PASCAL & SCOTTIE BATTLE IN RAPTORS LOSS – LIVE Reaction w/ Samson & Caitlin Cooper

PASCAL & SCOTTIE BATTLE IN RAPTORS LOSS – LIVE Reaction w/ Samson & Caitlin Cooper

Hey that’s pretty bad it’s not actually pretty bad it’s pretty good to be quite honest with you the Raptors they lose to the Indiana Pacers 127 to 125 in a game that I thought was just like jamack full of super fun plays it included a battle of sorts between Pascal and Scotty

Towards the end of the game it was some of the best performaning is some of the best basketball we’ve seen from Scotty over the last however however long and you can’t help but just be impressed with you know his future and this was a game where the Pacers basically played a

Raptor team that was running constantly gunning up and up the four I think they set the record or their their season record for Fast Break points they set their season record for points in the paint they budgeon them repeatedly and then on top of that the Pacers aren’t

Able to do that going back the other way so what do we have a halfcourt offense trying to keep Pace with the transition offense 127 to 125 we end up with with just a barn burner of a game and it was it was fantastic here to talk about it

With me kayln Cooper who is for my money the best basketball writer in the world Caitlyn welcome how you doing I’m good better after how that ended then how it started that’s true it certainly um it it definitely swung better for the Pacers after however long um the big

Takeaways from this game let’s start there the Pacers transition defense in the first half was really really bad when you give up 80 paints points in the paint you have some problems is a lot yeah there was even in the half court too like I know the

Raptors didn’t have a good half court game by the numbers I think cleaning the glass probably has I mean the the lower half of the percentiles or whatever but I think that it was like you don’t want it to come down to just transition defense but there was a couple times I

Think the best play to exemplify this was Pascal who was guilty of some things in this game certainly defensively but went to make force Barnes to pick up the dribble and Obie saw that as an opportunity just like oh Pascal’s picking him up from the side coming full

Speed and then he just peeled away and Scotty just dribbled right down the middle and dunked in like pseudo transition it wasn’t even the coast to coast stuff it was also just Scotty doing like subus things that I remember of bringing it up the left side of the

Floor and just going in creating space with contact into really quick handoffs as well that got them downhill so you got to see the full experience of the Pacers defense and what it’s looked like lately up until the last six or so minutes and what Ben Shepard was able to

Do at the end of the game let’s let’s talk about the last six or so minutes includes acious block by Scotty and like a mind-numbing pullup that he was able to hit where his toe was on the line unfortunately and also two turnovers one off of his foot you know with Pascal

Gingham one after just like a quick one pass away swing to him above the break to Tyrese and Pascal obviously came through you know I think he had IQ on him goes left to the Baseline hits that wrong-footed push shot off the like Bank Shot just terrific basketball what did

You make at the end of the game I make I mean I guess I haven’t really talked to you about this but the Pascal and Tyrese uh two-man game really has been kind of non-existent good portion of the season because for one they’ve only played like 180 minutes together so far since Tyrese

Was traded so they really haven’t had that much time to experiment it with it but Tyrese has only set like four total screens for Tyrese since or Tyrese has only set four total screens for SE yakum since that trade happened so I’m part because Tyrese isn’t a super physical

Screener sometimes you can just push him away from those actions and they just haven’t really looked at inverted stuff for Pascal that much and then the reverse a lot of times Pascal is being guarded by the best person on the floor so if he comes and screens for Tyrese

You’re just getting like a tough wing Defender switched onto him so to see them go to that and get some tough baskets for seak and then also like the really bad the really bad play by RJ Barrett to come loose from uh Tyrese on that post up that was a bad defensive

Miss CU by him and then the big key one where Pascal gets the screen from Tyrese out of the empty side and RJ looked over his shoulder thought the screen was coming looked at over his shoulder at Tyrese and then gave up the drive to se yakum which ended up being the big

Basket so that was what was the key takea away from the Pacers side of things that the two of them were actually involved not only in screening actions but really playing off of each other’s gravity so I know what Toronto’s defense has been here lately but it

Still matters for that sake going into the All-Star break that they were able to develop a little bit of chemistry between the two of them were you surprised at the lack of because it’s kind of odd you talk about like the two man actions and the r or the Pacers not

Really going off into Pascal plus Tyrese but we also have on the other side there’s supposed to be a dynamic duo the other way Ian Scotty plus IQ they don’t go to it very often and the chemistry in those I don’t think was is very fruitful

Overall either what did you make of that in this game can I ask you a question about and I promise I won’t ask and my every question won’t be what did you make of that no that’s fine I I do have a question though how many teams with a

Manual quickly are shading him to his left is this becoming a thing this is something I’ve been talking about for a while now I don’t know are you Whispering well it’s a secret secet um I don’t I don’t know if I I don’t know if this was something that was super

Apparent in New York but shading to his left is not only effective to deter drives but he’s not comfortable jump shooting going to his left he doesn’t pull going to his left which makes little to no sense for most Shooters right you like to stack on the side of

Your body that isn’t your shooting arm and he just doesn’t really work that way which is is obviously a little bit odd and teams are playing him that way a ton and it has affected his Effectiveness it’s affected his shooting volume it’s affected everything and in a game where

You know he has 14 and seven and kind of underwhelms even even Tyrese I felt like there was a lot of under there was a lot of whelming and underwhelming in this game I thought Tyrese was kind of like gun shy a little bit um but uh yeah

Quickly getting played to his left it’s been a huge problem basically yeah the reason asked that cuz nard did that a couple times late he was picking him up full court applying some more pressure and was really jumping that other hand and it kind of reminds me I thought I

Wondered if you were G to say that he doesn’t really like to pull up going to his left and maybe that’s something the patience to key in on because it reminds me a little bit that’s how Malcolm Brogden was like teams would weak Malcolm brogon because he kind of

Exclusively wants to drive when he goes to his left he wouldn’t pull up and tyres is the reverse that Tyrese doesn’t want to drive if you force him left he pretty much only pulls up so when the Pacers went to that I wondered if that was like an advanced Scout that maybe

Like I haven’t seen enough a quickly to know or chart like how often does he actually shoot when he goes in that direction because he is can be a bombastic shooter I didn’t really see a lot of that tonight like Scotty made some correct reads to him like the one

Behind the corner pin in was wide open but that ended up leading to easy points going the other way for the Pacers so uh oh are you frozen or am I Frozen I don’t know because I can’t see the chat I think I’ll hop out and hop back in hey

Everybody and we’re back uh my bad the my computer crashed so that’s obviously not great this happened on two other live streams so far this season so like two of however many um anyway Caitlyn and I are back sorry I thought my internet went out no is my

Computer crashed and it’s kind of crazy because I don’t know what was happening but the power went out like four times today here and I was like oh this isn’t normal or good this is actually a really bad thing but then on top of that my computer

Crashed so it wasn’t the thing I was expecting to maybe go wrong it was something completely different but anyway we’re talking about um stuff at the end of the game go ahead I was talking about NE hard shading quickly to his left and you were mentioning yes that you haven’t felt

That the chemistry or the two-man Chemistry Between quickly and Scotty is fully developed and that wasn’t really something that they went to yeah we that’s we are stating facts currently yes thank you for um running me back over that okay so let’s pick up at defense and approach late in the game I

Thought that this was a game that if it was close was clearly going the way of the Pacers because this was as I said at the top a game where the Pacers succeeded in the half court and the Raptors succeeded on the fast break and once those things kind of slowed down

