Toronto Raptors defense no-shows vs. depleted Sixers | The case to keep Bruce Brown this summer

Toronto Raptors defense no-shows vs. depleted Sixers | The case to keep Bruce Brown this summer

On your Monday episode of lock on Raptors I don’t think anyone’s expecting these Toronto Raptors to be particularly good at defense but could they at least try you are locked on Raptors your daily Toronto Raptors podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every

Day hey what’s going on and welcome to another episode of Locked on Raptors part of the lock on podast podcast Network your team every day it is Monday April the 1st and I’m your host Sean Woodley I’ve been covering the Toronto Raptors now for 10 seasons on various

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To Premiere via push notification that’s a great thing because you get a heads up when I’m talking and everyone wants that right right right all right on today’s show we are digging into a Toronto Raptors 135 120 loss to the Tyrese Maxi Joel and beid Les Philadelphia 76ers

Lots of Kyle Lowry we’ll talk about Kyle coming up later on in the show just a little bit uh we’re going to get into Bruce Brown who had himself a nice game and frankly I think is making a case for uh just keeping him around if you can’t

Find a move for him this Summer we’ll dive into that a little further plus uh you know all the good bad fun we’ll get to but I want to start off with the defense in this game and look all caveats are understood there is not a lot of defensive Talent on this

Basketball team right now Kelly oen is basically their only workable big apologies to Mohammad gay and he’s not an especially good defensive player we know this but I found myself you know in the midst of like a lot of people you know in the Raptor lock down Raptor

Discord I had like friends and family messaging me being like hey this wasn’t such a bad game I was kind of scratching my head because this did not feel in any way like any sort of moral Victory type of game to me you know I’m I love moral

Victories I’m happy to you know settle with a loss that has some positive signs I just didn’t really feel like they were there in this game you know obviously this was was one of the better offensive games the raaps have played in a while because they’ve not played really any

Good offensive games in any recent stretch to score 120 points with this team is kind of a miracle but they did it against the Sixers team that again had no no Joel embiid again no Tyrese Maxi and was closing this game with like Tobias Harris as their nominal Center I

Would hope that players in the NBA could score points on this Sixers team in this game it’s on the defensive end against a line a lineup That featur campaign and mo bomba in the starting five and you know 10 minutes of KJ Martin and a whole

Lot of Paul Reed and five minutes of Jeff dton you would think that maybe you could string together like a few stops against this Sixers team and not give up 30 plus in every single quarter but no this Raptor team was not capable of slowing down this Sixers offense in any

Way shape or form and so yeah sure Jordan War has a nice night scores eight 19 points on eight of 18 shooting classically efficient from him um you know you have Javon Freeman Liberty gets to 11 on pretty inefficient shooting yeah Bruce Brown has a nice game like I

Don’t really care about the offensive stuff in this game you should have scored points against the Sixers team you also should have been able to like halfway defend the Sixers team even in this skeleton roster State and I just found it like a very disappointing game

To watch like just if we can just for a moment have a moment of silence for all of the Toronto Raptors who died on screens in this game against the Sixers we’ll have that now we don’t want too much dead air so that’s the moment and

Also like we don’t need to like mourn those guys that much because uh like they they they just there’s just no fight on the defensive end right now and look like again I know that they’re not super talented at the moment they’re without Scotty Barnes and yaka purle they’re two best defensive players

Emanuel quickley and RJ Barett even if they’re not great Defenders are more passable than a lot of the guys they’re rolling out right now quickly in particular as like a rotational guy shot contester Etc uh it’s just to me the guys who are fighting for jobs on this

Team the guys who were trying to stick around long term the Jordan waras the Gary Trent jors the Kobe Simmons’s the Javon Freeman Liberties these are the guys who you know Jaylen McDaniels these are guys are trying to carve out roles on next year’s team on the next serious

Toronto Raptors team and all of them can score we know this every NBA player given room to cook can score that’s why they’re in the NBA but for these guys in particular like all of these guys are fighting for jobs on next year’s Raptors team where the thing they’re going to

Have to do to be viable contributors to help bring the whole thing together around Scotty Yak IQ RJ is they’re going to have to defend we know this team is light on high-end defensive Talent after the moves of this season and they’re looking for guys who can fill in those

Gaps who can be there and be a 68 Wing who can stand in and not get blown by like a Turn Style AKA Jordan War right like you’re you’re looking for guys who can show a little bit of nastiness on that end you know the guy who I think

