Latest / Kenny For Real / The Raptors Are Defying The Odds…
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The Eastern Conference is extremely unpredictable. I guess basketball is
- 0:03Speaker 1: in general. Here's the top of it, right. We already
- 0:05Speaker 1: made a video about the Pistons as they continue to
- 0:07Speaker 1: win basketball games. I've given so much love to the
- 0:10Speaker 1: Miami Heat. Just on yesterday's podcast, I talked about Hamay
- 0:12Speaker 1: Hawkins via six many Year and Eric Spokester being a
- 0:15Speaker 1: candidate for Codd of the Year, but the team switched
- 0:17Speaker 1: between both of them as a team. I have not
- 0:19Speaker 1: talked a lot about this season, and I want to
- 0:21Speaker 1: do it now. The Toronto Raptors have won nine of
- 0:24Speaker 1: their last ten games and currently on an eight game
- 0:27Speaker 1: win streak.
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- 1:30Speaker 1: for that twenty percent off. Think you're gonna bombus for
- 1:32Speaker 1: sponsoring another video and don't blink lazier and gentlemen. Yes,
- 1:35Speaker 1: it is early in the season, but as of today,
- 1:38Speaker 1: the Toronto Raptors are one of the few teams one
- 1:41Speaker 1: of the three teams in basketball with a top five
- 1:43Speaker 1: offense and a top five defense.
- 1:46Speaker 2: Are you kidding me? Now?
- 1:47Speaker 1: My opinion about this Toronto Raptor team over the offseason
- 1:50Speaker 1: has gone up and down and up and down. I
- 1:53Speaker 1: remember at the beginning of the off season when we
- 1:55Speaker 1: got to free agency, I was like, Man, this Toronto
- 1:57Speaker 1: Raptors team is really expensive for a team that probably
- 2:00Speaker 1: won't be as good. And as I continue to walk
- 2:03Speaker 1: through the film and think about the team a little
- 2:05Speaker 1: bit more, I ended up on September eighteenth, twenty twenty
- 2:08Speaker 1: five during an episode of small Ball with Kenny Beach
- 2:10Speaker 1: inm where I was buying and selling your NBA opinions,
- 2:13Speaker 1: and one thing I bought was from s Beharn Henny,
- 2:16Speaker 1: Sorry s if I miss pronounced your name.
- 2:18Speaker 2: I feel like I always do. Oh. He gave me
- 2:20Speaker 2: three NBA opinions.
- 2:21Speaker 1: One the Celtics will end up with the top pick
- 2:24Speaker 1: them't like that's gonna be the case. But the second
- 2:26Speaker 1: one was the Toronto Raptors would be a good basketball team,
- 2:30Speaker 1: somewhat controversial, and in that episode I kind of talked
- 2:33Speaker 1: about why again I was buying that they were going
- 2:35Speaker 1: to be good, but also played the part that says, hey,
- 2:38Speaker 1: the Raptor skepticism I think at some points are really
- 2:42Speaker 1: a warranted right.
- 2:43Speaker 2: And I went through a bunch.
- 2:44Speaker 1: Of different questions I had about this team, even though
- 2:46Speaker 1: I was I was buying. We did the over Under podcast,
- 2:49Speaker 1: I said the Toronto Raptors. I think it was thirty
- 2:51Speaker 1: nine and a half. They're at the bare minimum of
- 2:52Speaker 1: five hens of team and right now through the first month,
- 2:54Speaker 1: they're a lot better than that five hundred. And I
- 2:56Speaker 1: think it's so interesting because again I'm looking through my
- 2:58Speaker 1: notes from this episode of the podcast that all of
- 3:00Speaker 1: the questions that I had about the Toronto Raptors, again,
- 3:03Speaker 1: they haven't all been answered. But I have a genuine
- 3:06Speaker 1: idea about that question, right because you gotta remember, this
- 3:10Speaker 1: Toronto Raptors team had not played together at all. Brandon
- 3:13Speaker 1: Ingham gets traded for he only plays what eighteen games
- 3:15Speaker 1: last season, and give him this big old contract and all,
- 3:18Speaker 1: but we hadn't seen how he would fit alongside Scotty.
- 3:20Speaker 1: We hadn't seen how he fit alongside these other guys
- 3:22Speaker 1: that they've dedicated a lot of time and money to.
