The Definitive Toronto Raptors Season Review

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Bald Lie podcast. This is a special one, a season in review episode. We do this every single year, myself and Louisman, the two members of Bald Lie. Uh, we go long talking about the season that was, the season, and uh, everything about it as much as we can muster. Of the Raptors, 46 and 36. The 15th ranked offense, the fifth ranked defense, the losing in game seven against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Toronto Raptors with two All-Stars, Scotty Barnes, Brandon Ingram, couple injuries in the playoffs, and a Bald Lie episode. That is a presentation of Tun Bet online sports book and casino. Lewis, that might be my best and most succinct intro to this point. How are you doing?

>> I'm doing wonderful. Watching your professionalism >> is a work of art. >> It's not very, I am very far down the line of professionalism. But another thing about that too is I know quite often we're very good at responding to comments in the the sidebar, the chat. This episode, maybe not so much. We're going to keep it kind of focused. The first thing I want to talk about is, is there anything you want to kick off with before I start running us down into formula here?

Yeah, let's go big picture first, right? I feel like the win total wasn't too far from what we expected.

>> No, >> the overall result, losing in the first round of the playoffs, was what I expected from the season. And yet, I come away from the season with a little more optimism than I expected. Uh, what's the dissonance there? So, I come away with more optimism after the playoff series despite the loss, despite the fact that I agree with you that I expected this team to, I think I was 43 or 44 games was my prediction. They were a little healthier than I thought they would be. And, you know, they, they managed to do things well that I was surprised by. The playoffs was great because it was the, the younger guys who were carrying the weight, which makes you think more fondly of the future, whereas the regular season, I think, was more an expression of healthy veterans getting you over the line. And they, we saw it and we talked about it ad nauseam the whole season. They're beating bad teams. They're professional in their way of beating bad teams. They're not able to punch up. And it makes you wonder about the potential going forward. Sort of makes you wonder about, you know, the cap constraints, uh, roles, etc. So, I come away after the playoff series a lot more, I would say, optimistic than I was going into the playoff series where I was seeing uh, veterans who I didn't expect much more growth from get them to this point. Whereas the playoff series, I saw uh, rookies and sophomores reaching for the moon, landing among the stars, that type of thing.

Yeah, that's the dis, the fact that the playoffs, even though the outcome was more or less what you'd expect from a 46-win team, >> it still was in a very different way. Uh, much more optimistic way, much more future-facing way, which is exciting.

>> Okay, so that's big picture. I guess we'll do, we're going to talk about every player. We might group some of them together. We're going to talk about Darko, but we should talk about each side of the floor first. Do you want to do offense or defense first?

>> I think defense is the more worthwhile conversation for these Raptors.

>> It's your world, brother. Kick us off.

>> So, the, the question following 24-25 was, could their number two defense since January, whatever in the league, be maintained? Was it just against bad teams?

>> Um, we talked about that. I listened to you and Caitlyn talk about that. It's, you know, how real was it? I listened to Zack Lowe talk about that on his podcast. Um, it was real. It was very real. The defense this season, 25-26, was to me the defining element of the team. It was the reason that you're optimistic about the team beyond players or contracts. It's a framework of success. It's an identity. It's a purpose. And when you know how you're going to win games, it becomes much easier to walk that road. Teams that don't know how they win find it much harder to win. The Raptors on the defensive side of the ball, knowing how to force turnovers, knowing how to force misses, knowing how to get out in transition, which will ameliorate some of their other issues when we get to the offensive side of the ball. There's so much that allowed the Raptors to spread their wings in other areas, and it was because the foundation, the, the brickwork, the bones on the defensive end were so stellar.

>> Yeah. I think the, the two biggest motivators for the great defense were Scotty Barnes and then Koloko Murray-Boiles. And I think third is the collection of the players, obviously, but the framework, the housing with which they lived in, designed by Darko Rajaković and of course, Pat Delaney, who is that's his that's his role, that's what he is pitched as. Uh, the Raptors did a great job of getting buy-in and achieving things defensively. Like, if you go look at their defensive rating in the playoffs, I actually don't think they did too well, but it felt like they were achieving things defensively. And in terms of the regular season, they were definitely achieving things both in outcomes created, as you said, how they want to win, what types of things they want to have happen. They're able to make that happen defensively by locking in, by, you know, funneling players to the right places. And in terms of the stats that are coming back, they're achieving, you know, there's some possession battle stuff they're winning at, that's so important for every team. There's a defensive rating there that's top five in the NBA. They love that. All that kind of stuff went the Raptors' way, and they did it without having their big fulcrum of defense in a way that you are always a fulcrum of defense if you're a starting center in the NBA. Jakob Poeltl played what, like 30, between 30 and 40 games.

>> Mhm. What do you make of the way that they were able to kind of just tie together an elite defense without a big?

>> You know, I think the defense ties a lot into the Darko conversation because yes, Scotty Barnes was the, I mean, I, I would honestly put him in a tier of his own. It's not Barnes one, Koloko Murray-Boiles two in terms of defining the defense. It's like Barnes, >> the one tier and the two tier, >> Barnes three, Barnes four, then we can talk a little more. But if you look, I think to get into the hurdle question, I think the on-off numbers for the defensive side on the course of the season are really interesting because the highest on-off was under four points better among real rotation players. The worst was five points worse. Those are really narrow ranges. The defense was basically the same no matter who was on the floor or not. Now, part of that was you were basically always on the floor with Barnes. He played a ton. He played virtually the whole season. But it also means there was uh an identity that carried past uh personnel, which is, I think, not a detraction from Barnes, but it is the answer to the Poeltl question because when you say, "How did you manage to build such a strong defense without a starting center?" I think it gets into every part of how they played defense and how everyone followed through on the scheme, right? If you look at how they were able to succeed with Grady Dick defensively, well, he peel-switched everything. He's going to get blown by, so make that work within a blow-by. He goes out to the corners. They were actually better in the season defensively with him on the floor. That doesn't mean anything about him as a defender. It means something about Darko as a coach. Similarly, they had other elements of scheme that were different for different players. They, and you've said this, approached the regular season almost like the playoffs in that they schemed more than other coaches, coaching staffs. They were more um flexible to find ways for their players to succeed on the defensive end. And that's what allowed them to survive without Jakob Poeltl because yes, you don't have a center eating minutes, protecting the rim, closing everything off, but you were able to succeed in different ways in different areas, in different minutes against different teams because of that versatility and Koloko Murray-Boiles.

Yeah, I think the, the pressure obviously was something that became a tipping point for other offenses and particularly the bad offenses. Really good offenses and I think really good defenses did a great job of getting stops on the Raptors and making them defend in the half-court and all this kind of stuff. But I tell you this much, man. Or in transition, I should say, the Raptors, that pressure that was so worrisome at the start of the year when they were so discombobulated and they were one of the five worst defenses early on where the blind doubles uh weren't nearly so blind. It was like, you know, all the stories about what is it, Stevie Wonder, where they say like he's driving people's cars and doing pranks and they're like, I don't know if you got full blindness there. The Raptors, seemingly teams could see their blind doubles. Not so blind. Then in terms of what the Raptors are doing to guide opposing players into their weaknesses, their game plans were a lot more specific and the players because they do have, it's like that Immanuel Quickley quote. I asked him, "How did you guys get this buy-in?" You know, if most teams don't have guys hanging out together all the time in the offseason, they're doing their own thing. How did you guys manage it? He said, "Well, they're, we're a young team and most of those guys don't know any better, so they just come along." I love that answer.

>> It was a great answer. I, when I heard it, I was like, "Oh, that's IQ. That's maybe the best answer you've given me about anything." And in terms of what the Raptors are getting out of their guys to do defensively, there's this clip that went viral of Dean Wade collapsing in disappointment because Donovan Mitchell didn't make a rotation defensively. And the Raptors, just like they do have complainers on the team. Scotty is a bit of a complainer in terms of guys not making rotations. Jamal is perhaps the biggest complainer. Like, >> oh yeah, he'll hand, he's he's upset. But the Raptors, they do not want for effort. And they do not want for effort in whatever Darko asks them to do. If they're, they've tried a lot of different things defensively across the season and those young guys, particularly the head of the snake, they went out there and they said, "Let me get into it. I'm going to see what I can do." And they started out bad.

>> Yep. Then they became great. And what a story for a young team defensively. And again, yeah, Scotty Barnes ascended, not from where he was last year, which, you know, wasn't reflected in the voting, but you and I thought All-Defense level last year, which, in a down year, in a tanking year, to get that type of defensive output from your star, incredible. I thought was a, you know, a great indicator of who he is as a player and how he views the game. This has manifested later in Defensive Player of the Year votes and probably more down the line. Uh, a two-way star that is, you know, his impact, it's hard to take its measure. That's where we are defensively, and C&B, of course, who we'll talk more about and Scotty more about in their own little slice of pie. Anything else on defense? You saw it really come together in the playoffs where all of that versatility allowed them to play so differently, different in different times of games, across different games. That's what success in the playoffs look like. You know, you talk a lot about versatile players, and obviously Scotty Barnes defines that on the defensive end, but they, as a team, have a versatile identity defensively. And it's not just the players. Everyone recognizes great defenders. Scotty Barnes, Koloko Murray-Boiles, even Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett found a lot of ways to succeed on that end, even though they aren't stoppers. They're not the best defenders, but they were far from hurting the team defense. They were really solid, both of them, in very different ways. Um, but it's just, it spoke very highly of them. And I think now that they have this framework, they really know where they're going to hang their hat going forward. I think of everything we can predict, them being a strong defense is almost a, a shoe-in for next season, especially if they have the, the effort. And I, I'm, this isn't a podcast where we'll talk about, you know, Trey and I. Two days from now, we have our first draft podcast. Lewis and I will eventually get into some free agency targets and kind of what we want team building to be like going forward. That's not today, though. But the Raptors do have interesting decisions ahead. They should be able to, I hope, in a way where after the 2021-22 season, they got Otto Porter Jr. on that mid-level exception and it felt like this guy is literally perfect for what they're doing, and then his career fell apart and it just, he, he barely played anymore after that. I hope that they're able to sign somebody and bring someone in who enhances what they're doing. Anyway, offensively, do we go there?

>> Let's do it.

>> Offensively, they were, I think, 10th or 11th in half-court offense, which would be pretty surprising for most people. They played in transition all the time, but were generally quite bad at finishing in transition. One of the greatest things about the playoff run was that Scotty Barnes got more of the ball, and so that their transition offense improved, I think, measurably. They didn't shoot the ball super well, although they shot it pretty well after the All-Star break. They weren't the best spot-up team. They weren't the best team in any play type, really. They were so mid across everything. But when you're mid at offensive rebounding, when you're mid at scoring out of actions, and when you don't turn the ball over that much, it's going to create an outcome where you are above average. And the Raptors, despite looking pretty ho-hum, ended up on the right side of north or south, whichever you view it in the in the league. How do you make, what do you make of that offense?

I actually wanted to start with uh a number, a few numbers because I think it really tells the story. Um, championship year, you can measure half-court offense by the first shot, not offensive rebounds taken out, just first shot half-court, no transition, no offensive rebounds. They were the eighth-ranked offense that season, which is pretty good. Um, which was actually a step back from where they had been before. They were eighth. The following year, they were 15th. That was the, the title defense year, which was such a phenomenal and impressive season. Then 20th, 26th, 25th, 26th, 25th. This season, 10th. This was the best first-shot half-court offense since the title year and almost directly in line with, I mean, eighth versus 10th, also because offense is better. This was actually the best first-shot half-court offense in franchise history, just because everyone is scoring better. So, you know, yes, it was mid in a lot of things, but I wanted to reframe it in, wow, a huge step forward on that end.

