The Toronto Raptors rebuild lasted 6 months…

The Toronto Raptors rebuild lasted 6 months…

Welcome to Pinar basketball live the Toronto Raptors are younger the Toronto Raptors are better Shooters the Toronto Raptors are better athletically than they were seven months ago let’s talk about the pieces that have come in the pieces that have gone out and why it makes so much sense okay so look the

Toronto Raptors obviously went in a very different Direction when they fired Nick nurse they clearly wanted to go towards motion movement they wanted to go towards Scotty Barnes ultimately you have a very unselfish star ascending star now Allstar future Superstar and every coach who interviewed kind of had

The same question what are you doing with this roster it doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense you need athletes with this guy because this guy’s going to thrive in transition you need Shooters because this guy is a really good passer basically when you have a playmaker

Who’s as good as kotti Barnes you need play finishers and I believe the Raptors have finally added the play finishers that he needs on his timeline to borrow a little tweet here from um Josh lenberg here here are the players that have gone out and you’ll

Notice a trend there’s a lot of big wings with questionable jumpers and questionable ball skills and questionable basketball IQ that have gone out the door okay auto porter obviously notwithstanding I think he really kind of fit but ultimately you know injuries dictated his presence and how how impactful he could be you’re

Also seeing a lot of older players going out right Pascal SE yakum soon to be 30 Dennis Schroeder 31 dadus young 35 you’re seeing a lot of guys going out that are older and a lot of guys came in who were younger who came in RJ Barrett 23 years old Manuel quickley 24

Years old Bruce Brown 27 years old Jordan noira 25 years old Kelly alen the oldest of the bunch but a very serviceable and probably will AG like fine wine stretch big at 32 and then you got oai alaji at 23 years old you also get three picks all of whom probably if

Used will be 19 20 or 21 years old clearly the Raptors have built their timeline and on the eve of this dude coming back to Toronto and all the media suck offs that are going to happen and all of the you know overhype and everything that’s going to happen I

Thought that this would be a really good time to talk about how the Raptors got from point A to point B and what I’ll Ely the Raptors can do with the rest of their season because they are four games out of 10th that all elusive 10th playing spot and I’m remembering back

You know to a couple of big runs that the Toronto Raptors made in Raptor history last night’s lab we talked a lot about Raptor’s history and I’m thinking back to 2002 don’t remind me of the Chris child’s shot but the Raptors were out they had lost a ton of

Games and then they strung 12 of 14 to make the playoffs and face off against the Pistons it was a five-game series they pushed it to five games uh to those who are maybe newer basketball fans you don’t remember the first round used to be five games and they pushed it all the

Way to a fifth game right to the buzzer and Chris Charles forgets the score honestly that one hurt back then but that team rallied behind Alvin Williams but specifically Morris Peterson and Antonio Davis they were great and it was fun to watch and they’ shut down Vince

Carter for the season and then all that chatter started about whether the Raptors were really better without Vince Carter cheat sheet they were not but it was inspiring to watch that team rally down the stretch can the Raptors pull together something similar now that Bruce Brown isn’t looking over his

Shoulder saying when am I getting get traded you don’t have the presence the negative presence in my opinion of Dennis Schroeder who’s sour pussing coming off the bench and trying to you know prove whatever to himself self you don’t have I mean thus young and auto porter were certainly positive guys but

At this point Oto the rotation player among the two wasn’t playing and thus the non-rotation player was playing you’ve upgraded you got better yesterday regardless of the fact that you wave Spencer Den witty and he’s probably going to catch on with a team and be a rotation player for some team down the

Stretch you do have a team that is suddenly very interesting in terms of transition and in terms of what you need so let’s talk about the players that the Raptors have brought back so let’s start with RJ Barrett and Emanuel quickly no let’s actually start with Grady dick because chronologically

Speaking let’s let’s consider this a one-year thing I know I know the title says rebuild lasted six months but really it started with yaka Purtle right it starts with yaka Purtle and of course the commentary at the time for myself and everybody was that this was a move to help Pascal and

Fred right now Pascal and Fred are gone but yakob remains so it wasn’t just for them I think yakob is a guy despite what people think when there’s enough shooting around him he can be a serviceable part of a lineup that has good spacing um the problem was

You had him playing for most of the last season with two non-shooters in Pascal and Scotty and this year you had him playing with a bunch of non-shooters in Dennis and Scotty I mean Scotty is a shooter he’s a much better shooter this year but as I’ve gone into length many times

Teams don’t play him like a shooter yet he’ll get there he will get there he and RJ are let’s say the lesser of the shooters who can shoot RJ shooting 39% from three trust me teams aren’t guarding him like a shooter right now either but there are some Shooters on

This team that do offset some of the non-shooters on this team most glaringly of course yaka purle but you do have guys like Chris bue who’s kind of a non-shooter who can shoot does that make sense a non-shooter who can shoot like a guy who’s not played like a shooter but

He can shoot Bruce Brown is a non-shooter who can occasionally shoot so you really have gone from like having half your roster be non-shooters to maybe three guys are non-shooters and none of them are really huge huge part of your offense and grand total sum total they’re going to play 65 minutes

Combined between the three of them but Shooters help non-shooters that’s the whole thing right shooting is an aggregate like you need a sufficient amount of shooting on the court and I think the Raptors have a tremendous amount of shooting from different spots which allows an offense to really work

Right so with Kelly oen you have like dominant places on the court where he can be lethal if not deadly the whole point of any offense is to be better than average on most nights if you’re better than average if you’re better than League average on most kns offensively and you hold water

