RJ, QUICK & DICK Lead the Raptors to Victory – LIVE Reaction w/ Samson

RJ, QUICK & DICK Lead the Raptors to Victory – LIVE Reaction w/ Samson

Hey that’s pretty good the Raptors win 111 to 106 versus the Charlotte Hornets missing some players over there of course but also the Raptors missing some players on their own end most notably of course Scotty Barnes who maybe is out for the rest of the season maybe not but

Was not a factor in this game obviously and the Raptors win largely behind I think a lot of their automatic sets that they like to sleep into with their delay action between yaka hurdle and Kelly oen yakob obviously dislocating his pinky finger not coming back Kelly slipping

Into that role and I think like just the the rim pressure of RJ Barrett was extremely important in this game his numbers were awesome tonight 23 points nine rebounds five assists and Emanuel quickly finishing with 22 points and 11 assists and I think in this game as well

We’re looking at Emanuel who’s able to playmake against a lot of the blitzing from the Hornets and that blitzing is coming because they fear his prowess as a shooter so the Raptor’s able to I think get enough offense in this game clamp down on the wings often enough and

Play you know a pretty short-handed Hornets team not a great Hornets team a team that’s behind them in the standings which is not exactly you know there’s not there’s not a lot of teams behind the Raptors in the standings and they’re able to win this game now I know some

People are definitely going to come out on the side of like well Scotty’s injured this team doesn’t have much of a ceiling maybe we need to be taking that nose farther down the standings I understand it I get that but I think that the Raptors did a lot of fun stuff

On the court tonight and we’re here to talk about that and they won and there’s a reason after games we say hey that’s pretty good if they win and hey that’s pretty bad if they lose I understand the larger machinations are going on um oai abaji stepped into the starting lineup

Tonight and I saw people talking about it as if this was like a big win for oi I thought that this was like a very underwhelming game I I know well even here water polo Quaker just said beside for his one for seven from three aaji really had a great game I disagree

Actually I thought his his on ball defense was pretty good I think that he was very important and it was obvious that he needed to close when like Brandon Miller and Miles bridges are the guys creating a lot of looks on the other end of the floor but

Offensively I think aaji obviously he missed his threes but he looked really limited putting the dribble down I know he had that one finish that reverse underneath but typically looked like um overextending himself and quite limited but um I was going to say I saw people

Talking about like aaji as like okay he turned the corner I didn’t see that in this game but I don’t want to start off negative obviously um and D says didn’t watch the game but how does OSI end with 20 shots well the Raptor half court

Rating in this game was really bad uh their offense overall is really limited and they need to get offense from somewhere and oai is a really willing cut cutter he’s a willing shooter and when the Raptors aren’t running that much initiation stuff with live ball handlers but are instead going to a lot

Of delay action for those who don’t know delay action is where uh big man typically yaka purle or Kelly o lenck Trail the play receive the ball above the break and they start running dribble handoffs and split actions out of that it’s the type of offense and oi is a

Willing cutter was able to get downhill on some back door cuts and as far as you know shooter when you get downhill and teams colls and the ball goes out to him he’s taking those shots one for seven and also getting on the offensive glass a little bit you know he had four

Offensive rebounds the 20 shots some of that is comprised by like you know tap-ins it’s kind of like Scotty Barnes right like Scotty Barnes two-point field goal percentage is maybe a little bit uh lower than it should be on the season and doesn’t quite tell the story of his

Finishing talent because sometimes he’s just like batting the ball back up against the rim and they always count those as shot attempts so a bit of the oai stuff in there and I’m actually going to take this opportunity to talk about the oai the first play of the game

Stepping into the Scotty Barnes role in one of these really easy looks that the Raptors have been always been able to get for Scotty and now oai so we got the we got the book out ready to detail a play okay and this stuff is kind of

Based off of the um what we see happen with Emanuel quickley having a lot of gravity as a shooter so and Micah Zion says uh oh he’s got props that’s right so this is the Scotty slip that Scotty has been able to work in with both Pascal Emanuel quickley basically

Everybody but basically the Scotty slip is teams if they’re playing High they’re playing aggressive pick and roll defense and let’s say here’s the manual quickly above the break right for audio listeners above the break Emanuel quickly oai abaji is coming over to set a screen the team plays high in their

Coverage against the screen which means that oai gets lower than the second man guarding the screen this creates a natural position where he can seal the man behind him hey everybody has seen Scotty put a guy in jail behind him keep him there and go get a postentry pass

Yaka purle slides up and is available for an outlet pass to some degree from Emanuel quickly because Emanuel quickley can’t make the overhead pass to oai who’s sealing his man the guy covering him it’s not as easy an angle so IQ kind of automatically triggers to yaka purle

Oai keeps the guy on his back keeps slipping to the rim and yakob now that they’ve created another angle has an easy entry pass to oai that’s his first play and we can even detail half of oi’s makes in this game just talking about like kind of slipping to the rim in

Space we’ll also talk about this kind of stuff so this is yakob short rolling and basically oai is in the corner so that’s fine Davis Bon is his check we have IQ at the top running a pick and roll with yaka purle and it’s really great if you

Can create like a drastic defensive response and obviously IQ gets a lot of those because of his shooting gravity and IQ receives a blitz and that means they send two to the ball that means yaka purle is going to pop out for an over-the-top pass to short roll he stops

Short Davis Bruton gets caught in the middle right and Davis Bruton was wondering if he’s going to tag since he short rolls he’s wondering if he’s going to make a rotation at all that motion into the paint creates an opportunity for oai to cut from the corner and that means

That yako who’s a pretty good passer at the center position gets to throw a lob we also saw and I didn’t draw this one up but we saw we saw a play earlier in the game where the Raptors run a get action which is where um IQ is throwing