>> Yeah. And that's, we'll get into this with Brandon, but Brandon plays a part in this. And Brandon allowed them a huge comfort and release valve in, they had plays where they just knew it was going to him. >> And that allows, you know, a lot of confidence in other players and then also allows you to confidently go to other things when Brandon is not there. And honestly for Scotty, who last season, I think was what, 52 or 53% true shooting on this big massive volume was overtaxed in some ways. And changing his defensive matchups created more efficiency for him. It changed RJ Barrett's defensive matchups, which, you know, created more efficiency for him. For all the things about Brandon, which we'll get into, he was very important in changing defensive matchups. And the Raptors players, Quickley, maybe the least relative to expectation, but Scotty and RJ, I think both took 5% jumps in true shooting percentage. And they did a hell of a job moving the Raptors along. Brandon Ingram and IQ, obviously both played a great job and the Raptors in a way that they didn't in past seasons. A huge thing here is C&B, very efficient in terms of scoring. Jakob, very efficient in terms of scoring. Jalen Suggs ends up above 60% true shooting. The tertiary guys, they found their way across the course of the season, and that really helped move the Raptors into a stronger offense.

Stylistically, is there anything that interests you?

Yeah, I mean, outside of transition, we'll, we'll talk about that because they obviously ran as much as they could, but they ran pick-and-rolls very, very infrequently, near the bottom of the league in pick-and-rolls finished by the handler or the roller. Part of that was their, their pick-and-roll handler, Immanuel Quickley, and others weren't, compared to other starting point guards, particularly efficient. Their rollers were excellent in terms of efficiency. They're one of the best, but they just couldn't get them the ball all that much because they weren't creating threats because there was so little pull-up shooting. You could really see them face those, those issues, you know, lack of pull-up shooting, lack of self-creation, lack of driving. But they didn't attack them in the way that became popularized by the Grizzlies LA two seasons ago. And then, and, and the Heat last. It wasn't just like isolate, drive, kick, create, put them in rotation. The Raptors ran much more scripted sets. I think much more off-ball routes, more tight-window passes. A lot of their passes, they remain a high-pass team, were the type of passes that other teams just don't really want to throw because it's like, well, you're risking a turnover and what are you really gaining? But for the Raptors, a lot of that, like, eight feet to four feet pass is like, well, that's how we're able to get four feet from the rim. It was a very unique approach to half-court offense, one driven, I think, by their weaknesses rather than their strengths. But the fact that they ended up technically in the top third, I think speaks very highly of all involved. I think also it was interesting that their playoff offense changed so much that there was more pick-and-roll and that there was a lot more drive-and-kick and that >> way more driving >> and that went through the way of it bent, not towards because again, you know, Darko has said this, I say this all the time, most people say this, scripted sets in the playoffs, it's just, it's not the same because teams, teams know. Like when Brandon came after game one and said, "It seemed like they knew what we were running." It's like, "Yeah, and you guys knew what they were running." Yeah.

>> A James Harden pick-and-roll is not with Jared Allen. It is not a complex issue. It is a terrible issue, but it's not complex. It's very simple. And you coming off of a pin-down in the regular season where a team, >> they can't be asked. They're like, "Ah, okay. Well, it's just base coverage on this." And you find your way to it. Now, the Cavs are like, "This is 40% of Brandon Ingram's offense on this team. Let's top block and see if he can muscle his way out." And it just wasn't the same. What the Raptors did was they played a lot more in flow. And that flow introduced pick-and-roll. It introduced targeting guards with Scotty Barnes. It introduced targeting guards with RJ Barrett. It, and it introduced, of course, spot-up shooting for guys like Jamal Shed and Jalen Suggs as those guys punched into the lane. And I thought for the longest time that Darko was doing, you know, a great job offensively because when you look at this team, even though there is a bunch of talent, it's easy to see where they don't have it. It's easy to see there are some primary skills that motivate high-level offense in the NBA that they are, you know, bereft of. And the Raptors still, through jerry-rigging everything they can in their own to try and put it in their, in their order to try and put it in their advantage. They found their way to everything. And if you can't dribble well, a really easy way to get points is to use the pass. If you don't shoot that well, you make sure that you have, you know, guys like Scotty Barnes who, where most people when they're trying to operate and pass on the interior, it's like trying to put, you know, a a truck with a flatbed into a small parking spot, but Scotty Barnes operates as if he is both the truck and a smart car at the same time, navigating that that tight, you know, window. And uh, they found their way to it. And of course, like Immanuel Quickley, we'll talk more about him, but he factors into this because just by proxy of his skillset, teams are better with him on the floor, spacing, hitting shots, um, not turning the ball over, he, he just helps you achieve things. RJ Barrett became efficient in all of the important play types that he needed to. He became efficient overall as a, as a player. And, you know, we, we already mentioned this. That's the offense, I think.

>> Yeah. >> Yeah. Uh, 26th in shooting in terms of three-pointers made per game.

>> Three of the other four teams down there won between 22 and 26 games.

>> Pretty good.

>> 46 is more.

>> 46 is more. Okay. Do we talk about players?

>> Let's go to players.

>> All right. Let's go to players. I guess we start with Scotty Barnes.

>> Scotty Barnes. I'll let you start us on Scotty Barnes. Let's go there.

>> There were, I think, lingering questions, not in terms of his uh impact coming into the year, but in terms of what a team's path to success would be with a guy with limitations like Barnes does. He can't shoot when he's off the ball, at least not in a way that makes defenses do certain things. And on the ball, he hadn't been efficient last year. Faced with those difficulties, it was fair to ask, well, how do the Raptors succeed with Barnes as their best player? He answered that question over and over and over again. And if you just look at numbers, I think this season it's hard to see the difference from last season, um, from, yeah, it was from previous uh, you know, all his previous All-Star year. But if you actually watch what was going on, it, he managed to succeed in such different ways, in kind of counterintuitive ways. The ball left his hands. He finished a lot more around the rim because teammates created for him. He became more of a screener. And yes, he did spend more time in the corner. Part of that is what happens when you spend less time with the ball in your hands. His driving to start the year was way down, both in terms of efficiency and frequency. He was finding his way in a lot of ways. Undergirding it all was being, I think, the second, maybe the third best defender in the league for the entire season. Um, in the playoffs as well. He, he, he really was just like an overwhelming defender. No matter what task you assigned to him, he was able to succeed while still helping everyone else finish their homework, too. And because he was more versatile, because he was able to finish in other ways, there's no more questions. He is an answer to other questions on the roster. And going forward, Barnes being this, if you can just write this in as what you have, you put that on the census, you have a really, really strong base of operations. He, he was phenomenal. And even though his status in the league more or less the same, I think in terms of the granularity of it, the Raptors have a very different situation after this season than last because primarily of Barnes. He proved something, and he proved probably the most important thing. He proved something that other star guards around the league should want when they look at a running mate. He proved that he can protect his guards as a defender in a playoff series. And he proved that he can handle a huge jump in uh usage. I think the most important thing, and I still, Scotty, it would surprise me greatly if his numbers next regular season look close at all to what happened in this playoff series. Well, not close at all, but I just don't think he'll equal that because I don't think he can sustain that over the course of the season. The work is too difficult. And this happens with every single. There are regular season players. There are players who are great in the regular season and great in the playoffs. And there are players who are great, you know, at one or the other. And some players, the ease of the regular season, these large sample sizes of of pull-up threes, of pretty waste decision-making, of reading base packages, they can just go out and they will improve your offense by leaps and bounds just because they're out there making decisions, doing things. This can manifest as like a movement shooter. This can manifest as a pick-and-roll guard or something like that. But what Scotty does is none of that stuff. He's not, he's not like a high-level pick-and-roll guard in the regular season because he, against base coverages, he can't threaten with the pull-up shot really, and because teams will, you know, load up the middle and the Raptors don't have a great shooting team around him beyond that. He's not a movement shooter, so he goes in the corner, what does that look like? But the crucible, the crucible, as you said, in the playoffs, in the nitty-gritty, when Scotty Barnes can look at another team, know what he's seeing repeatedly, and begin to use his big muscles and big brain to problem-solve. He's actually quite elite. And his level of strength-based, constantly brainwork problem-solving is too much to do for 82 games. But if I'm a player, the same way we see with playoff risers, Jimmy Butler is probably the easiest example in terms of offensive stuff. You look at that guy and you say, "I can pretty well expect that this guy will help me problem-solve defenses and help me problem-solve offenses going forward." And that's not even the regular season. That's just what Scotty showed in the playoffs. And I think you can expect that in the playoffs going forward. For the regular season, you're getting what? A guy who can initiate offense, a guy who will probably continue to work on his jumper and hopefully it gets better, but it was a down season obviously for that. A guy who sets screens, a guy who finishes, a guy who, if he gets the possession, supercharges your transition. He has come out as a winning player through and through. And where people might have thought he's a winning player as a guy who, it's best if he's third on the team, maybe fourth on the team. This is the outside perspective, not ours. He comes in, he has a playoffs where you're like, that guy has to be one or two because, and if it was three, you have an embarrassment of riches. He vaulted himself into firm All-NBA. This guy will be hanging around it for however much longer. And that is a win, a massive win. There's no way you can build a team where he is unhelpful. He, he has proven that that whatever you are trying to address with the other players on the roster, the other players in a lineup around him, he will find ways to succeed. It's impossible for him not to, given his abilities. That's incredible.

I, uh, he deserves the superlatives, whatever is thrown his way. I'll just also, uh, he had a playoff series that Pascal Siakam never had as a Raptor. He had a playoff series that you could argue him into that Kyle Lowry territory. I, I was what, seven, eight years old when Vince Carter was doing it. My frame of reference is not great. But in this modern era, it's only Kawhi who I feel confident saying definitely played a better series than Scotty Barnes. And that is pretty incredible.

>> Yeah, it, it was uh, I mean, he hit the heights, man. He, he did the thing. And you're right that he can't do what he did over the course of a season because he, it's just too hard. Like other players, a pull-up shot is is easy. You don't get hit usually. You're not moving very far. You're not dribbling. You're not running around. It's, it's not a lot of work. He works very hard. His free throws more than doubled in the playoffs. But I think a lot of the ways the Raptors might try to address their ceiling offensively also addresses Barnes' workload in that if you add guys who are are pull-up shooters, who are self-creators, who are drivers at the guard spot, well, you're just creating easier shots for Barnes.

>> Yeah. Less physicality, he's getting hit less. He's doing less work. You can make things a lot easier for him. I think uh Chris Bridgen had he said a guard that can penetrate, shoot, and play point-of-attack defense would unlock so much on this team. That's completely correct. That's also a really tough player to get on the team. I, my Chris, my fingers are crossed, brother. They are crossed in terms of if that player joins Scotty because I have been clamoring for that player to join Scotty for years. And uh, because again, I don't care about the point guard tag. I want Scotty to play with players who have skill sets that mesh, harmonize, and all those other things. He was flanked by a fellow All-Star, selected as an injury replacement, Brandon Ingram, traded for what became the fifth pick in this draft. I made a joke on Twitter and the Washington D.C., the DMV area got upset at me thinking I was a dumbass because they didn't realize he was a joke because I said, "Well, if Brandon got traded for the fifth overall pick while he was unhealthy, he just became an All-Star. Call up the Wizards and see if they'll part with number one." This is the, it's the fallacy of the transitive property. Of course, Washington D.C. was lost on my satire. Brandon Ingram, Lewis, how you feel?

