Gradey Dick’s Development & Raptors 905’s Kira Lewis Jr. | Raptors Show Full Episode
Hello and welcome to the Raptor show on the sportset radio network brought to you by Campbell’s new chunky spicy soup it’s time to get fired up uh we’re fired up to have Campbell on board as our new partner uh for the rest of this year for the Raptor show we have some fun
Segments planned over the next uh couple of months Will’s not here today but uh he’s teased the surprise later in the week we’re going to see just how much he can handle his uh his spicy or or not spicy uh make sure you also find the Raptor show wherever you listen to
Podcast subscribe R review all that good stuff Will’s off today I’m Blake Murphy uh so we’re going to do we’re going to replace will with two Raptors Republic people because that’s the amount it takes to replace will who by the way still did a reaction pod uh last night
If you didn’t get to check that out uh joined Now by Samson folk and S fandy AR barini AKA s Barney what’s up guys what’s up what’s up how you doing thank you for the S Barney shout out appreciate it got to do it Samson how are you I’m doing good hanging in
Excited to be seated next to this wonderful Chunky Soup there yeah it’s uh I mean it’s a nice little display I’m I’m excited I’m going to I’m going to see if I’m allowed to eat some on air later in the week and not for promotional purposes I just would like
Some soup it’s it’s been gray and dreary outside for months I would love some soup on on air yeah um okay we’re not going to talk much about soup in this segment uh we are actually before we get into it with you guys we have a loaded
Show today so you two are on for the first hour with me here we’re going talk about last night’s game talk a little about you know what we’re looking at the rest of the season because if we’re being honest the actual outcome don’t really matter a ton for the Toronto
Raptors at this point in the second hour we’re going to be joined by Britney Donaldson assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks formerly of the Toronto Raptors it is mar Gasol’s birthday we’ll see if she has any memories of of saving Mar Gasol from falling off the bus uh
With Ros bottles in hand during the championship celebration uh Nikas Duncan is going to join us a little later and we’ve got uh Kyra Lewis Jr from the raptorraptor 905 so Loaded show no pressure guys um last night Raptors loose 12 2615 to the Atlanta Hawks
Um S I know you did your your morning breakdown which is now Raptors Republic what did you make of and we’ll get into some of the Raptor side stuff but that turnover by Trey young that Grady dick Scoops up and throws the Scotty Barnes for what we thought might be the
Game-winning bucket what what is going on there yeah I think the the thing that actually caught caught my eye originally was Grady grabbing the offensive rebound or like it out and he had such a good all night he had a good knack for trying to grab those jots uh and then it just
Kind of loose ball fumbled Trey had to get it and now he’s squeezed into the corner so it’s a little bit easier to trap him and then Jordan noara comes up with a pretty interesting you know steel I don’t know if the the steel got counted for noira or I think for Grady
Noira just kind of like gets in the way and Trey is like clearly expecting an intenal foul beat him to the spot yeah and for the record Grady could have punched that if he had stickier hands I agree agree that was LS and I argued
About that I was like he was up there he didn’t think he had the juice I think he had the juice but yeah obviously what happened is that he’s on the he’s on the sideline War beats him to the spot and Trey was like I’m getting a foul I’m
Trey young he goes to dive in war is like backpedaling he’s playing really great defense there and obviously he tries to you know he has he throws the ball away we get a head kiss I mean incredible scenes yeah so the head kiss like look the the Raptor Republic three
Three Tournament takes place on March 30th I know you guys didn’t have the success you wanted as a team last year um is there a champion like if you guys win it all is there a head kiss in the mix I I think we actually lost because
Of the lack of head kisses lack of head kisses I heard it was a size issue but also yeah maybe just not enough four head kisses that’s why you’re on the team this year is we need we need I got to do my Bruce Brown go guard a
Seven-footer exactly that happened to me the first game I was guarding a guy who was like 6’6 and had probably 60 lbs on me it wasn’t a recipe for Success this is actually my role like when I play basketball is like trucker yeah PJ trucker hat as will once called me I’ve
Also gotten wck League Roberson which is just really really insulting um but yeah one year so in like uh in rec league Eric Karen’s team always had like one guy who was like 65 or 66 and was just like easily the best player on the team
And that was my duty I was like I’d much rather guard Eric Kine and annoy him and talk trash and stuff but yeah I got to it’s funny because he just said that he had trouble guarding a 6′ s guy with 60 lbs on him but then at the same token
Will be like oh I can I can guard this guy no problem easy yeah nobody else was going to do it yeah you got to have you got to have confidence rational or otherwise um so the Raptors come up with that steel Trey young throws the ball
Away gr to Scotty Barnes forehead kiss we we think they’re in good shape to win the game and then Bruce Brown gets the assignment on Trey young off the uh ensuing at with the clock about to run out Scotty does a great job in help defense Trey tries one of his his kind
Of higher King floaters Scotty almost gets a piece of it it looks like they’ve stopped it and then of course it’s sadique Bay who comes in with the putback so that was part of 20 offensive rebounds on the night for the Hawks I believe sadique Bay has 17 offensive
Rebounds across three games against the Raptors this year he’s also I did a little query for like undersized offensive rebounding re yeah and uh the a name that keeps coming up on this show the only guy who’s like more impressive per size I guess Russell Westbrook but
Andre Jackson Jr is uh is smaller than him and has a slightly higher offensive rebounding rate um so on the night 20 offensive rebounds for the Hawks 76 points in the paint 99th percentile shooting volume at the rim and they shoot 73.3% there um Sansa we we’ll start with
You is there look you can play better defense than this there has to be a way to play better defense than this without a center um but you know tactically strategically what do they need to do better while yakov’s out if yakob is going to continue to be out because he’s
Uh he’s progressing at least they need to not play Trey young because they threw every coverage at Trey young I saw drop I saw hedge and recover I saw Blitz I saw switch to Blitz and the thing about Trey young even at his small stature is that he’ll take negative
Dribbles and still find passing Windows Windows to his rolling big and so that’s a really important thing is when you put all that pressure and you make a guy take Nega dribbles you bring two guys above the break defensively to one guy and basically Trey young was consistently putting the Raptors in an
Odd man or the Hawks in an man advantage and the thing about that is like whether it’s Scotty up at the blitz or Scotty on the back line it doesn’t really matter if you have a guy like Clint capella moving towards the rim even if you get
The stop you have to provide so much cover as a help Defender to try and contest that and then the backline for offensive rebounds for a guy like sadique Bay as we saw for the game-winning basket is just not available so tools not there necessarily
And Trey young is one of the very best at manipulating and beating teams that lack in let’s say point of attack defense which is why you know gone but not forgotten from the Raptor team ogan anobi was very very helpful even precious sucha very very helpful in
Those coverages so not having those guys was like a super big deal yeah and look one of the positives from last night’s game was I thought Scotty Barnes was excellent defensively he’s a monster but you can only play him in one of these roles right you can’t have him be the
Point of attack guy and the backline defender um as what is your preference in terms of how they use Scotty defensively because it is I change my mind all the time because like I want him like theoretically I want him in that lower half I want him helping I
Want him being the the guy who comes in and changes Trey’s shot once he gets that floater off against Bruce Brown and then I see the point of attack defense I’m like H sure would be nice to have Scotty Barnes there too I think ideally in the final version of this team you
Have him as that helps side def Defender like a guy who can roam the the the weak side be able to block shots use his length to like muck up passing Lanes that’s the way that Scotty can thrive on the defensive end but if we’re talking about development which I’m sure we’ll
Get into but you want him to be comfortable at the point of attack he’s never going to be used to guarding a guy like Trey young that’s not going to happen just because of Trey’s quick feet you know the the hip mobility isn’t really there for a guy like Scotty but
You want him to be comfortable guarding guys out on the perimeter giving them space Maybe using his length to contest shots like that’s part of the program when it comes to development right and figuring out what a guy can do to to maximize himself defensively they’re
Kind of stretched thin at this point at the point of attack like even last night they had Bruce Brown on Trey young a little bit and Bruce was struggling to say the least to contain a guy like Trey you’re not going to have many answers like Samson said when it comes to
Guarding a guy like Trey young but I think Scotty has done such a good job on bigger wings and that at the pro point of attack might work like Kevin Durant last month against the Suns he did a really good job of caning containing KD he had a good couple of possessions on
Jason Tatum there’s moments and different types of archetypes that he can guard on Ball but when it comes to the help side stuff it’s just he’s so much better at thriving as this off ball guy it’s sort of it’s sort of like Giannis you know as crazy as it is to
Say because Giannis isn’t necessarily the best on ball Defender not a guy you want to switch out on the perimeter either but he’s so long he’s so tall that he can be such a great interior presence so that’s how Scotty got to do it we had a a one- game example at the
Start of the 2022 23 season I think Trey had what like 11 turnovers in that game Scotty was his primary in a lot of those was that one of the games where precious drove Trey nuts too yeah precious the big one precious was in the 2021-22 season where they stopped running pick
And roll to keep them out of it but that was the big Koko game was that first Hawks game and basically what was happening is they were blitzing Trey and Scotty a little bit more mobile than what Trey was used to at that position and especially since they were blitzing
With him as the point of attack guy a little bit more length in the passing lanes that he was used to and we saw a lot of early pickups we saw him flustered and I think it would be nice to be able to obviously put as s kind of
Talked about put Scotty in stronger roles for him over time but also it’s kind of like a a from a utilitarian standpoint have a guy who can be like kind of a knuckle ball at the point of attack who if there’s a really quick guy you can overwhelm with length but also
If there’s a guy who you need to throw different looks at you can kind of like give a buffer see what happens and Corral guys so there’s a lot of when it comes to the def sure yeah we’ve seen them do different things like that like against Golden State where he was the
Steph coverage and it’s like hey you’re not going to guard Steph one-on-one but you’re going to use the length top lock try to gum up the other team system even if it’s not a lock down rle speaking of a knuckle ball type approach what did you think of the him he actually it
Succeeded this time Jaylen Johnson gets the ball at like the low elbow late in the game and Scotty does the like f I’m fake drawing a charge but then it goes into contesting the shot like that one seems like the timing has to be so good
For it not to just give the guy a window for like an uncontested kind of push shot uh seemed to work there it at least seemed to throw Jaylen Johnson off right I was going to say it made him hesitate in that moment and I don’t know if
That’s something you want to throw out normally but in the end it worked um low success rate low very low success rate I mean if I don’t know how many times Scotty has done that in his career so far but it hasn’t worked out to his favor before this was the first time
Where it was like huh okay maybe this is this is something that works also Jaylen Johnson very good basketball player by the way yeah so uh I did I I was gonna save this but let’s talk about this because Jaylen Johnson I mean first of all he he’s come up in conversations
Because he was someone when we heard Pascal to Atlanta Rumors in the off season I think all of us kind of licked our chops a little bit at potentially getting Jaylen Johnson he’s been if not for the injury I think he’d be right there in the conversation for most
Improved player and what we saw yesterday was him get used in ways we haven’t se and and I’m not watching every Hawks game but with no dejonte Murray in there and with bogdanovich forced the start that changes up some of their bench rotations and they use