The ball in to yakob to immediately immediately trigger a dribble handoff and so they Blitz that action too oai is in the weak side corner on this possession and it’s the exact same problem that comes up for the Hornets defense they have to bring a guy to the

Ball after IQ makes the pass over the top of the Blitz and then we see yaka make that pass to Oi in the corner and o o oi is obviously making good cuts and that’s half of his makes in this game also cashed a triple but um this is a

Lot of OI early on but at least we can use oi as the vehicle to explain that yakob was really good playmaking and also that IQ was able to playmake in this game and crate looks pretty consistently in this game because of his shooting gravity and the fact that the

Hornets were playing a really aggressive pick and roll coverage against him or just like Twan screening action coverage against him because not all of these were pick and rolls some of these were dribble handoffs punmaster says please use a darker Sharpie next time so it’s easier to see 888 mjl says gold is

Darker he used silver before LOL yeah I’m basically just using what’s around the house uh this belongs to a leg so I just grabbed it and this uh I got from the um the Toronto metropolitan University journalism at the creative school I got this when I

Went to do like a guest a guest thing to talk to their Sports media students and uh that was a fateful day that was uh November 21st or 22nd which obviously for those who remember was like a really weird night for me um the Raptors Cosmo here says yakob and Scotty are the

Entire Raptor defense I don’t think that’s true necessarily um they’re definitely the best two Defenders uh you know and I think like some games it’s yakob some games it’s Scotty and definitely Scotty has the sexier numbers on that end he’s just such a you know a big huge defensive

Playmaker he has the he has the big numbers of course but the Raptors I think honestly like between switching a few different actions between like blitzing at times you could look at the final play right like they switched a cup AC across a couple screens and Gary

Saw an opportunity to Blitz the ball I think it was meic on the ball um we’re looking at uh a team that was hampered but of course this isn’t like this team the Hornets they’re not World beaters I really loved Brandon Miller’s game today like 261 and three I thought he was

Really impressive his shot making has always always been impressive to me he floats he gets to different spots on the floor he’s like a three level scorer super super impressive and I think that the Raptors they flatten stuff out at the end I was pretty surprised because

When we think about the last two possessions you had Gary Trent Jr with the steel on the one after they switched across a couple and then did a switch to Blitz and that was a great call from Gary but before that too we saw we saw miles Bridges airball just Clank it off

The backboard and he flattened it out against Kelly oen and I don’t know what the hierarchy is for the Hornets over there but to see you know Brandon Miller had an isolation on Kelly and then he like triggered a dribble handoff with um miles out of like not out of the corner

But out of above the break and that just triggered miles into an ISO against Kelly and Miles took like what like an 18-footer fading to his right which that’s not his game at all you know the best parts of his game are when he’s driving to the rim and he looked way

Overextended there if I’m if I’m Brandon Miller I want to take that shot I want to kind of like Boogie wogie into space and see um and see what what’s happening there Cosmo says I’m going need you to talk about DJ carton even if it’s just a

Sec yeah I like DJ I with those initiator or guard type guys you always wonder with like the three-point shot and you wonder about like their creation stuff DJ I think is stuck in maybe a little bit of an awkward position where the three-point shot isn’t at the NBA

Level yet but he’s really crafty and creative on the inside of the arc and he probably needs that three-point shot as a swing skill to open up more avenues for him to get downhill but I thought like the one cut he made made it was like a 45 cut into contested space Kelly

Made that little lay down to him on his way through there that was pretty nice he gets to the floer and those shots while you don’t want that to be everything like you don’t want that to be um you don’t want that to be everything you go to like a guy who’s

Too reliant on floaters is really maybe not like like that might be a red flag in scouting for example um you don’t want a guy going into the floater too often but it does like carton is slick and he’s pretty crafty on the inside of the arc and there’s some like ball

Pressure stuff he does defensively um we need to see more you know as Nesta brings up here why is JFL behind Carton and then Luke says I like the look at DJ but man they got to get JFL in here yeah I was a little bit confused about that

If I hadn’t been doing so much traveling the past you know day and a half I would have been at the game tonight and I likely would have asked about that um Cosmo answering saying DJ is a better shooter Defender and passer than JFL I cannot respond to that but uh that

Wouldn’t be my initial lean but you know Cosmo you may have watched more than me to be quite honest um maybe not of JFL but of of carton maybe um because I’m behind on the carton I guess film uh but basically like why is JFL behind there

I’m not I’m not really sure I think JFL is a like a an NBA level guard maybe not like a good team NBA level guard but I think he has the explosiveness I do think he shoots the ball well enough to create some looks and to create like

Maybe not the the long Closeouts but like maybe like some medium sized ones that kind of stuff I guess we’ll see more JFL in the future you know he did get converted and then carton took his spot I suppose but yeah maybe a bit too

Long on the end of bench guards but I I I like carton I think he makes good decisions while on the floor it’s just need to see some of that skill stuff show through and JFL um I also that was one of the first things I noticed when I

Was especially early on in the season advocating for him to be converted at some point was I think that he has a great sense for when to cut and where to cut and uh you know it’s the shot making that has to come along uh the defender

Stuff though it’d be pretty easy for me to believe as Cosmo states that um carton’s a better Defender than JFL I guess we’ll see um kind of focus on RJ Barrett I think a little bit more 10 of 16 in this game 23 points he did have

Five turnovers um he was a little bit overextended there he had five assists nine boards two steals I thought he was so imperative to what the Raptors were trying to do on the offensive end and he does sometimes make me kind of like consider and think about strength

Creation especially when he has room to kind of burrow and tunnel into that left side of the Court he if he’s left alone even with a guy who’s bigger than him if he’s left alone in space he’s typically able to just bump a guy move him out of

The way and it’s not necessarily to the same you know strength advantage that Scotty seems to have but they do it differently that you know RJ does it while moving downhill facing the basket and Scotty typically does it kind of while veering and cascading sideways downhill RJ does it in these straight

