Darko Rajakovic is unlocking the Toronto Raptors

Darko Rajakovic is unlocking the Toronto Raptors

Welcome to pensar basketball live and today we are talking about the Toronto Raptors and the job that head coach new head coach Darko rakovich is doing thank you guys for all of these comments right here road to 7,000 subscribers less than 3030 away yes sir yes sir let’s see if

We can get we can get it done on this live uh make sure to like this video on your way in if you like Raptor’s content if you like postgame shows this is almost always almost every single night the most watched postgame show on the Toronto Raptors but today is not a

Postgame show because the Toronto Raptors are not playing today I thought it would be as good a day is any to discuss the elephant in the room does the guy know how to coach makes a lot of mistakes you know every first time coach does of course give me one sec here sip

On this water but today we’re going to do a a very deep dive into the stats we’re going to look at how the raptors have been doing in this you know iteration of the Toronto Raptors how they were doing last year under Nick nurse we’re going to look at individual players

Specifically Pascal cakam Dennis schroer Scotty Barnes we’re gonna see are they getting better you know because this guy came with a lot of hype right and we were led to believe that we were G to get this beautiful offense and then suddenly next thing you know we’re 13

And 20 and I think that the the record can be quite distracting you know um I think a lot of people would look at a game and when the shots don’t go in and the shots are not going in a lot for the Raptors it and you know if you’re not

Winning games and the shots are not going in and the rookie is not playing 13th overall pick is not playing I think it can get kind of frustrating I think there’s also an element of residual resentment that exists in every single thing that we do right there’s a refraction period if you

Will we were pretty traumatized as a fan base last year under Nick nurse right we watched the coach run the starters into the ground we saw prospects wither away on the bench not develop we saw our prize Rookie of the Year have a stagnant year in which he didn’t grow he didn’t

Have the ball enough and I think a lot of us are still sort of reeling from that and yeah I think I think uh a lot of what Darko is having to counter in terms of not only what’s in his locker room but also some of the toxicity and bad

Habits that are in his locker room I think there’s plenty of bad habits to go around if you’re asking me I think there’s plenty of toxicity and bad habits in this fan base so I thought that it would be a great day perhaps the greatest day um that I could think of to

Start up the new year with an educational statistically oriented video this channel does occasionally when we’re not busy you know um you you know screaming at the clouds about Dennis Schroeder we do occasionally also like to talk about the numbers because the numbers and they they counter the

Narratives right so let’s take a look at the head coach of the Toronto Raptors first of all this graphic uh doing his job is he doing his job maybe should have been the caption because a lot of people think he’s not I mean you would not believe some of the some of the

Stuff that I hear about him hey Rob I know your sister knows this guy who knows him or your sister knows him or you know this guy can you tell him to do this or can you you know does he know how to coach is he an idiot I’ve heard

Him called an idiot more often than perhaps any coach I’ve ever seen in Toronto Lenny Wilkins was over it Kevin O’Neal was psychotic Jay trian was overrated or whatever that was Sam Mitchell you know there was a specific but I didn’t call I didn’t hear Sam Mitchell called

Stupid Darko is called an idiot a lot on social media some of the some of the memes I don’t want to I I I considered piling them all together and just showing you what people say about this guy and I’m not sure where this resentment comes from I’m not sure why

It happens I think it’s possible because he’s just a very blatantly positive person and that pisses a lot of people off positivity when you’re feeling negative feels disingenuous and somewhat annoying let’s take a look at some of the numbers first of all just to come on okay this is where the Raptors were

Last year this is where they are this year I apologize for that first number Pace on Nick nurse that’s wrong um but every other number is correct I I looked at it right now and I’m like whoops that’s wrong but please ignore that first Pace number with Nick nurse this

The pace number with with Darko rockovich is correct I just doubled it up my bad in terms of the offensive rating did you get worse yes defensive rating did you get worse yes but did your roster get worse yes Dennis Schroeder and Fred Van vet it’s a big

Falloff Pascal seak we’ll talk about him but he’s been worse this year on certain things and those things are going to impact both your offense and your defense okay but losing Dennis Schroeder sorry getting Dennis Schroeder in place of Fred bble is a massive fallof for

Anybody and I think if you if you really really consider it you haven’t fallen off that much but where you have gotten considerably better are the two things that we were expecting to get a lot better at which were can we get rid of the selfishness this was all the talking

All the rage the Raptors are selfish they don’t pass the ball everything’s stagnant well guess what you are fourth in the NBA in assists you can smile you can smile at that you can say whatever you know it’s not that big a deal it is

A big deal a team that was very much one-on-one oneon-one all the time you’ve had a coach who’s come in in the first 30 games he made you fourth Without Really changing your roster right like what if what what if you really changed on his roster other than Fred Van B and

And Dennis schroer you still had precious aoua OG anobi Scotty Barnes you still had most of the same pieces yaka purle but now suddenly you’re changing the philosophy and and the pace that you’re playing with in terms of three-point attempts you lose a really high volume three-point shooter in Fred

Van vet this guy regly took 10 11 12 13 14 threes in a game and you start taking more threes as a team because everyone trips in right he’s changed the shot diet of this team to be far more efficient and I’ll prove it to you first

Of all a little shout out in terms of where Darko has cut his teeth here are just a few of the players that would absolutely go on record and say Darko rakovich had a huge part in developing them these are four of the players there are many others if you

Want uh a little bit of a snapshot in terms of how he improves players before we start talking about what he’s done for the current Toronto Raptor team take a look at his one season with Devin Booker that’s a career-high in that’s a career-high true shooting percentage for

