alexander and that's when Shay was already approaching ing like MVP prime Shay and Assar just made him look like a baby. So with the combination of size and side, the Raptors spacing issues, RJ Barrett's lack of scoring against length, this could be a really, really rough game. And people again, they're going to say, "Oh, without Cade, dude, this is a better defense without Cade." People don't understand that. You know, whenever I say Scotty is better than Kade, it is always with that in mind that one of these players actually impacts their team on both ends and the other one only impacts on one end because and it's not to say Kade's a bad defender because Kade is an okay defender, but his his backups are better than him. The team is better without him in a lot of ways. So, I I hope the Raptors can keep it close. The Raptors did beat they did beat the Pistons with Cade, ironically,

But now um I don't know if Isaiah Stewart is back. he might not be back. So, we're gonna we're gonna have to do something with um Dannis Jenkins. Man,

I honestly like I think it'll be a more more hon we'll get more honest answers if BI is not back. If Ingram is back, I if he's back, I don't think we're gonna really see what we what we want to see. I I want I want Ingram to make sure that he gets fully healthy. So, if he takes the next game off, I'd be totally cool with that. Um, I wish him well. I hope he gets healthy. But, I really I want to see this team that played today play Detroit. I want to see the I want to see Scotty try to do what he did today again to Detroit. I want to see him passing the ball to AJ Lawson. I want to see him passing the ball to RJ Barrett. Not just not just RJ Barrett all the time, you know, not just Brandon Ingram all the time. I want to see the s like from a science from a scientist perspective. I I want the variables to be as similar as possible. So that's what I'm hoping for.

I think what Scotty needs is a star that he trusts or at least a player that he admires to tell him take over. I have a weird It's like coincidental. When did Markel Fold sign with this team?

You mean the the 10day or the G? Yeah, Markeel Folultz. Let's see. Markeel Folultz 10day. Let's see. So, he signed the 10day on March 23rd.

Yeah, the day before the Jazz game. The day of the Suns game, I think. Right.

Yes, it was right after the Suns game. So since Markeel has been on this team, Scotty has been a completely different basketball player.

Interesting.

So I wonder again I I doubt it's anything more than just straight correlation. But this is a totally different player than we have seen at least as a passer and a playmaker. Like we're dude, we're talking about a guy who averages below 30% assist percentage on the season who had a game where he had 55.6% assist percentage. These are outlier performances like to a freaky freaky um perspective. And Markeel, as much as his NBA career has not really worked out for for someone like Scotty, Markeel, folks, is probably like Brandon Ingram. That's a former first overall pick. He's a very talented guy. He was a major major talent. Big- time bucket getter, serious pro. Maybe that's it. Maybe this is a guy who can come in and be like, "Yo, bro, you got it. Why Why are you waiting? Just take over." Maybe that's all he had. I have no idea. I'm I'm I'm I'm guessing. I I actually had previously heard that Markeel and Emanuel Quickley had a pre-existing relationship because they're all they're both from the DMV area and are similar age uh one year apart. But yeah, I mean I'd be curious if if something shifted in Scotty or if it's just as simple as Emanuel Quickley is out of the lineup and so Scotty can do this, you know. Um I have no idea.

Yeah.

Or maybe that Phoenix loss just set a fire under him. Oh, yeah. I hope so because that was ugly. Oh, that was so bad.

Yeah,

That that was Yeah. Did he even play How did he play in that game? He had he had 17 points, six assists. He was negative 15 as his team got blown out by 22.

Check the efficiency. I think he shot poorly in that game if I remember right.

Well, here's something funny. You'll you'll find this humorous. Uh look at Scotty's advanced box score for that game.

He had a positive 11.4 boxes minus

And Brandon Ingram had a negative 18.9.

I'm I hate to say it, but I think that people we need to be talking more about Brandon Ingram. We talk about IQ a lot, but I think it's a three-headed monster here. I think it's Darko, BI, and IQ. I think we need to talk about Brandon Ingram more than we are as being part of the problem.

Yeah.

I hate that. I hate that because we knew what we were getting when we got him, but maybe we didn't know enough about like the actual impact on Scotty's game.

I don't think we discuss it more.

I'm not really sure. It's because Scotty had like a stretch of games where he was averaging 23 24 points per game with Ingram, but when RJ came back, it was just too much. So maybe there is like a You know how organizations have a one idiot rule?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know what you're going to say. Yeah.

You you do know what I mean. Okay. Some people are going to find this very rude, but when I run an organization, whether that be pendants or pens basketball, if we ever hire people or whatever, I have an a one idiot rule. It's it's called a one idiot per room rule. Do you know why I have a one idiot rule? Does anyone in the chat want to guess why I have a one idiot rule for any organization that I would run? And I have run several, you know, midsized organizations. Student dog walkers was an organization. Tesla Tutors was an organization. We don't have more than one idiot in a room. Why? People. Anyone? Anyone? Buler. Buler. Um, okay. I'm going to tell you. So, everyone else would look good. Nope. Dibs on being the company's idiot. Uh, you got this.