Line drives and and Scotty does it in these bully drives and Scotty are probably better at creating I think I I think Scotties are probably better at creating like above the break threes and lay downs whereas RJ just because of like the straight line nature of what

He’s able to do gets downhill and just because he creates these drastic rotations for Bigs to come over to the rim and come straight over to the paint and it’s all happening at once it triggers those rotations from like okay the big man is rotating over to RJ the

Guy who’s supposed to be covering the big man is no longer there so the corner pulls out of the corner to try and tag the big and RJ finds it so easy to swing the ball to the corner and that can start like either a three-point shot for

The corner shooter or side top side action it’s really natural um Advantage Creation in the NBA and that’s great whereas like Scotty does it a little bit slower and kind of like hop steps and and grinds his way into the lane which can create more confusion about what

Rotations players want to make because it’s like okay he’s getting there slowly but he’s getting to a dangerous spot teams aren’t exactly sure about their automatics what where they’re supposed to pull from and that type of confusion I think is where Scotty can really wreak havoc because he’s such a cerebral

Player and he has such great reads as a you know as a playmaker that in that confusion he can create like these really unique passing windows that he can you know access but R.J in this game I think just like grinding downhill getting to spots you know Cosmo says did

You realize RJ was this good of a finisher at The Rim Yeah I the good thing for me is like a lot of my basketball takes are cataloged either on this podcast or you know via my written pieces and you know as soon as RJ got traded I

Echoed the sentiment that I thought his finishing was going to reach AB an above average level with the Raptors and that I thought like looking at the tape that he was a much better finisher than the numbers seemed to convey and that so far that really has been the case with the

Raptors um he’s been much more effective and some of that you know I’ve written about this at length if you want to go to Raptors republic.com and you can just click on my author name and find some of the pieces I’ve written but we’re looking at a guy who has more room on

The left side of the court is playing in a more you know a more screen heavy offense rather than you know a there was a lot of isolation in New York and that doesn’t really I don’t think that’s exactly what R.J needs RJ loves coming into those curved drives he loves coming

Off of screens whether it’s like a dribble handoff or a pick and roll and I think that’s where it’s been really effective for him um really really impressed so like you look at his Rim finishing so rookie year 54% % uh sophomore season 55% next year 55% next

Year 59% this year he was 57% with the Knicks and this year he’s at 71% not accounted for this game and that’s a 26 game sample with the Knicks and a 23 game sample with the Raptors I I think he’s done a fantastic job of getting himself into advantageous spots I think

His strength creation has been really impressive and since the Raptors are playing kind of a more open concept where teams don’t look up as much I think he has more room to like shoulder guys out of his way and finish with his left hand than he did in New York

There’s an obvious Advantage there that’s been really great for him and I think that when that extra attention comes he’s been a more willing passer you know I wrote this big piece about his passing where I went back to look at all of them and you know talked about

Like Advantage creation and Advantage assists his Advantage assist rate is much higher with the Raptors than it was with the Knicks and that speaks to and he passes out of higher percentage of his drives with the Raptors than he did with the Knicks and it’s not like he’s

Scoring Less on drives now he’s shooting I think he was shooting like below 40% on drives with the Knicks with the Raptors above 50% some of this is like a good run of form yes but I think this is informed by better decision-making a more healthy offensive context and just

Overall like RJ hell yeah you’re doing fantastic work and in this game I know quickley had the late free throws I know that quickley was you know had was able to draw a lot of the blitzes early on that created the short roll actions that the Raptors scored out of but honestly I

Think that RJ was the biggest driver of offense for the Raptors in this game and I think like you know because quickly he relies on the defensive response and it was nice to see him get to the line actually late when the the Hornets didn’t play it straight up they

Tried to play in a drop and Grant Williams was kind of on an island with quickly and quickly got to the free throw line really nice take there but I think that honestly some of Quickly’s playmaking was reliant on like transition and was reliant on you know these big responses from the defense

Kudos to him but as far as like the half court I think that RJ was the biggest motivator of the Raptor succcess there and I like I I’m impressed with RJ the five turnovers is a bit too much it’s easy to see why he can get overextended

Especially if he’s seeing a lot of different responses at the point of attack but RJ in this game like he’s so good at tunneling to the bucket he’s been able to finish there he three for six from downtown tonight like quickly goes two for S it’s not often that RJ’s

Going to outdo quickly from behind the three-point line but this is a game where he does right you know it’s like a hell of a game I can’t wait to talk about Grady by the way Jacob terasa says I love dick Grady another really fun game and that’s honestly my favorite

Like this this speaks to the Raptors I guess overall offensive ethos and um or here’s the question Antoine Rose says why does it seem like the Toronto Media or people like penir doesn’t like RJ uh I don’t know I like I famously say I don’t pay much attention to uh what

Other people like I I don’t know in my spare time it’s not my job to like pay attention to what other people say I do my own analysis and it’s here um so I don’t know if PenAir doesn’t like R.J I don’t know if Toronto media doesn’t like

Him but I like R.J um there was there was a I talked about this on one of the other podcasts where someone said um that uh like narrative driil about my analysis of RJ which I reject of course but I I don’t know what other people are

Saying all I know is that I liked RJ’s game tonight I’ve really really liked RJ’s decision making offensively as a raptor I’ve been super impressed and then you know on top of that I think that there’s he’s underwhelmed defensively but basically everybody has on this Raptor team in this stretch over the

Past however over long um but back to that one play you know the Raptors are running delay action they run a split action with Kelly on ball which is a really easy thing like they have um I believe it’s Gary and quickly running a split action and that puts the defense

In like a response where okay are we going to guard the rim on this split action or are we going to kind of guard the three-point shot and so they overload on Gary expecting like that pop out of the split action and quickly just curls right down into the lane Kelly’s