I’m just been like yearning for all season long is Vince Williams with the Memphis Grizzlies they’re bad they stink they’re 28th in defense since March 1 the Raptors are 29th like it’s not like the Grizzlies are any great shakes but Vince Williams is a maniac Vince

Williams is like a an absolute stud on the defensive end and he tries that Grizzlies team tries I I’m wrong they’re 24th in in defense 29th in offense uh not very good um but their defense is like you know not good but they’re actually passable and you know throwing

Guys out there who are actually kind of giving a damn and for me I’m just not seeing much of that with this Raptor team sure you know there’s some highflying stuff on offense we’ve seen some nice dunks here and there but on the defensive end like just like it’s

The little effort things it’s not even the stuff that requires immense defensive Talent or length or athleticism it’s fighting through screens the number of times a raptor just fell apart on a screen or got hung up on a screen was just like uncountable in this game it’s just it’s every single time a

Screen gets set the guy who’s being screened is lost from the play leaving Kelly oen on an island to to defend you know I think there’s just way too much in terms of conceding easy switches with this team right now this is not a team that boasts like multi-positional

Defenders across the board what I’d like to see and you know I’m not sure if this is a coaching thing I’m not sure if this is just players if it’s a coaching thing I I I don’t want it to be that going forward I would hope that there’s a

Little bit more sort of you know especially with this team guys trying to fight like encourage guys to fight through screens encourage guys to not just die and concede the switch that’s a nice thing to do when you have again like a a lineup where everyone can

Switch and hang on every type of position that’s not what this Raptor team right is right now you’re trying to build good habits right you’re trying to build something you’re trying to build some kind of defensive identity and this team is not at all you know giving any

Sort of extra effort to fight through d who are in the way on defense their rotations are short they’re they’re slow um you know they’re kind of defending the initial action they just like hoping and praying that someone will miss on the back end the Sixers didn’t do that

In this game the Sixers T 16 of 27 on wideopen threes in this game per nba.com 42 of their 43 threes were either open or wide open per their tracking data and yes that’s noisy but it’s also extreme and noisy data can Al often be kind of

Indicative of stuff if it’s very extreme and the Raptors just like conceding threes to the Sixers team which rained threes on their head all night without much impunity like that’s that that’s on them in large part yeah there’s some shooting variants there there’s some luck obviously but there’s also just

Like a lack of intense rotation going on here you’re seeing Jordan War get blown by every single time he’s sized up by a smaller guard by a wing whatever it is he can’t stay in front of anybody you’re just you’re missing all of the sort of small little things that you would hope

That a team full of guys trying to stake their claim to jobs in the NBA would at least be throwing their themselves into right like it’s just not what we’re seeing right now and so yeah you score 120 points on the Sixers I I don’t care because you gave up 1 38.9 offensive

Rating to a Sixers team that without embiid and Maxi on the floor together this season has had like 111 offensive rating it’s like a 29th percentile offense in the league without embi Maxi and you just let them go for nearly 140 points per 100 possessions it’s pathetic

Like frankly is it’s just I I can’t get on the moral Victory train here because they kept this one within single digits in the fourth quarter considering the way they were scoring in this game just like a little bit of defensive resistance probably gets them a win and

Gets them off the 13 game losing streak there aren’t moral victories when you’ve lost 13 in a row and your season has completely fallen into a state of unwatch ability it’s just I I know I sound like a grump here but you’re trying to look at stuff for next season

You’re trying to find those positives those little inklings of O there could be something there and none of these guys who are fighting for these backend jobs are doing anything to really convince me they belong on a serious version of this Raptor’s team it’s tough man like it’s just I don’t really care

About the 19 points for Jordan War I really don’t because he is one of the worst individual Defenders I think I’ve ever seen play basketball for the Toronto Raptors it’s it’s tough stuff even Gary Trent J J like we know Gary Trent Jr can score he scored 23 points

On 20 shots last night a pretty Gary game but like is he G to try to fight over a screen is he going to like kind of mix it up and do his defensive thing like he’s had stretches of late where it’s happened didn’t feel like it was

There at all last night just a total lack of resistance and again there’s only so much Kelly oen can do he’s not been helping matters by any means but he’s also the only big on the team right now they’re you know putting him in an island they’re forcing these switches