And changed and it became more difficult for the Raptors to create shots those types of things fell apart a little bit for the Raptors and it was basically just like get Scotty to provide like a primary action of some sort he’ll try and make something happen and then rely on yaka

Purle to just like eat the glass if he can and that approach wasn’t all that fruitful and obviously as we said on the other side you have Tyrese and Pascal being able to go to the two- man actions so much so that like not everybody notices what’s happening in the game

Necessarily which is okay you’re just watching but a lot of people are like why is quickly guarding Pascal and it’s like well because they initiated a switch and it turned out pretty well but um what do you think this means do you do you take anything away from them

Finding that Synergy against the Raptors does this is this meaningful going forward do you find or would you expect I think it I mean I think it’s meaningful because it hasn’t been something that they’re going to and because they’re coming off and both teams were coming off pretty atrocious

Losses um the Raptors obviously getting wrecked by the Spurs and the Pacers giving the Hornets their 12th win of the season to the point where it wasn’t a players only meeting but that the players were talking in the locker room after that game in Charlotte and what their defensive process had been and

What how that loss ended up happening so for the Pacers to go into the All-Star break and get this win in Toronto I think it meant something to Pascal so it’s just kind of a get right win to a degree I mean I know that’s not super

You know analysis based but like from the half court standpoint from the Raptors some of the stuff in the first half wasn’t bad like I was getting a little bit uh perturbed and nervous with how often they were hunting Tyrese early on Scotty was getting into post-ups pretty easily there Pacers weren’t

Setting doubles Bruce Brown played better for the Toronto Raptors in that first half than he pretty much played for the Pacers during his tenure with the Pacers cowboy hat on yeah I mean genuinely because you could tell like I have this saying that I like to say that

You know the quickest and easiest scouting report on a player is to watch them play against their old team and this it was the reverse Bruce knew like what lineups are out there I can be very aggressive and get into TJ’s driving Lanes this was one of for my handling

Standpoint this was a rough game for TJ McConnell and that was in part why some of it goes yeah did you see my tweet about him no I didn’t he he plays like a wizard has cast a spell on him that like he is not like it’s not the Bumble be

The song is embodied when he plays in the half court somebody should write about that yeah I mean and part of the problem too is is like sometimes we just think of like movement shooters or movement Shooters and you just swap one in and swap one out but

Is somebody who almost exclusively needs to play out of the left corner because he wants to come out of screens coming to his right and TJ is somebody who wants to attack the Baseline on a pistol with his right hand so they’ve been reversing that so to accommodate Doug TJ

Goes to the left side of the floor and dribbles left under the basket tries to Nash left which he’s he’s capable of but you can see him a couple times tripping slipping not quite having the handle to the same degree so that’s a little bit different because Buddy’s a little bit

Unique and that he wants to he of operated out of the right corner and wants to move to his left as a shooter so it’s a bit of an adjustment to go from one of them to the other with that second bench unit can I get your thoughts on Scotty Barnes well actually

Let me give you some background did you happen to see any of the the drama around Scotty because of the last game I heard about it but I did not see it I heard that he had left the bench Yeah so basically Scotty left the bench early

With like 3 seconds left went uh anything else about it it doesn’t matter that too much too much to me I think typically we over psycho analyze players do all that kind of stuff um reportedly you know talks happened whatever but so that stuff happens everybody’s talking

About it he comes out he balls out obviously yeah what do you make of Scotty as he’s heading over to your neck of the woods by the way over to Indiana after the trade for RJ and quickly happened in the games that I’ve caught it seemed like he has at times

Been passive for lack of better terms in terms of finding his shots and where he what plays he’s going to initiate how aggressive he’s going to be with what matchups are in front of him he was aggressive no matter what was in front of him in this game for the most part I

Felt especially just you know getting a rebound and bringing it up and watching his four Pacers aren’t getting back and are just like lightly reaching at the ball certainly helped him but again like hunting those mismatches in the post going after him using that Euro Step

Against Pascal late to get to the kind of the off-balance flow that was sorry you he he had an off-kilter pickup too was like a cross into the like I love the cross into the wrong way like Euro that’s such a good move it’s like you’re you’re crossing

The opposite way of where you’re going it’s such a great mixup and like you kind of switch up the feet and he made that folder over Pascal that was yeah that was a fantastic move yeah so just from of the approach standpoint of how aggressive he was looking for his own

Offense I felt like it was a shift because I haven’t I haven’t caught them since they’ve gotten which o Len obviously didn’t play in the second half but I haven’t caught them since those two trades to really know how all that’s mixed in with um oen as well

So yeah he’s Scotty his like points per game has been lower I think a lot of that has to do with and this was something I was tracking and talking about over the course of the season but like the big boom that Scotty’s had as a

Halfcourt score this season a lot of it has been tied to just making threes because his his approach as like a dynamic dribble driver was not that much different than in years past he wasn’t navigating help that cleverly he wasn’t always getting downhill the drive volume wasn’t crazy different it was just like

If you hit a lot more threes you’re going to get more half court points and Scotty as far as like an offensive rebounder a cutter and a transition player is going to find his way to like 155 and five no matter what just in the in between and since the trade the

Efficiency you know fell everything’s Fallen the numbers have fallen assists go up freee throw attempts go up so he’s kind of been forcing himself into that role and on some games he’s really like smashed the over like in a game like tonight like a game against the Bulls

And some games he’s really struggled to find his volume and find where he fits in in the offense it’s all part of like a changing role of course and taking over possessions that Pascal used to take and tonight I thought he was awesome super aggressive 0 for four from

Three it didn’t matter at all um Brandon Lee asks and I I have thoughts on this I guess how was it not an offensive foul on nart at the end Andrew basically body checks Scotty LOL I don’t think it was actually like all that like I think now this might

Sound crazy but I think Scotty’s like kind of he’s embellishing a lot there there’s like a really big difference between those two guys and I know n hard’s strong but nard without a running start can not floor Scotty Barnes unless Scotty Barnes wants to be floored I

Think like that’s just I don’t know what you think of that no I mean I’d have to watch it back there were possessions where early in the game where he got a switch against nard and Ne hard’s very good at guarding with his chest them in

The fourth quarter yeah yeah I mean he’s very good at guarding with his chest that’s probably one of his biggest strengths as a Defender and he can guard up positions but even then Scotty was backing him up on a few in the first half but another thing about him

Offensively is I not seen them run that many stack possessions for Scotty in a row before and they went to that what three three times in a row to start the fourth quarter and got pretty good plays out of it with him making reads and

Seeing roll man paths and um most of the time when I’ve watched it’s been like you might see that like three times in a game but it’s spread out and you know it’s like the time I brought up to you still when Pascal was on the team and

Then they switched it and Pascal’s guy helped off but I’ve never seen them like spam that multiple times in a row and that might be somewhat speaking to the Pacers defense but also the process of what Scotty’s grown as as a pick and roll ball handler and the fact that

That’s a viable thing because not everybody like I think sometimes people just think that like stack in and of itself like oh because there’s an extra screener there that just makes every play better you don’t want to run that for every pick and roll ball handler because not every make enough Advanced

Reads to actually make the decision out of it so that was also an adjustment that I I haven’t necessarily seen unless you tell me differently that that’s something that they go to a lot with him no that that is a new thing and and to your point about like I know people