Able to make a bounce pass they have to have that big drastic rotation from the corner quickly goes up it’s a wrap left-handed pass swings it to the corner and Grady cans like a just a rainbow three-pointer he bangs that thing like he was born to do it and really really

Nice play I also really like the wrinkle that the Raptors running where I think a lot of times teams don’t want to get like the mid-range shot on split actions and Grady the one time he took it and he got front rim he didn’t make it but I

Really like that um I like the willingness to take a mid-range jumper out of the split action where he curls middle and he’s like okay what am I going to do with this if he can make those which I think Grady can he’s a very diverse shot maker and I think will

Be increasingly so as he goes into the you know the future of his career that’s the Hope anyway he’s a young kid at this point in time like he’s hardly 20 um but he curled middle and I I expect him to be able to do that and I

Think that’s a really unique counter and especially since teams typically guard like the rim or they guard you know the three-point line when you’re really Savvy about getting the ball especially as a guard or a wing from like 15 feet to 10 feet or maybe even like you know

17 to like 10 feet working the to get the ball there teams have a really tough time of like loading up on that soft middle part of the court right and Grady I think it will open up as he continues his career Avenues to be a playmaker and

We actually saw like the ball go base line and this wasn’t Grady but you know RJ makes this 45 cut where he has to like add a bit of a curl to it to create a passing Lane and he’s able to score late in game I think that was the before

The Raptors went on their like three minute drought of not scoring a basket it was because RJ made a great cut to the middle of the floor everyone thinks you have to make a cut all the way to the basket but if you’re a good finisher

And you know how to use your steps in your dribble catching the ball at 16 ft can be just as advantageous and we saw RJ like catch at like I don’t know 14 ft you know and analyze where he is on the floor see how the defensive responds

His to him put the ball down get there and it’s a layup and I think Grady will have lots of opportunities to do that out of some of those curls and split actions and so Grady in this game finishes four- seven he’s three of five from downtown 11 points four boards he’s

Got a Keem sniffer man I’ve talked about this you know before he got drafted I’ll Pat myself on the back again oh just as a heads up I’ll be co-hosting um the Raptor show um tomorrow and Tuesday along with Will which is cool um bit of

A nice career thing for me but um that’s kind of a segue to like I was doing Blue Jay’s talk I was a guest on there with Blake the day of the draft and I really advocated for the Raptors to like if Grady drops that would be the one

Because I had heard and reported that Grady had done a cple cple workouts with the Raptors and that Kobe buffkin had done you know a couple workouts with the Raptors and I was like well if there’s interest there I love Grady as a prospect a lot of the scouts I talked to

Loved him as a prospect before the draft and at Summer League when I was kind of checking in around the league at that point in time and to see him kind of like flowering now is pretty good because he did have a really tough start to his career shooting the ball you

Could see so much of the latent stuff too like obviously they’re obviously there’s like a lot of room for him to exhibit what he’s good at and there’s a you can do a million different things on the court at any point in time and you know that’s

Kind of like Steph Curry had this really great speech about like the worst thing you can do is hold the ball because there’s so many things to do off ball as an NBA player that drag and pull the defense and create responses and Grady

So much of what he does is kind of under that ethos of like what am I doing when I don’t have the ball and that kind of stuff really really is you know it multiplies exponentially when you hit those shots and so for Grady who’s probably close to shooting like if he’s

Not at 39% he’s probably at like 38.5% you know as far as a three-point shooter this season to see him multiply and add to what guys are doing because of his gravity and to see that now that gravity is being rewarded with like shot making it’s fun and and also to see him

Like navigate the defense Ive side of the floor with a headiness pretty good um in this game you know he’s a minus two but I thought he gave really good minutes you get 24 minutes that’s really a sweet spot I think Grady can look a little bit gassed

When he starts creeping closer to 30 but you’d really hate to see him play like less than 20 in any game the rest of the season like get those minutes up if he hits the rookie wall whatever that’s that’s what it is you work on conditioning you work on the body over

Time but you want to see it and everybody wants to see Grady get minutes perform and he just has been I think it was KS she tweeted out I think it’s 12 games in a row where he’s hit a three which is tied for third most by any

Rookie this season I I assume Jordan Hawkins is up there I I don’t know who else would be up there at this point in time maybe like Chad or something like that but he’s been awesome and in this game I thought Grady was really imp impressive he has tremendous feel for

The game um I I’ve it’s he’s been my favorite thing to watch lately honestly really really impressed with him how he navigates the court um he he just really happy about that the rest of the shooting guard stuff oai kind of fits in as a shooting guard and we spent a lot

Of time on oai early on so let’s talk about Gary Gary in this game honestly had a contact layup in transition that he made big time hell yeah um he also had the steal at the end of the game before his layup big time three steals in this game his ball pressure was

Needed and was effective against you know a Hornets team that was a little bit limited as far as on ball creators um Gary can kind of overwhelm at times and he was able to in this game goes three ass six from downtown I think this was a really nice Gary game some games

You’re like damn it’s it’s not looking that great some games you’re like this guy makes a lot of sense on this roster he connects a few different like he him being there is really important to making other types of skill sets work and in this game it seemed really really

Inherent I don’t know what the future holds for Gary and the Raptors but this was a nice game for him Jordan War uh 11 points four boards five of eight from the field in pretty short order and a lot of it I think was self-created as well you know getting to the floater

Getting to the rim um cashing the one three off of RJ’s penetration I think that kind of stuff is really really nice um and as far as you know the thing is like Jordan the big In-N-Out in transition in andout with the left keeping it with the left contest all the

Way up at The Rim has to extend high for like a really high finish makes that he has he has ball skills really like not basketball skills but like on ball skills he has like a a pretty useful handle he can shoot the ball out of motion you know it’s maybe the

