Chris Boucher's departure is a warning shot for RJ Barrett

What's good, y'all? Chris Boucher is gone. Chris Boucher is now a Boston Celtic on a minimum deal. And this is surprising, in a sense, to a lot of Raptor fans who view Chris as a fan favorite. He has a lot of records. He is the leading rebounder, leading shot, you know, uh, point getter off the bench for the Toronto Raptors historically. And there have been some pretty good players who come off the bench for this team. So that says a lot about not only his longevity with this team, but also his production with this team. And as somebody who has been a very vocal critic of Chris Boucher over the years, I got to say this is a little bittersweet.

One, I feel bad. I feel bad that a guy who is mega talented and frankly a player that became a fan favorite because of his grit, his grind, his hustle, his spirit, that effervescent, you know, lunch pail mentality the Toronto fans have loved, you know, grown to adore across sports and sectors, that that will no longer be here. That all that hustle, grind, the get it out of the mud stuff was not rewarded with another contract.

On the other hand, it's a little bit sweet because, you know, you think about where he came from. Undrafted, late start, late bloomer, NBA champion, G-League champion. So, you wish Chris Boucher the best in Boston. And to those wondering, is the tweet real on the cover? Yes, it is. And I want to take you back, uh, to a little bit of Chris Boucher. So, this conversation is going to be about Chris Boucher first and foremost, what he brought to the table, and ultimately why the Raptors decided midway through last season, but honestly, even the year before that, they wanted to move off of him. They tried to trade him many, many, many times, and he was very, very aware of it. They were not able to get a suitable offer because of his hefty contract, $11 million, even as an expiring. They didn't dump him. And ultimately, for the second offseason in a row, they lose a player that was at one point a high rotation player, was at one point a player they extended, just like Gary Trent Jr. last season, uh, to a minimum contract to an Eastern Conference rival. So, it's interesting nonetheless to people who are fans of Chris Boucher. Obviously, shout out to Kai Murphy, one of our, uh, longtime listeners on this channel. Chris Boucher was her favorite player. I'm sure that a lot of people in this community love Chris Boucher. I myself love Chris Boucher, but I've been very critical of him. So, I want to take you through the little tribute post. I said, "We'll miss you, Chris Boucher. Go kill him in Boston. Salute for all the hustle and grind. It was always appreciated." This was among possibly 500 to 800 different tweets across the platform thanking Chris Boucher, saluting Chris Boucher, the last member of the Toronto Raptors 2019 championship. Moving on now to Boston. And I was somewhat touched that among all those, all of those tweets, that he decided to return, reply to this one, and he said, "Much love, Pinser Basketball." And that sort of helped this tweet blow up. So, thank you, Chris Boucher, for that. That's touching. But this is not the first time that Chris Boucher has responded to me and to us. And I want to take you back to the last exchange we had because it wasn't as pleasant. And I felt bad about it because you don't necessarily want to call players out and get their attention. You're sometimes just breaking down, uh, game tape. And this is what happened eight months ago. So, here's the video.

And says, "And this is how you actually lost the game. Defensive breakdowns, unforced turnovers, terrible spacing, and bad reads. The good, bad, and ugly with Chris Boucher." And I linked to the video. And he responded, "Sadly, some of you guys go out your way to get me off this team." Now, obviously about this, so Boucher Muse said, "Don't listen to the haters. Real fans want you here." Which I, I think is true. And I said, this is again October 12th, 2024. I said, "We want him to improve because if he doesn't, he's not going to crack the rotation and we'll be signing a veteran minimum in 8 months just like Gary Trent Jr. That's not hating. It's understanding league economics." And that's sort of where we are, right? And you know, this is a conversation we need to have about what it takes to play for Darko. Why Chris Boucher and Gary Trent Jr. and Malachi Flynn and Precious Achiuwa, and all the pieces that have gone down, you know, gone out the door for basically nothing, why those pieces don't fit and why the guys they have now do. And I think that we need to talk about this in a deeper way. Salute to Chris Boucher. Of course, all love here. Trust me. You know, I mentioned this many times. There's a difference between your critics and your haters. Your critics want to see you improve. There's been a lot of bittersweet relationships with some ex-Raptors. Obviously, the Fred VanVleet thing was really bad the entire way through, and I'm still recovering from it in terms of reputation. The Dalano Banton and Chris Boucher thing, that was out of love. It was always out of love. And you know, the cool thing about running a platform that gets this much attention is you do sometimes get players' attention, right? And that's cool. It's great when you're when you're gassing up a player like Jakob Poeltl or Ochai Agbaji, and you see that they're seeing it or they share it, and it's like, that's great. You know, I'm glad that they feel the support, but then you know you criticize a player and they also see it, and then you feel a little bit bad, and that's just the human side of it. It's not, it's not something to shy away from. It doesn't mean that you know, uh, you don't want Scottie Barnes seeing your video about, you know, why he is ineffective as a half-court scorer. No, you, you definitely don't. You do have to keep it honest if you want to run a platform like this. But at the same time, there is a weird connection thing where 25 years ago, you're not accessing these players through random videos, but these random videos somehow find a way through the Twitter sphere. People respond to it, their family sends them to it, and then players become aware of it. And so, you know, when you're dissecting the Pascal Siakam isolation possessions and the Gary Trent Jr. defense and the, you know, Fred VanVleet ball-hogging, it's very difficult for someone like a Thaddeus Young or Otto Porter Jr. not to randomly see that and then maybe just become aware of it, and it's just in their periphery, and then more people start talking about it, and then suddenly it becomes a dominant narrative. And I've had a lot of issues with a lot of players over the years, and I want to bring you back to some of them. Gary Trent Jr., Chris Boucher. Unfortunately, even though I really admire the guy, Chris Boucher, Khem Birch, Malachi Flynn, Precious Achiuwa, Pascal Siakam. This is pretty much like the list of targets, right? These are the players. Dennis Schröder. These were the, these were the players that I was very critical of. These were the players that I made video after video saying, "This is what they need to improve. This is why they don't fit," etc., etc. And time and time again, I believe the Raptors have agreed. And now we are left to the roster where there's only one player that sort of fits the bill of, "I don't think this guy fits," and that player is RJ Barrett. What does RJ Barrett need to do to not end up in the same situation as a Chris Boucher and a Gary Trent Jr.? Even if I don't think he's going to end up in a minimum contract situation, what does RJ Barrett need to do to secure an extension with this club? What does RJ Barrett need to do to make sure that two years from now he's not signing a league minimum? Not a minimum, but like a mid-level exception, because I'm telling you right now, that's where his career is going if he keeps up what he's been doing for the last six years.