De Devon Booker in the one year he had with dark rakovich as an assistant coach he has absolutely talked about how much work he’s done with Devon Booker and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I mean look look at the true shooting percentage for dbook in the in

The four years prior to to darkov rakovich 53.5 53.1 56.1 58.4 and he goes up to 61.8 and no one bats an eye because they’re like hey man that that’s a natural progression he’s getting better but the three years after Darko agage 58 points 7 57.6 it never quite got quite to that

Height right it’s not alone he Devin Booker is not the only player that this has happened for this boost in in efficiency because the Boost is significant by the way 3% true shooting is a massive boost consider the infamous or famous Paul George MVP season this

Was the best year of Paul George’s life and it’s not even close okay consider the value of a replacement in every year prior to and every year since this this year this one year in Oklahoma City with with Darko rakovich sticks out like the statistical outlier of statistical

Outliers like look at the Box L minus in the three years prior to 4.9 3.1 2.9 the one year with Darko 7.2 next year 4.9 4.2 3.7 2.8 I don’t think I’ve seen a career Arc like this look at the look at the value of replacement 3.4 3.6 6.6 2.5 2.9 I mean

Whoa it’s not all him but please understand he was the variable that changed he had a he had a short stop in OKC and he did not you know he was there for a bit so yeah like I mean that one year where he was there that happens for your

Career and and it wasn’t just it wasn’t just Paul George everyone got more efficient he was working with these guys not everyone got more efficient obviously there’s always outliers but like I’m saying the star got more efficient which matters because you got to understand there’s a big coaching staff you devote your development

Specialist to the guys that you need to pop right in this case you needed to darker worked a lot with OG a lot if if if you’ve seen the practice footage and talk to people who’ve you know maybe entered right after practice you always see Darko who’s working a lot with OG

He’s worked with Dennis he’s worked with Scotty he’s worked with precious he’s worked with guys who’ve done who’ve improved a lot consider now of course has the has it continued look at Scotty Barnes last year versus this year just look at it and also I mean consider

Where he was heading because honestly he came into his rookie season like gang busters he was incredible in his rookie season 0.9 boxes minus for a rookie wow but the very next year 0.4 this year 6.1 that’s a little bit down from where he’s been at times this year eight 6.5

7.2 he basically turned him from a starting level player to a superstar in one year one offseason and believe me I’m I’m not saying that he did it alone he has a coaching staff he has Jama here jama’s huge right he has he has Scotty has his

Trainer Brian Mon he has a huge part in this but please understand like how he’s unlocked him to go from 52% true shooting to 58% true shooting uh suddenly all of these things that we were talking about make sense right look at Scotty’s shooting chart now those red B red blotches are

Last year look at look at the left side that’s last year right side’s this year okay the those red blotches are where he is below League average considerably okay and the lighter the color of the dot the more positive in terms of relative to League average it is did you

See Scotty Martins becoming a competent three-point shooter this year sure did you see him becoming one of the best above the break three-point Shooters on decent volume in the league I don’t think people can understand how bad he was from there last year look at the

Numbers he went from one of the worst to one of the best from the exact same spot spots that’s crazy if you really think about it that’s absolutely insane now is it just Scotty I is is that all he’s here for consider Dennis Schroeder Houston La Toronto right three

Stops has he been better here boxus minus negative 4.4 negative3 uh negative 2.9 suddenly this year negative 1.2 value of replacement he was a negative value replacement player the last two years this year he is positive what about true shooting percentage has Darko worked his magic on true shooting

Percentage yes he has the highest true shooting percentage of those three years didn’t come with LeBron and AD it’s coming with Pascal and Scotty apparently you know I mean come on guys like really understand here field goal attempts per 100 he he’s taking more shots here than he was in Houston and LA

And he’s shooting a higher percentage three-point percentage 32.8 32.9 oh suddenly there’s a jump 35.8 I mean those those uh just an FYI before you lose your mind and say Dennis Schroeder is not shooting 22 points per game um those are per 100 numbers so the top numbers are his Advanced stats the

Bottom numbers are as per 100 numbers okay even as a passer this would be his best season even in terms of steals this is his best season and even in terms of limiting turnovers per 100 possessions in Houston 4.6 last year with the Lakers with fewer

Ball handling duties by the way with a much better roster around him 2.7 this year 2.6 he makes people better look at Dennis the shot chart last year versus this year he’s made him a competent to slightly below average Rim finisher from one of the worst last

Year okay okay so maybe he’s 16th percentile now and he was fourth percentile last year do you understand like that’s a jump that’s it’s a good thing he’s made him a more efficient shooter from outside his three-point percentage has gone up right he’s he’s limiting he’s he’s pushing him into

Areas of the Court where he’s actually dominant and like I mean look at the look at where Dennis Schroeder has has come in terms of being a right a right a right side of the Court um mid-range pull-up guy like consider the volume now he’s better in those spots do you think

It’s slight tweaks that darko’s making or do you think that hey man uh Lebron James and Anthony Davis and you know all the players that are with LA that team was creating so much more room for Dennis Schroeder this is the Darko effect now one player that you know has

Caught a lot of Strays on this channel frankly fairly or unfairly I’ve been very critical of hakum this year his defense and all that stuff for sure but you know one player who’s really really thriving under under um Darko rackers that we often don’t talk about Pascal SE yakum take a

Look here’s Pascal SE yakum shot chart last year versus this year notice a change there’s a lot less mid-range stuff going on number one granted volume but seriously he’s getting a lot of stuff in the paint and look man he is completely died from above the break but he’s become an