Playmaking is more limited than people would want but as far as like Jordan overall I think he definitely has utility I think that he’s like I think he’s the stop Gap like I I wrote about this but I think Gary probably doesn’t come back as a raptor I think that like

The two guard position probably is occupied by like Grady and wara that’s that’s my expectation for it honestly and Grady even when I wrote that Grady was just starting to kind of like take off now you know you wonder if Grady might not even need a stop Gap really but they

Might just be like war is a voluminous you know bench score or something like that over the the next year of basketball I’m not really sure yg7 says between RJ oi and Grady who do you think has the highest ceiling honestly this a lot of the scouts I

Talked to maybe not a lot three or four of the scouts I talked to said that they thought that Grady was going to be a top five player in the draft and I liked that you know I did I did that um I did that mock draft with Mack I think

It was myself curle Trey and Mack and I picked Grady at five for the Pistons because I was like I love what Grady does I think he’d be so interesting next to like Jaden and Cade and and Duren and those types of guys and honestly like I

Think probably ah God I don’t know because RJ does a lot of things really well and Grady is still just like picking it up but I think RJ probably has the highest ceiling ceiling because if RJ like the things that RJ’s been able to do on offense just quickly

Becoming like a plug-and-play guy doing it efficiently has been really impressive I’ve seen responses to some of my like RJ positivity you know some people talk about like empty stats scoring on a bad team I get it but I think there’s usefulness there I think that there’s utility there and I think

RJ if he was able to find his way still at 23 years old if he was able to find his way to more impact defensively and you as we can see with like Grady paying attention and reading the game defensively is really important and an

Easy easy way to find your way to impact I think RJ has the highest ceiling um who’s the best player when like Grady is 26 and RJ’s 28 it would not surprise me if it were Grady it wouldn’t at all honestly but it wouldn’t surprise me if

It was RJ either oi I don’t think is in the conversation in there I don’t think oi is um relatively close to RJ or Grady in terms of like you know a prospect um Jing Pang says excited or yingping uh sorry if I didn’t pronounce that correctly excited for RJ this summer and

The Olympics feel like it’ll be really good for him developmentally yeah I thought I was pretty disappointed with RJ’s process on Team Canada you know during feba this past summer I watched all those games you know I did analysis on quite a few of them RJ got himself

Into trouble A lot of times with the live dribble in a way that he just just hasn’t been doing it with the Raptors like RJ doesn’t get himself into trouble that much with the Raptors he has a pretty good idea of when he’s attacking oneon-one two onone or like one verse

Two and one verse three and that’s been a big weakness of his since he’s been like in the NBA is like not having this not having the right idea of when to attack and not being able to like mix and match properly so you know I don’t

Know I I’m excited for it I think that um I think that he was I think that he was underwhelming I think he’s been overwhelming as a raptor and I hope he’s overwhelming and impressive with um you know Team Canada this summer Jing Pang thank you for writing in um you know

Koko says uh he was stressful this summer I think that’s correct there was there was a little bit of aspect of like you clench when when he was doing something but I don’t find that to be the case on the Raptors very often and ND says honestly with some outlier

Development mostly on the handle I think Grady can be one of the best second side players in the league could be an All-Star with that development yeah I I feel hard pressed to say Allstar for guys just because it’s still 12 players the talent level in the league is so

Insane like Darius Garland isn’t an All-Star to me that’s nuts that is crazy Darius Garland is such an All-Star guard he’s able to do so many things on the court that’s just an allar to me and he doesn’t make it it’s so hard to be an All-Star so I

Don’t know about like Allstar or accolades for Grady but as far as what you’re saying you know I talked what you’re saying Andy about him being one of the best second side players in the league I agree with that and that was part of like the the scouts I talked to

You know some of the coaches I talked to about Grady everybody seemed to like Echo those sentiments and of course Bobby had a very apt comment right after they drafted him they talked about you know I I don’t remember the exact quote I’m paraphrasing for what it’s worth but

He mentioned that Grady as far as like offall players they considered him in his own league and like it’s true Grady as far as you put him in positions where there’s a decision to be made as an offb guy when to cut if he gets the ball what position is he in is

He in a two-on-one does he have a fouron three what is the shape of the four what is the most optimal read he is so like such a high percentage of the time making optimal reads and I just he he’s been he’s been so good and to see him

Like playing at this level in the rookie year after the start that he had really really encouraging um Luca says I think when we say Allstar it’s All-Star caliber not so much an actual appearance appearance and then ND says yeah mostly Luca Allstar impact yeah I All-Star

Impact is hard for me to quantify I guess because it’s like Joe Johnson was an All-Star scoring like 14 points per game when Kyle Lowry wasn’t maybe I think and like Kobe made an All-Star season in his second season of his career where he was scoring like 15

Points on like what 41% shooting Allstar is yeah Allstar impact sure I basically what I would say to that is like I expect Grady to be very good like a high level starter and a high level starter sometimes can make an All-Star game but there’s so many highle starters now in

The NBA that you’re like I don’t even know Scotty was averaging what like 218 and6 and he he squeaked into the game man 218 and6 and it wasn’t like crazy efficiency but it was certainly good enough it wasn’t like dejonte Murray lead guard efficiency it was like

Goddamn man and he barely got in and there’s a lot of good players that just don’t get in you know um the statistics like obviously statistics people have more stats these days like I don’t know if across the board if like 26 points per game is equivalent to like 22.5 and

2011 or something like that but my God man it’s there’s so many good players the fact that Scotty put up those like Gob smacking statistics and he just barely squeezed in it makes it it makes me reassess like how in the hell does anybody get into this game you know

Raptors fan says Jamal Murray still never made an All-Star yeah y G7 that’s a great uh great question can you see Grady averaging 25 and five honestly that’s such a vaunted statistic just because like we were people still think of stats I think mostly As like 25 and

