Latest / Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast / Episode 70 feat. Ian Finlayson - Raptors Season, Scottie Barnes DPOY, Long Term Raptors Plans

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Episode 70 feat. Ian Finlayson - Raptors Season, Scottie Barnes DPOY, Long Term Raptors Plans · Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast

• 0:25
  Music Welcome to another edition of the Sports Ave.
• 0:27
  Twister podcast. We have a guest in here who who
• 0:31
  has a bit of expertise when it comes to the Raptors and the
• 0:35
  Jays as well, but we're mainly focusing on the Raptors and he
• 0:39
  he's a contributor to the Raptors Republic, Raptors
• 0:41
  Nation, Blue Jays Nation and Jays Nation and sports at dot
• 0:47
  CA. Ian Finlayson, welcome to to
• 0:52
  this episode. It's an honor to have you on.
• 0:55
  Yeah, thanks so much, Ravi and and Rob for having me on here.
• 0:58
  I'm excited to to talk some hoops with you guys.
• 1:01
  Yeah, the the Raptors have been much more fun this season than
• 1:05
  than the last few seasons. And you know, they're on the
• 1:08
  rise, so certainly a good time to be talking raps.
• 1:12
  Yeah, ain't that the truth. Last year was a little bit of a
• 1:16
  rough season, but yeah, they're definitely taking the right
• 1:19
  steps forward in trying to compete.
• 1:22
  So we're we're just excited and honored to have you join us on
• 1:25
  the show today and talk a little bit Raptors and yeah, man, let's
• 1:30
  get into it. Then assessing this season so
• 1:34
  far, what would you say, you know, with all that's gone on,
• 1:38
  it's, you know, there's been some UPS, a lot of UPS, you
• 1:41
  know, some downs too. But you know, it's all part of
• 1:44
  that process. What would you say that this
• 1:50
  ceiling of this Raptors team is and what they are right now
• 1:54
  going forward into what they hope will be a an upper end
• 1:59
  playoff spot in the Eastern Conference?
• 2:02
  Yeah, well. Like you alluded to there,
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  they've they've undoubtedly taken a step forward after being
• 2:07
  in the basement of the Eastern Conference and and being a
• 2:09
  lottery team for a couple years. And I think.
• 2:12
  The the sense everyone had after they acquired Brandon Ingram at
• 2:17
  last season's trade deadline and kind of moving into this season
• 2:20
  with some of the younger players, you know, starting to
• 2:22
  get a bit more experience in the league and develop a little more
• 2:25
  was that they were going to aim to.
• 2:27
  At least make the playoffs. And and potentially, you know,
• 2:31
  try and throw their weight around a little bit in in a
• 2:34
  Eastern Conference that looked a little bit weaker this year due
• 2:37
  to some injuries and some realignment.
• 2:40
  And that's more or less I think exactly what they've done, you
• 2:44
  know, 5th place right now in in one of those kind of proper
• 2:47
  playoff spots. And they've kind of hung around
• 2:48
  there ever since they went on that Big 9 game-winning streak
• 2:51
  towards the start of the year. So when it comes to their
• 2:54
  ceiling. That's I think like they've
• 2:57
  they've definitely. Taken, like we said, the right
• 2:59
  steps forward. They're a team that, you know,
• 3:02
  we're talking is just kind of on that innocent climb, which is
• 3:04
  such a fun time to to watch a team right when things are are
• 3:09
  kind of moving in a positive direction and and the team is is
• 3:13
  kind of growing and and moving towards where they want to be.
• 3:17
  But at the same time. It's their first.
• 3:19
  Season kind of back in the mix of of competitive basketball and
• 3:24
  we have we have seen them really struggle against the top teams
• 3:27
  in the league as well right that's that's kind of been the
• 3:29
  story of this Raptors team they win the games they should
• 3:32
  against worst teams and they they're not able to beat a
• 3:35
  tougher competition so. I see them as.
• 3:38
  A first round out right now personally and and I think that
• 3:42
  sentiment is has been shared a fair amount across across the
• 3:45
  Raptors space. But like ceiling, absolute
• 3:50
  ceiling, they could. You know, they could must round
• 3:53
  and steal a first round series and and make it to the second
• 3:56
  round, but I think that's the the absolute furthest I would
• 3:59
  see them going. What would you say are the ups
• 4:03
  and downs for the Raptors? There's a lot of positive
• 4:05
  system, but at the same time, you know every team has its own
• 4:09
  negatives as well. What would you say has been the
• 4:13
  standpoint of their success to the season and what do you think
• 4:16
  that's kind of held the back that could that could have been
• 4:20
  in a higher, higher seating right now in the Eastern
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  Conference? Yeah, I mean, there's there's.
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  Obviously lots of like little areas you could get into, but
• 4:28
  again, like bigger picture. Probably the.
• 4:31
  The biggest driving factor of their success so far this season
• 4:34
  has has been their their defense, right?
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  They're tied for the 6th best defensive rating in the NBA.
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  So yeah, they they definitely lead with defense.
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  That's their strength. That's been a value and, and
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  philosophy that's been preached by, you know, the organization
• 4:51
  by darker Rakovic and, and by the players like starting in
• 4:55
  training camp and, and it's really kind of panned out that
• 4:58
  way. And of course, that all stems
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  from Scotty Barnes, right? Like we all know.
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  What a. Tremendous defensive season he's
• 5:05
  having. He was leading the NBA in in
• 5:08
  steals plus blocks just up until recently.
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  I think Viktor Webb and Yama just passed him in the last few
• 5:14
  days here. And of course, Wimpy's a whole
• 5:17
  whole different beast, right? Like he probably would have been
• 5:19
  leading the whole the whole season if he didn't miss a bunch
• 5:21
  of time due to injury. But yeah, second in the NBA in
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  in kind of that defensive playmaking category, the Raptors
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  as a whole. Have really succeeded on defense
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  like in a unique. Way as far as both Scotty Barnes
• 5:36
  and then rookie Colin Marie Boyles being so mobile and able
• 5:41
  to be so versatile in their assignments that they're able to
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  both guard bigs, guard smalls, make plays, help in the gaps and
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  really just kind of cause 'cause chaos on on that end.
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  So yeah, it all it all. Starts with the defense for
• 5:55
  sure. And then I mean.
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  Alternatively. You know, the offense is, is
• 5:59
  probably the the thing that needs to improve the most and
• 6:02
  the issue there for me, I I think that is most prevalent.
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  You can look at the shooting as well, but I think it's just
• 6:08
  creation from guidance and from the back court.
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  Emmanuel quickly is a great shooter and I think he's had a
• 6:13
  really great season, but I think he is a little bit miscast in
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  his role as as the lead guard of the team.
• 6:20
  I do think that they could. Really.
• 6:22
  Benefit from some additional live dribble creations of
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  someone who can. Handle the ball a little.
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  Bit better, get downhill a little bit more.
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  Maybe bend defenses? Out of shape a little bit and
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  create more openings for their teammates both from from like a
• 6:36
  lead guard spot and just further down the roster as well so that
• 6:41
  that's an area that they could look to improve going forward
• 6:44
  certainly. Another trend with this Raptors
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  team this year has been their propensity to blow fourth
• 6:53
  quarter leads. They had I believe 5 double
• 6:57
  digit where they've had double digit leads going into the
• 7:01
  fourth quarter and they lead the the NBA in blowing those leads
• 7:06
  and ultimately losing the game. So, you know, when it comes down
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  to it, what, what's the issue when it comes to them?
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  And, and you know, they play real hard, real hard defense for
• 7:22
  3/4. And then is it just a, a, a, a a
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  factor if they get, they just play so hard the 1st 3/4 that
• 7:29
  they're just worn out in the fourth.
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  Like what's the problem there? What's the issue?
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  And and what do you feel like they need to do and what can
• 7:38
  they do for it to be corrected? Yeah.
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  I think you bring up an interesting point there as far
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  as their style of play and, and the level of effort that the,
• 7:50
  you know, the brand of defense they play requires kind of
• 7:53
  fatiguing them because earlier in the season they were off and
• 7:56
  running a deeper rotation. And we have seen in in recent
• 7:59
  games against the Springs and against the Thunder against, you
• 8:02
  know, 2, two of the best, if not the, you know, the absolute best
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  teams in the NBA where they tighten the rotation a little
• 8:09
  bit. And they were.
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  Running with more more of a nine maybe like giving spot minutes
• 8:15
  to Jameson battle as as a 10th man there just to see if he can
• 8:18
  kind of spark some shot making for the offense.
• 8:22
  But yeah, that. That that could be a.
• 8:24
  Factor certainly as far as fatigue because the the way they
• 8:28
  want to play on defense with such aggressive help principles
• 8:31
  with them flying all over the court they they do something
• 8:35
  called peel switching right that you guys may have heard about
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  where. The second they're they get
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  beat. By the guy they're guarding, the
• 8:43
  next guy stepped up and they immediately peel to the next
• 8:45
  assignment off the ball. So yeah, I just done that level
• 8:48
  of movement definitely can be very taxing.
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  I think it, you know, the the Raptors, the way they close
• 8:55
  games is pretty interesting as well because it they they try to
• 8:59
  play it very safe. Their their fourth quarter.
• 9:03
  And their clutch offense has been quite poor all year.
