Toronto Raptors continue run of promising post-trade play in undermanned loss to LA Clippers

Toronto Raptors continue run of promising post-trade play in undermanned loss to LA Clippers

On your Thursday episode of Locked on Raptors the Raptors fall to the LA Clippers for their second loss at crypto.com Arena in as many nights but if anything from the two game stint in La has been revealed it’s that this Toronto Raptor team has got some good

Bones you are locked on Raptors your daily Toronto Raptors podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day hey what’s going on and welcome to another episode of Locked on Raptors part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day it is Thursday January the 11th and I’m your host sea Woodley I’ve been covering the Toronto Raptors now for 10 seasons on various platforms

You can find all my work over on the website that don’t work so good Woodley Shan you can find the show on Instagram at lockon Raptors and of course you can come and join us in the lockon Raptors Discord server baby a happy place to be

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Toronto Raptors who were without Pascal seak who had backs spasms and I know the sort of like you know the the Twitter trade truthers out there were like oh he’s scratched oh jarus Walker and Jaylen Smith aren’t playing for the Pacers something must be going on no

Like Pascal f pretty hard in that game against the Lakers back to back understandable that they would keep him out and hopefully he’s good and ready to go for Friday’s game against the Jazz who are playing extremely good ball right now they’re going to need pasal

Cakam if they uh you know really want to I mean they clearly can play well without him as well as they did against the Clippers but you’re going to want Pascal back either way no yakob no Pascal in this one and for a long time no problem the Tonto Raptors played

Themselves a pretty damn good basketball game Paul George Goes On a heater in the fourth quarter the defense kind of loses the threat a little bit um the offense can’t quite keep up with what the Clippers are putting out and you know that’s second night of back toback stuff

Fifth game of six on a western conference road trip stuff you know I’m not terribly surprised they lost steam in this game considering they were outgunned and considering the Clippers are kind of a buzzsaw right now and just seemingly never lose basketball games anymore I believe they mentioned it on

The Clippers broadcast side of things that they haven’t lost a game with a healthy Kawhi Leonard since November that’s normal great uh so you know all things considered I think a pretty admirable L for the Raptors to take in this one we will get into the sort of

Stray observations I had on guys like jonte Porter Scotty Barnes Dennis schruder who is absolutely cooking right now we’ve got the good we got the bad and the H coming up later on uh but I do want to start just with sort of like a broad Strokes Takeaway on the team

Through the first six games without pass sorry since the ogob be trade and their performance last night without Pascal se yakum you know it’s just I think the last six games and last night no exception last night maybe one of the greatest examples of it so far what

We’ve seen revealed is just a very sound offensive Foundation that the Raptors have been laying the bricks for all season long and yes at the start of the season they were literally laying bricks while also trying to reshape this offense but we’ve seen this steady progression over the course of the year

Where the offense got smoother you know I think between like late November and this the end of December the team had really kind of rounded into form to the point that you know their offense still wasn’t good but it wasn’t bottom of the league miserable and there was steady

Sort of week over week progression with how it was coming together I think that’s evidenced by the run that they’re on right now they’ve highlighted this on the broadcast last night 21 games uh in a row now with 25 or more assists for the Toronto Raptors and look assists do

Not equate good offensive production necessarily but they do indicate I think some pretty good process especially when you’re a team who has sort of declared that your process is to make quick decisions move the ball a ton you know play sort of as a fiveman unit in unison

With one another and they’ve clearly done that and they’ve been living up to that promise and what’s happened since the trade is the foundation has been sort of revealed to be Rock solid and let me try to do a bit of a forced analogy tied to my current day-to-day

Life I just bought a house uh very exciting it’s all fun um but so with having bought a house and with being in my 30s I now watch HDTV all the time and sometimes on these HGB shows they go and they renovate a house that’s just been

Bought they’re going to turn it into an income property or just kind of revamp a fixer ruper whatever it might be and a lot of the time when you go into these houses they sort of rip off the walls and they get down to the foundation and