Five is crazy I think that’s so doable for Grady in a season and that’s like 25 and five doesn’t put you in the All-Star Game for what it’s worth like it just won’t you’re not going to be in the All-Star game at 25 and five um but

Grady I think there’s a season where he could have 25 and five honestly um yeah he’s he’s very impressive I’m obviously high on Grady that kind kind of stuff but yeah and and shun Lao says uh a Desmond Bane type Allstar but Desmond Bane hasn’t even made the All-Star team

Right like he averaged 215 and 4.4 and he didn’t make the All-Star game he didn’t make it this year because he got injured obviously to some degree but he’s averaging 24.4 5.3 assists 4.6 rebounds the amount of talent in this league is so absolutely absurd and Grady

Is one of those very talented players I’m EXC I’m excited to see what it all ends up as but yeah there’s a there’s definitely stats are big andd says o this is random but what’s the most dunks you think Grady can get in the season a

Well I have no idea I like I get it that’s a funny question I feel like Grady probably let’s say like 35 cuz transition plus back door Cuts Cuts Plus whatever um uh yg7 says do you see Gordon Hayward as a fair comp to Grady no I don’t consider

Them similar at all especially since Gordon even coming out of what Butler what it was um was a guy who could create with strength and was a guy who was very comfortable in the middle of the floor if there’s one place that Grady is the least comfortable it’s

Operating like with you know physicality and in the middle of the floor and Gordon Hayward you know he wasn’t always this type of player but especially he developed into guy who was like I think honestly Gordon Hayward and Pascal cakam as far as like the as create as creating

Looks those guys are fairly similar in the types of shots that they create I don’t think Gordon and Grady are very similar at all and I think that’s that falls under the like white guy thing but like I get it you know like white guys

Are white guys in the NBA there’s a lot of overlap in like white guys especially if they’re not a big man they achieve things with certain skill sets and certain body types and it can look very similar however I don’t think Gordon Hayward and Grady are very similar um I

Think Grady is a very unique player to be quite honest with you um and you know I think I think he’s very uh unique and I on this podcast very often say how much I hate um comps because I think that comps consistently like the reason why players succeed things aren’t in

Comparison or they aren’t like it’s because of small things you know I talked about this before but like you know Skyfall he’s a a Korean MD and he works for a sports team over in in Korea and he you know did this Twitter thread where he was talking about the best

Types of rollers to pair with the jeon Murray because of dejonte Murray the type of pocket pass that he likes to make and the type of pocket pass that allows for him to get into his pullup and like success on the NBA floor because of how good defenses are and how

Good players are it can be that little is like and that’s why I talk about how you know I think Nicholas Claxton would be a really bad fit for Emanuel quickly I think yaka purle as a player is a way better fit for quickly and it’s the

Small things it’s not just like it’s a good big man it’s a good guard they create looks it’s like no it’s like the minutia and stuff like that so I always hated comps because I feel like comps always oversimplify and I think people are just thinking about like you know the

Aesthetic of the end game like what does the flick on the jump shot look like and then there’s a comp there but truthfully I I really don’t see much overlap between many players especially now nowadays there’s just everyone is so unique and I think people realized how you know that that Steph

Curry thing that I talked about like how many different ways there is to succeed on the court and like Dean Wade plays way different than Maxi CBA but if you just like watch them move through like a foggy lens you’re like that’s the same guy it’s like a 69ine white guy who like

Moves the ball pretty well and can Shuffle his feet better than you thought you know but yeah I’m I’m a I’m fighting I fight the comp mobile um my friends know this very well about me um Luca says what’s holding you back on oi self-creation I see a pathway for a

Three and D athlete even though the shot isn’t quite pretty well to get to the three aspect of it he just has to shoot the ball better and like so here’s the thing oai is almost 24 years old right in his career we have 35% three-point shooter 33% three-point shooter and this year

He’s shooting what or sorry we have in his rookie season 35% and this season he’s at 33% um he also he played all four years in college at Kansas he was a really great shooter I think he was in his junior year I think he made 38% on like

Seven attempts per game and in his senior year where they won I think he won like the tournament player of the player of the tournament um I think it was like 6.5 threp Point attempts per game he shot 41% he was a heat pump in college he just has not shot the ball

Very well from three and then as far as like the self-creation I just don’t think it’s there like I I I think that oai is not big enough um for the how he succeeds I don’t think he’s flexible enough or dynamic enough on the dribble

And I don’t think his handle gets him to very dangerous spots I I just don’t think there’s I just don’t think there’s really any rout to like self-creation for oai and for him to be a three and D guy I do think the defensive stuff is

There I think that he has a great sense of what he’s able to do defensively I think he like gives a [ __ ] on that side of the floor and like his technique can be pretty good getting around screens I think that he slides um not as well as

One might hope but I think he’s really effective as a Turnin Chase Defender which is what he did on that big miles Bridges block there’s stuff to you can like a lot of stuff defensively he just has to hit the three-point shot and basically that’s it like oai will be a

Good NBA player if he hits the three-point shot if he doesn’t he probably doesn’t play that long in the league and that’s that’s what it is it’s a swing skill and for a lot of guys it is but oai he has to like hit his open threes and that’s kind of That’s Where

It’s At has to hit his open threes and then on top of that if he wants to expand further hit motion threes make better reads against long Closeouts all that kind of stuff Luca says was that worth a late first right after the trade I posited

That the first was more so for Kelly than it was for Ochi now you you can slice it anyway they both came back in the trade but um I I it wasn’t a home run that trade at all I don’t think but I mean I was at

The press conference when MSI was there he came out and was like we’re not using all these picks so I guess they wanted to get you know Kelly o lenck in house who they’re probably going to resign take a swing on oai see how it goes like