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  And they do rely really heavily on Brandon Ingram's disabilities
• 9:10
  as a, as a self creator and A and a shot maker.
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  And then alternatively, like they, they have really, really
• 9:16
  great clutch defense and they hardly turn over the ball in the
• 9:20
  clutch. But yeah, the offense really
• 9:23
  tends to grind to a halt. So if the other team is able to
• 9:26
  solve them, which we have, we have seen.
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  And like you said, this this league leading 5 double digit
• 9:32
  fourth quarter comebacks. That it can it can get.
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  Ugly pretty quick for them. So I think I think that's kind
• 9:38
  of where the issue is when they face some of these teams with
• 9:40
  really, really elite offensive scores, guys like, you know,
• 9:45
  Stefan Castle and Dylan Harper and deer and fox on on the Spurs
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  and they're backward there. Of course, against the Thunder,
• 9:51
  they didn't have Shay, but they really had they have like, you
• 9:55
  know, something the Raptors really lack, which is a a ton of
• 9:58
  guys that can step up off the bench and create guys like
• 10:01
  Kayson Wallace and I say a Joe that that we're able to really
• 10:05
  get their own shot late against the Raptors so.
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  When they run. Into teams like that, I it gets
• 10:09
  pretty difficult. I want to talk about Scotty
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  Barnes here and he's he's a cornerstone franchise player for
• 10:18
  the Raptors and he was drafted a few years ago and he's become
• 10:22
  the guy to build a round with it.
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  How important has he been for the Raptors because he's
• 10:28
  improved his shot drastically throughout the years.
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  On top of that, his defense has become a lead and you would have
• 10:34
  to think that he would be the lead candidate for defensive
• 10:38
  player of the year the way it's going.
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  And also just looking at him as a whole, like how, how important
• 10:45
  is he to not just a franchise, but for the city of Toronto?
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  Yeah, I mean, he's he's the guy right now, right?
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  He's he's right up there. You know, when you you look
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  across if if you like you were saying you want to look at a big
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  picture. He is the face of of the Raptors
• 11:00
  right now. He's there.
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  They're flatty or they're Austin Matthews, I guess, right.
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  If if they wanted to, if they wanted to recreate the the sun
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  Dean. Carter.
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  I think it was Vernon Wells was the third person right in that
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  in that famous picture. Then then he'd.
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  He he'd be the guy. Scotty would be the guy and.
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  He's certainly deserving of that.
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  Like. I mean the the defense again is
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  where you always have to go first with him.
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  And it's just that his defensive play making is just ludicrous.
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  Like it's, it's completely out of this world.
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  He has that perfect kind of confluence of.
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  Physical. Attributes of instincts of.
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  Just that kind of. Like preternatural ability to to
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  read the floor and just eat space and cover ground so
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  extremely well. That it allows.
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  Him that the big thing really is that it allows him to gamble and
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  it allows him to get into position and then when he does,
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  players think they're safe and he's able to recover out of
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  nowhere like it's gone almost just like he operates from one
• 12:00
  area of the court to the other. When you look at the way that he
• 12:04
  tracks and and and gets to some of these blocks, yeah, it's it's
• 12:08
  pretty incredible stuff. You add the versatility on top
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  of that too, that he is able to guard one through 5 and he is
• 12:13
  able to step out and play really high level on ball defense as
• 12:17
  well. Yeah, he's just kind of like.
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  A super utility defensive player that has like and and the other
• 12:27
  interesting point that a lot of people bring up to you, right,
• 12:29
  is that you look across the Raptors roster and they don't
• 12:31
  have a ton of other standard defenders, but they still have
• 12:34
  the 6th best defensive rating in the NBA.
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  And it's it's a ton of it is on the back of Scotty Barnes.
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  And then you alluded to the offense a little bit there as
• 12:43
  well. I think a.
• 12:45
  Huge thing for Scotty's offense this year has been Brandon
• 12:48
  Ingram playing and then in turn that kind of taking the burden
• 12:51
  off of Scotty Barnes there as well.
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  He doesn't have to be, you know, expected to be a dribble creator
• 12:55
  and and to like get to his shot in the mid range, even though he
• 12:59
  can do that a little bit as a counter.
• 13:01
  Instead, his frequency as a pick and roll role man has gone up.
• 13:05
  His cutting frequency has gone up.
• 13:08
  He looks to seal guys early in possessions with his his back to
• 13:11
  the basket against mismatches and and score easy points there.
• 13:15
  So he's scoring in a lot easier ways.
• 13:17
  And then you have guys like Brandon Ingram taking a lot more
• 13:20
  of the the more difficult shots. So I think that's really allowed
• 13:23
  him to to get freed up and and play the way that.
• 13:26
  He. Should be given his, his
• 13:27
  physical and and and skill set. So yeah, that's, I think it's
• 13:32
  been Scotty Barnes had the ideal conditions I think to succeed
• 13:36
  this year and he's he's fully capitalized.
• 13:41
  Yeah, last year the Raptors, I want to dive into a little bit
• 13:46
  of what they did at the trade deadline last year.
• 13:49
  You know, they only have 25 wins and it's kind of rare to see a
• 13:53
  team make a trade that's kind of an impact trade when when you're
• 13:59
  when you're you have a losing record like that, you know, but
• 14:04
  you know, former former president Messiah Jury and Bobby
• 14:10
  Webster took a chance on Brandon Ingram.
• 14:12
  We know he's had some health issues in the past and and has
• 14:17
  really struggled to stay on the court.
• 14:19
  But when he's on the court, he's a fantastic player and it's
• 14:22
  really paid dividends so far. So how important is as Brandon
• 14:26
  Ingram been to the Raptors success this year and you know
• 14:30
  what they've envisioned him to be going forward?
• 14:35
  Yeah, he's been. He's been undoubtedly a massive,
• 14:38
  massive piece of them succeeding this year.
• 14:41
  And, and going back to what I just touched on a little bit, I
• 14:45
  do think that him being able to step in and kind of reorient the
• 14:49
  offense a little, take some of the some of those more difficult
• 14:52
  shots cause and that's really what he's known for, right?
• 14:55
  That's his game. He's he's known as kind of like
• 14:58
  a, a mid range get to his spot as as Bobby Webster called him,
• 15:02
  a hooper's Hooper, right? And and doing those really
• 15:06
  difficult things, even though they can be seen as non ideal
• 15:11
  shots, sometimes someone does have to do them like an NBA team
• 15:16
  isn't going to create. A.
• 15:20
  Perfect shot every trip down the floor.
• 15:22
  They're not always going to be able to set up an an open 3 or a
• 15:25
  wide open dunker layup at the rim.
• 15:27
  There's going to be times where plays get blown up or things
• 15:30
  don't materialize and they need a guy to to take the ball and go
• 15:34
  and get his own shot late in the clock.
• 15:36
  And Brandon Ingram has done that in spades this year.
• 15:40
  He is, you know, he leads the team in in late shot clock
• 15:44
  attempts. I think when there's there's 7
• 15:46
  seconds or less, right. So yeah, he's he's really
• 15:50
  carried the burden there and he's done it efficiently as
• 15:53
  well. Like when you have a guy that is
• 15:55
  shooting, I think it's just league under league average
• 15:58
  through shooting percentage. But given the the difficulty of
• 16:01
  the shot diet. That he takes then I I think
• 16:04
  that's a palatable number and on top of that, like, yeah, you
• 16:09
  look. Across his like standard
• 16:11
  shooting splits 47%, 37% from 3 and that's on a little bit more
• 16:17
  volume this year as well. He's 83% from the line.
• 16:21
  So yeah, you can really ask for any more from Brandon Ingram
• 16:24
  this year. In my opinion, I think he he was
• 16:27
  deserving of of a standard all All Star spot and not being an
• 16:32
  injury replacement. But either way, they they got
• 16:34
  him there and they ended up having two All Stars, which I
• 16:37
  think is is another pretty monumental achievement for this
• 16:40
  team. Absolutely.
• 16:44
  We talk about size in the NBA and when Messiah Jerry was the
• 16:50
  president, he took a chance of getting Ryako Pirto and he
• 16:54
  throughout most of this year, unfortunately, he's been injured
• 16:57
  and they've been going through a rotational guys like Sandra
• 17:02
  Mammovilishkili and and Colin Murray Bowles and and so on so
• 17:08
  far. And, and, and now that Pirtle's
• 17:10
  back, he's been playing center throughout the most part.
• 17:14
  And just talk about how much of A dire need is Turtle and the
• 17:20
  size and ability and what we're going to get to the trade, like
• 17:23
  the trade rumors later in this episode, but like talk about the
• 17:27
  the front court size and the importance of what the Raptors
• 17:31
  need moving forward. Yeah, it's, it's really
• 17:34
  interesting how they've been able to weather their their kind
• 17:39
  of time without Yakipurta this year.
• 17:41
  They're like 20 plus games that he missed through December and
• 17:45
  January with this kind of a typical front court of Scotty
• 17:50
  Barnes and Colin Marie Boyles and and like you said, Mamu as
• 17:54
  well, kind of manning a lot of the minutes there and.
• 17:59
  I think it was. Kind of an on the fly work in
• 18:02
  progress at first where they just were kind of like forced
• 18:05
  into this situation. But.