The studs and things are wrong there’s mold there’s Mouse poo there’s just like you know a plumbing stack that was assembled by someone who clearly does not know how to do plumbing Stacks electrical all kind of messed up you get those sort of horror stories of like a

Really nasty interior bad bones of a house the Toronto Raptors got good bones this is I think pretty clear to me and they have been sort of fine-tuning and working that Foundation over the course of this entire season it’s just the arrival of Emanuel quickley and RJ

Barrett have allowed this team to sort of strip back the the the the really nasty wallpaper strip down the drywall that’s that’s just sort of needs a replacing it’s got holes punched in it and they’re putting up new interior Decor they’re maybe letting some really beautiful preserved beams be the

Highlight of a ceiling feature whatever it might be and they’re allowed to do that because what’s happening on the inside the way this team is running offense the way these guys are playing for one another uh the way the skills interplay it does allow the sort of

Foundation of the team to kind of shine through I guess the other sort of analogy you could go here is like a bear that’s gone into hibernation and come out with no fat and just muscle um like they’re just like a muscular base of a basketball team right now and it looks

Really good because Emanuel quickley and RJ Barrett have just been so bloody impressive within the construct that they’ve been building and working towards over the course of the entire ire season and we’re starting to see the fruits of Darko rakovich and the coaching staff’s labor I think especially since the arrival of quickly

And bar though it should be said like they were still figuring that out and getting closer to revealing that good foundation before the trade even happened the the offense in December was not the problem the defense certainly was the defense Still Remains a bit of a problem which we can talk about probably

As we go forward here in the next week or so as we hopefully get a little bit more sort of identification of what the defense is trying to do can you get your guys back you know all this different stuff you know the defense will come the offense has certainly come along and

Last night no no exception you know the Clippers are a good team they’re a good defense uh and you know V zubach is a monster on the interior and the Toronto Raptors were still able to put together a really nice offensive effort in this one just playing their game even with

Lesser parts available with Pascal seakan yaka P not available um 116.5 offensive rating for the Raptors in the half court in this one 90th percentile among all NBA games played in the half court this year per clean the glass it continues a run basically over the course of this entire road trip Memphis

Sacramento Golden State la la really good halfcourt offensive performances from this Raptor team and you know we’re just like we’re seeing it all kind of round to form here they’re number four in offense since the trade uh they’re number five in the half court since the trade as well obviously we’ve talked

About the impact of quickly his shooting the off ball gravity he has the way he makes defenses panic and think and overthink is opening up all kinds of different Avenues whether it’s for guys leaking to the rim because quickley has taken their Defenders with him whether it’s quickly popping you know open for

Threes it it’s just been really really smooth and such a seamless transition and quickly also just seems totally ready for the burden of being a lead guard you know obviously it’s been up and down in terms of like the interior finishing that’s going to have to come

Along obviously this is not a finished product of a player by any means but he’s getting to the rim basically whenever he wants he is he picked up a lot of free throws last night that was great to see nine of nine from the line for quickly um you know drawing all

Sorts of contact and then you know he just the reads he’s making are pretty high level for a guy who was not really asked to make high level reads on the Knicks he was basically in Gunner mode a lot of the time in New York and all of a

Sudden he’s thrust into the starting job and it’s all coming so quickly and easy easy for him it’s awesome you know there was that one play last night where he kind of drives middle and throws a no-look pass down to Thad young in the block for a dunk and it’s just like oh

All right man like if you’re making reads like that and you’re sort of sucking into the defense and forcing the defense to overcompensate and leave options open because of what you’re able to do both as a scorer and playmaker like that is a really difficult combination to guard especially when you

Put him in concert with a bunch of other guys whose skills compliment his we’ve seen RJ Barrett I mean he’s doing right now he’s playing I was texting our pal Joe wolon last night go listen to Tuesday’s episode where we talked all about Pascal um but Joe wolon last night

Basically said like RJ Barrett is playing perfect basketball right now and that is true he is playing perfect basketball he has a 71% true shooting percentage since the trade that’s like Nica yic MVP level stuff and slightly better it’s kind of ridiculous how streamlined and focused and clinical RJ