- 3:25Speaker 1: And I broke it down in the sense that pretty
- 3:27Speaker 1: much everybody outside of Yaka Perdle, and I guess I
- 3:29Speaker 1: probably should included Yaka Perdle, had something to prove, right,
- 3:32Speaker 1: and that was the reason of a skepticism from Scotty
- 3:34Speaker 1: Barnes to RJ. Barrety, to Brandon Ingram to Manu Quickly,
- 3:37Speaker 1: who I had is one of the most intriguing players
- 3:39Speaker 1: for the entire season, and lastly were coach Darkarayakovich.
- 3:42Speaker 2: And I kind of want to read you through.
- 3:43Speaker 1: Some of the questions that I was posing to myself
- 3:47Speaker 1: and to the audience about the Toronto Raptors before the
- 3:49Speaker 1: season started, and I'll give you whether or not they
- 3:52Speaker 1: answered that question or not.
- 3:54Speaker 2: You know, the first person we'll.
- 3:55Speaker 1: Talk about is the head of the snake, mister Scottie Barnes.
- 3:59Speaker 1: One of my biggest questions was whether or not Scotty
- 4:02Speaker 1: Barnes is gonna dive into being a three point shooter,
- 4:04Speaker 1: and if he was, what with that percentage in volume
- 4:07Speaker 1: look like, because last year there were stretches in December
- 4:11Speaker 1: where he took a ton and by the end of
- 4:12Speaker 1: the season he basically wasn't taking him at all. And
- 4:14Speaker 1: through the first month of the season right now we
- 4:16Speaker 1: can say he's attempted three a game and he's shooting
- 4:18Speaker 1: forty percent on those three, most of them being completely
- 4:21Speaker 1: wide open. But who cares if you're gonna shoot forty
- 4:23Speaker 1: percent of those, again not being his bread and butter,
- 4:25Speaker 1: that is nothing but found money. Can he become the
- 4:28Speaker 1: elite transition finisher we project him to be?
- 4:31Speaker 2: Now.
- 4:31Speaker 1: The reason this was here because last year there was
- 4:34Speaker 1: a stat and I didn't I guess I still don't
- 4:36Speaker 1: have this in my notes this part, but he was
- 4:37Speaker 1: one of the bottom players when it came to playing
- 4:41Speaker 1: transition basketball. Finishing at the rim through transition. That doesn't
- 4:44Speaker 1: make sense. We know Scotty Barnes' school athletic, We know
- 4:46Speaker 1: he likes to get on the break. We know that
- 4:48Speaker 1: the Raptors part of their identity was getting on that break.
- 4:50Speaker 1: Will Scotty Barnes be able to turn himself to an
- 4:53Speaker 1: ELI finisher? I said that he had basically every tool
- 4:57Speaker 1: imaginable outside of somebody like Giannis to be one of
- 4:59Speaker 1: the best finishers and transition and according to Synergy so
- 5:02Speaker 1: far through the first month of the season, he's in
- 5:05Speaker 1: the eightieth percentile when it comes to transition finishing. That's
- 5:08Speaker 1: really good compared to last season. One point three points
- 5:11Speaker 1: per possession when it comes to transition.
- 5:14Speaker 2: While in the.
- 5:14Speaker 1: Previous season, I might as a bit wishy washinger syentergy
- 5:17Speaker 1: because I don't know what part of synergy I can
- 5:19Speaker 1: show him what I can, matter of fact, I'll show it.
- 5:21Speaker 2: So here's Scottie Barnes.
- 5:22Speaker 1: Last season, he was averaging one point per possession when
- 5:25Speaker 1: it comes to transition basketball. That puts him in like
- 5:27Speaker 1: the twenty eighth percentile, which is below average. And then
- 5:30Speaker 1: if we go to this season, it's up to one
- 5:31Speaker 1: point three eightieth percent out, which is very good. You
- 5:34Speaker 1: take that, that's a huge jump. Also something that plays
- 5:37Speaker 1: a little bit of part about twenty percent of his
- 5:39Speaker 1: possession twenty one percent, I guess last season came from transition.
- 5:43Speaker 1: Well this year it's about twenty three, so up about
- 5:45Speaker 1: two and a half percent, but pretty good. The next
- 5:48Speaker 1: question I had for Scotty Barnes will brandon Ingram be
- 5:50Speaker 1: in there takes some pressure off of him offensively and
- 5:53Speaker 1: allow him to be more efficient. And when I talked
- 5:55Speaker 1: about it, I wasn't talking about efficiency in a sense
- 5:57Speaker 1: of percentage wise. It's like some of the shots that
- 6:01Speaker 1: he was taking last season didn't feel like efficient looks,
- 6:03Speaker 1: but it was something he had to do and I
- 6:05Speaker 1: do feel like, again, not looking at the numbers, and
- 6:07Speaker 1: all I do feel like Scotty Barnes is settling a
- 6:10Speaker 1: lot less this season. I guess I could get into
- 6:12Speaker 1: the numbers. Thirty eight percent of his shots this season
- 6:15Speaker 1: are at the rim. All last year was only thirty
- 6:17Speaker 1: and a lot of those The other seventy percent ended
- 6:20Speaker 1: up being mit range jump shots. And again he's getting
- 6:22Speaker 1: into the basket a lot more so. Brandon Ingram has
- 6:25Speaker 1: allowed that to be the case for him. And the
- 6:26Speaker 1: last thing I had for Scotty Barnes is when will
- 6:29Speaker 1: everybody being healthy allow him to stop taking and settling
- 6:32Speaker 1: for mitt rangers.