Efficient Corner shooter 40% 38% in the corners like I mean he’s he’s he’s totally inverted like last year he was dead in that left corner in that right corner and suddenly he can shoot from there consider 58.6 two point percentage it’s the highest since 2018 2019 that’s the championship season 29 59% true

Shooting it’s the highest since the championship season 22.7% three-point attempt rate is the highest since 2020 2021 which means the last two years he was taking fewer threes okay now consider Pascal cakam last year versus this year and just overall value is down he’s been a worse player but

Why what is it that is bad about Pascal cakam this year and is killing his analytics well number one it certainly didn’t help that he started the season out shooting where where he was shooting from you know um just overall like his his his shooting has been down he’s had

Troubles at the free throw line he’s he’s having trouble but really where why are the impact metrics killing SE yakum this year how did he go from a 3.5 3.1 to a 1.3 box was minus Guy where is he losing the value well really a significant amount of the value is being

Lost on defense his negative 0.5 defensive boxes minus a career low never in his life has he gotten that 10.2 to uh the total rebound percentage is a career low he’s never been this bad a rebounder in his life even last last night he played 40 minutes and got five

Rebounds you think that’s purely because he’s playing with Scotty and yakob it’s not his rebounding effort has been missing 0.4% block percentage is a career low he started his career out at 4.5 granted a lot of rookies are very jumpy and they play not too many minutes

So they’re trying to make an impact but man if you told me Pascal seak comes into this season somehow under 1% block percentage I would have been shocked 0.4 is he one of the worst shot blockers in the NBA I don’t know but he’s definitely one of the worst shop

Blockers he he is probably the worst shop blocker right now that starts in the NBA it’d be hard to find someone who’s worse that’s significant he’s got a seven foot three wingspan like how you know what I mean this is effort everything that’s down is effort motored but it’s turning around certain

Things are turning around consider Pascal siakam’s December it is a December to remember it was his best of the Season consider the growth from month to month to month October 16 points per game November 21 points per game December 24.8 points per game January granted one game 36 points per

Game is he about to go on a heater is he about to go crazy but have 30 points per game he could consider all the other elements of the game that matter free throw percentage has been going up like clockwork 71 74 76 83 up up up up what about that three-point percentage

October he comes out 28% he has a hell of a November 17.9% 3o percentage we’re thinking oh my God how did he get so bad December he shoots almost League average 37% from three his attempts are down fair but what if those attempts come up right what if those attempts come up

A little bit more he kind of finds his rhythm a little bit free throw shooting percentage feeling better right rebounds have been troubling right this is an effort thing Pascal siakam’s defense and the Raptor defense overall has been on nose dive for much of the month of December and I expect having

Lost ogn and Obi it’s not about to get a lot better here’s this here’s the record ahead for the Toronto Raptors in terms of strength of schedule for the month of January they are 15th they’re dead middle okay the average opponent they’re going to face is around

A 500 team you know so they’re not going to have like the toughest schedule which is New Orleans right uh New Orleans has been blessed so far with a very easy schedule um and they’re not going to have like the easiest schedule which is what I believe the Chicago Bulls have if

This screen would expand further to the 30th it would be the Chicago Bulls they have the easiest schedule remaining uh for the month of January so yeah so I hope those STS were a little bit Illuminating for you guys in terms of understanding what is and what isn’t

Happening for the individual players on this team I think a lot of people have been justifiably perhaps unjustifiably a little bit upset that Grady dick is not getting minutes why is Grady not playing he’s 13th overall pick um you know why is he not playing

Games and I think when you look at this screen right here hold on you see reasons for hope those are four really incredible shooters by the way I mean melbridge is not an incredible shooter but Darko really understands development man you know when he was hired it was uh

I heard the story actually of how he was hired they weren’t sure he was ready um someone had messaged the about Darko rakovich they had I mean they knew who he was obviously and they’ said he might be looking he’s really good I’m not sure if he’s

Ready I’m not sure if he wants to do it right now but consider it because he’s really good for what you need he’s really good and he’s going to be like one of the one of ones coming up in the next level is it too early early for him is

This one of those things where he took this jump too soon I don’t think so you know there’s a lot that makes a coach good right now if you’re like most people You’ suffered some amount of trauma in your life some amount of trauma coping Etc sorry one sec train passing

By and you have experiences with other coaches you know the NBA is a fraternity it’s a very very small group so when you do something with one player when you do something with Devon Booker that Devon Booker doesn’t like and it’s really out of pocket like if if Devon Booker and

You agree at 6: am you’re meeting at the gym and you’re not there at 545 like that’s your reputation with the entire organization that just got tarnished because you broke your word right if you break a promise to a player believe me like everyone on that that

Team will know if you tell one person one person one thing and tell another person another thing if you start trying to play the chess pieces against each other if you start becoming manipulative and toxic they’ll figure it out NBA players are incredibly smart I know that

People have this notion that they’re not because maybe they’re not the most highly educated because a lot of them only have one year of college they kind of pass through High School whatever but the thing is that every single NBA player has almost every single player

Has one thing in common they have been lied to their whole lives they’ve had boosters they’ve been recruited they’ve been told they’ve been given tons of promises by a coaches and College Programs they’ve been wooed and and sold myths and lies their whole lives they’ve been given Saab stories by their

Relatives and you know oh my God I want to start this business but I can’t because I need a kidney transplant or whatever oh my God you got to understand when you when you when you Aspire and and Ascend to the level of wealth that these dudes do people Cap all the time

People lie and people always want something from you and so you become weary you become guarded and a little bit Cy you start wondering if your GM and your coach are lying to you what whether what what’s their real plan what are they really trying to do what’s my