Felt good about his regular season. There was, and Joe Wolfon wrote an amazing piece about this, there was always a tension between how he played and how the Raptors wanted to play. But in the regular season, they did a very impressive job, both he and the team, of finding a compromise that worked. He cut a little bit more, especially in the regular season. He initiated out of movement much more often, coming out of pin-downs, Iverson cuts, things like that. Um, he rebounded a lot more defensively. He, he did a ton of fighting there. In small ways here and there, even if in the big picture, he basically was Brandon Ingram as how he's always been, but a little bit he blended in. And the Raptors similarly gave a little more isolation sets to him. They ramped up their mid-range shooting, let him do that. There was balance in a way that, as you said, they were able to find a professional um, consistent output that allowed them to just churn through teams that were lesser than them in the playoffs. Obviously, that fell apart. I think both in terms of his performance, but also in the early games in terms of his um, process, whether or not he made the shots. How much of that was injury? How much of that was an inability of the professional churn to actually apply to better teams? We'll find out. But you have to be much more pessimistic after the playoffs in terms of his fit than you were before them.

>> Yeah. And again, I'll risk being a jackass, but when I went, I was looking up one because Brandon won Player of the Week. He was the Player of the Week before he went into the playoffs. Heel spurs develop over time. Uh, Anthony Davis famously played with one for like six years, and that heel spur is actually what caused like a stress fracture in his foot when he landed on it. Um, and he was like, "Wow, I played with a heel spur for six years or something." Uh, Brandon clearly was capable of playing in the playoffs. He just won Player of the Week when the heel spur went from being something that he could play with and Player of the Week status to being completely untenable. Was it game five? Was it game three? Was it whatever? I don't know. But if you've watched the Brandon Ingram tape, and we previewed it, and we said we had expectations of how his matchups would go and the types of shots he was going to take, he took those shots. The matchup went that way, and the shots just didn't go in. His process looked about what I expected it to be. You talked about that tension. The great thing about Brandon Ingram is that he is talented, is that he does have positive effects just by walking onto the court. We talked about some of them already. He makes it easier for other players in a lot of sense because he absorbs attention and he absorbs difficult defenders. Hell yeah to Brandon for that. But the Raptors, they also three years, 120 million roughly with a player option on that year three. They're giving him or he, he's absorbing a large amount of the cap in a cap sport. That means that the Raptors are choosing this version of value over other versions of value. So, they need more than just the passive presence and the passive uh positives. The active positives ceased in the playoffs. And that's a really tough thing. Uh, they didn't cease in the regular season, though. In the regular season, he really helped them in that first-shot offense. He took difficult matchups in the trudging around of their half-court offense. He was a problem solver. He was a shot maker. He did all those kinds of things. And he, without a doubt, without a doubt, helped the Raptors win games. And on the health side, even though he just had surgery on a heel spur, he played 77 games, I believe. For Brandon, hell yeah, you played those games. Very glad to see it. Hope you play 77 next year. The process, though, defensively, I gave him a lot of flowers this season in the analysis.

>> Yep. >> His size helped what the Raptors wanted to do. His rebounding, contested rebounding, as you mentioned, very good. A lot more engaged. Offensively, there was very little change. The three-point rate is probably the most disappointing thing because we saw him get those shots and we saw him turn them down. It wasn't just a vacuum where it's like, damn, the Raptors can't create it. It was that he had the new path created for him and he rejected it time and time again. There were cuts available to him that he did not take. And that, that ability to transition the type of play you want to play. It's, uh, it's a really important aspect of, you know, aging in this league and developing and working on different teams. And I hope that Brandon comes back healthy next season and begins again and brings all the good stuff, the active good, the passive good, and I hope he brings more. That's my Brandon Ingram thing. I wanted to look at some numbers um from from Scotty Barnes and Pascal Siakam and from Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram because I do think that there's some

>> They're going to kill you. They're going to kill you with hammers, man.

>> Interesting elements here. Uh, 2022-23 and 2023-24, uh, the Raptors were at their best with Barnes and Siakam on the floor together, a little bit better than with the two of them apart. Last season, across the regular season and the playoffs, the Raptors were at their best with Barnes on and Ingram off. Their next best lineup was with both off. Then with uh, then with them both together, and then the worst was Ingram on and Barnes off, and that was the only one that lost its minutes. Now, one thing that's really important is Barnes on, Ingram off this year was way better in terms of net rating than Siakam and Ingram ever was. That's meaningful. That it was plus eight. That's a really, really strong net rating. But for everything we described about his season that was meaningful, you know, a lot of passive benefits, some strength, the Raptors were not able to find success with him and Barnes together. So, can I bring something up? Uh, Will Smith says, "It's kind of ironic R.J. has been the best Scotty fit rather than IQBI lineup wise." I'll say this is again in my coverage, I kept saying that I thought Pascal and Scotty fit together and there was so much hand-wringing about three-point shooting that you see like, you can't just s, you can't just bring in a better three-point shooter like Brandon, it means that he's better than because he shoots the ball a little bit better from three that he's a better fit. There are so many soft skills of how players apply themselves and Pascal leaving and going to the fastest-paced team and being a guy who runs out and being a guy who immediately adapts to in whole whatever they wanted to do. It's meaningful.

>> Yep. >> R.J. being a guy who gets traded from New York and adapts to whatever Toronto wants to do in whole is meaningful. And that means that Pascal adapted to Tyrese Haliburton and R.J. adapted to Scotty Barnes. Brandon Ingram did not really adapt to Scotty Barnes. He does not play in a way that he's trying to maximize Scotty's initiation. He doesn't, he doesn't run with him in transition. That's probably the most disappointing one is, or the two most disappointing things is that one, Brandon didn't take the threes that he was supposed to take. He was supposed to take more the pump and one dribble. And it's, uh, it's a simple calculus. I know I don't consider myself a spreadsheet guy, but it is what it is. And the transition, Brandon didn't run out in transition. He did. He did not become a big player in scorer in transition on a team that was looking for more accomplished scorers in transition and on a team that played in transition all the time. And there are the base skill sets that players have, which is why people said it shouldn't be Pascal and Scotty. It shouldn't be RJ and Scotty. And then there's the reality of stepping on the floor and playing and making decisions. And that is why those guys had positives next to Scotty's because they made decisions that elevated that. And we'll see if that's something that the Raptors with coaching, with change from their players, can maximize next year with Brandon. But I do wonder about it.

The Raptors have spent so long being like, "Well, it works in these ways alongside Scotty Barnes. You know, this partnership can work in this way. It, if you tinker here, it forces switches. You could, I'm just ready for them to find a partnership with Scotty Barnes that just works. It doesn't need coaching. It doesn't need tinkering. It's just, oh wow, they're both better because of that." Scotty Barnes has yet to find a star teammate where that's true.

>> Yeah. And we got, listen, there's, I know Brandon is a very popular player. We've gotten feedback from Brandon fans all year that Brandon is like that guy. I am sorry to say after one season before playoffs, I was not convinced, and I am not currently convinced. I would love, I would love if Brandon proves us wrong next year. Would love that. Are we moving on? Who, who do we talk? Is it, is it RJ Barrett? Is it Immanuel Quickley? I mean, RJ Barrett's got to be the, I think he's earned the third spot in this conversation.

>> RJ Barrett, the third spot. I'll say it off the top. RJ Barrett was, I think, per true shooting in the regular season, the most quote-unquote efficient of the Quickley, Ingram, Scotty, Barrett situation. In the playoffs, not a good game seven. Started to get guarded by Evan Mobley. And you want to talk about hard baskets and not having a pull-up three. He couldn't punish Evan Mobley with the pull-up, and he had to keep trying to rummage into the lane and hit push shots over a seven-foot Mobley, Defensive Player of the Year. It didn't go well. The six games prior to that, he took on a lot of usage. He took on play types. He took on pick-and-roll. He took on transition. He took on cutting. He took on spot-up shooting. He did it all in the same way that he did during the regular season where he was well above average in every single important play type and was the biggest swing in terms of the Raptors' half-court offense performing well.

>> Offense in general performing well.

>> You forgot something.

>> Playoff game-winners. He took on that too.

>> He took on a playoff game-winner as well. And then his dad said that Trey, you know, needs to respect him more, of course, which is great. And he defensively, Darko can tell me six more times that he has the potential to be, you know, a real two-way force. I won't believe it. I don't think RJ can get there. But I tell you what, in isolation, he did a pretty good job in switching schemes against uh, a team that was led by guards in the Cleveland Cavaliers. And he hung in against their bigs for six games until Jarrett Allen exploded in game seven. And I believe J, uh, RJ's when I asked him about it, he said, "Well, if Jarrett Allen wants to go out and get 19 rebounds, it was kind of like our arms are up in the air at that point."

>> Yeah. >> RJ Barrett, I would say below-average defender during the regular season, well-above-average offensive player in the playoffs. I would say above-average offensive player, average defender. Once they moved him away from having to navigate James Harden uh screens with Jarrett Allen, they found a way to make him viable, and he was, he, he won a lot of minutes in the in the series. You, you talk about merging talents across the NBA, and everyone always talks about sacrificing, right? Who's who's sacrificing? Who's losing um touches? Who's losing initiation? Who's losing everything? And even though the Raptors never merged, you know, All-Stars, they're not like a big three or anything. By bringing in Brandon Ingram, they certainly were adding all sorts of talent to the team. And RJ Barrett was the guy who sacrificed his role more than any other. Changed. He shifted much more off-ball. He lost initiation reps. He lost isolation reps. He dropped this season to fourth in touches, Quickley, Barnes, Ingram, then Barrett, 54 touches a game. Um, among that group, he dribbled the least when he saw the ball. He held it for the shortest times. He sacrificed. He found his shots through cuts very often, through spot-ups. He was able to still be second on the team in shot attempts in the regular season and second on the team or first on the team in the playoffs, pardon me. His sacrificing was was a form of shape-shifting to fill the crevices. You ever seen that video of an octopus escaping through like a hole this size on a fishing boat?

>> That was R.J. Barrett. He wasn't escaping. He was just fitting his talents into whatever crevices the team had available to him. And it, it didn't look like sacrifice for most teams, for most players. It looked like a player who was born to do those things, to cut, to spot up. And, you know, he's not a 40% three-point shooter, but he was good enough. He was good enough at all of these things to really find himself as, I think, the best he's ever been in the NBA. You know, he's, he's short of All-Star, but he's still a hugely productive player. You know, I wrote a piece this year about RJ Barrett. Um, I forget what it was called. It's like, "You're Wrong About RJ Barrett," basically, because everyone still remembers him as being this Knicks guy who just, who holds the ball, who isolates, who takes inefficient shots. He's not that guy at all anymore. It was remarkably impressive what he was able to accomplish this season. Guys like him who really starting out in the year in this, in their careers, who are really high picks who subsist on inefficient isolations generally don't become this. That he was able to become this in a year where he saw less of the ball. He saw less of the playbook. Just incredible. I think what RJ Barrett did was, in my mind, one of the least likely success stories and one of the most impressive success stories of the Raptor season.