Barrett’s game has been um you know again it’s not not like he’s commandeering possessions he is doing stuff in transition he is just roaring off of screens cutting middle and finishing he’s using that left hand to get wherever he wants he’s finishing at The Rim at a ridiculous rate right now

Considering where he’s finished at The Rim over the course of his career he’s at 72% at The Rim right now um like easily his best Mark obviously it’s just six games but he’s figured that out it seems there’s less clutter on this team obviously than there was on the Knicks

Where they had sort of you know Mitchell Robin ground bound Center mixed with Julius Randall who likes to hang out in the same parts of the floor that R.J Barrett does things are just smoother and cleaner and easier for him he’s been incredible and look the formula makes a

Lot of sense right it’s a bunch of really good to excellent ball handlers it’s a bunch of guys who are all very good off ball players quickley Barrett Barnes SE yakum all have been fantastic golfball players all season long there was that graphic floating around from bball Index this week that painted

Barnes Barrett and SE yakum is like three of the four best offb players in all of basketball in terms of their efficiency both in transition and in the half court I quote tweeted something about it pushing my Pascal agenda if you want to go find it on Twitter shout out

Bball index they have great graphs we love a graph um but yeah it’s it’s a bunch of guys who can handle can work off ball all have a little bit of shooting to them in general the shooting gravity of these guys and their ability to play off the ball it just it’s a

Pretty harmonious product right now and you know even in a loss to the Clippers you don’t feel badly about it because the ball they’re playing is really good really promising there’s a direction and an intention to it and I think last night you know yes they lost the plot

Late Paul George goes off and you lose the game but I really had no issues with the way the Toronto Raptors played this basketball game last night we’ll get into Scotty Barnes maybe there could have been a little bit more juice from him in this one but overall uh really

Really impressive stuff from the Raptors so far in the six game since the trade and you’d hope that once they can get back some home cooking then maybe they start to Rattle off a bit more in terms of the win column which will be important for a thing that I’m going to

Talk about in my H later on in the show but first we are gonna take a quick break come back to the either side and we are going to dig into a few stray observations on jont Porter Scotty Barnes and Dennis schruder in particular who I wanted to highlight from this game

We will get to all of that coming up in just one second but first Today’s Show is brought to you by our friends over at prize pick the single best place to play daily fantasy sport in all of North America and it’s so so easy it’s the way it

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Sports today 247 is our streaming 247 Channel featuring all of the National shows covering the biggest stories in all of the big National Sports the pro sports leagues that you like the college leagues and all that stuff College leagues I sound like someone who knows nothing about college sports and I don’t

So that’s fine uh but either way you got the local shows as well covering the biggest stories from the local angle uh go check it out probably a great spot to be as the NFL playoffs come this weekend lots of great local Insight on the matchups over there among other things

Go check it out okay let’s continue on here and talk about just a few straight observations on a handful of guys from last night’s game uh jonte Porter is the guy I want to highlight first jonte Porter is playing like your favorite old man local at your nearby pickup run he

Just like he’s just a blast to watch when he’s doing what he did last night against the Clippers right he just he clearly passes the nose where to stand test which is one of the most important tests any basketball player can can pass um you know he just plays and does the

Nasty little nitty-gritty stuff that really really helps a basketball team play functional basketball um you know uh like yeah he’s just my favorite guys at pickup are the ones who are there to just kind of make everyone’s experience more enriched they’re there to pass they’re there to set screens they’re to

Talk on defense they’re not there to be like overly uh you know bloviating or anything like that they’re just there to play ball and Jon Porter is playing like that kind of dude right now 9.7 boards four assists last night for him last night um you know the the connective

Passing that is really like stringing possessions along honestly at this point would not mind as much as I’ve enjoyed the Thad Young starting experience over the last two nights to some degree I wouldn’t mind just giving Porter the run to start right now um I think he

Probably gives you a decent shot right now with his passing of replicating some of the yaka purle packages that they can run um you know they miss yach big time his passing his screening is valuable but Porter is kind of showing capacity for doing that stuff and I thought it

