Raps Fall to Orlando & How Long Is A Rebuild? | Raptors Show Full Episode

Raps Fall to Orlando & How Long Is A Rebuild? | Raptors Show Full Episode

Hello and welcome to the Raptor show on the sportser radio network brought to you by Campbell’s new chunky spicy soup it’s time to get fired up make sure you find the Raptor show wherever you’re listening to podcast subscribe please rview the program I’m your host way I

Haven’t been able to say this in a month but joining me is co-host Blake Murphy Blake Murphy Murphy Murphy we’re back what’s going on Blake we it’s been a minute since we’ve seen you um you know as I mentioned you know when you I first came into the office today you already obviously at the desk and all even though I got there two hours before the show you know regular

Time you’re already there prepped yeah I was like you’re trimmer than I remember you’re fresher than I remember you got more color to you uh what’s what’s going on in life in the in the months since uh you’ve been on the show yeah it’s uh a

Lot has happened so uh you know it was supposed to be a reasonably sized break but not quite this long we were off for Allstar then I went to the Dominican Republic for a week which was really really nice and then as I was getting ready to come back on the show and

Return uh I got really really sick I had to go to the ER and then a couple hours later my appendix was out uh so as I joked on Twitter obviously uh I was missing OG a lot I was missing the 2019 Raptors I just I I wanted to miss some

Time due to appendicitis as our pal Samson put it God gives his uh his strongest Defenders his weakest appendices wow yeah me and OG on the Shelf so I missed the media game on Wednesday in addition to missing a bunch of extra shows right because uh yeah I

Can’t be taking those Rogue elbows from you to the midsection right now oh I would never do that I mean attempting to play defense is not something I do yeah I was thinking more like a legal screen or push off or something like that okay

That I would do I will push you off and then pop open for three and hopefully make it yeah the media game hope I don’t know I guess eventually we’ll be able to reveal some details about this but I’ve got some Scoops coming at some point

This week it might be the most culating Raptor news that you will hear all week so stay tuned for that but yeah Blake very very great to have you back on the program it’s been um it’s been great to you know big thanks to all the co-hosts

Who have been able to step in and cycle through and of course a lot of guests you know everybody stepped up but I mean it it it it was a big effort because it is not easy to replace you on the show man doing a two hour show solo difficult

Because I I got a whole summer ahead running that back how you do this with the blue J I mean I think it’s better when they play every day but yeah they’re they’re relevant man two hours every day some days you’re like I got to

Prep for four guests I got to come up with ideas for tomorrow the rest of the week every single day something fresh to say like I was like man it’s nice to have a co-host to just like literally talk to for at least you know which we’re gonna do for three segments today

Yeah and then we’re bringing in hanif Abdul yeah which I’m very very excited about yeah he’s got a book coming out uh next week on the 26th but it’s out for pre-order now already we’ll plug that a bunch of times through the show but it’s called there’s always this year on

Basketball and Ascension hanif one of my absolute favorite writers on music on culture on life in general and then we get a more basketball oriented book from him really excited to pick his brain about that and read that when it shows up um with respect to the show while I

Was gone yeah man can’t say enough about how good a job you did I mean it’s not easy to mix in different co-hosts and stuff like that especially pieces will work like Samson um and listen Samson s Lindsay Katie omit uh JD I will be revealing I power ranked you all and the

Job you did as co-host so I will reveal those rankings at some point this week as well if you want to uh if you want to tune in uh for that no it was great it was uh it was fun it kept the show pretty fresh I think during a couple of

Weeks where let’s be honest the Raptors there are things to focus on there are player you you know how I feel about the g-league guys in the player development side of things but the stakes are pretty low right now the the The Leverage of these games is not not super high so uh

I thought you guys did a great job keeping it fun keep it fresh mixing up the guests Amit doing a great job andelle loading up the guests and then yeah man today we got Han this is a a nice a nice transition back and and a not a meaningful game yesterday but a

Fun enough Raptors rematch with the magic uh yeah this is the real reason I came back by the way we get two magic games in a row I’m not missing my magic we had to put out the the Blake signal the bat signal you know like just I I I

Need your help with this one no um more than anything else the one question I asked everybody was what are you still watching Raptors games for what are you still tuning in for and so I will ask you this question on the wake of a back-to-back loss to the atlanto magic

Raptors L last night 11 111 to 96 kind of inevitable the entire way through they played Scrappy competitive was the same thing as Friday but the magic kind of grounded them down and ultimately the Raptors did not have enough offense Pao monol looked awesome you know your whole

But yeah the general picture of like what are you watching these Raptors games for besides obviously employment and you know your lifelong dedication to this franchise it’s a little tough right because you know I again I care a lot about the individual Player Development side of things and I I love seeing

G-league guys get a chance or or bench get a chance in in a larger window of time but if you are evaluating the longterm or or even the the next year picture for this team so much of what you care about is how those individual progressions orbit around Scotty Barnes

Right so we can look at Emanuel quickly day to-day and Emanuel quickley had a really great stretch of games less so last night um but he had a really great stretch of games there and it’s that’s good it’s important that he’s getting better it’s important he’s getting more

Comfortable as a pick and roll point guard um finding his three-point shots in pull-up scenarios and things like that but what really matters to the franchise is how would that coexist within a Scotty Barnes environment where is the quickly Barnes chemistry developing because that chemistry was really lagging behind everything quickly

Was doing individually before Scotty went down hurt so it can be tough to you know really extrapolate what we’re seeing individually with what’s going to matter next year having said that yeah it’s the individual growth stuff that I that I’m looking at I think it’s great that you know we’re seeing them play

Through the centers a little bit more especially in the first halfes of games they get they’ve gone away from it as games go on but you’re seeing them play through Kelly a little bit more we’ve seen kind of a Resurgence of jonte the last little bit where they’re playing

Through him a little bit more and that second unit looks fun that stuff’s important the the buy into the ball movement all that stuff is important but really we’re looking at what these guys are doing individually and that ranges from at the high end Emanuel quickly and

The fact that you have to pay him this offseason and yes the the things you care about most are how he coexists and and kind of what that ecosystem would look like with Scotty Barnes so you’re left to kind of extrapolate imperfect information from that but that matters

It’s still useful and then at the low end you’ve got jamas Ramsey where it’s like you know you’re not evaluating for his fit with Scotty Barnes long term you’re evaluating should we sign him for the rest of the season at the end of this 10day yeah and you know I I love

That stuff that stuff is very very interesting it’s just not you know the highest yeah the highest fidelity thing that like information that that you’re going to be able to glean um and there are some spots in between there right like I mentioned the jonte resurgence

That that’s cool um I think we can officially with the extra opportunities he’s gotten here close the book on the Jaylen McDaniels era like I know he’s under contract next year um and then you know you’re looking at individual things like hey I thought oai did uh a really

Commendable job effort wise against poo banero these last two games the results weren’t there because Pal’s really really really good um you know Grady dick we’ve obviously seen a really good stretch of play and now we’re seeing teams are are responding to that a little bit the Orlando magic are

Particularly physical team that he struggled with so okay let’s see how he how he responds to that the next time they play a physical opponent um so there are a lot of little individual things like that it’s kind of where my focus is because even if you you know

Even if you were to care about the results they’re not going to win a lot of games without Scotty and yakob and now RJ um they’re not going they’re going to lose games but the best case scenario if you care about losing is they’re going to they’re tied for six

Lasts right now they could get sole possession of six lasts 43 and a half% chance of keeping your pick and then the the fan base and before the Scotty injury even talking to people around the team like everyone seemed pretty split on whether you’d want to keep the pick

Or not obviously if you get the number one pick you’re going to make the most of it but there is an argument for conveying the pick this year and freeing up next year’s pick particularly if you’re pessimistic about next year so it it it is hard to focus on the results um

And take much from them so I am left with a lot of you know individual progression evaluation and you’ve got to do some stuff with hey how does that you know this is the ecosystem it exists within what would that look like in a proper ecosystem that that’s imperfect

Um but it’s what we got right now it is what we got right now there’s a there’s I mean there’s a lot that you mentioned there I think for me number one like it’s just like it’s really exciting to see the highs of a player’s game I

Actually sometimes like to see the lows of their game because it tells you a lot about where their game is right now what are some of the limitations they got right so these last couple games against the magic um it was actually really funny when Savannah was saying on the

Report she’s like like I talked to Kelly this is like right before the game started you know was giving the court side report and she’s like you know right uh I was just talking to Kelly Alik and he was explaining to me how the magic have advantages across the entire

Front line and I’m like oh Raptor magic stay tuned we got to see the mismatches across the board but I I did think that that level physicality of the magic played with the last two games number one it’s very important for the Raptors to even approach or get towards

Something like that because defensively this team has just not made any impact pretty much all season um outside of the first month where they were good um but how these young guys in particular respond to that style of play like I actually wanted to see how quickly would

Look against a Jaylen sugs who would provide a lot of physicality how Grady would be able to get his shot off against some of these bigger players how would he guard against a bigger player like a fron Vagner for example and of course naturally you’re going to lose

Most of those matchups but at least it shows you like okay these are the things that they need to sort of work on to get better what did you make of quickly in the last few games cuz he was quite quiet in both games both in um you know

In the teens rather than in the 20s scoring wise yeah I think and and you know the assists weren’t as high as we we’ve kind of be used to even yesterday he had a four turnover game which is very rare for him right um one of the

Turnovers was like a really notable one where he he runs the pick and roll with JN and he’s got that probably not pocket pass but the overthe toop pass to jont the roller and he tries to make the two- Lev away pass to Bruce Brown and throws

It at bounds right it’s and maybe that was a miscommunication with with where Bruce was supposed to to fill to but it was it was a bad that’s what I say yeah um and those are those things are okay like you can you know we we’ve talked we

As a as an NBA community over the years about how actually turnovers aren’t a bad stat for rookie point guards because sometimes you would rather and this is this is true for Scotty as well when he was taking on more point guard role is you can be okay with mistakes if it’s a

Mistake because you’re being really creative and you see a pass there that would be such a valuable pass if you can make it versus if you’re only making the simplest safest plays and that’s why your turnovers are so you can live with some of that um I thought you know

Quickly and this is this is true of Grady dick as well you know the the book on him right now seems to be to get in his space and that’s something that the magic are really really well equipped to do with Jaylen Suggs and then Marquel folz comes off the bench

And does a good job of it as well um you know quickly and this is maybe you miss yaka purle a little bit here because Kelly oin is not the same style of screen Setter but quickly really struggled in my view of it to get level

Of space away from those guys now that affects obviously your ability to pull up from three because a guy’s in your jersey and you’ve got to beat them first before you can get in that space and then I feel like quick also needs to do this weird toe tap thing before he can

Get to pull up three off yeah it takes him an extra half beat usually with his right foot notice a little bit yeah it’s it’s almost like a it’s a step back footwork but for a pull-up yeah yeah yeah it’s interesting um so yeah I think

I think the book on him right now is to get in his space and he he even struggled with jayen Su picking him up full court a couple times was the near 8C violation just like on a standard onean press which Jaylen sus is really annoying he’s really good at that stuff