• 18:09
  You know, there's a whole necessity is is the mother of
• 18:12
  invention, right? And I think that through having
• 18:15
  to to deal with playing without Pearl, they kind of discovered
• 18:19
  this unique brand of defense lineups with.
• 18:23
  Both. Scotty Burns and and Colin Marie
• 18:24
  Boyles on the floor became their best lineups by defensive rating
• 18:28
  over that stretch. So they just kind of like threw
• 18:31
  pearls injuries through something unfortunate kind of
• 18:33
  happened on on something good for the team.
• 18:36
  And I mean, it makes sense that the Raptors would play really
• 18:39
  good defense with CMB and and Scotty on the floor, right?
• 18:43
  Because those guys are just absolute defensive monsters.
• 18:46
  Like like CMB also has this like.
• 18:49
  In in a. Different way than Scotty, but
• 18:50
  has this like crazy huge defensive potential just with
• 18:56
  like outstanding, you know, movement and and outstanding
• 18:59
  feet for a guy of his size incredibly strong yeah, great
• 19:05
  hands on defense. So yeah, those those two have
• 19:08
  been great together. And then now with Pirtle coming.
• 19:11
  Back, I think the hope. Would be that they're able to go
• 19:15
  back and forth between those styles of play.
• 19:18
  They're able to to show looks to other teams with Scottie and CMB
• 19:23
  out there and, and, and run smaller lineups.
• 19:25
  And then especially with how Pirtle's looked in the last
• 19:29
  couple games against the Wizards and against the Spurs, he's
• 19:32
  looked more mobile and more capable and more like his old
• 19:36
  self that I think we've seen in my opinion all season, I think
• 19:39
  even more so than than back in early November.
• 19:42
  So yeah, if you can have a traditional big like Pearl that
• 19:45
  can play up and and turn you know some of those opportunities
• 19:48
  in close to the other teams basket into easy points like
• 19:51
  that set really good screens as well.
• 19:53
  And then you can. Also throw out those kind of
• 19:55
  ultra defensive stopper lineups with Scotty and CMBI think it
• 19:58
  gives them. A lot of optionality, I guess
• 20:02
  you could say, between how they want to match up with with other
• 20:05
  teams. 2025 draft was actually looks like it's turning out to
• 20:13
  be a pretty good one for the Raptors.
• 20:15
  How would you classify or assess what they because they chose to
• 20:20
  call you mentioned Columbari boys to take him 9th overall and
• 20:25
  they took Elijah Martin 39th overall.
• 20:28
  Who's been, you know, you just wrote an article on it and he's
• 20:32
  been really killing it with the 9:05 this season and just kind
• 20:37
  of to dissect those two players and give us your insight into
• 20:41
  what that draft could be for the Raptors down the road.
• 20:46
  Yeah, I mean, I think. Colin Murray Boyles, yeah, a #9
• 20:51
  great pick for the Raptors. It was a pretty, you know,
• 20:55
  pretty, pretty stacked draft among some of those kind of late
• 20:59
  first round picks. You look at other guys like
• 21:01
  Derek Queen and Jeremiah Fears and and there's a handful of
• 21:04
  guys in there. I think that and, and just in
• 21:08
  general, yeah, I think this this draft has has looked really
• 21:10
  good. There's a lot of ways they could
• 21:12
  have gone there. Colin Murray Boyles is a very
• 21:14
  like Raptor Z player, I think, right?
• 21:18
  Just as far as the defensive upside, all the kind of like big
• 21:22
  wing stuff, as far as you know, he's he can play up and play the
• 21:26
  five and physically contest with with centers, but he also has a
• 21:32
  little bit of the ball handling and driving, decision making,
• 21:36
  passing skills that aren't always there with with a player
• 21:41
  of that position. So yeah, Colin Marie Boyles.
• 21:44
  I think the floor that like the floor that the defense provides
• 21:49
  and that his strength and and like touch around the rim
• 21:54
  provides is great. And we're seeing that this year
• 21:56
  with a lot of easy scoring, a lot of like put backs,
• 22:00
  transition play, plays as a roller to get those kind of easy
• 22:05
  points. And then I'm really.
• 22:07
  Interested to see what his ceiling is as a driver to the
• 22:10
  basket because at South Carolina he was like a prolific driver
• 22:16
  and drove the ball a ton and was really successful.
• 22:18
  So yeah, I'm very interested to see how he's able to build that
• 22:22
  into his game over time. And then, yeah, Elijah Martin,
• 22:27
  like you said, I, I did just write all about him recently.
• 22:31
  And I think that I like, I don't think it's set in stone by any
• 22:35
  means that he'll necessarily break into the NBA with these
• 22:39
  Raptors, but I do see him having an impact in the NBA at some
• 22:45
  point in his career. Obviously he's a he's an older
• 22:48
  player at a college, five year college player, 24 coming into
• 22:52
  the league. But you look at his pedigree
• 22:55
  and, and just his, his mindset, it's, it's kind of staggering
• 23:00
  just how. I mean for lack of a better
• 23:04
  words, how much of A dog he is. Like he is absolutely ferocious.
• 23:08
  You I don't know if you guys have seen the open gym episode
• 23:12
  where they show his pre draft workout.
• 23:14
  He's shocking the ball off guys like as it's going out of
• 23:17
  bounds. He is like in their face,
• 23:20
  shoving them screaming like the Raptors were, I think, really
• 23:23
  taken aback by just the the level of like competitive fire
• 23:27
  that he brought during those workouts.
• 23:30
  And I've seen it at the G League level as well.
• 23:32
  I like I'm not going to get too too into detail, but there was a
• 23:35
  text. I go and cover the Raptors nine
• 23:37
  O 5 at Paramount fine food center right.
• 23:41
  And there have been times where he's like yelling at his matchup
• 23:44
  on the court and coming off the court saying this guy can't do
• 23:47
  SHIT like he is. He is very much like like just
• 23:54
  so like willful to be like absolutely dominant in what he's
• 23:58
  doing. So that's one thing.
• 24:00
  As far as the skill set for Martin, I think a lot of people
• 24:04
  looked at him and said, OK, 62, but he's more of a two guard.
• 24:07
  He's he's doesn't really have the skill set of a point guard.
• 24:10
  So in order for a guy. That like that to pan out, he
• 24:12
  has to play really high level on ball defense and like shoot the
• 24:18
  the hell out of the basketball. And you know, he's he's been
• 24:22
  like mostly doing both those things.
• 24:23
  Like he's a really, really great on ball defender at the G League
• 24:26
  level. He gets a ton of steals,
• 24:29
  pressures guys like crazy, doesn't allow blow buys and then
• 24:33
  he's shooting over 40% from three at the G league so far.
• 24:37
  He also finishes at the rim a ton and he does get downhill a
• 24:40
  lot even for a six two guy cuz he's he's crazy athletic and and
• 24:44
  he is able to get up for for dunks and really hard finishes.
• 24:48
  So he's a really intriguing player.
• 24:50
  I I definitely think he's someone to watch.
• 24:52
  I think there's a chance that now they've that they've traded
• 24:54
  Ochai Abaji and that we've seen Grady Dick's minutes going down
• 24:58
  and then some, you know, DNPCDS and getting sat a few games.
• 25:02
  Now there's a chance that Elijah Martin kind of sneaks in there
• 25:05
  and grab some spot minutes just so they kind of see what they
• 25:07
  have in him down the stretch. And I think by next.
• 25:10
  Year it's possible that he's he's in the mix for a rotation
• 25:13
  spot if things keep trending in the direction they do.
• 25:17
  But yeah, it's it's, you know, with a with a small guard, you
• 25:20
  do have to like the expectations are so high and he and he's
• 25:23
  going to have to do everything so well, I think to to earn that
• 25:26
  spot. So it'll.
• 25:27
  Be really interesting to monitor his his career going forward but
• 25:31
  I am optimistic about his his potential ceiling and and
• 25:35
  landing spot. Who would you say is the closest
• 25:39
  comparison to Elijah Martin? You know, I'm, I'm, I'm not a
• 25:42
  huge comparisons guy in basketball at least I like them
• 25:46
  for. Baseball a little bit more
• 25:47
  sometimes. But for for hoops, I, I think
• 25:52
  it's hard. You don't ever want to say, oh,
• 25:53
  this guy. Is exactly like this guy or or.
• 25:55
  Would you say like like who does he remind you of?
• 25:59
  Because the way you're saying his characteristics, he looks
• 26:01
  like he has that dog mentality, like the way leagues are going
• 26:06
  that he's he sees, he seems like the next guy in line when it
• 26:09
  comes to style of play. Yeah, and and I and I'm not
• 26:13
  yeah, like I, I definitely will throw it in comparison just just
• 26:16
  like to include that that caveat, right.
• 26:18
  But I mean, it's interesting because if you if you look at
• 26:21
  former Raptors players, they have a a long line of undersized
• 26:26
  guards that have, you know, had huge success and been fan
• 26:29
  favorites. Look at guys like Kyle Lowry and
• 26:31
  Fred Vanvleet and now Jamal shed kind of somewhat similarly
• 26:35
  following in those footsteps, although obviously very big
• 26:38
  shoes to fill. But so as far as like the the
• 26:42
  doggedness and the the drive to to compete, I do think that that
• 26:48
  there is like shades of of that and Elijah for sure just that.
