Transcription
On our Wednesday episode of Locked On Raptors, it may not be the most likely outcome that La Berron Filon of Alabama falls to the Raptors at number 19, but it might be the dream outcome. You are Locked On Raptors, your daily Toronto Raptors [music] podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.
Hey, what's going on and welcome to another episode of Locked On Raptors. It is Wednesday, May the 20th. I'm your host, your pal, Sean Woodley. Thanks for hanging as always. And on today's show, we're talking more draft guys. We're going to get into a guy who very much fits the bill personally for me as a draft guy favorite, a large forward who passes in Joshua Jefferson. We'll talk about him a little bit later on. We got Amari Allen from Alabama, a guy who is extremely Darko Ball coded, who we'll get to coming up as well. But, we'll start with Allen's teammate at Alabama this past season, La Berron Filon Jr., who I think for a team that badly needs help in the guard situation, needs guard play, shooting, off-the-bounce shooting, playmaking, all the stuff that comes with a good high-end guard prospect, I think La Berron Filon might be kind of the best you can hope for as a Toronto Raptors fan when it comes to the number 19 pick. We'll get into that in a little bit.
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And yeah, let's jump on into La Berron Filon, the sophomore guard out of Alabama, who went back to school after being kind of a fringy lottery type projected pick last year after his freshman season. And and you know, last year, I think he was more kind of seen as a bit of a defensive guard. This past season though, going back to boost his stock, he really exploded as an offensive player, doubled or more than doubled his points per game total, shot 40% from three on six attempts a game. Pretty crazy numbers there. And flash like real three-level scoring juice that I think, you know, has certainly raised, I think, the estimation of what he's going to be in the NBA. He might not have actually improved his draft stock all that much just because this class is so guard heavy and there's just a lot of dudes to choose from and it's very possible he slips as a result, but I think as a projectable NBA prospect, a guy you might be comfortable giving the keys to your offense to, I think LeBaron Filon really improved his stock over the course of this last season playing at Alabama for an Alabama team that, and we'll talk about this with Amari Allen coming up too, is kind of like as close as you're going to get to like an NBA spacing environment. They run a very NBA style offense. They're one of the best offenses in basketball and have been for years and they're elite on that end with LeBaron Filon running the show this past season. And so I think you, when you see a team, and we'll talk about this later with Joshua Jefferson as well playing for Iowa State in another kind of pro style offense, very pace and space coded, you know, these kind of guys you can kind of see the translatability a little easier than when you're watching guys play for these sort of weird college teams that play heavy zone off, you know, zone defense and have clunky offenses with bad spacing. I think it's a better sort of evaluation ground on these teams like Alabama and Iowa State.
So the the the the book here on LeBaron Filon, again, you know, second year guard at who had a really, really nice season for Alabama. 22 points, four boards, five assists, 40% from deep on those six attempts a game, 57% from two up from 54% as a freshman, 80% on six attempts a game at the line as well. Measured out at the combine at 6'2 and a half without shoes, 6'6 plus wingspan. So pretty long for a guard of his size. Only 176 lb, which is definitely on the slender slot side for a guard in the modern NBA, where, you know, the league is scaling up, the league is getting bigger, and it becomes harder and harder to pop as a small guard. Now, look, we'll talk about the offensive gifts that LeBron Filan has and why he has a good shot at popping for a guy his size, but it certainly is a harder road now for small guards than it's ever been. I think the notion that small guards are just never going to work in the NBA again is wrong, and I think it kind of defies the very cyclical nature of the way the sport tends to work, but at the current moment, yeah, you have to be extremely good as a small guard if you're going to be able to hang. And I do think LeBron Filan has a shot of being extremely good on the offensive end, which we'll get into.