Defensively but yeah you got you’re if you’re a starting level point guard you can’t get one man pressed into an 8sec violation um or even just eat eight seconds off the clock so I think you know being physical with him getting up in his space is the book on him right

Now and the challenge for him especially you don’t you’re not going to have yakob back and if you do it’s going to be a handful of gam you have yakob like you’re still going to need him get you screens all the time versus like being able to Hold Your Position and this is

Why it’s been interesting because we’ve seen it against them hard when they played the Pacers we’ve seen it against even when they played Dallas Josh Green took a couple possessions you know applying the same type of physical defense like the book will slowly start to come out on some of these guys and

It’s about how they adjust to those things yeah so we know that that’s one area for for quickly to work on um for Grady I you know last night I thought it was interesting because he kept trying to go to the basket and almost jump into

Guys accept the contact and then try to finish around it I think in general he’s been a pretty good finisher from different uh contacts and different angles and things like that um but what have you made from Grady in terms of just the physicality in the the last

Couple matchups yeah I thought I thought similar to to uh what we said about quickly the the magic physicality was what gave Grady issues I know he banged a couple of Threes in he was two of three on three so that continues to be a real strong suit you know like obviously

So much of what we talked about early in the year was hey he does all these other things well and that’s really great but you’re not staying on the floor as gr dick if you don’t threes and he’s been really really good he’s up toward the league lead in corner three-point

Shooting now overall in three-point shooting since the turn of the calendar he’s been really good so those are positives um you know and and I again back to the point of sometimes sometimes mistakes are good if you’re a young player he had another one yesterday very similar to the quickly one where he

Tried to make a highle read and he threw the ball away um but seeing that as you’re attacking a close out rather than forcing it at The Rim through traffic being able to see that read and try to make that pass is good developmentally um if the Raptors were playing for wins

Right now you’d pull your hair out at that but with where they’re at that’s an okay read for him so I I think some of this is some of this is the physicality of a team like the magic and they are just like the second you try to attack a

Close out they’re chest out arms wide and like you go to you got to you’re going to have to drive through that you’re not going to be you know Grady’s really good at kind of making a side step on the Baseline and getting into that reverse move that he likes the

Magic are not going to bite on the S side step because they want you to come right through like they’re stronger than you and they’re bigger than you it’s actually it’s funny to play the magic twice after all these trades the Raptors have had because they’re a team against

You really noticed how small the Raptors are now oh yeah tiny yeah um where like oi’s the the four right and Gary or Grady are nominally the three and like neither of those guys is is a three strengthwise so um there’s some of that there I I thought defensively the magic

Did a pretty smart job and this is the benefit of having and fron as well as at least one point guard on the floor at all times it’s like there’s always it’s really hard to hide Grady dick against a team like that right like you could put

Him on Gary Harris and hope for Gary stay in the corner but Gary does a lot of lift out of the corner or or even go into off ball pin downs and stuff like that yeah um so I thought they did a good job hunting it there there was one

Play late where Pao got and this was this might have been the the dagger right before the final timeout where um where they they put in the bench and Pao has Grady mhm and they’re alarmed enough about it that in a face up situation not

Even a screen roll oai and gr try to switch um just like right in front of the ball handler and pal is just so quick to pull up the three like you gave him a little bit of space as you try to navigate that you what you almost have

To do is coward’s way out almost honestly just for pao no no for for for the Raptor how you going to switch the match up when the guy’s got the ball like no a scre if you’re going to do it to be careful on PO the move is almost

You send a double and then have Grady be the guy that but justang over top of them that’s game over so look this is good learning stuff I didn’t think when Grady got hot that this was going to be it that he was you know fixed and and it was going to be

Perfect from here um he’s only shooting 37% from the floor since Scotty went down so there is there’s obviously room for growth uh there and I think some of this in addition to philal and Darko had mentioned you know the potential rookie wall a little bit and and he’s been

Playing 30 minutes which he hadn’t done before um I think some of this is probably also well Grady dick got good yeah so teams are paying attention now like Scotty’s Scotty’s not in the lineup yakov’s not in the lineup RJ’s not on the lineup um who are you who are you

Game planning for right like Emanuel quickley is the top of the list but like yeah you’re GNA pay some attention to Grady dick and try to take things away from him so these assistant just have to find something to do something to show them for the 5 to 10 minute video walkth

Through or whatever it is before you play the Raptors and I you know it’s actually interesting because Darko um said something I practice on first off did you know the the Raptors had practice on Saturday cuz that just completely like went over my head but

When I saw the note I was like oh okay cool I at least obviously I watched the practice scrums and one thing that dark was explaining was um Grady had done a lot of work all season with the assistant coaches shouts to Evo seich in particular who has always worked with

Them all year on being effective out of the corners and whether you want to say that Grady being one of the highest percentage Corner three-point Shooters this season is a direct product of that I wouldn’t question it to be honest um you know they’ve clearly got him comfortable operating out of the corners

Now in his new role especially with the injuries he’s playing a lot more up top this is what Darko was explaining and that could lead to a little bit more adjustment for for Grady what do you make of that theory in terms of in addition to the fact that he’s on The

Scouting Report there is a bigger load there’s also he’s playing against starters Now versus playing against second unit there’s less guys setting him up he’s also playing a different spot on the floor that was also an explanation Darko offered yeah that’s I mean that’s a different style of play

And that’s a I mean it’s a different style of three also right I thought one thing he’s done really well and I just looked at the number he’s up to 49% from the corners on the year yeah which is really really good right he wasn’t even that strong out of the corners in

College if I remember correctly he was much better above the break and that was part of why a lot of the draft people were certain the shooting would translate because his diet of shots at Kansas was more difficult than spot up shooting Specialists he was doing a lot

Of movement shooting a lot of deep shooting so um look it’s great that that the corner three stuff has come along we you see with a guy like oai how valuable it would be to just knock a couple of those down right or or even you know

OG’s old role in the offense right of just like yeah most of your offense is going to come from the corners you’re going to be one of the highest volume guys in the league and that’s super super valuable even if you personally would like to uh do other things now if

You are building out what Grady is going to be for this team long term yeah you want to see more of that um above the break stuff because there’s just more Dynamic stuff you can do you can’t you can’t run action I shouldn’t say you

Can’t you can do some stuff to get a guy like on the move and catching in the corner but like you’re facing a two boundary limit there like most Corner threes are going to come from you just standing there stationary where yes on the weak side of the floor you have some

Gravitational value but as a shooter you’re going to have so much more value to the offense to other players in your offense if you’re moving off the ball and you can do a lot of off ball movement stuff and you can only really do that if you establish yourself as a

Movement shooter and a a wing shooter so um he’s only at 26% above the break so far that’s obviously a skill that that needs to continue to grow and I don’t know how much of that is you know I I didn’t get as as granular as looking how

Many of those are off movement I don’t think he has a ton of pull-ups on the season maybe a couple one dribbles transition and stuff like that yeah um but yeah I mean generally speaking no he he’s catching shooting yeah and this is um you know our our pal Caitlin Cooper

Had a good uh threat the other day or or yeah good thread the other day on Twitter about Tyrese halton’s shooting struggles and all the different things that can affect even an elite level shooter like that and grd dick is not Tyrese halber and he doesn’t have the

Ball in his hands that much but even a guy who is you know changing the offensive Dynamic of an entire franchise level good shooter can be subject to some of these things when you take away one of your screening Partners or hey your hamstring just isn’t a th% so your

Your pullup off the juice is is not quite the same level great is experiencing his own version of that which is yeah when you were really bad teams would leave you open in the corner until you could show that you could hit that and now he’s being shown hey you’re

Going to have to attack those close outs along the Baseline I think he’s done a pretty good job showing that he can do that but the Raptors are going to have to lift him out of those corners and run a lot more off ball stuff for him the

Hard part about this too is going to be that ideally you know if you’re running Scotty Barnes yaka Perle pick and roll over on this side of the floor and then you have RJ also on the second side and he’s the one setting a pin down

For you that’s a lot for the defense to take into account right but now you’re running a a manual quickly kol linic over here and the guy you’re working off is oi maybe right it it’s just a different amount of defensive attention um and a different amount of you know

Value to the gravity that you’re having so um it’s it’s a challenge like like that 26.1% number above the break yeah I would I would I’m going to keep an eye on that down the stretch and hopefully you can nud that up above like 30% by

The end of the year or something like that um I don’t think there’s anything you know I think it’s a little too early to like we’re talking like less than 100 three-point attempts from above the Break um so it’s too early to take too much from that but I definitely would

Believe it as an explanation for why it’s been a bit of a struggle um the last couple games yeah and I think I mean to your point you can run so many more actions when you can play at the top of four you saw him recently running

A lot or involved a lot in the in the Spanish pick and roll or the Spain pick and roll whatever you want to call it um where you have Grady in this case is kind of screening uh the screener in this case so usually the big because so

Kelly would be going to screen for the ball and then Grady would screen for Kelly’s man uh and then he would pop out for three so like you are seeing a lot of those three man actions involving Grady in the top of the floor even

Before that it was a lot of Kelly with uh with Grady and then of course Scotty initiating a lot with that group right now it’s just you know you you have to see what that looks like especially against starting units as well and I thought yeah Suggs was kind of an

Antagonist the last two games I mean it just seems like Suggs really enjoys playing against the Raptors I would say in terms of raptors antagonist there’s not that many of them in the league right now because I don’t think people care enough to antagonize the Raptors but Jaylen sugs like Patrick Beverly I

Guess but but that’s all verbal not actually doing anything right exactly what’s he going to do play defense harder like you know what I mean I feel like for Suggs he’s definitely part of that and I think when you look across the board to Orlando and this is the

Point you want to raise was just it takes a while for the rebuild to actually settle in and then to show some of the fruits of that rebuild so I actually wanted to ask you um when does or when did Orlando’s rebuild actually start was it 2019 after they decided to

Break up the previous team which the Raptors beaten the playoffs or was it even before that in Dwight Howard when they traded him in 2013 so I think it’s been I mean it’s been two front offices since then right so I I think it’s been two separate rebuilds they did the post

Dwight rebuild where they were out of the playoffs for six years they went what did they go Jo vaugh James bgo Scott Skyles Frank vogle Steve Clifford all and like right like vvi was the like they they had some fun teams with like V and forier and like the Resurgence of DJ

Augustine at one point but like to find fun man yeah like we were trying to talk ourselves in alred pton like there were some weak so I would consider that its own rebuild and then they never they never got good enough where like like they were always they always had good

Picks right what’s the lowest they picked was 16 for for chuma can I read you the the draft history of the Orlando Magic dating back to 2013 buddy can you all right so this 2013 2012 they traded Dwight so this is the first post Dwight draft yes yes they they finally tank

They get 2013 they get the second overall pick and to be fair it was a really weak draft outside of Giannis at 15 which nobody could have really seen coming this is also the year the Raptors draft at Bruno by the way um Victor ladipo at number two which sounds like