Think like it’s an elevated pick and R I know some people think of it that way however it’s not elevated if the other team has three good Defenders or is really crisp in how they guard that because the more people it’s is it easier to score three on three or five

On five we know the answer to that the more people you involve in a play the more the defense can do not just with like their tools as Defenders physically but with their brains to guard in scheme and so stack has like some answers to it that the regular pick and rooll doesn’t

Is especially like that’s why a lot of stuff becomes empty side like what the Raptors or what the Pacers did late is like simplify it can they stop you there um but Scotty is a guy who can really take advantage of Mis cues defensively can really make quick ones there’s

Obviously that huge miscue where Pascal meets him at the 45 and yaka purle comes around behind everybody and has a wide open layup which I like I don’t know how that happened but um Scotty as a decision maker I’ve been very bullish on this for a very long time of course the

Six turnovers to eight assists is not a home run by any means but he’s a guy who can really really impress when another team is botching at coverage he’s a guy who can really really find the mo the optimal pass on a play as far as that

Stuff goes lumpy rex7 is saying ASMR Samson I’m recording in a big room so I’m nervous of the echo just just a thought yeah defense sorry they they run it more yes and like great pickup I was going to say that his defense was also impressive as far as the range of what

He was doing defensively oh yeah big because I mean and I think that’s probably been a trend for the season as a whole but the Raptors more than a lot of teams that I’ve seen clearly they wanted this game because you know they’re playing yakob very high trapping

Tyrese as often as they could on ball screens and then also sinking in and doubling on Pascal particularly in the first half and just deciding that they were going to take take chances on the rest of those Shooters but like to see Scotty sink in that far and just like

Rip the ball from Pascal on that one play and then also the fact that they were putting him on TJ McConnell on those bench lineups which is something that a few teams have done like Boston put porzingis and Luke cornette on TJ despite the fact that TJ is gonna be

Handling that much they also the Clippers put Zub bots on TJ and typically TJ can be like you know that’s all right even if you’re going to Sag that many feet off of me I’m still going to be able to turn the corner and get around the edge and potentially get a

Reverse layup but that was effective like having him sag off in the way that he was taking angles again like this this was one of the worst games that TJ has played and some of that had to do with Scotty’s defense and I know that there’s been some games this year where

He’s not probably exactly what you want him to be at the point of attack um all the time in part because he has high hips and doesn’t necessarily be able to change directions super quickly with ball handlers but the fact that he was able to do all that and transition from

Those different defensive roles I thought was pretty big for the Raptors as well he’s been immense I had a conversation with PD web right after Scotty got drafted and we had a long conversation about you know what he kind of projects as as a Defender and basically what PD was describing is what

You just said is like a guy whose range is absurd whose first jump and second jump are really quick who has like a really great knack for reading and beating plays to the punch and had said like you know the college level guards are not going to be the NBA level guards

Like he might struggle at the point of attack and Scotty I think as far as like point of attack if people just hadn’t labeled him one through five the king point guard defender or something like that like he’s guarding his he’s fighting his reputation to some degree

There yeah because like don’t lose the I’m not talking to you obviously but don’t lose the forest for the trees trees for the god I don’t even know at this point anyway don’t was the force for this Tri because for the tree whatever the saying is good Lord I don’t know

Anyway just like don’t Focus too much on his um limitations at the point of attack and focus on like this insane Court coverage he has as a backline sweeper who also in specific coverages in specific matchups can actually kind of like punch up a little bit at the

Point of attack especially if you’re playing like aggressive and bringing two to the ball or something he’s got pretty a pretty good idea about angles he’s got a pretty good idea about that but as far as like maybe playing too high up on somebody trying to lock them between the

Knees or the hips and like play aggressive he can get in trouble but just like fantastic defense a lot of the time so impressive yeah that was probably my other big takeway I mean he was just a force on both ends of the floor tonight I really I don’t

Know in comparison to what the Pacers were doing in the first half like watching him impress I mean it was really like watching the Pacers play themselves to a degree like honestly because that’s what that’s what pace and flow they’ve been able to inflict on

Opponent so much and it was like oh this is what it’s like for other teams to watch this team play they like they brought it to them and I was I use this term quite a lot but I was feckless the Pacers looked so out of sorts I couldn’t

Believe how they were playing and you know after I didn’t get to watch the Charlotte game either which was two nights ago I didn’t even get to watch the Raptor game really I had to rewatch it but I watch I sent you some great footage of that Hornets game yeah great

Interesting interesting use of word um but like it’s strange to see a team struggle as much as the Pacers have when they’re supposed to kind of be like taking off and they’ve had trouble I think efficiently and seamlessly and on top of that I think that like the

Defense was initially really strong in a way that people would have hoped and that has kind of fallen off and I kind of wanted to ask what you think like the reason for that is I can’t really put my finger on it I honestly like I I was

Talking to somebody about this the other day and I said you know the Pacers haven’t been a good defensive team in a while but I’ve always been able to be like you know broad Strokes here the scheme that n yoren’s playing with is a team you know he’s coaching the team he

Wants not the team that he has and like last year I could look at it and be like you know this is a young rebuilding team they don’t have Defenders who can stay in front of the ball and then the Pacers dramatically changed the scheme and I

Can be like yeah this coaching staff’s tried two vastly different schemes neither one’s working they’re trying to cover a king-size bed with a twin size sheet they have no size then they go and get Pascal and now like when he as you said when he first came over like the

Game they played against Phoenix they played him at the five as they did tonight because they had to because you have no Miles Turner you have no Jaylen Smith so you play Pascal some minutes at the five and in that game against Phoenix I was like hey he’s showing me

Something these are some really quick rotations um these minutes are impressive not that you want to play them at the five all the time but just like the actual quality of his defense was pretty solid but along the way there was times where I could ask questions

Like hey you know you finally have a big Wing who can guard big wings why am I watching them switch screens and putting buddy heeld onto Jeremy Grant instead of just keeping Pascal on him or why are they having him Chase over on four five screening actions with Miles instead of

Just switching that when they’ve been switching it most of the year so I think some of it is they’re putting him in positions that aren’t really designed for him to always Excel and they’re still testing out how they want to use him and Charlotte for instance I don’t

Think that he’s somebody that you really want guarding Davis Bon where he’s going to have to navigate pin downs and flare screens and then on a lot of the screening actions it’s kind of like to not exactly the same extent because SE yakum is not not the quality of Defender

That Giannis and Evan Moy are but there’s a reason why those guys don’t necessarily do a lot of Defense on ball because when you’re bigger it’s very easy to get screened out of actions if you’re going to trace over it’s why Giannis gets used as a weakside RoR a

Lot of the time not only because of his skills as a weak side RoR but because it doesn’t make a lot of sense for him to be defending on ball and seum can do stuff in contain like if he’s guarding the screener like even tonight if he’s guarding the screener and he switches

Out he’s good at being able to back off use his length and contain the ball to a degree but the Pacers are having him do a lot of stuff in screening actions where he has to chase over the top and it’s just not happening that game in Charlotte he ran into contact pretty

Repeatedly whether it was an off ball screen an on ball screen then I you know he’s guarding miles Bridges and he’s closing incredibly hard to Bridges his right hand or left hand and then he can’t get back to the right like little stuff like that or just you know