Jaylen Johnson a lot in the kind of guard parts of their of their action so obviously Trey young still has the ball but they do a lot of guard guard screening and Jaylen Johnson was a part of that you guys mentioned the kind of four Onre situations that get created
Underneath Trey young blitzes a lot of Jaylen Johnson being the guy who flashes out to operate that um what do you if anything and I’ll start with you Simpson what Jaylen Johnson’s been able to do over the course of this year relative to last year and the way the Hawks have
Kind of empowered him developmentally to where he’s now like I think unquestionably the number two to to trade long term um what what can we pull from that what can we learn from that I think that he has a lot more fluidity on ball Than People initially thought and
He was able to kind of explore those Avenues more so after he simplified his game there’s kind of like this John Collins thing of playing next to Trey young is like be good at the simple things and you’ll put up points and then we also see Jaylen Johnson is like a
Really smooth mover out on the court he like with a live dribble or otherwise that’s why he especially for the first like half three quarters of the game was a pretty good check on Scotty he’s like moving through the actions if they have any type of switching schemes that they
Want to go through or if he’s going under over screens smooth through it handles him in space as an isolation Defender and then offensively could see it when a guy like leads the break is like switching lanes with the live dribble seeing it develop ahead of him
And then like in the open floor being a guy who can shoot being a guy who can rim run and being a guy who makes some of those connective reads whether that’s the Hawks being like we see this in practice and we know we have to create
Room for him to grow his game outside of that I’m not sure but as far as like the outcomes I mean that’s where we’re at he’s provided a ton of stuff and you know we are all aware of PD web here he’s a he’s a scout but he talked about
How how the modern four the modern power forward is basically do everything all the time that’s what’s that’s what asked of them we can see it with Scotty we saw it with Pascal and Jaylen Johnson will have that asked of him over time now and he seems uh more capable than most guys
His size yeah certainly and at least from a skill set standpoint and I mean the the kind of I know he didn’t shoot well yesterday but like the developmental capacity the like how quickly he seems to pick things up is really encouraging um as with respect to
How the Raptors are going to develop over the next couple of years and don’t have a I mean their Jaylen Johnson type is Scotty Barnes who is you know the number one guy right now and we could talk Lots about him um but the next guys who come through and it doesn’t even
Have to be a Jaylen Johnson type stylistically is the lesson here from the Hawks and Collins as an example capella as an example and things like that that you even if it helps you win right now there’s a real cost to boxing guys into roles too early absolutely and
It’s funny you mention that cuz I was doing some play-by-play for uh North Pole Hoops literally weekend and we were talking about at a Grassroots level having guys be boxes very early into their careers like 16 17 years old limits them so much when they become 21
22 and they’re in college or end up in the NBA and so they the skills that they pick up along the way don’t I guess translate the way that you would want it to at the professional level or even at the college level because it’s been so I
Guess pigeonholed early on so when you look at guys who are in these really great prep programs or like rep programs they’re put in place like bigs are roaming the perimeter like they’re bam out of bio and Victor wanyama like they’re they’re completely comfortable with like just letting a big do whatever
He wants just based on their skill set I think that’s important and when you look at the Hawks they’ve generally had an approach where it’s like we are just hoping that we can cobble up things together to have a competitive team around Trey when you have this developmental win in Jaylen Johnson it’s
Like okay now we have an identity that we can build around Trey and a guy who’s a good weak side rim protector like Defender type in Jaylen that’s the type of guy you want around Trey I also I find it fascinating that there are all these you know young guys trying to be
You know bam types so they all just play terribly in January and February they’re only good at the start of the year and then in the playoffs uh all these kids just taking months off um okay last one on the Hawks before we pivot to a lot
More Raptor specific stuff um so that team was without dejonte Murray and they were out without DeAndre Hunter um we we can acknowledge that you know AJ Griffin is available but not really you know there’s been a weirdness there around the the personal issues that have kept
Him out of the lineup but for the most part we know who the Hawks are this is several years in with this Hawks tee with this Hawks core Jaylen Johnson emerging as he has certainly changes the medium-term Outlook of what a core here would look like but for this year this
Team should be selling right like they’re bad absolutely like like not even a question I mean the fact what are they 16 and 30 now or 17 19 and 27 sorry 19 and RT are 16 yeah the Raptors are yeah maybe they should be sellers too but but whatever that’s a different
Story um for the Hawks it’s just this team on paper when you look at the roster it’s supposed to be better than it is like you look at the collection of players it’s like yeah they could cobble up 41 42 43 wins in a season and it just
Has not worked whatsoever part of that is the seamlessness if you will between Trey and dejonte just hasn’t been there that they they kind of occupy similar areas of the floor they try to do similar things although Trey does it obviously better um and I think that’s
Created a weird conundrum but yeah they got to blow it up I agree uh Bogdan Samson one of the one of the top guys of like hey this is a role player but I’d love to see him on a good team instead of a bad team yeah I mean there’s a lot
Of guys like that in the NBA but I both bogdanovich hey wait who who got it first I R run the tap but he he played on on Serbia he was the MVP so he’s done it once he knows what it looks like like Dennis shooter coming in and telling the
Raptors like I hey guys I see what a good unit looks like it’s in Germany and then um obviously the Raptors has been a little bit tougher but yeah uh it has been a little bit tough for the Raptors um okay so look last night there were
There were some positives in this loss and you know to look at my mentions a lot of people would tell you that actually losing by one point is the most positive you could possibly get we can talk later about whether you actually want the pick to convey whether you care
About the the pingpong balls whatever the outcomes do not matter nearly as much as the player development side of things right now and last night we saw some good stuff in that regard uh we talked a little bit about Scotty’s defense thought he had a really nice versatile playmaking game as well scored
The ball efficiently was a bully late just like hey Jaylen Johnson I’m going to go at you I think all of his points in the paint which is crazy right yeah which is you know there have been times where he settles in as a jump shooter or
Whatever or or only even gets a couple dribbles in the paint for entire stretches a game I thought it was a really nice Scotty game we also got a three-man bench unit that uh I don’t know that anyone expected even the like g-league lovers among us to contribute
Big time to winning basketball right now Grady dick jonte Porter Jordan wara all had really nice games uh Off the Bench let’s start with Jordan wara uh because I I want to give a little bit more time for Grady in the second segment Jordan war came to Toronto in this trade purely
As as salary filler he’s 25 years old it’s year four he’s headed for free agency and like you know is basically playing to get another shot in the league not playing for a big contract playing to hey I should be in the league rather than the g-league or a high-end
Euro league guy yeah he’s played a lot of minutes on good teams he’s he had rotation time with the Milwaukee Bucks he had rotation time with the Indiana Pacers two systems where really all they need a power forward to do is knock down some threes we know he can shoot a little bit
I have not been the highest on him I I was not super I thought this was just a pure make the salaries work throw in and if he can knock down a couple threes awesome are you guys buying any Jordan War stock with what you’ve seen from him
With the Raptor so far as far as getting more minutes and also being able to put up numbers hell yeah there’s a big difference between being able to put up numbers though and you’re putting up numbers in a way that I think you can have an NBA career I think that his NBA
Career will exist Beyond this season okay do I think that he’s the guy who goes from like second draft e to like the guy who’s getting like threeyear deals and stuff like that probably not but even when I did like this big breakdown on the trade when he when War
Comes over Caitlin Cooper talked about because who else would know his game better and and I talked about with Lewis who is the Bucks writer who covered the end of his we’ve got Jord War tape yeah we have Jordan War tape it’s not that good but there’s utility there and in a
Similar sense to and my apologies to Gary Trent Jr but there’s a vacuum of certain skills on the Raptors over the past couple Seasons that elevates his skills to more important and makes the team it behooves them to kind of paper over his limitations and allow for them
Well we hear it all the time you know Gary Trent has to start you know the starting lineup needs it more by the way I ran some numbers the other day because I’m so tired of hearing Gary Trent better as a start every player in the
NBA is every player in the NBA is better as a starter because they play with better players and get less defensive attention um among the players who have come off the bench and started this year uh while they come off the bench they’re just shy of 36% on Threes And when they
Start they’re over 37 and a half per. so there’s like like League wide if you are a guy swinging roll to roll you’re going to shoot better as a starter because nobody’s paying attention to you the way they are off the bench anyway what you’re saying here is Gary Trent because
Of the shooting skill had outsize importance to the Raptors the last few years relative to his actual overall skill level there’s a potential path like that with Jordan War where he’s a 68 guy who can shoot sure water in the desert is that kind of what you’re
You’re trying to get out here that’s exactly it yeah totally it’s water in the desert is what I would say like when you find something that is so desperately missing from this team and and like last night there were some moments where you had a couple of nice
Passes in the pick and roll he had that like strong side cut pass to Scotty for the layup he had the nice little pocket pass to Bruce Brown when they like showed two in the pick and roll like there’s like the Raptors and this sort of applies to RJ Barrett too in the
Sense that his playmaking his ball handling ability was so different than what ogan and Obi brought that it was like oh this is completely new we would like this on the team and I think that’s what wara is too in a smaller whatever it is like rooll finite
I don’t know what amount of minutes you would expect for the rest of the season but like 30 30 yeah I mean hey if you’re going to put up 249 and six ex I will look past some of the more interesting decisions that you make on your way to
24 9 and six Kaitlin talked about this with the Pacers how they had very specific roles for him and a very specific play that they would run for him while he was on the court and it involved him having room to be a pull-up shooter involved him making proactive
Reads off of a screen and it involved very specific spacing set around him and in that role he did okay it’s just the the guard rails were on completely and you’re just leaning into a guy and saying this isn’t total freedom to do whatever you want but this is a very
Specific thing we’re asking you to do and given his skill set which he immediately comes onto a Raptor’s team which has been fledgling in its ability to pull up for three even the guys who do pull up for three have no juice is like to go up and like dunk we see a
Couple of those things calcify in his game and in specific uses there’s obviously like he can be good there so how often they’re able to set the terms and conditions for which he succeeds I’m not sure and how much just a hot shooting night kind of allows for that I
Was going to say also also seven for 16 it’s not like he was lethally efficient was wask man the Hawks defense is like 28th in the league like they just gave awful lot for Jordan War I don’t know um s on the defensive side do do
You see enough there I know he doesn’t rep has a have a reputation of being good but you know he did make that heady play against Trey late he had a couple okay uh like Steals and transition is there enough there he’s big like he’s a
Big body and I think that’s useful when you’re lacking big bodies now I mean like Precious gone so funny how quickly that’s changed it’s completely it’s flipped on its head now um and with no precious no OG obviously no Pascal and now no yakob for however long it’s you
Need guys who can provide a little bit of size um not only at the point of attack but also just being a guy who can like I said Innings eater with a couple of these you know bigger stars is like hey just guard whoever on this