Maybe not so bad honestly maybe within the context of the draft not so bad but it wasn’t like he was doing that much with the magic all I remember was him getting crossed out by Kyle lry once before Kyle set up lantry fields for his one three of the season um uh another

Note on that draft do you know who went first and third around OA was that not the Anthony Bennett draft Yeah and then third who went third that year utto Porter Jr uto Porter Jr yeah that’s right we haven’t even mentioned that he retired that’s actually coming up around that for

Around the NBA that’s no longer Raptor’s news but it it is kind of uh wild that we just completely forgot that last Kelly o 13th in that draft too yeah you know they had like okayish players and of course they had I think yic also was

In this draft in the second round or maybe that was the next draft but in any case they they had the second over pick they took Victor adipo they ended up trading him 2014 the year afterwards they drafted fourth overall that year they got Aaron Gordon with that pick

Which again you know like it created some great moments like the dunk contest for them and and shouts to uh stuffed the Magic Dragon but also ER Gorn got traded in this one for Gary Harris who is still on the team but like come on like you know that’s that’s a lopsided

One it’s also a tough one where like the fourth overall pick you you kind of hope that especially in like the MV draft you want a star yeah and Aaron Gordon was a really important player on a championship team last year like like Aaron Gordon is a very very good player

And like Depot even before the KN stuff was a really good player as well and he only broke out until he got to Indiana really right yeah yeah and like so even if you were to say hey he he would have been that for the magic like they did

And this is the the struggle with the then why the Raptors are a little more confident than say the Nets because they have Scotty Barnes who could maybe be that guy the magic did an okay job as we’ll go through with these drafting supporting pieces yeah but uh as we’ll

See in the next one uh they also had a couple whiffs uh 2015 they had the fifth ofall pick they took Mario honia yeah I believe the the the billing for honia at the time was what if J.R Smith was catian I think that was that was kind of

The uh the plug um 2016 they had the 11th pick um but they didn’t actually use it for a player of their own it would have been great if they kept damont sabonis who was obviously since become an All-Star pivotal part of the Kings who we will see on Friday but they

Actually traded this pick alongside of Victor to the OKC Thunder for Serge Baka to temporarily pair Serge with bismack bomo in 2016 they took bismack from the Raptors cashed them out he bisb I think was making two million with the Raptors for that 2016 Championship run or

Eastern Conference uh you know yeah run whatever H and then yeah they gave him like a $684 million de afterwards but in any case they traded those two picks lottery picks for serger Baka who then they immediately flipped to the Raptors Midway through the season and they got

Like the 29th pick the following year which they took like Anza yeah who has not really done anything at all that same draft um this is when Jeff welman finally takes over also another uh I guess piece of the Raptors goes from raptor front office to their head up their front office 2017

They take Jonathan Isaac with the six overall pick which is like it looks bad with where Isaac has ended up here yeah but when he’s been healthy he’s been like an all defense caliber Defender impactful yeah and like at that like sure you look at who went after him in

The next couple picks in that draft like obviously Donovan Mitchell’s the guy he went 13th yeah and a lot of Team like the the Pistons are still kicking themselves for taking Luke Canard over him bam went 14th but I don’t think bam was in the discussion as high as

Guy have guy Miss L Marin who took become L Marin and so I I can understand the Jonathan Isaac one obviously there are some Vibe things around Jonathan Isaac over the years um but I think that I’m willing to chalk that one up to the guy missed three seasons because of like

Persistent knee stuff okay and that’s why I guess also he never even averaged 12 points a game so for six overall that’s tough but again to clear this has been a team that has been at the very bottom since 2013 all the way to 2017 now their big reward so far is Jonathan

Is at six the following year it gets better 2018 Mo bomba at six y you know um and again and like obviously you can do the wh if with every draft pick in every draft but a couple spots after Shay win yeah uh even like like they

Have wend Carter Jr now they could have taken him with that pick right they at least pivoted and this is where finally they did pivot 2019 Chum at 16 okay like a decentish player wasn’t even in the rotation last night I’m not going to

Read this note that I have in here on on chuma oiki but it is kind of cracking me up as I look at it uh you know what fine congrats on drafting a big job on Maha anyway 2020 uh they take Cole Anthony with the 15th pick which is a nice bench

Player value for 15 for sure and then finally 2021 Jaylen Suggs at five which you know honestly for five whatever but he clearly is a very productive starter for them and then France vogner a another you know really really good player for them that was a product of

Them pivoting to a with vich and then Paulo 2022 and Anthony black this year which created the gry dick meme yeah um but in any case it’s really only been the last four years you know what I mean where it’s finally turned around because we’re talking about a whole decade’s

Worth of being in the lottery and this is this is kind of the warning of rebuilding right because we came into this year and I was super optimistic about the magic right I was really excited about them they were my lock for an over and my team to watch and stuff

Like that and even now they’re at a point where they’re what fifth in the Eastern Conference right now and they are yeah F they fifth in the Eastern Conference and we’re talking about them as well maybe they could give a team trouble in the playoffs as they continue

To move up and and like what are they going to do with to support this group what what are they going to do in free agency so they’re still a couple steps away from being really competitive they’re in the fun stage right now and this is a team like you just laid out

Who has taken over a decade to get there even if you want to say let’s clean the Slate at they made the playoffs those two years they brought in Jeff Wilman that’s the reset Point that’s the rebuild Point well even then you’re talking about six or seven years you

Could get even smaller than that let’s just say hey since the Cole Anthony pick that’s what we want to look at here they have picked in the lottery five times over the last three years they have unquestionably hit on at least three of the like I would say Pao Jaylen and fron

Are all considering Jaylen and fron went a couple picks apart like like if you flipped which one went at which pick you would say all three of those hit really well so far and then even before that Cole Anthony at 15 is a good hit as well

You get a really good bench piece at 15 and have signed him to a pretty Team friendly extension what’s his deal three years 32 I think that’s or three years 36 maybe great deal yeah um so you have hit on all those things and then one of

Anthony black or jet Howard maybe hits from your lottery picks this year yeah you had a really like that’s a four-year run of pretty solid drafting with extra picks in the lottery and you’re still sitting here being like okay well what else right and that’s and and I like

Fron a lot I like Paulo a lot like I like this team a lot and even then they’ve been through the Wilderness of rebuilding and you’re still sitting there like okay well what else how else did they they add to that and this is the tough part about uh a rebuild and I

Don’t mean this specifically for the Raptors like look at what Detroit’s dealing with Washington is going to get the number one pick in a bad draft class and you know like we’ll see we’ll see the Wizards are by the way are the team that we’ll do some March Madden stuff

Later in this week like you’re not supposed to overreact to a couple games in March for your draft stock right like as an NBA team you’re supposed to have all this film and all this the Washington wiards are guaranteed the most likely team to overreact to a March

Mad like remember DeAndre Daniels how the Raptors overdrafted him in that same Bruno draft in large part because he had such a good final four run yeah DeAndre danios could go number one to the Wizards in this draft if there’s another Jun last year yeah exactly no

Purdue is not well coached enough to go on sorry to to Zack Eed there I I can’t I can’t ride with that level of coaching on a long NCAA tournament uh anyway this is all to say the magic are are fun and in a good place and they have executed a

Very a vision that has been very similar to the Raptor front office over the last couple years but even with good drafting good resigning and a couple of smart predatory trades like the vich trade they’re still a couple steps away that’s how much has to click right for you in a

Rebuild yeah so we do have a long way ahead for the Raptors at least I I think in terms of comparing maybe even not even comparing rebuilds because there’s not that much similarity I think it’s really the timing of when you end up letting go of some of your former

Players who aren’t really getting you to a winning Le franchise so for example when they trade a vich they trade him at the exact very very peak of his value and I think that they might have done that with OG I don’t think they quite did that with Pascal they didn’t I don’t

Think yeah but in any case like at least they pivoted and added those extra assets because as you mentioned it’s not just enough for you to tank in your own picks you also need to hit on additional picks to help support and supplement the roster you look at the Raptor’s roster

Like it’s you know it’s obviously you’ve gotten former like first round picks in in you know players like RJ who was what third overall and quickley who was in the 20s but like still um you need more and more and more the higher volume of those you have the better and at least

You were able to get extra picks out of that Pascal deal but yeah I mean that for for reference like it takes a very long time and it does and like even look at you know to use a more current example of a team that’s a little

Earlier on the timeline you look at Portland right like they’ve got I mean ay Simons is is on his second deal now but he’s still a very young player they’ve got Shaden sharp who when healthy certainly looks like a hit scoot will cease statistically this is one of

The worst point guard rookie Seasons we’ve ever seen um talent wise he still looks solid but this has been a discouraging rookie year and they’ve got two like they’ve got the uh their own pick this year and another potential lottery pick yeah coming so that’s what they’re looking at like hey three recent

Guys that we’re building with and a couple of lottery picks uh coming up so it it takes uh it takes a lot I mean it’ll I guess if the Raptors they would currently have Pick 6 17 and 32 which uh that’s not bad no no it’s not bad at all

Like this is exactly kind of what you need you just hope that again like the Raptors hit on like ideally three of four if not four or four of these like selections coming up yeah you know what I mean because that’s that’s the level that it’s going to kind of take um yeah

There was a there was a brief interaction that we had with MSI he popped into practice one day popped his head in and we had a little chat it was like a couple reporters in there at the very end he was like enjoy the rebuild guys and then he walked up wow that’s

Ominous uh anyway on that note we’re going to take a break your host Wu you’ve been listening to the Raptor show on the sports that radio network brought to you by Campbell’s new chunky spicy soup welcome back to the Raptor show on the sportsite radio network I’m your Lou

Continue to be joined by co-host Blake Murphy um one guy we forgot to talk about before uh in in the in Block one of the show is just is Gary I feel like Gary’s been getting more time he’s been starting he’s been getting more minutes maybe showing more consistency making more

Plays on and off the court um on the court real quickly is the preminent Gary hater on this program uh have you enjoyed this Gary Renaissance is is that a thing am I am I a Gary hater I I just want to Brand people I think he’s very

Good at his role and I uh yeah I just don’t think that role is a $25 million a year role um no 2 is it I mean those were the numbers thrown around last year when it was like hey he’s got an extension done and what’s the most you

Be willing to pay Gary right now 175 annual and like even that’s on the high end but I I think you probably that’s like roughly what he’s making right now yeah he continue his contract right now yeah and like yeah I would I would reup

That and it’s not it’s not going to be terrific value the problem with with a big money Gary contract is that you can there are guys who shouldn’t say it like I shouldn’t phrase it like that cuz I afraid of Gary good front offices can find the type of production Gary brings

When he’s shifted back into a bench roll you can find that less expensive I hear you okay there are rookies who come in for teams and can can play that kind of role in some way right um you know Cole Anthony is not the same type of player

But for the for a similar offense first bench guy you know he’s getting 12 million a year the mid level is going to come in around 12 million year you should be able to get a pretty good shooter um for the midlevel so I don’t