- 6:34Speaker 2: It's still out.
- 6:35Speaker 1: The verdict is still out on that he should have
- 6:36Speaker 1: fifty percent on those longly rangers, So I guess it's
- 6:38Speaker 1: a win there, but he is still taking a good
- 6:40Speaker 1: amount of him. But overall, Scotty Barnes has been I
- 6:42Speaker 1: said this on small Ball a little while ago. There
- 6:44Speaker 1: are certain times your stretches, two to three minute stretches
- 6:47Speaker 1: sometimes in an entire game where you watch Scotty Barnes.
- 6:49Speaker 2: Be like, oh my god, that looks like a top
- 6:51Speaker 2: ten player.
- 6:52Speaker 1: And one thing about Scotty, the overall countess stats may
- 6:55Speaker 1: not translate to him looking like that, but I promise you, man,
- 6:58Speaker 1: the on core impact is period. So he's been everything
- 7:01Speaker 1: I think Raptors fans could have imagined this part of
- 7:04Speaker 1: his career, and he looks like a complete stud. And
- 7:06Speaker 1: if we were doing All Stars right now, he'd objectively
- 7:08Speaker 1: be an All Star. The next one I'll pass on
- 7:10Speaker 1: the RJ Bear thing. RJ is going through injury right now.
- 7:12Speaker 1: I think they're going to get a second opinion. But
- 7:14Speaker 1: I mostly questioned his passing leak that he showed us
- 7:17Speaker 1: last season. How would that be utilized? We still don't
- 7:19Speaker 1: have enough simple size to really know. But I'll go
- 7:21Speaker 1: to Brandon Ingram because he is the guy that didn't
- 7:24Speaker 1: have any games played with this team. The first person
- 7:26Speaker 1: I had was will he fit into what we know
- 7:28Speaker 1: about Darko's system? Now, we didn't know a lot about
- 7:30Speaker 1: who Darko was as an NBA coach because he had
- 7:32Speaker 1: been having teams that.
- 7:34Speaker 2: Weren't really built for whatever.
- 7:35Speaker 1: But one thing we didn't know is that they were
- 7:37Speaker 1: a team that passed the ball a lot. Last year
- 7:39Speaker 1: they were six and total passes per game, they were
- 7:41Speaker 1: seventh and assists per game and second and potential assists And.
- 7:44Speaker 2: If you look at what's going on now.
- 7:46Speaker 1: All those numbers have dropped off a little bit, and
- 7:48Speaker 1: I don't think it's for the detriment of the team necessarily.
- 7:51Speaker 2: Sometimes you see.
- 7:51Speaker 1: A team end up being a really good passing team
- 7:53Speaker 1: as far as how many passed they're getting or how
- 7:55Speaker 1: many potential assists they're generating, and some of that is
- 7:58Speaker 1: because they don't have an offensive guy that can really
- 8:01Speaker 1: create for themselves, and Scotty Barnes immediately comes into this
- 8:04Speaker 1: team and able.
- 8:05Speaker 2: To do that.
- 8:06Speaker 1: Yesterday they had a game where a lot of people
- 8:07Speaker 1: really struggle to shoot the ball and one guy that
- 8:09Speaker 1: they could really count on was Brandon Ingram, who I
- 8:11Speaker 1: think ended up with thirty seven points.
- 8:13Speaker 2: So though it does change.
- 8:15Speaker 1: The dynamic of how many passes or the passes look like,
- 8:18Speaker 1: I think Brandon Ingram has showcased to them why you
- 8:22Speaker 1: trade for him and why you extend him. They needed
- 8:24Speaker 1: somebody in the half court that can get a bucket.