Defensively you’re middle of the pack defensively but you’re better than average on most nights offensively you’ll be a winning team it’s really that simple and in order to be better than average on offense you need to have players who are better than average at scoring from somewhere in the court you

Know if you have a Clint capella or a yaka purle who are beastly like 70% you know 99th percentile 998th percentile finishers in the paint then they can be a part of something but obviously if you put them around a whole bunch of non-shooters like what does Clint

Capella look like without a lob you know passer like Trey young or a player like James Harden I don’t think we’ve ever seen it but if you put him next to schroer it’s going to get worse because the gravity that he will have will be diminished by the fact that he doesn’t

Have a shooter to stretch out those angles for him so in terms of what the Raptors have gotten let’s start let’s start with yaka purle I think he’s a really good screen Setter that helps Shooters if you have Shooters who can come off those screens it helps because

What he can do as an offensive rebounder you know the most efficient threes are always off of offensive rebounds so what he can do as a Defender again most effective threes are in transition this all is one hand wash as the other if yaku purle can be a sufficiently above

Average rim protector and rebounder defensively and he can and he’s also a better passer than average for his size then he can be a part of something that works transition wise and even in the half court as a screener he’s above average as an offense rebounder paint

Finisher he’s above average as a rim protector relative to other centers he’s pretty average to above average he has a lot of redeeming qualities and of course as a passer he is above average so now let’s talk about what else the Raptors have other than yaka purle well they drafted a guy named

Grady dick out of Kansas one of two Kansas Jayhawks on the team the better of the two in my opinion longterm but Grady is A Tale of Three segments so far right there’s the guy who came in Into Summer League who looked like really really bound to do something really incredible right then

There’s the guy who came in and kind of struggled to dominate at the G League level and a lot of people were saying he was a bust and then there’s the guy that we’ve seen for the last month and a half who has been confident who’s been defending who’s reading angles better

Who’s trying to take charges who’s physical who’s a good rebounder for his size I think if you’re looking at modern offense is guys like Grady dick really work for modern NBA offense because again Grady is a transition three-point shooter he’s an above the break transition three-point shooter that

You’ve tried to use more as a standstill halfcourt Corner shooter you’ve kind of put him away from his strengths in order to round him out as a player but I hope those extra reps will help him however now in a second unit that is rounded with Corner Shooters maybe that above the break

Stuff is going to come come through I also think he’s a way way better passer than people give him credit for I’ve seen a lot of it in his high school tape I saw some of it in his grade school tape he’s just a guy who sees the floor

The problem with young players is all the angles change when they get up to the NBA the three-point line changes the length of Defenders change the the the length of the Defenders changes how fast the game is changes and this apparently just disrupts your Rhythm for like 6

Months unless you’re really really used to it and you’re very special most rookies are going to struggle with the pace and the size of the NBA and the speed it it usually happens even when players go from high school aou up to college so that transition period of one

Step to the next step to the next step even guys like Kobe Bryant Jermaine O’Neal Kevin Garnett they all struggle with it because again it changes your angles which means that everything that you’ve practiced like how you’ve practiced getting your shot off at one level is going to change how you get it

Off at the next level your speed on your release is going to have to be a little bit faster it might have to get a little bit higher um your angles like how you read angles on defense is going to change the Personnel that you’re playing games changes you have to read scouting

Reports there’s also the grind of like 82 games I think this could really help Grady because he’s not a rookie who really played a ton earlier on so he won’t hit like that proverbial rookie wall that a lot of rookies who do play a lot hit but the grind is still same he’s

Still in a new city every single second night he’s on the road he’s away from family Etc there’s an emotional process for rookies but I think I really like the fact that he’s athletic people don’t give him credit for being athletic he’s a very functional athlete he’s a good

Passer for his size and I love how he moves I love how he moves off the ball I like how he moves and comes off of picks I like that there is like a constant shifting I like the fact that defenses respect him you know he has a reputation

As a shooter this a difference between Grady dick and I don’t know Jordan Noir is another guy he has he has a reputation as a shooter these guys have been on scouting reports for years um and they’ve been on people’s Radars for years that’s the shooter you want a reputation as a

Shooter and you want as many of those guys on the court as possible as the guys that have a reputation as a shooter because again if they catch the ball behind three-point line they’re going to shift the defense that shift is going to unlock angles now question if you have a

Shooter who can’t pass or shooter who can’t drive what good is the angle that is being opened if they can never hit the next pass that’s where guys like Grady dick are going to thrive and maybe that’s where a player like RJ Barrett or a player like oai alaji need to be

Rounded out as Playmakers so enough about Grady dick let’s move on then we got a trade for OG and anobi going out for RJ Barrett Eman quickly one of the strangest trades in NBA history because really you very seldom see three players for 26 and under who are all competent

Rotation players starter level players being traded for one another it’s not very common the last time I think about something like this happening was like Tyrese Halbert and for like damont zonis of course none of these players are as good as those two guys but you get my

Point RJ Barrett is an incomplete equation but he is an athlete he is a downhill athlete and one that the Raptors seem very hellbent on unlocking in this offense he is someone who has been better as a Toronto Raptor sustain over 15 games than he’s probably been

For most if not any stretch in his New York career the questions right now really are can he use some of those physical tools that he has his 69 wingspan his size his strength his you know strides um his upper body strength he’s built like he’s built like a like a

Man like a man child can you use some of that to become a more effective alert Defender can he become a better rebounder can he become a better passer can he become you know a better playmaker for others can he do some of those small things like screen setting