Know that I go too far over that I the thing that I’ve been obviously the offensive consistency is important right now because there isn’t a lot of offense on this team so him putting up 22 games since Scotty’s been out and shooting really well is important um this is the

Annual stretch of the Season where Gary’s playing good defense lately and and it’s the Gary style of Defense where it’s a lot there are some gambles and he just crowds you with the hands and he rips you and that’s why he has a lot of these like he has really good hands and

Yeah he’s had some pick sixes I he’s up around two steals a game over the last little bit um you know we’ve seen it wax and Wayne too much over the the last couple years for to to Really buy it in it but I think he’s been solid and this

Is you know I think this says something about Gary’s offensive game where like yeah that that type of offensive profile travels right like he’s going to be able he’s going to be able to get his shots um and he’s had cold streaks but you know scorers are going to be able to

Score but for a guy who’s 25 and has been here a couple years now I do think there’s been a steadiness to him and him picking up the defensive side of the ball and obviously the results aren’t good defensively we’re that’s not how we’re this team right now um but I think it

Does say something to his growth and maturity level that he has actually looked like a steadying voice and one of the you know he’s looked like one of the more senior players on this team 25’s not old but he’s what the longest tenure Raptor playing right now right yeah wow

Uh a lot of changes have happened this year when you put it like that it’s uh it makes your head spin um off the court Gary’s also showing I I don’t know maybe his his his wisdom his age or his experience in life he’s giving Grady

Tips on tattoos so uh I believe Grady does not have a tattoo um which I suppose is not uncommon for a 20-year-old but as somebody who does have two arm sleeves U what kind of advice would you give to to to Grady on his first tattoo yeah so I mean I have

Lots of tattoos both arms are done I got one on my back I got some thigh and lower leg tattoos him right we did see your thighs on Instagram yeah I mean I was on I was on vacation and the the quads are what they are you got to you

Got to play to your strengths I don’t think if people had the issue with the quads it was it was the feet on the ground yeah I mean that was what are you going to do it was and nobody seemed to have issue with it it seemed the opposite it seemed the

Opposite yeah yeah um it wasn’t uh it wasn’t that people were mad at it I had the other problem getting DMS asking for you know are there any outakes you have any where your feet are Sandy you don’t need to do that so first of all yeah Grady don’t get a foot

Tattoo that’d be a weird thing um I I think the biggest piece of advice that I would give and this is something that has not bothered me in the past in the NBA but I I’ll call him out bayay was did not follow this very closely don’t

Get new tattoos midseason like it’s not good for yeah that’s actually really good advice the tattoo technology is far enough along that like it’s not the end of the world if you like get a tattoo sweaty or like someone bangs up against it or whatever but it’s not what you

Want it’s not like like bab one time played like two days after having a giant calf tattoo done I’m like man there’s too much risk of and this isn’t about your basketball this is about the quality of the the tattoo and it’s it’s also a little about your basketball yeah

And how you treat your tattoo while it’s healing determines how long that’s going to like all my color has stayed really really good I’m heavy on the sunscreen and stuff like that you got to take care of it so I would I would advise that you wait until the offseason when you know

You got a little bit of time there uh to get your first one don’t time it with like your end of season getaway vacation because you don’t want to overexpose that to the sun otherwise it could fade in those early days that kind of stuff

And then I would say based on and this isn’t a Gary comment because Gary has some really good um like likeness tattoos but there are a lot of bad tattoos around the NBA and in general of like faces you got to pick your artist really really carefully if you’re trying

To do like an homage to someone or family tattoo or something like that just be careful what do you think on that regard so we also saw Grady gate yesterday yeah Grady and Anthony black doing the Jersey exy as he posted in the Instagram comment 100% made for memes uh

Moment which obviously went super vile yesterday between the two rookies um with that in mind what do you think gr’s gonna get tattooed it’s gonna be something silly I feel like he’s got a he’s definitely got a silliness to him yeah like I don’t know the I’m not a Tik

Tock guy I don’t know the the Tik Tock game or anything like that but I getto no no I just know that he’s silly on there right and pre at least pre-draft did a lot of stuff on there um so I I could see him doing something very

Tongue and cheek very uh very silly with it um although I don’t know he’s also a big family guy you like like as a first tattoo it’s it’s hard to go wrong with something family oriented um you know unless it’s like a a full back piece of your parents faces or something like

That um again there are a lot of bad tattoos out there so just be careful there are some bad tattoos for sure can’t go wrong on on the family side I’m sure like look basketball players tons of guys have their numbers or something basketball related that’s important to

Them I think it’s like like to get your nbpa membership you got to have a Kobe tattoo it’s uh it’s uh there there are a lot of there are a lot of safe ways you can go got and I guess the other thing that I would say and I didn’t follow

This uh on so I have one arm that is like really meticulously planned and one arm that is like ah I’m in Chicago and I I met this tattoo artist I like like throw throw one on me that’s it um if you’re going to go how do you make a

Permanent decision about your life like on an Impulse cuz um well this is why it started out everything was like very meticulously planned and laid out um with an artist type of person I think you would be so this one is like very well planned and laid out with a local

Most of it is done by a local artist named Jenny buer very lame on Instagram and then this arm um the top like a quarter sleeve was really well planned it’s like all my my new stuff just been puffing my my grandfather’s Army tags and stuff like that and then I started

To fill it in but then it was like oh I met this artist who’s like like you to to do a whole sleeve together you would have to do multiple sessions and really plan that out but there was like okay well there’s a tattoo I really like

Who’s only visiting in town for two weeks and I want to get a piece or I’m again I’m in Chicago to use that example and a friend got tattooed by this artist who I happen to meet and like hey Le let’s get one so it kind of and this is

Like a running joke from tattoo people it’s like yeah the very first one you get is incredibly meaningful and then the second one you get is pretty meaningful and then the third one you get is Meaningful and then by like the 12th one you’re like I thought a frog

With a cowboy hat was funny is I I don’t have that tattoo specifically but that’s the one in the meme um so that’s that’s how it would get tattooed f with the Cowboy head yeah it’s a Vibe for so what I would say is like look a lot of guys

In the NBA go with the half sleeve to start or something like that plan it out that’s all yeah that’s all don’t get the uh the Darren Williams gigantic Panther which you turn into an even bigger Panther I believe yeah don’t do the was it Kenya Martin got his girlfriend’s

Lips tattooed and had to cover it up when they broke up right I think that was one right yeah that was kind of a hard tattoo though I’m not going to lie yeah uh don’t get Chinese characters tattooed on you or if you do just verify

Just just get someone to tell you what it means just just come talk to me first show me show me the thing uh and then we’ll go from there um anyway that’s that’s all that could possibly be said about the Raptors at least today we’re actually going to get into a little bit

Around the NBA and then actually check in on teams like the timber wolves with hanif in hour two which I’m super excited about but Blake part of the reason you’re away is also because you also have to do first off I don’t know how you do this but you have your own

Two-hour show that you will be launching I guess relaunching yeah I guess when we’re done but in any case um you’ve been prepping for this very long J season up ahead of us so we have five minutes here as someone who is famously a very novice Jays fan or very casual

Jays fan let’s just say that what should I be watching out for this year Blake yeah it’s a it’s a pretty high leverage year for the Blue Jays like there should be a lot of urgency to this team what’s on the line like are they going to break

It up if they don’t win this year I mean they might not have I don’t know about break it up um because like baseball teams definitely do tear it down and rebuild and stuff like that but the returns are way less immediate right like your your draft pick is like five

You can’t trade picks first all basball unless they’re special compe story picks so it’s more about the prospects you get and those prospects are years away and might not hit and things like that so the the idea of a tear down is way less sexy in baseball than it is in in

Basketball because those returns are so far down the line but what the Blue Jays are facing is um B bashad and Vladimir gu Jr are the faces of the franchise they have two years left before free agency Bo is on an extension that that they worked out that ends after next

Year you could sign him to a long-term deal but he’s under contract Vlad went to the arbitration process he has one more year of arbitration and then he’d be a free agent so if you were looking at this young core and monoa was a part of that originally he’s a bit of a

Question mark right now him by the way he’s injured now he he made one spring start and has been dealing with shoulder fatigue he’s basically only playing catch right now he showed up the camp looking great too which is uh so it’s disappo fall off is crazy cuz he was on

How hungry are you with Serge Once Upon a Time yeah I mean he was on Sai Young ballots like he was he was opening day starter last year it’s a bigger deal if you’re all how for me yeah um so yeah they’re facing you know they’ve got and because

Those guys the way baseball works even probably even more so than basketball is you really want to hit when your best players are still young and affordable because the economics of baseball are so disproportionate like there’s so much disproportionate value in young guys being good and you’re overpaying free

Agents so this far office has built well okay when Bo and Vlad Peak we’re going to have George Springer and Kevin Gosman and Chris Basset and Jose Brios and those guys are going to be here and ready well those guys are all into their 30s now um you know gosman’s contract

Will be a year closer to being done B will be a year closer to free agent this is kuchi last year um you know George Springer declined a lot last year he might bounce back this year but we might be heading into the the tail end of that

And the Blue Jays have the worst farm system in their division so there aren’t a lot you can get excited about a guy or two here and there but there aren’t a ton of reinforcements coming to have this like like if your plan was they got J Ramsey and Javon liberty no offense

Right so if you’re thinking was well once those old guys age out Vlad and B will be on new long-term contracts and then we’ll have this inexpensive wave of young talent coming to support them the right now the farm system doesn’t look like that so there’s a real urgency

Around this year they’ve also over the last four years got swept in the first round of the playoffs in the extend in the extended um pandemic playoffs yeah missed the playoffs by a game yep got swept in the first round of the playoffs got swept in the first round of

The playoffs so imagine how that would feel like imagine the LeBron stuff but it’s happening the first round every year and it’s not LeBron it’s just random teams that you don’t even weren’t even that good this is the Seattle Mariners it’s the um so there’s a real

Urgency to this year they right now like if I were to pick I think they’re going to make the playoffs I don’t think they’re going to win in the division and in baseball that keeps you in the mix um but you’re headed for another best two out of three three first round playoff

Series probably and you’ve got some question marks here like I think they’re a worse team on paper than they were at this point last year you’re banking a lot on Vlad taking a big step back um to to where he was prior to last year because last year was a real down year

For him and you’re crossing your fingers you have really good health on the pitching side again um so they’re going to be they’re going to be fun and interesting and good but there should be a lot of pressure on them like you got to go on a playoff run this year like

Like not making the playoffs or getting bounced in the first round again could be kind of the close to this window this sounds like a this sounds like the two-minute conversations I have with Justin Bourne about the lease yeah this actually reminds me a lot of that um now

Of course I know there’s two different sports but wow this city is really tortured man I mean I guess I I guess we’re not that tortured the Raptors won the championship 5 years ago I know I know but outside of that man it’s uh it’s it’s just it’s just this type of

Pressure all the time anyway we’re going to take another break looking forward to the J season I suppose uh no look forward to it it’s going to be fun it’s just going to be high pressure I will watch there’s there’s not that much else in the summertime for me to tap into at