Where he’s guarding smaller quicker guys he can’t stay in front of um or he’s in drop coverage and just kind of can’t man the in between there there’s lobs going over his head all the time he’s part of this as well but he also offers like tangible things that are going to help

Next year’s team when they’re at full health he’s going to be more insulated defensively one would assume these other guys who are fighting for the scraps fighting for those ninth 10th 11 spots on next year’s team in the rotation like defense is going to have to be a thing

They bring to the table and right now no one outside of maybe jav Freeman Liberty for some stretches is really giving me all that much and so uh yeah disappointing disappointing stuff I I just cool you scored 120 on Tobias Harris backline rim protector good for

You um we’ll come back on the other side get into a guy who did have a good game in this one and a guy who I keep on thinking is maybe getting a bit of a bad RP and is maybe better kept in Toronto Beyond this summer then moved on from or

Declined we’ll get into Bruce Brown and the case for keeping him around after a pretty nice game for him coming up in just one second Today’s Show is brought to you by friends over at prize picks the single best place to play daily fantasy sports with more than three million members it

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Download the app and go to use the code locked in NBA when you do that for a first deposit match up to $100 prize picks pick more pick less it’s that easy we continue on here with your first listen of the day thanks so much for hanging out talking about a Raptors 135

120 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in a game uh that I guess some people felt all right about from you know just my various looking at Raptors online but uh I don’t feel good I’m sick of watching the team not win games and and just sort

Of to put a bow on the the sort of thought before when it comes to like darkar rakovic I do think the sort of biggest question I have based on this season is like what is his idea on defense and obviously he hasn’t had the Personnel to implement much this year

The personnel’s been different they have changed the team a thousand times over over the course of 82 games I don’t expect that there would be like a great defensive infrastructure in place right now but I am fascinated to see like with players on the team from day one who are

Going to be on the team with yaka purle as the backline rim protector with Scotty Barnes taking steps forward like what is the plan here on defense that is I think probably my biggest darkar rakovich question coming out of this year I have no questions about his

Offense I think the offense is going to be probably above average next year with health um but the defense Still Remains a question mark and obviously that’s on Personnel too the front office has to go get some dudes who can defend please some wings who can defend please um

Anyway that’s just my last thought there let’s get into uh Bruce Brown shall we last night really tidy game for him seven of nine from the field 18 points four boards six assists two steals uh three of four from downtown as well nice to see him getting the Jimmy going from

Deep and look it’s not gone well with Bruce Brown I know this he’s been a lightning rod of sorts he’s been someone who uh you know has kind of drawn a lot of ey he’s part of a trade that I think was bad and unnecessary I I I still

Maintain they did not have to do the Pascal SE yakum trade after acquiring manual quickly and RJ Barrett for ogn and Obi we can don’t have to relitigate that but you know I think the fact that Bruce Brown is one of the returns in that deal is something that you know is

Just s of a sore spot right it’s like picking at a scab it’s like ah that thing reminds me of that thing that happened to me right it’s just you know love it that said just because it hasn’t gone super well with Bruce Brown yet

Doesn’t mean that it can’t go well and I am coming around on the idea that it’s probably just best if they can’t find like a trade where he is used as salary matching in a deal that gets you a serious upgrade like Bruce Brown plus picks is kind of an interesting

Theoretical trade package for whomever this offseason the number of picks will vary depending on who it is you’re targeting etc etc obviously I got my eye on wings there’s this team needs Wings they need Wing defense they need size length guys who can fill in the gaps

Defensively on this team in between some not so great Defenders on the perimeter and quickly and Barett although again quickly I think is fine um you know if Bruce Brown can be your Avenue to that plus some picks attached great I think that’s awesome but if that’s not there I

Think there’s this sort of thinking that oh just just decline his contract they won’t bring him back next year at the 21 mil or whatever he’s making and they’ll go to the cap space route I kind of don’t know if I want to go the cap space

Route the more you look at the free AG agent class the more it bums you out uh at least I’m speaking from my own experience I’m not sure if you have dabbled the same as I have but it’s like not a very good free agent class it’s

Just the way it is if they had the cap space to go and throw it at Paul George sure but like that’s not going to happen Paul George is not coming to a very bad Toronto Raptors team he’s going to the Sixers if he’s going anywhere probably

Um he probably just sticks around in La we’ll see what the playoffs spring either way like if there was that sort of big gigantic addition you could go make with a bounty of cap space I’d be all over it but I just don’t think that’s there I talked about Malik monk