• 26:53
  Kind of relentless spirit. The other name though, again,
• 26:58
  just just sticking to a Raptors comparisons that I've I've heard
• 27:02
  a lot and that I do agree with in certain aspects is
• 27:05
  comparisons to Norman Powell, Elijah's slightly.
• 27:08
  Smaller. I think Powell is listed at six,
• 27:11
  three. I think, you know, he's maybe an
• 27:12
  inch or two smaller. But just in terms of the the
• 27:17
  offensive profile coming in, it was kind of.
• 27:21
  Super athletic, can get way up for dunks, but a little bit of
• 27:24
  an undersized guard and the shot wasn't necessarily a sure thing.
• 27:28
  And I think Elijah actually was a was a better shooter coming in
• 27:33
  to the pros than Norm was. But again, we we've seen Eliza's
• 27:37
  shot really pan out so far, at least at the G League level.
• 27:41
  And Norm was able to to put together really great shooting
• 27:45
  stretches with the Raptors and now eventually is is one of the
• 27:48
  best. You know, overall 3 point
• 27:51
  shooters, whether it be pull up shots, catch and shoot shots in
• 27:54
  the NBA and and see him achieve an All Star birth.
• 27:57
  And so I would, I think there's like a comparison to be made
• 28:01
  between how they succeed there as well.
• 28:05
  I think Elijah. Would probably maybe a little
• 28:08
  bit less of an impact score the norm at the next level and
• 28:10
  probably rely on his defense a little bit more, which I think
• 28:13
  is is better than norms. But yeah, I think.
• 28:17
  There's there's definitely lines to be drawn there.
• 28:20
  But yeah, when like going back to the, you know, kind of what
• 28:23
  you touched on the just the competitive spirit and the
• 28:26
  fierceness that he goes that guys with.
• 28:28
  I mean, I think that's right up there with anyone.
• 28:30
  You look, you look across the league, you look at old, old
• 28:32
  guys like Pat Bav, you look at like Anthony Edwards, you look
• 28:35
  at like, I think that Elijah Martin, the level of dog in him
• 28:39
  is, is probably right up there. With anyone in in the NBA.
• 28:44
  I want to talk about a specific player and that's Grady Dick.
• 28:47
  And he was drafted from the Kansas Jayhawks in 2023.
• 28:52
  And we all thought that he would be a core player for for this
• 28:58
  franchise or integral part of this of this team moving
• 29:01
  forward. And he hasn't really progressed
• 29:05
  whatsoever. And what seems to be the issue
• 29:10
  here? Because The thing is like, we
• 29:11
  know that he was so good in college and it hasn't really
• 29:17
  translated to his success in the NBA.
• 29:20
  Like what seems to be The thing is it is it the playing time?
• 29:24
  Is there other guys that's that's over taking his role?
• 29:28
  Like what seems to be the issue? The biggest thing I think
• 29:32
  undoubtedly is that he just hasn't shot the ball well
• 29:35
  enough. It's it's funny because coming
• 29:39
  into the NBAA lot of the discussion around Grady Dick
• 29:43
  was, oh, he's not just a shooter like he's he's touted as this
• 29:48
  knock down shooter coming out of Kansas.
• 29:51
  But no, there's more to his game.
• 29:52
  He can do a little bit of second side creation.
• 29:55
  He can attack close outs off the dribble.
• 29:57
  He can play make a little bit in in kind of a secondary role.
• 30:02
  And it's, it's funny because some of that stuff is there like
• 30:06
  even though the shot hasn't been going down this season or, or
• 30:09
  really on the whole. Throughout his career.
• 30:13
  We have seen, you know, there's times where he's able to catch
• 30:16
  the ball on the second side and he has a really nice triple
• 30:18
  threat package. He has like a nice stutter RIP
• 30:21
  and rocker step in these different moves he can go do to
• 30:23
  get by guys and and you know, get the defense out of shape and
• 30:28
  create an advantage for a teammate.
• 30:30
  But the the problem is, is that none of that stuff really
• 30:33
  matters if he's not making shots.
• 30:35
  Like it is an absolute prerequisite for Grady Dick to
• 30:38
  have a role as an NBA player for him to shoot.
• 30:41
  I think at bare minimum average, like league average from three,
• 30:45
  he's shooting just under 31% this season on only.
• 30:49
  And The thing is too, it's only on 2.7 attempts per game.
• 30:53
  And they're not difficult shot attempts either.
• 30:55
  They're not movement threes, they're not pull ups.
• 30:57
  It's standstill catch and shoot threes a lot of the time.
• 31:01
  Open that he's that he's missing.
• 31:03
  And then you look throughout his career too, he's only shooting
• 31:05
  like I'm just under 35% from three as well.
• 31:08
  So below league average. And yeah, it's just tough.
• 31:12
  It's just really tough when you're you're missing those kind
• 31:14
  of shots. I think there was a lot of
• 31:15
  excitement around him around the start of last season.
• 31:18
  When the Raptors had some injuries and he got a bit more
• 31:20
  opportunity and he had a bunch of high 20 scoring and 30 point
• 31:25
  scoring games and we saw him making a bunch of movement shots
• 31:28
  and it was like, wow, like this is the potential upside of Grady
• 31:31
  Dick. Like he could be a star kind of
• 31:33
  score and and secondary tertiary kind of creator.
• 31:39
  And that is really just disappeared and and gone in the
• 31:42
  complete opposite direction, which is why we've seen his his
• 31:44
  minutes dwindle. And him even, you know, getting
• 31:47
  benched some games now. So, yeah, it's it's he's in a
• 31:51
  tough spot right now, especially because, like, the defense has
• 31:54
  gotten a little better this year in part because of the scheme
• 31:57
  the Raptors play. Because like I said earlier,
• 32:00
  like they'll do that thing right where if a guy gets blown by,
• 32:03
  he'll peel off and another guy will step.
• 32:05
  Up which Grady Dick does tend to give up a lot of blow buys, so
• 32:08
  that that's kind of insulated him in the defense a little bit.
• 32:12
  But his defense is is I'd say the ceiling of it is average and
• 32:17
  most of the time it's it's it's below below average.
• 32:20
  So yeah, very tough sliding for Grady Dick right now.
• 32:24
  I think that he's rightfully like by merit out of the
• 32:26
  rotation right now unfortunately and unless you know, minutes
• 32:31
  arise through injury. Or or underperformance
• 32:34
  elsewhere. I I honestly kind of doubt that
• 32:37
  we'll see him much down the stretch of the season and into
• 32:39
  the playoffs. So.
• 32:41
  Yeah, I, I mean, it's interesting to consider what his
• 32:43
  future with the team might be. Could he, could he go elsewhere?
• 32:47
  I imagine he'll at least get a second shot in the NBA as as
• 32:50
  like a redraft candidate. If you were to leave the
• 32:52
  Raptors, I imagine just giving his draft pedigree and, and the
• 32:55
  level of talent that that many would probably believe to be
• 32:58
  there, he would probably get another shot for at least a
• 33:01
  couple years with another team. But yeah, with the Raptors.
• 33:04
  Right now his role has just really kind of disappeared.
• 33:10
  I was going to bring up or ask you actually about his defense
• 33:17
  being a liability, but you brought that up.
• 33:19
  So I'm glad you did that. But with this team, man, you
• 33:24
  got, you know, Ingram, you have quickly Barrett and Pertle and
• 33:31
  then you got Jamal Shed. So I mean, who would, in your
• 33:35
  opinion is kind of The X Factor for this team right now going
• 33:40
  forward in their drive for a playoff spot?
• 33:45
  I mean, there's definitely a couple different directions that
• 33:48
  we could go with it. I think the two players that
• 33:51
  spring to my mind immediately when you kind of bring up that
• 33:55
  question are Yak of Purdle and Emmanuel Quickly, who have both
• 34:00
  played excellent this this past week over the last stretch of a
• 34:03
  few games. Quickly, because his his
• 34:07
  shooting like an on shooting night from him, as we've seen
• 34:10
  this season can really change games like he can.
• 34:13
  He had went for the most efficient 40 point game in NBA
• 34:16
  history against the Warriors, right, where he had 40 points on
• 34:21
  it. I think it was like 81% true
• 34:23
  shooting and he only took thirteen shots right.
• 34:28
  And he's had a few games where he just catches fire like that
• 34:31
  and and turns into an absolute heat pump and and fills up the
• 34:34
  basket. So yeah, I think I think just
• 34:38
  the the volatility of Emmanuel Quigley shooting can be a a big
• 34:41
  swing factor and then hurdle of course, just because of the
• 34:45
  health, right. I think if he he's looked back
• 34:48
  to normal lately and if he is back to the player that he has
• 34:52
  been for a few years now prior to dealing with this lower back
• 34:56
  issue, then I think that could could really put the Raptors in
• 35:00
  a great spawn as far as just having a ton of versatility in
• 35:03
  their front court. Those The The funny thing too
• 35:06
  about those two players is their success is kind of tied together
• 35:09
  because Emmanuel quickly has succeeded this season by far the
• 35:13
  most when he's played with Yaka purdle.