So, today we're going to talk about. We've pretty much, I think we've said what we needed to say about Chris Boucher. We'll probably touch on him a little bit more, but I really want to touch on the other three guys, like what it takes to play in Darko's system. One, two, how do you impact spacing without shooting? That will be a central conversation that I want to have. Shout outs to the few of you who are here. Typically, we do these live streams more in the evening. We haven't really been doing a lot of live streams lately, but I wanted to do this one just because I think that it's important to correct some of the narratives that are out there about some of the existing players on this team.

So, the first thing that I point your attention to is basketball is a five-person sport. Those five people have to work together in different ways and fulfill different responsibilities on the court in order to succeed. And very often this becomes oversimplified because people very much become fixated on the basketball. And I think that's normal, right? So when Jakob Poeltl is hovering around 24 feet from the basket and his defender is sagging off 14 feet, you might think to yourself, well, Jakob Poeltl is really poor for spacing. And sometimes when Chris Boucher hits two or three, two or three three-pointers, you might think Chris Boucher is really good for spacing. So I want to talk about how you impact spacing if you can't shoot. And there's a lot of ways that you can do that. Now, spacing is functionally a consistently evolving thing of physics across the basketball court, right? The simplest way that most people understand spacing is flat guys extended around the three-point line passing the ball around like hot potato. But that's not in function really how most offenses work. That's not how the Warriors won championships. That's certainly not how the Lakers won championships. That's not how really any team won championships. And the only exception that you could even remotely point to is the Boston Celtics, uh, two years ago. But that's certainly not how the Denver Nuggets play basketball. Jamal Murray is consistently in the pocket. Nikola Jokic is consistently, you know, camping out in the paint. Aaron Gordon, you know, say for like the last couple years, hasn't really been the most dominant three-point shooter, and he's consistently cutting. So, how is it that these players are impacting spacing? I mean, sure, it helps that a player can shoot, but what about when a player can't shoot? Can they still impact spacing positively? And I believe functionally 100% they can.

So, how I think the best way to think about this is how might a player who can shoot hurt your spacing? See, sometimes we got to flip it, right? It's very weird to say Gary Trent Jr. hurts your spacing or that Chris Boucher hurts your spacing because they can both shoot, right? We can both see, we can all see they can shoot. Meanwhile, someone like Jontay Porter can't shoot. And so you say, "Well, Jontay Porter is hurting the spacing. Chris Boucher helps the spacing. Why is Chris Boucher out and Jontay Porter is part of the future?" Why does that make any sense? Well, let's examine the player who can shoot but do nothing else. What if you could stand in the corner and shoot, but you couldn't do anything else? Which is to say, you can't really pass. You don't really process the court very well. When you don't have the ball, you don't really process off the ball very well. You're not very athletic. You're not very fast. You're not a good cutter. You're not a good defender. Forget about defense. Let's just talk about offense here. If you get pushed off the line, you can't take a step in to the, you know, to the mid-range and hit a jump shot. You don't have any game in the floater range. You're not a good paint finisher. Okay, you are now hurting spacing. Simple as that. You are now suffocating our spacing because you are predictable as hell and you cannot participate unless you directly get the basketball, which is pretty easy to stop. Okay, so flip it now to a player who can't shoot but can impact spacing in a myriad of ways. Well, I think about a player like Draymond Green. I think Draymond Green is a good example, but you know, if you want to look at a Raptors example, you can look at someone like Koloko, you can definitely look at Jakob Poeltl as guys who certainly help your spacing. How though? How is it that a player who cannot shoot from 25 feet can help your spacing? Because obviously, if they're not shooting from 25 feet, that must mean they're occupying space that they otherwise need for drives. Well, this is not, this is not a video game. This is real life. And in real life, the spacing, like what is, why do teams have scorers? Teams have scorers so people can get layups. It's as simple as that. You want efficient shots at the basket. In order to get the most efficient shots at the basket, you must stretch the defense out so you can't collapse the paint. In order to open up the paint, typically most people want to put shooters on the court. But there are other ways to open up the paint. Screens. Screens are a great way to open up the paint. If you're looking at offense as an aggregate of just shots attempted times, you know, percentage scored, offensive rebounds are huge in terms of being able to do that. What about cuts? Sharp, timely cuts? What about seals? What about when a player is camping out in the paint and they are able to seal their defender so that a guy like Immanuel Quickley or Scottie Barnes can get a wide open basket? When you look at all of these intangible things, these are often things that completely go unnoticed, and people very rarely talk about, uh, seal skills and screening. And the other thing that you know sometimes gets missed in all of this is ball handling. The ability to handle the basketball and make good decisions with the basketball. Even if your handle is not saucy, it's just efficient. Look at Jakob Poeltl. Can he navigate five to 10 dribbles without turning the ball over? Usually yes. What about Jontay Porter? Yes, he can. And he can. And then, and then there's the processing speed. Like how quickly are you seeing the court? How quickly are you spotting the gaps? How quickly are you spotting the mistakes? Because that's the whole point. This is a game of chicken, or this is a game of chess. I don't know how you want to say it, but you imagine a situation where two players are involved in a pick and roll, right? That brings two defenders into the pick and roll. So what happens to the other six players on the court? Well, they're playing their own game within a game. So your four players that are involved in the ball screen are playing one game, and then the six players who are not involved are playing another game. The three players who are on offense have to do everything in their power to make this pick and roll more potent. And then the three players who are on defense have to make it less potent. And I want you to imagine that the three defenders are Victor Wembanyama, Steph Curry, and Jrue Holiday. Well, your pick and roll is pretty dead in the water because you're not going to generate the space required to get that open layup, and you're not going to get the open pockets of space. And even if you do manage to get it out to a shooter, the recovery of these long-ass defenders with quick feet is going to make it really, really hard. The important thing here is that Wembanyama, apart from being 7'3" with, you know, 7'4" with massive arms, and Jrue Holiday having switchable hips and stuff, and Steph Curry being this athletic dynamo, is that they all actually understand basketball, and they all understand where to be and how to recover. They're not, they don't have motor problems. They're not lazy, and they're certainly not stupid. This is how a defensive trio can impact away from the basketball. What about the offense though? Well, simple enough. Run a ball screen in the middle. So, in the pocket, free throw line extended by the nail. Put one player at the dunker. Put one player on one corner. Put one player on the other corner. Doesn't that work? Not necessarily. Not necessarily. Because you know what? If the defense sags off and then the guy who's not left covered or the guy who's doubled decides to cut into space at the wrong time, which is a frequent Chris Boucher problem, right? Consistently cutting into other people's lanes. What if you know there's something happening off the ball and that offensive player, what if that player just does not have gravity? What if there is data and scouting reports available that tell you that yes, this player is a good three-point shooter, but one dribble, if they're forced to put the ball on the floor for one dribble, sidestep, their percentages go down to like 22%. Well, now you don't have to be worried about that. You just play the odds. You'll just roll the dice, right? It's way, way too lazy to look at basketball this way. It's way too lazy to not examine all the different things that offensive players need to do.