Miscommunications on switcher stays I mean you saw it tonight it was like you know there was a lot of defensive mistakes even in this one from seak up until you know the end when they put the the better defensive lineup out there with n hard and Shepard and and IX and

Tyrese around them so I think I don’t know if some of it has to do with you know you change teams maybe he’s running a little bit low on uh energy in terms of the fact that the Pacers have just had lineups all over the place because Tyrese and the minutes restriction and

Obviously buddy gets traded rotations are different but yeah I’ve watched some of it and I I I know that you and I did the podcast together in which I said you you pointed out to me that siakam’s defense might have had some slippage before he was traded over here and I

Said yeah but the bar is cheese like I literally the game before he had been traded I had watched nard and Buddy heeld guard Lori Markin and I’m like they just all he has to do is walk over a piece of cheese and you said you know

It’s possible that he could get back to that and he might be able to jump way over cheese well I would say that lately he’s barely kind of been stepping over it at times so they they need him yeah they need him to turn it up defensively

But I also think that there’s some things that the Pacers could help him do in order to do that and he did get a couple stops late against Scotty which is again that’s more of a role that he’s suited toward he’s okay he’s been okay in on ball situations and in containment

I just don’t think you want him doing a lot of screen navigation there’s been too much of that kind of want to talk about two players on each team for the Pacers I want to talk about Ben Shepard who was massive down the stretch the plus eight is Meaningful I I I don’t

Like plus minus as a cure all or anything but I think it’s great to give you an idea if you’ve watched the game and it’s great to give you an idea of to go what to look forward in some lineups like as you watch if you’re watching

Stuff back I think it’s very useful there and then on the and also of course nard because nard is a rock and I wish he was a Toronto Raptor but I suppose that’s life um and then I want to talk about RJ Barrett and Bruce Brown um a little bit

Less on Bruce Brown if we can start with R.J what have you thought I know you’ve watched like quite a bit of Nicks over the past however many years um RJ as a raptor has been kind of revelatory he’s like made way better decisions as a passer way better decisions as a driver

Has a resolve and a want to get to the rim an indomitable will as it were uh I called him a snowplow what did you make of RJ Barrett and the punch he’s provided to the Raptors not just in this game but like since becoming a

Raptor yeah I mean I I haven’t read I admit I have not read your work on RJ Barrett yet because the Pacers have just been making so many changes that I’m behind in my in my reading actually so I’ll just for anybody who’s interested there’s an an a passing piece for RJ

Coming up soon just as a note but and the one you don’t have to read it it’s like 3 weeks old I was the first one to write the piece there’s been like seven variations of the piece since then and the latest edition of the piece is

Probably the best one because it has more data so yeah yeah I mean the reason I was going to say that is how much of this do you think he’s benefited because he’s not no longer playing in a lineup with multiple lefties at once I I had

Been saying that yeah this this was in the coverage of it certainly yeah of course yeah because I think that that opens up some things for him and I I haven’t watched all of his passing reads to know I’ve seen the numbers and seen that he is passing out of more of the

Drives more which that matters me because even with Team Canada when I was watching some of those games like he had some brutal plays at some of the end of the games it’s like how are you just driving into that and not seeing what where the secondary help is at all and

He’s just and very left-hand dominant there was times in this game which again some of this is a product of the defense that you’re watching I would caution everybody that’s watching this live to know that watching and play your team play against the Pacers can it’s it’s

Vanity sizing there’s some of that that comes with it that being said RJ was getting back to his right obviously Ben Shepard prevented him from getting where he wanted to go on the final possession of the game and RJ made a few other mistakes late but I do think that he’s

Shown a little bit better pacing with his drives that has allowed him to make some better reads the shot wasn’t there tonight and I know he was shooting the ball better when he first came over on the trade than what he’s done here lately uh I just want to PO is about to

Go for a walk so I want to show everybody po before he gets out of here and his little puker shell necklace so let’s just point out that this must be some dog because you could have come to watch Scotty play in the All-Star Game and instead you Mexico he’s a he’s a

Rock star though you know it’s a little little po okay off like one play that did stand out with RJ was the Baseline out of bound play where nard literally jumped had to jump off of the inbound passer practically in the next because Aaron could not stay in front of RJ

Turning the corner and I believe RJ was going to his right on that particular play and Andrew basically had to next off an inbound passer which is like a crazy thing to do I I I I that’s not something I would recommend to people who are who are guarding but it was a

Thing that happened there there were two fantastic performances tonight that I think were somewhat undone by the the free throw line one is Chris bue who played 11 minutes plus three 10 points four boards he he missed the last two free throws that was tough RJ missing

His last two going four Freight from the line is a bit tough but he’s still he’s 9 of 17 three assists which is kind of low for him the defense I didn’t think was great from him which has been a bit of a problem uh nine boards he’s been

Huge on the glass since becoming a raptor like and and his Rim pressure in this game it was emulated by Scotty elsewhere that is something that we’ve seen of course but as far as like over like consistently game to game sometimes Scotty has it sometimes he doesn’t he’s

Figuring out you know all the attention he’s been getting all that kind of stuff and RJ just that driving stuff if there’s not secondary help he can move mountains out of the way like he’ll just like plow right through it so super impressive there really wanted to get

Your your thoughts on it and yeah so it’s like his Advantage his percentage is higher as a raptor than it is as a Nick he’s passing out of more drives he’s reliably creating lamps wait wait wait wait wait wait did you you did you count every assist he had with the

Knicks well we’re this season not yeah but still that that’s I guess it wasn’t a massive number but I have to I have to write the piece still but yeah I have I have both the numbers and so there’s a lot of processed stuff that immediately just seems to be better and just

Finishing at The Rim which the prediction I think was as soon as he came over I know there was like toxic asset talk there was like well he’s X or Y talk but there was always potential for a guy who clearly has more than below average in every quadrant of

Shooting like he has more than that we can’t be silly and just say like a guy who shoots 58% is a guy who shoots 58% everywhere he has enough talent and strength and like finishing with the left hand to get above that with the Raptors he’s realized that very quickly

Different driving lanes open up as not the lone Lefty on the roster I guess that got traded so okay anyway so that’s something that’s happening but driving those Lefty driving lanes are a big deal as far as like being put in motion more often is a big deal The Continuous motion offense

That the Raptors run is a little bit more friendly to him than what the Knicks were doing it’s just like it’s a huge difference and he’s making hey while the sun is shining um we can switch that over to another guy who I think if he didn’t have the kidney stone

This season if he didn’t have like the the injury stuff he’s electric and I know people don’t think like second round guard who spent a few years in college is supposed to be like electric I know Andrew n hard’s name doesn’t have like a sexy amount of appeal next to it

But as far as like young guards who can like knife into the lane he’s like one of the best in the league he’s really unique in that way he’s fantastic yeah you’re catching him definitely on the upswing this was this might have been the best most complete

Game he’s played this year and I know that playing in Toronto means a lot to him but like the Lefty Dart absurd um the manipulation around the the Gortat screen to make the kickout pass also absurd these are things that I like to point out because he went through a

Rough stretch about a month ago where he had he had the kidney stone and I always want to point out that like any kidney stones bad but he also had to have surgery to remove this kidney stone like this took a longer process also he had the hyperextended knee during the

Inseason tournament and then he had back issues and when he came back I felt and I don’t like player comps but I will say that for people who like want an idea of how nard manipulates screens he moves somewhat similarly to Jamal Murray and that when he comes off of a pick he