Um and I think, you know, before we get into some of the scouting report stuff, you know, you might even sit here and say, "Shaun, I've been reading mock drafts. I've not seen LeBron Filan fall to the Raptors at 19 anywhere. He's going in the lottery in most cases." And that's true. I do think, you know, the draft always goes weirder than we think. It's never as predictable as we imagine it to be. Guys slip for all kinds of reasons, whether it's just positional need for certain teams on the board at certain times, whether it's there's a glut of certain guys at a very at a at a position that kind of changes the order. A team reaches on a guy who maybe didn't expect was going to go as high as he goes. And all the obviously we're still a month out from the draft, and so a lot of this stuff can change, too. And guys who were projected as lottery picks a month from the draft can, through the interview process, either play themselves higher, play themselves lower, all this stuff. And I do think there is a reasonable chance that a guy like LeBron Filan does fall to where the Raptors are picking at number 19. And it's purely because of the just the influx of guards that this draft class is going to bring, right? You think about where this draft turns. You have the four main guys at the top in Dibansa and Peterson and Boozer and Caleb Wilson. After that, it looks like there's going to be a run of guards based on basically every mock you look at. There's Keaton Wagler, there's Mekel Brown, there's Darius Acuff. And a whole bunch of, you know, Kingston Fleming's is in there, too. And Le'Baron Filon is kind of on the back end of that group of guards. And if some team doesn't take a guard because of whatever reason, the Nets for example, everyone's kind of projecting them to take a guard right now. But if they don't because they took a million guards in last year's draft and they want to target a forward of some kind or aim for a higher upside play, you know, we could the Nets are very hard to predict. They're not so good at this whole drafting thing, apparently. And so you never know what they're going to do. And that could throw the whole order out of whack. Maybe the Dallas Mavericks at nine and get themselves a Mekel Brown that they didn't think was going to be there. And then that sees Le'Baron Filon slip a little bit more. You know, it's entirely possible that like a team like the Chicago Bulls at 15 is a very good Filon landing spot considering they just kind of cycled out all of the good guards they used to have over the last handful of months. And then you need to go get a guard of the future to pair with whoever they take at number four. But maybe the top of the draft goes weird and Darion Peterson's the guy at number four. And so they get their guard there and they look elsewhere positionally at 15. You know, the Hornets are in that mix. I don't see them going for a guard. They're probably leaning for more like front court and size. You have the Miami Heat picking ahead of the Raptors. Like I don't think there's a guarantee that all these teams are just going to go and take a guard. And so because of the way the league is moving, because the league is getting bigger, because small guards have a harder road to really hitting their upside than they used to have, I think there's a chance a guy like Filon will just kind of slip through the cracks and is there at number 19. And if he is, I think that is the dream outcome for the Toronto Raptors.
And here's why. He's a damn good offensive player who just does a lot running the show on offense, who can also play off the ball if you think the shooting from this past season was real. And I think 40% on six attempts a game, that feels pretty bankable to me when you factor in he's got mid-range pull-up juice. He pull-up, you know, his pull-up free went at like 34% this year. The off-ball catch and shoot stuff was really good, too. And I think you can sort of look at this guy and say, "Hey, he can run some offense for us. Maybe he's not going to be your classic 50 pick and roll a game type of lead guard who is the engine of everything." But I don't think that's the rap what the Raptors are looking for with how they run their offense through Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram. Colin Murray Boyles obviously, I think he's going to have a more expanded role next year, too. I don't think in their pursuit of a guard, they need to have a guy who's just going to run everything like he's Chris Paul or James Harden. I think they need someone who's got a little bit of on-off ball versatility. And I think the shooting that Le Bairon Finalon brings to the table makes him a really interesting and kind of ideal fit as a guard to pair with the guys the Raptors are building this thing around.
Uh and then when you factor in the stuff he does do on the ball, it's very good. Like he's a, like I said, three-level scorer, good finishing at the rim, has the mid-range craft, floater range, gets to the rim a lot as well. Like 37% of his looks, uh per Derek Parker and his great breakdown over on YouTube, uh you know, came at the rim and like 53% of his looks came from short mid-range and in. Like he gets to his spots and then he's got the three-point shot to keep defenses honest on top of just like a really tight handle, some good playmaking chops, some really good pick and roll operation. And I think that's the kind of guard that the Raptors could really use just to give them a little bit more juice in the backcourt. Love Jamal Shed, think he's going to be on this team for a long time, but there are limitations to his offense that we saw rear their ugly head in the playoffs. And if you can have a guard who, yeah, maybe on the smaller side, but has that creative offensive juice, the slithery handle, a guy who can work with your bigs to create for them and also get looks off himself, I I that's a really interesting kind of player to potentially put onto this roster. And at number 19, for a guy who's been projected to go in the top 10 or the lottery all the way along, that's just like an incredible value pick as far as like talents and upside go, if he's there at number 19 as well.