So, I want to paint an example of three incredible players away from the basketball that could really help a Shaun Livingston and Draymond Green pick and roll. And that would be Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Andre Iguodala. Iguodala can shoot from the corner, but he can also cut. He's also a good offensive rebounder. Klay Thompson and Steph Curry have gravity out to about 34 feet, and they are great shooters off the dribble, off the catch, and off the move. Now you have major breakdowns if any one of them get the basketball. So you cannot load up on that pick and roll, which means the defender who gets screened, provided that the screener, in this case Draymond Green, holds his position well, it is going to be a two-on-one downhill every single time. Even if Draymond cannot score, the fact that he can screen unlocks the advantage. The fact that you have players around them that can shoot and you cannot sag off of them, and those players are also good decision makers with high basketball IQ, that is what unlocks the Warriors offense, and that is frankly what the Raptors did not have last season because the Raptors had a lot of poor processors. A lot of poor processors. Among those poor processors were their rookies. Obviously, there's a limit. There's an upper limit to how well rookies are going to process the game because there is a speed adjustment that you need to catch up to. So even if I remain very high on a guy like Jaden Springer, Markquis Nowell, Jontay Porter was probably the furthest ahead in terms of processing and all that stuff. Jameson Battle, Jaden Springer, as I mentioned, especially Ochai Agbaji, who was the furthest away in terms of basketball IQ. As high as I am on these players, there's a gap that needs to be caught up. But then you had a lot of guys who were playing minutes that really didn't process the court very well. Among them, chief among them, Chris Boucher. Sometimes RJ Barrett, although he did get better. Sometimes Gradey Dick, but most of the time Gradey is really high IQ. Sometimes Ochai Agbaji, actually quite frankly, uh, quite frequently. O.G. Anunoby, Orlando Robinson, Colin Castleton, Dalano Banton. These were flagrant offenders in terms of all this stuff. And this is where I say there is a different way to play basketball than five out. And I want to show it because here, this will be a visual example to break up all of this talking and rambling. And I have no idea how well I am talking and rambling. So I want to show you what some of this looks like by talking about three across. And just watch. Uh, this is a video excerpt. So, three one-minute clips from a video called "The Play That The Play That Is Destroying Defenses." It is by Hoop Vision 68 on YouTube, and it is a phenomenal read into how different lineups and different play types can unlock spacing. It primarily is, we, the video is done by an assistant coach from who coached in the SEC, and this should be important to you as a Raptor fan because the Raptors drafted a few players from the SEC who were very dominant players, Elijah Martin and Koloko, and he alleges that the SEC was possibly this year the strongest conference in NCAA history, and this three, uh, three across, uh, spacing was fundamental in some of the most successful offenses. So, take a look.

So, we have a full-court offense. We're trying to score in the first seven seconds. We have designed places to go in our offense. The wings run to the corner. One of the bigs runs to the front rim. The other big is a trailer. And a point guard attacks the elbow. Can you imagine how the Raptors' current pieces could fit into this? So, first, wings to the corner. You can switch this. It can be RJ and Ochai. It can be Scottie and Ochai. It could potentially be RJ and Ochai. Corner shots are the easiest shots. These two wings can hit those. Immanuel Quickley could have the ball. RJ Barrett could have the ball. Ochai could have the ball. Scottie could have the ball. Obviously, the big in this situation would be Jakob Poeltl, but it doesn't have to be Jakob Poeltl. It could, you could also flip it. Jakob Poeltl can obviously not take up any of those two corner positions, but any of these three middle positions technically, because he can drive and he has good touch. You can flip the positions of these three players in the middle provided you have two corner shooters. So, how does this work? Well, Gradey, Jakob, right? Now, maybe Jakob and Gradey are not the ball handlers in the situation, and maybe they're not the screeners, but they're almost de facto always going to be the corners, right? Jakob could potentially be, you know, if some advancements happen, if Gradey some advancements happen, they could function as the ball handler in the situation as well. Koloko, this is his utility. He's a great screener. He's a great butt screener. You know, he can, he, he's a great sealer inside. We saw it a lot. He's a good, he's got some good touch around the paint. Jontay Porter, I think he can set some solid screens. He's going to have to get a lot better at it, but he's a quick-twitch downhill athlete with great second jump and good offensive rebounding instincts. Obviously, Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram, no introduction needed. There's a lot of players on this team who function very well in this situation. Ochai Agbaji, you know, Jameson Battle, but here's the question for you. Where does Chris Boucher fit into this and where does Gary Trent Jr. fit into this? They fit into the corners. None of them are good screeners. Neither one of them are consistently good decision makers. Now, what happens when your three across fades or fails and you fail to score out of your first action, which, you know, we'll see some clips from it, is you're going to revert to motion principles. So, let's take a look at what happens and see some of these plays in effect so you can see more of what I'm saying. But he stays in the pocket. The pocket being like the quarterback in football, the pocket is between the lane lines extended up and down the court. By going in the pocket, he could see both sides of the court. The defenders have to then worry about him attacking the middle so they cannot be in denied position. Yes, Steph Curry was first and foremost an incredible three-point shooter at Davidson, but he was also very good at driving in the pocket. The pocket is often referred to as the middle third of the court, and offenses like to keep the ball in the middle third because it prevents the defense from establishing a weak side, which is the side where help defenders typically come from.