• 35:16
  Just because Yaka screens are able to free quickly up so much
• 35:20
  both for, you know, great, like pull up 3 point shots off pick
• 35:24
  and rolls, him coming around screens and catching and
• 35:27
  shooting for three. And also Emmanuel quickly isn't
• 35:30
  the strongest player using the pick and roll and then coming
• 35:34
  off wall screens. But Pearl's such a good Screener
• 35:37
  than it does allow him to get downhill a little bit more and
• 35:40
  and make the odd play from there.
• 35:43
  So, yeah, I mean, I think that I think that those two kind of
• 35:47
  almost combined are, are the biggest, the biggest swing
• 35:51
  factor for the Raptors going forward.
• 35:54
  How important is the rise of Jamal Shed since he was drafted
• 36:00
  last year to this team and the bench?
• 36:05
  Yeah, I think it's undoubtedly massive.
• 36:08
  I like coming into this year, I mean he had the backup point
• 36:13
  guard spot secured, but I don't think that was that was
• 36:17
  something that was necessarily a certainty going throughout the
• 36:19
  season. Like, I think I think there was
• 36:21
  definitely a situation a lot of people, myself included, could
• 36:24
  foresee from the outset that, you know, maybe he couldn't he
• 36:27
  wouldn't perform well and he would continue to have some
• 36:30
  issues in some of the areas he did in his rookie year.
• 36:33
  And potentially they'd have to find another solution at backup
• 36:36
  point guard, which they didn't really have.
• 36:39
  So, yeah, the fact that it's, it's been twofold on the
• 36:42
  defensive end. He's always had a reputation as
• 36:45
  a good defender, but I think he's improved a ton since his
• 36:47
  rookie year. He.
• 36:48
  He. Fouled a lot.
• 36:50
  During during his first season last year and yeah, he's kind of
• 36:54
  really gotten used to the both the pacing and the physicality
• 36:58
  of the league. And on top of that, yeah, the,
• 37:02
  the shot has been there. You know, it's the start of the
• 37:04
  year. It was really good lately, like
• 37:07
  the efficiencies really tanked. But Despite that, he is able to
• 37:10
  just keep moving the ball along. He's super quick and, and is
• 37:14
  able to get by guys and, and make really great decisions with
• 37:17
  the ball. And for him, yeah, I think it's
• 37:19
  it's just that he's reading the game better and he's he's making
• 37:25
  those decisions at the right time to move the ball along.
• 37:29
  So, yeah, I think as a backup point guard, he's really been a
• 37:33
  lot of what they've needed the the pool shooting efficiency is
• 37:37
  tough. I would be it would be great if
• 37:38
  he could. You know, he doesn't get to the
• 37:42
  rim very often. Even when he does get all the
• 37:44
  way to the rim, he doesn't finish a lot of those shots.
• 37:48
  He doesn't make a ton of threes. So the the shooting is not
• 37:52
  great, but in all other aspects of the game and also like
• 37:55
  something that's that's discussed a lot is in in the
• 37:57
  leadership aspect of the game as well.
• 37:59
  He's really outspoken. He's a really vocal communicator
• 38:04
  on the floor for them as as just a second year player.
• 38:07
  And he seems like really well respected and liked by by
• 38:10
  everyone else on the team as well, right.
• 38:12
  And, and just seems to be a great guy in terms of his his
• 38:14
  character and and values. So, yeah, I think all around
• 38:19
  Jamal Shed has has been a huge boon off the bench for for these
• 38:22
  Raptors. And the bench units show it too,
• 38:24
  right? They've been really successful.
• 38:25
  And then he's kind of been the anchor of that.
• 38:27
  So yeah, it's it's aside from the shooting efficiency, it's
• 38:30
  hard to say a bad thing about Jamal Shed.
• 38:35
  So there was there was some speculation about Sabonis being
• 38:39
  traded to the Raptors prior to the trade deadline.
• 38:42
  And we know that that Raptors needed size and ability and,
• 38:46
  and, and someone who could rebound and score in the paint.
• 38:49
  But that didn't come to fruition.
• 38:51
  And they were asking for first round picks and the Raptors were
• 38:55
  reluctant to give up first round picks And give us the thought
• 38:58
  process. Did you think that Sabonis could
• 39:00
  still be a play long term with this team?
• 39:04
  And also like you, like you mentioned, I think prior to the
• 39:07
  show that they were OK standing pat without giving up any assets
• 39:12
  for Sabota. So what are your thoughts on
• 39:14
  that? Yeah, I think, I think they made
• 39:18
  the right move. Yeah.
• 39:19
  Like I said, that that's them just kind of keeping with the
• 39:22
  group they have going forward. Was probably the right call.
• 39:27
  Sabonis is an intriguing player for sure.
• 39:29
  Really good player, pretty much a borderline All Star every
• 39:32
  year, right? Great rebounder, which I mean,
• 39:35
  sure they could use more rebounding, I just don't know if
• 39:40
  that would cause based on what they'd have to give up.
• 39:43
  It would probably be just like salary wise and, and, and to
• 39:46
  make the trade work logistically, you know, it would
• 39:50
  be probably 2 of, of Pearl Barrett and quickly and, and
• 39:56
  maybe some draft compensation. And I'm just not sure it's
• 40:00
  necessarily a huge needle mover from where they are right now.
• 40:03
  Like sure, it would reorient the team a little bit.
• 40:07
  I don't think it would really address the kind of root issues
• 40:13
  of of where they they need to change the team in order for it
• 40:17
  to be more successful. For me, I think they need to add
• 40:20
  a a really strong. Like live, live dribble creator,
• 40:24
  they don't have enough shooting, they don't have enough dribbling
• 40:26
  on this team when you look at like the most high-powered NBA
• 40:29
  offenses. And yeah, I'm just, I'm just not
• 40:33
  sure that Sabonis is a huge needle over, especially
• 40:37
  considering what they have to give up.
• 40:39
  At the same time, I, I do think the position the Raptors are in
• 40:43
  is 1 where they're going to need to continually tinker and
• 40:47
  continually kind of modify this team going forward until they
• 40:52
  get to the point where they're maybe in a spot where they can,
• 40:54
  can fully pivot and, and go all in on something.
• 40:58
  But that's what Bobby Webster has kind of continually said
• 41:01
  since making this, this move for Brandon Ingram in various press
• 41:04
  conferences, right? As of the team is not a finished
• 41:06
  product. They are going to continue to
• 41:09
  need to look at things and adjust and and the thing about
• 41:14
  the the way that the NBACBA is set up and the way team building
• 41:18
  kind of works now is that it is important to have tradable
• 41:23
  contracts so that you can make these moves like free agency is
• 41:27
  very much dead in in the modern NBA.
• 41:31
  So, you know, they're and the Raptors have never really been
• 41:34
  able to add successfully through free agency anyway.
• 41:37
  So as of this trade deadline, you looked at guys like Purdel
• 41:39
  and Quickly and Barrett and none of their contracts were super
• 41:42
  desirable to other teams according to all the reporting,
• 41:45
  which is is understandable when you look at them.
• 41:48
  But I think that over time, over the next couple of years, as you
• 41:54
  know, instead of quickly being owed 4 years of money, it's only
• 41:57
  three years of money or two years of money.
• 41:59
  Barrett gets into the last year of his contract, Pearl gets
• 42:02
  further down the line with his contract, the tax line and the
• 42:05
  salary cap goes up year over year.
• 42:07
  So their contracts are taking up a lower percentage of the cap.
• 42:10
  I think those contracts will become more movable and, and,
• 42:13
  and more desirable potentially around the league.
• 42:16
  And then at that point, maybe they tinker a little bit and and
• 42:19
  try to make the right move. But I do think that generally
• 42:24
  speaking, team building in the NBA now, it is very much
• 42:27
  threading the needle and trying to find that that right move to
• 42:32
  make instead of just kind of rashly making a move to to
• 42:36
  contend, which which may have been tempting this year
• 42:39
  considering, you know, Tyrese Halliburton, Jayson Tatum both
• 42:44
  down with injuries, although Tatum Tatum is looking to to
• 42:46
  come back it it looks like potentially.
• 42:49
  But yeah, I think, I think that kind of being patient waiting
• 42:54
  for the the right move was ultimately the correct decision
• 42:57
  by. The Raptors brass there.
• 43:03
  The Raptors didn't get the big name of the trade deadline, but
• 43:05
  they did. They did make a a smaller move
• 43:08
  to bring in track Trace Jackson Davis for a second round pick.
• 43:12
  Do you see going into the summer, do you see more more
• 43:16
  like when you talk about tinkering around, do you see
• 43:19
  more moves like that or, or, or could they make that big move
• 43:25
  possibly in the offseason to bring in, you know, another big
• 43:29
  name to kind of, you know, like you said, tinker around with the
• 43:33
  lineup a bit more? I think if they were going to
• 43:36
  make a bigger move, it would probably be more likely to
• 43:39
  happen in the offseason just from my own speculation and I
• 43:44
  guess a mix of that and how the front offices behaved
• 43:47
  previously. Obviously Messiah Jury is no
• 43:51
  longer at the head of things, but at the same time it's a lot
• 43:55
  of the same people making decisions otherwise with Bobby
• 43:58
  Webster and Dan Tolzman still in place and kind of, you know,
• 44:03
  fronting up the, the head of, of basketball operations there.