You know, the thing is the strength, right? You just hope that he gets bigger and stronger. Last year at the combine, he weighed in at 175 lb, this year 176 lb. So, it's not like he bulked up a whole lot over the course of the last year. And again, I think there's a place for small guys to make it work in the NBA, but they have to be pretty elite on offense for that to work. And you certainly, you know, again, you can make the argument that the blend of shooting and ball handling gives him a real shot of being on that elite end on the offensive side of things. But there's always the risk that you're drafting the next Rob Dillingham as well, right? Just like a guy who's too small to make it happen in the NBA, is too dependent on really tough shot making to be a reliable sort of shepherd of your offense. And that is where the downside comes in. Defensively, you know, again, he was kind of branded more of an on-ball pest defender as a freshman, took a lot more offensive burden this past season, and so his defense slipped for sure it based on what you read into, watch the film, like it's just not quite as electric as it was when he was a freshman. The the steal numbers went down, even though he played a lot more minutes and all of that. But, you know, there's maybe something there because of the length and the fact that he's shown that he can play good point of attack defense in the past. Um, it might be tough strength-wise, right? Like he's not going to be able to like chest up Donovan Mitchell or anything like that and keep him in front of him. That could be a real problem, but if you're going to put him in rotation and use his length to contest shots, kind of the way they use Immanuel Quickley on defense, I think there could be a place for LeBeral LeBeral Final on here with what the Raptors do as well. Will certainly take some time. Of all the guys we're going to talk about today, probably the least plug-and-play, ready to go from day one type of guard or type of player you would draft. You know, the the guys who will get to a more on on wing side feel a little bit more ready to jump in and be NBA players right away. But, again, the upside's pretty interesting. Even if it's like, "Hey, you know, you're going to go run the G League and just kind of get a million reps for the first couple months of the season before we start to incorporate you." Could totally see that happening with Bilal on.
Either way, he's a really interesting offensive prospect who, if the Raptors took him at 19, I think you're thrilled, right? Like, again, he's been projected to be in the lottery all the way through. And if he just happens to slip to 19 because of board factors and positional need from other teams, then I think the Raptors are laughing and they should totally just snap him up and take him. Again, might be a pipe dream. He might not be there, but it's certainly worth considering cuz I don't think the board is just going to go as chalk as everyone likes to think it will every single year. It never does. There's always guys who slip and not really even through any fault of their own, just because of kind of factors out of their control.
We'll come back on the other side, get into a guy who will likely be there for the Raptors at number 19 if they want him. A teammate of Bilal on at Alabama, Amari Allen, who is just an extremely darko ball ass player. We're going to talk about him coming up in just one sec.
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Okay. Let's get to Amari Allen, the playmaking wing out of Alabama. Was a freshman this past year, put up 11 points, seven boards, three assists as a teammate of LeBaron Filon. And yeah, put in a steal, half a block as well, in 28 minutes a game. Started 32 of 34 games as a freshman for a very serious Alabama team that went to the Sweet 16, and again, was one of the most elite offenses in the entire country. And to me, the sell for Amari Allen is he is just so very much a Darko ball player. A guy who will come in and just make good decisions, make quick decisions, keep advantages alive, not kill advantages that have been created, and just kind of connect your offense together. I I really really enjoyed the time I spent watching Amari Allen tape this morning. Takes a lot of threes. You know, more than four games shot 34% on them. Seems to have solid touch. You know, that's going to be a swing skill as it is for any wing in the NBA, of course. Maybe would like a little higher than 74% from the line, but the fact that he takes plenty of threes is kind of half the battle. So, there's that.
You know, he might be a little small for a wing. He measured about 6'5 and a bit without shoes at the combine. Wingspan only 6'8. Typically, the Raptors seek out like bigger positive wingspans than that. You know, some of the measurable stuff. Fourth highest standing vertical, second highest max vertical. So, there's that. But, when you watch his film, he doesn't really flash that like vertical super functionally within a game. Like, I can almost touch the rim when I go to the gym and there's nobody in there and I'm exerting all of my effort to try to touch the rim, but I'm not even touching mesh in game because there's people around and it's harder to get off two feet and all of that stuff. I'm not getting that big long running lead up to those jumps and it's a very similar kind of concept with Amari Allen where you know, there might be some like actual sort of base athleticism in there, but it doesn't quite come through in the midst of traffic like you maybe hope that it could. And there are some other guys like Cameron Car for example, who had the same vertical leap as as Amari Allen, but like the jump off two feet in traffic is just next level stuff with him. Not quite the case with Amari Allen. Bit of a below the rim finisher.