He’s interesting as a talent play it’s not bad but I do think defensively the team would just be really really bad and I don’t want to watch a really bad defensive team anymore I want to watch a team that actually has a chance of stopping modern NBA offense which is

Just not have have had all season long um that’s i’ have a couple of brief flourishes here and there I think with Bruce Brown you know declining him and going the cap space route like you’re opening up a whole lot of uncertainty whereas if you just keep Bruce Brown and

Pay Gary Trent Jr you avoid the cap space route you stay as an overthe cap team you have the mid-level exception to work with to hopefully throw at a wing of the likes of I don’t know Naji Marshall or Caleb Martin something like that like I think that might just be the

Better way to build a full and coherent roster than hoping to go and sign some big ticket free agent with cap space which they don’t even have as much cap space as they were rejected for because they signed Kelly linic etc etc I just the cap space thing seem like less of a

Viable path to me and so if you can’t find a real trade for Bruce Brown at the draft I think there’s a real case to keep him around you need connective basketball players to play coherent basketball um you know the Raptors have some of those in Kelly oin and yako

Perle but like a guard who can also be a connector for you pretty good I I think they haven’t used Bruce Brown especially well so far this season I think there are ways to use him I think um that second unit they had him running with

With oai abaji and Kelly o linck and Scotty Barnes and Grady dick like there’s something there whether it’s brown as the sort of point guard or brown as like a a screening and Diving small ball five with o Linux spacing out like I think there’s something there to

Work with we know that Bruce Brown is really effective in that role in particular as the small ball guy who can make plays on the short roll and if you can surround him with some size and some shooting there’s something interesting going on there I think um you know we

Saw some quick chemistry right out the gate with him and Scotty Barnes I didn’t get to tap into it a ton because Scotty got hurt and all of that but I I do think there that second unit had some legs to it given some more run and so I

Just because I don’t think the cap space route’s going to Bear a whole lot of fruit I I just think I’d rather have Bruce Brown and Gary Trent Jr on the team than ex-free agent they could potentially go sign and again like if you go get Malik monk Talent upgrade

Sure monk is better on your team than brown plus Trent but you’re banking on being the one team that signs Malik monk in a league of 30 in a league where like 10 teams are going to have cap space you know you have to it’s a big risk

Like playing for cap space we know this the Raptors played for cap space with Giannis and got burned for it and in some ways are still paying the price for it and so I just I don’t love selling out your whole plan to go and sign a

Free agent it’s just not how this Raptor team is ever going to be built how it’s ever been built and frankly it’s not how teams build in the modern NBA either it’s just it’s via trade it’s via draft and it’s you know via internal development it’s how teams get better it

Free agency is a is a nice little luxury that handful of teams have real access to and you know most of the time stars are going to pick their destinations anyway via trade and so I I just I think Brown is useful I think he’s a good

Player I don’t think he’s the sort of misshapen out of sorts player he’s looked like since arriving in Toronto we’ve seen him be a closer on a championship team in the last year and I think there’s some serious value to that and again I continue to maintain that

Bruce Brown will be better on a well functioning healthy version of this Raptor team then right now where he’s spread too thin he’s playing 30 plus minutes a game he’s being asked to run point a lot of the time like that’s tough it’s just not a role that you want

For Bruce brown but on this team where he can be a seventh or eighth guy with an ascendant Scotty Barnes and ascendant RJ Barrett Emanuel quickley yaka purle Kelly oen to take away some playmaking duties like I think there’s something there where he can fit into a team and

Be helpful and I do think that if you’re going to trade Bruce Brown if you’re just trying to offload him for a pick like at this year’s draft you maybe get a second for him at the deadline next year maybe you you build this value back

Up and there’s a first to be had and if not maybe he just walks and you get the cap relief next summer I I don’t think that’s a bad thing either I I just think you know moving on from him this Summer just because ah he hasn’t been very good

For a few months is kind of a short-sighted way to look at it and I I I think he can offer value to this team next season if he’s here and again my number one sort of option with Bruce Brown would find a deal for him trade

Him plus stuff for an upgrade that is what I think this team should be doing I think they’re in the position having Scotty Barnes quickly and bear it all in place where they’re looking to fill in around them and create a team a functioning cohesive team that makes