You're hired. Um, okay. So, the rule the the rule exists because stupidity amplifies stupidity. You never want the idiot to find the other idiot because they multiply their stupidity and then they create consensus and then eventually disscent and eventually chaos and eventually bankruptcy. So yeah, you get ahead of it before beforehand and you make sure that there's only one lunatic in the room because a lunatic actually breeds off of or feeds off of consensus. A lunatic who receives validation for their lunacy becomes lunatic squared. Lunatic with a supercharged ro like like a rocket up their ass. And that's what you don't want. So there we go. One is a clown, two means toxicity. She gets it. Exactly.

Teacher Mike just nailed it, too.

Yeah. Actually, absolutely. I remember, you know, when when you had one bully, everyone kind of knew that was the one bully. When you get two bullies, oh my god, they become insufferable. They're very bad.

So, yes,

It's hard.

Um, yeah. Anyways, this has been a good conversation. I really needed this, man. Like there's been like this this week has been like an overwhelming number of like negative outcomes. Small small negative outcomes in the grander scheme of life, but I was just like really overwhelmed and sleeping a lot and then that Friday game happened and I was like, "Oh my god, my favorite player played so well. I I feel like such a fan. It's so weird." It felt more normal when I was 12 years old rooting for Michael Jordan. It feels a little bit weirder now that I'm 38 years old rooting for a 24-year-old Scotty Barnes. But nevertheless, it is always still love for basketball. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. This is an interesting interesting time of year.

Yeah. Nine nine days, nine games away from the playoffs, man.

Yeah. Anyway, salute to this community. Salute to you as always. Talk to you later, Darl.

Absolutely. See you.