So, the RJ Barrett equation of this is RJ Barrett can function as either the ball handler or he can, he can function as a corner spacer. The problem is RJ Barrett is not the most efficient paint finisher, nor is he the most efficient corner shooter. So, if your goal is to have the best ball handler to create the most gravity in this situation, you would rather put the ball in someone like Scottie Barnes's hands, who's a better playmaker, better paint finisher, Brandon Ingram's hands, who's a better ball handler, better passer, better play finisher, better shooter, or in Immanuel Quickley's hands, who at least can stretch the defense up five feet because of the deep range shooting, which means that RJ Barrett, because he is not a good screener, although he can get somewhat better at that, will function more as a corner shooter and or if the corner shooting does not come along, which I mean, to some extent it did in his first stint with the Raptors, the first year he was here, he would have to be more of an on-ball creator, driver, whatever. But then again, the point of these drives is the force that you're putting on the defense, and if you're not a good finisher and you consistently go left and you're just so unpredictable, sorry, you're so predictable, this is where you end up in the situations that you end up with with RJ Barrett-led offenses, which is to say, it's not very efficient because you need to be able to go both ways. You need to be able to pressure the defense at 25, 26 feet. There needs to be a pull-up threat, and this is why Immanuel Quickley is paid what he's paid, and this is why RJ Barrett is on the block because Immanuel Quickley does this better than RJ Barrett in a lot of ways. I understand drive frequency, free throw rate, etc. Free throw rate is really great if you shoot well from the free throw line. If your free throw rate results in 62, 63% from the free throw line, you're not really doing yourself any favors. I mean, granted, you take that as efficient offense, but that's a relatively very inefficient free throw offense. So, it's not to say RJ Barrett is doomed to fail in the Raptor system, just like Gary Trent Jr. and Chris Boucher, he already has a huge leg up on both of those guys because he is a decent playmaker. That is the big development in R.J.'s game. He's a decent playmaker. Unlike Gary and Chris Boucher, however, he is an, he has been historically an atrocious defender. Boucher has been a mixed defender. Gary Trent Jr. has been a limited defender. RJ Barrett and Gradey Dick are terrible defenders. And there is a gap here, which is to say, there's a constant trade-off between offense and defense. And what you give me on one end helps compensate for what you don't give me on the other end. Gradey can give you a lot in terms of the movement shooting. We'll talk about the difference between movement shooting, standstill shooting, off-the-dribble stuff, and how Gradey is so important for the Raptors in terms of his ascent will be the Raptors' ascent in a lot of ways. R.J. is a little bit different because his three-point shooting is not very varied. So, it's like very simple catch-and-shoot stuff. He's not getting it in 14 different ways. Makes it a lot easier to scout. So unless he's shooting 40% from three, and I understand next year if Brandon Ingram comes out and he has this really diverse, rich texture of three-pointers and he's getting it off of like all sorts of actions and, uh, in terms of complication and difficulty, it's like all the way up here. And on the other hand, you have RJ Barrett and Ochai Agbaji camping in opposite corners and they shoot 42%. People might actually assume that the guy shooting 42% is a better three-point shooter than the guy shooting 37%. But it's, it's the same argument with the Fred VanVleet stuff, man. Fred VanVleet's percentages said 34, 35%. His percentages might have said 32, 33%. But the way his jump shooting bent the defense was very different than the way Scottie Barnes's jump shooting bends the defense. What Immanuel Quickley can do for you and what Brandon Ingram can do for you, frankly, is really bend the defense, and that's important. Ochai Agbaji isn't a three-point threat so he hangs out closer to the basket and gets a dunk when Precious Achiuwa overhelps because defenses would sag off of our five-man when we were in three across three. The next part of the set was to skip the ball to the five and have Josh Hubbard run off for a dribble handoff. Here, Ochai fakes the handoff and gets to the rim. That concept was inspired by a popular UConn set where they also skip the ball into a handoff.

And there, and there you see the value. That play, that play right there is the play that you draw for Gradey Dick or a Jakob Walter or an Immanuel Quickley. These are interchangeable pieces. These next two plays are examples of how three across deflates the defense. Alex Conden has the ball in the pocket. If he was over on the wing instead, this defender would likely be in help position on the midline, but the combination of the location of the ball handler and the alignment of three across leaves defense deflated. And what does this open up? This opens up the flip to the corner. And this pass to the corner is a pass that Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram, Koloko, Jakob Poeltl, RJ Barrett can all make with consistency. The problem is this is a pass that Chris Boucher and Gary Trent Jr. do not make, cannot make consistently without turnovers, without dribbling the ball out their foot. And this is unfortunately why those guys are not Toronto Raptors anymore. It's that simple, guys. Wade Taylor can't get over quick enough to help. Now, the next play is actually an example of Koloko built off of three across, came from South Carolina. The Gamecocks come off the middle ball screen and pass to the screener, which triggers both players in the corners to lift way up past the slots. Notice how these four players are way beyond the three-point line. That allows Koloko to duck his man in for a lob pass over the top. There's a few things to point out about the national champion Gators' usage of the formation. Here you see they have the three players lined along the baseline, but the ball screen is being set in the outer third instead of the middle third. When Denzel Abner drives off the pick, you can, and that's the seal. That seal right there is what Scottie Barnes can do very well. Brandon Ingram can do relatively well. Ochai Agbaji is learning to do. Jontay Porter is learning to do. Koloko was born to do. You have to stop focusing on the basketball, y'all. How many things have to go right for this play to work? Think about it. This screen has to be on time, on target without the offense, without the offensive foul. It works right there because that step is all you need if you're a quick guard. And again, Immanuel Quickley is here because what you're paying him $32.5 million, much to the dismay of many Raptor fans. Why? Because he is a fast player who can shoot. And that is what you need at the top of this system. Now here, just imagine the Raptors in this place. Where's RJ? Where's BI? Where's Scotty? Where, like this is perfect. So imagine the screen was set by Brandon Ingram, something that he doesn't do very well. But let's just say Brandon Ingram has wide shoulders. Brandon Ingram is 6'9". Brandon Ingram has long arms. Let's just say Brandon Ingram gets a little bit stronger and he becomes a decent screener. So now Brandon Ingram is where Alex Conden is. And there in the post you have either a Koloko or Scottie Barnes, right, demanding the ball there. Jakob Poeltl obviously not here, but if Jakob Poeltl were here, he could also be where Alex Conden is. And then if you get Jakob the basketball, then it's a dribble handoff to the left corner or it's a drive right down the paint. The point here is whether that big at the top who set the screen can shoot is actually not that important. It's, it's certainly an option, but it's one of like seven options, right? The catch-and-shoot here is one of seven options. The running floater is an option. A running, you know, a dunk is an option. A pocket pass, a short roll. Like all of these things are options. But none of this works if you can't screen. And you know what Chris Boucher really doesn't do that well? He doesn't screen very well.