Was really telling last night the sideline report that Kayla gray had on jonte Porter talking about him feeling empowered by darkar rakovich and his coaching staff and like this is it’s not just like a a preseason media day thing that we get all happy and Flowery about

This seems to be a very legitimate thing dark rakovich believes the hell out of his dudes and what they’re capable of doing right like he really really believes that these guys can do what he’s asking of them and uh Porter you know in that sideline report is I guess

Paraphrasing said basically yeah like he’s making me feel like I can go and do this every single day and is empowering me to do so and that’s just like a really really nice heartening thing for a team that has obviously been kind of Meed in the Player Development muck and

Haven’t been able to kind of find these success stories of late um you know we we don’t need to relitigate the the Nick nurse not playing young guys thing or anything like that but uh Darko and his coaching staff seem to just fully give these guys the runway to go and grab

Whatever job might be there that’s up for grabs whatever role might be there up for grabs and jonte Porter is absolutely doing that right now um he’s just been emboldened and I think uh like at this point he’s trending towards probably getting a contract from the Raptors right like it’s been just a

Handful of games we’ll see but he has really fit in beautifully as a backup five hopefully um he gets a little bit of run here getting with the starters and we’ll see if that carries over obviously it’s tough to scale up and go up against starting level bigs and all

That stuff but uh yeah really really enjoying the jonte porter experience and a really wonderful story for a guy who was almost out of basketball a couple seasons ago and has worked his way back up you know he’s clearly not the same athlete that he was as like a draft

Prospect he you know still a little bit ground bound he doesn’t have great lateral foot speed but again he knows angles he knows how to you know position himself effectively and knows where to stand and that is a beautiful thing so that was kind of my like big pull away

As far as a single player observation last night 97 and four from jont Porter doing the exact stuff that I a guy who loves big men who throw cool passes uh very much keen on Scotty Barnes let’s take a quick little detour talk about Scotty look kind of a quiet game from

Him in this one uh you know just 12 points seven boards six assists which he like for sure had the couple blocks as well five of 10 just one of five from deep you’ll have those bad Nights from Deep he has been obviously tremendous as an outside shooter so far this year he’s

Had these one of five nights and they usually are buttressed by a couple of seven for three night or three for seven nights and stuff like that so not too concerned there but just 10 shot attempts in a game for Scotty Barnes where there was clearly like a usage

Vacuum to fill with Pascal seaka not available of course RJ Barrett Emanuel quickley did a good job of filling in that vacuum Dennis shuder gets going this was not a very high possession game either so like not a ton of uh you know utility or or usage to go around I

Suppose um and obviously this was not a transition game for the Raptors either and I think that’s always going to kind of suppress Scotty barnes’s number because Scotty Barnes is a transition wizard he is an absolute Master of orchestrating the break and the Clippers did a fantastic job of limiting the

Raptors from getting out on the break in this one the Toronto Raptors score just one point per possession uh in transition in this game which is well below where they typically hang and they usually are extremely high when it comes to frequency they did not get on the run

Very much at all in this game which is weird and I think again kind of speaks to some good coaching on the side of Tyron louu and just speaks to it’s just difficult when you’re up against a Clippers team that’s hitting everything uh it’s just going to be hard to get on

Run and get those advantages going the other way um you know they ran 16.8% of the time in this game still above average in the NBA circles 66 percentile per cleaning the glass but um you know they had like a negative impact on their score ing output in transition in this

Game with that one point per possession uh minus minus 0.2 points added in transition in this game not great um but I do think uh you know that’s like sort of a one-off thing I’m not overly concerned about Scotty Barnes or anything like that yes his usage has

Been down a little bit since the trade I’m not concerned he’s still actively involved in so many of these possessions if he’s not shooting he’s often creating and you know you would have liked a bit more of a sort of um you know You’ like to have sort of imprint his himself on

The game a little bit more in a game like last night but also second out of a back toback he played like 40 minutes against the Lakers on on Wednesday I understand if he doesn’t quite have the juice to go and do that um you know maybe that’s giving an excuse maybe