How can he hit those Corner threes I think it’ll be important for him to have a role off the ball as well as on the ball on the ball he’s basically built for it right that’s the role that he’s had his whole life and it’s obviously one he’s very comfortable with however

As the talent is upgraded around him as in when he’s no longer the second or third option and maybe he moves down to Fourth option if the Raptors able to add something very significant this offseason he’s going need to do some of the stuff that he struggled to do in New

York which is play off of other people and I think he’s doing better job of that attacking empty sides you know sort of attacking mismatches there just aren’t a lot of teams in the league that can guard him with their fourth best defender and he’s going to have to milk

That but also when he’s not the play finisher how much is he doing for the rest of the players on the court in terms of again screen set relocation um shooting gravity Etc so I think that’ll all factor into the type of player that he can be for the Raptors

Going forward and you got Emanuel quickley I’m a very very big fan of Emanuel quickly I know that he hasn’t played super well for the Raptors so far there have been a lot of struggles there’s been a lot of can he change the things about his game that limit him

From being on that next level as the the Darius garlands of the world right what is the gap between an Emanuel quickly and a Darius Garland right now it’s a pretty big gap completely honest it’s a pretty big gap there’s a gap athletically there’s a gap in terms of

Playmaking processing um both are really good Shooters right different types of Shooters different release different speed of the shot so the Raptors really took a flyer on three incomplete players that they believe they can develop now look jamama malaa myself Darko rakovich we have one thing in common well two things in

Common we love basketball and each of us have 24 hours in a day with which to spend our time and if you’re going to hire great development staff it helps to give them prospects who actually have actual upside athletic upside shooting upside Etc it’s one thing to try and

Turn Malachi Flynn into the best version of Malachi Flynn because the best version of Malachi Flynn might still be a third string guard okay it’s another thing to take prospects who have the upside of an oai baji Grady dick RJ Barrett and Emanuel quickley because their upside is

Possibly Allstar any one of these players could be a one-time Allstar No Cap I’m not saying they will be I’m not saying that they surely will be I’m not even saying they likely will be I’m saying they all have that chance okay just like Mel Bridges had that chance Cameron Johnson had that

Chance there’s a certain level of talent like a requisite base minimum of talent that you have to have to hit that level it comes down to athletic tools it comes down to size strength length existing skills and how can we round those out you look at a guy like Desmond Bane I

Was looking at um something interesting so I was looking at some emails that I had from the 2022 draft in which you know a friend of mine who covers the covers the draft for a bigger platform and I were just exchanging notes and interestingly enough I just searched

Through the email oai aaji because I was pretty high on him at the time and I was curious to see if you know maybe the Raptors could find a trade for him because I knew the Raptors were really interested in Dyson Daniels I believe the Raptors didn’t have a first round

Pick that year because they had traded it for thus young so I was curious you know would he potentially oai before he went on that dominant run with Kansas and before the Raptor decided to make that silly silly trade for yakob purle whether he would be the guy who would

Fall into the Raptor laps at 17 or 18 19 wherever the Raptors were at the time so one of the things that you know we talked about in that email was who does he remind you of player comps are interesting they’re almost never right but it was always an interesting thought

Exercise to see who does he remind you of and some names that came up were Mikel Bridges Desmond Bane and it was so interesting those were two of the names there was a third name that came up who was it gosh who was the third name I’m

Forgetting who the third name was now but nevertheless it’s interesting that those two names were two of the first names that came up because while he’s a much longer and bigger athlete than Desmond Bane and he’s a little bit smaller than Mel Bridges who has a 671 wingspan it’s interesting because those

Are the two guys that Darko really really helped Blossom and if you really think about what those guys were what were they they were athletic I mean you know you might not think of Desmond Bane as athletic but I promise you he’s a better athlete than you think um they

Were guys who needed to expand their games Beyond standstill Corner shoot guys they were I mean in the K case of Mel Bridges obviously he was more of an athlete who needed to round out his entire game in terms of shooting dribbling passing Etc but in the case of Desmond Bane you know

A guy who was seven 64 63 you know 6’4 you know undersized he had a negative wingspan Etc the goal really with him was that Darko talked about was really how can we make you a playmaker how can we make you more of a threat off to

Dribble off to catch you know and I think that Darko will face a very similar battle with oai baji interestingly enough both players were also older rookies so there’s nothing to say that a guy who who’s 23 who’s about to turn 24 can’t have three years of sustained growth with this coaching

Staff and what does three years of sustained growth look like for oai abashi he becomes a starter he becomes a really good starter in that case and a starter level player being extracted for what is effectively going to be the 28th overall pick is Great Value so let’s talk about the other pieces

Bruce Brown Jordan noara right in terms of Bruce Brown 27 years old you know a guy who hasn’t really performed very well for the Raptors didn’t really have the greatest run with the Indiana Pacers you have to wonder to yourself was it a fluke can he recreate who he was with

The nuggets for the championship run yeah sure he’s he’s had a career that expands beyond the Nuggets I watched him in the Nets he was great he’s a he’s a he’s a role player he is a rotation player in the NBA for a good team he has

Been a rotation player for good teams I will say this when he was was with Katie he was better when he was with Nico yic he was better when he was with Scotty Barnes and when he was with tyes Alberton and mil turner He’s been worse

This is a guy who seems to really play off Stars right more talent you have around him the more playmaking Talent the less he has to do with the basketball the more he can just sort of read react cut into spaces the better he’s going to be