I’m I’d be very happy to be wrong I’m coming across as like pessimistic on some of oi’s like creation certainly and the numbers don’t indicate anything big on as far as like three-point shooting I wish they did I would love to be able to get excited about oai in that way but

You know I watched some of his film with the Jazz and then you know I watch these games with the Raptors there’s just like there’s just not a lot there and I’d love to be wrong like I’d love to come on this podcast in like a year and

A half and be like yeah my analysis of oai was like way off but as far as this kind of stuff you know I I don’t know I’m not left expecting a ton from oi offensively I would love to one day start expecting that kind of stuff but

You know was it worth it you know yg7 says a late first for a lottery pick in a draft we traded out of I’d say so don’t it doesn’t make sense to me to like view him as a lottery pick like he’s oai abaji that’s who he is what he

Can do on the NBA court is what he can do like RJ Barrett is not a third overall pick with the Raptors he was he’s RJ Barrett Who does these things and he comes over in a trade for ogan and Obi and the Raptors treated initially like Emanuel quickley was like

The big get in that trade the league respon reacted like Emanuel quickley is the guy and Emanuel quickley wasn’t like a lottery pick right I don’t think that stuff’s important um if they redrafted right now oai probably wouldn’t have gone in the lottery in that draft so

Like that those types of things I don’t think matter that much you know the Raptors won you know a championship with no lottery picks right like I’m pretty sure at least in the rotation like even Kawhi Leonard was like 15th and Kyle Lowry was you know not not a loty

Lottery pick Pascal wasn’t nobody Fred was undrafted Marcus Hall was not a lottery pick Sergio Baka I think was like the back half of the teens so yeah the lottery stuff doesn’t matter to me um yabut says but is oai worth onethird of Pascal cakam God I don’t

Know I I I don’t know how to like reframe all the trades on the Fly really but I I don’t think uh I don’t think that the Raptors came to the trade deadline like Gang Busters I don’t think they had huge wins necessarily but they have one huge win in Scotty Barnes and

Basically teams have to win like decision makers have to win things on the margins and it’s important for like the Raptors in the summer to if they’re going to make trades to try and win those trades as far as like you know as far as you know signing

Players you want to be able to sign guys to where they outperform their contract and do all that kind of stuff and that that’s all good but honestly I’m really it’s it’s about like players being really good like it’s what I said many different times but like the Bucks won a

Championship paying Chris Middleton the Max and Drew holiday the max why did they do that mostly because Yannis santet TMO is worth like $118 million and gets paid a Max contract and like some guys paper over your roster building and it looks like Scotty might be a guy who can paper over roster

Building um playoff Pierce says that Pacers pick is going to be top 14 LOL I don’t no about that top 14 um I’d lean no on that I think they’re losing to the Spurs right now but I would lean no on that um could happen though there’s always

Potential for that kind of stuff they haven’t been blowing anybody away and Tyrese’s hamstring I was shocked when he came back after like 11 days I was like this makes no sense at all for him to be playing and then he was on like this minutes restriction and all this kind of

Stuff and he’s clearly insanely limited from where he was early on in the season like you look at his Creation in these games like Tyrese can’t even get downhill he can hardly do anything and he’s been bad on defense he hasn’t been able to create stuff on offense and

You’re like what the hell is going on so um the Pacers it depends on his health probably I I guess I could see it but I’d still lean probably no top 14 but I guess we’ll see I understand why you know the hope would be for that

To be top 14 though that would be um very very uh good for the Raptors fantastic that would be a win on the margins I tell you that much if the Pacers made that trade and then had tyres halberton just like completely unhealthy unfortunately for them and for

Him you know just from the humanity side of things but yeah a win on the margins um as far as uh who was it Raptor fan says if this game’s review is over can you talk about the next game against the pels how did the rap stop

Zion without Scotty and maybe Yak I’ll tell you what I will talk about that tomorrow on the Raptor show co-hosting with William Lou for anybody who wants to tune into that on sportset so that’s that’ll be a fun thing um that feels like a podcast though for the most part

Yeah uh I’ll if there’s any questions before I get out of here feel free to ask and then I’ll look over the roster and see if I miss talking about anything but I think I talked about most of the Raptor stuff in this game um yeah we talked about DJ carton somebody asked

Earlier they asked if jonte Porter can do the the short roll actions that yakob was able to do T tonight or that um you know Kelly was able to do and I think that uh I think that he certainly can we’ve seen it in the past maybe not at the

Same level and he might not create as big a defensive response because teams honestly might be more comfortable with jonte catching middle than they are with Kelly or yakob in fact they are which means that the easy advantag passes aren’t as available to him but if teams do have that response jonte definitely

Can make those passes and you know jonte has to like kind of exhibit more scoring prowess as a big man at the NBA level to get those responses and he might get an opportunity to do so with you know yakob having a dislocated finger now all that kind of

Stuff I guess we’ll see the Raptors really been going through it with the injuries man like really really going through it I’m GNA take a drink of water it’s been 50 minutes of talking good Lord so weird this job you just come out here and talk forever

Talking um we have close to the total amount of concurrent viewers um while you’re in here like the video it helps suggest it to other people and that is how we grow the channel I suppose all that kind of stuff um yg7 says are there any positional needs you think we should

Address via the draft nothing positional pick the best player I think that the Raptors draft did the best player in my mind like I know cam Whitmore has been popping the hell off but he’s way healthier now than he was in college maybe the Raptor should have been able

To kind of like get a sense for that I’m not exactly sure um but I thought that the Raptors drafting Grady they drafted best player available it just so happens that his skill set is really quite strong next to um Scotty but yeah I think you just got to draft best player

Available I don’t think you go into a draft picking you know players based on like okay what do they do now because Kawhi Leonard grew into like a a scoring star nobody thought that was going to be the case Scotty Barnes is a scoring star you know like he’s at 19.9 points per