Agent really trying you know Vince Carter went through this very early when his agent you know took his money basically and it was someone that they trusted a lot of NBA athletes they fired their first agent because usually their first agent is the guy that their

Parents want for them and then when they get to 21 22 look at what Luca is going through right now with his mom right like even parents and grandparents and uncles are not safe you ever you ever wonder why kawh Leonard is just so so so committed to his uncle Uncle Dennis why

Kawai kind of soured on the Spurs organization why Kawai was so great to us why was kawhai so great to Messiah I kept it straight with him protected him kept it 100 and and you know that’s the whole point here right you keep it you keep it fair and then everyone starts to

Register that hey this guy’s not just putting on a front he’s not just telling Malachi he wants to see him smile and then secretly in coaches meetings he’s talking about Malachi every every single day and he hates him that’s that’ll burn everyone out real quick you need to build

Trust and you need need to know what you’re talking about cuz these players they played this game their whole life they know every play they know you know they they understand so teaching a professional basketball player how to be better at their craft not easy not it’s not for me and

You no offense to you and certainly no offense to me be very difficult for me to have a conversation with Pascal sakam and legitimately a tell him something that he doesn’t already know about his game and B get him to believe that I know what the hell I’m talking about

This is not an easy connection to make NBA players are paid millions and millions of dollars they have massive egos as they probably should and coming in as a first year head coach is a very precarious situation especially if you can’t create that Bond and that bond is not going to

Be created overnight he spent all summer with these players as much as he could he couldn’t con connect with SE yakum because SE yakum was missing from a lot of the team events this summer because there was all the rumors and the trade stuff now there’s also the business side

Of the NBA which I think a lot of people don’t realize that this is not high school this is not you got cut because the coach didn’t like you no this is you got a contract the coach can’t cut you You’ got a certain Clause the coach

Can’t bench you you got you got to maintain trade value you know what I mean I mean I had a coach once in high school where if you miss practice twice you didn’t play the whole year that was the deal you can be sick once that’s

It if you miss two games in the NBA you don’t just get benched for the whole season this is a business that’s the thing it’s a business so I appreciate one thing about Darko rakovich and I’ll tell you a few actually a few things that I appreciate about him number one

He really knows what he’s doing he really understands like the technical elements of basketball you may not always see it in the Synergy of lineups and whatever but you know what I’ll tell you why you and I don’t see it or why you know it isn’t always so obvious we all

Have a Wishful Wishful blinders on right my wishful blinders are that Scotty’s a point guard right now that he can handle you know 30 pick and rolls every single game that’s my wishful blinders because that’s what I see for him but objectively in reality right now I can

See why someone might think he’ll struggle with that I believe the Scotty should be launching threes like he is right now last year but what’s his skill work there does it really help to for him to come out and shoot you know seven threes a game if he’s going to shoot 22%

25% or will it just kill the team kill confidence and you know disrupt his development this patience of building things up slowly it’s not always popular with fans every fan wants to come out and see a 10 game win streak they don’t want to see the 2

And8 Growing Pains that lead to the 10 game win streak because the two and8 growing pains are tough I think if you’re really being honest you can probably relate this back to your life as well right the period before the rainbow if you want to call

It the the parade the whatever it’s not usually pretty you know my life was not pretty from the age of 12 to 18 18 it was hell I worked 50 hours a week sometimes during High School sometimes 40 hours a week sometimes 35 hours a week I was

Chronically sleep deprived I had a vision I had a plan for my life my life was not fun it was not fun it was messy it was disgusting my grades slipped obviously my guidance counselor said you have to choose you can’t you can’t work and come to

School I chose to do both I had a plan I I my plan was my life’s going to be held for you know years but at the end of it I’m going to get something out of it I don’t know is that crazy you make people do things like you

Know the Yannis at point guard experiment that everyone talks about with you know Jason kid go back and watch how ugly that was it was disgusting he was not a point guard even right now this Victor wanyama thing you know how many wins the Spurs have with their truly very generational first

Overall pick it’s not going super smoothly the OKC Thunder they lost a ton of games with Shay before it came to this right so I think people really need to see that this vision is much longer than what happened last week what’s going to happen next week there’s so much more to

This and there has to be and for a coach there’s also the self-preservation element of it is the media killing me are the are the players losing faith in me am I you know um am I losing the trust that I have for management am I

Losing my staff you know I did I I made a bad call you know this lineup that I thought was really going to work you know it didn’t work this development plan that I had for this player to improve their three-point shooting has made their three-point shooting worse oh

My god do I have to change everything do I all of these things have to be very much they have to go back to two things number one you have to have confidence in these moments that you know what you’re doing and number two you have to

Be willing to change if new information presents itself it’s a very fine line between being rigid and being adaptable Dennis Schroeder drives me insane watching him on the basketball Drive basketball court drives me insane I think it’s partially because of his personality I think his personality drives me insane sometimes his shooting

Shooting form and shooting shot selection driv me insane but would you believe that he posted a higher box of spus last last night than I uh then Emanuel quickly would you believe that you know RJ like like what we don’t see on the basketball court and what we do see are

So like it’s so tainted okay I’m curious chat I need your help in in terms of boxes minus who would you say the Raptor’s top player was last last night just guess you watched it right um Jonathan Convoy correct now who would you say was the Raptor’s worst player last night in

Terms of box of SM I appreciate this so much man thanks Chuck saying Gary Trent Jr nope guess again Scott plays 2K correct correct negative 7.6 and Pascal was positive 10.1 I think the event box score was crazy for last night as a coach and by the way Dennis