Least in Toronto but we’re going to take this break I’ve been your host will you be listening to the Raptor show on the sports radio network brought to you by Campbell’s new Chucky spice soup welcome back to the Raptor show on the sports radio network I’m your host L continue

To be joined by co-host Blake Murphy we’re going to go around the NBA we haven’t done this in a minute I’m not going to lie to you we’ve done am Tred to pitch on around the NBA but it was like he actually called this something totally different but in any case I was

Like around the NBA is that is that it anyway this is officially around the NBA um we’re going to go through some quick topics around the league everyone knows what this is okay this one first is from yesterday’s game so Kyrie hits the gamewinner over Nicole yic if you

Haven’t seen it already you absolutely need to see it it was literally the last thing I saw before pivoting to Raptor’s magic which was quite uh the change it it was a style change let’s say the vibe change between Kyrie hitting a driving left-handed running Bank Shot or not

Bank shot a hook shot actually was all was all net uh contested from 20 foot out at the buzzer to hit the gamewinner over a seven-footer it’s actually just genuinely one of the most jaw-dropping place I’ve ever seen and my takea away from that game was just is

That is that’s the best game winner since what yeah well that’s a great way to put it because it meant that I got to spend a chunk of this afternoon just watching cool recent uh game winners so there are obviously a lot of candidates the NBA is full of cool moments all the

Time um it is tough to find one that is that feels more difficult than that one um so there was a I’m not going to credit the person because I forget who tweeted out but someone tweeted the other day that they had asked Kyrie recently or not recently but in the past

About like you know what else could you possibly add to your bag like have you reached the skill level like I don’t know left Lefty hook shot and then he pulls it out so I did go through some and try to find some compar some candidates to to comp with that so this

This year um there was a Malik monk one where he’s guarded by Wiggins and he’s driving to his left in the paint and he kind of slips and Wiggins is contesting well and like within the slip he takes it to this to his right hand and just

Like kind of flings it and Banks it off the backboard okay okay I do that one looks crazier but it very little of what happened was intentional that’s the thing that’s difficult with this is because there’s like obviously half court game winners or like full court

Shots or whatever but like to me that doesn’t hit this name the thing with the Kyrie is like I can’t believe this guy actually thought this shot through and intended to do that and practiced it to some degree which he actually was able to executed without it looking fluky

Right so this year there are a couple Luca and Steph has so many this year alone but like we’re used to that right like Steph pulling up from 33 is like I’m used to it so there was one this year that I think could compete with it

I would give the edge to Kyrie um but there was one uh Thunder against nuggets and they had a couple of really good battles anding pton Watson who Obviously good individual Defender and heits him with a a fade away just the elbow and like Shay’s like not quite parallel to the

Ground but it’s like a fading fade away and that one’s all intent right like that’s one-on-one driving at you with speed hitting the quick stop into a spin and fading before you can contest that’s the closest one I could find this year non step category but I’d still give the

Edge to Kyrie for just like the goal of taking that shot yeah uh that’s the thing it’s like it’s it’s very hard because you could always go to I mean even the Raptors you could obviously go to the KA shot right which honestly was a bit luck but at the

Same time we’ve also seen kawhai intentionally go for that Baseline shot all the time he had hit a game winner against Portland earli that year in the regular season where he made that exact same move from pretty much the same spot on that right Baseline um I actually

Only realized this because I Was preparing for the Dwayne Casey interview last week so I rewatched the game where Casey came back with the Pistons for the first time and they won on the buzzer beater and dway Casey was like no I was celebrating cuz we won I’m like n that’s

Dwayne come on man yeah in any case uh the play that people don’t remember is the the game was tied obviously and the Pistons won at at the buzzer there Raptors actually had the ball and Kawai actually drove towards the right Baseline for the Stop on the Baseline

Pullup and he actually dribbled off his foot which is so funny because that’s the exact same move obviously later on that will change the whole like season so you can always go with those you can even go with the OG Corner three 0.5 seconds with a great pass from KY from

From Kyle but there’s a couple that for me at least watching uh a bunch of gamewinners recently that really stuck out to me for me one of the coolest things is the fact that DeMar rosen hit two gamewinners on one on New Year’s Eve I think this is 2021 to end the year

There and then 2022 New Year’s Day they played a back toback on those two days and Demar hit a game winner on both of them the first one was against Indiana where he did a crossover going to his right jumped off his left leg right leg

Is up in the air the the entire time and he catches in a super contested three which was just so cool uh and then the next day he got an inbound ran to the corner and pump faked the first Defender out of his shorts then the second

Defender came over he still shot over the second Defender and hit a three they were down two2 so he needed to actually hit the three to even get it to a game winner but back-to-back gamewinners over New Year is still pretty sick to me but I don’t know Artistry Wise It’s they’re

They neither of them are even close to what Kyrie did that’s the thing yeah like skill-wise is just man so I want to Circle back to Demar in a minute because there was also some there were also some big Jamal Murray heroics there’s an interesting debate

Going on about uh or that is going to come about who should be clutch player of the year which is a newish award yeah um dearen Fox won it last year of course and Steph is obviously the the leading candidate but I think dear and Jamal

Both have a say in there as well so I I did find so some other ones that that we came across um yeah there’s the lebronto one unfortunately which was also whoever did this mix whoever did this mix was like kawhai buzzer beater lebronto OG against the Celtics I’m like why would

You do it in that order let’s get the Raptors back to the playoffs man we do pray some memorable moments for sure yeah why why would you do it in that order um Jamal has actually had some good ones he had that wild step back over Jeremy Grant last year which was a

Big one um there probably my I didn’t go back as far as you did okay the recent vintage one because I fired up some of the same playlist you did like playoff winners and stuff like that Jimmy but and this wasn’t a winner this just forced overtime but game five Heat Bucks

Last year Jimmy is falling on an inbound and just voles the inbound in yeah which was the craziest one I can see but again like the KY unlike the Kyrie one there’s not like an intent and a skill to that that’s that’s a crazy like gamer toughness play to make with good touch

But Jimmy Butler wasn’t like yeah let’s draw this up for me to fall on my butt get knocked down and like like tip in a crazy pass that’s the thing he got a shot off a lot of people can get a shot off and it’s a low percentage shot but

It come it goes in for Kyrie he got the exact he planned that shot in advance like it’s that’s the thing that’s so cool to me man because there I have someone like there’s one where Luca against the Grizzlies one of many Luca magic moments where he’s uh the

Grizzlies or the I guess the Grizz are up two over the mass uh Luca runs to the inbounder catches it like really close just uh above the three-point line there and he like splits JV and Dylan Brooks and then he’s leaning forward and he’s almost to the point where he’s at the

Free throw line it just flips it up but because he took off with one foot behind the three-point line it’s actually a three and he hit the gamewinner there on like a random running floater but like that’s again that’s a bit of a lucky shot nobody T nobody show that tape to

Wemi cuz he’s going to try something like that and he’s going to he’s going to flip in a lay up for three points yeah you know yeah what are some other I guess like favorite not favorite one because the kaai one’s the favorite one but there’s the one from I think that

Same year where Dame hits the like 37 footer in Paul George’s where Paul George afterward had to be like that’s a bad shot it’s a bad shot I’m like okay man it’s a bad shot that he just walked you off with that’s a badot is a terrible comeback to one of the alltime

Game winners yeah that’s I would that’s something I would say to Assad in the Raptors Republic three on three turn okay you hit that but that’s I forced you into a bad shot hey at least this time I at least this time I didn’t bring up well one of my personal favorites too

Going through this exercise D Dwayne Wade with when he was obviously on the heat a blind steal against John Salmons who I mean who remers John S on the Bulls although they did he was part of that okay the uh the series between Chicago and Boston that was super meable

That won seven games all my John salmon memories are unfortunate Raptors 1600 minutes in a in a rebuilding season oh God but um yeah I mean Dwayne Wade steals it from John Salmons then runs the length of the floor and launches the one-legged three hits it and then he run

Jumps on the scoring table and he goes this is my house that was really cool man yeah it’s all time do you remember when Jaylen Rose jumped on the scor of table at a Raptor game like at ACC but everyone mentions this one what happened

To that one so I I can’t find when it was I would love to find the actual game but I was there at the game and I distinctly remember it like the Raptors going on run but it’s a bad Raptor team in a not meaning not super meaningful

Game gets on the scores table but I can’t like I need to ask like Doug Smith or something like that who’s someone who has like the long-term memory of every uh little game you got to ask Herby Herby was like get off my desk yeah when

Did jayen Rose put his feet on your Works space cuz it’s one thing for Dwayne Wade to do it okay that’s like arguably the greatest heat of all time actually probably the greatest Heat player of all time um but like come on Jaylen Rose for the Raptors in that year

I’m happy he did it but uh yeah in any case um all right you got more you want to you want to move on to the the Dame question well there was one thing that Dame tweeted after the game too in response to the game winner he said

Kyrie is the most skilled mfer ever um do you do you have players more skilled after the type of than Kyrie I mean from a ball skill perspective it’s hard to imagine right like like you would he’s in like Allen Iverson Zone at least yeah

And like sure like I’m sure Ray for Alon as far as the handle went because he was an and one guy but like Kyrie has the best handle in the league he proba like Stephan Dame are better pull-up Shooters but Kyrie probably has the best like dribble package into that and the best

Footwork on it other than maybe James Harden like right like with the ball in his hands it’s hard to M and like obviously skill is different like jokic’s skill level involves a lot of passing and vision stuff but yic is not stringing out destroy oneone and into he

Could want get into um yeah I don’t know man it’s hard to it’s hard to picture who would like like AI is probably the comp AI is the guy that first came into my mind but I mean I think that yeah as you mentioned there’s individual skills

Like you know Steph is like obviously the most skilled shooter for example but like I think Kyrie might be the most skilled layup maker ever yeah and like Shay might have the best mix of tempos and directions right now like like I’ve said on the show that I think Shay might

Be the hardest guy to guard one-on-one in the league right now just like in a pure one-on-one situation because there are so many options to go to but a lot of that is about you know timing and size and angles and stuff like that if we’re talking pure ball skill like yeah

I think Kyrie’s probably the best in the league that’s yeah best honestly the thing with that Kyrie I think he explained it once where he was like I don’t actually know what move I’m G to make I’m just going to react to whatever the defender is doing and like how are

You supposed you can’t actually guard against that that’s like the ultimate counter to anything he’s looking to counter you yeah he’s actually and he knows that he’s practicing shot the the one Kyrie play too is just when he was the Team USA scrimmage practice where um the seniors were doing a great job

Against the select Squad I think Kyrie might have been on the select Squad of just like full core pressure and they’re pressing everybody and Kyrie just says screw this give me the ball on the inbound and he literally dribbled through the entire team like there’s like five players pressing him and at

One point he did a cut dribble with his right hand bounced it off his knee his left knee into potentially back to him he did a crossover from his hand to his knee like man he’s doing Jason Williams on that white chocolate there you go