You know he has something in common with oaji and Grady dick they all cut really well maybe that’s something they can even expand on and learn more from him but you know what the Raptors have that pairs really well with Cutters they have big Playmakers yaka purle is a big

Playmaker Scotty Barnes is a big playmaker Kelly oen is a big playmaker you can suddenly invert pick and rolls you can have these guys stand and in the case of uh you know Kelly oin he can extend he can extend his range for way further out than Scotty or yakob can so

Whereas yakob and Scott Scot can playmake from the post right I mean Scotty can really playmake from everywhere he’s a much better shooter this year but in terms of where he can draw a double he’s not drawing doubles at the three-point line he’s drawing doubles when he crosses the three-point

Line Kelly can potentially collapse a defense much further up on the floor because of his shooting gravity but one thing you notice with Kelly Len whether you watch him in Canada basketball whether you watch him here you know whether you watch him in Utah Miami in every stop he’s been an excellent

Playmaker he’s a really smart passer he is a guy who’s basically like a guard trapped in a center’s body so is a very very good thing he’s like a really big Wing who can guard centers and power forwards this is a very interesting Prospect and a player you know it’s

Weird to call 32y Old a prospect um but yeah he’s a really good player and um when you have sharp Cutters suddenly now you have the building blocks to create Lanes I think that Kelly oen has the potential here sorry we were talking about Bruce Brown and Jordan

Noir and I started getting Kelly oen let me let me backtrack here in terms of Bruce Brown not the greatest shooter but a guy who really thrives playing with big Playmakers as he played with Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving he was better when he played with Nico yic he was better so

Again put playmaking Talent around with a smart cutter offensive rebounds and hustles his butt off and hey you know uh maybe Bruce Brown already knew that he was going to be sticking around Toronto he was but per boxes minus the last game that the Raptors won he was their best

Player can you continue to be a two to three boxes minus guy can he be 1.5 can he be a positive because he hasn’t been positive so far for the Raptors he’ve been a net negative so far he’s been terrible so now that he can sort of Just

Dial back and say okay this is where I’m at and hey just nfyi this could be a contract here for him too I know he has that nice little cushy team option but there’s a very good chance the Raptors do not pick that up so he needs to know

That the next 31 games could determine his next contract that that 22 million $23 million on his next deal is not guaranteed and so if he has to hit the market after the season he’s had so far he’s not even he’s going to be a mid-level guy so he needs to recapture

Some of that glory and if I’m Darko rakovich I’m telling him right now dude you have not played well this entire year we need you to be nuggets Bruce Brown Nets Bruce Brown can you do that for us very likely Bru Brown is going to be the backup point guard for the

Raptors in minutes where Scotty’s not playing when I say backup point guard I mean defensively he’s going to be backup point guard to draw that um message from Larry Brown basically you are who you guard Bruce Brown’s gonna be their backup point guard in terms of I think

Just from what I understand if the team is fully healthy that they will probably use him as a point guard backup point guard slm ball four so he’ll be all over the place which is great versatility line of Versatility is great Kelly will probably be a four five yaka Perle will

Be a five exclusively Scotty Barnes will kind of replicate the Bruce Brown thing of he’ll be one through four one through five um RJ Barrett you have a ton of line of flexibility here RJ Barrett could be your two three or four potentially he’s a good enough rebounder

To potentially play Four in some small lineups uh Emanuel quickley being your one2 Grady dick being your 23 maybe sometimes four I I don’t know if I will be comfortable putting him there right now but in a couple years he will definitely be capable of playing small

Ball four he’s big enough he’s a very big dude um Grady di so he’ll have that potential to be a 234 Jordan noara the other guy in this trade another 2 three4 and a guy who can actually get Buckets okay so we talked about it with the we

The north part one you know you needed guys with ball skills John Salmons was a guy with ball skills and he was a very valuable part of that trade Patrick Batterson have they just done the Rudy Gay trade again think about think about it like like really think about it all

The pieces like the stretch big that came back that suddenly unlocked KY and Demar Patrick Patterson Kelly oen you know you have the guy with the ball skills who can kind of attack and you know like just has like enough shot creation to keep a defense honest well

You have Jordan noira and you have RJ Barrett okay there’s a little bit of that too right you have your big guard I don’t know if you know necessarily you consider Bruce brown or Emanuel quickley as big a guard as Grave as Vasquez but there’s some components of that previous

Trade that made the Raptors so good with the we the north part one that have come back in in these sequence of Trades now let’s talk about oai baji specifically I am a very very very big fan of this player talked about it talked about the Desmond Bane comp

Whatever one thing oai does really well is cut the other thing he does really well is defend the other thing he does really well is shoot from the corners he’s looking at his rookie stats and he is just lights out from the corner like there were not a lot of players who shot

45% % from three um up to the sample that I was looking at in the in the in the corners and he was just like blazing from there the goal for Darko rakovich with oai aaji will be to round out the dribble Drive penetration game the passing can you make him Desmond Bane

Part two he has the shot and he’s more athletic and longer he has physical tools that Desmond Bane if Desmond Bane if you could take Desmond Bane’s game and put it into oai aashi’s body you would basically have a 10- Time All-Star not kidding so really the goal here will

Be for Darko rakovich and oay abbaji to have that conversation and be like are you willing to do what I asked you to do are you willing do you want to be great because I can make you great and the reputation precedes you when you can

Refer back to the work that you’ve done with these other guys and they honestly credit you for making them a better basketball player then then the half the battle of trust is already done and Darko knows what he’s doing Jama knows what they’re doing like these guys