But again, just a guy who does a lot of things that you would want in a Darko Rajakovic offense, right? Nice handle for a wing of his size, operated plenty of pick and roll even sharing the floor with the Baron Filon and having him space. Uh, you know, good cutter, good running in transition, good finishing in those situations. And again, someone who's not going to create a ton of advantages necessarily as like a fulcrum of your offense, though maybe in time there's some of that to tap into cuz he does have a pretty nice handle for a guy his size, but he's never going to nuke advantages that someone else has created. He can keep a possession moving, he can layer in those advantages and make the right passes. Really good with like lay down passes, driving kick, all of that. Um, you know, just a well-rounded offensive player who doesn't do anything at like a super high level, but does a lot of things at a very competent level. And I think the passing there might be some sort of extra layers to kind of unlock there, especially playing with better players. Um, you know, crazy good numbers as like a driving kick guy as far as points per possession that the team produced when he did that. Great feel, good timing, good ball security, better than a two to one assist to turnover ratio. And again, played in a very NBA style offense with Alabama. So you can see a lot of the stuff that feels pretty translatable.
To move on over, on defense, you know, I think this might be a bit of an eye of the beholder thing for sure. Like he's a smooth mover on defense, has a pretty high motor, covers a lot of ground, but certainly has some moments of being a bit of a space cadet away from the ball. And I'm not I'm like I can kind of like go both ways on can he be like a switch defender? I think he's got the fluidity and the size to hang with like twos and threes. We'll see about the strength when it comes to like guarding up in position. You know, he doesn't have super long arms, he's not going to block a lot of shots, he might get bullied by like sort of stronger fours. So I'm not totally sure there's like an easy switch defender to on the front court players there. And then when it comes to like guards, like quick slithery point guards, I think he might lack some lateral quicks to kind of stay in front, but I do think like good team defender, above average defender is kind of where he would net out. Even if I think, you know, he gets I think he gets projected as like a better defender by some of the scout people out there. And hey, they're probably know more than I do and they're smarter than I am, but just from what I've seen, I'm a little bit skeptical about the sort of ultra versatility that you'd hope to get from a wing player. And I think the lack of sort of length and general strength could be a bit of an issue again guarding up in size for sure. But again, a lot of motor, like covers a lot of ground, really great with contests, you know, second effort, second jumps, things like that. And again, just like so so at home in the concept of like a point five offense on in the sort of the Darko system there. And then on defense, I think the way the Raptors rotate and scramble and recover and play on the string, I think he could certainly play into that pretty well. In addition to that, on the offensive end.
And then look, you know, the offensive questions I think mentioned some of the defensive questions. I think the offensive questions are a little more like can he finish well at the rim? Only about 60% uh field goal percentage at the rim this season. Definitely struggled with contact once he got in amongst the trees and bigger players, stronger players. And you might worry about that in a Raptors environment where spacing is never particularly ideal. You know, Alabama might have had better spacing than a lot of NBA teams this past season. And so there's that to be considered. Um probably has to get a lot stronger as is the case with a lot of these guys, especially freshman coming out. He's only 20 years old. So there's room for him to get stronger for sure. Um probably going to have to learn to become a better effective rim rim finisher, finishing through contact. And some people learn that, some people never do. And I think particularly on possessions where he's like not getting fed a look at the rim, right? Which like in fairness, the Raptors do a lot of giving guy gift giving guys gift wrapped in rim looks just through the passing you get from Scotty Barnes, Koloko, Murray Boyles, even Brandon Ingram sometimes, Jakob Poeltl. Like they're very good at passing guys into assisted rim looks. And maybe that's where Allen can really thrive. Again, good cutter, good transition player. I think would play well nicely in orbit around Scotty Barnes, especially if the three-point shot is uh is reliable, which again, you know, 34% on decent volume, you you know, might be an either the holder thing there as well with the shot. Uh I don't see any reason to think it what can't be an okay sort of functional three-point shot. But yeah, when it comes to like unassisted rim looks, he's not really going to be a guy who's creating and and sort of finishing at a very high clip in those situations.