Pascal and Scotty were the positives for the whole team em Emanuel quickley IQ or Manny quick as he has often been referred to Manny quick um was slightly below NE below positive he was the fourth best player for the Raptors last night of course Bo is not everything surely you could say

That thus Young’s 2 minutes should not make him as bad as the seven negative 7.4 that he posted but it’s it’s a good way to verify the eye test and I think you know five turnovers for RJ Barrett you know some of some of his defense I

Think there there’s some sense to be made of that also think it’s not something to panic about so what makes me hopeful that this roster right now let me just end this live on this note what makes makes me hopeful that Darko rakovich is not going

To screw up you know or that he’s the right coach for this franchise or that you know maybe RJ Barrett Emanuel quickley Scotty Barnes Grady dick Christian Koko and all the young players on this team that I haven’t named in that in that you know in that grouping

That they are going to have the success enjoyed by cam Johnson and Devin Booker and Mel Bridges and Desmond Bane well number one I think and Gary TR Jr of course number one I think they trust him they saw him fight for and respect the absolute most discarded most afterthought player on

The team they saw him genuinely care for him and if you think that people didn’t notice that you’re crazy this is very political but this is also very very strategic and very intelligent of dark rakovich wow thank you so much Ken I appreciate that that’s very nice of you thank

You um and happy New Year sir to you when you consider this group of men Malachi became a guinea pit they saw him get better and better and better I mean granted it still it still didn’t amount to much if you want to know how much of an afterthought Malachi

Flynn is I was listening to the Bill Simmons pod last night and they said that the Raptors and the Knicks made a classic two for two trade trading precious aoua and OG anobi for RJ Barrett and Emanuel quickley and then someone said um what about Malachi Flynn and

Bill Simon said I forgot he was even in this trade until you just mentioned it he is so much of an afterthought every head coach that comes in and kisses ass with the star player right and they just come in and be like Oh Pascal seak Scotty Barnes you know

I’m gonna focus on those guys assistant coaches you focus on everybody else but I think Scotty and and and Pascal can look at guy look at a guy like Darko and say he’s giving the same respect to Gary and and precious and Chris and Thad and

Garrett and Dennis and Malachi as he is to us he’s not playing favorites here even the willingness to bench Dennis I think that went a long way with me but you know why I was so so Cy about that do you know why I was so agitated about

That and I didn’t realize it until I really thought about it is because I watched a coach for the last three years insist on starting a player who was hurting the team you know through the F through through the NBA Playoffs um when the Raptors were about

To win a championship I fully felt that Fred Van B was about to cost us that Philly series he was horrible he was a net negative every single night everything you’re watching right now from Jaylen Jaylen McDaniels like that’s Fred Van B shooting brick after brick after brick after

Brick thank God for that Kawai Kawai jump shot but like man I’m like sitting there I’m like yo and then it happened again the next year where he runs out this like like massively undersized most undersized back court in Raptor history with two six-foot guards and granted you

Know you’re a good team and you can sell yourself on it that you’re starting your five best players but man I mean Tom Tibido won’t start a 6 foot2 Emanuel quickley with six 6869 wingspan next to Jaylen Brunson and both of these guys are bigger than your biggest guy in that

Back court and you didn’t think that was going to cost you against Boston of course it did but he had to start Fred and then every year after I just watched this coach prioritize this player who was a very good player but he was blind to him and now everyone draws the

Parallel Darko Darko Darko Dennis Dennis Dennis because Dennis came out and he said all this stuff about how he’s here for Darko and he loves Darko yo they just traded for Manuel quickly and believe it this was in the pipeline the whole way through this is the deal they

Were looking for if it was not going to be this deal it was going to be a deal for Dej or someone like that okay because if OG was available dejon was available back if OG would have resigned with the Hawks so I look at this and I

Say it’s not it’s not Nick nurse and Fred Bley at all but because we’re so used to that we’re so wired for that we’re so used to a a coach who’s stubborn with his rotations and go back and listen to what what we were saying about Nick nurse you

Don’t think he was stubborn with his rotations he was inconsistent with his his rotations that he kept playing his starters 40 plus minutes ran his starters into the ground isn’t that being stubborn with your rotations yeah it’s being very stubborn it’s not allowing guys we had all sorts of

Questions about Nick’s rotations we would we we wouldn’t understand why Jeff outon could play such a great game one game and then be benched for the next two weeks we wonder that what are we wondering right now why is otter not playing same thing we are still recovering from the trauma of having

Nick nurse as our coach but there’s also a conditioning that happens when you listen to a guy every single night we listen to Nick nurse every single night come out and you know he was pretty smooth and you know um when the Raptors didn’t play well he

Felt heavy and he was mirroring our frustrations yeah you know you know Doug yep yep it’s not good not good you just imagine I have an NN hat he’s not coming out and saying like ah we have to be patient guys we have to be you know we

Have to we have to understand that this is going to be a process and we’re not coming out upbeat he wasn’t coming out upbeat and when you’re frustrated and someone else is upbeat you think that person’s crazy but I’ll tell you something the energy that he is bringing into every practice

Is something that every single player is on record saying this is what we need and it wasn’t going to happen overnight and you’re not going to wipe out all the selfishness or whatever you want to call it from last year you’re not going to wipe out all the bet on your self and

The worrying about the contracts I’ll also say this one thing do you know how many players on this team know for sure they’re going to be here in two weeks three weeks four weeks if if daddy’s young had to BET right now how much money you think he’s

Willing to bet that he’s going to be on this roster in a month how much money would Otto bet that he’s GNA be on this roster in a month how much money would Pascal bet that he’s going to be on this roster next month none of these guys know this is a