Really at that point you know with any Prospect I’m not saying oai abaji is definitely going to work because look there are a lot of guys who just don’t work there are a lot of guys who just don’t work at the NBA level they’re four-year College Stars they’re really

Good they win player of the year they win Finals MVP or whatever and then they just come to the NBA and they’re just role players can you tap into more than role player with OSHA abashi he has the athletic upside of that yes he does he

Absolutely does what he is not right now is well-rounded he is a very two-dimensional type of player if he’s not he’s threedimensional four-dimensional let’s put it that way he’s a transition guy like if you put him with Scotty on a fast break he’s going to get an alleyoop he’s going to

Get a thunderous dunk he’s a guy who can cut back door and just like move around the court in interesting ways he reads what his Defender is doing and if his Defender isn’t covering him correctly then he can go the other way he has like a good basketball IQ for off ball

Movement which is very good and very it’s it’s just a very impressive thing and I think Darko can Edge it up even more right then he has like the catch and shoot like he can do that but the minute you put him into a situation

Where he has to do more than that if he has to do Wonder dribble into the paint and then pull up or one dribble into the mid-range and then pull up or you know one dribble s side step like he’s getting way less effective right so this

Will be the part of his game that needs to be shorted up but in terms of if you’re gonna take a swing on upside first of all all the stuff that people say about Pascal seak being like late bloomer you could say about oai abashi too he’s a late bloomer he didn’t pick

Up basketball late or anything but in terms of when this guy hit his stride as an NBA Prospect it was much later than the average NBA player so there may be some level of like maybe there’s more upside here than meets the ey maybe he’s

A bit of a late bloomer and he wouldn’t be the first guy Demar was a bit of a late bloomer Fus young was a bit of a late bloomer these guys were lottery picks too maybe oai baji could be you know that level no I don’t say dear

Won’t be dear he actually weirdly enough he has a lot in common with Demar too so I will say this o if he becomes a three and D wing for You Off the Bench who can just hit corner 3es at a better rate than he’s done so

Far then he will be a serviceable role player for the next five years for this team and a very cheap extension if he expands into more than that which he is more than capable of doing then he might turn into a starter level player for you

At the very least he will be an excellent player off the bench for you next year ochai and Brady com Off the Bench provides you with such brilliant spacing because these guys are not one-dimensional Shooters they’re also guys who can cut they’re also guys who can potentially finish in the paint when

They get a little bit stronger and a little bit more experienced they’re guys who can like with the case of Grady he’s a guy who can playmake for others they’re multi-positional um they’re more athletic than they look I think both guys are more athletic than they look so

They can TR you know they can sort of like fit into a transition offense and a half court offense then of course there are the picks and there’s the flexibility this off season now I believe that the Raptors currently have one top 50 player in the league and

That is Scotty Barnes they do not have another one regardless of how high people are on Emanuel quickley RJ Barrett Kelly oen um yaka purle those are the four guys that could even make a case for that Bruce Brown these guys are all fir firmly in the 70 to 150 range in terms

Of how good they are relative to the rest of the league so the Raptors will have to over rely on Scotty Barnes playing a little bit above his head and hope that instead of playing like the 25th best player in the league he can play more like the 12th best player in

The league for the next 31 games that is what will be required to bridge the lack of help around him however I will say this the Raptors do have the PE potentially and the development staff to do one of two things this offse either a take one of these four aforementioned

Rookies slash sophomore slash3 fourth year players take them and bring them up a level they would not be the first players to do this there are a lot of players who have taken a leap in their second third fourth year fifth year even where they just become 20 spots better

How far is Manel quickly from being a top 50 player in the league I’d say he’s about 25 spots away okay and that will be you know figuring out how to run a pick and roll properly getting better at reading the offense getting a little bit further into the paint getting a little

Bit stronger defensively Edge out those weaknesses in your game and boom you’re right there it’s not it’s not like Malachi Flynn or Killian Hayes or you know assar Thompson no offense I love AAR Thompson but those those Journeys are much further to get to the top 50

Level so maybe they do it through that way maybe Grady takes an unprecedented jump and by year three he becomes like a bigger version of Tyler herro that’s a top 50 player in the NBA that’s a borderline top 50 player in the NBA for sure if Tyler hero is on some people’s

Lists as top 50 a bigger version of him would definitely be a top 50 player in the NBA maybe RJ Barrett can do that maybe all that hype that made him the third overall pick all we need is defense and better shooting and boom he

Unlocks the code and he becomes a top 50 player next year could that happen for the Raptors who knows so they have four wild cards through which they can do it in my Pion well three really I don’t think ochai can can quite get there next year but who knows whatever who knows

Growth is weird growth is not linear so those four are wild cards can you edge them up at least 10 spots it’ll help can you edge them up 25 spots well then now you have your next top 50 player which is great can you sustain this offseason

Can you sustain the peak and production level of a kol linic and yaka purle without falling off because guess what you have a very serviceable center rotation for the first time since you had marasol and sergy bakov this is true you do and you know you might yeah it’s it’s a really good

Center rotation can you edge It Out by getting a third string Center in the draft who has a potential to really learn and develop Behind these guys let’s see is jonte Porter that guy I don’t know he’s 24 years old he certainly should be a part of this

Because he has a lot of the requisit shooting ball skills Etc his health concerns me long term but I really like jonte Porter too but you do have this Bruce Brown contract and you do have cap space and you do have draft picks can you turn all of that