So, yeah. I don't think he's going to be a star. Like I I and I think I could totally see just not wanting to draft him on those grounds if you're picking at 19 with the Raptors. Like it's always the argument, right? Of do you try to go for the sort of lower outcome, but like the lower likelihood, but higher outcome like swings on star potential, or do you just go for a guy who's just going to be a good rotation player at number 19? And if you can get a good rotation player, I think you're laughing. Like I think I'd probably view the ceiling for Amari Allen more as like a, you know, a fourth or fifth starter type. Maybe just like a really effective bench wing who can spot start for you and things like that. Um which at pick number 19, you're pretty thrilled with. Though again, I understand maybe you want to take a swing on a higher upside player. If Cameron Carr is there, for example, Jayden Quaintance is another one uh who's mocked in the Raptors range, who's just like a super raw, moldable, but very athletic and defensively gifted big man. You know, something along those lines. Like someone with just like more natural athletic gifts than Amari Allen, I could totally see. But he's got a lot of feel. He knows how to play basketball, which is always I think a bit of an underrated thing with draft prospects. Guy knows how to hoop. And I I think again, if you're thinking about system, if you're thinking about like a fit and a situation and a context that might cause a guy to blossom because he can lean into his strengths, I think the Raptors would be a pretty good environment for Amari Allen to, you know, kind of be plugged into the wing rotation and see him kind of play as a complement to Scotty Barnes and Colin Murray Boyle and you know, work as like a half court cutter, transition finisher and just sort of effective team defender. There's something there. He's a good basketball player. He might not be the sexiest pick by any means, but I don't think he would be like an outlandish pick for the Raptors either at number 19, especially if they think they can sort of bring him up strength-wise and kind of improve the interior finishing cuz there is like a handle there that you don't often get with a guy who's 6'5, 6'6. So, you know, that's something to be interested in as well.
We'll come back on the other side and get into a guy who is just exactly my kind of vice when it comes to draft prospects. An older dude who knows how to play basketball, who is big and throws cool passes. We're talking Joshua Jefferson, who I love even if maybe I shouldn't on the grounds of him being old. We'll get into that coming up in just 1 second.
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All right, wrapping things up here and look, every year around draft time, we all do this thing where we talk ourselves into types of players and we often, I think, speaking with the royal we here, I think everyone kind of has their own personal flavor. Some people like microwave guards who, if they can just figure out how to play a little bit of defense, might be incredible NBA players. Some people love big, toolsy centers who have yet to figure out how to play basketball, but man, they're tall and bouncy. And I love myself a large forward who throws dope passes. And that's who we're talking about here, Joshua Jefferson, the senior from Iowa State, who is just a classic dude who knows how to play basketball, who will inevitably get kind of overlooked in the draft process because he's on the older end, he's going to be 23 early in his rookie season, which is old. And you often would kind of assume that he's later in his development, and you would be right and you would be right to assume that in most cases. But there's so much cool stuff here. >> [laughter] >> So, I really, really want Joshua Jefferson to get his fair shake here as a potential guy for the Raptors at number 19.
The tale of the tape on him, he played two years at Saint Mary's in the last two seasons at Iowa State in a very, again, NBA style offense, super pace and space. And I don't know, just go back and watch some of the tape of Joshua Jefferson working two-man game with Milan Momcilovic, who's one of the best shooters in college basketball. It's a delight to watch those dudes work off of one another. And it's a delight to watch Joshua Jefferson just, period. He's so cool and, once again, very Shaun coded when it comes to draft prospects. A large man, 6'8 without shoes, wingspan just a hair below 6'11, so not the longest arms, but, again, stop me if you've heard this before. A large forward who throws cool passes is just like a a I'm going to be into even if their measurable are not like the most impressive in the world or if they're not the most bouncy athletes, which he's not. Uh 16.7 boards, five assists at Iowa State this past year, 1.6 steals, 0.8 blocks. Not like super efficient, just 51% on twos, 34 and 1/2% from three. Got very cool in the in the back part of the season. He was up in your 40% uh for the first couple months of the college season and then finished at 34 and 1/2% at about four attempts a game, which like that volume. And he I think improved over the course of his uh four college seasons. Although, you know, he was starting from a pretty low place in terms of his three-point viability. This This final season at Iowa State was kind of the one where he flashed the most three-point shooting potential, but only a 70% free throw shooter, so I could understand if you're skeptical about the shot coming around.