So, I wanted to show this video not to dissect Chris Boucher or to diss Chris Boucher. Actually, really, as I, I don't, I hope that people in this channel understand how much I like Chris Boucher. I have a, let's say, soft spot in my heart for late bloomers and hard workers, and also happen to know that Chris Boucher was one of Scottie Barnes's favorite teammates, and that means, hey, like you are, you are like the best friend on the team of my favorite player. So obviously I'm rooting for you always, and you're an NBA champion, and you're Canadian, and there's a lot of things that I root for with Chris Boucher. The dissection of Chris Boucher over the last three, four years was to try and prevent this outcome, which was him ending up on a minimum contract. I think if you can look around the league right now, there are three restricted free agents who do not have contracts. Josh Giddey, Cam Thomas, Jonathan Kuminga. These three players have a lot in common, right? They can all score. They can all score in different ways. They're all very useful offensive players. They're phenomenally talented. All three of them are incredibly talented players. And yet, the league is saying, "None of these players are talented enough to lead my offense to a winning outcome." I think these three players are the clearest indication to you about how the league may feel right now about an RJ Barrett. And that's the problem. So, my view on this is RJ Barrett can succeed in this offense if he becomes a better defender. Let's say 10% become a better defender. He becomes a lock, a knockdown three-point shooter off the corner. If he becomes more tenacious and aware of his off-ball responsibilities on both ends, offensively and defensively, just commit to the game plan, commit to the scout, and just participate. If he can make, continue to make good decisions, frankly, because he made great decisions, if he can improve his free throw shooting, I think he can be a valuable part of this because, as you've seen in the many examples here, it's not all about shooting. And the fact is that RJ Barrett is not a bad shooter. He's just not a good shooter. And the complicating factor here of putting RJ Barrett on a team with Scottie Barnes and, you know, Jontay Porter and Koloko is you already kind of already have enough shaky shooters that dealing with a one-month stretch where RJ Barrett is going to shoot 28% from three might just sink you. And that's, that's kind of where we're at. But look, man, I've had a lot of issues with a lot of players, and it comes down to one fundamental difference. It. The difference comes down to how we watch the game. I watch the game because what I watch the game very differently. I'm watching the game in terms of off-ball. So when I'm seeing this play, I'm really focused on five, bro. Like my primary focus right now is like, I'm going to watch this entire play like five times. One time I'm going to watch it from the perspective of five. One time I'm going to watch it from the perspective of the ball handler and the screener. The next time I'm going to watch it from the perspective of the low man who has the seal. The other, you know, I'm going to watch it from the opposite corner, you know, the weak side corner. And then one time I'll just watch it just as a basketball fan, just to watch it for fun. And this is, I think, going to bring you closer to understanding what is exactly happening on the basketball court because again, the player with this basketball right now, the fact that he can dribble, the fact that he can shoot, the fact that he's got handles means nothing if he cannot slip this pass to Alex Conden or if he can't throw the pass overhead to the guy who's sealing his man down low. If he is limited in those regards, like a Jalen Green, like a Cam Thomas, like a Jonathan Kuminga, if those are the weaknesses, then the league is telling you that those players are not valuable.

Let's briefly touch on De'Aaron Fox getting signed and Luka Dončić extension and all that stuff. We talked a little bit about it on PC. I will also be on Players Choice tomorrow. Daniel asking, "What happened to the beard?" We change, we grow, we evolve. I set out a goal for myself about 21 days ago now, 22 days ago, where I said that people age differently, but I thought that I was aging too fast, which is specifically when I was looking back at videos five years ago, I don't think that I looked nearly as rundown. And I was noticing that my face was sort of sinking in on itself, and that I also noticed that I was using the beard to sort of hide it. So, yeah, I've fixed my diet in a lot of ways. Been getting to the gym a lot more, and I didn't need to hide behind a beard anymore because, you know, it might be a little bit of a shock for people who are just used to seeing me with a beard. They're just like, "Who the hell is this impostor and why is he running basketball while, you know, bearded Rob is somewhere, you know, on vacation or something?" No, same dude. And yeah, I just, uh, I tell you something. I don't like beards. I don't like long hair. I don't like hair, period. So, for me, if I had it my way, I would have a crew cut and no beard. That's kind of where I'm at. I think beard is just a laziness thing for me. I think a lot of men wear really baggy clothes because they're afraid that they have a gut. And I think they have beards because their face is falling apart. And the beard kind of pulls it all together. This kind of, like, this is kind of a nasty zone if you're a man who's a little bit out of shape because this starts, this part starts to sag a little bit, and you start to get an awkward double chin, and, you know, so the beard helps it. Yeah, but I don't, I don't need a beard. That's that's kind of my view on this. And I would actually prefer to keep myself going without a beard, uh, going forward. That'd be great. Maybe the beard will come back at some point. Maybe it'll come back next week. I don't know. I've also been, uh, I'll take you through very briefly at the end, uh, a brief shift that I've had in terms of mindset right on. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, LaVar. My bad. My bad. My bad, man. Yeah. But I mean, denying reality doesn't change reality, right? So, anyways, so the view here is the Raptors have a type. The Raptors have a type. They have a toolkit. They have a checklist of things that you have to do, right? Things that you have to do on the basketball court in order to survive. And they are in constant bartering, negotiating with each other. So, yeah, if you're a really dominant defender, you know, who can really shut down pick and rolls like a Jontay Porter, maybe we can deal with the fact that you're not the greatest shooter on the other end. But you definitely can't be both. Which is to say, you also can be sorry on one end and sorry on the other end, and you also can be, you cannot be a deterrent to motion on offense. Now, you can be a deterrent to spacing on offense to some extent because you can't necessarily shoot from the corner, but we need to find a way to mitigate that and to counter your lack of gravity as a shooter by unlocking you as a screener or a cutter. Again, I'm trying to erase this notion that five-out offense is the only way to play basketball. That a pick-and-roll is a, you know, is a two-person situation. It's not. It's always a five-person situation. That not being able to shoot is a death sentence in the NBA. It is absolutely not. You know, it helps. Of course, it helps. Being able to handle, shoot, pass. This is great. Being able to rebound. Obviously, if I could define the perfect basketball player, they get a 100 across every metric. 100 for mid-range, 100 for close shots, 100 for dunking, 100 for, you know, defensive rebounding, offensive rebounding. But this player does not exist. There's not, this is, you know, this figment of your imagination. This 2K player, this 2K creative player doesn't exist in real life. So, we're left, you know, sifting through the weeds of flawed human beings playing basketball. And those flawed human beings have to be able to exist on the basketball court. And I think back-to-back years, Gary Trent Jr. getting a minimum contract is letting you know that the league is changing. Now, I don't believe that Gary Trent Jr. is ever worth $18 million. I hope the Raptors, who signed that deal initially with Clutch, would agree to that. I definitely don't think Chris Boucher was worth $12 million. Although some analytics definitely paint him as a very overwhelmingly positive player. I think in both situations the Raptors were hoping for growth that never happened. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you could argue when they signed that Fred VanVleet deal, it was a little bit rich. Some people looked a little bit sideways when they gave Pascal that initial max contract. Those players actually blossomed into being worth that money. Kawhi blossomed into being worth that money. Fred blossomed into being worth that money. You know, a lot of those guys did, but some guys didn't. And Khem Birch, Chris Boucher, Stanley Johnson, Gary Trent Jr., Malachi Flynn, they were not necessarily the best payout on investment. So, that's kind of where I'm at with, you know, what it takes to be on the Toronto Raptors. You know, if you're a big, you need to be able to pass. If you're a wing, you need to be able to pass. If you're a wing, you need to be able to cut. If you're a big, you need to be able to seal and screen and grab offensive rebounds. Basically, I think a lot of these things, you know, for Chris Boucher just came down to seeing everything a secondly. It felt like Chris was this hard worker who hustled his tail off, had really brilliant moments of shot-making and, you know, energy plays and big, loud defensive plays where, you know, he's blocking shots, he's super gassed, but it was never really all that consistent. I feel bad, obviously, not to ping-pong all over the place about how the last bit of his career went here. There were a lot of people, you know, shout outs to Mike Roach, who were feel confused as to why Chris is being treated this way. Why is Chris able to participate in the winning, but then he's not able to participate down late? Why is he not being told? Why he's not being used? Why was he not traded? Why was everybody else kind of given that, you know, respect, but he wasn't? Why is there no, like, why aren't they even at least shutting him down for the year and calling it a fake injury to protect his value? I don't think the Raptors did the greatest job of protecting Chris or Gary's value.