Automatically squares his hips to the rim because he uses a skip step hesitation and a float dribble and that requires flexibility in your back and a lot of Bend in order to do that and you could tell when he came back from the back injury he wasn’t even looking to

Get to that and it it messed with his ball handling quite a bit so like on off days he wasn’t being able to do some of that and then he also likes to throw a head dribble he likes to turn the corner like off a ram screen and throw the ball

Out into space which really can mess with the defense a bit in addition to his ability to change speeds he can play quick when he needs to and he can play slow in a really wonderful way when he needs to so you’re catching him on the upswing when he’s putting all of that

Back together and you’re seeing it at once and like it’s interesting because you said that about Tyrese being somewhat passive and this was like the most um that Tyrese has kind of been used as the move mission shooter so to speak where nard was having to do a lot

More of the handling and I think some of that goes back to Tyrese still dealing with the hamstring injury but you got to see a little bit more of nard doing some of the pick and roll stuff in addition to what he does defensively and it was

It was somewhat harmful to the Pacers at times in the first half because you can see the difference when you know it’s just it’s very weird to watch buddy hee no longer on this team sure because buddy hee like for like don’t want to get too jargon here but they run wide

Reject stack numerous times every game especially when buddy was on the roster so basically if you’re setting a high cross screen for in this case Tyrese Tyrese rejects that screen leaks away into the corner sets the stack screen and then pops out so like in the first

Half you could see the Raptors like because they were trapping Tyrese so much they were having nard as the ball handler Tyrese is leaking around into this action and he comes off of it he gets the ball and he’s open he puts the ball on the floor to beat quickly out of

That pop and N hard’s gu is just coming all the way off and nexting that so Gary Trent Jr’s just coming all the way off and then Quickly’s just running to n hard so that’s very different than what you’re going to see if if Buddy had set

That screen and leaked out like that Defender is going to stay there and Tyrese is going to be the ball handler and have a lot more room to operate so there’s a give and take but you get n hard’s defense and you’re also getting somebody who at the two guard spot can

Run offense for you which ended up being pretty valuable down the stretch in this game so there’s there’s also like when your counter that is supposed to work isn’t working like just the the high drop off pass or the hike like you drop it off to Pascal when they Blitz Pascal goes down

The middle with a head of steam I think there’s like three Miss shots in the span of two minutes and like he shouldn’t have been missing them like a couple of them you’re like that’s the in between shot that can go in or can’t it’s a good enough shot you have to take

It but like so they go to like more different types of ball handling because they’re like I guess it’s just not working that’s disappointing for the team obviously but obviously the Pacers they had like a lot more resiliency in this game but I did think it was

Interesting the way that Tyrese like was maybe a little bit more hesitant to like turn the corner on stuff or attempt to the I don’t know about explosion for like his side steps or like step backs but when he draw a close out it looked

Like he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with the close out and especially since Tyrese is like an insane shootter that one step back three it was like he let the gather come into his left hand as he’s stepping back and the moment that right toe touchdown the shot was up and

I’m just watching I’m like this footwork is crazy this handle work is crazy and for a guy who’s that has that much Synergy in his jumper is as talented a shooter as he obviously is to see him not able to get like volume off of big closeouts and the fact that like he’d

Reset the offense quite a few times I was like what’s you know what’s kind of going on here so I think is probably related to like Health explosivity Comfort all that kind of stuff probably but yeah um Bruce Brown that’s why I’m wearing the cowboy hat the veero Hat you

Know um what do what do we think about Bruce Brown the Raptor I think so just as a heads up by the way Raptor fans I’ve said to them many different times that Kaylin told me that maybe you know the point of attack defense the defense

Overall that stuff not going to be a big factor and it hasn’t as a raptor it really hasn’t tonight it was better but offensively I think he found utility quite quickly and did it as a ball handler and as an off ball guy um what do you make of his approach I

Suppose yeah his best game with the Pacers was against the Nuggets when he got his ring and it was similar to his approach in this game where he is very capable of for lack of better terms shoving the ball down the opponent’s throat when he’s in transition he has a

Good push cross I think he his handle in transition is better than his handle in the half court at times because he he doesn’t have to be quite as protective with it um and then yeah I mean I I think that that half that he played in

The first half was maybe better than anything that he had done for frankly I mean he I wouldn’t say that he was completely underwhelming he had decent moments for the Pacers but his defense wasn’t necessarily to the level that I expected it to be and in this one like I

Said he knew the Personnel out there he knew I can take extra steps off of this guy or I’m going to help and I’m going to get into the gap or I’m going to get into the driving lane there and bother things that it looked like he had picked

It up a bit from some of the other games that I’ve seen him play with the Raptors like maybe this one meant a little bit more to him but and I think that makes sense for him too because he has such a keen understanding of the nuggets and of

The Pacers I’ve used this this comparison before not really player types necessarily but like guys like Bruce Brown and Ben Simmons who succeed in all like the nuances of the game and they really do for guys who are like trying to get used to a new situation or

Get used to new timing or for Ben Simmons taking like a year off of basketball when you don’t have something so inherent to create advantages with when you don’t have something so easy to do to benefit others besides like cutting it can be really tough to find

The creases in the game where you used to succeed and Bruce is a guy who it makes sense that he understands exactly where those creases are against face cut was so brutal though that’s just a person being totally asleep and you just cutting like a face cut in that

Situation the Raptors weren’t even running action like it’s one thing if you if you get a face cut because the team’s like running horns and that Defender has to be attentive for a reason that Defender did not need to be attentive to anything else yeah what

Obie was off screen on the on the Raptors broadcast I don’t know what you saw over in Indiana but like when it happened and they didn’t show the replay from the right angle I don’t think but you just see like Bruce pop out of the

Bottom of the screen and so what did you see what happened no he just he just wasn’t paying attention to the fact that Bruce was going to do the face cut like I said like this is something that the heat would run a lot like the heat would

Run actual play to get Jimmy Butler face cuts to occupy that Defender and and force them to focus attention somewhere else the Raptors really weren’t doing anything in that moment like I know that Bruce gets like a lot of credit for his cutting and I do think he’s a good

Cutter like he he did that around joic certainly in Denver he had some of those moments for the Pacers like you know in games against the Atlanta Hawks the Hawks give up more points off Cuts than any team I think in like the tracking era because their stances out of their

Blitzes make no sense and they can’t see the people behind them so Bruce just over and over again when Trey was defending him was just like I’m GNA back cut and corner cut that Blitz and get points so like he he does have good timing with it but in like this case

Like I said you always got take it and know that there’s going to be Pacers vanity sizing that comes with a lot of the success that players that that is something to consider because you know you see a game like this the Pacers are a good basketball team in the NBA sphere

They’re a good basketball team and they should they should have the potential to like punch up at Great this season you look at the pieces and you say like you guys got to make it work and if you make it work you could have like a fun run

Now no nobody is saying like Championship over in Indiana or anything like that but people are saying like we have a chance at one of the best teams we’ve had here in a long time and LeBron isn’t standing in the way of like a Transcendent Oladipo or something like

That right so it’s it’s exciting if the Raptors played like this there is Vanity sizing but if the Raptors played like they did tonight if Scotty was able to like step on the gas the way he did tonight this this is a raptor team that could punch up at like play and stuff