>> Moser brings up

A great point. Says, also considering he had two injuries this season, damn good season for R.J. A knee sprain is a pretty big one, too. That's that's you could see and he came back early because he when he came back, his burst was not remotely what it was. So he uh and he came back so he could be on the floor in the same way that Brandon did. Brandon played through the heel spur from March onwards. Like the Raptors had a team of guys who played through stuff as best they could. Uh I I think anyway like Yakob in play. Well, we'll talk about YaKob. Uh anyway, he RJ did a great job and we'll see what happens with in terms of contract. It could be this summer. It could be never. We'll see. Don't know exactly how that might shake out, but R.J. It's It's what you said. This is a guy who was born to do these things and he should be isolating less because he doesn't have a great skill set for isolating.

>> Yep.

>> He He should He should be running second side pick and roll. Why? Because he rocks at it. He's great at it. He should be getting these set actions into Spain possessions. Why? Because he rocks at it. He should be cutting. He rocks at it. he should be running out in transition. All these things he does it and uh he does it with fewer dribbles. He does it with fewer touches and he does it all the same. Uh great season by RJ and a heroic playoff series that he probably dreamed of since he was a kid where he hit that shot and where he just kept rumaging into the paint truffle pig for the basket and found his way to it.

>> You know what, man? The money is nice. Obviously, they're NBA players to become wealthy and famous, but that moment, that shot, 50 years from now, that's going to mean so much to him, >> to his family. That's I'm so happy for him as a person to have that moment.

>> Yes. Uh Shai thy dollar says, "Is RJ Barrett ultimately a championship level starter?" The Raptors, I don't know how many championship level starters they have on the team. And I tell you what, R.J. He could be a championship level starter if he was on the right team, but is he a championship level starter on a lot of teams? I don't know.

>> Yeah,

>> that's that's a really tough question to answer. I've AJ Lawson, by the way, was playing in the finals for the Dallas Mavericks and then couldn't and it was because he played on a team with Luca Donuch, you know what I mean? And uh who was it? Alfonso McKini was starting finals games and they almost won, you know what I mean? It just uh that's the way it shakes out sometimes. It's up to the you you aren't until you are is actually how it works for a lot of players. You aren't until you are.

Um Lewis, is it a manual quickly time?

>> Manual quickly.

>> Okay. Emanuel quickly. Big thing here. when you're a point guard and you don't turn the ball over and you shoot the three-pointer well and you provide spacing and you give a [ __ ] defensively.

>> Yeah,

>> he hung in on a string. His point of attack stuff wasn't great, but his his offball stuff, you can go back to New York where everyone said he was the cat's pajamas in terms of offball defense. Uh he was he was a lot more engaged this year. Just a positive guard. I'll start there. A positive guard

>> in the regular season. We didn't get to see a lick of it in the playoffs, which god did I want to see him in the playoffs considering his history in the playoffs and considering my qualms about the lack of adaptability and how he gets his shots. I really wanted it. But in the regular season, just a good guard and and credit to him.

>> Yeah. Uh if you look around at point guards around the NBA, you know, Kade Cunningham is an exceptional defender. There's some really strong defenders out there, but he is like not a bad defender for a point guard around the league at this point. I was really impressed with his defensive season. Offensively, he ended up okay from the three-point range. It was 37 something% I think. Obviously, he had that really, really rough

>> cold streak to start. Shooting is high variance. That's just what shooting is. Everyone says we want a consistent shooter. The Raptors need a consistent shooter. Guess what? There's no such thing. Shooting is inconsistent. That is the definition of shooting. Uh I think the shooting is money in the bank. Joe Wolf wrote about improvements from two-point range. He played more on balance. Some of the floaters became short jumpers. His isolation. His pick and roll play was better. There was improvement there. It's honestly the same as the other piece. Was the improvement good enough? Was the compromise with with Ingram and the Raptors good enough? Was was Quickley's two-point improvement good enough for the playoffs? We'll see. Because the things that he got better at this year, his best year as a Raptor, two-point scoring, playing in the middle of the floor, uh um you know, playing physically, drunk free throws, though, that's resilient playoff scoring. Just we'll see if that ends up being enough. And a lot of the time when we're talking about lead guards, you know, adding these skills to the raptors, ideally, and this is, I think, a compliment to Emanuel Quickley, you're not replacing him with this stuff because if you do add those skills to the Raptors, Quickley still has a huge role to play, he could still find tons of success around that. All of our discussion about Toronto's weaknesses sound like they're aimed at quickly and in some ways there are because he's not able to fulfill these skills, but neither is anyone else on the team and what he does do he's very good at.

>> I think the the greatest proof of concept is the fact that he and Jamal shed one minutes together.

>> There you go.

>> You know what I mean? It's that's that's a really important one because Jamal Shed is going to provide, you know, he's very happy to run out, slap the floor, point of attack defense. He's very happy to punch gaps and keep his dribble alive and make these reads. He's very happy to do all that kind of stuff. And Emanuel Quickley is very happy to not do that stuff. And he's very happy to still be positive.

>> Uh Will Smith says he's fine despite all the consternation. He's a fine point guard. Is he a top end one? No. Constrnation. It's a great way to put it. There is consternation in the same way that uh you know it's it's important

>> to to expect greatness of players but to never make saviors of them. So much of disappointment comes from the expectation of a savior. Scotty not making the leap into unbelievable AllNBA offensive star last season meant that everyone said like this guy actually sucks. Like Trey Murphy might be better. Alpron Shangun is definitely better. Guess what? Alpron Shangon is not better than Scotty Barnes. He's not close. Scotty Barnes is closer to Cade than he is to Shangun. Like that's that's where we are with this stuff. Scotty the expect just because he doesn't save a team doesn't mean that happened. And just because the team won when Brandon Ingram came doesn't mean that Brandon Ingram is a 16 game swing player either. It's the context is so important for these guys and Quickly has a bunch of positive things about his game, but he does not correct the context with which he lives. And that's a little disappointing, but he also does not stop anybody else from correcting that context either, which is important, which is, you know, when you get in team building and, you know, consternation or hand ringing about certain players, a lot of times it does come down to yes, their limitations, but the most frustrating players are the ones who are limited, do not fix the context, and simply make too much money so that the team cannot fix the context. I don't think Quickly is there.

Go ahead.

>> Or who suffocate the ball so that their teammates can't fix the context while they're on the floor. Quickly doesn't do that at all either.

>> Great point. I also um Mouser said uh his reads are also not that hard. Low risk of turning the ball over. I did this on a couple podcasts where I was like I went through and I was just saying these are the reads that Quickly is making. And there was a bit of push back. People are like, "No, you're just, you know, being a little too hard." But I would raise you that when you watch Scotty Barnes playmake to the rim for his players instead of watching Emanuel Quickley playmake guys into I would say long mid-range or short mid-range shots that it's up to them if they want to get to the rim. Whereas Scotty Barnes for example is saying you're at the rim enjoy your layup or dunk. Like that is the big difference. And Emanuel Quickley we want more home run playmaking. He's very very conservative. Um maybe he's a guy who slowly develops until, you know, at age 28 and year four of the contract or year three or whatever it is. He says, "I feel comfortable with these reads now. I can shoot it. I play make more aggressively. I keep my dribble alive longer. Nobody gets to say a player's done developing."

>> Yep.

>> I uh I hope that IQ continues to do so. He had a good regular season.

>> I wanted to give another series of numbers I think that really speak highly of quickly. um over the last uh uh what 2020 uh three 2024 2025 2026 um quickly in Barnes together uh their net rating actually together is quite strong together they won their minutes plus three that means something I mean for all of the hand ringing about them not dominating together in terms of like the twoman pick and roll. They've won their minutes together as teammates and in fact it's been better than Barnes without him. It's been much better than Quickly uh without Barnes and also much better than either of them off. You know, Quickly is scalable. You can shift him around in different roles. He is defensively not compromising the team even though it looked like he might be when he first came to the Raptors. That's not how he's ended up being. quickly gives you options. He doesn't necessarily give you answers, but he can work on this team. He can work next to Scotty Barnes. And uh props to him for becoming this guy even if he's not what everyone expected.

>> Yep. Good season. Yeah. Had it had a chance to swing it one way or another in the playoffs. He would have been one of the guys. Uh, okay. Before we move on to the the rest of the guys, I will say everybody get ready. Prepare yourselves for an ad read. This segment is a presentation of Tony Bet online sports book casino. Thousands of slot games, live casino at your fingertips and a sports book made for Ontario. Get your game on with Tony Bet. Tony Bet is licensed and regulated by the AGCO and I gaming Ontario and 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Please play responsibly. There are some numbers on Tony Bet for the winner of the NBA. the champion Oklahoma City minus 176 Timberwolves plus 4,900 Pistons plus 1900. There are other things listed there if you feel like that's something you want to go bet on. You can uh if you'd like to uh Yaka Purle is that do we just do the starting lineup and then work our way down?

>> I think let's do Colin Boilles next

>> before Yok.

>> Yeah. Then take it away.

>> We at at a certain point we decided it was a mark of status to Murray Boils I think deserves the next

>> then Siri should have been ahead of IQ too then

>> probably

>> Colton Murray Boils was my life he saved my analyst life. Well, I was gonna He's better than almost anyone, not you, not Trey, but almost anyone outside of the franchise expected. He was phenomenal. I mean, you run that draft again, there's no way he lasts to none. I It would surprise me. Yeah. I think this this draft has also been in terms of firstear impact, this draft is one of the best I've ever seen in my whole life. Uh he I said this before that Houston was trying to get him and we would later learn that OKC as well was trying to get him. If you look at the the there those are two rosters that are like we want a bastard who does bastard stuff. Uh Trey and I have very famously said that the Raptors saved the NBA by making sure that the Thunder didn't get Colin Murray Boils. It would be hilacious. terrible things would have happened. And despite the fact that there's so many so many so many great players immediately, I still feel incredible about my CNB as a top five player in the draft stance that I had when I was, you know, praying that the Raptors would draft him. I thought they might go for a guy like Carter Bryant, but what I really wanted was for them to grab a guy like Colin Murray Boils, and he did an unbelievable job. I think I pride myself on being an analyst first and a fan second, but I was a I was a fan when he got drafted. I started beating my chest and screaming, "That's my guy. We got him." and his defense. The fact that he has elevated himself to there's always probably 20 25 defenders who are in contention for all defense in a given year in terms of merit. I know only so many players get votes. He seems like a guy who's already launched himself up there. His at rim finishing through the first round of the playoffs was one of the best in the NBA and he's doing it against Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. and he finished the season above average inefficiency. Maybe not for a a finishing center, but for a player overall. He finished the season as a guy who battled through it seems his thumb was nearly amputated, so he didn't get to shoot jumpers or even work on that. He just had to carve away at what he was good at. He didn't get to drive the ball with his left-hand dribble very often. He had less of himself and somehow he still gave you more. Colin Murray Boils. Call in more ebo boils. All right, I have a number for you. This one's gonna You'll like this one. Uh, okay. I said how much I hated single number metrics. I'mma use it, but it's just because it's fun.

>> Uh, alltime playoff BPM.

>> Um, hold on. Uh, is this true? Yeah. Uh, what what's going on here about champs?

>> So you're you're looking up box score plus minus which uh CMB his play style just to set the record is very friendly to how uh box score plus minus uh collects its its numbers. You know what I mean?

>> Uh looks like Brandon Clark did just pass away. It's what Shams says.

>> Um

>> Brandon Clark, Canadian player. Yeah.