That’s just like a pretty reasonable explanation I don’t know it’s probably either Beholder but um yeah the the lack of aggression from Scotty and the lack of any sort of transition um output from the Raptors in this game I think really was uh you know a big reason why they

Couldn’t quite get over the finish line and keep up with the Lakers or the Clippers that is um when it all came down to it uh Dennis shuder I want to talk about quickly as well started last night the on ball defense is back for Dennis shuder he looks like a total pest

It’s fantastic and the bench orchestration has also been Sublime from Dennis schruder he’s like perfectly cast right now as like a highly counted upon second unit captain and he’s getting to play with more Shooters which is a really nice thing um obviously I kind of said this going into the season and I’ve

Been kind of referencing it throughout the year sher’s best seasons of late have come when he’s playing on teams with tons of extra ball handling and tons of shooting the Lakers last season his best lineups were alongside like LeBron James Thomas Bryant D’Angelo Russell Troy brown guys who can shoot

Guys who can handle and take a little bit of the burden and clear up driving lanes for schruder which is really his whole thing right is getting downhill and sort of sucking in the defense um 22 points for him in this game just four assists but they kind of needed his

Scoring obviously without Pascal I think he did a really good job maybe more than anybody else kind of ratcheting up his imprint on the offense in this one and one thing that’s really popping off the screen those Dennis shuder man Emanuel quickly lineups are kicking ass they are

Super fun right now 170 possessions together per clean in the glass A plus 20 net rating for lineups with quickle and shuder on the floor together and 136.6 offensive rating they are just blitzing teams when those two dudes share the floor together makes sense like I said you know shudder playing

With other ball handlers and other Shooters is a really really good thing for Dennis schruder and his on on Court impact those guys also together those lineups quickly shrewder lineups uh a turnover percentage under 12% which is very very good um so yeah Dennis shuder I figured deserves some flowers this was

A nice game from him and uh continues just a really nice run of him perfectly being cast you get an extra rotation player in the door you knock shter down from being the fifth most important player to the sixth most important player and that difference is pretty

Substantial and then on a game where you needed a little bit more from him he’s obviously got a little bit of juice that he can kind of tap into and uh it was nice to seeing this one for sure uh you know it’s wild what a couple weeks does

Dennis shuder was driving me insane as a miscast starting point guard and now he’s basically uh everyone’s dream backup point guard mine included and it’s awesome we’re going to come back on the other side we’re g to get into The Good the Bad and the H from this game

And I want to spend a little extra time on the H because I think something is pretty fun that’s Brewing uh or something something pretty fun is brewing in the Eastern Conference right now that I think Raptors fans should just throw themselves into and have some fun with

We will get into that and why that is coming up in just one sec but first Today’s Show is brought to you by Jace medical and look you maybe you just finished off some traveling maybe you are looking to get those offseason travel deals coming up but one

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Basketball game a thing I liked a thing I didn’t like and a thing that’s got me a little bit intrigued like I said I want to spend most of the time on my H this this time around so we’ll quickly rattle through the good and the bad the

Good for me give it up for the old man uh Garett Temple fad young playing minutes in this game Thad young of course his second straight night uh he played 29 minutes on Wednesday against the Lakers 23 minutes against the Clippers um lot of minutes for a guy

Who’s not been playing a lot of minutes of late but he has performed pretty darn admirably in that time in this game eight points four boards three assists two steals yeah you know a Vita zubot is like a pretty big load for anyone to deal with but I thought there was not

Really any example of him being totally overcome obviously the Anthony Davis matchup much more difficult in that regard for young um you know continues to grease the wheels of the offense continues to have sort of baffling forays into Lefty finishes that always seem to go down four or five shooting in

This game hit a mid-range jumper uh you know you you’ll take this that young sort of turning back of the clock to being this small ball Center that he was so so good at during his times specifically with the bulls of late um you know it’s it’s been really fun to

See and I think he’s made you know talking about earlier the sort of ecosystem of the team being a lot healthier I think having more shooting around is clearly making life a little bit easier for Thad young because playing in some of the lineups he was playing in earlier on this season last