Into saving somebody else from themselves what do I mean by that there was a lot of talk yesterday from Bobby Webster about teams being unsure of the CBA and where it’s going and all that stuff right the apron being a second apron team is very very much a hindrance

We already saw yesterday that 75% of the future draft capital is pretty much controlled by 11 teams and so there are a lot of teams out there that may be looking to get off of big contracts contracts which belong to guys in that top 50 you know conversation um maybe guys who are

Fringy top 50 guys like Deonte Murray guys like Jaylen brown guys of that ilk where you know they’re really good players but maybe they’re not Superstars and maybe they’re not necessarily worth the money that they signed for are those the type of guys that could be available

For a Bruce Brown you absorb the rest of the contract and then throw them a couple of picks how much better do you get if you I mean look some people may have a very different opinion on Deonte mie than I do I like him a lot and he’s a guy in

His prime could Dej Murray you know like could could a could a lineup of I don’t know let’s say the Raptors are competitive for the rest of the year could a lineup of Emanuel Quicky Deonte Murray RJ Barrett Scotty Barnes and yaka purle could that be something serviceable if Scotty takes the next

Step and all those other guys take the next step could Deonte Murray be like a missing piece do you you know you know have what it takes to potentially get I don’t know Kevin Kevin Durant or something like that or Kevin Durant probably the wrong wrong

Idea here you get what I’m saying though there are a lot of players who will be potentially available as teams that think that they’re good but are totally capped out have lost all their draft picks will suddenly look to move off those players and recoup some of the

Draft assets that they lost at which point you know you’ll have teams like the Knicks will be able to offer you know some sort of relief cap relief plus you know they’ll be able to offer um I don’t know like a boatload of draft picks well the Raptors can suddenly

Offer like two three draft picks as well attached to a Bruce Brown what does that get you well what does three picks in a league starve for picks and totally capped out what does that get you it might just get you a top 50 player I

Don’t know who that top 50 player is I really don’t uh in terms of the ones who are available like maybe maybe it’s not the most interesting look like people are saying Trey young might be available H I don’t know so what I’m saying is you can get

Scotty help or you can develop his help but I think that the Raptors have a roster that makes sense for the first time in a really long time I think they have players that fit well on their timeline I think they have players who fit well in terms of the Mantra of no

Selfishness I think they have players who fit well with how Darko wants to play basketball and I think they have a 31 game sample to test the hypothesis of what a Scotty Barnes Le team looks like and ultimately whatever you determine based on that 31 game sample size will

Hopefully inform and better inform your decisions this offseason in terms of your thinking about what you want to put around him I think you’ll have lineup data to see what he looks like with a stretch big like Kelly oin or jonte Porter I think you’ll have lineup data

To see what he looks like with a roll big and a passing big like yako purle I think you’ll have some lineup data to see what he looks like with four Shooters around him because now you have those four Shooters when we came into the season the Toronto Raptor’s entire

Mo and everything around this team was how are they going to be able to shoot they lost red band bleed well now they’ve lost OG and and Obi as well and so there goes like two of your better Shooters and UT Porter wasn’t playing for you but he was one of your better

Shooters but almost almost every single thing that the Raptors have brought back has three things in common number one it’s younger usually than what went out so immediately you’re getting younger slowly number two there’s a more well-rounded ball skills and shooting focus in terms of the players that

They’re trying to bring in yeah they’re still trying to go for athletes RJ is an athlete you know IQ is an athlete oaji is an athlete you know Grady dig is an athlete but they’re not going for like raw athletes they’re going for basketball athletes they’re going for guys who have functional basketball

Patterns and movements they’re not necessarily going for like your Rah jump out of the gym but can he make you know a dho like can can he you know can he make a simple read on a cut like there’s not a basketball IQ deficit suddenly I think the Raptors are smarter as a

Basketball team immediately when you have guys like big Playmakers like Scotty Barnes and you know Kelly oen and Grady dick and you know yaka purle big playmakers all across the board you have four big Playmakers now on your team 68 68 611 and 7 feet um your players can

Pass your players can shoot can they defend well enough will be a question I think you got better defensively too both players that the Raptors brought in yesterday con considering again that Otto has not been playing really the two players that went out yesterday were Dennis schroer and B Young the players

That came back are oai aaji and Kelly o lenck i very very very strongly believe that the the players that came back are much better Defenders and Shooters than the players who went out actually you shipped out two non-shooters who were constantly playing in your lineup and

You’ve changed that to be two Shooters who defend better who are playing in your lineup now I’m not saying oai aaji is a better player than Dennis schroer right now please understand that I am however saying that he might be a better fifth starter than Dennis schroer he

Might be a better Corner shooter than Dennis schroer he might be a better point of attack Defender than Dennis schroer he might be better shop Locker definitely better shop Locker than Dennis schroer he might have better Rim percentages he might be a better transition player than Dennis schroer

He’s just not a better passer and better overall player than Dennis Schroeder but Kelly oen is Kelly oen was by far the best player who changed seats yesterday in terms of the Raptors going in out whatever okay and if you can get some version of the Bruce Brown that we saw

In Denver and you can get some version of a motivated kol linic and you have RJ Barrett and Emanuel quickle finally having you know had some time here to gel with Scotty and the rest of the core if Gary Trent can continue to shoot the way he’s

Shooting if Jordan Noir can continue to be what he’s doing you know if Grady dick can continue on the straight on the stride that he’s on because it’s certainly a much better player than he was to start the season and if Scotty Barnes can buy in defensively again and