There you go um yeah what else you it’s crazy no I I mean I have more on the the clutch shooting stuff no not much more on Kyrie obviously there is also a uh a real history of him doing this stuff in the playoffs too which is uh we’ll see

Maybe the Mavericks won’t tank out of a playin spot this year intentionally so that they can keep their number 10 pick and then uh and then bench him behind Daniel Gafford um take them by the way do you take them Ms how how seriously

You take them M as a as a contender not like the amount you have to take them seriously because they could conceivably have the best player in any in any playoff series short of the Nuggets series maybe like like Luca’s that good and Kyrie we’ve seen playoff Kyrie as a

Number two option and it’s incredible um I don’t love the way the rest of that is rounded out like even even acknowledging they they had an okay trade deadline adding Gafford and stuff like that um gafford’s a hit for me for sure yeah yeah um and Derrik lley still so and

There there are pieces there it’s just like every team in the west is so good yeah okay do you like them more than than Phoenix Phoenix to me is very clearly is is a is a is a bad good team yeah yeah like imped them like they’re the Antoine

Walker of teams like they’re the they’re the they’re either the best bad team or the worst good team yeah exactly okay yeah yeah yeah I could see that I mean I don’t I also I love Mike James in April type of season I love the story but I

Don’t think isah Thomas is going to fix yeah that’s right yeah point of attack defense is not uh not exactly going to improve that’s an awesome story though is it back in the league yeah I was actually going to put in this list but I was just just genuinely happy for him

And it was not something to really joke about for me but he’s been grinding he’s been begging and he’s he’s he’s put in the work to get back on the league I respect that immensely um what I really want to talk about too is Wy because

This is this is how my night on Sunday went okay I was watching Mavericks versus Nuggets and it was a super exciting game you know nuggets almost came back they actually took the lead with Jamal’s 3 and then Luca hit a three and then Kyrie hit that shot then I

Watched RoR magic which you know was what it was and I did the react pod and then as soon as react pod was over I’m like oh man after six straight hours of basketball what am I going to do boom it’s time to watch Nets versus Spurs so

I I tapped into that as well and Wy in in the overtime win over Brooklyn tall 33 points 16 rebounds seven assists and seven blocks in 36 minutes uh the only other player in NBA history to match that statline is Kareem Abdul Jabar which makes sense honestly he’s he’s

He’s that unique uh W is and it led to me with this idea for you Blake Murphy so I’m going to give you F four stat lines and you’re going to tell me which one is fake okay these are four three of them are real one is fake three of these

Are actual Wy sat lines and one of them is fake okay sat line number one 27 points on 10 of 14 shooting two threes 14 rebounds five assists two steals 10 blocks in 29 minutes I’m going to give you a chance to guess which this which I

Know that one’s real cuz I was there I experienced that one uh very very closely yeah that was against the Raptors yeah 10 blocks is uh is is is absolutely incredible on that one so that’s that’s okay we know a is not is not the right answer here okay B 31

Points on 11 of 17 shooting three threes made 12 rebounds six assist a steel and seven blocks in 31 minutes okay this is somehow just a generic 31 12 and six with seven blocks yeah ham yeah um okay can I wait till the end of pick or I got to say I’m

Going to present the next one as well 20 points on eight of 20 shooting 20 rebounds four assists a steal four blocks in 31 minutes and then the last one 29 Points on 11 of 15 shooting three threes 11 rebounds six assists two steals five blocks in 33 minutes uh I

Know he had a 2020 I don’t know if that’s the exact one okay so I’m going to say C is real okay uh so b or d is the fake one um they are remarkably similar I will say d is the fake one just cuz that’s just so efficient yeah

That’s it is d d is the fake one that’s pretty good but the fact that again 29 Points three rebounds or rebounds for for having B and D like we’re talking a difference of two points and one rebound and one steal I’m supposed to know the

Difference uh it’s a coin toss but yeah I remember the 2020 and then obviously the Raptor game again these are just like what is be that like unique stat like there are certain players with unique stat lines you remember remember before like LeBron’s being 277 and seven for example

Um is there one that you’re being the 5 by five yeah you’re you’re only going to when you see the numbers you will immediately know the player is that what are the numbers going to look like for one be on those yeah that’s uh because I feel like he can average like five

Blocks in a season if he really wanted to I mean he’s at three and a half right now yeah yeah it’s tough like like 1.3 steals is so far away from five steals so to to put it into 5×5 five territory is tough but I guess I guess my guess

For this will be the quadruple double like we haven’t seen one in forever yeah right no it will take a man like Wy to do something like that but uh yeah wemi with a myriad of plays down the stretch last night front of the program Dennis

Shuder uh tried to take over the offense at moments for the Nets I mean it felt like everyone got a chance to take over and nobody could score in an efficient way cam Thomas couldn’t do it Mel Bridges had a three but otherwise he wasn’t really doing much either I yeah I

Don’t know man there was a play where Dennis tried to go in for a layup against Wy and it was originally called as a goal tending but then they went to the review and it was actually a clean block as well so just a really really incredible game from wbi uh earlier last

Week WBY was asked in French by a reporter named Theo uh about contending for a defensive player of the year he answered this is in fren translated to English he said quote I know that Rudy Gober has a very good chance of winning it this year and

It will be welld deserved let him win it now because after that it’s no longer his turn that’s is that a bar is that a bar or not a bar absolutely it is uh I love that um it’s great I think it’s also like it’s fun because they’re both you

Know speaking into French language media they’re both obviously products of the French program so like there’s I’m sure there’s a little bit of fun with it there um but also I like that element of wemi like you should and I think that’s just as important on the defensive end

As being like a star scorer is like you have to unquestionably believe you’re the best defensive player on the floor um I like that attitude I like that mentality and we’ve like in in terms of realisticness or realism we’ve talked about over the course of the year with a

Stat like estimated plus minus EPM how difficult it is to produce high high level marks on a bad team that’s why Scotty’s kind of declined over the over the course of the Year even though they’re still very good for for a player on a team of that quality it’s hard and

Wemi is on a very very very bad that team is awful yeah the team they’re worse than the Wizards and he is still eighth in the league in defensive EPM and we’re talking about like I mean some of these guys shouldn’t like like Xavier tman should not count

Because uh he’s split time between two teams and doesn’t have enough minut I should have put a minutes filter on this Jonathan Isaac hasn’t played a ton um you know even Marcus Smart hasn’t played very much Joel embiid hasn’t played all that much like he’s theoretically top

Five and the names ahead of him are har anden Caruso and Evan moley right right like like that’s the level of guy he’s in there with and this is acknowledging that it’s a really really bad team and it’s hard to do that um so I know one of

Your questions was going to be when could we start the clock on will like is he going to win defensive player the year and I think it’s as soon as next year the the hardest part is going to be even with how good wemi is defensively

The Spurs are 22nd in defense right now and we’ve gone through this with Raptors you know last year when OG didn’t get votes because the Raptor’s defense wasn’t that good or whatever um we know that it’s tough to get those votes if you’re not on a really if you’re not anchoring

A very very good defense maybe you could get there if you’re anchoring an average defense with nobody around you but 26th in the league people are going to have wemi on their ballot I’d be surprised if he gets a lot of number one votes just because he hasn’t drag the team to to

Good defense yeah and that’s not fair to him but that’s how the award voting Works see the thing is the question I’m asking for myself um and I I suppose I would like to ask to award voters as well is for example did rookie of the

Year was like if you could put wemy on OKC instead of Chad would they be even better and the answer is absolutely yes so I want wemi over chat to win rookie of the year I feel like that’s already been kind of decided as well um do you

Think Minnesota is a better defense if they had wemi instead of Rudy that’s a tough one okay I would say I would say probably slightly no yeah but not for very much longer like not for very much longer you know how how much trouble I have giving R go his

D that’s actually a question later on yeah I I have a little bit of trouble with that but I mean he is like he’s won a bunch of defensive player of the year he’s still at that level defensively I don’t think I think I feel like this the

Way wemi feels about it which is like we’ll let Rudy have it for this year and that’s uh that’s kind of it that’s a great answer from him yeah by the way speaking of great quotes G papovich said quote all my bordeau are older than Victor that’s a true statement

And he was talking about he’s got Wines in his cell Greg papovich does that are older than W first of W’s only like 20 so like you know bragging about having a 21y old wine is not necessarily the biggest thing in any case I don’t think

He was trying to brag I’m trying to I think he was actually just trying to he’s trying to get on accidental Bron uh first off that’s that’s pretty hard I like that one as well um but in any case do you have anything do you own anything

That is older than Victor who by the way was born January 4th 2004 probably not yeah okay like 2004 I like he was born when I was in high school I can’t imagine I own anything from high school still fair enough okay maybe he is impressed that Greg papovich has

Wines older than W I definitely don’t have wine older than that I uh what’s the oldest wine in your in your in your seller in your seller room I don’t know a couple weeks ago at the LC um they don’t last longer than a couple weeks by

The way I’ve gone back through every defensive player of the year um the last time someone one Defensive Player of the Year and their team wasn’t top five in defensive rating 2007 Marcus cam wow and they were 11th so that’s ah okay that’s a good point that’s 16 years in a row

Now that the defensive player of the year has come off a top five defense and the Spurs are 22nd all right so I think he I think you take it to another level then you know what if if you can even get yourself to a top 10 level defense

If you get this SPS team to a top level defense then yeah I think people will have to give it to you I know he’s already like they’re already guard at that level when he’s on the floor but I need you to be like the unquestionable best defense in the league when you’re

On the floor and then maybe you’ll survive the other 12 when you don’t play yeah or the other 18 really because I feel like he still only plays 30 minutes a game which 36 last night but it was OT game yeah he basically plays 30 minutes

A night he does this um that’s cuz they’re yeah they’re they’re mindful of their position in the standings by the way it’s very very amusing to me that the Raptors losing to the Pistons uh I know people I know some people were like this helps the tank it’s a loss or

Whatever it actually knocked the Raptor’s second round pick down a spot goodness the Pistons have passed the Wizards now in the standings yeah and I don’t think the Wizards are are I don’t think the pumma combo is going to carry them any higher in the standings um

Lastly I think uh yeah LeBron is starting a podcast with JJ reck it’s going to be called mind the game they’re going to be discussing uh X’s and O’s they’re going to be talking about you know just in general I guess like what player podcast will do in General

Exchanging stories are you are you excited for this podcast because for me I’m going to say no well excited is not the right word I’m interested um I’m interested as like kind of a a counter to what’s out there like if this is like a a standard LeBron offering where it’s

Like LeBron’s version of of his history I’m not trying to hear the shop in podcast for JJ reic that’s why I’m not excited right and scripted so one of the most fascinating things about LeBron if you’ve done scrums with LeBron or or postseason you know like Podium stuff with him before is he

Has this incredible level of recall for every single thing that’s happened in every single play like you ask him about this and and this isn’t me personally I’ve heard people ask him about something and he’ll related to this play from like three years ago if this is a old man and the three

Style podcast where they’re talking more about the basketball side of things I think it could be a really fascinating like similar to the Manning cast uh on the football side a really insight look into how someone who thinks the game at a level that no one could possibly