Possession and you know go from there I think there’s there’s like my question is what do they have have to lose like I mean nothing the rest of the way games yeah less as Blake you know alluded to what he saw what you’ve seen what I’ve seen is the immediate reaction
Everyone’s gas they’re like we played good basketball and we lost Elite outcome which to me I I get it it seems crazy to say but like I get it yeah I don’t like it but I understand it exactly um and again well you can get into whether you actually want the pick
To convey or not and maybe anyway there’s a there’s a whole mess of a Situation’s got to be real bad for me to not like the multi-layered conditional probabilities that we have to go through um it’s a lot uh so in terms of uh just
Having some size and just fill in a roll eating some Innings as a a long man out of the bullpen per se uh jonte Porter looked good again last night he’d had a couple rough ones in a row whether that’s being overextended as a as a
Starter perhaps um you know the eye poke that he suffered was bothering him also you’re a g- leue call up you’re going to have some bad games but I I thought yesterday he looked a lot in in a much more suitable role once again coming off
Of the bench kind of working in those bench units you see the passing and the IQ there um is he still a guy that that you guys are both high on as a potential you know future bench piece or or did those couple of Freddy gesp games uh
Turn you off a little bit I was going to say I’ve been waiting kind of consistently to see if he meets the Freddy Gillespie like career high which I think is 13 points has CED I’m waiting for him to Cle that he’s been at 12 a
Couple times tce now I think yeah and so I’m waiting for that to happen but also if you want to know if a gague guy is good or can hang around you go to Blake Murphy’s written pieces and see if he was interested in a gague guy yeah and
Jon got a big feature so to me it feels like he’s going to get a second contract I uhm maybe with Michael Port yeah uh I don’t want to do this to you but uh Freddy glaspy s High was 11 so Jon’s topped it now hey I’m talking to you
Buddy I said this was going to happen I thought it was 13 that’s great it says 11 on basketball reference he locked in second in contract and that includes uh you know the game where he played some small forward alongside K BR and Aaron Baines which last night kind of had like
The Vibes of just like with so many pieces uh being out we’re bearing the lead a little bit here I think the headline item from last night’s game was that it’s probably the best Grady dicks looked in an NBA game at least since very very early in the season uh we’re
Going to take a break when we come back we’ll talk more about how Grady dick looked we’ll talk about you know kind of what we’re hinting at here what do you want out of the rest of the season what are the things we’re looking at most
Game to game um if the wins and losses uh don’t matter so you guys will stick around we’ll be back after the break you’ve been listening to the Raptor show brought to you by Campbell’s new chunky spicy soup welcome back to the Raptor show on the sports radio network brought
To you by Campbell’s new chunky spicy soup uh I’m Blake Murphy will’ll L off today Samson and S still with me here uh Raptors lose yesterday we kicked around some of the B story lines but I think the storyline from this game is that Grady dick played 25 minutes he played
Very very solid the Raptors actually won his 25 minutes by 19 points uh he finished the game with 15 points five rebounds three assists and a very big steal that nearly helped them uh win the game and got him a nice little forehead kiss um obviously the first thing that
People are going to look at in any Grady dick stat line in any grd dick performance is the three-point shooting and he shot three of five on threes that’s really great that is an important thing for him to have NBA utility now and long term if he’s going to justify
Being the number 13 pick if he’s going to grow into a player that matters for where the Raptors are headed he’s going to have to do more than just shoot threes and Samson and S I know that that’s something you guys have looked closely at over the course of the Year
Even coming into the league at draft time Samson I remember you and I went on a walk and you kind of gave me the grd dick sales pitch um things have not gone well and even his g-league time has been uh a little up and down but what are you
Guys seeing lately since he he came back back up since he got his LA Fitness membership time in yeah 10 of 21 over his last 213s right okay that sounds I think I think that’s correct it might it’s in the ballpark if it isn’t maybe I fudge the numbers but
He’s been shooting the three pretty well it is kind of funny that he is a player who when I was at summer league and I talked to him the first conversation I had with Grady dick was about conditioning about the larger NBA floor and that’s something I heard about draft
Workouts too is that like conditioning was a part or it was affecting him running through like NBA level stuff and man for for people who don’t know these draft workouts like they’re they’re what you’d expect were like guys are going through shooting drills you’re playing some one-on-one or three on three and
Stuff like that but the end and the Raptors for years would let us catch the end of these draft workouts while we were waiting to talk to a player or Jama malela or or Dan tossman or whoever it was and I like the 2015 to 2017 era I
Live there I was at all of these things and what you would uh what you would see is at the end of all of these things there would be some sort of exercise to try to grind the guy down and see where his conditioning is if he gets sloppy
What happens mentally and stuff like and guys would like like I would take it and the team would seem to take it as like a big plus if a guy did really really well on the like hey there are two minutes on the clock you’re sprinting floor to
Floor catch like the transition catch Wing three and then back and then back and then back there there some some years where you’re picking up balls off the ground and dunking them like it’s a more of a big man drill and like if you have enough in the tank at the buzzer
For like a 360 or a windmill or something like that big thumbs up so it is it is something these teams weigh pretty heavily in terms of listening to it I went when I was doing like ID camps for my own stuff there was a drill they do at the end
Where you do a chess pass and push-up and you do that for three minutes straight insane but they they did an open gym clip for Scotty get the ball dunk get the ball dunk Get exactly and there was so much explosion there if that means something to the
Raptors but this Grady stuff wasn’t even just with the Raptors this is with NBA as well and so with a guy who has a lot of is a great shooter has a lot of motion to his shot when you’re getting tired things can get out of whacker like
Kind of like sloppy as far as the the the mechanics of your jumper quickly and as he adjusts because he’s so young for entering the NBA I know he has like he he seems mature he’s like very aware of himself he’s confident he’s like I like
Grady a lot but he’s very young and has like a young body and is getting used to the rigors of the NBA and all that kind of stuff he has to get to that level and it seems like he’s coming along quickly at this point and it seems like you know
This is what everybody here has talked about so much Grady is a guy who does these multiplicative things that work tremendously well to help other players on the court he shapes to the ball tremendously he has a great feel for the game where to be what to do the extra
Plays he’s able to create as just an offensive rebounder as like an athletic and an let’s say not as athletic as some other guys Wing using his size just with reads and doing all that kind of stuff if he hits the threes the connective passing can pop the rebounding can pop
How he spaces the floor with his gravity as a cutter and as just a guy standing in the corner all that stuff can pop and that stuff has been there the whole time and it shows better at the NBA level than it does at the g-league level to
Your point about starting versus bench you shoot better sure but you just like you get to enhance better players games and that’s what Grady is he’s an enhancer so once the shot starts falling which it has been lately gets to start enhancing things which is great it’s fantastic if he’s an enhancer Tristan
Thompson’s going to be calling any people people always bring up the the Duncan Robinson comp uh for for Grady and I think it’s funny because like Duncan had to work what three four years five years maybe to get some of these ancar he was trying to get our job
Right yeah he was trying to podcast um and it’s funny cuz he literally this year has become a better playmaker has been a guy who can put the ball down on the floor but Grady at 20 is doing that type of stuff and Duncan Robinson had to
Go the the low the low major route and then transfer and then do three years at a major program and then enter the NBA with these same shortcomings and things like that now shot it a little better from from day one and look I think people make the comparison for not the
Greatest reasons but there is something to at least they both have size so when you’re trying to translate the shooting can you get your shot off can you manipulate space enough to get open like like one of the things Matt Thomas ran into it’s like he’s a better shooter
Than anyone pretty much that I’ve ever seen other than Steph Curry but he didn’t have the size or the ability to get himself open like like what made JJ reck such a phenomenal NBA player for that role was like his ability to navigate screens and then that push
Ahead dribble that he kind of innovated to like I’m coming off to catch this should be a catch and shoot but I got to take one space clearing dribble because otherwise I’m not getting clear enough can hit that by the way yeah yeah yeah he almost hit it the yesterday had we’ve
Seen him hit it as a raptor he did it against the 76ers Kelly UB Jr had a dig down and he pulled up in his face after clearing Tobias Harris chasing on the curl so like he can do that we just have to wait for it to happen more
Consistently yeah yeah and I mean look it’s getting there right so I I guess um where we’re at with Grady dick and it’s tough because like I’ve watched all the g-league games and he doesn’t he hasn’t looked good down there like even if it it was tracking in the right direction
His last couple games down there were some of his best but it still didn’t look like he was ready for NBA rotation certainly at the defensive end where even down there they’re giving him a lot of help can I ask you okay so even if it doesn’t look good this is something I’ve
Been wondering just the actual reps of it just the working it out playing whatever 30 minutes a game how much more beneficial is that it’s huge when when you’re talking about a guy who you know the team is openly saying like yeah his conditioning is not at an NBA rotation
Level like that that is a big part of it and and what I was going to ask you guys next is what your appetite is for him seeing more time down there like he’s on this road trip with the Raptor he’s not going to play with the 905 anytime in
The next little bit I think he’s in the NBA rotation um but if 25 the 25 minutes he got yesterday was more like 134 at times when say um I IQ and RJ and yakob are all healthy and they’re a fewer minutes to go around uh even though
Those guys aren’t playing the same role there’s there’s just only so many minutes um you know that it’s tough because you’re dropping him into a g-league situation that is not ideal for what he does and you know they’ve got better point guard play now Maris Noel
Who by the way uh made the G League next up game at Allstar Weekend congrats I hope your hamstring is better in time for you to play in that um but they’ve got a friend of the show Kyro Lewis Jr down there now as well javon’s down
There so so you know real point guard play and stuff like that um but I guess to to kind of pivot to our main topic of this segment what are you guys looking for from the rest of the season on a game- to game basis if if we acknowledge
That maybe outcomes matter but they they matter differently to different people depending on your preferences um you know how high does what grades doing the rest of the way rank for you in terms of the most important things you’re watching for day-to-day the rest of the
Way s oo probably second um Scot ATP I think Scotty is at the top just because and we sort of touched on this earlier but the scout report he is page number one now right and dealing with the different coverages there was a quote like a really long time ago from Damen
Lillard you know famously one rookie of the year but he was like it took me four or five years to learn how guys were guarding me and just getting used to the different pick and roll coverages off ball how guys are guarding me what I’m supposed to do and I think when you’re
That number one option for a team a guy who’s going to inevitably lead this team to whatever phase they are next you got to be able to get used to the different coverages last night against the Hawks they were showing to constantly in the post and then in the second half he
Started to adjust and figure it out so Scotty number one it’s like how are you going to deal with the different coverages and also what’s the evolutionary process of like the different quirks you pick up knowing these types of coverages are going to be out there whether it’s drop whether it’s