They could punch up at it but as it currently stands they continue to like punch down towards maybe keeping that San Antonio pick I’m curious what you think about like the overall shape of the team in Toronto question Kelly o lenck sure doesn’t play in the second

Half how do you feel about Kelly o linck playing with quickly because I feel like that’s something that should help him in terms of Kelly being somebody who you can run delay with you could potentially you know run some other cutting type actions with him out of the high post he

Didn’t play they went to buet which I think was a smart move by Darko because the Pacers obviously were not rebounding the ball well and also they had tried to put Oscar out there and there’s no way that Oscar was going to guard a pick and

Pop like basically he can’t do a lot in drop coverage other than just drop all the way back to the St in which wasn’t going to suit when they made the decision to play the lineup that they did but I don’t know what your thoughts are

Post trade with um Kelly o lenck and and uh agbaji I haven’t been able to catch your opinion of that and how Kelly fits into this uh Team I have been of the opinion I think that like the first round pick isn’t necessarily like for oai abaji not

Not really like you could or just maybe the fact that like you could talk yourself into it being for Kelly as much or more than it is for oai and Kelly I think is supposed to be a guy who reads the four tremendously well has like a

Bunch of unique guard adjacent skills at his position like 4.4 assists in 20 minutes off the bench as a big is pretty gnarly like that’s awesome and he can shoot the ball he’s been one of the best like bench bigs in the NBA for some time

He’s supposed to come in and I think simplify and like maximize a ton of what the Raptors like to do like you look at some of the stuff they sued that with purle as far as like passing you you reckon like if you put Kelly in those situations everything should be like

Multiplied at least like the purely passing stuff the screening stuff like straight up you know running two man actions with IQ I’m not so sure but this was this was a game or not a game this is a team that really could use what Kelly brings from like the veteran

Presence to the repping Canada I don’t believe that as much as the front office or you know the pr will say that but it’s a part of it I guess and like resigning hopefully on from the team’s perspective a decent deal this summer I guess the front office actually admitted

That they made a trade because somebody was from Canada no no but like you can tell they want to play heartstrings when they comment about this stuff they’re like this like they’re not saying like oh we traded for the Canadian guy they’re saying like oo we traded for

This guy and he’s Canadian you know like that’s kind of how they’re doing it and they’re really like hammering that home right like he’s home he’s even though he’s from cam loops obviously but regardless oh and did you hear I don’t know if he paid but I worked with his

Sister I’ve played basketball with his sister she’s great Maya um and I also met Kelly when I was at kega although I still hav’t got to talk to him about it yet because there’s no way he’ll remember me so I didn’t want to you also won’t tell me anything about your time

At Gaga it’s just like a kid you know it’s just like a teenager playing basketball but regardless so that’s that’s like fun stuff um for the people who are here not to listen about basketball but to listen to me talk about my life great hosting

Anyway um I I expect them to be able to do lots of interesting stuff with Kelly but I actually thought about it like Kelly is more so a multiplier for Scotty rather than Kelly is a multiplier for IQ because IQ if he’s going to be anything like more than he is now CU

He’s a player of you know substance now for sure and he’s been successful on successful teams but if they want IQ to be anything he needs to be able to like playm make going downhill he needs to get downhill he needs to hit shots going downhill he needs to figure out the

Extra dribble he needs to figure out shooting going both directions all that kind of stuff Kelly doesn’t necessarily facilitate that I don’t find as much as yakob does however Kelly has like the spacing and like the big big stuff that I think could really help Elevate and be

Interesting with Scotty the reason I asked that is it’s a bit curious because I did look through and watch I don’t think I saw Emanuel quickly throw a lob pass to Mitchell Robinson when he was in New York this yeah oh have you I don’t want to bore your audience with me

Bringing it up no no no your perspective on it I just am because you’re so brilliant I like saying that I saw a similar thing to you so go ahead no so I mean because quickly so floater dependent that’s what’s curious about it because Tyrese has this really it’s not

Like James Harden esque but his ability to like create indecision with the idea of will this be a finger roll will this be a lob pass will it be a skip pass is in part what adds some of the punch to his jump passing because you don’t fully

Know which one of those things he’s going to do so it’s interesting to me that when I went through and looked at like okay here’s how many passes quickly through to Mitchell Robinson and none of them were a lob that seems a little bit interesting to me that a floater

Dependent player doesn’t quite have that in their bag yet I always thought that was like one of the coolest and best plays in all of basketball and I wrote about the floater lob as kind of like I don’t know how much American football you watch or are familiar with but like

The read option and then it was pointed out to me by Joe wolon is like yeah that’s cool that you think that’s the read option but the keeper play is literally the exact same like play and physical move as the read option to football so that’s probably the option I

Was like okay fine but it’s incredible to me as somebody who if I go up to shoot a floater I’m going to shoot the floater like or if I go up to pass and I’m suddenly like they back off and I have to make a floater that’s really

Hard to adjust in air that like now I’m shooting I don’t know if I can do that so I don’t know if that’s an easy adjustment and I know Harden made it look like the easiest thing ever to like make that decision in air and you know

The flob J jaob terasoft says um also Momo just while we read something says when the Knicks are good we’re garbage when we’re good the Knicks are garbage yeah it’s the the Harry Potter Voldemort thing like neither can live while the other survives just as a fun little

Thing but yeah Emanuel does not throw loves which is why I’ve been asked quite a few times by listeners video Watchers readers whatever the hell like do you think Claxton is a better fit than yakob and I’m like Claxton isn’t going to have lobs thrown to him that much

And like yakob is way better at like keeping passing lanes open on the ground and like using like one dribble like slide step through get to the bucket finish I think for quickly it’s not a linic it’s not Clon it’s yakob the same way it was hartenstein you know no that

Makes sense I just I just wondered why you thought that he didn’t necessarily wasn’t going to that or what you thought of his chemistry with Kelly but can I tell you something funny too when my computer crashed I started feeling really stupid about wearing a cowboy hat like super stupid about

It um I need to know what you thought of Ben Shepard before we get out of here I’ve Loved Ben Shepard because I’ve watched more Indiana since Pascal went there obviously I’m ramping up to help you with playoff coverage um over for the Pacer side of things Ben Shepard

Like compete level on defense like good decision making I was pointing it out to like a leg not to harp on Hal bur too much but like Ben Shepard had like the pump you know like Drop dribble like or pound dribble and then pull yes and he

Hit and I was like and he hit it and I was like I love that shot I was like why isn’t hie taking that shot I was like why is Ben Shepard like gunning harder than hi is and Ben obviously had like a fantastic game just for the listeners

The statline three of six from the field two of four from downtown two of two from the free throw line five boards and a couple big ones 10 points plus eight and a steal like he was awesome man um and that three that he the three that he

Made in the corner when the Raptors trapped Pascal and Pascal had to use a couple negative dribbles and finally nard was like Hey I’m gonna flash to the middle of this and then I’m gonna act as the pivot point and get it to Ben that

That was big as well yeah somebody in my mailbag last month asked me which was my favorite developmental story this year and I was on with James Boyd from the athletic and picked Aaron neith and that’s a very good pick as well um Aaron’s been a fun player this year you

Didn’t get to see a ton of him tonight since he got injured in the way that he did but Ben I think he reminds me a lot of n har and that he gets that game-winning stop which was what n Hart did very early in the year last year