Peace. Have a good day, Darl. It's 11. It's 11 at night here, but uh ESPN's IKD, one of our VIP members. Thank you so much, Scotty Magic Barnes. Love it. Uh Elliot Roberts said, "A member for three months said, you know, Scotty watched that PC episode, right?" Wink wink emoji. Actually, Scotty is a really great basketball player who devotes most of his time to basketball. So, I very much doubt that he would waste his time listening to people slander him who have not really watched him play. And I know that I'm sort of taking digs at friends of mine. But honestly, that's how I feel. I don't feel like a lot of the people that were talking [ __ ] about Scotty watch him play. I know Mars watches him play. I know Damen watches him play. I know Swiper has watched him play occasionally. But I look, I know the attention span of the average person today. I know how much effort it takes to watch a full game front to back with detail. Yesterday, I watched Iowa and Illinois. I cannot tell you with definitive confidence how I feel about Andre Styovic's defense or how I feel about Bennett Cers's offense or his decision-m or his shooting. I can give you an overview, but what I would have to do is now go back. Now, maybe I'm stupid. Maybe everyone on the panel is smart and I'm stupid. But for me to give you a definitive understanding of Andre Stakovic is a good defender or a great defender or could be an NBA defender, I would have to actually go back and watch that whole game and only hone in on him. I don't think anyone on the panel is watching an entire game honing in on Scotty Barnes. And the one guy who I know told me that he would do that is Chill. And Chill has Scotty Barnes as all MPA. So what does that say? I think people will open up their eyes to Scotty. And at which point there will be no apologies. There will be no like, oh, Pen, you were right. It'll it'll more or less be like, oh, Scotty magically got better overnight. And you know, you happened to be right before the truth, but you were wrong when we when you said it. I think that's what's going to happen. You know why? Because pseudo intellectuals. Uh Miriam, once again, thank you so much. Izzy Joe, uh, a member for 6 months said, "Talk your [ __ ] pen. Playoff Scotty is coming soon." Absolutely. Will Hall of Famer said, "I think IQ isn't needed on this team. I think he can be replaced for more shooting and let Scotty be our permanent point guard. No more waiting." I think this comes down to Scotty and Darko and Emanuel Quickley to figure out how they want to approach this topic. I personally think it's a really big deal that Jack Armstrong said what he said on a live broadcast because once you said it, you can't unsay it. Okay. And now it's the talking point. The reason that I create so many videos about Scotty being a point guard is because I want people to talk about it. The reason I say the crazy [ __ ] I say on PC is because I want people to discuss it. Because through discussion, you have a spotlight. And within that spotlight, Scotty Barnes has shone very bright. Very bright. This is probably two of the best games he's played all year in succession under manned without quickly in big-time wins for the Raptors. And whereas the previous one people were able to say, but it's the New Orleans Pelicans. They can't do that today. So, shout outs to Scotty Barnes. All the credit goes to him and to Brian and to all the people that have poured into that guy over the years. Man, you have no idea. There are thousands of people that deserve some credit for what Scotty has become there. What is that? What is that old quote? It takes an entire village to raise a king. That is no exaggeration when it comes to Scotty Barnes. Uh Will Hall of Famer said Scotty needs to be a point guard immediately. I I tend to agree with you. Darko better never start IQ at point guard over Scotty. As you can see, this is the talking point that we are going to go to. I agree with you. I but again like I'm perfectly comfortable with Emanuel quickly starting at point guard just so we're clear and I'm perfectly comfortable at with Scotty sharing ball handling duties with him. I'm not comfortable with Scotty Barnes waiting in a corner while Emanuel quickly cooks off the dribble and Brandon Ingram pounds the dribble for like 35 35 possessions straight. That's not cool to me. Let's go Raptors. Oh, first of all Armen uh new member. think you've been a member before, but if you haven't been, I've been seeing your comments forever on on all platforms. So, thank you for the support. Hi there, it's me 905 said, "Let's go Raptors. Appreciate the great analysis." Thank you very much. Scotty is our engine. Let him cook. Absolutely. Scotty getting a lot of point guard recognition, said Gavin Van Wald. I agree. And that is good. That is good. Whether that be on a national broadcast, whether that be on the subsequent shows, whether that be talking heads, whether that be on Twitter spaces right now. I'm gonna actually hop on Twitter spaces right now. Uh my phone is in the other room, but I'm going to hop on Twitter spaces right after this if that stream is still going. And I'm happy to talk my [ __ ] there, too. Uh there are uh I always I already shouted this out. Bill Withers, always after a bad Scotty game or a good Scotty game, Bill will always give you a Scotty super chat and I very much appreciate that. Thank you guys so much. Um, I was thinking that I was going to share this on a private uh members live, but because there is no members live today, the members live will be tomorrow. It will be discussing Scotty Barnes. To those people who don't know, there are members. Oh my god. Oh my god. There's a lot more members now. Pepperjack just gifted 20 Pensar basketball memberships in the clutch. Thank you so much, Pepperjack. That is very, very awesome. So now 20 more of you will be able to watch that video tomorrow on Scotty's passing. And again, I think this channel can be a bridge to better basketball learning. I'm not saying I'm the best person in the world to teach basketball, but I do believe that I know a lot um that maybe some people don't that can help teach the game a little bit better and show people what Scotty is thinking when he's making certain passes and why maybe some people miss those little nuances and things that he does. So it's going to be very timeconsuming. I'm going to do it tonight. Pull up all the tape. It's It's I don't have an automated way to do this. Maybe someone can tell me. Is there an automated way to go to a site and get every single pass Scotty through, but I have no idea how to do this other than manually. So now I feel a little bit like Michael Jordan's trainer in 1985, counting all his steps manually, watching the tape, counting every single step he took in the game and figuring out how many steps were the right foot. But nevertheless, I really want to do this. I think it's really cool. Um, one of my, let's call it like peers in the in the space, uh, Samson Folk, he actually watched all of Scotty's assists a couple of years ago, and he wrote this incredible think piece about like the dexterity of Scotty's passing, the complexity of Scotty's passing, and he came to a conclusion that Scotty's playmaking was significantly better than he had originally anticipated because of the sheer volume of clean looks that Scotty was creating through his passes and, you know, calling like fake assists and real assists. The truth is before Samson uh talked about this, I don't think most people in Toronto actually knew what a fake assist was. Like I think we all just assumed