Like you know switching whatever right uh so that’s probably number one for me and then yeah Grady probably IQ and Grady are like you know maybe neck and neck you could maybe argue that IQ is more important in the long I don’t know my thought on that is I I think I would
Have IQ higher because you got to make a pretty big financial decision on him this Summer whereas Grady you know you’re committed to this for three four years like it’s it’s obviously very very important and shapes what your rotation the connection with Scotty and all that
Yeah um but you got a IQ decision coming pretty soon how do you feel about the the what which individually is most important I would lean Emanuel just for what you said like Malai got his fourth year guaranteed before the third year started like Grady is here for a while and
Emanuel I really you know I was asking about like convey or not convey I know we’ll have that conversation a little bit later and someone asked me like what’s your stance I said give me 10 games post trade deadline I’ll have a hard stance for you on which I think it
Should be and I say that largely because I want to see Emanuel quickley with more reps with yaka purle I want to see what he looks like when he has a you know a Dependable screen Setter here’s the bad news the Raptors are destined to always
Only have y a purle or a point guard who can play pick and roll never shall the two meet never yeah never twain shall they meet yeah that’s the Shakespeare ISM but that’s kind of what I’m waiting for because we’ve seen Emanuel quickly bring his jump shot to Toronto the thing
That was expected of him we’ve seen him shoot less than 40% within the arc and a lot of that is kind of what I talked to Eric spuler about is like how do you get guards to take the extra dribble on the how do you get guards to take the extra
Dribble on the inside and what he said worried me a little a little bit cuz I you know prefaced it with like you have Jimmy you have Kyle who are some of the best ever to maintain a dribble in the lane and manipulate comfortably from
That point and he said we try to teach that but it’s really hard it might just be like a feature of a guy’s game that he brings to the NBA floor and Emanuel quickley is a guy who desperately needs the extra dribble the reason why he’s
Not finishing well at The Rim is largely because he’s taking off from so far he gets bumped in air it’s easier for guys to time you up when you start your like you start The Gather the the helps side Rim def protectors can step with you and
Meet you places you have to go for more High finishes if you have that last dribble not only is if you pick it up your pivot point deeper in the floor you can bring low helps side Defenders closer to you leading to more dropoffs everyone Raptors fans you’ve seen kyari
You know what that looks like um nashing the pick and roll extending plays creating like these reverse playmaking opportunities that’s what I want to see from Emanuel and I know it’s a lot because that’s never been part of his game to be like you’re in Toronto for 3
Weeks maybe that’s something you do cuz it’s what Eric spuler said if you pick up your dribble early you can get swalled up in the NBA so I’m waiting to see more Divergent Paths of playmaking from him that help open up let’s say more comfortable finishing I think for
Him it’s three-point shooting is the Hub of everything he’s he does and his motion as a shooter but what I really want to see is for him to be more dangerous as a live dribble playmaker so that teams if he has a good roller if if
He has Scotty Barnes if he has RJ Barrett for like a blade cut or something like that you can manipulate with the threat of that playmaking to kind of like work your way downhill into that comfortable floa range after a short pickup rather than a long one I
Just like the playmaking I want to see it and you need purle because he’s not getting clearance from like jeon Porter and Thad young screens right now some of his BL cut I’m glad we’re finally naming these things cool things we got the Stampede cut and the blade cut enough of this
45 stuff yeah UC see La no blade Stampede we need aggressive cut names that’s right sorry yes I no no no I was okay so I have a number here for you guys okay this is on onoff numbers are always finicky and IQ he’s it’s very
Early into his career so like take this all with a boulder of salt right but two man pairings with IQ and pretty much every other starter every single one of them have been negative other than yaka purle yaka purle plus 11 everybody else like minus 5us 10 whatever and this is
What ever you think of P’s season and he had a rough stretch there where you know there was talk of him maybe not even yeah he he has this onoff impact with just about everyone especially on the defensive side of the ball yeah we have once after years of figuring out that
Big men are important we have once again found our way to big men are important and that’s I’m like I’m a fan of yakob on this team even into the future I know people have their Hang-Ups or whatever but like developmentally having a guy who can actually give you clearance for
Downhill rep yeah developing by playing a way that you will want to play once you’re developed is important it’s uh look I I I appreciated the creativity of of the prior era here and like trying a lot of new things and not you know after the Aaron Banes Alex Len experiment
Going you know what if we can’t find the center let’s not even bother let’s do different stuff it’s no not three picks and a 4year $78 million contract level of finally but yeah it’s it’s good to have a center cat the cat’s out the bag like
It’s happened he’s here I don’t like he has said I’m not interested in being on a tanking team I’m not sure what the Optics are inhouse with his conversations versus like commentary outside of it but it’s it’s very important to have a guy who can give you
The Reps as you said to be doing the things you’re meant to be doing like this is something we talked about with Scotty myself you and will at the start of the season when I looked at all of his pick and role plays I’m noticing only yaka purle and and Christian kok
Are able to like plant screens for him which means that Scotty is basically running isolations repeatedly for hising and sets good screens but he’s not enough of a threat yet for other teams to really respect it right so it’s like it doesn’t you can set it hard but it’s
Like when I set screens which which you know is like yeah it doesn’t it frees you for like a second and then both Defenders are like we don’t have to worry about that when I when I lived with you and you’d Corner me you know it
Was tough to get around things um but that’s that’s kind of the point right is like having yakob there not only from Manel quickly to get him downhill reps where his rep is now coming seeing a defense in rotation and that’s the most important one cuz you can run stand
Still reps in practice and all that kind of stuff but seeing how they respond as like the second action from the defense is Paramount succeeding and that’s even for Scotty as well who succeeded way more in the pick and roll and when I asked him about it and was like is there
Anything you’re changing he says and it doesn’t have to be the truth it doesn’t have to be whatever but he says it’s reps yeah so if it’s reps and you’re getting more reps with yaka purle and getting down we know how M we know roughly how mapping works right like your your brain
Kind of piecing all these disperate examples together to to give you a guide yeah chunking the neuroscientific term chunking for when you’ve seen something so many times that your brain kind of like skips steps to give you the answer for what it should be quicker yeah it’s
A great plug for chunky by the way wow wow just to bring that up uh okay we’ve only got five minutes left so we’re going to go a little more rapid fire with these uh s uh Bruce Brown outside of that first game has not uh fit
Particular is this quiet quitting or is this quiet actually to stay and just like lowering the value a little bit so that you know hey well two two first start on the table anymore might as well keep them right Bruce Brown is the type of player that will excel on a very very
Good team that’s why he was so important to the Nuggets where it’s like you plug and play him next to Jamal Murray and Nicolet yic and he’s just like he can do everything the little bit the little King little things King right when it comes to different things he can do but
When you throw him on a a team that’s developing like we’ve talked about for the most part today and how they’re just trying to work through the Kinks of things throwing in a Bruce Brown who yesterday had a pretty bad possession trying to be like a pick and roll
Initiator settled into a floater and it’s like ah I don’t know if that’s the game that he’s trying to play here I don’t know I think it’s partially you know one part not the right team and not the right timing but also probably a little bit of quiet quitting too it’s
Just awkward uh okay Samson on Saturday you came over to my place shout out to cabanos by the way it’s my favorite burger spot in the city and they hooked us up with a ton of stuff for the Royal Rumble which we watched on sportset plus this was really your first introduction
To uh major wrestling uh and of course you’ll watch Monday Night Raw tonight on sportset 360 have followed up what were your first Royal Rumble Impressions okay really fantastic athletes I think over the course of it I enjoyed the women’s Rumble more than the men’s Rumble to be
Honest the closing with Jade Cargill debuting and stuff was really was really cool and it was like the Bianca and Jade moment right that was cool it seemed like I don’t know theatrical I suppose which is the whole pageantry um I thought I don’t know if there’s like big
CM Punk fans I thought he disappointed at the end like he got tired he’s old man like that’s what I was thinking I was like Grady is too young for NBA and CM Punk is like too old I was like if this is the end and like just like he
Threw the guy over I think I was expecting something big like I was expecting them to like meet in the middle and a guy to like throw the guy over cuz I know you but they’re human beings they maybe could get hurt so maybe that should be the expectation but
Just like whopping a guy over the edge I was like o but there was some stuff that happened I was like that’s awesome yeah uh good debut for Braun breaker who if anyone knows The Steiner Brothers from back in the day uh he is a the Next
Generation he was he and the guy whose name was like not a name but a thing he kept spearing everybody he had the green pants he was awesome okay I don’t remember who the green pants but Braun breaker was the guying every BR breaker was really good in the other guy was
Fantastic they like I really love the athleticism of it it kind of blows my mind is Kofi Kingston still he was there he was there yeah he didn’t have a great showing uh there was also to tie this back to basketball uh Omas who is uh the
Nigerian giant who actually came to the US initially as part of like through Giants of Africa as a basketball Prospect and basketball didn’t work out he’s now in the WWE and he was in the Royal Rumble uh as MSI will not like this but I constantly refer him on
Twitter as msi’s favorite wrestler um uh I actually it’s the one way I’ve gotten to talk to Messi one-on-one is doing a feature onas uh quickly before we go here uh Raptor Republic 3on Three Tournament March 30th Raptor Republic Live event at the riv next week uh
February 6th um which of those is bigger in your mind s oh man the three on three tournament because I didn’t really get to play much in the other one you don’t get a lot of you don’t get a lot of touches in usage I was looking for so
Yeah give me yeah three on three Samson keeping you out of the offense at the at the live event I’m a tyrant yeah yeah the live event I think will be awesome it’s William Lou Blake Murphy Lindsey Dunn asand AR beaney Travon Heath myself leis Atman brenon Leftwich the coach
From the 905 as well who I always almost call Byron left witch because I’m a jaguars fan and that was my that was qu for me I think on a live stream but yeah there’s a whole host of people and it’ll be like a super fun night last year we
Sold it out and it’s a great way to meet people who love the Raptors a bunch and it’s a great way if you like the work that we do and you want to just like chop it up uh people seemed interested in that last year cool way to do that
Which hopefully they will do more of over at Raptors Republic uh Samson folk s thanks for coming on guys really really appreciate it um convey the pick convey the pick now yes okay uh well that’s a combo for another day that we’ll get into a little more uh intently
People pretty split on that one make sure you check out all Samson n s’s great work uh everyone’s great work over at Raptors Republic uh they produce people like me and will also we’re gonna take a break on the other side we’re gonna talk to Britney Donaldson coach
For uh the Atlanta Hawks we’re gonna talk to dasas Duncan and we’re going to talk to Kyra Lewis Jr of the Raptors and Raptors 905 you’ve been listening to the Raptor show brought to you by Campbell’s new chunky spicy soup welcome back to the Raptor show I’m
Blake Murphy will Li off today little Chad price little Canadian content for you uh love song radio version uh as we come back there I know on the podcast and on the TV side you can’t hear it but it’s a nice song uh we are joined Now by Britney Donaldson assistant coach and
Director of coaching development at the Atlanta Hawks co-founder of strata Athletics formerly uh Toronto Raptors you know formerly a friend I could go get a beer with around here she she’s left us she digs it in by by taking two or three against Raptors Britney how are