>> Wow. Damn. Rest in peace to Brandon.

>> Yeah, very sad.

>> Wow. Shams said that.

>> Shams did say that.

>> All right. Well, it's probably true then. All right. Rest in peace to uh Brandon Clark. Wow, that's crazy. 29 years old. He and I, we played on the same basketball court out in Gonzega. He was there when you played.

>> He was there I think two years after I was there when I was there. Kelly Olen, uh, Robert Sacray was there one of the years. Robert Sakray. Wow. Uh, Kevin Pangos, those types of guys. Samuel Daer, David Stockton, that lot.

>> Um, but anyway, rest Clark.

>> Yeah. Wow. Really sad.

>> Yeah. Um, all-time rookie playoff BPM for I sorted by 150 minute minimum just guys who actually played.

>> Mhm.

>> Uh, number one, Michael Jordan. Number two, Spud Webb, number three, Magic Johnson, uh, Aras Sabonis, Vlatty Devatch, Chuck Pson, Marcus Johnson, Tony Cooach, Morris Cheeks, David Robinson, Colin Murray Boils.

>> Great. his odds are pretty good to go to the Hall of Fame based on this.

>> It means nothing. BPM means nothing. It's just crazy that he found himself on a list like that. Um, when we talk about the season being promising, this is the second reason why Scotty Barnes was the first, him becoming this is the biggest most important thing to come out of the season. Colin Murray Boils immediately showing his versatility, his offensive capability, his touch. I mean, his ability to improve. Darko talked about him starting to use the floater just a few weeks before the playoffs. Um, this is huge for the Raptors. It almost can't be stated how important Murray Bole's becoming this is for the team going forward. This is a team that was uh that was doing a great job of bringing in players who they're getting stuff out of, but who you were hardressed to see like that ultimate potential of. CMB is a guy who immediately gave you a significant floor, a lynch pin defensively, a lynch pin finishing around the rim in a playoff series, but also a guy who based on his college tape, everything I saw, you can convince yourself quite easily of a of a much higher ceiling. And that that's the thing that changes you from being like a Jun Tate. Jawn Tate was really good his first couple years in the league. really battled, played on teams that didn't need much from him, but he would never step out of that. Never. Not close. Uh CB is a guy who will come battle immediately and hopefully will step well out of that and develop in a way. Um Darko cited the same thing. It was me who asked him about Desmond Bane because I was watching him kind of pow around with him before a game and I was I wanted to write about Darko as a coach for that game. And that's when he came out with that Desmond Bane is the most talented player I've ever coached. And his reasoning was that he's a player who can learn something that day in practice and apply it into a game. And you and I have always wondered about, you know, how many reps does it take? What how how long does it take? For some guys is it a thousand. For some guys is it four. And if that's how you measure talent as a coach, what can you implement what I'm telling you? Uh CMBB Darko says fits well into that Desmond Bane ethos. He was unbelievable. What? Obviously, not an inc not an incredible rookie season, not a incredible rookie regular season, a good regular season,

>> an incredible playoffs,

>> apparently meets meets uh David Robinson, I hear.

>> And you still see the rookie rawness of it. You know, I saw a Mouser said, "If you didn't know, you'd be hardressed to convince me he's a rook." I think almost the opposite. I think you saw a lot of like rookie elements to his game, which is what's so compelling about his future. I mean, I think he made uh uh a lot of the things we talked about early in this series sort of waned when he hit the scouting report in that his uh you know, his screen craft became much less impressive. Once the Cavs started to like, you know, press up on him a little more and take out away that driving space, he was a little less capable of finding his own scoring. But his ability to problem solve will come. I mean, that's stuff that rookies just don't really have is like ability to problem solve scouting reports. That takes a really long time. But the foundation of his ability, I mean, we had a podcast earlier in the season where we talked about his future and whether he could be an all-star, what where he could end up. I mean, looking back, the playoffs make me think we were almost low in terms of where we uh regarded his future. He's uh he's done an incredible job. To the point about uh the what would you say? To the point about the rookie thing in terms of we expect younger players to be overwhelmed by physicality. He did not.

>> Well, yeah, that

>> add at all. But in terms of the hesitancy of decision-making, I think that makes sense as far as what you say. Uh Will Smith says, I think people forget he was a two season NCAA player. He might have come out after that first season. He was tracking really well, but he uh he kept he got mononucleiosis and that's a hell of a thing to get. I mean, it just it completely it threw uh it threw everything way out of whack. Hoops a lot says almost feels inappropriate to just keep carrying on with this. Hoops a lot. Take whatever time you need for Brandon Clark. Rest in peace for Brandon Clark. We're gonna keep doing the podcast. And uh yeah, do we do I guess Yaka Purle, is that who we do now?

>> Yeah. Yaka Purle the the Raptors uh their deadline acquisition as per Darko Ryakovic. So, YaKob played 46 games at 25 minutes per game, 10.7 points, seven rebounds, uh close to a steal, two assists per game, 70% from the field. What do you What do you make of his season? And battled battled the back the whole time. Yeah, it's almost I mean you you there's something compelling about what happens to basketball to athletes of any kind when their biggest opponent becomes themselves, their bodies, time. It's sad. It is compelling. He certainly battled he battled his own back more than he battled any other team or any other player in the NBA. I mean, it's really unfortunate that he wasn't able to have the year that the Raptors wanted from him, expected of him. Um, also interesting that he would say that his back felt good towards the end.

>> Again, I said this cuz you what what was he supposed to say? Like, you're on a game plan.

>> He was he was honest about it at other points in the season. He's like, "Damn, this [ __ ] hurts."

>> You can't say, "Well, my back feels terrible." before the series start. That's just not something you're able to do.

>> Yeah. Checks.

>> And he even said after the playoffs, he was like, "It is what it is." As if to say, he clearly wasn't. I think it was just a mandatory comment.

>> Fair enough.

>> If you say your back hurts coming into the playoffs, guess who's about to hit you in the back? Jared Allen.

>> Jared Allen or maybe someone bigger. But um the the point is uh I think he was okay. He had he had a stretch of a week there. He was really good. Uh obviously the contract doesn't look good going forward. That's not really the point of this podcast though. You know, he did what he could. He was limited physically. his defense really really got hit. I think offensively he was still able to find ways to impact the game. Um but you could see like a lack of mobility hurts in a lot of ways. His hands were less sure than they've been in previous seasons catching the ball, catching rebounds. you know, maybe it comes around, maybe he finds his way into being a a consistent, you know, role player going forward, but just a just a frustrating and for him and for everyone around him season. And similar to the there's that Brandon Ingram thing where, you know, if you critiqued Brandon Ingram's playoff series, then people would say like they don't win game four without him. They don't do it's like the critique isn't that this guy sucks. Get him off my team. It would be so much better if he never saw the floor. The critique is like these guys are entrenched in huge parts of this team. They're absolutely essential to what happens here. And Yakob Purle during spurts, even though Colin Murray Bo was better than him in that series, there were times where Yakob's size really helped. Even though he wasn't playing super well, his size helped and his his ability to like catch from 16 feet and, you know, slooh foot step through his way to the bucket and provide a big catch radius and to show size on the inside and help reb like that stuff helped even though he was a shell of himself. Ple turtle shell. There we go. We found it. It's it's a tough thing, especially since the Raptors have so much invested in him going forward. They need Yaka Purle. They need 60 65 games of 27 28 minutes and a pretty hard 27 28 minutes because it's really hard in a playoff series. You can do it. You can just play small and have Colin Mary Boils as your center and you can just punch punch punch punch.

>> Yeah. in the regular season to go out there without an expectation of having a seven-footer to hold down the center spot. It is going to be really tough to create consistency. And while the Raptors did find it decently well, they would have had a much better time. Even if it meant they were seventh in defense instead of fifth or something like that, it just would have been much better. And it's something I look forward to. Donkey 16 says we need 1,399 minutes a year from Yak. Somebody read the contract stipulations. 1,400 is where the bonuses kick in. That's so funny. Um Yak. Yeah. Underwhelming season, but one where you could tell he was belabored by injury. I do wonder if he's just a 22 minute a game guy. That would suck a lot.

>> That would suck. Colin Murray Boils might be ready for more for starting. I mean, who knows? It's hard to say, but based on where he is, maybe Yakob Purle just being like a short stint, 60, 55 game a year player who plays, you know, 20 minutes a game might be the the best path forward for just what his back is. I think it's pretty spooky if it's 202728 and it's nearly 30 million a year and he's down to like 20 minutes a game. It's

>> Yeah,

>> he uh Well, anyway, maybe this isn't even fair because we're talking about projecting the future. His season as it was, Yakob was efficient finishing. He was in some games I think incredibly important his size and he clearly fought through and battled as much as he could and at the end of it he didn't have a healthy playoff series to my eye. He didn't move as well as he does when he when I think he's been healthy and some of that is he's slower now than he used to be like on the perimeter. He's just not the same player as like for example in 2023 24 or 2223 when he arrived. It's uh it's it's a tough season for him. I hope he comes back healthy next year. And maybe maybe 22 minutes of like I'm giving it everything, that would be great. But if it's 22 minutes of

>> um laboring, I don't know. Landel says Yak will play much better when IQ is back on the floor. I think it's the inverse. I think IQ will play much better when Yak is on the floor. Uh, but I don't know if IQ is that important to Yakob's process.

>> I think Yak will win his minutes. They They're They're a really good pairing. I mean, we talked about that in the playoffs.

>> Yeah,

>> Yak just means less to Shed because Shed doesn't need those screens as much as IQ does. You know, it's hard. I feel like

>> he's actually more important to R.J.

>> Yeah, he he's Yeah, he's important to RJ, too. We're I feel like we're less critical of Yak than we were of Brandon Ingram, even though he just clearly had a lesser season. It's uh it's a tough thing when when injury just impacts a guy that much. But that's that's what happens when you're big, when your career, you know, gets to this point. At a certain point, you will be limited. It happened earlier than everyone expected. It sucks it happened this year, but it happened.

>> Yep. the the Ingram thing, he makes like two times less than Ingram. And Ingram did play 77. Like Ingram did his thing. And again, we we you know, tip the hat to everyone who battled this season. Ingram did. And he had a 77game season. I don't remember the last time. Maybe it was with the Lakers that he played around that number of games. So, do the cap to Brandon Ingram. Doth of the cap to Yaka Purle. Where the hell do we go from here? Who? It's We've been talking for an hour and 18 minutes, man. We're six six guys into it. Yeah. Go ahead.

>> Shed. Jacobe or Shed?

>> Uh, let's do uh Jamal Shed played 82 games.

>> Do you believe his playoff run, like do you think his playoff run, which was phenomenal, showed real growth and improvement that you expect to carry forward, or do you think it was just like, "Wow, this guy's crazy. Jamal Shed.

>> Jamal Shed.

>> Well, I'm the guy who's always low on Jamal Shed, so I'll just I'll keep doing it. Uh Jamal, what did he shoot in the playoffs? 35 from the floor, 33 from three. Jamal Shed didn't improve anything in the playoffs.

>> I disagree.

>> But he was himself. And like if Jamal Shed really was improving things in the playoffs, it would have looked a little bit different on offense. It would have looked a lot different to my mind. He got a lot of the ball. He dribbled the hell out of the ball. He got chances to make things happen and he didn't. Most of his production came down to making wide open three-point shots. Defensively, he did great, but he was great defensively this season. So,

>> uh

>> he led the team, the offense was better with him on the floor, second to RJ Barrett of anyone on the Raptors in the playoffs. I think he did. One guy shot 35% from the field and scored however many points per game and one guy averaged like nearly 25

>> like but this but that happened during the regular season they were better with him on the floor.