Bus terminal right now it’s very difficult the position he’s been put into it’s almost like they’re they’re putting him through the ringer here hey you have this pretty inexperienced coaching staff oh you’re going to coach Pascal SE yakum even though you weren’t supposed to coach Pascal seak because he was supposed to

Be Atlanta bound but then his team kibos that trade and then I guess the Raptors have their own part in kib bosing that trade as well and you’re going to try to build this motion offense with a whole bunch of guys who can’t really you know read the

Floor and we’re going to force you to play Malachi Flynn and precious auua because you need to keep their value up so that we can trade them to the New York Knicks and get this packcher that we really want and we need you to implement this entire roster you know

With a you know pick and roll uh between Dennis and and yakob where one guy can’t shoot and the other guy can’t shoot so that one day you can replace Dennis with a guy who can shoot and we also need you to get Scotty Barnes out of this massive you know

One-year slump that he was in last last year and rehabilitate that career Arc and we also need you to teach OG and anobi how to finish the basket which is something Nick nurse hasn’t ever been able to do you know Nick nurse came out every single night last year and said

Yeah yep we’re asking Scotty to take more shots we want him to be more aggressive we want him to be more aggressive why why did it take till this year for it to happen is it just because Fred left or is it because the messaging and the

Connection that Darko has been able to create with Scotty you just listen to the you just watch these two like talk you you see a complete difference in his body language and I think Darko has a lot of things to work on his rotations his hyperness I think the

These things hopefully will get better with time but one thing I’ve noticed is number one he’s willing to acknowledge when he’s wrong which I really appreciate I don’t think that should be taken for granted a lot of coaches are very stubborn and they don’t know what

They don’t know which which is why they don’t learn he’s a lifelong learner he’s committed to this he’s very different you know I’m listened to this guy talk in 2016 he seems very different his philosophy on basketball is just changing he’s constantly trying to surround himself with people who can

Teach him and I think maybe players appreciate that too that he can just you know we we don’t hear the private practices obviously the media is not allowed in inside the practices while they’re happening they come in afterwards so you don’t know like like you know while he’s running the

Practices like whether somebody says Hey Darko uh didn’t you say this now you’re wrong about that you don’t know if he says you know what you’re right my my fault but I’ll almost guarantee you he does because that just seems consistent with everything else I’ve heard about

Him and everything else I’ve seen from him and all these pressors that we’re seeing from him he’s trying to be authentic he’s trying to keep the message consistent which is great I hope that the energy stuff will get better I hope the lineups will get better I hope Dennis’s role on this team

But you know every coach has this security blanket you know for for tibs it’s the point guard prototype you know that he’s always clung to and and and probably Todd Gibson right I mean coaches have Tendencies and hopefully he can learn to trust against

His but I have no doubt you know I got to tell you if this was Nick nurse right now if Nick nurse was the coach of this team and Grady had come out to the start that he’s come out to to you know struggling on defense struggling with

Everything I would be very worried I would be very worried I’m not worried have you seen me worried even once about Grady dick since draft night the day after draft night let’s let’s ignore draft night in my reaction but the day after draft night have you seen me

Worried at all have you seen me worried when he you know had a bad Summer League game no have you seen me worried when he you know had bad games in in the g-league no I’m not worried I’m not worried because I trust I trust this guy

I trust him to adjust I trust him to keep Grady motivated and on track but most importantly I trust that he knows what Grady needs to be successful that he’s had success with this player type that he’s had success developing and that he has success with connecting with

Guys that he has this sort of presence of Mind of learning how to connect and maybe even has the humility to know that if there’s an assistant coach who’s connecting better then to let him handle it seems like everything is just about planning to the Future and

Not worrying so much about the now and so I empathize with him because he’s dealing with a fan base and a media you know that is increasingly very very agitated about the now you know all those fire Bobby Webster Fire Messi uuy things but not

Lost on me you never saw me say fire fire Messiah fire Bobby and I think this chat was like you have to you’re protecting management you’re your supporting them I can be critical of the yaka purle trade without saying these guys are bad at their jobs they haven’t done their jobs very well

Over the last two years but I cannot ignore who they are and how they think and how rare that is and I think that they did a very very good job in hiring this guy because he does a lot of the same stuff that they do which is they

Keep the 10-year Vision alive in their heads they understand what they’re trying to do you know a lot of people you know they develop and then somebody else gets credit for it a lot of people they screw things up and someone else has to take the blame I think a lot of

What the Raptors are going through right now is because of bad habits they forged last year and there’s always this residual effect as I mentioned when a when a new coach comes in they get to reap some of the benefits of the previous coaching regimes development Nick nurse didn’t develop Joel

Embiid he was hired like well into Joel’s career he didn’t develop Tyrese Maxi and had James Harden you know not demanded a trade we wouldn’t be seeing this Evolution from pares Maxi we wouldn’t we’d still be seeing the same drama same heavy energy and maybe the you know maybe the Sixers

Would be off to a terrible start but things line up sometimes you’re lucky sometimes you’re good I’m not going to take away from the fact that Nick nurse has done a lot of good stuff for Joel embiid in that offense he’s also taking over for probably the worst coach in the

NBA this is what I mean Nick’s fans are going crazy right now for OG and anobi he’s also taking over for one of the worst starting small forwards in the NBA in RJ Barrett right and he’s a very average starting small forward so when you when you’ve been used to the worst

Starting small forward in the NBA average is going to feel great and that’s the thing so overall what I’d like to say is that I would like for you to really think to yourself today tomorrow whenever you have the time has darkov rakovich done a good job and what is the measuring stick