You I’m good Blake thanks for having me on um gotta ask before we get into your stuff today is mar Gasol’s birthday is you on the uh on the bus with Mar Gasol during the championship parade like how high does that rank for you in terms of career memories
Oh man I didn’t know that was his birthday today thanks for telling me I’ll have to text him um that’s definitely top three memory I uh I have a lot of fond memories from that day but being on bus five with Mark that’s top tier do you think do you think that
Ranks in Mark’s memories or does he not remember it that’s a good question you’d have to ask him he had a couple parades that year if I remember correctly so I’m not sure where that RS for him but I’m sure it’s pretty high he sure did uh so
Britney you uh were here in Toronto you you had a stop in Detroit with the Pistons as well you you co-founded strata Athletics but you’re back in the MBA you’re with the Atlanta Hawks as uh not only assistant coach but director of coaching development there under Quinn
Snyder H how has this season been for you how has the return uh to an NBA Bench been for you it’s been great um I really enjoy working for Coach Snider um I’ve learned so much from him even just in the short amount of time that I’ve been with him
Um the city of Atlanta has been been great um I just feel really embraced by the organization and the city and I’m really grateful to be here um so a couple weeks ago Quin you guys were here and we got the catch up and I asked Quinn Snider about um what you’ve been
Able to contribute to his staff and I know you get to hear those comments um how how was that to to hear and how accurate is that in terms of just how well the the fit has gone and how you’ve been able to kind of find your way to
Helping not just the players on the team but the other coaches as well yeah um that was really humbling to hear it was really cool to hear I appreciate him saying that uh about me and about our organization I feel again really grateful to be a part of it um I think
One of the funnest parts of working for Quinn is I think he’s really really good at identifying everybody’s you know skill sets strengths and then utilizing him as such whether that’s his players or his coaches on his staff um so he really empowers me to do the things
Things that I’m good at and those things happen to be really fun for me so um yeah I’m really grateful to be in a situation where I can you know show up as fully myself and bring my skill set to work every day and hopefully help you
Know both players and coaches along the way so that skill set for those who don’t know and I want to go a little through a little bit of your career history um you’re hoopers like some records still at University of Northern Iowa for for three-point shooting like
Like we’ve seen the footage we’ve seen the highlights we’ve seen the stats um but while you were there you you get a degree in statistics and Actuarial sciences and I actually don’t know if I’ve ever asked you this even like personally was your thinking in doing that on the education side while you
Played ball was the idea to eventually find a way into sports using that that data background yeah honestly not at all um that kind of came later after graduation I I realized after graduation that that was a career path that I could choose to
Go down um with the help of a CLE couple professors of mine um but while I was pursuing that degree I really didn’t know what I wanted to do postgraduation um I was actually an undecided major my first like year and a half in school I
Didn’t really know what I wanted to do and then I just happened to choose Actuarial science and statistics because I loved math I always loved math it came pretty easy to me and I knew I’d be missing a lot of classes um being on the road for basketball so I was like what’s
Something that you know if I miss some classes and I can still keep up and get good grades and and still enjoy and math is that for me so I just happened to choose it and then after graduation I was lucky enough to stumble upon you know the sports analytics sort of
Movement that was happening and then my professor recommended um pursuing that path so you ended up at at Stats which you know people have seen referenced in articles forever and on broadcasts uh through you know sport view tracking if anyone’s ever heard that term and then
From there you end up in the Toronto Raptors uh Analytics Department um what was that move like this was still pretty early in your career like not that far out of college making the move from you know kind of a a League wide stats house
To moving to the team side um how was that transition for you how tough was that decision or or how exciting was it yeah it was really exciting and um shout out the Toronto Raptors Organization for giving me my first NBA opportunity um but yeah you know going
From being on more of the product side of the operation so um both making sure that the data is corrected or collected correctly and clean and then also you know creating custom reports for most of the teams around the league um that that that was really fun for me especially at
You know 21 22 just out of college um I’m going to work and like creating reports for the Golden State Warriors about Steph Curry you know it was just a really really I don’t know mindboggling time for me fresh out of school um but I always wondered when I would get those
Sort of requests from teams like I wonder you know what the conversation were like leading up to this request or this question or what’s the context around this question and furthermore if I were to give them a report what are they doing with it I always kind of
Wanted to know what was happening behind the scenes as fun as it was to to create those reports for them so transitioning to the the team side was really fun for me because now I got a front row seat to the discussions that were happening and what you know prompted these types of
Questions and these types of analysis um and then further I could help guide those questions and those discussions and say hey maybe this wasn’t the right question to ask maybe this is the data we should be looking at and you know just have a closer look into all of that
It was a lot of fun so after a couple years in that analytics Department you move to the coaching staff and and you know as I guess an extension of that analytics department but also leaning back on your your basketball background and I know you’ve told me and kind of
Said publicly before that getting on the court and you know being like physically interacting interacting one-on-one with players that is kind of where things really clicked for you um how was that transition office to to coaching staff and why do you think that is that that
Just you you know you seem to kind of really quickly be like oh this is it I’m back on the court and yeah I’ve got my my data side but this is where I I’m meant to be on the court yeah that’s a great question you
Know I I think when I first started with the Raptors like you mentioned I was in the front office as a data analyst but I was still supporting the coaching staff in a lot of ways so a lot of the work I would do was directly for the coaching
Staff so I got to make connections early on with members of the coaching staff and get to spend time with them and and two guys that come to mind that are still there uh Jim s jamama malaa like they were just amazing with me my first couple years as a data analyst they
Would oftentimes invite me to practice invite me to workouts just if I wanted to rebound or pass or you know just get a little more involved on the court and that’s kind of what sparked my interest and I guess brought Clarity to me that oh maybe I maybe I enjoy it out here
More than I thought I would would um until you know I got those invites from those people I don’t know if I really knew if coaching was a viable path for me but um so so shout out to those two guys in particular um but I think you
Know being a former player um having gone through you know I obviously didn’t play in the NBA but I played at a high level so having gone through similar situations as some of these players go through on a day-to-day basis on a season to season basis I think just
Empathizing with that and understanding that these players are you know fully human and you know have complicated complex emotions lives all of these things they’re not just dots on a page or you know they’re not just robots um that were telling them what to do and
They go do it you know they’re very complex human beings I think understanding that and getting up close and personal with them in those relationships and building those relationships um was something that brought me a lot of joy and so um yeah I think it just kind of felt like a
Natural fit once I was around them more and more that’s great I’m I’m glad you you found that spot um in a couple weeks here you’re going to be at the MIT SLO Sports analytics conference it’s March 1st I 2 for for anyone who doesn’t know what this is it’s like the biggest
Annual basketball data conference but also like the biggest basket one of the biggest basketball networking events a lot of front office people a lot of people on the you know product side as you as you called it Britney um so you’re going to be uh a speaker at at
This um I mean how I I have more specific questions but how does that feel generally like this it feels like it would be very very cool given your background in your path to this point yeah it feels crazy to be honest um as I mentioned you know I wasn’t
Aware of this Sports analytics sort of Industry until after I graduated from school and one of the first things I came across is I was doing some research of like how do I get my foot in the door I don’t really know where to start was the this Sloan analytics conference and
So um you know having attended the conference you know three or four times times and just made connections there and seeing people on these panels that I just admire and and learned so much from um now having the opportunity to to be one of those people on these panels and
And give back in the way that I was given to as far as insights and connections um I’m just really excited and really honored so it’s been I think almost nine years since you you graduated uni and kind of went down the sports path um when you look at and
Maybe this is a better question for after Sloan because I’d imagine there will be a lot of women who are either in the in the industry or trying to get in the industry who want to chat with you and pick your brain um and I know you didn’t have this goal necessarily in
Mind initially but when you survey the landscape and where we are in the NBA where we are in sports in general do you feel like we’ve made decent enough progress in terms of hey there are more paths to being involved in sport for women and particularly women
Athletes yeah definitely I I I’m very excited with the progress that’s been made I I think there’s a ways to go still and you know there might always will be um more more you know ground to be made but I’m very excited and I you know I’m very intentional about being a
Part of that movement in any way I can and just creating more exposure for women um and just letting them know that like yeah there are multiple ways you can enter into the sports industry you don’t have to be a former player if you are that’s amazing um but if you’re
Interested and you’re passionate enough um there is a spot for you and yeah I’m just I’m really excited to see where we continue to go uh last one Before I Let You Go Britney are PAL Ryan Schmidt also formerly of the Raptors organization coaching the heck out of that College
Park Skyhawks team your your g-league affiliate they’re in first place right now um you taking a little bit of credit if he does this thing in the in the sky like like he learned a lot from you over the years right CBL staff together 95 after together like he’s he’s taken from
The Britney Donaldson playbook for the Skyhawks team no I’m not going to take any credit for that I mean Ryan’s Ryan’s Elite I’m so happy that we have him down in Atlanta and that I can watch him uh coach up close again um it’s so much fun watching
His team I I caught their game a couple nights ago and every time I go I I text him afterwards I’m like man you guys are so fun to watch so um yeah just super proud of him uh speaking of fun to watch you guys have uh the Lakers Sons
Warriors and Clippers uh on this home stand so I should let you go you got a lot of prep for a lot of uh big big name players is coming in Britney Donaldson thanks for taking the time thanks for having me Blake great to see you you too uh Britney Donaldson Atlanta Hawks
Assistant coach and director of coaching development uh really fascinating uh career story of course a part of the Raptors organization uh when they won the championship she has a ring she was on that bus with Mar Gasol uh celebrating at the uh at the parade so a
Lot of fun to catch up with Britney there we’re going to talk momentarily to Nikas Duncan now um You probably know Nas’s work from Twitter if if you’re someone who’s on Twitter uh a lot there is the dunker spot podcast we’ve had his co-host Steve Jones Junior on the show
Before uh two of the very best in terms of breaking down you know the X’s and O’s side of the game but in a really accessible and digestible way uh so much so that JJ reic has been like well yeah I need these guys on my on my pod all
The time uh he was on uh or they were on rather The Old Man and the three podcast uh the other day so we’re going to talk to uh Nikas any moment oh Nas is there uh Nas what’s up man how are you hello hello oh he’s doing pretty
Well sir hey man uh good to see you thanks for coming on with us uh I gotta ask man it’s uh does it it it can’t get old right like JJ reck texts you or or DMS you he’s like hey man can you come on the Pod today the this pod that has