Season as well just really clumped up stuff not able to really affect the game as like an elbow Hub or anything like that because there was no space no one cared and no one cares about fad young as a player so he’s got to have spacing

Elsewhere for for them to there to be any sort of advantage to press and we’re seeing that a little bit more here so Shad out Thad young I don’t know how long this is going to last but I’m having fun with it as I had fun with Garrett Temple getting eight minutes of

Pretty solid action last night hits a three two boards uh an assist as well to go along with those three points and a team best plus four for Garrett Temple the coach put on the floor performing reasonably well I was pretty surprised to see him but I guess when you’re down

To like 10 healthy players there’s room for everybody to go and chip in and it was pretty fun to see Garrett Temple get back in there and uh have himself for his standards a really nice night three points two boards and an assist in eight minutes not getting run off the floor

You’re very happy with that no doubt the bad for me in this game this was a really tough one for Chris bue two straight really tough ones for Chris bue now uh just looks at a sorts looks like he’s a little bit forcing things there was a a couple times the last couple

Games where he’s just passed up wide openen threes to try to dribble into traffic and make something happen and it’s just like not Chris bu’s bag Chris bue is a guy who will can catch and shoot threes once in a while he’s actually done it at a pretty good rate

This year and he’s someone who’s going to finish plays into the basket and crash the offensive glass for you didn’t really do any of those things during the two night stay in LA and look man this is like an opportunity for bue to seize a rotation spot precious ATU was gone um

There’s less competition there is need for large people on this team to go and do large people things and the last couple games it’s been pretty rough stuff minus 10 for bu and his 11 minutes in this game did not love the bue experience and it’s a bummer because he

Was so bloody good against the warriors on Sunday and it’s just kind of not really held up the last couple times out we’ll see if he remains in the rotation once they get healthy here maybe there’s more jonte Porter cutting into his bits we’ll see but definitely not a banner

Night for Chris bue let’s get to my hum the thing I’m really excited to talk about today because it’s just like sometimes we have too much focus on oh who’s going to win the championship the championship ah who are the top teams in the conference and all this stuff and

Sometimes it’s okay to Revel in a little low stakes playoff race action and I think right now there is a burgeoning four team Race for the last two playin spots in the Eastern Conference between the Raptors the Hawks the Bulls and the Nets that has potential for high comedy

Uh teams getting a little bit silly and doing stuff at the deadline they maybe probably shouldn’t do in the name of chasing the 10 seed uh and like just kind of comical basketball at times well also there could be some good basketball as well as a couple of these teams are

Rounding into form a little bit and you have interesting players and characters at play across these four teams you know you have you know with the with the Hawks watching them last night take down the Sixers in overtime Jaylen Johnson looks like fully ready for a star turn

Is he maybe the best player on the Hawks already is that a hot take uh yes I’m a staunch Trey young non-believer but uh Jaylen Johnson looks awesome he’s a fun little character to watch here obviously you have the Scotty IQ Barrett of it all on the Raptor side of things you’ve got

DeMar rosen fending off the youths with the bulls and then also the Nets are kind of there as well uh you know nothing notable on that team to really get excited about but I do think this has the potential to be some pretty awesome fun low stakes fun for the rest

Of the season and for the Raptors in particular like this is a team that is clearly in a better spot than it was before the trade it’s not this constant cycle of dread and concern and you know like trying to figure out what the hell is the direction of this team like they

Clearly have a direction now things are building whether or not they keep Pascal SE yakum or not I think you feel pretty good about where this whole thing is headed with a manual quickly and RJ Barrett in the door and having those guys play as bloody well as they have so

Far and so it it’s just not every season is going to be about the title chase some seasons are going to be about silly low stakes eighth place races and I think that’s cool and I think the NBA has actually done a pretty damn good job here with the playing Tournament of

Creating these sort of tiers within the the league these races for different things and sort of different planes of achievement in the league obviously you have like the top three teams in the Eastern Conference and then from there you have like four through eight all fighting with one another and then you

Have this four team Race for the last two playin spots and it feels like it could be some pretty compelling stuff down the stretch and it does feel I’ve been thinking about this a little bit it feels like the NBA has created almost the closest thing we’ll ever see to