>> Right. It's not just a guy who hits open shots. If it was just hitting open shots then then it wouldn't they wouldn't be that much better with him playing. He he I mean he had some assists to Colin Murray Boils that no one other than Scotty Barnes on the team even throws that pass. You asked me if he improved.

>> Yeah, that's fair. He He had uh he had an assist. Well, it wasn't an assist. I think Colin Royals was fouled. He had a drive in game game five or game six. I forget which one. The Raptors were falling apart in the fourth quarter. They the the Cavs were punching back. They controlled the whole game. They couldn't score. And he created free throws out of nowhere. He drove, hit the paint, found Murray Boils cutting free throws, and they ended up saving the game in a way. They won that game in the end.

>> Um,

>> he's a great playmaker.

>> He is a great playmaker. That carried through in the playoffs, that means something to me. You know, the whole are you yourself or are you Josh Kogi in the playoffs? Car.

>> Yes. Yes.

>> He was himself. When you said he was himself in the playoffs, I hope that's what you meant that he was not Joshi. He proved that he need he is a playoff rotation player. I'm not sure how many of those guys the Raptors currently have on the roster at least when they go to the playoffs in the future. He proved that he he needs to be one. In the same way that I was I really wanted the Raptors to win game seven. I wanted to see Scotty do it against a different team. I wanted to see RJ Barrett see if he could do it with Assar Thompson in the mix and a glut of a different group of defenders rather than attacking largely Mitchell and Harden. I wanted to see if Jamal Shed could do it guarding a different group of guys because the Cavs and the Clippers when they had Harden and these teams that are led with guards, the Raptors can play guys like AJ Lawson, they can play guys like Elijah Martin, guys like Jamal Shed, become more important. And I would have loved to see Jamal Shed fit into a series that was a little less point guard centric because this was the series for him. The Cavs helped off him. They packed the paint. It left it up to him as a shooter. He got to play over defense because he was guarded by guards who went over, which is what he likes to see. And he spent a lot of time being a badger on guards. And he played, considering the numbers, a great series. But he didn't show me anything new. And this is why again I'll say I'm the the guy who's low on Jamal Shed, but in in all this, he's a terrific playmaker. He's very in very creative, very resilient as a playmaker. He just so much of the Raptors that thing we talk about where like you can win your minutes and you still could have given more and he's the team still needed more. I felt that from Jamal Shed, but considering he's a secondy year player, a 45th overall pick,

>> you tip the cap and defensively we went through his film on one of the episodes we did. He was busting his hump, man. He was one of the best defenders on the floor. Jamal Shed did that. So for all the limitations offensively, he did the damn thing.

>> It was the best defense of his NBA career in the playoffs.

>> Yes.

>> In the first half of game seven, he was outscoring James Harden and Donovan Mitchell by himself. Uh, I mean, look, Jamal and the second half is the other part of the story though because he finished he started five

>> he started five of seven. He finished like five or 16. I think that's

>> he Yeah, he hurt his ankle pretty bad. I think I think it was actually a real injury that had it not been game seven of the playoffs, he just would not have been on the floor.

>> Maybe. So,

>> uh Jamal Shed, it's I probably started in the wrong place by asking you that Jamal Shed had a really impressive season. There was no there were a lot of questions about should he even be in the rotation in the you know coming into the year. Do the Raptors just need to get a solid veteran backup point guard and I think that remained going into the trade deadline where a lot of reasonable voices wanted the Raptors to replace his role. you and I talked about replacing his role with a guy like Colin Ston, um Kobe White, other veteran guys who just would have been a lot more um certain. He was certain by the end in a way that a lot of the roster faded into mystery. he remained himself and and I I think it was a good thing the Raptors kept him in that role, kept him in the rotation and I was I you know I talked about RJ outperforming expectations. Uh, I think Jamal Shed massively outperformed expectations on the season and it continues in small slight ways sort of shift the forward trajectory of himself and the team around him by virtue of his ability to just find small paths to victory that other players just can't walk.

>> Yep, it's a great point. I think it was I did three maybe was a third of the way through the season I gave grades to the players and I gave Jamal an A+. I thought he was doing great and people were like why what an A+ for this and I was like yeah I think he's playing A+ basketball right now and then the second half of the season was not nearly as good and it was like yeah it can go down but like what he was doing was great for Jamal and what he did in the playoffs was great for Jamal. It's just as Donkey says, they feel that because he shoots so poorly at the rim, the mid-range, and from three, and is still a winning player, that means there's some pretty clear areas he can improve to take a step forward in year three. And if you have anything else on Jamal, go ahead. I got a knock at the door. I'm going to go answer quick. Yeah. Um, you know, Mouser has a really significant line. I'll take my bets on Chad improving his scoring if I was a betting man. it. You know, everyone talked about comparing him to Kyle Lowry, comparing him to Fred Van Vleet, um, when he joined the Raptors, just this this trajectory of small point guards. And Shed is walking that path. You know, both Van Fleet and Lowry were limited scorers early on in their careers. Lowry especially. This is no guarantee, of course, that you end up fulfilling those uh, you know, those destinations that you end up there. He probably won't, but will he improve his scoring? Yeah, I I agree with that completely, Mouser, that you know, he has improved so much in so many ways that him becoming a more qualified scorer scorer, not just being a standstill three-point shooter and floater or bust guy, I I really think his future will be much more um uh meaty in on the offensive end. Shall we go to Yeah. Sorry. Did your dog knock?

>> No. Uh the they're doing a fan coil uh for the unit, but uh I figured not everyone like Garland, he's a very gentle dog, but not everyone likes dogs being in their midst. So I fig should I get Millie on my lap right now?

>> She's quite large for a lap, I think.

>> But um yeah. Any Yeah, Jacobe Walter. Jacobe Walter is kind of the Jacobe is the inverse of Jamal because Jacobe has all of the he's a 60 plus% true shooter. He is a defender who it's easy to see how he impacts properly. He takes the right shots and he's efficient. And the Raptors lose all their minutes with Jacobe Walter on the floor. That is he and Jamal Shed are coming at it from like opposite situations I think. What What do you think? Hello Millie. Hello Millie.

>> I missed everything you said.

>> Well, Jacobe Walter and Jamal Shed are opposites in a lot of ways.

>> Any any thoughts on that?

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Um Jacobe did show me something new in the playoffs. You know, he had some some drives. seen a a pump drive bas I've seen him smoke that play like what 15 times in the regular season you know you think of that as being just like a normal NBA play that everyone can do but it but it's not like that's a skill that you learn he is undersized for a shooting guard everything comes by progression and as he adds to his toolkit and is able to do more and more I mean for him to show that in the playoffs. Really, really meaningful. Really impressive.

>> You got to keep talking because they're vacuuming or something like that.

>> Okay. Um yeah. Uh the defense also, you know, he's always been an, you know, an impressive defender visually. I think it improved like Jamal Sheds in the playoffs. It was it was a, you know, helpful series in that he had a really easy place to lock his teeth onto defensively in the playoffs. Um, and that Donovan Mitchell's, you know, as strong as Donovan Mitchell is, it's just a matchup that makes sense for Jacob's individual talents, but it was the best defense that that I've seen him play. I mean, he was hanging through screens in a way that he was that he struggled with in the past. Um, he was forcing a ton of turnovers. I mean, he had what, three open court steals or two because Max Strus was like, "I can dribble the ball up the floor. Surely I'm able to do that." And Jacob was like, "Yeah, you're not able to do that in the playoffs." That's meaningful stuff.

>> What do you make of his development as a three-point shooter?

>> I was very imp like that. Yeah. Yeah. I I bury the lead as a writer. I know the lead as a podcaster. I'm terrible. Uh yeah. real real shooter like chases shots, good footwork into shots, good preparation. I mean, after 0 for eight from deep or something in one of the games,

>> he missed 14 in a row across two games.

>> He ended up shooting 33% from three, which pretty impressive for a 14 in a row miss. And he led the team in attempts. To me, that's even more meaningful for him to get up seven attempts a game from deep. He's a guy who's like a three, four a game three-point shooter for most of his career. Like he along with Emanuel Quickley along with Brandon Ingram are sure things from deep coming into the year. He was not that he was not a certainty. Now they have three. Let's see what else they can add. But but he is a guy that they need on the floor and the playoff proved that. This season proved that. He's got such a compact jumper. And I think the It's back to you. Back to you.

>> Yeah, it's easy. I mean, the what I've learned from shooting about shooting from you is how much goes into it, how how simple are the mechanics, how replicable. It's a very easy jumper. I mean, you and I have both believed in his jumper since he joined the NBA just because there's so little that goes into it. It's the same reason that Malcolm Miller was a guy whose jumper I always always believed in. Jacob's, you know, not they don't look visually that similar, but there's just not a lot that goes into the shot. I'm glad it turned around. Always thought it would.

>> Yeah. Uh very compact jumper. Very uh very impressive that he's able to hunt shots. Getting up to seven a game. I'm a huge fan of getting up to seven a game in a lot of ways. I know the strict three-point percentage is the easiest way to measure it, but I'm a guy who is always and overindexed on it to the point of Grady Dick. Um, how you do it matters so much and the types of shots you take matters so much because some shots it doesn't require much of the team and you're taking on most of the load and the effort that you uh have to expend to make something happen matters a lot on an NBA court. And Jacobe Walter went from a guy who only took the easiest of three-point shots to a guy who started hitting them to a guy who started looking for different ones to guy who started hitting different ones. And while teams still haven't decided to defend him differently yet, I suspect they will next year. And he has the makings of especially in an NBA where pressure defense is so important. There is an aspect of like a an irreplaceable archetype of player sitting here with Jacobe Walter. He looks great on these Raptors. He was taking and making two or three foot off the line contested threes in the playoffs. That's crazy.

>> Yeah. Hell yeah. And the Raptors don't win three playoff games now that we've covered them without Colin Murray Boils, Jamal Shed, and Jacobe Walter being at least their regular season selves in the playoffs for shed if not more in what we've agreed on between Walter and Murray Boils. And that is the reason I think that we started our podcast off with this tenor of positivity despite them s more or less finishing where we expected them to because their reasons for success were driven so much by rookies and sophomores becoming larger players in the crucible of game plans. That's that means something more in my eyes than 46 wins than a first round playoff loss.

>> Yeah. If I can even give one more thing for before we move on to Mamu. Shai thy dollars says Jacobe was scouted to be a good shooter in college. So it's good to see him find it late in the series. I think Trey and I actually we covered Jacobe a lot in the NBA draft process. We talked about him. He was such a different player at Baylor than what he is now. He was he was a I mean he played a lot more like a high usage low efficiency guard who dribbled a lot and took crazy contested layups and was throwing up a bunch of like for in at Baylor, sorry for the language, but like he was throwing up a bunch of [ __ ] man. And he refined his game. You could sell yourself on the idea that like he can continue to expand as well. He's uh he's far from a finished product and he's already he's brought so much in terms of how he uses his physicality defensively and uses his athleticism and he's shooting the basketball well. Sandro Mamu Keshili Lewis thoughts

>> disappointing playoffs.

>> Yeah.