if you got 10 assists, you're a great passer. So I really appreciate deep work. It does take time. So I I appreciate that you guys will be patient with me and I will do the members live tomorrow. Um I was saying earlier that I wanted to share this on a members live, but I'm actually going to share it with everybody. Uh it has been no secret that I have been trying to pay off my mortgage uh for a very very long time. I've been trying to pre prepay it off. I bought this place in 2009. So fair warning like 2009. I'm old and I bought this place in 2009 and I have been pissing away like paying this mortgage and it it it sucks. Like interest having to pay interest sucks. And with the way the Canadian economy is going right now, I just didn't want to have a mortgage. And so I've been working really really hard over the last 3 years to try and pay this off because I just don't like the debt. I don't want the debt on my books. And um I initially wanted to pay it off before January 1st and I failed. I failed to do that. I I didn't pay it off. I didn't have enough money. I didn't make enough money. Uh it doesn't help that playback pretty much got cancelled I think in December. So we didn't get paid for that. And it kind of just, you know, there's a certain amount that I need to be comfortable. I don't have parents. Some people have parents that they can hit up for $5,000. If I need $5,000, I will be on the streets. So, for me, this is kind of the strange reality of being 20 when you lose both your parents, is you don't have a lot of safety net. And so, I want to thank this community for making one of my big big dreams come true, which is allowing me to pay off my mortgage. It's a huge deal to buy your first place, but honestly, it's the bank's place until you pay off that final mortgage. And tomorrow will be or tomorrow or the next day will be the final mortgage payment on this place. And then I never have to hear from this mortgage company again. And I'm very happy about that. I'm very happy about that. But I'm also very thankful to all the people who have helped. I want to give a shout out to Brian. I want to give a shout out to this community. I want to give a shout out to my friends. I want to give a shout out to, you know, Pepperjack and Daryl and all the people who have helped me do this. When I was 18, this job did not exist. Podcaster did not exist. And if you wanted to be a podcaster, you had to be a radio host or you had to be a corporate sellout. I didn't want to sell out. I didn't want to go work for Bleacher Report. I didn't go I didn't want to go work for Raptors Republic. I didn't want to work for TSN or Sportsnet. I wanted to be myself because I wanted to say what I wanted to say and I wanted to trust myself that I could do this on my own. And the truth is most YouTube channels fail. Most YouTube channels fail, like spectacularly fail. And everybody needs that initial boost. Everybody needs that initial support. Everybody needs that one person to share your video or tell somebody about your video or, you know, to tell their friends or family about your video or to post your video on a forum or whatever to even discuss you on X or Twitter. And none of this is for taken taken for granted. None of this is taken for granted. I know it can go away in a second. I know all of this is is not just my work. And I know that I'm very very thankful that I get to do something that I love so much, which is cover my favorite team for a living. And I love that, you know, as much as I have been very like on Player Choice neck uh for, you know, the [ __ ] that they subjected me to with that Thursday, Players Choice is also deserving of a lot of thanks. I know some people here have good good thoughts about Players Choice. Some people have maybe bad thoughts, but I will let you know that Players Choice has treated me very very well behind the scenes, and they've been a huge part in helping me pay off this mortgage, too. So, I want to thank everybody for making somebody who actually followed what they wanted to do with their heart and didn't break on their compromises. Um, sorry. I guess what I'm trying to say is typically what they tell you that if you want to take that path, you will be broke and that you will be begging for money your whole life. If you want to be an artist, if you want to be honest, if you want to not play politics, well, we're just going to take away all your money. We're going to take away your sponsorships. We're going to take away your brand deals. We're going to take away your access. And I think it's really cool that they took away a lot, but you guys gave it back. So, thank you. Yes, I am. Anyways, sentimental sentimental stuff over. I want to I want to once again just thank thank you guys so much. Pepper Jack said, "You're too genuine and hardworking to fail at this, Rob. Keep grinding." I think you are right. I think you're right. I think people who work really hard and do things with an honest perspective and you know does anyone actually like the the reason that that Brian thing resonated with me so much is cuz I feel the same way. I know that the better I do I know that like Scotty will be more supported. It's my favorite player. Jacobe Scotty Rich. I've made no no secret of the fact that I have favorite players on this on this team. Jacobe, Jamal, Scotty, Mo, you know, Olrich when he was on this team, Markeel now. Like, there's just certain people you [ __ ] with, right? Like there's certain people you might know or you just you you you support them, you know? Um, and I'm sure Brandon Ingram to some extent as well, one of my favorite players for a really long time, like you want well for all these players. Um, but also you want well for your fan base, right? you're part of the Raptors fan base and you want that fan base to be smarter than the Hornets fan base and this is a great way to do that. Like starting a YouTube channel to anyone who's thinking about doing it, I know some of you have started YouTube channels. If you have like one topic that you can dig into and your gift is research, then sharing that topic, whether that be sharing numbers, plays, breaking things down, you'll find an audience. And there's a quote that I will leave you with today as to some of you. I know that you're big big time dreamers and you have big goals and you do cool things in your lives that I'm not aware of, but I know I've met enough people from Pensar basketball to know that you guys are really cool. Like some of you are Olympians and that's so cool to me. Um, some of you are professional basketball players. Shout outs to those of you who are professional basketball players, right? And it's cool. But I'll say this, there's there's one quote that I'll leave you with. It's a good one and it could change your life if you let it. So, so pay attention to what I'm saying if you knew if you knew that a thousand rejections would lead to the one acceptance that you've been looking for your whole life. How excited would you be the next time someone rejected you? Let me say that again. If you knew that 1,000 rejections was all it would take to get to the one acceptance you've been waiting for your whole life that all your dreams, all your hopes, your dream car, your dream job, your dream life, your dream city, your dream location. If all of that was on the other end of a thousand rejections, if all you had to do was take a thousand rejections to get there, how excited would you be the next time someone rejected you? Think about life that way. I'll talk to you'all later. Thank you so much to everybody. Peace.