• 44:07
  So yeah, I, I, I like, it's hard.
• 44:11
  It's very hard to say. I, I think that they're always
• 44:13
  trying to make moves that add the most value to the team.
• 44:17
  And at the time of the Brandon Ingram move, which you'd asked
• 44:19
  me about previously. And I, I think even though I
• 44:20
  talked about Ingram's game there, I'm.
• 44:22
  Not trying to. Fully address my my thoughts on
• 44:24
  that trade. So I can do that here a little
• 44:26
  bit. But with the Brandon Ingram
• 44:30
  trade, I think it was just such a good value play.
• 44:32
  It was hard to pass up as far as like they were only giving up
• 44:35
  one first that that wasn't, you know, that high of a pick.
• 44:40
  And then guys like Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown and then
• 44:44
  obviously they had to pay Ingram.
• 44:45
  But yeah, I think, I think for the caliber of player in the
• 44:49
  level of talent they were bringing in and what they're
• 44:51
  giving out, it was just too, too much of A value add to pass up.
• 44:56
  And I think that's, that's really their philosophy.
• 44:58
  And most teams philosophies going into stuff like that, that
• 45:01
  are, that are operating while is that they, they just want to
• 45:05
  continue to accumulate value as as kind of like cold and, and
• 45:10
  you know, kind of business minded as that is they, they
• 45:14
  ultimately are operating in that way.
• 45:16
  So I think that it would really depend if if if someone comes up
• 45:20
  and is available in the summer that the Raptors think they're
• 45:24
  able to get for a really good deal, they they could make a
• 45:27
  play for a bigger name. Lamella Ball is someone that was
• 45:30
  talked about earlier in the season and now the Hornets are
• 45:32
  looking looking up so much that I I feel like he's probably not
• 45:36
  going to be available. But that's one where the the
• 45:38
  creativity and the dribbling in the passing and everything would
• 45:41
  be a great ad. But yeah, I would say in my
• 45:47
  opinion, it's more likely that they probably continue to make
• 45:50
  small additions around the margins ultimately.
• 45:56
  Well, two of those names that were floated around the trade
• 46:00
  deadline, one being RJ Barrett because of his contract
• 46:03
  situation and Emmanuel quickly his his, his extension kind of
• 46:10
  puts him in a spot where he's making a lot of money.
• 46:13
  So it's kind of he's a kind of a harder player to move off of.
• 46:18
  Do you believe that they're still part of the the Raptors
• 46:21
  plans moving forward? Yeah, I mean, I think they're
• 46:27
  certainly part of their plans. I don't know if I foresee
• 46:31
  quickly as being the lead guard of the team if they do manage to
• 46:37
  get to a spot where they're contenders just for the again,
• 46:40
  for the same reasons I cited. You know, he's, he's getting
• 46:46
  further into his career now and I don't know if if you can
• 46:50
  really count on any increased development in terms of his, his
• 46:56
  ability to, to play make for others.
• 47:00
  Because one thing like quickly, you know, you look at the assist
• 47:03
  numbers she's having, you know, 6 assists roughly over the
• 47:06
  course of his time with the Raptors.
• 47:08
  But I don't think that's indicative of his actual
• 47:11
  playmaking talent. You see a lot of the time the
• 47:14
  assist that quickly is getting our players running off screens
• 47:19
  and he just passes them the ball.
• 47:20
  And it's either, you know, he's passing it to them above the
• 47:23
  three-point line, whether it's Brandon Ingram or someone else,
• 47:27
  and they're navigating the floor and getting to their spot and
• 47:30
  making the shot. So the player he's passing the
• 47:32
  ball to is doing a lot of the work to score it, whereas what
• 47:35
  the Raptors need more of is a guard that can beat their
• 47:39
  defender and get downhill and make a second defender step up
• 47:42
  and create an open shot for a teammate.
• 47:46
  Louis Zatzman, my colleague at Raptors Republic, wrote a really
• 47:49
  great article last year where he looked at all of the manual
• 47:52
  Quickly's assists and he found that he only had five assists
• 47:55
  all season last year where he touched, where he dribbled and
• 47:58
  got into the paint and then set up an open layup or an open dunk
• 48:01
  for a teammate, which is a really small number of these,
• 48:05
  say only 5. And he's done that a bit more
• 48:09
  this year. There's definitely been some
• 48:11
  small strides, but for the most part, Quickly is just very, very
• 48:16
  limited as a player that is able to to move to the middle of the
• 48:23
  floor, be comfortable from the middle of the floor and and make
• 48:27
  plays for others from there. So it's it's tough to see him
• 48:32
  leading them as their point guard if if they're where they
• 48:36
  want to be and competing for whether it's getting it, getting
• 48:41
  deep into the playoffs, whether it's ultimately a championship.
• 48:44
  The thing is, though, is that quickly such a good shooter and
• 48:47
  the Raptors also have such, you know, are so devoid of of
• 48:53
  shooting is he is kind of essential to the team.
• 48:55
  They can't really just get rid of quickly because the
• 48:59
  three-point shooting would would be too bad.
• 49:02
  So yeah, it's it's there. They've put themselves in a bit
• 49:06
  of a tough spot. If they were able to to reorient
• 49:09
  and somehow keep quickly, but also add another guard that is
• 49:13
  able to to dribble and and create shots for teammates more,
• 49:17
  that would be ideal. But again, threading the needle
• 49:21
  to to get there. Want to dive in on on the coach
• 49:26
  for the Raptors is Darko. How do you say his name?
• 49:30
  Darko Rajakovic Rakovic. OK, yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm
• 49:37
  not the first person to struggle his last name.
• 49:40
  It's. All good, yeah.
• 49:44
  So he was hired as the Raptors head coach at 2023 and he came
• 49:51
  from a Memphis organization there was winning at that time.
• 49:53
  It seems like Memphis is going in the wrong direction now and
• 49:56
  they're looked like they're on a full-fledged rebuild.
• 49:58
  It seems like the Raptors got a great fine, even though the
• 50:01
  first two seasons into his coaching career hasn't been, you
• 50:05
  know, as as promised. But now it's finally lived up to
• 50:09
  it and he finally has given an opportunity to coach in the All
• 50:12
  Star game, representing the world and and talk about his
• 50:17
  time so far in his third season with the Raptors.
• 50:20
  And it took a bit of a struggle the first couple years.
• 50:23
  And now he looks like he's become the coach that that they
• 50:26
  expect him to be. And, and how would you look at a
• 50:30
  moving forward and, you know, building around the young
• 50:33
  players that's that's been dealt around with this roster?
• 50:38
  Yeah, I, I think I've, I've a very high opinion of Darko.
• 50:41
  I think he's a great coach in, in multiple aspects.
• 50:45
  You know, I think he's been thought of a lot as a
• 50:47
  development coach and he has received a ton of praise from
• 50:50
  from players he's worked with over the years, including guys
• 50:52
  like Desmond Bain, who have called him like essential to
• 50:55
  their their career arc and and to them becoming the the players
• 50:59
  they are for now, all the way to the a lot of the work he's done
• 51:03
  over the last couple years when the Raptors were, you know,
• 51:07
  playing much worse basketball and losing more.
• 51:10
  But he was, you know, really working to develop a lot of
• 51:12
  these players that are making an impact on the team now, guys
• 51:15
  like Jamal shed, guys like Jacoby Walter.
• 51:19
  So the development aspect is huge.
• 51:22
  And you can you can tell that even while they are having the
• 51:25
  responsibilities as a head coach, you see him talking to
• 51:28
  guys about that. You see him working on on a
• 51:31
  small like fundamental aspects of the game with younger
• 51:35
  players. So, yeah, very, very personable
• 51:39
  guy in that aspect. Very much so as well in terms of
• 51:43
  like this. Was this the the story with
• 51:45
  Darko and, and how he connects with other people from from the
• 51:48
  jump. But you see him like really
• 51:51
  trying to connect with his players and, and really like on
• 51:54
  a on a personal and then human level, like talking to them,
• 51:58
  caring about their lives outside of basketball.
• 52:00
  He wants the team to be close and tight knit and go to dinners
• 52:04
  together on the road and have that emotional connection.
• 52:07
  And again go even going back to last year when the Raptors were
• 52:10
  struggling more with with actual results on the court, you still
• 52:15
  saw the team was like tight knit and and close and seem to be
• 52:19
  having a good time. There was that stretch where
• 52:21
  everyone called it like the most watchable tank ever, because the
• 52:24
  team still seem to be enjoying themselves and competing and
• 52:28
  caring. And to to elicit that from like
• 52:32
  an NBA basketball team that is, you know, put like positioning
• 52:36
  for lottery odds. And then, you know, tanking is,
• 52:39
  is pretty special. That's not something you
• 52:41
  necessarily see all the time. So I think you got to give Darko
• 52:43
  a ton of credit for that. And then on top of that, on top
• 52:47
  of like, you know, the, the people stuff and, and the the
• 52:52
  emotional kind of side of the game behind things.
• 52:55
  I think he's I think he's succeeded really well problem
• 52:58
  solving as a coach, like schematically and in terms of
• 53:01
  his tactics. There's always things to quibble
• 53:04
  with, I think, but overall they've again, they found a
• 53:07
  really unique way to succeed on defense.