Against Tyler herro in isolation and for a team that’s very defensive starved being able to throw him out there like I know people pointed out and they were correct like there’s things that the Pacers Miss without buddy and they’re going to miss without buddy um but buddy

Also isn’t going to get you that stop at that end of the game and so you’re able to put Ben in the closing lineup and then also like I don’t one of my nerdiest things I don’t know what you’re going to think about this is I really

Like watching the way that teams scheme closeout techniques like I don’t know what the Raptors teach on that and I I have asked uh one of the coaches for the Pacers like what do you want on a close out like as a team what are you looking for and Ben Shepard closes out

Differently than what I was told and he closes out differently than anybody else on the team so I don’t know if you were watching him tonight but he will always close with a very wide base so he gets as close to the shooter as he can and

He’s basically creating an area for a landing Space by closing with his legs um and like I said in the wide base and then he always closes with a two-hand contest which nobody else on the team does and the thing that’s interesting about it is the Pacers limit three-point

Attempts limit three-point attempts more than any team in the NBA because they stay home not because they rack up a lot of closeouts not because they’re really aggressive running people off the line so it’s kind of counterintuitive because they want to limit threes as much as possible in the way that Ben closes

Isn’t limiting a three but it’s preventing you from getting a foul on a three and it’s creating a very contested three and that’s different than like probably the other best close out person they have is nort and nort almost always closes out with like a hockey stop so

I’m sure everybody was very fascinated by this long conversation but I I do really like watching how people close out to the ball UT watab is a hockey stop guy too big two big steps in to the hockey stop playing a guy usually to the weak hand or making sure that he has

Coverage on the shooting hand same side and the thing is is like NE more doesn’t close that doesn’t have to raise either hand because he is using the hockey stop he’s able to get close enough to the shooter that it runs them off the line

So yeah I think um the Raptors you can actually see there’s like clips of Darko doing it in game it’s typically to Grady because like I’ve talked about this before when I go and this is a great segue because I’d want to talk to you

About Grady um when I go to the games beforehand and I like take pictures of the guys and try and chat everybody up and all that kind of stuff Grady is basically the only guy who gets defensive work during warm-ups that kind of stuff and they’re always wanting him

Like chop feet Force Baseline twoand contest they won’t be able to chop feet they’re teaching Grady to chop interesting this is fascinating to me I I feel like that’s pretty outdated unless it’s a prank like it’s like a Andy Kaufman thing where they like we’re going to show everybody that we’re

Teaching Grady to chop feet and he’s going to chop feet and he also does chop feet in the game so I don’t know but yeah chop feet is like a thing but Grady has really come on over the past like 13 14 games it’s correlated obviously with like more intentional and meaningful

Playing time he is 25% from three tonight so he’d be sitting at I think 47 or 46.8% over the past 14 games from three and it would probably be around like almost four attempts per game and probably close to like 7.5 between 7.5 and eight attempts per 36 he’s getting

Them up you can see he’s got he’s a pretty crafty finisher as well which you obviously knew coming into this but as somebody who watched a lot of Grady before he became a raptor who’s watched some of Grady since becoming Raptor and has seen an okay Grady game thoughts I

Mean he had it was good for him when Doug McDermot was guarding him he had some drives and got into the paint on on those possessions I mean it always is going to look better when you start making shots right like are we judging it by the results of the shot or what

The process is I think early on in the season there was times where I kind of just wanted him to shoot he was a little bit more dry first than I think that he needed to be in certain situations why why are we relocating I just I feel like I was

Bending my back to get like low enough cuz I wanted po to be in the shot cuz people love you know animals and I love po so I want him to be there but now I’m just kind of want to be comfy we’re an hour in you know yeah I felt like at

Kansas that Grady was a little bit relying on flip shots a little bit too much he has decent flexibility in the air and he can make a jump pass which I always like and he’s good at finding the opposite chain but I felt like early on in the season like conditioning wise he

Wasn’t quite where he needed to be I think that that’s improved and that comes with just playing more NBA minutes and I’m sure getting reps with the 905 as well he’s on he’s on a program they they haven’t talked about what’s in the program but they put

They’re like we put Grady on the program as if every player isn’t on the pr I but I did see one of the games that he played here recently where he made a shot out of a baseline out of bound play moving to the strong side corner so to

See him start making some shots off of movement’s also good as well was that the play I drew up I don’t know what you’re talking about I drew up the Baseline out of bound play where he hits a shot going to the strong side corner

And I put it on Twitter did you I no I did not I didn’t I didn’t see your clip I’m sorry it’s okay no I was watching stuff I was trying to watch some stuff in anticipation of doing this with you and and guessing that you were probably

Going to ask me things about various players so I watched some of his minutes from these most recent games I’m sorry I didn’t see your Tweet but um yeah so I think defensively he still has a ways to go um and I that that applies I and one

Other person who shall remain anonymous was a little bit lower on Grady’s defense during the pre-draft process than consensus and not just in like okay I’m watching him get hunted at the college level and that’s not necessarily good I think some of the team defense stuff was worse than what consensus

Thought on it um in part because like he I don’t want to say gamble but he would make plays in passing lanes that I think people would point out like oh he’s getting these deflections or he’s getting these Steals and in reality sometimes that was leading and forcing

His teammates to have to switch on rotations behind him creating Domino effects and I think some of that’s still shown up with the Raptors so I think I’m probably still not really there on the defense but that’s like he’s also a rookie so I don’t think that that’s

Necessarily like make or break given all the other good things and and little things that I’ve seen him be able to do going back to even summer league when you know and there’s not a lot of Shooters who you can give the ball to and they’re going to be able to like use

A push cross and transition to get to their left hand and actually do something so that’s something that ads and I just like his secondary skills as well so yeah the secondary skills are everything for him but I really like when you and I disagree because when I

See those gambles what I’m seeing is like he’s if you have the ability to gamble especially in passing Lanes not necessarily like gambling on ball or gambling like you’re going to jump a dho or something like that but gambling on the weak side and those types of gambles

To me seems like an awesome identifier because you’re really picking up what the offense is trying to do and maybe I’m an idiot because when I went to summer league and I watched this for summer league game and I saw like six almost Steals and yes they put his team

In a tough position after he didn’t get them but I was like he’s seeing it and someday he’s gonna like make it and he’s gonna make them at a higher percentage and if he and even if he’s not making it he’ll probably understand someday like

Okay I’m not making it as much but I’m going to be in the vicinity in a more impactful way than some guys which for a guy like Grady who still at this point can be hunted but has like a little bit more size for a movement shooter and

Also is a guy who like yeah just like the size helps like gum stuff up I really like that so it’s not fully there but I do I think that I tend to favor imperfect action over perfect inaction more so on offense than on defense sure

Um I think some of it might be a pre-rotation an anticipation of what teams are running but I don’t think a Kansas that all of it was so I will disagree on that one noted noted um also in chat coko says she ordered one of your t-shirts so hell yeah I think I

Think that the people that are wearing them from Toronto are getting more engagement on their on their tweets than when I promoted it to begin with so you’re you’re a big deal over here when you were like when you’re like hm I don’t know what I’m going to do

Everybody I swear it was like six comments on every piece everybody’s like have you thought about hiring Caitlyn Samson have you decided to do this and I was like I can’t I I don’t have the power to like I can reach out I can ask

You know all this kind of stuff but I don’t believe this like six comments on every post no seriously you’re you’re huge over here big in Canada you’re you’re a an international Superstar um but yeah the greatest stuff they the secondary skills that’s what Bobby Webster said said after they drafted him