Relegation in american professional sports which is losing the playin game and getting the 14th or 13th overall pick like you’re never going to get full relegation but that is kind of as big of a like a a kick to the midsection as you’ll get is losing a playing game and

Picking 13th or 14th case point the Toronto Raptors last season who fired their coach and had a full meltdown in the summer after losing in the plane and getting the 13th overall pick and that to me just creates this like very silly amount of stakes the Raptors obviously

Don’t have their pick so it’s like a little bit less Stakes all of a sudden for them um and so that adds I think to the potential fun poti that could be had here but I’m like fully throwing myself into let’s get silly with this four team

Race for the last spot it feels like like I said it’s as close to relegation as you get I feel like every night I’m watching the blos from Brighton and HOV alvan take on the lads from Aston Villa and brenford fighting them off for the 17th spot in the Premiership that’s what

It feels like and there’s like a real charm to that as a sports fan I’m fully in on this very stupid race especially with the knowledge that the Raptors maybe of all these teams have sort of the brightest Outlook going forward so whatever actually happens this year

Maybe they do miss out maybe they do lose the plane or finish 11th or whatever it might be like that’s fine ultimately right like there’s there’s good stuff happening here they have the 31st pick in the draft this season that you know soothes a little bit uh of the

Sting of not having your own pick if you know assuming they convey it maybe they get Lotto luck if they don’t make the playoffs we’ll see but I think uh in general this four team Race for a couple of sad playing spots that probably won’t amount to much at most these teams are

Getting waxed by the Sixers or the Bucks in the first round of the playoffs or the Celtics I suppose even though that like even with that this is like this is a type of thing that if there’s a fun race down the stretch you will remember

That as a fan forever everyone who was around for it remembers the Raptors in the 0102 season after Vince Carter went down going on that crazy heater to get into the playoff at the end of the year and yeah it it didn’t end with anything they lost in the first round but that

Was like a really fun stretch of basketball and what are we doing this for if not looking to hang on to fun little stretches of basketball for many many years to keep us warm when things are dark and sad down the line so give me all of the very dumb Nets Bulls

Raptors Hawks four team Race for the eighth for the ninth and 10th spots uh all in on it give me all of the podcasts breaking it down in Earnest it’s going to be awesome and uh yeah that’s my H is just throw yourself into this experience this playoff race is going to be

Extremely high comedy very stupid and surely extremely memorable if the Raptors even have like a modum of success from it win a play in game even if it’s just one play in game and you lose the next I think it will all be worth it and we will have some pretty

Fun stuff to go and remember down the line and remembering some guys remembering some times is what this whole thing is about we’re going to leave it there thank you so much for tuning and we’ll be back again on uh th Friday right yeah what day is it yeah

It’ll be back Friday as we’re going to have a really fun episode with kirka the queen of raptor stats on Twitter joining the show to talk some small sample theater from the first six games post trade what’s real what’s not is RJ Barrett ever going to miss a shot again

That’s all going to come up on Friday’s episode so you have that to look forward to thank you so much for tuning in supporting the show subscribe follow rate review tell a friend always appreciated when you go ahead and do that and we will leave it all there

Thank you so so much we’ll talk to you Friday with another episode of lockon raptors thanks for hanging extend Pascal AUM now bye-bye

In Episode 1552, Sean Woodley goes solo to break down the Toronto Raptors’ 126-120 loss to the Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night in a game that despite the result, continued to show off the solid foundation the new-look Raptors are building. Off the top, Sean digs into how the Raptors’ offensive principles, instilled throughout this season, were on full display against the Clippers even in a game where the Raptors were missing their most potent offensive player in Pascal Siakam. Next, Sean runs through some stray observations on the play of Jontay Porter, Scottie Barnes and Dennis Schroder and their efforts in the Clippers game. Lastly, Sean closes it out with The Good (Garrett Temple & Thad Young) the Bad (Chris Boucher) and The Hmmm (the burgeoning race for the last two play-in spots in the East, and why it could be extremely fun) to wrap up the show.

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