• 53:10
  He's shown a willingness to to be malleable and adaptable.
• 53:14
  At the start of the season, they had such high pressure defense
• 53:17
  and we're so aggressive and some of that was coming back to bite
• 53:21
  them with, you know, allowing some straight line drives and,
• 53:24
  you know, blind double S kind of giving up open shots and things
• 53:27
  like that. And they pulled back on on some
• 53:29
  of those tactics and kind of found a nice healthy balance
• 53:33
  where they're able to to be aggressive at the right times,
• 53:36
  be very intentional about how they're attacking things on
• 53:41
  defense in terms of taking risks.
• 53:42
  So I think I think he's been very, very smart in his approach
• 53:47
  there. I think offensively he's he's a
• 53:50
  good like play caller. He he designs good plays and,
• 53:53
  and and run some some strong kind of forward thinking
• 53:57
  concepts as far as when he is running like pre design plays or
• 54:04
  kind of concepts that the Raptors flow out of.
• 54:06
  So over overall in in multiple aspects, I would say Dark
• 54:10
  Rakovich is a very good coach. If there was any criticism that
• 54:14
  I could love you against him a little bit.
• 54:15
  I do think the team gets a little bit over reliant on
• 54:18
  Brandon Ingram at times, whether it's in the clutch or just
• 54:20
  overall, I think they could maybe be a little bit more
• 54:23
  creative with how they utilize him.
• 54:26
  You know, we've seen a lot of instances where the Raptors are
• 54:29
  in a clutch game and it gets, you know, they get the ball down
• 54:33
  the floor, they eat up most of the shot clock trying to free up
• 54:37
  Brandon Ingram with screens under the basket.
• 54:39
  And he ends up catching the ball with not much time left on the
• 54:42
  clock. The defense overloads on him.
• 54:44
  They don't have enough actions off the ball and he ends up
• 54:47
  having to put up a really tough contested shot, which is just
• 54:49
  asking, even though he's a great player, just asking like a
• 54:52
  little bit too much of him. So yeah, there are times where I
• 54:56
  think he could be slightly more creative, but it's a small it's
• 55:00
  a small MIT to pick on my part. I'd say overall darker Rakovic
• 55:03
  is, is a very smart and a very personable coach.
• 55:10
  He's he's he's really great with, you know, with people as
• 55:12
  well. So yeah, tons, tons of respect
• 55:16
  for Dark Ryakovich. This past summer, they let go
• 55:23
  Messiah Jury and Bobby Webster took over as the the G Well, he
• 55:28
  was the GM, but I mean you, you, you know what I mean.
• 55:31
  He, he, he, it's full. It's all him now.
• 55:34
  And just tell us a little bit about Bobby Webster, what he's
• 55:37
  done, you know, like since then and just the job he's done
• 55:43
  overall so far in your opinion as general manager of the
• 55:47
  Toronto Raptors? Yeah.
• 55:49
  And and exactly like you're saying, he's the, he's the lead
• 55:51
  basketball executive now. He is he is the man that is
• 55:54
  making the the basketball decisions.
• 55:58
  Yeah, I mean, I again, I think he he made the right decision by
• 56:01
  standing pad at the deadline and not necessarily trying to force
• 56:04
  anything. Again, maybe some small things
• 56:08
  you could quibble with the deadline, the Raptors having to
• 56:10
  to move off to second round picks to unload Ochaiabaji
• 56:14
  salary and then also add Trace Jackson Davis there.
• 56:18
  But on the whole, it does seem again like Bobby is very well
• 56:23
  thought of and well connected in the organization.
• 56:26
  Sportsnet's Michael Grange came out with a really great report
• 56:29
  early in the year with the, you know, a lot of great kind of
• 56:33
  sourced information around the team that Bobby Webster is in
• 56:37
  very good standing with the, the upper management of, of MLSE and
• 56:41
  Rogers with Keith Pelley and, and is, you know, speaking with
• 56:47
  them frequently and they have a very good dialogue and that they
• 56:51
  are looking to potentially talk to him about an extension going
• 56:54
  into the future. So it seems like Bobby Webster
• 56:56
  is here to stay. There's not a ton of of, you
• 57:00
  know, team building and player movement, I think to evaluate so
• 57:02
  far as as far as that's concerned.
• 57:04
  But just as far as like Huey seems like as a person, she just
• 57:08
  seems very measured. I see him in press conferences.
• 57:10
  He's not definitely different than Masai as far as he's, you
• 57:13
  know, he, he, I think alluded to himself.
• 57:17
  He's not banging on the table. He's not making any big sweeping
• 57:20
  like declarations necessarily or anything in the in the we will
• 57:24
  win in Toronto fashion. But yeah, this seems very like
• 57:28
  cool, calm, collected, level headed kind of taking things as
• 57:33
  they are, which I can I can certainly get on board with, I
• 57:36
  think. And then outside of like, you
• 57:41
  know, media facing and public facing stuff when the Raptors,
• 57:45
  this is just like a small example, but when the Raptors
• 57:47
  905 played their annual school day game at Scotiabank Arena,
• 57:51
  you know, he was sitting courtside with a couple of the
• 57:53
  Raptors young players with like Colin Murray Boyles and Jacoby
• 57:55
  Walter. And you saw him like talking
• 57:57
  with them and joking around with them, it seemed like, and and
• 58:00
  kind of having a good time. So yeah, it seems like Bobby is,
• 58:04
  you know, very, like I said, very kind of calm, grounded down
• 58:09
  to earth and and well connected like at all levels the
• 58:12
  organization all the way down from like the younger players
• 58:14
  all the way up to like the upper kind of corporate management.
• 58:17
  So it seems like he's he's really kind of settling in to
• 58:22
  the new world nicely. How do you look at the landscape
• 58:26
  of the Eastern Conference right now?
• 58:28
  Raptors are right now position it in the fifth spot, which is a
• 58:31
  pretty decent spot, which they could still they could still try
• 58:34
  to get home. Homecourt advantage drug in the
• 58:37
  first round, but if you look at the teams above, you got
• 58:40
  Cleveland, who they acquired James Harden in a blockbuster
• 58:44
  deal, then you got the next and then and then the Pistons and
• 58:49
  then the Celtics. That that a lot of people
• 58:51
  thought that they wouldn't be in this position given the fact
• 58:55
  that they've traded guys and Jason Tatum not playing
• 58:58
  throughout the season. But there's there in second
• 59:01
  overall with Jay Jaylen Brown playing out of his mind and
• 59:05
  probably potentially an MVP or so.
• 59:08
  What are your what are your thoughts about the Easter
• 59:10
  Conference and what's the landscape that you see it in
• 59:14
  your eyes? Yeah, I honestly at least as far
• 59:19
  as the Raptors positioning is concerned, I would think that
• 59:24
  they probably the spot there and now looks like where they'll end
• 59:27
  up. Obviously things can can always
• 59:29
  change. You never know, but I would
• 59:32
  consider that to be the most likely outcome.
• 59:35
  Yeah, Cleveland's backcourt even, you know, hardened,
• 59:38
  sustained that kind of thumb fracture lately and and just
• 59:42
  returned and seems to be all right and kind of still managing
• 59:46
  through that. But yeah, very, very scary
• 59:50
  backcourt in terms of the capabilities that they have to
• 59:54
  to be dynamic players in, in multiple facets of the game, be
• 59:58
  it with getting their own shot. You know, making making the
• 1:00:02
  right reads and being able to execute for teammates from the
• 1:00:06
  middle. Of the floor.
• 1:00:08
  Yeah, I I think that Cleveland is is very well positioned now
• 1:00:12
  and that's that's kind of the one team it appeared the Raptors
• 1:00:15
  might have a shot at leaping to get that that first round
• 1:00:18
  homecourt advantage earlier in the season.
• 1:00:20
  They obviously swept the season series against the Cavaliers.
• 1:00:24
  It's pretty much the only top ten NBA team the Raptors have
• 1:00:27
  managed to beat this year, considering their their four and
• 1:00:30
  15 against the top ten teams in the league.
• 1:00:33
  But yeah, they hold they do hold the tiebreaker there.
• 1:00:36
  So if things get tight, if the Raptors really managed to put
• 1:00:40
  together a run, they could maybe leap, leap the caps for that
• 1:00:42
  fourth spot. But I, I think it's, it might be
• 1:00:46
  a tough, tough sledding to get there.
• 1:00:50
  And then, yeah, the set, the Celtics, the Knicks, the
• 1:00:52
  Pistons, I think are, are probably out of reach for the
• 1:00:56
  Raptors, especially considering they do have a quite difficult
• 1:00:59
  strength of schedule down the stretch.
• 1:01:02
  But that said, you know, you, you really do never know.
• 1:01:05
  Lots of, lots of different things can happen.
• 1:01:07
  Injuries can happen. Predicting the future can often
• 1:01:10
  be a fool's errands. So we'll see.
• 1:01:13
  We'll see how all this stuff shakes out, but I I think it
• 1:01:16
  stands to reason the fifth spot is the most likely for for them.
• 1:01:22
  I want to talk a bit about Raptors 905, mainly coach Drew
• 1:01:27
  Jones the third. He was named Kia Coach of the
• 1:01:29
  month of December, his second season as head coach.