>> Uh the my to me what defined his season was his failed post up against Sam Merrill from the corner. Uh the Cavs sent no help. They gave uh Sam Merrill, you know, they said, "You're going to have to hold up as long as we need you to." And it ended up in a missed fading hook shot from like six feet. For all of his success in the

Regular season, of which there were bounties, he faded in a way that some of the Raptors youngsters did not. He became Josh Kogi. It happens to so many of us.

He was the guy I asked just quickly when we were talking before and everyone was saying like, "Yeah, it's just another game. Playoffs is just another game." I asked Mamu, I said, "Do you everyone's saying it's just another game? Do you think that's honest?" He was like, "Probably not." And and good and true.

Yeah. You know, in the regular season to me when I think of he he was one of the Raptors best drivers, incredibly efficient scorer off the bounce. He shot very well. You know, his defense held up mostly throughout the entire year. He he really fit into the transition play they wanted. He was excellent in transition. He had so much success. But, you know, Donkey's question um what he'll get in free agency from the Raptors or from elsewhere, I think is a meaningful one after those that playoffs. I do wonder if you know he he how many games did he end up playing? He played in a lot of games in the regular season.

Yeah. He played 80 he played 80 games. He played 80 games. He was 10th in six man of the year. I do wonder if those seven games in the playoffs outweigh 80. So, they shouldn't, but the Raptors have to be mindful. So, I'll explain my perception of this. At the very tippy top of this podcast, the live chat was discussing the idea that Sandro, I saw many people say it, can replace RJ Barrett in a lot of sense. I think that is I hope this isn't a term that is out of fashion now, but gobbledegook. I don't believe in that at all.

Sandro Sandro plays in in a very spaced out offense. I think it would be very easy to believe that he could drive the ball a lot, but he is functionally a straight line driver who pumps and goes. And he's very talented for a front court player at that. the ability to create with a live dribble and drive into traffic and change speeds and playmake and shoot at not just the rim or from three. He and RJ are not similar at all. And I think he would have an immensely difficult time trying to replace RJ, especially in a playoff series in the regular season in pace and space playing out of pick and pop. He could give you some of those points per game, but I don't think he can do what RJ does at all. Can he do something different and give you some points? Sure. Mouser says I think it was more about roll. I don't think they're close in role at all, but I do think that there is room for the Raptors to get more out of Mamu in the regular season to win some games, to win some minutes. But I in the playoffs, it's easy to see why that lack of adaptability and the linear fashion of Mamu's game and skill set. It it uh it makes it a lot harder for him to impress himself upon an offense because teams are taking away that first look and they move you on to other things and defensively he's not able to give you the same amount of stuff. Adaptability is you need an undeniable first strength that can be that can't be stopped in the playoffs or you need a lot of adaptability and uh Mamu doesn't have either right now but if the Raptors let's say got a truly elite point guard who could draw enough attention so that the pick and pop is not something teams could take away then Mamu could become a playoff player who swings things if he was comfortable getting shots up. But as currently constructed, Mamu is incredible in the regular season for facilitating space and shooting for this team. But it's also hard to see what shots this team creates for him against a team that uh is happy to take away a couple of their first options. Mamu was an incredible uh regular season player. He was he was worth $18 million. He was worth whatever else he was. It's money ball. you know, this guy's worth x amount of wins. Mamu was great. That they really have to calculate for when they sign him. How much of this is to help us win games in the regular season? And are we comfortable paying this guy this amount of money knowing that in the playoffs likely he will not be a huge feature of the rotation in the same way. That's they're two different games, playoff basketball and basketball. That's part of the calculus and that's where we are with Mamu. But regular season and on the whole this guy made what? $2 million. Sublime. A+. Take your A+ and go. Try and try and work on your game because he's still he's not old. Try and work on your game. Come back for if you come back to the Raptors and try and be a guy who can impact in the playoffs, but he definitely can do it in the regular season. He's a really talented front court player for pace and space basketball. He's uh doth the cap the sublime great regular season.

He'll probably get paid probably elsewhere, but I.

Wherever Giannis goes, he's going to be like, "Put get that."

Yeah. Which is funny because he was a buck.

Yep.

Uh Yeah. Really like uh you know, it means something that he he finished so high uh on the six man of the year ballot. Um and he he earned that. That was not by by fluke. He was a really impressive regular season player.

Yep. Uh Killer Catat says or Nesa says, "I think they're limited to what they can offer him after he comes off the one-year deal. It's why the Lakers couldn't offer Monk a deal close to what he signed with the Kings." I think the Raptors can go into the mid-level exception for this, though, if I'm correct on this. I'm not sure. Um, oh, Dunk 16 says they can only offer up to the full MLE. Yeah. Uh, I think Mamu wants uh 10 million a year. I think the Raptors are going to want to give him like six or seven. And I wonder if they find the middle. I wonder what happens. That's where the Mamu thing is. But he hell of a regular season. He's also cool. He's a cool guy. He's really well-liked. And uh if they do want to give Scotty more initiation possessions and more easier possessions in the regular season,

Yeah.

paying Mamu uh helps facilitate that.

Pretty neat.

Uh not scared of contact in the regular season when a lot of other guys are. Also one of the only players on the team to come watch us, even if just for a second, play in the media.

That doesn't matter.

That doesn't matter at all.

Um There's not a little bit.

Sandra Moeshili is done. We Ochai very handsome. You had a great year in Toronto the year before. We'll see what happens with your career. D of the cap. Is it I mean, in terms of minutes played, it's Grady. Grady Dick.

Yeah, I guess it is. Do you want to.

Yeah. uh about as disappointing a season for one that is not marred by injury or other you know um off court hampering uh that you could imagine. I mean uh.

I rely heavily on not rely but I like on-offs. I think on-offs are meaningful.

You love on-offs actually.

I think they tell a a nonexistent story when it comes to Grady Dick. Uh he struggled. He struggled in virtually every way. Uh defensively they had to bend their defense around him in order to make his minutes survivable, which is you need to play to your strengths, not to your weaknesses. That's playing to your weaknesses. And offensively, uh, even though he had a couple areas of really minor growth, uh, finishing around the rim, for example, I think he was defined by missed threes and by quite frankly, um, real emotional response to that. I think he spent much of the year very frustrated with himself uh, and with his situation. Understandable, right? Obviously, that's understandable. That's human. you get frustrated by your own poor performance and by that situation, but it doesn't help. Certainly not in a competitive environment. Um, it's hard to see what a comeback looks like for him with the Raptors. I think he could very well turn his career around, have a successful career in the NBA. It's hard to see that with the Raptors at this point.

So, a few things. He was asked to do things that were difficult for him after year two where the Raptors basically said like go rock out and do everything you like. And he had fun rocking out and doing everything he liked. And in the early part of that rocking out, it looked like, wow, there might be some outlier offensive talent here. And then it came back down to earth and it turned out maybe the offensive talent wasn't outlier. Maybe it was just good. And then the Raptors said, "Well, if you're a good offensive talent, we need you to be able to do things elsewhere, too, if you're not truly outlier." Then they asked him to balance it all. And he balanced none of it. And I think probably the most disappointing thing for me.

is like, yeah, he didn't make the threes.

Some guys, movement shooters, guys like him can be streaker. You made the point at the top of the podcast about an hour and a half ago that shooting is not consistent. Although, sorry, I just real quick, Will Smith asked, "Is he at the career three-point attempts where shooting percentage normalizes?" Yes. 750 is what they say is the normalized number. He is 753 attempts in his career. 34% from deep.

Yeah.

The uh the tough thing is that I think his process got a lot worse. His passing is worse. The offensive decisions he made started to get worse. He clearly started to rush. He started to worry. There was an anxiety to his play on the four that every miss shot was a bullet and every and then every he just wanted to make it. He wanted to impact and uh the style of play that he used to play was not really represented in. So it was he was out there and he was Grady Dick, but uh the interesting aspects of process that used to be so compelling are just not there anymore. We're a long way removed from Darko saying, "Well, yeah, he's going to shoot the ball, but he's a really interesting passer." He was not an interesting passer this year. He was a really bad passer this year. He the lack of awareness, the the turnovers, the he wasn't mapping the floor. I just none of it went well. And defensively, he tried a lot. And the Raptors put him in very difficult spots for who he is. But also, I think he regressed in some sense, too, defensively. I've seen spaces of time in past years where he held in a little bit better. It was a it was a nightmarish year for Grady and everything you said about how he can turn it around. I've made the case on this podcast many times that his archetype basically always plays four years in college and they work on their body. They like all of the movement shooters around the NBA, especially the white ones. They're jacked as hell. They're all jacked. They're all thick and they're all jacked. They're none of them. Duncan Robinson might be the only one and he's like 6'8 so it just is what it is. Uh Grady still has a lot of talent to him. We'll see if he's able to manifest it. And I guess since uh a lot of people think he requested a trade. He did not request a trade. There are talks about the Raptors cap situation. Grady Dick has the most money on the books while also giving nothing to the rotation. So, he's been told by the Raptors that they'll be exploring trades. And he said that's okay. I'm I'm This is all paraphrasing. I'm not giving you quotes directly, but uh he is open to the next chapter of his career elsewhere based on the reporting, etc., etc., backwater talks.

Yep. Yep. Yep. As he should be. I I think he I do think he will find his way in the NBA. I mean, Nesta says become a star in China like Jimmer did. No, I I think he will find his way in the NBA. Um, not with the Raptors in all likelihood.

Yeah, I uh the Raptors would really surprise me. And it's crazy because again, you choose the best player available because everyone said, you know, CMBB is Jonathan Mo. He doesn't fit with Scotty. And it's like, it doesn't matter. Just go get the guy who's best. And then they said like, Grady Dick fits perfectly with Scotty. I said the same damn thing. And guess what? He's not going to he probably won't be on the team with Scotty.

Uh, I put that in ink that he'd be the perfect pairing between Scotty Barnes and Pascal Seakum. I wrote that piece.

Nice. Hell yeah. Uh, Markeel Folultz of the Cap. Uh, Mo Bomba Daw of the Cap. Garrett Temple probably an assistant coach soon. Dolph the cap. We have AJ Lawson, Jameson Battle, Chucky Heburn, Elijah Martin, Mo, Trace Jackson Davis. What the hell are we saying here?

Let's Let's try to You want to do like I take one, you take one. Just a minute or two.

We should uh do you want AJ or Jameson?

I want Jameson.

Okay, I'll take AJ.

Uh I'll start with AJ Lawson. 24 games played, obviously two-way player, got it converted, all that nice stuff. Um, Neesa says Garrett Temple wants to keep playing though. Listen, as somebody who I'd you it would be nice to be paid the minimum the vet minimum contract in the NBA instead of the assistant coach contract. It's a difference of millions of dollars. Uh, I want to play in the NBA and there are like John Wall wanted to play in the NBA. Many players wanted to play in the NBA. Garrett Temple does he does not do enough on a team that's looking like he made as much as Mamu this year. Think if they could get another Mamu with that contract slot. It's Garrett Temple should not play. He should be an assistant coach. AJ and sorry Garrett. Jesus.

Um AJ Lawson. Uh AJ Lawson pesy pestering on ball defender. Bit of a streaky shooter. played in scheme for the Raptors as much as he possibly could.

Coachable, likable, Canadian, athletic, runs out in transition. No outstanding skills on this man, but enough of the skills that the Raptors value that he can plug in and he just kept plugging in and doing his thing. And for that, I credit him. Jameson Battle does have an outstanding skill in the NBA. An unbelievable standstill shooter.