Fathom like how they process how they remember stuff how they even just like want like what is the vocabulary when he’s talking about x’s and O stuff with JJ reic I think that could be really interesting um especially if it like especially as a one-off of like this is

How we’re going to have this conversation and I know JJ reck’s very passionate about there needs to be more of this in in basketball media and he would like to Champion that um I think having a guy like LeBron be able to switch from hey we’re going to go very

Narrative and and the shop Focus to I’m going to get in the weeds and talk about the xes and all stuff and how I you know hey when I when 13 possessions in a row I’m running Corner action against the Raptors and picking out Del vova and

Like how are you processing that and look you it doesn’t have to be that example he’s done that to every team in the NBA over the years um but like how you process that how you to your point about Kyrie and how he’s reacting the defense how much of that is intentional

And what you anticipate the defense is going to do versus you reacting to what the defense is doing I think that could be really insightful about like you cannot in any sport in any field you can’t get to the level of LeBron without being a fascinating thinker about the

The thing you’re doing as well so hopefully this gives us a big window into that that is that because in this article on the athletic about the launch of this podcast uh one of the lines is the concept of the program is meant to be a departure from talk shows like

ESPN’s First Take where reic is a contributor um so you know I think that that’s that’s a that’s a good thing in terms of you know being to just hear the Insight from two very longtime Pros including LeBron who is like at worth like a top two player of all time yeah

Um for me I’m just like LeBron is so careful and so like produced as like a person and like a Persona that like I would really love to see him relax and be able to talk in a way that like not everything is going to be quoted and

Turned into like this big debate but just to be able to have a discussion more than anything else and I’ve never seen LeBron content where he’s just free to be himself he has to be so like meticulously calculated on every single step and to me I’m like that’s hard to

Produce a podcast based off that you know I mean and now he has permission to nerd out I and and hopefully if they bring that out I think that’ll be the best part but uh in any case uh are you worried about you know being a non-player podcaster at this point

Like it’s just every every single one is we’re we’re going to get outclass by every single one yeah but it we we need for for me to be in trouble this has to happen and then you got to start having baseball guys do their own podcast on

The science of hitting and like pitch design um not as much their own but like there are some baseball guys who like talk this this stuff that I really like there’s some guys who get really into talking about Pitch design and grips and mechanics and stuff like that or hitters

Who talk the science of hitting well I don’t I mean I don’t think there’s anything equivalent of you know JJ reck in the space there are some very good former play like Eric Katz is a is a former catcher who who does it really

Good you know as as the number two on a podcast guys like that but I don’t think there’s anything equivalent to to redic there you go all right I’m safe for now oh yeah I am not okay we’re going to take our break last one of the day I’m

Your host will you been listening to the Raptor show on the sports radio network brought to you by Campbell’s new chunkies by zo when we come back an of D welcome back to the Raptor show on the sportset radio network I’m Blake Murphy alongside William Lou very excited about

Our next guest one of my favorite writers one of my favorite poets uh one of my favorite basketball tweeters as well and now he’s dabbling in our yard he’s writing ESPN pieces on the on the Minnesota Timberwolves we’re joined Now by hanif abur hanif what’s up man thanks

For joining us thank you all for having me it’s a real pleasure yeah good to see you Mike yeah you too man um so look we’ll start with the book you have a book out next week March 26 that’s next Tuesday people can pre-order now wherever they pre-order their books and

It’s called there’s always this year on basketball and Ascension you’ve written a lot over the years about everything man music Black Culture poetry for you to get to do this very very personal book with deep deep ties into basketball how special has that been for you oh it’s been incredible it’s been

Incredible largely because it’s allowed me to kind of uh go back into the depths of the original things that made me a fan this idea that basketball was at least in my neighborhood growing up um a way to kind of act towards Community or act against loneliness you know everyone

In the hood I grew up and played basketball and it was a language that we had kind of uh among ourselves and so it was really good to kind of um you know the book is asking some larger questions I think other than just basketball Phantom it’s asking questions about life

And mortality and the passage of time but to have basketball as a container for that and uh to have it allow me to to look back uh not only on my own basketball life but also the lives of players I love of course LeBron James at

The center of it um and a lot of Ohio players that I think you know people maybe are not as familiar with but uh it was a pleasure it was a pleasure really and I you know um I think it’s also coming at a at a good time for me

Because I’m I feel like I’m reframing my relationship with basketball Phantom as I as I get older and uh perhaps I’m a little less demanding than I used to be uh as a fan I gotta ask we’ve yet to get there yeah yeah and look we’ll talk a

Little bit about the Timberwolves and your your Phantom in general in a little bit I I got to ask that you have this big book tour coming up as well and you’re not coming to Toronto on of the announced dates yet but this is uh this

Is a book tour that lines up pretty closely with the NBA Playoffs you have this all all settled yet how you going to I love talking to like musician friends about this about like how are you going to watch these games these these playoff games while you’re on

Stage while you’re on tour do you have this planned out yet yeah I actually have a really rigorous plan I will say I’m I’m planning on being in Toronto in the fall awesome um in September I’m doing a thing in Kitchener and then I’m going to come down to Toronto in in

Spend some time with y’all so I’ll be in Toronto but in terms of the the book tour yeah I have a plan um the Timberwolves games are going to be tough because I don’t necessarily mind spoilers I I don’t really care if someone tells me to score I’m kind of

Notorious for if I’m on stage and there’s a game i’ ask people to shout out the score tell me what it is um but I have I have League Pass which of course allows you to replay the games from the start so I’m going to be uh

Sleeping during the day so I can kind of stay up late at night and do some game replays not just Timber rolls but I’m a big you know I love the playoffs I love the NBA playoffs and um my plan is that I’ll be off stage almost always before

The West Coast game before whatever the Western Conference game is so I might actually miss that many Timber rolls minutes but the problem is my book signing lines my book signing lines tend to go for no like over an hour so even if I’m off of the stage at nine I

Probably won’t be somewhere where I can watch a game until at least 10:30 11: so yeah it’s going to be a lot of late nights but I’m going to take during the day um I’m going to have people give me updates from from the stage I have like

A a person in the audience score watching for me uh but I’m excited I’m excited you know like to have uh not just for the timberl but for it feels like this is a a real lining up to be a real exciting NBA playoffs yeah he’s not

Kidding about the the book signing lines I was at the the last one at the the reference library in Toronto and we were very generous it was well over an hour after your your panel had finished and uh you were still there to sign some

Books but let me add you so you were there you were waiting to get your book you’re not going to be offended if there’s like a phone up on the desk like this right like you’re waiting to get signed and he’s like who who is this for

And he he accidentally sign like Anthony Edward oh to Anthony Edward no I mean will oh no I’m gonna ask this man what Jordan mclin St line is you know like we’re gonna connect on that level yeah yeah well it’s um I I I will say um

During you know I’m also a big MLS soccer fan and there was a point in 2018 when the crew were in the playoffs and they had this like penalty kick shootout against Atlanta while I was doing a reading in Nebraska maybe I should admit this publicly but it was years ago I had

Someone in the very back of the room playing it on like a screen I could see and so while I was doing my reading I would glance up every now and then and see the the outcome I won’t be doing that on this tour for anyone who’s like

Don’t worry I won’t be doing that on this tour yeah also look man if someone’s coming out to hear you do reading and get their books on your book about basketball and all the connections you have to it and through it and they’re going to to be like man this guy

Who wrote whose basketball book I’m trying to read and get signed is keeping an eye on the basketball game I think I think people would forgive you man I think he’d be all right you know you you mentioned this earlier but you said you reframed your relationship to phandom

And what to expect from basketball what was it before what is it now and sort of what was that process that took you uh to get to that point it’s strange because I was a much more demanding fan I used to which is so funny because the

Timber rols have been awful for I’ve been a Timber rols fan since I was a kid and they’ve been awful for 85% of my life yeah varying degrees of awful but I do think that because of that um I think you know you as a fan at

Least for me the worse the team is the greater the deceptions are you know what I mean because every year I could be like well the timber rolls are bad last year but it’s a mixed bag you know I mean anything can happen and the same

Thing would happen right but then at the beginning of the next year I’d say well anything can happen right they can I’m looking at this I’m looking at these like love Rubio teams where there’s just not not a lot on the roster and I’m like

Well you know they could go on a run and so my expectations were colored by these deceptions I was telling myself and I don’t know what it is you know I think a few years ago I decided to get very honest with myself about the teams I

Love and what the teams I love were what they actually had going for them and it came at a good time because this is across the board I think all the teams I support have become at least serviceable you I’m a Newcastle supporter and they’re they’re good the crew won the

Championship last year the Timberwolves are you know um Hanging On by a thread I’m not as optimistic as I will they’re hanging on by a thread but they’re they’re there I think they’re going to I think they’re going to finish in the top four but all of this I think has become

With me saying I want to be honest about I want to look at this team be honest about what the roster looks like I do think Sports is a place for um misplaced optimism but for me I’ve started to put a cap on that I think yeah that’s interesting because that’s almost an

Intentional practice for a lot of sports has to be you know what I mean like that’s actually what a a lot of people just do like what the experience you’re you’re describing is basically what it meant to be a raptor fan for like a solid 10 years between when Vince Carter

Left and when they started winning again in like 2014 yeah and guess where we’re back at least temporarily like but some of the and seriousness like some of the things he just talked about about you know these deceptions that you allow yourself to have it’s part of phandom

Right like no no one’s going to want to hear us do these preview shows next year and come into the Year and be like well the Raptors are capping out at 35 wins you have to at least have the path to where things could be better but yeah

There’s there’s an element of realism in that in that same thought and you wrote this great piece uh for ESPN on the Timberwolves finally being real recently how how long did this this Timberwolves team have to show it to you before you kind of let go of that and we’re like

Hey I’m not being deceptive anymore this team’s actually good and actually you know like you said they’re finally real I think they’re still showing it still doesn’t feel entirely real to me I think um you know every time they because because there are still some flaws on the team there are still

You know they still kind of have these moments they play down to the level of their competition um I know we all love Anthony Edwards but you know the shot selection is is a bit distressing at times um you know the bench can be you know

There so the even now I find myself making these preemptive excuses for potentially being let down you know but I it does feel you know I remember when they got to number one in the west early in the season and I remember at that time being like well you know I remember

I tweeted about it I was like was a number one for the night you know it’ll be a couple nights maybe that that’s incredible First time i’ seen him number one in the West in almost you know 20 years or whatever and then it you know

They stayed there for a couple weeks and then a month and then a month and so it it does feel real um but there’s a little bit of heavy-hearted this for me here because it does feel like this is also happening on a clock the Tim rolls

Are on a very real timeline that isn’t very long which we knew I think as fans when the Rudy trade happened that this timeline is not necessarily long and so I’m really trying to uh be in the moment and not think about the future I’m not

Doing a lot of future escaping with the Timberwolves you know because I look at say like look at the Raptors right there’s um there’s some future escaping that I think you can do as a Raptors fan that is not timeline list like Scotty Barnes definitely has a timeline