Like a rotating cast of NBA players on that doesn’t lose its shine ever right uh no that part doesn’t get old uh going into the comment section like hey who is this that part gets a little funny but uh but no I it’s a tremendous
Opportunity I have a lot of fun I’m very grateful to be where I’m at yeah and there there’re a lot of fun to uh there’re a lot of fun to listen to you and Steve obviously at the dunker spot uh do a great job as well I I want to do
Some kind of around the NBA stuff with you but I do want a couple Raptor opinions from me always good to get an outside look and I know it’s a team you you keep an eye on uh pretty closely uh I haven’t gotten to listen to the old
Man in the three episode yet did Scotty make your Eastern Conference All-Star reserves uh he was short list for me but ultimately didn’t end up making so he’s the Julius Randle injury replacement he could be he could be I guess it depends on what the coaches decide to do with those front Court
Spots I think it’s it’s like a four or five player race in the front Court I think between Julius and Jaylen and Bam Scotty’s gon to be in there P’s obvious going to be in there so I think three of those five is going to get kind of tough
Cuz I think the Wild Card spots are just going to go to guard yeah I had to guess that’s uh that’s the way it goes I guess for an All-Star Game it also it’s probably best for entertainment value but I don’t know man it’d be tough to see Scotty on the
Outside H how what have you made of of Scotty’s play since the these kind of Trades with him kind of trying to take on more of the the number one man role here with with Pascal out like maybe it’s just you because of the various Raptors accounts that I
Follow like I feel like seems to be like a lot of hand ringing over Scotty during this recent stretch for me like it I guess for me as someone who isn’t like a raptor fan like it’s easy for me to kind of conceptualize okay it’s going to be
Up and down it’s going to be fine like you had the possessions where Scotty is just bringing it up you can see the twom man combination with him and Emanuel quickly and how they play off of each other Scotty getting downhill and you can kind of see what the blueprint is
Supposed to look like but then there are also the choir quarters for him and stuff so like for me I haven’t really taken anything major away from it especially since yaka pe’s missed so much of the time and like what he does as a screener in the handoff hub I think
He takes a lot of pressure off of not not only Scotty but off of RJ off of Emanuel so like because of all the injuries and stuff it’s been kind of hard for me to have firm takes on the Scotty stretch so far I think it’s been
A good year for him overall like I’ve been encouraged by what he’s seen the three-point shooting appearing to be real feels like a very big deal even if defenses haven’t super reacted to that portion of the program yet it’s nice that he’s taking them in volume it’s
Nice that he’s taking them within Rhythm so like I’ve it’s been a fun Scotty year for me but I I guess you know if you’re watching every single game of his and every single minute and then going into spaces after that could probably get a little bit
Ofno yeah look man if you’re going into spaces after every game and retiga the you know future of the franchise it’s probably going to get exhausting no matter how well he plays um I I’m with you I think it’s been a really positive year I think he’s probably right on like
You said he’s probably right on the the short list for a lot of Eastern Conference reserves Reserve ballots official and hypothetical um nikayas could I ask you to just turn your mic up a little bit it’s coming in a little quiet on our end um I apologize uh for
Asking you do that on air um good so in addition to to Scotty we’ve also gotten a little bit of a look at IQ and RJ Emanuel quickley and RJ Barrett um they both missed this most recent game Emanuel quickley has been out for a
Little bit um but what have you made of that fit I know RJ is a guy that you know everyone with basketball opinions has had a lot of opinions on uh you know over the years what what exactly he could be versus should be and how have you thought that that’s looked in
Toronto so far I’ve enjoyed both so far like I think Emanuel I’m keeping an eye on the defense like that’s something that I was a little bit higher on than my co-host Steve was and now I’m starting to see like oh snap this I guess these are the kind of things that
He’s talking about with teams going at IQ a little bit more than I anticipated since he’s been in Toronto but like I’ve enjoyed the injection of pace that Emanuel quickley brought both in terms of just the pure transition stuff or just getting Toronto into their stuff
Earlier which I feel like has been kind of a a consistent issue for them this year so like I’ve enjoyed IQ the pullup shooting is obviously valuable for him the way he’s able to Boogie Alpha handoffs some kind of tilt defenses in that way I think is very important RJ’s
Been a revelation man like I the big thing for me the big two things for me with RJ has been where’s the shot going to land with three-point shooting when he’s spaced and how quick is he going to make whatever decision he has to make if
It is a catch and shoot opportunity is he just firing grade or is it going to be a catch and hold if he’s driving is it going to be an immediate drive or is it going to be a catch and hold the fact that he’s been as decisive as he’s been
In Toronto has probably been the most fun I’ve had with watching him so it’s been nice to see that plus the defense perk up a little bit for yeah it’s been it’s been nice to see and obviously it’s kind of one of the biggest things we’ll we’ll focus on down
The stretch here uh last Raptors one before we go a little NBA wide uh N I got Kyra Lewis coming on the show next uh no big de no pressure by the way you’re the setup man but are you I know he’s a guy that you like that are you
Still holding stock at this point I’m still holding a little bit of stock maybe not as much stock as I had last year I just want to see the dude play yeah I just want him to just give me 20 games of he is getting at least 18
Minutes minutes and then I can have a firmer sample if I need to continue to get more stock or not because the New Orleans stent because of injuries because of who they’ve added to the room he just never had a real chance to succeed or fail there by his own there
So I’m kind of excited that’s something that Stephen I talked about on the trade episode when it first went down I’m kind of curious to see what the Kyro Min gonna look like if he actually gets him so I’m I’m still a Believer like I do
Enjoy the crap that comes off pick roll he’s very fast but I love that it doesn’t feel like he’s going full speed the half court like that’s the thing that kind of Pops that you wouldn’t expect for a young guard he has the pacing down he is kind of snake heavy so
We’ll keep an eye on that especially as you try to get the front Court healthier but I I’m still a believer in Kyra I think we gonna get some fun stuff from him yeah be good to chat with him in a bit and he’s going to play with the 905
Tuesday and Wednesday here to try to you know get those minutes back up get the system understood um pivoting off of the Raptors here nayas I mentioned Julius Randle injury replacement the reports coming out today that he’s going to miss weeks not months after dislocating his shoulder uh I’ve done that before I’m
Not an NBA player but mine still clicks and stuff so who knows it it could be an up and down recovery you had recently said that you thought that Knicks team was maybe a good bench piece away from being the second best team in the East
Um how can they kind of weather this Julius Randle injury what what do things need to look like for them for them to keep up this terrific momentum they’ve had since the OG trade um I think there’s a little bit more pressure now to get that bench
Piece in the room when I made that tweet one I was conceptualizing I think they need another ball Handler I think they need someone else cuz the OG plus bench unit has been very fun it has been absurd defensively the offense not so much but they’re still like a plus 20 or
Whatever in that rating because the defense has been that good and so I always needed I always thought they would need another ball handler someone that can tilt defenses someone can knock down some shots off the dribble and now with Julius Randall being out they got to slide someone into the starting
Lineup I would imagine that’s going to be Josh Hart um but from there they absolutely need another Creator now because one of the bigger questions following the OG trade was okay what exactly are we going to do when jayen Brunson goes to the bench because you at
Least had Emanuel quickley had RJ bear you can sprinkle those guys in with the second unit and kind of run from there if you’re taking Julius out of the equation to they’re gonna have to really figure something out with the second unit when Jay LeBrun goes to the bench
So if they can combine Evan fornier and a pick or maybe if it’s Quinton Grimes too since there were some Rumblings that he isn’t super happy with the situation there any combination of those assets to get another ball handle in the room a Malcolm broen or Jordan Clarkson
Whatever you can get there I think that’s where they should Target and so then once you bring Julius back into the fold you’re looking at a pretty complete group man Jordan Clarkson Jordan Clarkson was like the ultimate Madison Square Garden Nick in theory when they were bad like like Jordan Clarkson
Getting that triple double or dropping 40 at MSG and like a 18-point loss that felt like his Destiny for so long but he’s s he’s become such a good version of Jordan Clarkson now um the other big Raptors trade I said we’re getting off Raptors we’re just doing all the Raptor
There’s adjacencies here uh the Pacers have won three in a row they’ve done that without Tyrese halberton the the you know obviously we’re trying to evaluate Pascal siakam’s fit in Indiana without Tyrese halberton with the exception of one game here sounds like he’ll be back soon that’s great um and
So we won’t know exactly how those two are going to fit together for a little bit here but the Pacers have succeeded and even in the losses that they’ve had they’ve played good teams pretty close what have you made of Pascal’s uh kind of immediate impact with that Pacers
Team uh spash Pas Al seum is very good at basketball wow that’s been I I can’t believe it either you know I was surprised that that was going to be the outcome but no in all seriousness what he adds to their early offense is terrifying considering how
Good Indiana’s offense already is and I think just the amount of spacing that he’s seeing not that Indiana has a ton of elite Shooters though they do have some in the room just by virtue of how early they get up the floor Pascal can just kind of walked into some early
Post-ups and not see a whole bunch of help like he was seeing in Toronto like to like Pascal I think I was looking I was looking at a little bit earlier I think he said 61% on twos right now in Indiana obviously it’s a small sample
But that’s insane and so being able to just get some of that early offense stuff in addition to he can be your pick and roll ball handler he can be your screener he can Boogie and ISO if you need him to and then you get him you got
Buddy Hill ghost setting ghost screens for him and stuff like that there are so many things that they’ve already sprinkled in with Pascal they they’re going to continue to do once you add Tyrese into the fold that’s going to be one of the best twom man parents in the
NBA all right uh Nas I know you do a lot of WNBA work as well for WNBA and in addition on the dunker spot podcast and where wherever if you’re hiring theas you’re getting some some WNBA in there it is uh free agency time what is front
Of mind for you like like what is the you know spiciest free agency storyline here we’re looking at um it’s twofold right now we got the bombshell from Ramona shelburn that NECA gum of the LA Sparks is she alerted the Sparks she’s not coming back after 12 years there and
So top of mine where the heck is NECA going CU she’s taking meetings with I think five or six teams Del Liberty War the teams that she planed to meet with I’m like wait a minute what cap space do you even have and if y’all are all
Taking less is Banna Stewart playing the three next year what is that going to look like if that’s even a real possibility so following NE Go gum is going to be Story number one which replaces the original story number one of Skyler diin Smith who missed all of
Last year very clearly will not be returning to Phoenix because of the hashtag Antics going on there um so her freeny is going to be big there are a lot of contenders or French contenders that need a point guard and the last time we saw Skyler she was at worst the
Second best point guard in the in the WNBA uh behind Chelsea grave if you want to give her that that specific year I probably would have said Skyler was better still so she’s going to change the championship odds for someone wherever she lands up that’s going to be Connecticut Washington if Atlanta wants
To take a jump after making their first playoff appearance in a little bit I think Scot is going to swing some things this year we uh I I got to dig in further on the WNBA CBA there’s got to be more cap loopholes for the Liberty right like like they just there’s stuff
We haven’t discovered yet that’s in there and that’s how they’re going to make this work uh like it’s a it’s a hard situation so if you have star players that are willing to take less the Stewie didn’t take her full Max last year when she signed with the liberty and helped