• 1:01:34
  They had a historic start to the season and during that I think
• 1:01:38
  it was 14 and O and 16 and O. They started the season and
• 1:01:43
  during that span they had the best defensive rating, one O 2,
• 1:01:48
  and the net rating was 15.7. And he's the third coach to win
• 1:01:52
  that award, the others being Patrick Mutombo and of course
• 1:01:55
  Jerry Stackhouse. So tell us about the job he's
• 1:01:58
  done in helping some of these young players develop.
• 1:02:03
  Yeah, again, I mentioned darker Ryakovich being a a development
• 1:02:06
  coach and so has Drew Jones. He's he's worked as a
• 1:02:10
  development coach all throughout his career with the Raptors
• 1:02:13
  previously also with the Philadelphia 76ers previously.
• 1:02:16
  And all the way coming up. I have gotten to see, you know,
• 1:02:20
  up close a little bit a lot of the the work he's done and how
• 1:02:22
  he operates around the nine O 5 over the last couple seasons.
• 1:02:26
  And I, I guess the first thing that comes to mind to me that
• 1:02:28
  stands out is just consistency, like consistency of messaging,
• 1:02:33
  consistency in terms of the energy he brings and the, you
• 1:02:38
  know, the way the team plays, the schemes they run,
• 1:02:41
  everything. It's been very consistent over
• 1:02:43
  the last couple years, whether that be through down times last
• 1:02:47
  season when the team was struggling and it went on
• 1:02:50
  significant losing streaks and fell out of the playoffs towards
• 1:02:53
  the end of the the 2 thousand 2425 season.
• 1:02:56
  And then like you said, into this season when they started
• 1:02:59
  off yeah, 16 and O, which was AG League record for for the best
• 1:03:03
  start through the tip off tournament there.
• 1:03:06
  And really have put. Together, you know, a
• 1:03:09
  sensational season so far. So yeah, definitely big hat tip
• 1:03:14
  to to Drew Jones there as far as just being able to stay even
• 1:03:21
  keeled. Regardless, the results really
• 1:03:23
  focus on the process. And then yeah, other otherwise
• 1:03:28
  the nine O 5, yeah, they've they've been a super fun group
• 1:03:31
  this year. The G League can be can be
• 1:03:34
  difficult just cause the volatility.
• 1:03:35
  We just saw the nine O 5's backup center Julian Reese get
• 1:03:39
  signed to a two way deal with the Washington Wizards.
• 1:03:42
  So he's no longer with the team. He was a big part of what
• 1:03:45
  they're doing and there is kind of that constant flux in the G
• 1:03:48
  League of of, you know, other NBA organizations kind of
• 1:03:51
  picking up each other's players. So that can be tough.
• 1:03:55
  They have the nine O 5 have been on a little bit of a down
• 1:03:58
  stretch lately, losing 3 out of their or sorry, four out of
• 1:04:01
  their last seven. It is yeah, three and four over
• 1:04:04
  over the last seven games. So they're, they are still kind
• 1:04:09
  of jockeying for playoff positioning similar to the
• 1:04:12
  Raptors. They're in the fourth spot right
• 1:04:13
  now in the Eastern Conference, right around that same same kind
• 1:04:17
  of spot in the standings. So yeah, they'll they'll also be
• 1:04:20
  looking to to head into the playoffs and and make a good
• 1:04:23
  playoff run with guys like Elijah Martin that we talked
• 1:04:26
  about AJ Lawson, hometown kid from from Brampton who's leading
• 1:04:31
  the team in scoring, kind of leading the way there.
• 1:04:34
  So Jonathan Mobil also has been getting a lot of assignment time
• 1:04:38
  with the the nine O 5 from the Raptors.
• 1:04:40
  He was just called back up to the Raptors today, actually this
• 1:04:42
  morning. But he's constantly up and down
• 1:04:44
  too. So yeah, it'll be interesting to
• 1:04:47
  see how the rest of the nine O 5 season goes.
• 1:04:49
  I'll actually have more coverage of that later this week on
• 1:04:52
  Raptors Republic for anyone who'd like to to tune into that.
• 1:04:57
  So to to wrap up this episode for like we talk about the
• 1:05:01
  Raptor as a whole and you look at the team, right?
• 1:05:05
  And let's just say once the season's done and all, like, do
• 1:05:08
  they continue to go the way they trend?
• 1:05:10
  Or do you think there is a possibility that they could go a
• 1:05:13
  line to go get another big star on their team and try to build
• 1:05:17
  around and go for it? Because if you look at the way
• 1:05:20
  the league is going, there could be a possibility a guy like
• 1:05:23
  Giannis could be potentially on the block, perhaps Carol,
• 1:05:26
  Anthony Town, But there'll be more names.
• 1:05:28
  They'll be out there that could potentially be traded.
• 1:05:30
  But like, could you see them be aggressive like how they did in
• 1:05:35
  the past? Or do you think that they're
• 1:05:36
  going to go draft, maybe sign some guys, maybe trade some to
• 1:05:41
  get some? Like what are your thoughts
• 1:05:42
  about this organization a long term?
• 1:05:46
  Yeah, I think it's, again, I think it's so hard to say.
• 1:05:48
  I mean, one thought that I have is that I'm not necessarily sure
• 1:05:53
  if they're ready yet to to make that big Star edition.
• 1:05:56
  I think even if they were to to trade out a few of their more
• 1:06:01
  sizable contracts, they need to include in a trade like that
• 1:06:04
  again, like guys like Baird or Quickly or Pertle to get, yeah,
• 1:06:09
  like you said, say a Giannis or a Cat or a Lamello or whoever
• 1:06:15
  might potentially be. I do think that that wouldn't
• 1:06:20
  necessarily vault them directly into contender status.
• 1:06:24
  There probably still be some some wrinkles and some aspects
• 1:06:28
  of the of the team to figure out from there.
• 1:06:30
  Where as you look in the past, when the Raptors made that all
• 1:06:33
  move and did ultimately win their their their championship
• 1:06:36
  in in 2019, that was the culmination of years and years
• 1:06:42
  of of growth. And it's not always, you know,
• 1:06:46
  sexy or, or like the the coolest thing to kind of slowly build
• 1:06:49
  over time takes a lot of patience.
• 1:06:52
  But I, I do ultimately think the best route for the Raptors is
• 1:06:56
  just to kind of that, you know, put up with that slow burn and,
• 1:07:00
  and incrementally kind of progress over the years.
• 1:07:04
  It's it is tough. You know, people often refer to
• 1:07:07
  it as kind of getting caught on that treadmill in the middle
• 1:07:09
  where you're not adding top end talent from the draft and you're
• 1:07:13
  not contending and you're kind of just stuck in that, that
• 1:07:15
  purgatory space in the middle. But I do think there is a
• 1:07:19
  certain underrated value to that, to building winning
• 1:07:24
  habits, to having continuity year over year, to building up
• 1:07:28
  playoff experience and that that fortitude.
• 1:07:31
  So yeah, that's the direction I think I would like to see the
• 1:07:34
  Raptors go. And then maybe, you know, maybe
• 1:07:36
  eventually they do the the stars align and and the right player
• 1:07:39
  becomes available and they do make that big swing.
• 1:07:42
  But like I said, the you never if if the value is good enough.
• 1:07:46
  If they're able to get a really good talented player in the door
• 1:07:49
  for low enough cost, I think anything is possible.
• 1:07:53
  Well Ian, great insight, great information, great job on your
• 1:07:58
  work overall. Amanda, we appreciate you being
• 1:08:00
  a guest to talk talking about the Raptors and, and, and being
• 1:08:04
  a connoisseur on it. Where can we find you in social
• 1:08:07
  media and everywhere else? Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:08:10
  I mean, I'm happy to join you guys and, and talk, talk rafters
• 1:08:14
  and talk hoops, of course. So thank you for for having me.
• 1:08:18
  You can find me on on Twitter at Ian Finley said under SCORE.
• 1:08:22
  You can find my work on on sportsnet.ca as well and and at
• 1:08:25
  Raptors Republic and and Blue Jays Nation at the Nation
• 1:08:28
  Network also for all my written work.
• 1:08:31
  So yeah, I really appreciate you guys having me on to to talk
• 1:08:34
  sports was a good time. Yeah, it was awesome, man, I
• 1:08:38
  I've been bugging Rocky for so long to get a Raptors guy and
• 1:08:42
  you know, I'm a Raptors die hard.
• 1:08:45
  So I'm so happy that you joined us and you know, it was great
• 1:08:49
  talking with you and really diving deep into what this
• 1:08:54
  Raptors team is and what they can be going forward.
• 1:08:56
  So thank you very much. Yeah, of course.
• 1:08:59
  Thank you guys. Yeah, great, great talking and
• 1:09:04
  anytime you know, I'd be happy to to jump on the show and and
• 1:09:08
  shoot it around about Raptors or Jays or anything.
• 1:09:11
  Yeah, definitely, we would love to have you back down the road
• 1:09:15
  and we will place a description and share some work for me and
• 1:09:18
  and he does a great job at it and make sure you check it out
• 1:09:21
  when once we post it in our descriptions.
• 1:09:23
  But till next time, take care, be kind to each other.
• 1:09:27
  Signing off from the Sports Ave. Twisted podcast on Monday, March
• 1:09:31
  2nd, 2026.