And that’s important but it also feels like you can build a Time that is a bit more expansive right than the Timberwolves who feel like they’ve got like this year maybe next and that’s it they got to go for it and that’s it yeah well um speaking of the timeline you

Wrote this in the piece that was really interesting to me you wrote quote the car Anthony towns era which isn’t a single era but an era in pieces can you describe the era and pieces of Carl Anthony sounds’s time with the timber wolves yeah you know it’s to me it’s

Like heartbreaking I know it’s not a devastating injury and hopefully he’ll be back but he was playing the best ball of his career this year and kind of uh well I wouldn’t say it was unsung it began as unsung and then I think people began to give him proper credit just on

Both ends of the floor playing the best ball of his career uh or at least maybe the second best he also had a great season that Jimmy Butler year even though of course that marriage ended poorly um but yeah I mean he’s someone who uh I think I know that he’s of in

The the but of jokes and the laughing stock and all that but he’s really had a rough run and not just due to his personal losses but he’s just had like six head coaches and three or four different front offices and rosters that have never been built uh around his

Skill set at all and I think that’s actually been a flaw of the Timberwolves just entire team structure for a long time having talent and not actually building around the talent thoughtfully even with kg that that team wasn’t really built around his skill set thoughtfully until perhaps rewell and

Cell but Kevin Love It was kind of just like well this is our star and we’ll just get some guys and that was kind of the thing with cat you know there was a moment where to speak out a moment of delusion there was a moment when the Tim

Rolles had cat Wiggins and LaVine uh all much younger than they are now and I was like this is going to be it this is like the big three you know this is kind of big but they never really bought into Zack LaVine they were playing him at

Point guard you know they were just tanking with them and Wiggins was kind of always miscast as we saw um when he went to to Golden State that first year especially and so this the Carl Town’s career has been kind of divided in these experiments that haven’t really served

Him the Jimmy Butler tibs experiment and the Wiggins line experiment and then the you know the kind of Pat Bev hodge podge team experiment with the DLo experiment um some of those have gone better than others but this is kind of the the great this has been the greatest manifestation

Of uh and and I think it’s actually spearheaded by Rudy goar and Mike Conley I know that Anthony Edwards has has um changed the dynamic of the team undoubtedly but in terms of the impact on Carl Anthony town game um there’s a there’s a real thing that Rudy Gober

Does for him that brings out a defensive ability that I think a lot of people didn’t know he had um and there’s a way that Mike Conley kind of sees him on the floor he’s just not standing in the corner waiting for a three so hopefully

He comes back I mean hopefully you know uh the the the word is he’ll be back right at the start of the playoffs um and I I worry about a lot of these matchups in the west you know I look at the west and I worry about the Tim

Rolles matching up with a lot lot of these teams and so um you know we need them we need them back because the way it’s shaking out now you know if the timber rolls end up getting say the Warriors even in in that first round that’s that’s a tough matchup and then

It only gets tougher from there yeah and the way it looks right now honestly the kings are in six right now and they’re barely hanging on there but that might be your best case scenario to avoid one of those kind of more star driven teams that that are juggling the the playin

Spots there um on the the kind of Rudy go be era note look this this wolves team has been a lot of fun to cheer for I I’m a cat guy I love Anthony Edwards Nas Reed Mike Conley this is a likable team it’s taken me some time to come

Around on Rudy goar um because he’s he was not in Utah the most exciting brand of player um obviously there there he has not been the most easy to appreciate guy um as we know he started the pandemic for on court reasons and for nonsensical reasons did it take you a

Little bit to come around on Rudy goar 2o I’d imagine as a wolves fan there’s there’s an extra layer I don’t have to deal with which is the asset cost to get Rudy goar in the first place too did it take you a bit to get there with Rudy I

I try not to think about the asset cost anymore because if I do I don’t know I mean was it worth it I guess we’ll not know we’ll never know 46 and 21 it’s worth it for the moment yeah it’s worth it for the moment we don’t know you know

If if keante George becomes like a 10 time Allstar uh I will be a little bit hurt and who knows you know but I think it feels worth it now I say it feels worth it right now when the trade happened I was devastated I had to I

Like was on the road I called my therapist no joke I called my therapist and talk through the trade as so as though she was like an NBA analyst because I was like am I imagining uh that this could and I think it was mostly because Timberwolves fans at the

Time many of them were so excited many of them were like this is it this is our win now move and I had a moment where I was like am I losing my mind like I feel like I’m this is a nightmare you know um

But I all of that is to say that I wanted to be incorrect I desired to be incorrect my brain was like I don’t see how this works um but maybe I’ll be incorrect and it’ll be good and I at least for right now this year uh the

Payoff is worth it he’s probably gonna win I would guess win defensive player of the year or at least be top three I just don’t know who else you know wemi has a case I think um but it it just feels like they’re not going to give it

To a rookie especially not a rookie on a losing team even though I think the Spurs are losing not necessarily because of that roster construct is um they’re pretty much just waiting for Trey young I feel like this point they’re just kind of like they’re just keeping the seat

Warm for Trey young so it feels like Rudy is going to win defensive player of the year he’s elevated the play collectively of the team which I think actually is a difference you know I know that people talk about how Rudy in the playoffs and the pass has gotten played

Off the floor in Utah he didn’t have an elite perimeter Defender playing alongside him uh at least not one at the level of jayen McDaniels um and so I’m interested to see see how this works in the playoffs because ant when he when he locks in he defends well Jaden McDaniels

Is a great defender Rudy is not um overextended in the way that he’s had to be in the past in Utah uh so we’ll see but it is worth it today it is worth it I still try not to think about the total cost because I

It’s just it’s a little hard but you know this is what this is what sports I mean youall know this is the Raptors like you know sometimes exactly like you take the swing for the one season and sometimes that one season is miraculous and like no Raptors fan I

Feel like is going to be like well you know I wish we had that I wish we had our guys back yeah you know you they got yaka purle back and then Kellin Johnson’s the the other piece of it so I think I think they’re fine yeah but the

Way you guys are describing Rudy is like it’s like buying a bottle like buy a bottle of great Goose at the club like you know you overpaid for this but at least let’s make the most of this moment make some memories and hopefully you can

Look back at it and say you know what in the moment it was the right thing I think the coolest thing too is like obviously watching Edwards in through all of this right and Edwards personality wise it feels like he’s coming into the league the number one

Personality in the league at least for the young players coming up you know he seems to really I feel like old school guys love him and also new school guys love him as well and he almost seems to me has the personality of a superstar before his game matures to getting to

Superstar level impact what’s that level been like or watching Anthony Edwards both as the person and also as the player it’s been cool that that that Pacers I mean I’m going to remember that the end of that Pacers game forever that block he had was like watching that in

Real time it it’s rare now I’ve seen so many sports in my life like I’m sure y’all have it’s rare that something happens in a sports game in real time that like stuns me where I’m like that I can’t believe I just saw that that was

One of those moments even though if you were watching the game you could kind of see it happening uh you could kind of see him like tracking the ball but there’s moments like that where he just seems like he’s capable of of things that no one else is capable of and I

Think there’s a great crop of young talent I mean I know that you know not everyone has his personality or his magnetic kind of thing but I love SGA so much I do not love when the Tim RS have to play against him but do love watching him independently I mean talking about

The Raptors I love Scotty Barnes I mean there’s so many young players I really I think like this crop of NBA Talent so many people feel this anxiety of what will happen when LeBron and Steph are gone and I get that you know the face of

The league kind of question is there but in terms of like a young under 23 24 CP Tal there’s a lot of dudes who are talented but I think that what Anthony Edwards has as a separating thing is that he’s also kind of um there’s a fearlessness to his personality that

Translates both on and off the court for better and worse sometimes yeah but there’s um there’s something about him that’s so magnetic and funny and uh unfiltered there’s a playfulness it seems like he actually really loves playing basketball you know um he he doesn’t like to miss games he

Really fights to to play all the games he can there’s just not been uh you know I feel like Minnesota hasn’t had a player like that and i’ I’ve seen a lot of players come through Minnesota and have um you know told lies to myself about many of the players who come

Through Minnesota you know I remember when the timber drafted Derrik Williams I was like this is the guy he’s gonna so I mean but that’s what you do right so this is the first time uh where Tim rolls has drafted a guy and I watched Anthony Edwards in college a lot

And I just wasn’t very sold on his game you know but I knew he was probably the best of that draft um but to have it pay off like this I did not see it did not see it happening at this level this fast it’s uh it’s

Been a lot of fun man and they’ll be fun hopefully like you said hopefully cat’s back and they can continue this fun into the playoffs and give you lots to watch uh on your book tour maybe an addendum at the end to if there’s a hey I released this basketball book and then

The team I root for won a championship while I was uh on the book tour H thanks for taking the time out man best of luck with the the book launch next week and everyone we’ll push everyone to pre-order there’s always this year on basketball on a

Thanks man yeah thanks for having me and you know hopefully the Raptors uh give yall something to feel good about as the season winds down it’s it’s tough to see but I will uh I will do my best to look for those positives hanifa dur poet author all-around good guy ESPN

Contributor uh once in a while on the Timberwolves as well the book is there’s always this year on basketball and Ascension it’s out next Tuesday March 2 26th but you can pre-order it wherever you pre-order books right now I got mine coming already very very excited to dive

Into that dude this job’s so cool especially when the Raptors are losing it’s like all right you know what like we don’t have to focus on every single detail of the Raptors let’s expand a little bit let’s go let’s have conversations that we’ve always wanted

To have and yeah great idea what do you got for tomorrow because they don’t play for a while what do we have for tomorrow that’s a question we have for our producer one thing we do have for tomorrow is uh Canada men’s and women’s get their Olympic draw tomorrow that

Draw ceremony starts at 2 p.m. so we won’t I mean we’re not going to air it live they they tend to drag those things out but we will have the draws for you and I think tomorrow I will reveal the teams for the media game there is a

Media game coming up involving all your favorite and least favorite Raptors media people and uh that’ll take place later this week but that those for us today I’ve been your host will you’ve been listening to the Raptor show the sports radio network brought to you by Campbell new check by super sign got

Fired up thanks again to producer am producer D pale Jennifer Ock Davis say man to help him B this big thanks to our guess and we’ll be back tomorrow

Will Lou and Blake Murphy discuss the loss to the Magic, Gradey Dick and Immanuel Quickley. Afterwards, they go around the NBA to examine Kyrie Irving’s absurd game-winner and Victor Wembanyama continuing to surprise. In the final segment, Hanif Abdurraqib joins the show to talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves and his new book, “There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension.”

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0:00 – Raptors/Magic Recap & How Long is a Rebuild?
35:16 – Gary Trent Jr. & Gradey’s New Tattoos?
49:04 – Kyrie’s Game-Winer & Wembanyama
1:17:11 – Hanif Abdurraqib on the Timberwolves

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Raps Fall to Orlando & How Long Is A Rebuild? | Raptors Show Full Episode

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