If you give him time and space to shoot a three, there are very very few human beings in the world who are as likely as he is to make the shot. Very few human beings in the NBA. It's it's preposterous how precise he is at slanging that thing. uh defense improved a little bit. His play off the bounce improved by even less. He did have a couple moments in the playoffs against the Cavs where he played within inside the ark. Um you know in in in the regular season Darko called him a shooting specialist. I wrote a piece that was a little bit of a push back to that. I think the playoffs probably backed up Darko's point in that there he is a little more of a ways to go to be consistent in other areas, but I expect them to find minutes going forward for him just because of that preposterous shooting talent. I think it was a productive year and one that the Raptors are probably happy about. Raptors love that year and they love that he's on more cheap money going forward. They have to. It's why they felt so comfortable leaving him buried on the bench when he clearly had reached a point where he was just better than Grady. They're like, "We got to see about Grady. This guy's on the team for however long. Apparently, we can sit him down for 46 days and he can stand up and make five threes in a row. So, he is a very safe player to just have on the bench. I hope he plays a lot next year. Uh, and I hope he plays a lot with Scotty Barnes. And I really do wonder because there are some defensive possessions where he's bouncing Donovan Mitchell out and helping contain and there's some where Dennis Shooter is coming down the court and being like, I'm scoring 12 points in 3 minutes because I'm targeting you. It's tough to make sense of that. That is the skill set that really helps determine shooting specialist versus just like guy who sticks and is part of good lineups. But Jameson, he's a he's a real ball player. He's an NBA player and he should be in the rotation next year and he probably deserved to be this year. So, do the cap. Also forgot to do the cap towards Chris Paul by the way.

Um, retired a Raptor.

Yes, he Oh, man. Legend Chris Paul. So, we have I guess like Chucky played two games with the Raptors. Dolph the cap Chucky. We have Martin Mo Trace Jackson Davis. Martin, there's some meat on the bone here. Yeah. Chew. Yeah. I mean, he is defined, I think, by physicality, by motor, by strength. He is a really quick twitch jumper. Like, he had some some moments around the rim that were really take your breath away. Um, the shooting I think had to be a little better for him to uh see more of the floor and I think the Raptors just couldn't rely on what they get from him in terms of consistency enough based on his abilities. I expected him to have a couple more moments throughout the year, but I he factors into the plans going forward. He is not uh, you know, doth the cap, have a wonderful career. He's like they they want him in house. Like this is a guy that they really intend to uh to see what they have with him. Uh, you know, I I do think the Norm Powell aesthetic comparison makes a lot of sense in terms of how he is as a leaper, but Norm Powell developed every aspect of his game. Every offseason, he just got so much better and better and he continues to still get better and better. And uh obviously um there's a long way way to go there for Martin.

Yeah, I think on top of that too, I would even though given his size, you would expect development probably is required as a point guard.

Uh I do think it's more likely that if he does that it is kind of that Norman Pal thing where it's like I'm just going to wield my first step and my jump shot to become a guy who gets on the floor and I'm going to try and be a dog defensively. Obviously for Norm that lasted like 26 days. Hopefully for Elijah it lasts much longer. And yeah, Jonathan Mo, I'll start with Jonathan Mo. I thought he regressed defensively. I think had a worse defensive year than he did last season. I thought the tracking the back end of things was he was uh he got lost quite easily on some stuff and the Raptors they didn't have him out front switching as much as he did last year. and his contain this year wasn't as good as last year in terms of switching out. Uh he went to the he's using the left hand to finish more often, which I think is a little bit better, but you can just see he's so far away. He plays with physicality. He is a great athlete. There's real things he can do, but the things that he has to do to become a long-term NBA player seem very far away. I'm excited to see what he looks like in September or early October for training camp. We'll see. Jonathan Mo, anything on Jonathan?

Yeah, you know, I'm not certain that his future is in the NBA at this point. The the offense.

Yeah. You know, he he's clearly a really talented guy. He's going to succeed, I think, in any other league in the world to an incredible level. But the offensive talent just it's really not where it needs to be after two seasons.

Yeah. Trace Jackson Davis. I think Trace is back next year for what it's worth.

Uh Trace we he's a he's a really strong rebounder. He's a pretty terrible finisher. Uh he on the Warriors he got a lot of easy shots but there are some of those metrics that take shot quality expected and Trace just is not.

we don't do easy shots in Toronto.

Trace is not uh not like super impressive on the inside but he can rebound. He is very comfortable running through so many of the Raptors actions because schematically in in terms of flow they're very similar to what he did in all of his years in Golden State. and he plays to scheme and he fits in. It's just there's nothing outstanding going out there. But I tell you what, if the Raptors if they make a trade and they upgrade at the guard position or even if they say like Trace, we need you to facilitate more for guys like uh Shed or RJ or IQ, you know, if everyone's coming back, we we need this to look a certain way. He can step into that role pretty easily and uh hopefully help you win the possession battle a little bit more often. It makes sense to me to keep Trace Jackson Davis on the team. I would keep him ahead of Mobo personally, but that's my Trace Jackson Davis piece a little bit. Teams need vets from whom they know what they'll get to whom you can scale larger roles, larger responsibilities, but who are fine sitting on the bench for 10 games in a row. I think traces that. I I saw a lot of comments in the playoffs like, "Well, why not try Trace Jack and Davis? You're getting killed." That's not what 14th, 13th, 12th men are for. It's not to turn to if the guy is not working. It's when injury or foul trouble or trade leaves you vacant. The Raptors weren't vacant. That's not the purpose of his role. I think he's fine. You know, what's the insurance is the word that they use. I think he is a really good option there. Uh, and I I agree with you will would continue to be in the future.

Losing weight, being a good veteran for whom the scale tolls. Um, that's everybody. I think Darko and then and then we're done.

Uh, can I go?

Uh, you go, brother. Darko because I have get paid to do this so I have more time to do this than everybody. When I look at what the Raptors run, when I look at what happens around the league, when I look at what the Raptors do from a strategical approach, I have long been, despite all the cries for Darko to be fired, I have long been adamant that he's a good coach and that he does great things on the court with the skills at hand. I think the fact that he couldn't get that original original iteration of OG Scotty Pascal to work, particularly defensively, people thought he wouldn't be able to do it with any team really because there was so much defensive talent. He didn't have the cache as a rookie coach, I think, to get OG and Pascal wrangled defensively. And OG played the worst basketball defensively of his career under Darko. Not because Darko was using him wrong, but because OG was like, I'm going to a different team. and I'm not going to injure myself playing hard ass defense. And Pascal obviously had a terrible shooting streak. I think it was 9 for 45 or something. 9 for 54 maybe. And his defense waned and waxed as well. And what Darko has done since then is that the team hasn't been created in his image. The team has just been created and pieced together. and he has connected with every player and got them to buy into this and taken teams that don't seem on the outside to have the talent to be where they are. Suddenly they are they are fifth defensively. They are, you know, 15th offensively and they do a lot of great things and they aren't even a team that gets to just play in flow and let their talent take them to places. No, it's a very contrived form of basketball to protect them from their limitations. And Darko, it's his pen. Of course, he's not a perfect coach. Of course, there are fans will look at, you know, why do you challenge this and you say, "Okay, well, maybe Eric Curry is more uh player development or whatever, and maybe somebody else has the iPad next year. I don't know." Or maybe Eric has a hell of an off seasonason and has a great iPad season, you know, for that kind of stuff. Maybe you look at why did you run this lineup? Why did you do X and Y? And coaches always measure this stuff differently. As Lewis said, wrote a response to, you know, Darko's assertion of who Jameson Battle was. But Jameson Battle then gets more minutes and it doesn't automatically mean that he hits three threes in a game. Sometimes a coach does know more and they see more and they make decisions based on what they see in practice. all these things. I think Darko has distilled so much of the talents of this team into a positive outcome and the players deserve more credit than the coach always. But in this case, Darko deserves a lot. I think uh credit to him on a great year of coaching and a guy who has kept a narrative through line for this team and an ethos for this team from the very beginning. So, pretty good.

Well said. I agree with every part of that. What defined it for me was the defensive strategies they came up with in the playoffs. The Raptors found ways to success that were not the same from rotation to rotation, from game to game, even from uh defensive player to defensive player. They they played differently when RJ Barrett was on the floor or not, when Colin Murray Boils was on the floor or not. I think Dr. Oryakovich has an incredible handle on what can catalyze success within the NBA, whether for his team or anywhere. And he really knows his team well. I think his defense uh his defensive sort of um uh or his coaching on offense was very much to the team's weaknesses to solving them and still finding a way to points and that very often doesn't succeed against better teams. I think the Raptors ran up against a lot of talent differentials this season and that's something that a coach really can't overcome. You say it all the time. I would say it all the time if I was talking into a microphone as much as you. Coaches don't shoot the shots. They can't make the shots for players. Uh but what Darko did to me was incredibly impressive this season.

Yep. He helped build shots for his players during the regular season. He created a, you know, secret lab of we're putting RJ Barrett on Jared Allen. Uh defense, we're putting Jamal shed on Jared Allen defense and it worked. And on offense, he said, "There's less design here. Scotty, the ball is yours. RJ, the ball is yours. Please go create for us and let's see what you can do." He uh he contrives when he needs to. He let go of the reigns when he had to. And the result was that the Raptors against the most expensive team in NBA history went to seven. And they don't get there without uh making some really important calls. Darko Rakovich, anything else, Lewis, before we get out of here?

Uh, how did you enjoy this season? You traveled. You went on the road a bunch this year. H how you doing, brother? How did you like following the Raptors this year? They were at times a frustrating team to cover in terms of new things, but I that doesn't matter in the rearview mirror because suddenly in the playoff series everything is burgeoning is the big bang of possibility. Uh timelines are popping up, possibilities are popping up, new things arrive. Wow, life life is all around me. Um because things are changing, improving, and developing. And we didn't get that for like three months, and then it all happened in a week. Shout out to Vladimir Lennon. Sometimes [ __ ] ain't happening. Sometimes [ __ ] is happening all the time. That's a paraphrase. Um.

sorry, Vi Lennon.

Vladimir, he said, you know, sometimes history doesn't happen for like 80 years, but then sometimes, you know, 80 years of history happens in like six days. That's the It's not exactly translations. Uh that's that's where I'm at with it. And also uh I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you to uh Raptor Republic, the Nation Network for sending us on the road for the playoffs. Very cool. Very great. Very happy to have done it. So uh uh yeah, Jordan W says centuries he said. Yeah, I don't have the I don't have the quote off the top of my head. I'm so sorry everybody. I thought I actually thought people would prefer saying like sometimes [ __ ] didn't happen and sometimes shit's popping off. you were wrong. Um yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you to And truly like thank you to everyone here like you know so many of the same names every time. Um everyone's very kind and generous with their time to be here and uh just really thoughtful. Um so thank you everyone being here. It was a year that I think we needed, you and I just like needed to watch a team that was trying to win basketball games for God's sakes that was enjoyable to finally have like a normal season where winning was good and losing was bad and just a solid foundation of that um into more of that.

Yep. And there will be more coverage of the Raptors because there are weeks where no podcasts happen and then there are weeks where decades of podcasts happen. H uh if you're in here right now, make sure to like the video. Uh if you're listening later, make sure to like the video. It helps more people listen and hopefully they enjoy all of it. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in from myself and from Lewis. We appreciate you. And whether you got into this in the morning or at night, have a uh blessed day and goodbye.