They’re like there’s like secondary players or like off ball players they’re like we considered Grady in a class of his own as far as that stuff goes a lot of he has he has a variety of gathers and there’s not a ton of Shooters who

Are able to do that from the left corner and make that pass midair with their left hand to the opposite 45 and that’s something that was like when I saw him doing that I’m like his ability to continue Advantage heck yes like that that was something that I really liked um the I

Don’t know if people know but he was one of the only four people that the Pacers gave solo workouts to so it was just him cam Whitmore jarus and Taylor Hendrick so um the Pacers obviously liked him enough to do that so cam looks awesome

Like awesome it’s I I’ve seen a few cam games lately he’s I liked cam Whitmore a lot it was just going to be too replicative for the Pacers with Benedict Maan they have they have too much overlap I felt I was going to say something funny as well

Like Grady the shooting does really have to pop though because if you’re going to talk about a guy who has like size and continues advantage and all that kind of stuff Dean Wade does that and he wasn’t a lottery pick you know um the shooting

Does need to pop for Brady but he knows that and it’s certainly been trending up like decent amount of volume he was only one for four tonight but decent amount of volume good stuff lately his in between process all the inet stuff has been like rock star stuff for a while

Now except when he drove middle and then because he’s kind of like scared of getting too far middle he was like I’m going to option out above the break and I think it was nce Smith who like sat on it and like intercepted the pass like a

Like a running back running into the handoff almost and he was like but he fumbled it and then Grady didn’t get the turnover and he was probably like ah not so much premeditation perhaps um but yeah I’ve I’ve loved Grady’s like approach for a lot of the games and to

See him hitting threes makes everything better it goes from like this is really really bad this is not good at all to Suddenly It’s like suddenly everything’s interesting hitting shots is good is what I mean to say yeah I mean shooting’s always a swing skill but it

Is going to make the rest of what he does more valuable because like I said at the beginning of the year I wouldn’t say it was a hesitant shooter by any means but there were possessions where I would watch and I’d be like that should

Be a sh instead you’ve put the ball on the floor and you do have these secondary skills but because you didn’t take the shot what you want to get out of the drive isn’t as available it’s kind of like not that Benedict Ma and Grady are remotely similar players but

That’s something that that Ben has had to come around to that is a catch and shoot guy he’s very wired to catch and drive rather than to catch and shoot and that can lead to him driving into some crowds and then what his passing issues already are become exacerbated because of

That um a couple comments here from VCR Caitlyn’s an awesome analyst from Jesse I learned so much when Caitlyn is a guest she’s awesome agreed on both counts Kaitlyn thank you for being so awesome of course we’ve been doing this for about an hour and eight minutes

There’s 112 people in chat I forgot to ask at the highest concurrent viewers go like the video please people it’s free it helps promote the stuff afterwards but Caitlyn is there anything you want to say before we get out of here yeah I mean always thank you to the Raptors

Republic listeners for putting up with me and tolerating with me on here and also I apologize that I just left the stream in the middle of it I really did think that my internet because I I hardwired it and the cord fell out so when it froze I really thought it was my

Problem and that I was gonna have to go get the cord so I assumed that I was the frozen person I apologize if you had to log back on or decided that you didn’t want to listen after that if you’re listening to the podcast the next day

Secondly I will now bother Samson by saying I am a subscriber to Raptor’s Republic and that if you’ve come to this if you’re somebody who happened to click the link because you saw it earlier in the day and you wanted to hear me talk about the Pacers in the reaction podcast

That Samson’s very good at what he does and I’ll keep it brief because he’s hiding himself under a hat and he doesn’t like compliments but it it matters to me I’m coming up on the oneye anniversary of doing my work independently on patreon and it’s important to be able to support

Independent writers so if you want to do that for Samson and Lewis I would certainly appreciate it and tell you thank you for supporting their work so that I can continue to read it and so that you guys in my opinion can get the best coverage of the Toronto Raptors in

That market so I’ll leave it at that Samson I won’t make you squirm around a ton uh I feel like you know those it’s like uh Tweety Bird and Sylvester they were like those guys with the hats that would be with them too it was like the

One guy with like the bowler hat and then the two guys who always like they were like unintelligible they had no way to speak maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about um anybody listening not only will you learn about you know the Indiana Pacers if you subscribe to Caitlin’s patreon

But you will learn about basketball in general and more than I promise you this anybody else you read basically everything is just like dripped drenched soaked in a bunch of stuff that you of course can learn about basketball like you can learn it via the Pacers I’ve

Learned a ton about basketball via the Golden State Warriors and then becomes applicable elsewhere and like Joe VY is like great for learning about that and you learn about those Concepts and there are so many shared Concepts around the NBA that like if you watch or subscribe to Caitlin’s patreon the things you’re

Seeing the Pacers do you’ll start noticing that the Raptors do and you’ll probably say like Samson why didn’t you cover this and I’ll tell you this much it’s because I’m not as good at my job as Caitlyn is and if you want the best basketball coverage World true there is

The best basketball analyst sitting across from me thousands of miles away and her Patron is um well worth the subscription I pay it I need to add something to this though and say that since I found out that you don’t really read that many basketball articles or

Listen to NBA podcasts it doesn’t mean quite as much because how do you know that other ones aren’t better because you’re not reading them do we have to do I have to be like Anthony F Tano of like basket like the internet’s busiest like basketball reading nerd to be able to say that

You’re I’ve read stuff over time okay no it would be funny if I only read your stuff and I was like nobody else is talking about you know stack this is incredible that would be pretty funny but no I feel perfectly qualified I also talk to a lot of people you know

I I listen to a lot of the I guess top people top analysts like it listen is is in not their podcast but when come on mine but like uh and you’re You’re A Cut Above you’re the best of the best um that feel like a podcast Caitlyn it does

And I’ll just say thank you I think that’s probably the best thing to do oh yeah um listeners I hope you enjoyed the Mexico stream there will be more of this hopefully without the big blue screen um crashing my computer in the middle you know but as far as like uh wait

Somebody’s asking for your patreon in chat I’m just going to the link in the chat really quick everyone bear with me as I patron.com basketball she wrote If people just want to go look it up and I just posted it in the YouTube chat so anybody can just go click that but

Anyway as I was saying there’s more coverage coming um Travon will be here Josh codero will be here poop Goose will be here to hang out with Josh we’ll be doing an early look at like college prospects because the Raptors should be in on a lot of those by the way Josh is

Awesome I really like following him on Twitter so he is the best that would be a good podcast I promise people he’s he’s the best the best there’s nobody better than Josh except you I’m choosing I’m choosing now but he’s a scout here

Josh is yeah I mean I I don’t do what he does Josh has crossed me over and hit a three on me and you haven’t done that which is a point in his favor but he’s also never talking anything about basketball so I don’t think I’ll

Probably ever cross you over and hit a three against you so he’s probably always going to have that well noted and uh yeah Travon and I will be doing a Mexico version of Pull-Up Trey maybe from the beach or something like that I think that’ll be kind of fun but anyway

Um One Last Thing Before anyone gets out of here like the video it’s free and uh yeah thank you very much Caitlin the power just went out I think oh no good Lord okay end the podcast now okay bye-bye everybody

Samson Folk & Caitlin Cooper detail the Raptors loss.