This is going to sound hyperbolic and it's going to sound like I'm pandering to Toronto Raptors fans, but I'm just going to say it. Some of the passing flashes from Joshua Jefferson are positively Scotty Barnes-ian. Just in transition, head up, casual, like feathering in darts to guys who have deep seals or have beaten their man down the floor. Really delicate entry pass touch. Head on a swivel. You know, the short roll stuff, really impressive. The high-low stuff, I mean, one of my favorite things Scotty Barnes does is just like spook defenses with his eyes and like make them go the wrong way and then just like throw a dart to a guy cutting to the rim on a high-low feed. Joshua Jefferson has a whole lot of that in his tape from Iowa State this past season. Just like a a classic point forward type guy who can see every pass because he's enormous and makes every pass because he's got touch and feel and timing and all the stuff that makes me swoon over a draft prospect.
Um, you know, this is a Raptors team too that I think like when you think about that level of passing juice. This team has overcome negligible spacing in the traditional three-point shooting sense because they're really damn good at interior passing, because they have such a high passing IQ across the team that I think there's a lot of sense to the idea of adding someone else who has that incredible passing juice to just kind of double, triple, quadruple down on what has been a real strength of this team. I mean, the Raptors for the last three seasons have been a bad three-point shooting team. They were a little better this year cuz they actually had like a, you know, some semblance of modern spacing and and three-point volume from some of their guys. But the last three seasons they've been a bad three-point shooting team, near the bottom in frequency, near the bottom in in efficiency. And yet, they've been a team that has been bloody outstanding when it comes to getting shots at the rim. They finished top 10 in the league in the last three seasons in terms of the frequency of their shots that come at the rim, and it's because they overcome their traditional spacing issues by just being really good at manufacturing space with interior passing and smarts and head fakes and drawing attention and making the quick read out of that, super fast decision-making. And Joshua Jefferson does all of that. And and I think if you're thinking about Scotty Barnes and Khem Birch and Chris Boucher as like a long-term front line for your team, and will they be the four-five, will they be the three-four, does it really matter if you're pairing them with the right sized players to just kind of create a wall of tall wingy types across your three-four-five, I think Joshua Jefferson is like a really interesting potential compliment to those guys, especially if you think the three-point shot is real, which again, your mileage may vary. I'm no shot doctor. I'm choosing to believe it will be real because I like the prospect, and so, you know, it fits my agenda if the three-point shot is real. Yeah, the touch looks great, the release clean. Yeah, I I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but I'm I'm choosing to believe in the three-point shot for Joshua Jefferson because of the touch elsewhere in the field elsewhere in his game.
Um, and so yeah, if you buy the shot at all, there might really be something with a Jefferson, Scotty Barnes, Khem Birch, Murray Boyles front line. Someone, you know, it's just like a trio that kind of approaches my own personal basketball utopia where it's just kind of collective size, passing, switchability. You get the rim protection from Murray Boyles and Scotty Barnes. You get the strong perimeter wing defense from Joshua Jefferson who's not necessarily like a rim protector type, but just more of a I'm going to wall off anyone who's trying to drive on me kind of guy. He can be one of your sort of go-to wing shutdown guys to free up Scotty to do the thing where he either chases guards or hangs and lurks at the rim. Whatever you want, you can switch across those three guys very easily. Jefferson's also like an elite rebounder for his size as well. 22% defensive rebounding rate, which is like full-on big man stuff. And like a Jefferson, Barnes, Murray Boyles 3-4-5, sign me the hell up for that, man. I am very into it, especially if Jefferson can be a functional three-point shooter.