Just find that second wind to give this group a chance I think the Raptors have the talent and the fit roster wise to make a serious run at the playin and once they get there they will have every opportunity to knock out the teams in front of them teams like Chicago that I

Think we’re better than right now you may not believe that but with Zach LaVine out you’re basically facing Kobe white Alex Caruso demard de Roan nicoa vich and Patrick Williams I’m sorry I believe the Raptors are better than that team you’d face the orando magic are you

Better than the Orlando Magic I think you could be you know are you better than the Atlanta Hawks are again I think he could be these are all teams the Raptors can beat because again I think Kelly oen is just that good I think he swings to balance just that much and

Again everywhere he’s gone he’s won not a lot of losing Seasons Kell Linux life so he’s happy to be here he’s landed in Toronto he and oai are here um and again to in the spirit of my you know Late Night Live last night don’t underestimate like the addition by subtraction element

Of Dennis schroer he was not happy here he was not happy coming off the bench that presence was in your locker room yes he was a talented basketball player yes he’s effective yes he fit yes he was feeling a need yes he overplayed his contract but do not underestimate just

How bad the chemistry has been the last few weeks do not underestimate his role in all of that what he did in Miami what he did with Boston you know what he did with the Tatum Jersey what he’s done with the the media I am very very happy

When I saw his presser him in New York with the Brooklyn Nets sign behind him I was like oh it’s real I’m so happy so look there’s a chance the Raptors come out in Flatline and they just die on the court they lose tonight they lose tomorrow they’re F facing a very good

Cavs team tomorrow okay a Cavs team that has been on a run Cavs team that has Donovan Mitchell playing out of his mind Cavs team that has maybe Jared Allen looking to make make a point because he was snub for the allstar game there’s a

Lot of Talent on that team Max dreu you know Dean Wade there’s a lot of shooting around it’ll be a very tough tests the Raptors season I don’t want to be dramatic and say it’ll be made or break broken on these two games certainly it’s a long

Season they could pull together a 10 game win streak at some point teams do get hot teams much worse than the Raptors have gotten hot in the past and won 10 of 12 the Raptors in 2002 won 10 of 12 and that was it 12 or 14 I believe

It was 12 or 14 to close out the season so I do think that the Raptors can get hot obviously every loss puts another nail in the coffin and the Raptors just don’t have that many nails left so I’m not going to be dramatic and say it’s

These two games and if you don’t if you go 0 and2 in these two games it’s all over obviously if you go 0 and2 and you lose a game in which you’re actually favored to win against Houston you might have to start thinking about shutting down Scotty Barnes and

Trying to go the other way which would suck really bad because you just traded for kinic and he deserves a chance to compete for something and I think yakob deserves a chance to compete for something they did not you know sign their previous contracts to be on

Perennial losers and I think that you’ll just get so much more data and development when you’re trying to win when you’re playing for something you get more growth I’ve always believed this to be true some people don’t believe it you know some people say basketball is basketball you get the

Reps when you get the Reps the the off Seasons when players get better if you’re goal is to change culture it’s harder to change culture after a 20 win season than it is with a 37 win season let’s put it that way you want guys going into the summer

Motivated maybe they lost in the playin maybe they made the playoffs and then they lost in the first round maybe they got out of the first round who knows maybe maybe you luck out like crazy you go on a crazy run and you beat the Bucks

In the first round oh my God like I mean I’m I’m sounding delusional right now I don’t even believe what I’m saying but you never know because you’ve done this amazing thing that you did the last time where look let’s be real Scotty Barnes is a much better player than the demard

De r roen that led that we the north team in scoring he’s a much better player than him he may not be a talent more talented scorer but he’s a much better overall player than him I think if you want to consider Scotty and IQ your top two guys then there’s a very

Good case to be made that those top two guys if they can get on the same page and get the momentum rolling and they can get this team playing hard every night are certainly as capable um and as good two for two as Kyle and Demar were

Back in 2013 I think that’s a fair point you know Kyle being slightly better than man quickley Scotty being slightly better than demard Rosen so really just look around the rest of the roster and you’re seeing like you know your naras and your yobs and you’re like okay is

Yakob equivalent to Jonas Valen junor or worse you know um is RJ Barrett better than or worse than Terrence Ross you know what I mean like you start going down and you’re like man stack one for one those teams look very similar to me very similar um so I think it’ll come

Down to Scotty and IQ having that conversation between them and saying do you wna the same conversation Colin dear had you want to save this you want to save it okay great this is how we’re going to save it we’re going to go out we’re going to play damn hard every

Single night we’re going to compete our butts off defensively we’re going to use all this athleticism that we have to spark transition we’re going to get on the glass we’re going to stop missing these stupid ass you know rebounds and you know for Scotty Barnes this is on

You man you’re an All-Star now so you know no more sulking no more pouting no more um you know dialing it back defensively because you’re tired if you’re tired get a quick hook you have some depth now but for the minutes that you play on the court you need to be

Like strong you know you need to be forceful you need to be assertive and you cannot be passive this team needs a leader and for teams that do not have a leader one will unfortunately arise anyway I don’t want that leader to be anyone but Scotty to be honest I want

That leader to be Scotty I want him to take the mantle there’s no Dennis there’s no Fred there’s no Pascal everything that could have been in your way is now removed this team is now built the players that you got back yesterday oaji and you know Kelly oen

Both those guys um are very low usage players they’re not ball holders and over dribblers right these are the type of players that Scotty has always wanted to play with these are the guys that Scotty thrives playing with I hope that he’s in better spirits today than he was