- 8:26Speaker 1: And my last question for Brandon Ingram, again all these
- 8:28Speaker 1: questions are before we've seen this product, was if you're
- 8:32Speaker 1: playing into brandon ingram strengths, does that mean more pick
- 8:34Speaker 1: and roll with him as the ball handler? Actually, I'm
- 8:37Speaker 1: looking at the numbers right here, his pick and roll
- 8:39Speaker 1: numbers are dow significantly as far as how many pick
- 8:41Speaker 1: and rolls he's getting per game or percentage of his
- 8:44Speaker 1: touch is being pick and roll.
- 8:45Speaker 2: The efficiency is.
- 8:46Speaker 1: Also down there, But again I don't know if we're
- 8:49Speaker 1: still very early on into things. I say all this
- 8:51Speaker 1: to say brandon Ingram has been exactly what they could
- 8:54Speaker 1: have asked for. But the biggest question about them all
- 8:56Speaker 1: was whether or not Darko ra Yakovich was an NBA
- 9:00Speaker 1: level coach, And through the first week and some change
- 9:04Speaker 1: of the season, it looked like no. They started off
- 9:06Speaker 1: one and four if I'm not mistaken, and some of the
- 9:09Speaker 1: I'm gonna vidly remember the game against the Houston Rockets
- 9:11Speaker 1: where there were just many times where they decided to
- 9:13Speaker 1: throw two at the ball handler and it felt like
- 9:16Speaker 1: they weren't playing together. It was like the whoever was
- 9:19Speaker 1: sending the two the other three guys had no idea
- 9:21Speaker 1: what was happening. They were sending two right across half
- 9:24Speaker 1: court and allowing that person to get the ball up
- 9:26Speaker 1: and now the opposing team is playing four versus three.
- 9:28Speaker 1: It just looked really bad. But since then they've been
- 9:31Speaker 1: able to buy in completely. And before the season started,
- 9:33Speaker 1: Darko did tell us that they were a defensive oriented team,
- 9:36Speaker 1: and I just didn't see that through the first couple
- 9:37Speaker 1: of weeks, and now you see it.
- 9:38Speaker 2: Last night is the perfect example.
- 9:41Speaker 1: The Calves on the second iive of back to back,
- 9:43Speaker 1: the Raptors on the second iive of back to back.
- 9:44Speaker 2: It is so easy for them to.
- 9:46Speaker 1: Phone it in and do very traditional coverages and not
- 9:49Speaker 1: really like hone in on a single thing.
- 9:52Speaker 2: And I saw a.
- 9:53Speaker 1: Lot of Calves fans and my mental saying, hey, man,
- 9:56Speaker 1: the Raptors just showed us a playoff defense and we
- 9:59Speaker 1: had no idea what to do. It was like one
- 10:01Speaker 1: of the few games where Donovan Mitchew went into the
- 10:03Speaker 1: fourth court and you're like, man, Donovan Mitchell hasn't really
- 10:05Speaker 1: put his print onto this game just yet. And granted
- 10:07Speaker 1: there wasn't a lot of people alongside Donovan Mitchell to
- 10:11Speaker 1: really alleviate some of that that pressure that the Raptors
- 10:14Speaker 1: were able to throw out him, But who cares.
- 10:17Speaker 2: That's from the Raptors respective who cares. We don't care.
- 10:19Speaker 1: We just want the ball out of Donovan Mitchell's hands
- 10:21Speaker 1: and we're gonna do everything in our power to do
- 10:23Speaker 1: that and secure this win, and they did.
- 10:24Speaker 2: Vibes are high.
- 10:26Speaker 1: Brendan Ingham talking about how he's happy to finally be
- 10:29Speaker 1: on the team where everybody loves basketball. I'm like, Oh,
- 10:31Speaker 1: who could he possibly be talking about back in New
- 10:33Speaker 1: Orleans who didn't love basketball. I don't know, It's just
- 10:36Speaker 1: I know there's just a lot to be to like
- 10:38Speaker 1: about this team, from even in the bench unit. Sandro
- 10:41Speaker 1: Mamus Philly, who's been coming in and looked like one
- 10:43Speaker 1: of the best value you get to free agency.
- 10:45Speaker 2: I've always been to Jamal shed Head. I love him.
- 10:47Speaker 1: He's the first bench player to put up one hundred assists.
- 10:50Speaker 1: I think I read this morning, so he's been doing
- 10:51Speaker 1: his thing. But he may you quickly. Since we got
- 10:53Speaker 1: the Yaka Perle back, he may you quickly has been
- 10:55Speaker 1: pretty good. I'm reading this here from the Raptors Republic.
- 10:58Speaker 1: Shout out to the team over there. Man quickly settles
- 11:00Speaker 1: things down as he hopes as he stops on the dot,
- 11:03Speaker 1: hopes as he stops on the dime. When the drive
- 11:05Speaker 1: hitting a mitrains pull up, he's quietly shooting a beef.