Game and you know like wow people did not think he would score the ball like that people thought he would be good you know the Raptors definitely it surprised people when Raptors took him fourth but like other people were like thinking fifth or sixth you know slmo says

Thinking by position got the Raptors AR rjo you know I wasn’t really into the Raptors enough at that point in time to know like the what the Raptors were thinking or what like fan sentiment was so I don’t know exactly but definitely picking him over like Iguodala you just

Go back to like Wikipedia and I used to do this all the time with friends but you go to Wikipedia and you just like go year by year the draft and look at who got drafted and where and Rojo definitely or rjo so he’s he he he pokes

Out he also kind of looks like Blake Murphy although Blake looks like a lot of like wh SL spicy white slash like bearded white guys also that was like uh what was it on the darkos um introductory press conference I think it was uh I was standing up on

The the is it CTV or Global News live stream and then somebody sent me a screenshot of just like like somebody commented they’re like Andrew Tate question mark I was like damn it what is with bald guys all looking like also that was like I was at a way back in the

Summer I was grabbing an ice coffee from McDonald’s and there’s this young group of kids and oh my God it was really at my expense but it it was really funny um I was grabbing ice coffee and I was just walking around and then this kid

Was like who let Andrew tat out to jail I was like man and I am deeply anti- Andrew Tate but it’s funny I I understood why they’re laughing I just had to take my L and exit the restaurant and you know finish my walk out and try

And enjoy the Sun and my iced coffee all that kind of stuff um coko says regarding the Pelicans did you see the clip of Trey Murphy’s Mom asking him about free throws I did not see that I’m a huge fan of Trey Murphy I think he’s

One of the coolest young players in all of the NBA and uh that’s my Trey Murphy thought um shun Lao says did you start to watch the 2024 draft this draft feels like even weaker than 2013 h i uh I’m not like super caught up on the draft and and honestly like this

Is I zero in on a couple guys and then I get really good evals on them I think I’m good enough to do Scout work um but I I need my Scout friends to like direct me I just don’t have the the width or the like the breadth of like watching

Guys understanding the competition level and all that kind of stuff uh to like really understand that kind of stuff I I need my friends my professional friends to like direct me towards a player and then I start looking which is what happened with Grady as far as like the

Overall strength of the draft of course I see everybody talking about it um actually we didn’t get to do it while Josh was in Mexico but we soon I’ll do a a draft podcast with Josh and we’ll kind of talk about like the range of picks that the Raptors have and we’ll talk

About prospects in that range so I think Josh comes back to Toronto in the next couple weeks we’ll probably sit down right here and do probably not alive but we’ll we’ll talk about a bunch of guys so stay tuned for that and Josh really is the best so it’ll be great um Jing

Pang says I wonder if there was a draft that was said to be a dud but some gems were found in it dot dot dot seems too black and white to just say no one in this draft is good yeah well 2013 had Giannis right um Oladipo if not for

Injuries I think would have been like an all NBA level guard for probably like three or four years and I think that people are too black and white about drafts in general and of course I’m not saying that about shun Lao like that could just be your um like

Your opinion you might watch like a hell of a lot of draft stuff shunao um as far as like weaker draft than 2013 2024 I’m not you know um I’m not doubting your bonafides or anything like that you could be right and I don’t know enough

To say whether or not but um I think that um uh Jing Pang is hitting on something correct in that I think people can sometimes be too black and white about like a draft being good or bad um because on the one hand it’s like well

Yes if it’s a really good draft then there’s an expectancy for more teams than usual to hit on a player um but if your team is good at drafting you should expect your team to pick a good player in every draft and so no draft is bad or

Good it’s just like you’re going to find the guy um and and the hope is that the Raptors get back to that spot because the Raptors famously were plucking guys out of the late first that ended up being all NBA you know OG if he had not

Been injured would be in the running for Defensive Player of the Year all that kind of stuff um Pascal NBA Fred obviously making an All-Star team getting a Big B from undrafted Norman pal like you just need your team to go in and win the draft stuff so you know

Kooko says they are evaluating people like Commodities that’s why it’s so black and white I I think that yeah that’s that’s kind of like the always the thing about sports is like the language always kind of mimics you know commodification um and when you’re discussing a wide swath

Of like 60 potential players I understand why people use like those efficient terms even if it’s not correct luckily for me I don’t do draft work and I talk very specifically about like one player at a time and then so it can be like hyper humanized and like all that kind of

Stuff but yeah definitely people when they’re trying to like efficiently discuss things um economic speak economy speak comes in very quickly um and so that’s the kind of stuff um yeah yg7 says this draft is not big on Star talent but there’s definitely some interesting prospects I guess we’ll see

We’ll see Luca says good luck on the show tomorrow thank you very much Luca I’m gonna take that as the the exit sign here to everybody listening yes tune in and you know not everybody has cable you know I’m not waging a war against you know the non-cable class don’t worry I’m

With you guys um as far as uh if you have to watch it on YouTube after it’s released there uh make sure to show out poke some fun at me all that good stuff um but I’m excited for it it’s a cool thing to be able to do and so while I

Love doing this um being being able to go to like a big platform and like co-host you know um Canada’s honestly the the biggest basketball show in Canada very very nice very cool I’m excited about it so thank you to will I’ll obviously thank him and talk to him

Tomorrow all that kind of stuff um big big shout out to I guess the program for having me on I’m excited for it all right everybody thanks for tuning in if you want to support this video feel free to like it feel free to subscribe to the

YouTube channel and if you have the means how Raptors of public survives as the titans of sports media and media in general keep laying people off and closing the doors and all this kind of stuff we survive through a subscription model and if you have the means you want

To subscribe help support myself and all the other burining writers and talkers over at raptors.com thank you so much and whether you got into this in the morning or at night have a blessed day and goodbye

Samson Folk details the Raptors win over the Hornets.