Two days ago okay so I’m looking forward to tonight I hope it will be the first of many wins that the Raptors can pull out this season and look this off season you know all bets are off let’s see what happens but it’ll be really interesting to have something to play for the

Raptors face over the next three games they have the Houston Rockets tonight winnable game Cavaliers tomorrow really tough and then the Spurs on the 12th which I’m attending I’m very happy about that three games in four nights win all three you might just save your season right there all right take care guys

Have a good one whoa 245 comments okay Raptors need to get their swag back just need to believe in themselves they got the right tools facts facts facts um Jonathan Isaac cool actually I would be very interested to see um Christian clo goes back in the

Gym today I was just looking at that so you know we’ll see um he’s a versatile scorer a playmaker a leader a hard worker a learner a winner RJ Barrett the pride of maple leaves he’s not here to play games he’s here to bring belief so weird Okay um yeah I mean I

Would be curious to see who the Raptors I mean also worth noting Killian Hayes I firmly firmly firmly stamp my approval for I think Killian Hayes deserves a shot um I know I’ve spent a lot of time talking about him um in the context of the Detroit Pistons

I’ve watched a lot of Pistons games this year just out of morbid curiosity I think he’s got something defensively as a playmaker he just can’t shoot now obviously all the beautiful things I said about you know playmaking playmaking playmaking and you know um he fits that and he fits youth because he’s

22 years old and um defensively he’s very very underrated I think so he’s a big point guard 6′ five um he’s a guy who I think can really fit in around Scotty long term um again athletically he has some potential there and again a 22 years old in the situation he was in

I think he’s a prime candidate that the Raptor should give a chance to I know he gets clowned a lot because he was a high lottery pick that didn’t work out but he’s been much better this year and he’s trended in the right direction for three straight years with the Pistons now they

Waved him that’s there that’s on them okay I don’t trust anything the Pistons do to be a good thing so basically them waving him is probably the biggest blessing that he’s probably worth a shot so I would definitely look at him there’s also a lot of other guys that you could look

At um injury Insurance whatever this will be a really interesting time for the Raptors to experiment with young players that maybe they’ve been eyeing for a while maybe players that you know they’ve been looking at seeing like hey like let’s see what this guy can do in a

10 on a 10day or whatever they don’t have to commit to anybody but they do have two open roster spots they have to fill one of those very very soon if I recall correctly so we’ll see who they fill fill it with but in terms of you

Know guys who are on the market right now Kyle Lowry obviously if he gets if he gets bought out by the Charlotte Hornets that’ll be an interesting you know name to Monitor and Gillian Hayes I think you need you need a point guard you need a point guard okay like Bruce

Brown may or may not work out at that position I would like to see somebody who be a third string point guard Jeff dton would be a great idea um if the Raptors feel like bringing him back um I’m sure he he’d welcome coming back back um good Defender good passer Etc

Low usage uh better shooter than people give him credit for um and also I’m very curious of this off season if Christian Koko’s blood cloth thing you know goes away could he be a guy to come back for the Raptors i’ would be very very pleased Raptors really believe in him anyways

Um B can wait for the 24 uh draft lives as well I agree um to the no to kilan Hayes that’s going backward I disagree I think um yeah hoodie mellow Rob please just accept star J Barrett please he’s a Canadian he’s the real star of this team

Just stop like I don’t know if you’re like like I don’t know what you’re seeing or what you think he is but he’s not whatever the hell you think he is um Real Sports Appel just released Scotty AAR Jersey just coped first of many that’s awesome man that’s super cool um

I don’t really have like $140 $50 throw around right now but yeah um yeah I agree man like stop this stuff he’s a very very good player he’s starting um he’s been productive like you don’t need to make him something that he’s not right now okay and and when he becomes

That if he becomes that fine you know I don’t need to see anything besides the fact that he’s Canadian you’re just straight up trolling at this point and that’s great okay all right Killian Hayes is D now you know what’s funny um so I listened to Dennis Sher uh

Brooklyn Nets conference he didn’t say anything about being a leader and then four minutes in he’s just like just being a leader and I was just like oh he just he couldn’t stop himself he just couldn’t stop himself he just had to do that I’m a leader thing

Anyway I am off for four hours to work on the Penance Film Festival um Penance coming up in less than two weeks now this is crazy uh February 22nd and 25th Carlton Cinema and here’s the ad and I’m out peace for from our sponsor the penan film festival is happening February 22nd

To 25th it is a celebration of international films it is a brilliant film festival in its seventh season prior to the covid pandemic it was the fastest growing film festival in the world what is my affiliation with Penance what are they paying me to say this well I am Penance I’m the festival

Director and founder of penance it is my baby and if you love great films if you have a film lover in your life this is a worthwhile event for you happening in downtown Toronto the Carlton Cinema uh February 22nd to 25th make sure to check this out link is in the description

Below for tickets and passes tickets will go on sale soon passes

The Toronto Raptors have completely gutted their roster and rebuilt their team. What started as a roster full of shaky, questionable shooters with long arms and athletic upside has morphed into a basketball team with genuinely intelligent winning players who can for the most part shoot.

Pendance Tickets & Passes: https://filmfreeway.com/Pendance/tickets

All of this in service of building around 3 things; their All Star Scottie Barnes, their movement-obsessed head coach Darko Rajakovic, and their selfishness-phobic President Masai Ujiri. With 31 games left, 4 games behind the vastly more-talented Atlanta Hawks, can the Raptors string together a run?

And who are these pieces, and how do I feel about them?

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