Now, the interesting thing is I was a very loud critic of Pascal and Fred for being too, too money-minded. Like they were very obsessed and hung up on their contracts. They obviously didn't trust the Raptors to get them paid. The Raptors didn't want to pay them what they were asking. And so they became very concerned and they handled their business, right? With Pascal, he sort of made it clear, I mean, you're going to tie me to this deal or you're going to trade me to a place that's going to give me that deal, and I'm not settling for anything less. The Raptors saw it differently. They saw shaky fit. They saw maybe, you know, he wasn't going to age well, and so far so bad because Pascal's been awesome for the Indiana Pacers, and the Raptors look like fools. I look like a fool for saying that he's going to age poorly. But we'll see. We'll see what this turns into.

But for the, you know, the, you know, for all the criticism that I love you towards Pascal and Fred, you know, for being too about themselves and too too money-minded and maybe too selfish in their last little bit here. It's kind of crazy that those are the guys who ended up on their feet. And the guys that I repeatedly credited for being team first and putting the team first and not being drama llamas and not airing out through the media and not going on press tours and just not complaining about their role. Those those are the two players who got completely shafted which is Gary Trent Jr. and and Chris Buchche because I will argue right now Chris Buchchet is easily worth $6 million and Gary Trent's easily worth $6 million in a league where Kade Cunningham and Evan Mobley make $53 million in a league where Darren Fox makes $56 million. You're telling me Chris Buchchet is worth three? That doesn't that I'm sorry. No way. No way in hell. That that cannot be accurate. But scarcity dictates value and you know players like Darren Fox apparently don't grow on trees and apparently players like Chris Buchet do.

I think Chris Buchet is going to be awesome for the Boston Celtics. I also think Josh Minot is going to be awesome for the Boston Celtics. One thing is clear Chris Buchet Josh Minina may be awesome for the Celtics. They were not going to be awesome for the Toronto Raptors. And I think seeing how this team has worked under Dark Oraovich for like the last two years now, I can see such a clear focus on basketball field that it's staggering that every player who goes out the door is a player who is lacking in this department and every player who ends up coming in is a player who has this department locked in abundance. So, I think that the Raptors are going to be better than people think they are. I've felt this way for a very very long time. And uh Steve Adams Steve Sedum Stevens saying, "Did Precious get signed yet?" He did not. Okay.

So, I do have some questions from our mailbag that I'm going to answer very briefly. I apologize for not pulling these questions up, but I asked this question on Instagram on if you had questions for our mailbag, and some of you did. So, let's just answer these questions one by one. So, Kyle Yan3 said, "What are the next steps for Scotty Barnes to take on the mental side of the game?" I think Scotty Barnes absolutely needs to lock in to every single game, every matchup, and approach things with that consistent force, right? Don't let teams off the hook. try to embarrass your opponent. Now, Scotty's a very tough competitor. He's obviously a player who wants to win. Recently tweeted out, you know, that a lot of people on X don't really watch basketball. They got to get back to the playoffs and all that stuff. I don't really make anything of the of the tweet to be honest. Some people said, "Oh, you should make a live about that tweet. What do you think I am?" Raptor Republic. It's not Raptor Republic. Sorry. Raptors Digest. I don't know why Raptors Republic getting strays for that. No, I mean, who cares? Like, okay, Scotty Barnes responded to something on on X. like it's I it's it's a meaningless thing. We all we all understand it. Scotty said the same thing last year. They're going to make the playoffs. The this year though, I think the difference is they actually will make the playoffs. I do think they're going to make the playoffs and I think a lot of that's going to come down to Scotty and I think that's going to come down to R.J. and and BI and IQ and and Yak and basically how those four function together.

There's an entire tweet, you know, given that we didn't uh do lives for a bit and I actually want to get to it and it talks about the the major lineups that the Toronto Raptors could use and I actually want to get into it and I wish I'd loaded that up. It's weird not doing lives for so long because like you have a million thoughts throughout. And I actually want to show you what some of those thoughts were because to those of you who don't follow us on X, you're totally lost on all this stuff. And to those of you who do follow us on X and on Instagram, this is old news. But unfortunately, you know, YouTube is our main platform, so I got to share this stuff. So this is where the Toronto Raptors ranked in terms of offensive crafted um plus minus. Emanuel Quickley was 91st percentile. Brandon Ingram was 86th percentile. Scotty Barnes 81st percentile. RJ Barrett 79th percentile. And Yaka Purle was a 68th percentile. Here's how they ranked out in terms of defensive plus minus. Yakale is 97th percentile. Scotty Barnes 79th percentile. Emanuel Quickley 53rd percentile. Brandon Ingram 36th percentile in a bad year by the way. He's usually a little bit better than that. And then RJ Barrett fifth percentile which is pretty much tracking with who he's been for a while. So it's interesting. Of course like these analytics are not these analytics are not gospel. Obviously Scotty Barnes was like top 15 in estimated defensive plus minus. So, there's a lot of defensive analytics that see Scotty Barnes as like a top tier defender and then some defensive analytics that see him as more of a really really good but not great defender. Uh, okay.