- 11:07Speaker 2: He fifty one percent on.
- 11:08Speaker 1: Drives fifty one percent, complement it by a monstrous and
- 11:13Speaker 1: career best seventy four percent at the rim, albeit on
- 11:17Speaker 1: the minuscule volume. So you know, there was an early
- 11:19Speaker 1: time of the season where I just wasn't really in
- 11:21Speaker 1: love with the manual quickly game. And I do think
- 11:24Speaker 1: that having Yaka Pertle in that lineup does benefit him.
- 11:28Speaker 2: I still don't know what the.
- 11:28Speaker 1: Ceiling of this team is, just like I feel that
- 11:30Speaker 1: way about all of these surgeon teams right now that
- 11:33Speaker 1: we have a smaller sample size with. But I could
- 11:35Speaker 1: say today I'm really enjoying some things. Their schedule coming
- 11:38Speaker 1: up is the Pacers tomorrow, then the Hornets, then we
- 11:42Speaker 1: get down to some we get to some teams.
- 11:44Speaker 2: Now we got the next.
- 11:45Speaker 1: The Blazers are a competing, hard fought team every single night,
- 11:49Speaker 1: the Lakers, the Hornets.
- 11:50Speaker 2: When does the.
- 11:51Speaker 1: Tough, super tough stretch of the schedule start or we
- 11:54Speaker 1: diy not have one of those because sometimes even though
- 11:57Speaker 1: again you're playing all of the teams, sometimes it's never like,
- 12:00Speaker 1: here's six straight playoff teams And as I'm looking at it, man,
- 12:07Speaker 1: I don't know if they're gonna have one of them stretches. Man,
- 12:10Speaker 1: let me just go through this one more game, one
- 12:11Speaker 1: more game. I guess the NBA, right, So anybody can
- 12:14Speaker 1: get you on any given night, but oh it might
- 12:17Speaker 1: be this slow run.
- 12:18Speaker 2: Here.
- 12:18Speaker 1: You got Celtics, then Nets, okay, then you got the Heat,
- 12:23Speaker 1: then you got the Wizards. Okay, okay, let's start off here. Warriors, Magic, Nuggets, Hawks, Hawks.
- 12:30Speaker 2: That's a nice little stretch.
- 12:32Speaker 1: Depending on what the health is for the seventy six ers,
- 12:34Speaker 1: this back to back can be interesting.
- 12:36Speaker 2: But I don't know, I don't know.
- 12:38Speaker 1: I don't know if they're a brand of basketball sustainable
- 12:40Speaker 1: enough for them to be top ten and off I'm sorry,
- 12:42Speaker 1: top five. I know it's not sustainable enough to be
- 12:44Speaker 1: top five in offense to top ten and top five
- 12:46Speaker 1: and defense too. Something does scare me ultimately about the
- 12:50Speaker 1: super high transition teams when it comes to, you know,
- 12:54Speaker 1: thinking a super big picture about the ceiling of teams.
- 12:57Speaker 1: We'll see if the Toronto raptis kind of fit into that.
- 12:59Speaker 1: But it's been a huge fun watch. Scottie Barnes is
- 13:02Speaker 1: a star. Brandon Ingram looks good. Messile messigh Man. You
- 13:09Speaker 1: deserve You deserve something, brother, you deserve something. People that
- 13:12Speaker 1: see the vision and somehow you put it together with
- 13:15Speaker 1: this team is good. Though, before we get out of here,
- 13:17Speaker 1: I want to let you know that the Enjoy basketball
- 13:19Speaker 1: brand just had another drop. I've been wearing this hat
- 13:20Speaker 1: to still enjoy Enjoy run Club hat. We got hoodies,
- 13:23Speaker 1: we got shirts, we got hats. This is a different
- 13:26Speaker 1: take on what a run club is.
- 13:27Speaker 2: Y'all know. Run club is usually like the people that
- 13:29Speaker 2: run the marathons and stuff. Now that ain't us.
- 13:30Speaker 1: We get different kind of runs, which is at the
- 13:32Speaker 1: court fave on fave runs, three or three runs. It's
- 13:35Speaker 1: some of our best work. As always, I'm just recognizing
- 13:38Speaker 1: I'm enjoyed out, But hell, it's my brand, so I'll
- 13:40Speaker 1: put the link in the descripture. We sure the cop
- 13:41Speaker 1: it is extremely extremely limited. Always appreciate your support and
- 13:45Speaker 1: I will see y'all soon