That you’re holding him on if you’re holding him on wins and losses I think you’re missing the plot if you’re holding him on development of Breaking Bad Habits building a new culture I think you’re on the right track I think that eventually things will get better I hope for the

Raptor sake that it will happen this year because they don’t have their draft pick but I am almost certain that a day from tomorrow so sorry a day one year from now on this day so January 2nd 2025 I am almost positive that this will go down as one

Of the better coaching hires in Raptor’s history uh Chuck saying R.J is the worst starting four in the league starting three so starting small forward yes yes he he I mean he’s close if he’s not the worst then he’s bottom three um he puts up a very let’s call it

Inconsequential 18 to 20 points I believe at 23 he can get a lot better it’s not average for a 23 year old the average starter in the NBA is not 23 the average starter is older than 23 so 23 is still very young and I believe once

Again if we had traded for RJ Barrett and just be just to be completely clear on my take on this if we had traded for RJ Barrett and we had Nick nurse here I would be more mortified truly truly petrified mortified and scared for the future of this franchise that this will

Become one of the most to look organizations Zack low called it a toxic contract I’m coming out here saying have hope why do I have hope because I trust in Jama and Darko to fix and I trust him to listen that’s it that’s the Gap that’s the gap between the previous

Coaching regime and the current coaching regime now if I have to stop LeBron James for one night do I trust Nick nurse over Darko rakovic hell yes I do if I have to draw up a game plan to beat the Atlanta Hawks tomorrow do I trust

Nick nurse more than dark rakovich yes I do but if I am trying to build up a player’s confidence change his habits have a coach who connects with players have a coach who can really grow players have a coach who can break um break through with players and because you

Know it’s really difficult to get to coach someone if they don’t trust you I think that’s fair I think that’s very fair if you look back truly truly truly all those stats that I flashed in the beginning of the development you know jumps that players have taken with Darko

Go back and really look at Nick nurse’s tenure and tell me which player got materially better year over year Pascal stagnated OG stagnated Fred stagnated all of these guys came up under Dwayne Casey I’m not saying Nick nurse had nothing to do with it please understand

I’m not trying to throw the guy under the bus but find me a player who materially got way better in terms of the analytics efficiency and any material way other than volume now Nick nurse likes to guy likes to play guys 40 minutes a night so yeah one you know one

Guy might go from 15 points to 22 points because he plays more minutes takes more shots but where what about the offic the most efficient year of Pascal siakam’s career under Nick nurse was his first year right uh Chuck saying how do you define non-consequential um he played for tips

Um first of all thank you for so thank you so much for the super sticker here I I would love for you to clarify that if you could um like in okay I think I understand I understand the where where the where the comment is coming from so there’s there’s this there’s this

Staying in basketball empty calories right like how you score your points so there are some guys who score their points in a very consequential way right um trying to think of someone who scores their points in a very consequential way and I think Emanuel quickly is a really

Good example of someone who scores their points in a very consequential way um RJ is the opposite of that for now for now um he takes high volume bad shots um doesn’t draw a lot of gravity teams leave them open a lot they sag off of him makes life harder for other

Players which is a really big reason why the Knicks ultimately decided to move on from their former number three pick and they decided to bring in a guy who is an average small small forward if not a slightly above average small forward in OG and anobi is OG and anobi a top 10

Small forward in the NBA he’s cracking that list he could crack that list and I think that that is exactly why the Knicks made that tra trade because they feel that what Emanuel quickley can do they can find it somewhere else they think not what Emanuel quickley could be

Five years from now or two years from now or a year from now which is a completely different equation but what IQ did for them this year they can find a lot of that in Jordan Clarkson if he becomes available something like that right Jordan Clarkson I think he just

Had a triple double last night congrats to Jordan Clarkson but that’s the point so OG an anobi was that much of an upgrade over AR J Barrett now we are pl we took one guy out and put the other guy right into our starting lineup so we are going to

Suffer the consequences of that until RJ can break the bad habits that he has and I think the bad habits are you know tunnel vision as people mentioned defensively he has to get better laterally we need to find a role for him he’s uh his finishing has been tough um

Which is not great you know at the NBA level but look at the incremental increases like rg’s not that far you know he’s not like a terrible player in terms of estimated plus minus he is I believe the 120 133rd best player in the NBA can we

Get him to 75 because that justifies the contract so what would getting him to 75 mean let’s see to get him to 75 you would have to make him a above average Corner 3o shooter the above The Brak stuff maybe it’ll come next year maybe it’ll never come but at the very least

Get him into the corner because because here’s the cool thing Pascal seak is starting to become very very good from those Corners if RJ can take the other corner and IQ and Scotty have the top covered well suddenly you have a very very decently spaced offense that’s it that’s

Perfect RJ Barrett needs to really really hone in on going right we need to work on some of the finishing stuff OG became a better finish with dark rakovich in less than two and a half months of work can RJ do that I think he’s hungry everything he

Said in his in his pressure makes me very optimistic even what Darko said like you know he came up to me he said coach what can I do better perfect if he’s willing to listen and you know the other thing is and I wantan to I I do

Want to end this before an hour because I know these lives get a little bit long and and people complain about it so I I do want to end this live um within the with within the next five minutes I just want to say players talk they really

Talk as much as I said before you know um the reputation that certain guys you know certain assistant coaches develop as like this guy’s really really bad don’t don’t mess with him he’ll lie to you he he’ll he’ll misguide you he’ll screw up your development you know please understand that Stephen silus is

Not inspiring a hell of a lot of confidence given his track record in um Houston right your reputation proceeds you it’s a very very close-knit Community everyone knows everyone within two degrees of separation it’s almost impossible right so when information spreads about somebody being bad at their job or