Got Courtney vanders slute in there same with the aces where they have their core locked in but I think everyone in that core is making like 200k it’s not the full Max that’s how they were able to add Candace Parker last off season so if
You got stars that are willing to do it even if it’s for a one-year thing they can make it work I just want to know in the case of NECA to New York that’s going to be a pretty heavy haircut for her or John quill or both in regards to
Stewie to get NECA in there so it can happen I it feels unlikely but we’ll just have to see super teams killing the WNBA uh we’re not headed for that uh just yet someone’s gotta look someone’s got to load up further though if someone’s going to take down the aces
Because uh That season they’re coming off of uh my Liberty uh not getting it done at the end I got a a non basketball one for you here n you you prove a point that I’ve made for years which is that the smartest people on basketball Twitter for whatever reason also like
Wrestling like you you look at NBA analytics people in in actual teams and then you look at their old tweets there’s wrestling stuff in there just it’s a weird connection I know you were live tweeting the the Royal Rumble I had Samson come over with some other friends for it
As well so I got to ask you uh we we’ll see on Monday Night Raw tonight on Sports at 360 if he officially makes this decision but uh Cody rhods finishing the story against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania uh is it happening can can I give a take on that
Yeah absolutely if Steve is watching is gonna gonna upset him technically Cody already finished the story he had Roman in a submission hold at WrestleMania last year Roman tapped the ref didn’t count it Roman tapped he already lost him my opinion but I do think they’re
Going to go that rout I think they’re going to try to blend this in I guess my big question moving forward I guess we’ll learn more as we get towards elimination chamber is like how exactly are they factoring the rock into this yeah like teased some stuff and then we
Just didn’t see him for the rumble like I thought he was goingon to be a surprise like 29 or 30 he just didn’t pop up so is there going to be some interference there or is that going to be some post Mania stuff or like SummerSlam or whatever like that’s kind
Of at the back of my mind but I do think they’re going to ultimately go to Cody r this year yeah I think uh you know you can’t do the finish the story story a third WrestleMania in a row so you probably got to finish it at some point
Or uh or just move on of course you can check all that out on Sports at 360 and sports at Plus for the uh the premium live events that big one elimination chamber in Australia uh the next big one that would be uh a lot of fun really
Quickly before I I let you go here ni Ben Simmons potentially back tonight are we letting ourselves like a little bit believe that that he could get back to being like a reasonable ation player or is it gone um it’s a yes for me like I’m probably I’m off the he’s going to
Return to like Allstar Fringe allar I think he can still be a good starter good rotation pie for you though I don’t think the tide is really gonna turn on Ben Simmons until he’s on whatever contract he gets after this one because I honestly if he plays well it’s still
Going to be well he has this Max and he’s not that and so I don’t think the national perception on him is going to change but I do think he’s someone that can still pass before he got hurt again this year like the defense looked pretty good by my estimation he’s someone that
Still push pce you can use him with Shooters and handoffs and stuff like I think he’s still a useful player when he’s healthy he has to regain consistent aggression as a driver we know that and as a finisher and we know that but if he can put games together I think he can
Come close I think he still be a good productive player so I’m excited to watch him I am increasingly in the minority on that front but I am very excited to watch him look I’m excited too man that Nets team is not particularly watchable lately so this
Could be uh this could save their you know league pass value for us Nikas Duncan of the dunker spot and old man in the three thanks so much for taking the time out buddy thanks for having me man got to do this again yeah absolutely uh Nikas Duncan of
The dunker spot excellent excellent podcast make sure you check out him with our pal uh Steve Jones Jr and that old man in the three podcast with with JJ reick uh we’re going to take a break here when we come back we joined by Kyra Lewis Jr Raptors picked them up at the
Trade deadline uh look to be kind of a make the salary math work kind of a thing but he’s looked pretty solid for Raptors 905 this is a guy who was a lottery pick who before tearing his ACL two seasons ago was arguably the fastest
Player in the NBA he’s helped the 905 to a big win on Saturday they have a big back-to-back coming up here Tuesday Wednesday at Paramount five food center in missas Saga where um they have a chance it’s a fringe one but they could get back to you know maybe the back end
Of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference there so we’re going to take a break and then we’re going to learn a little bit more about Kyro Le Jr as he joins us you’ve been listening to the Raptor show brought to you by Campbell’s new chunky spicy
Soup welcome back to the Raptor show on the sports at radio network I’m Blake Murphy uh joined Now by one of the newest additions to the Toronto Raptors been a nice spark for Raptors 905 as well Kyra Lewis Jr Kyra what’s up man how are you I’m doing good how you doing I’m
Good uh so welcome to Toronto and to missa Saga first of all um want to talk a little bit about the trade and what that was like but Saturday you guys come up with this very big win against Grand Rapids you close it out with some good
Team defense down the stretch um how are you finding it on the court with the 905 H how big can that win on Saturday uh be for you guys moving forward here uh it’s been a smooth transition um just getting comfortable with my teammates on the coaches um just seeing
How I can add my um strengths and abilties to the team um the win Saturday was a big win um just try to win as as much as we can to help them get to the playoffs um help us get to the playoffs and you know do whatever we can to just
Make it tough when we’re at home and get those games we got to get and you know just keep getting better um the Tuesday Wednesday back-to-back you guys have here against Maine um you know are you guys talking like hey now is the time to make this playoff push this is a team
Just ahead of you in the standings and the East is as tight as it is uh yeah every game we going in and just taking me one game the time just trying to do whatever we can to win that game and then after that we get ready
For the next so just keeping it at one game in tally as much as possible um you know just go from there uh so I know you were were talking about the other day how the number three looks good on you um have you got to take a look at these
Lunar New Year jerseys that you guys are going to wear on Wednesday the one with the dragon on the front I haven’t you haven’t seen them yet okay uh I want to know your your response to them once you’ve seen them so Wednesday I think it is you guys will
Be uh in a cool Jersey with a dragon on the front instead of just you know the Raptors 905 usual so you got that to look forward to I do um okay so the the trade that happened the other week that brought you to Toronto um did you like
When you catch wi that when you get told about that by your agent or by the Pelicans did they tell you right away hey you’re going to Toronto or was it did you was there a moment where you thought you were going to Indiana how did that
Work uh no they told me it was Toronto I didn’t know Indiana was um I didn’t know Indiana was part of it to um I had looked I guess on the internet you know what I’m saying but other than that I just knew I was going to Toronto what
Was your uh your initial reaction to that whether the the Toronto side of it or just being traded you never been traded before in your career uh it was just um it was just all It All Happened fast I called my parents my mom my dad I told them first um and
Then you know from there you know it gets out so all the people that found out that really into like sports basketball and keep up with me um or my the team I had played for they had um they was calling me but I had already
Knew at the time so no it was all it was all quick though I had to pack all my bags and just keep moving what were your are your parents still Alabama based yes so were they like disappointed like even though obviously you want to
Be in the you know on the NBA side not not the g-league side like that’s that was easy for them to come out and see you with Birmingham right the the Pelicans g- League team uh well yeah they only got to come to one game because the crazy part about
It it was um it was snowing so like it was ice on the road so you know they really wasn’t I guess they was kind of sad but in highight they really they was okay with it yeah so you’re you’re ready for Toronto weather then it was it was
Snowing and IC see in Alabama you’re you’re good to go well it was it wasn’t snowing in Birmingham but even if it was snowing than Birmingham when I got down here it was different type of cold um what is what has that process been like like like getting from the Pelicans to
Toronto getting settled and things like that getting to know the city a little bit how has that side of things been been going uh it’s been smooth um just what it’s just walking down the street you know just looking um s seeing um just looking at buildings because down south
You really don’t got that many buildings you know what I’m saying so just looking seeing the snow it’s all been good um I have no complaints and I’m I’m getting adjusted pretty well I feel like did you know the organization well like was I know you you got picked probably well before
In 2020 the Raptors would have you know they didn’t have a high pick that year you you probably didn’t talk to them a ton but did you have any relationships in in the organization did you have a feel for what the Raptors would be like no I I really didn’t know I other
Than the people like you know who they played for him and know the high UPS I really didn’t know how it was going to be so the first day got here it was all new how have um how have the conversations been about you know hey
This is what we this is what we see you as this is what we want to see you develop this is where you know you we think you could have a role with the Raptors oh they’ve been good um whether just going my PD coach um you know they
Talk to her a lot so I’m pretty sure just working on the things I’m working on now um I can definitely can add change of pace getting in the paint I feel like and U make opportunities for teammates myself so um just going through my PD work um listen to my
Coaches and just knowing when I get my opportunity where I can help this team so um you tore your ACL back at the end of 2021 you were back on the court in under a year you know get ramping back up in the G league and then back to the
Pelicans all basically one year from when you initially tore it um is that entirely behind you now and at what point did you feel like kind of okay I’m back um it’s definitely behind me um but once I first got on the court I feel like
From doing that all that rehab I feel like I was just back but of course there’s a difference from your first year into your second year so like coming into this year um just when I was with training camp with the Pelicans and all that um I just felt like I was back
To myself 100% so um I always felt like it but I would say like as far as just getting everything back from ACL um it was going into this year I feel like I was completely back was I mean every the first thing people think of when they
Think of Kyro Lewis Jr is the speed right was that where was that in terms of how quickly that came back and how you know where your comfort level was with with that part of your game the kind of full Pace transition part of your
Game uh it I guess it would just go from like probably a couple months after when I started playing till like going into this past summer um I just gradually um worked on it um the offseason with my lower body and as like I said I got to
Training camp it just all came back um from there and now I just feel like um it was just like it was before it got hurt and probably even a little bit better um with all the stuff you had to do and re uh rehab and all the um
Different positions pause um that you gota um that you got to do so uh I feel like I feel like I’m 100% back for sure uh I asked him this as well so I’ll I’ll see your answer if you guys have the same answer are you are you faster than
Maris noell who who would win in in kind of a a full-court Sprint between you guys I I don’t know that I I really haven’t seen him uh he is fast for when I played him actually when we played him in Birmingham yeah he was definitely
Faster than I thought he was well uh I don’t know I feel like one of these days we had to do it though because I’m not a uh he might had an upper hand but because I’m not like a a technical like Sprinter like you just got to tell me to
Run like okay if he give me like on your mark you said go I might have a little slow take off but you never know okay and congrats to Maris by the way he got named to the G League next up game uh today hopefully that hamstrings uh
Feeling a little better uh soon so in talking to Maris actually one of your former teammates in New Orleans came up in Jose Alvarado and Maris told me he had kind of picked his brain a lot about you know making it as an undersized point guard what that needs to look like