Um, you know, super smart defender, great passing lane hawk, knows where to stand like an elite knows where to stand guys on guy on both ends of the floor. Not going to block a ton of shots, but just really good hands, can get a lot of steals for you, and I think would totally fit into a switch-heavy scheme like the Raptors ran, you know, a lot this season. Really good in transition, good cutter, strong rim finisher, can post up a mismatch, can be a short roll pick-and-roll guy for you. It kind of I I think offensively, again, not it's kind of like a Murray Allen, but it's like a bigger version of a Murray Allen. Can do a little bit of everything. Maybe isn't going to be an absolute star in any one thing, but just kind of can chip in in a bunch of different ways on the offensive end and kind of blend into the types of plays that you might need from him at any given time based on the personnel on the floor. Need him to spot up in the corner, fine. Need them to be a second-side creator, he can probably do that. Need him to be a post-up mismatch guy because, you know, you're you're huge across the board and there's a weak spot somewhere to go and pick at, he can do that. I think when I look at Joshua Jefferson, I look at a guy who's going to help a team problem-solve when things really get tough because he can do a bunch of different things and wear a lot of different hats. And again, you know, you're not looking at like crazy super high upside here, probably. He's 23 years old and he doesn't have like, you know, pull-up shooting juice. He's not going to be like a mid-range wing assassin, anything like that. He's just going to be a functional, really effective basketball player that you throw into the mix.
Although, I do wonder when it comes to the sort of um upside talk with guys like this. In the NIL era, we're still kind of adjusting to it, right? Where you have guys going back to college just to earn money. You know, I think whereas in the past, guys who stayed at school a long time were kind of given sort of a a a negative connotation because they just like weren't NBA-ready, didn't have NBA-level juice. And when they came into the league, it was like, "Well, yeah, of course he's good in college. He's older than everybody else." I think that's like a fair sort of critique that was levied against these kinds of guys in the past. It may still be fair now, but I do think now there's like a real argument that the draw of just like making NIL money while still honing your craft while being in an NBA-style offense, which Joshua Jefferson was the last couple years, like it's going to make it so there are plenty of like NBA quality, NBA-ready guys who skew older, who just stayed at school for reasons other than they weren't ready for the NBA, but they just wanted to get another bag and kind of continue to hone themselves. And I think you know, maybe there's like a market inefficiency there with these kinds of guys as the NIL era kind of matures here into what was it, 4-5 years now we've had players making money in college. Like I I I I'm just a theory. I have no idea if there's any weight to it whatsoever, but it's just something I'm thinking about. Maybe these older guys should be sort of less branded as finished developing than they have been in the past just because, you know, that that there's there's some untapped stuff there that like they just went back to school to kind of refine as opposed to just being forced to go back to school cuz they weren't going to get drafted, right? I don't know. It's maybe a loose theory, but I think it's something interesting.
Um and yeah, like I just think for me, I'm always going to be a fan of guys who know how to play basketball and Joshua Jefferson knows the hell how to play basketball. And I'm already annoyed about the inevitability of the Raptors not taking him at 19 and like the Spurs snagging him with the next pick and plugging him in instantly as a rotation front court partner for Victor Wembanyama. Like I think he's going to help a serious team right away, whether it's the Spurs, I mean the Sixers are a couple picks after the Raptors, he'd be a wonderful fit there. The Knicks are I think at the 24th spot. If Joshua Jefferson's there, think he'd be an outstanding fit on that team, too. Like I just think a guy of his size with his passing chops, his rebounding, his connective playmaking, all of that is going to succeed in the NBA in some kind of role and I'm going to be irritated if the Raptors don't take him, which like again, fair enough. Maybe they want to go higher upside guy, they want to go a guard, whatever it is, but if the Raptors don't take him, some serious team is going to take him and he's probably going to be playing playoff rotation minutes a year from now and it's going to be great for him and I will enjoy it because I'm going to enjoy this guy no matter where he plays and idea of him being on like Wembys team is very, very exciting to me and all of that.
Um and I completely understand if he's not the Raptors guy, but I will also be personally very tickled if he is because Joshua Jefferson rules. And we're going to leave it there. Thank you so much for rocking with the show and uh more of these draft episodes to come. We'll have Katie Heindl back on the pod tomorrow, maybe do another mailbag. I think the off-season mailbags with Katie are a lot of fun. You guys put in great questions. We might just make that a thing. Uh Joe Wolfond will to along on Friday. We'll do some trade stuff. Yeah, we're going to start to dig into the trade machine a little bit with our pal Wolf. So, that'll be lots of fun. And we'll be back tomorrow with Katie to continue on the week of covering the off-season for your Toronto Raptors. You can join the Discord, link in the description of the podcast. Follow, subscribe, rate, review, tell a friend. You can also join the everydayer club, five bucks a month, 50 bucks for the year, ad-free episodes of the show every single day, and we'll talk to you again tomorrow. Thanks for hanging. Bye-bye. Oh, ugly.