Breaking their words to their players constantly or being late or whatever the same thing can happen in the positive too and I think so much of development comes back to trust faith if you will trust if you have the trust that a particular coach really knows what they’re talking about because

You know another player that they really helped you know another player that says this is the guy who changed my jumpshot this is the guy who changed my finishing he’s been doing this for years in the NBA three different stops right OKC Memphis wait three different stops there was another one Phoenix OKC

Memphis Phoenix so three different stops imagine all the players he’s coached imagine all the people that have familiar memories of him you don’t think those people reached out to Scotty Barnes and said you got a good one trust this guy he’ll guide you right you don’t think those people reached out to Grady

Dick and everyone knows everyone in the NBA right Grady dick has known NBA player since he was in grade 12 you don’t think these guys hear it they hear it they hear it Grady a former McDonald’s All-American you know top five top 10 recruit whatever he was Gatorade Player of the

Year this guy is being asked to fundamentally change his game by a man that he does not know do you not think ego sets in why do you think so many prospects fail they fail because they don’t trust the voice and they fail because someone can’t break through the

Ego because they always have people in their lives gassing up and saying they’re great they’re great they’re great and then they have a coach saying you’re not and that’s why you’re not playing finessing the needle threading the needle of this is so important it’s so important that you don’t break confidence break trust

Before you establish a connection this thing goes back to it’s it’s basketball coaching yes it’s it’s a lot of theory yes but it’s also on a human level it’s very psychological you need to understand the best way to connect with people I think Darko gets it man I

Really do so I think the Raptor fans regardless of how how much of a bud bath or how much of a beautiful experience this next road trip is going to be and the Raptors are on the road for the next six games I believe and it’s a tough one

They come out of this three and three I think your your season is saved you come out of this 0 and six your season might be over you just dug yourself too big a hole there’s a lot on the line but regardless of how this road trip goes

Please understand the vision is much longer than this season or next season You’re Building these players up and now some of them especially Manuel quickley RJ Barrett Scotty Barnes Grady dick Christian Koko potentially these guys are guys who have long-term Futures in this in this franchise which means that the work that

You put in today in these guys the 2% incremental improvements that you make today next summer 2% 2% 2% the rewards will be reaped later whoever taught Pascal SE yakum how to drive into the basket rip through all the stuff that he does now today that’s

Serving him so well how he spun from the free throw line got right to the front of the rim whoever taught him how to do that eight years ago we’re still seeing the fruits of that the work that Brian did with Scotty the work that Jam’s doing with Scotty to

To make him more confident the work that Darko is doing with Scotty to evolve him as a three-point shooter is work that he will take into next summer and maybe maybe he’s going to be the guy to break the Raptor three-point record one day could you believe that imagine

If that happened because the way the league is going in terms of more three-point shooting more three-point shooting he might be he might be the guy who one day hits 15 threes in a game or 12 threes in a game because he just hit seven the other day and at that

Point we won’t think back to the summer of 2023 when he and Brian went through three a days or two a days and just launched thousands of shots we won’t think about that but that’s the work that’s the work and it builds up and it builds up and it builds

Up and it doesn’t pay off right away and it looks ugly and it misses and whatever all those clanks and all those misses last year it’s part of a process all these losses is part of a process but man for the first time in a very long

Time the Tron Raptor roster makes sense to me now who am I I’m a guy on the internet runs a YouTube channel that I hope is a little bit closer after this live to getting to 7,000 subscribers I would very much appreciate if you like this video thank you from the bottom of

My heart to you know uh Chuck here and um also Ken thank you for your super chats um to both of you and thank you to this community for liking this video for chilling out in these lives we had almost 900 people last night in the

Live 900 people I think we we peaked at 880 880 people in the live as I said we the north part two we’re back all right take care guys what a transition yes I I I’m not known for my transitions but even I was very proud of that one

All right hit the like button folks thank you guys so much also I want to just say one thing a lot of you reach out to me via Instagram I don’t check my request folder some of these comments that I read today right before this live very inspiring from the heart very

Inspiring a lot of people talking about their kids a lot of people talking about their spouses like this community is just so much better and bigger than basketball and I love it people saying like man I’m learning um you know my kids watch your show wow this is crazy

To me like this is so humbling thank you to the 315 of you who are in here right now to the you know thousand plus people are going to watch this later thank you so much I hope you have a great day and good luck to the Raptors tomorrow peace guys that’s

The Toronto Raptors are 13-20. They’ve been down big to the Wizards and Spurs. They lost to the Hornets (without Lamelo) and the Blazers. And they have the dubious honour of being the team that snapped the Detroit Pistons 28-game skid.

The Raptors have been bad under Darko Rajakovic. They have underperformed, consistently played down to their competition, given up leads, and for weeks now they have played terrible defense.

It’s hard to say that a coach who has taken plenty of heat is doing an even remotely competent job so far. Fans have been quick to point to rotations, in-game adjustments, weird lineups, his reluctance to start Gary Trent Jr, his over-reliance and extended leash for players like Flynn and McDaniels, but in a league where coaches are often hung on wins and losses, Darko Rajakovic is losing the battle while winning the war.

He’s committed to a very long-term vision for the type of basketball this team eventually wants to play, the types of players they want to have, and how those various chess pieces have to develop their individual skillsets before their collective team success can materialize into something fans can tangibly measure; wins, banners and championships.

Darko Rajakovic is not perfect. He is however, a very intelligent coach who is exactly as advertised.

#Raptors #NBA #Serbia