Defensively what was your relationship with with Jose Alvarado like did you have those same kind of conversations with him um oh no Jose definitely he was my guy um we did a lot of things um what was on the court or off the court we was
Just always cool and uh when I got hurt um you know when he was playing I was just pay attention to what he did so now like picking up just whether it’s just picking up or just picking up your man to just being his face like he’s just
Always disruptive you know what I’m saying so like I feel like with my speed and my quickness um I feel like I can do that just being able to just agitate a ball handler or make it uncomfortable for somebody and it also get you locked in
In the game when you come in and you pick up 94 feet because you automatically engaged because you can’t let your man just beat you down a court so you gotta slide your feed you got to do something that’s hard so you know it just automatically get you engaged in
The game so I feel like that’s why I do it now is that kind of what you see as if if the Raptors called on you you know tomorrow and said we need we need a point guard up here uh CYO what can you
Give us is it kind of your your point of attack defense where you where you feel like you could make the biggest impact um yes most definitely uh I feel like um I haven’t really my first when I was in New Orleans I really didn’t show
It as much I feel like as I should have so now whenever I get in I’m just where is I first get in just to get warm I’m I’m not even really thinking about the defender but I mean the offensive player but you know what I’m saying if he give
Me the ball you know he might get shaky with I might get a easy steal but I’m just really getting going in there to try to get warm or like you know add add some type of energy to the game when somebody come like somebody notice it
You know what I’m saying so and it just give me engaged in the game defensively and offensively like so while you wait for that opportunity and it looks like you you know you’ll get an opportunity with the Raptors in the second half of the Season here um your willingness to
Go to the g- league because you’re a fourth year guy you know you had some say in going to the 905 when you arrived here what was your thinking with that you know why have you been eager to continue getting getting the Reps in the G League while you wait for another NBA
Shot uh well I just feel like I’m a Hooper so you know what I’m saying I just want to go and get as much live game rip as I can aside when I’m not in rotation with the uh main team so you know so whenever the opportunity do come
I’m already in live game rep I feel good good about my game I don’t have to worry about my timeing off or it’s it’s um not on you know what I’m saying so I just feel like if I play and get as much live reps as I can by the time I have
Whenever I go up to the Raptors I’ll be in Game Time Rhythm all right so if you go up to the Raptors there is a guy there that you you’ve played with a little bit before I was looking at the uh 2019 under 19 gold roster that that
You guys won with with Team USA you got to play with Scotty Barnes for that by the way that roster I don’t know how much you I’m sure you remember it very very well but that roster is just like nothing but really really good NBA
Players de Rost is all mainly all Pros I think yeah pretty pretty much uh I think uh Isaac is really the only one who’s uh who who isn’t you know in the NBA but like Tyrese halbert’s on that team you obviously Jaylen green zire Williams Jaylen Suggs Kade Scotty moble uh
Jeremiah Robinson I guess Reggie Perry’s not not in the league but you know close enough he he’s gotten some cups of coffee um what do you remember about playing with Scotty in that event uh he was just always like the high energy guy like always yelling when
He dunk he yell play defense hard high motor guy like how he is now um so you know it’s always easy to play with somebody like that and also I feel like you know like I said when you when he see somebody come in and pick up 94 feet
And just playing defense and playing hard and you know just trying to make easy more easy opportunities for the team you know feel like that would gravitate to a player like him so um it was good playing with him in USA you know he’s a great player great two-way
Player um you know whenever I get my shot I’ll be looking forward to playing with him up here in Toronto what have you I I know you’ve only got a little bit of a look at it here but you’ve seen him a couple times over the years where
Where what have you made of what he’s been able to become as an NBA player so far relative to you know being more of an energy guy on those USA teams and even at the college level uh he’s definitely um expanding like his offensive game I feel like um his shot
For sure um his mid uh little mid-range shot his three-point shot and just his versatility um whether he want to score in the inside the outside we post up or he can come off pick and roll get his teammates involved not selfish uh he he really didn’t develop in every part of
His game I feel like from his rookie year you know what I’m saying it’s just good to see a player like that do that and you also take stuff away from when I’m watching them out or something like that you know seeing how he approach every day how has it been different at
All you know I I’m sure most teams run it fairly similarly but any differences between like how New Orleans ran practices or or that individual PD time versus what you’re doing now uh I mean it’s different but it’s all the same I feel like and if I right
You know you might have one or two drills that you didn’t do here that um you did your other team but I mean for the most part it’s all the same I feel like you know so it’s it was it’s kind of a smooth transition um all right so
Main Celtics the next two days Tuesday and Wednesday down in Miss aaga Paramount F Food Center uh big games for you guys so I I don’t imagine Maris will be back because of the hamstring thing but you are playing in these kind of three guard lineups with with Kobe
Simmons and Javon Freeman Liberty or or Maris when he was healthy um what is that like for you how what how does that change things for you guys when you have three guards like that on the floor uh you know I feel like whoever get the rebound like the team Miss um
Can bring it up which they which we all can and you know sometimes you know you might have a ball handler trying to pick you up 94 feet but you have another guard that’s out there that can bring the ball up um you know what I’m saying
Then we all can be interchangeable and Go in different uh positions so it’s been good um just like I said every day while I’m here um being able to see how I can just add more and more in my abity to the team um you know make it easier
For my teammates and you know myself well Kyra looking forward to these next two games and looking forward to uh seeing you back with the Raptors uh before not too long thank you for taking the time out appr I appreciate you guys for having me Kyro Le Jr of the Toronto
Raptors of raptors 905 Raptors 905 in action Tuesday and Wednesday that Wednesday game is the Lunar New Year celebration game where they’ll wear that very cool Jersey that we uh we talked about on air with the dragon on the front I I might have one coming for will
We’ll see he’s he’s not listening to this so he maybe he’ll be surprised a little later in the week we we’ll make him uh wear it as a as like a bib when he’s he’s eating his chunky his Chunky Soup and we’ll see how spicy uh he can
Take it um a couple updates from or a couple non updates really from from Raptor’s practice uh today yaka purle according to Eric Karine of the athletic did participate in a play group but it was you know one of the lower down play groups certainly not the starting uh
Group he was in workout with Otto Porter Jaylen McDaniels uh Garett Temple and Chris bue as well as some staff members um Eric Ken’s read on it uh via Darko rakovich was that Perle needs to get his conditioning up um this is Eric speaking not Darko But Eric said uh he’d be
Surprised if if it’s tomorrow uh because they have another two games off so why why push it if you have a couple more off days coming up uh there is no official injury report yet but that’s kind of where things are at for yaka Purtle the fact that none of the media
On the road uh mentioned Emanuel quickly status suggests to me that it’s not a very good status on the bull side they’re going to be with Zack LaVine Patrick Williams Tory Craig Lonzo ball so both sides will be a little short-handed for that one um one small
Hawks Note coming out of the Raptors having played the Hawks if you saw dejonte muray as a scratch yesterday and it was a late scratch and you thought maybe that was something Tradewind related our palal Mark Stein who will of course be on the show Wednesday as he is
Every week said that an interesting wrinkle to emerge on the dejonte Murray front is that League’s horses sake coach Quinn Snyder has lobbied the Hawks to keep him so the Hawks in a a bit of a weird spot here where yes technically they’re three games above the Raptors in
The standings but in terms of what actually matters and the big picture uh they’re in the same spot as the Raptors they’re they’re not good enough to be relevant in the playoffs and they might need to take a look at at fure years but um the dejonte Murray situation will be
One of the more interesting ones to watch between now and next Thursday’s NBA trade deadline so we’ll have a lot of coverage of that in the the next two weeks as you’d probably expect Mark Stein on Wednesday as he always is we’ll do an extended trade deadline show as
Well covering the NBA tread deadline as a whole not just the Raptor’s side of things because the Raptor side of things might not be uh as interesting as the last couple weeks have been one other NBA note I can’t do around the NBA ba by myself here with two minutes but joelan
Be’s out again tonight um so if anyone thought he was just ducking Nicola yic um that is a that is a real thing he’s out again and he’s kind of inching up on maybe he’s not going to be MVP and all NBA eligible despite averaging 36 points
Uh 11 and a half rebounds and almost six assists a game he’s only played in 33 games so far this year so uh you got to get the 65 or have exua circumstances we’ll see if he uh qualifies in that regard by the end but certainly something
That 76ers fans are going to be watching closely and as a friend of mine who uh is in the wrestling world and is a Philadelphia 76ers fan jok to me during the Royal Rumble Paul Reed pointing at the Wrestlemania sign uh WrestleMania is in Philly uh this year sorry for the
Wrestling talk on today’s show but you can check out Raw on Sports at 360 uh I was just watching a lot of sports at Plus on the weekend um this does it for us today I’ve been Blake Murphy you’ve been listening to the Raptor show we’ll
Lose back tomorrow um this show by the way the Raptor show brought to you by Campbell’s new chunky spicy soup it’s time to get fired up welcome to Campbell’s Chunky spicy soup as the show’s new sponsor uh really excited to be partnered with you guys really excited to make we’ll eat some spicy
Soup uh a little later in the week make sure you find the Raptor show wherever you listen to podcast subscribe rate review Thanks again to producers Mark baffo and Amit man to board producer Austin Andrew Adams rather uh Jennifer rck David sis and J manatad behind the
Scenes thanks to Our Guest Samson folk esar barany Britney Donaldson theas Duncan and Kyra Lewis Jr we will talk to you with will lubach tomorrow
Blake Murphy is joined by Samson Folk and Esfandiar Baraheni of Raptors Republic to recap the loss to the Atlanta Hawks and discuss the development of Gradey Dick following Toronto putting him through a conditioning stint. Also, Brittni Donaldson, Hawks Director of Coaching Development, joins the show to share her career journey, which included winning a title with the Raptors in 2019. Afterwards, Nekias Duncan and Blake Murphy do a deep dive into Immanuel Quickley’s next steps and Pascal Siakam’s fit with the Pacers. Finally, Raptors 905 guard Kira Lewis shares how he learned about the trade to the Raptors and how he’s formed his basketball identity.
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0:00 – Samson Folk & Esfandiar Baraheni
49:09 – Brittni Donaldson
1:02:30 – Nekias Duncan
1:18:58 – Kira Lewis Jr.
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14 Comments
Tell us about how you became a director?😚
Una boccata d'aria fresca nel dominio digitale; una partenza innovativa dall'ordinario.🌺
There is literally no way Sam is only 21 he's been doing shows like this since the chip and how is he already bald at 16?
Why is he holding his mic? 😂
Ooh, Blake, Es and Samson. Great stuff!
I don't get the negativity about Nwora, I liked his addition more than Brown tbh. He's shot 40%, 42% the previous two seasons from 3. This team lacks shooting and he adds that.
Really getting into the weeds here
Never seen the fake charge thing work before, so just because it finally worked doesnt mean its a good move. Better to just contest the shot, in my opinion.
Blake Murphy stay… Will, please don’t come back to work.
This was good show 💯
Samson stop reading the comments
Me: Did he just call Es "wonderful chunky soup"? Oh, there's actual soup there.
blake let the guest talk, stop cutting them off mid sentence to ramble on lol
I'm really hoping Bruce Brown gets traded soon so raptors can start developing the players they want to develop. I understand they are showcasing Brown but with Quickley out now is the time to get Kira Lewis some reps! I still have high hopes for Kira lewis Jr.