So, here are the four per here are how the four perimeters fared last year in terms of passer ratings. I don't really love this analytic, but it is a decent one in terms of measuring passing talent. And that's Emanuel Quickley 89th percentile. Scotty Barnes 84th percentile. Brandon Ingram 80th 80th percentile. RJ Barrett 76th percentile. And here is how they fared in terms of the creation metric. Emanuel Quickley 97th percentile. Brandon Ingram 96th percentile. RJ Barrett 94th percentile. Scotty Barnes 90th percentile. So basically Toronto has four guys who functioned a lot with a ball in their hands and a bench full of guys who cannot create their own shots. add in a center whose greatest development has yet has come as a passer the past uh two seasons and you have a recipe for five cooks in one oven. So Jakob, Ingram, Barnes and Quickley have dominant offball skills. Barrett is more of a question mark as his number sincerely plummeted the last time he was thrust into a third option role. So wait a second. If we use Barrett's numbers with Pascal and Scotty Barnes before Seakum was traded, look at what happened. So these are RJ Barrett's numbers before Pascal Seakum was traded. There's a seven eight game sample size where he played with Siakum Barnes quickly. Okay, so he was great. 19.9 points per game, 56% from the field, 44% from three, 23% usage. Here's how Scotty Barnes fared before the RJ Barrett trade. And this was across almost 40 games. Okay, I think it was like 33 34 games. 21 points per game, 46% from the field, 39% from three, 5.8 box plus minus, which was good for top 10 in the league, 25% usage. Now, honestly, that is that is what got him to the All-Star game. But here's what Scotty Barnes did in the first eight games with RJ Barrett when he got traded here without OG. So, that's really the swap. You swapped RJ Barrett for OG and Anobi is the major swap cuz you actually got two players for one decent player in in OG 16.6. So he dropped by almost 5 points per game. Field goal percentage dropped to 44%. So that's a 2% drop. Three-point percentage dropped from 39% to 32%. Box plus minus went from 5.8 to -1.3 and usage dropped by 3%. So basically Scotty Barnes bent a lot and his game fell off a cliff. This season in 935 minutes, Barnes and Barrett posted a negative 2.3 net rating. Among Toronto's most frequent twoman lineups, only three of those lineups are positive. They have something in common. They all include Scotty Barnes and none of them included RJ Barrett. So, it's Barnes and Purle plus 1.1. Barnes and Walter plus 0.7 and Barnes and DaVon Mitchell, who's no longer on the team, was a plus 1.5. Were any lineups with Barnes and Barrett positive? Yes. Hurdle, Abaji, Walter, Barnes, and Barrett posted a whopping plus 20 22.1 net rating across 63 minutes. Replace Walter with DaVon Mitchell across 55 minutes. And that lineup net rating went to a whopping plus 25.8. So, this tells you that the best teammates for Barnes and Barretts are off ball players. And I can tell you from watching oodles of Ingram tape that the same can be said for him. Toronto desperately needs to play O triabaji, Grady Dick, Jacobe, or swap. One of their onball threats for someone like a Derek White to make this whole thing work. That's the problem. The starting lineup is doomed to fail unless Barnes and Ingram take off ball duties to make the lineups with Barrett work. This is the point.

Now, I wanted to show you what I think are my uh top 10 lineups, fiveman lineups for the Raptors and my top twoman combos, and then we'll get back to the other questions. So top twoman combos, Ingram and Barnes, Ingram and Quickly, Barnes and Quickly, Quickley and Purle, Ingram and Walter, Barrett and Ingram, Barnes and Walter, Ingram and Dick, Quickly and Mo Murray Boils, and Barnes and AI. Here's how I think I'd rank Toronto's fi best fiveman lineup possibilities. So my first is Barnes, Walter, Abaji, Ingram, Mamush, Mamu Kellishi. Kind of sucks. I'm benching I'm benching three starters, but I have a feeling this lineup will be really good. Number two, Quickly, Walter, Barnes, Ingram, Purle. So here you're swapping Walter in for RJ. I think that will make a big difference. Number three is Quickly, Dick Barrett, Ingram Purle. So here you're swapping in Grady Dick for Scotty Barnes. Number four, Barnes, Abaji, Ingram, CMBB, and Mamu Kellishi. Number five is Quickly, Walter Barnes, Ingram, Mamu Kellishi. Number six is Quickly, Dick Barnes, Ingram, CMBB. A little bit undersized, yes, but I think it could work. Number seven, shed Dick Walter Ingram Barnes. So we have Barnes starting at the five, the four, the three, and the one. Ironically, no no shooting guard lineups. Number eight is Barnes, Barrett, Abaji, Ingram, Mamu. So Abaji and Mamu in this situation provide space for the three of those guys to work. Number nine is Quickly, Dick, Barnes, Ingram, Mamu. Number 10 is Quickly Dick, Walter, Ingram Barnes. Number 11 is Walter at the point, Battle, Dick, Barnes, Mobo, and number 12 is Barrett at the point, Dick, Abaji, CMBB, and Mamu. So, these are interesting lineups. If you're watching this video after, give me your favorite uh top five, like fiveman unit for the Raptors. That would be interesting. And we have a super chat here and then we'll get to the other questions. Noble Venom, thank you for the super chat. unrelated question, but percentile-wise, where would you rank Scotty in terms of athleticism? Personally, feel like his athleticism is a bit overrated. I understand what you're saying. I think Scotty is a freakish athlete. I understand why it doesn't always look that way, but when he dials in like ferociously full court, he is taking three steps to the rim from one end to the other. I want you to actually if you ever have a chance to go to a basketball court, I want like an NBA size basketball court, not your park, okay? I want you to dribble the basketball, okay? And I want you to see how many dribbles it takes to go from paint to paint. Forget paint to basket. Just go paint to paint. You take at least seven dribbles. Most people will take eight, nine dribbles. Maybe if you're very, very good ball handler, you take six. Scotty Barnes cleared the court in three dribbles, which is something I've only seen Giannis and Shaq do in my lifetime. And those are the only guys I've never seen LeBron do it. I've never seen Jokic do it. I've never seen Luca do it. I've never seen Shay do it. I've never seen Vince do it. I've never seen D. Wade do it. So, frankly, I think he is a freakish athlete. I think his endurance, strength, all of that stuff is very underrated in terms of athleticism.

Uh, Canadian Bro TV said, "RJ is better than Scotty. change my mind. I'm going to actually highlight this and tell you why I'm not going to change your mind later. Okay, so let's get to this one. Next question is, what's your favorite Raptors team over the years aside from 2019? I'll give you a few. So 2021 is one of my favorite teams partially because you know you just drafted my favorite uh favorite rookie in the world and you know Scotty Barnes rookie year that was dominant. That was cool. Although you know the Fred Vanble stuff kind of pissed me off but it was right before the Fred Bambble stuff because became super annoying. So I really enjoyed that team. I love the 2006 2007 Raptors, the Resurgent Raptors with Garbo and Andrea Barnani and those guys. And of course, I loved the 2000201 Raptors with Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter. That was very fun and the ultimate optimism. And apart from that, I really can't tell you that I was all that gassed about any of the we, you know, the we the North teams. I can't tell you I was like super gassed about any of them. I always saw the holes. I never really felt like Dear was that dude to get you over the hump. So they they you know the the lineups where I felt really optimistic were usually when there was a young player that I super believed in. So in 2006 it was Andrea. In 2001 it was Tracy and Vince. And in 2021 it was it was Scotty. So usually there's got to be a little bit of optimism there.

Okay. If you had to bet $500 on the Raptor seed next year, what would it be? I would donate that $500 to charity because I don't believe in sports betting. Okay. Trying to get me to give you your freaking bets. I'm not going to do that. Okay. Uh, hold on. There was another question here as well. Sorry. Here. Okay. So, this is from an NBA player who will remain unnamed. Uh, predict my points per game next year. Eight. Okay. And there's one more question. If the CBA had not changed, so this one uh that one. Okay. So the if you had to bet question was from Chase. This one comes from Amy. If the CBA had not changed so drastically, how much do you think Gary Chen Jr. and Chris Buché would have been worth? Okay. So, I think Gary should have gotten eight. I think Chris should have gotten six. The only reason I give Gary a little bit more is he's a more consistent shooter and he's a little bit younger. That's it.

Okay. So, this I'm not going to tell you why R.J. is better or why Scotty is better. I I genuinely, you know, I think it's an absurd question. obviously, but that's besides the point. I was thinking a lot about masculinity right now. There's all this talk on the internet about how masculinity is under attack and what does it mean to be a man and all that stuff. I remember reading a comment. It was about a year ago. So, one of my first PC episodes and I was going through that entire beef with Legend of Winning and someone wrote, "You can really tell that these two that these two men grew up without fathers." I don't know why that hurt as bad as it did or why it stung or why it stuck. I'm not saying I sat there and cried about it, but it really that that's like one of those things that cuts deep, right? Because basically when someone says, "Well, I can tell you grew up without a father." is basically telling you not you don't know how to be a man. Like there's something clearly about you that is not showing up the way I expect a man to show up. And I obviously understand that that comment is meant to prick you or is meant to insult you. But it got me thinking a lot over the last year about what it really means to be masculine. What does it mean to be a man? Does it mean you grow a beard? Does it mean you beat up everything that moves? Does it mean you protect your family? Does it mean you have to make a lot of money? Does it mean you got to get big shoulders and big biceps? Like, what does it mean to be a man in this world? And is masculinity under attack? I think it is. I definitely think it is. I think there are a lot of people who are overly sensitive about a lot of stuff. And so, I wrote, you know, a little something about masculinity the other day, but I'll summarize it for you very briefly, which is to say that I think that being a man is a lot of things. Okay? It definitely means being honest, but it also means being empathetic. I don't know why I don't know why empathy gets like misconstrued as a feminine trait. Empathy is a deeply fundamental trait for all human beings, men and women. And I think men should be guided in many ways by empathy, not out of compulsion, but out of duty, you know, out of choice. You should be able to follow. There's there's this misconception. It's a sort of uh running joke. You know, when a couple is driving down the highway and the man is lost, he won't ask for directions. I think men will ask for direction. I think a real man will ask for direction. I think a real man does not feel like he needs to defend his masculinity at all times. I think a real man does not consistently need to define his opinion and explain his opinion. I do not think that a real man needs to lose his emotional balance and his emotional equilibrium. And I've been thinking a lot about this and I've felt a great shift occur in me over the last couple of months. I don't know where it came from or how it came, when it came, but it came. And I've been noticing some brilliant changes throughout my life. I've been noticing relationships improving. I'm certainly noticing habits improving. I'm noticing rel, you know, opportunities improving. You know, I'm I'm I'm noticing situations, you know, there might be a situation where for the last 12 years, if the same situation had occurred, it was going to be a car. It was going to be a car crash. Every time it was going to be like, oh no, that situation's so bad. But now that situation is very peaceful and it's very graceful and it's very good. It's allowed me to just be more at peace. And I think it brings me back to this idea of maybe this helps you, maybe this doesn't. I hope it helps somebody of a lion trying to be a cat. Like a lion trying to be a house cat. suppressing all of your lion instincts in order to fit into this box of because when you were, you know, a little kitty, like I don't know this is just should be a short story or something or if you think I've lost my mind saying this, but I want you to imagine that a little lion cub is delivered to somebody and they're told that this is some sort of exotic house cat and then, you know, the lion grows and grows and they're like, "Wow, it's a really big exotic house cat." And then, you know, four or five years later, they realize they have a lion. But this lion is confused. This lion is told that it's a house cat. And and the people are convinced this is a house cat that it's just really big. But it's a lion. And I believe that a lion that tries to be a cat is miserable. Just like a cat that tries to be a lion would be miserable. It made me think about how many new movies I've been watching recently. And one of the movies that I ended up watching was Blackfish and it's about the orca that attacked uh the trainer in uh SeaWorld. And you think about that animal and you're like, man, orcas are such fascinating creatures and you can learn so much from them and they're deeply intelligent creatures and they are very self-aware of who they are and what they are and they have functional bonds and societal bonds and you just took it all away like they were goldfish and put them on display and force them to be a performer, but they're not a performer. That's not what they're supposed to do. So, I think that if you're a man, I'm not commenting on gender identity at all. Don't try to at me on that because I'm not interested. What I'm saying is if you are a man that identifies as a man and your behavior is fundamentally rooted in behavior that is not biologically rooted in your code, like what you're supposed to do. You know what I mean? Like look at how technology is impacting us. Like pre like I think biologically we're wired to care what other people think to some extent. To some extent, right? Like you don't want to be the social shame. You certainly don't want to have a bad reputation. But 500 years ago, your reputation was the people down there Islam. Whatever it is, when I say faith, I mean something that you believe in, your core principles, your values. You need to get really rooted in that because if you don't get rooted in that stuff, you're going to be blind to everything and you're going to be flying off the the hinges like I was like two years ago, a year ago, responding to every commenter, getting angry and upset at every single troll. I invite trolls come to the chat, right? Super chat, do whatever. You're not getting another reaction out of me for probably the rest of my life. And yeah, I think that's what it means to be a man. I think masculinity is control over your own faculty and your own emotions. I see so many people being so emotionally reactive, but that's not that's not masculinity to me. Reactivity is not masculinity. Reactivity is the exact opposite of masculinity. proactivity. Be proactive, you know, be be decisive, right? Don't be don't don't be indecisive. Think present, not past. Don't be paralyzed through analysis paralysis, diving through. I talked to so many people, you know, these days that are so hung up on the past every time they, you know, and and I do it, too. I'm I'm going be honest 100% guilty of this where sometimes I'll meet people and I'll be you know drowning them in stories about my past and this happened with my parents and this happened and that happened. You know what you're doing when you're talking about the past is you're not thinking about the present. You're not thinking about the future and you're actually drowning your future in your past. How up is that?

So the viewpoint here is quite simply I believe I'm turning a leaf. I felt a shift when I was on the panel yesterday. Suddenly a lot of comments typically a lot of comments on the panel are like this guy get him off the show which is interesting. Yesterday there was a lot of comments about like pen cooking the entire show. This is the best pen episode yet. And I noticed that as the energy shifts, the words shift, the intention shifts, the reaction shifts, everything shifts because everything is connected. So I peppered in this random life anecdote stuff right towards the end of some of these labs because it's something that I'm thinking about and I figure maybe if I'm thinking about it, you might find some value in it. And if you did find some value in this little life talk, definitely give this video a like. I'll check y'all later. We'll definitely get a little bit more frequent with these lives. I'll be on the panel tomorrow, 11:00 a.m. Come check us out. Like this video. Subscribe. And thank you very, very much again to Noble Venom for the super chat. Appreciate y'all. Have a good day.