Geometrical Sense on the floor that has the skill sets you need across the board if you can go find a wing for Bruce Brown and some picks that is like the dream outcome but of course it’s always less likely that a trade will happen

Than it is for it to not happen and so I I think it’s just you know if if push comes to shove and you get to the draft you haven’t moved Bruce Brown you’re staring down the decision of oh do we decline his option and just get the cap

Space route going and maybe renounce Gary Tren Jr and try to go that way I don’t think you can really have your cake and eat it too like I think if you’re renouncing Bruce Brown and signing Gary Trent Jr your cap space has gone anyway if I’m not mistaken or it’s

Pretty close to null and void so it’s kind of a you keep both or you keep neither situation to me a little bit and at this point considering how the Market’s looking considering like what those guys can do to be complimentary players on a team that has all of its

Players available which they certainly don’t right now I think there’s something there with Bruce Brown to offer and whether he’s helping next year’s team just be more competent or he’s just someone you move at the deadline I I think there’s a reason to keep him around through this through the

Draft and through his guaranteed date um so we’ll see but yeah I I think I’m coming around on just keep Bruce Brown don’t get silly with it don’t get cute with the cap space thing barring a trade just keep him around and have him be a useful player for you because he can

Absolutely be that as we saw last night against the Sixers where he was probably their best player um you know get that floer game going when that floater game’s going it’s fun it hasn’t been going a ton but I do love Bruce Brown’s weirdo floaters off balance they’re uh a

Fun little Wrinkle In what the Raptors roll out there we’ll come back on the other side we’ll round It Up With The Good The Bad and we’ll send you off into the rest of your Easter Monday do that coming up in just one sec Today’s Show is brought to you by by

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Learn more visit Amazon comlock onfire TV all right uh rounded up the show here on your Monday breaking down the Raptors loss to the Philadelphia 76ers 1351 120 and we’ll round it out with The Good the Bad and the H the way we wrap every episode on the heels of a Toronto

Raptor basketball game of which there are mercifully only eight left this year also heads up uh prompted by a very good uh Discord question by I can’t remember who sent it in uh there will be an episode or a series of episodes after the season where we just go all good all

Bad all H it’ll be a full season review of The Good The Bad and The Hum of the Toronto Raptor season but uh with that on the deck just yet let’s get to today’s game or last night’s game against the Sixers the good for me that

Kyle Larry’s still doing this at 38 it brings me so much damn joy to watch him continue to be annoyingly smart and savvy and Kyle Lowry about every damn thing he does taking charges poking balls loose pull up transition threes we love Kyle Lowry uh it’s just he’s a

Delight he has brought me more joy as a basketball fan than any player in NBA history I could watch Kyle Lowry be Kyle Larry on the floor all day long and to see him doing it for Philly it’s weird it’s strange it’s a little strange

Seeing him in like a blue jersey um it’s it throws you off a little bit but he’s still very much Kyle Lowry extremely recognizable in terms of the stuff he does on the floor 11 points 10 B 10 assists last night just like what a treat we love Kyle Lowry and uh happy

He’s still getting to cook with a team that hopefully gets their guys back and it’s pretty serious it’d be cool to see him go on a run although it is a little Bittersweet to see him doing with Nick nurse and all that stuff uh it was also

Truly shocking there was one point in this game where Kelly oen posted up Kyle Larry and uh scored easily it was very strange kind of a passage of time thing a little bit watching Kyle lry unable to guard a post up uh not something we’ve

Often seen in these parts but shed it to Kelly for scoring on the best post defender of the last 20 years uh sorry Draymond Green I’m biased here let’s go to the bad the bad has nothing to do with this game really because like we talked about it the defense was bad and

It was bad from a lot of guys so I’m not going to rail on Jordan War’s inability to stay in front of a guy anymore um but the bad for me is just like the general sentiment around the team from from fans I talked to saw a lot of people this

Weekend uh I was at the Raptor Republic three on three tournament over the weekend that was a ton of fun saw lots of great Pals lots of listeners lots of um you know Raptors Republic Geniuses pod guest past and future Etc um you know I saw family for Easter stuff and

You know lots of raptors fans in the family and just like a lot of raptors fans in my life a lot of people who like ostensibly work covering the team in my life who are just like universally checked out on this whole thing it’s a bummer of a place to be for an

Entertainment product for a thing that has brought Raptors fans so much joy over the last 10 years or so there’s been so much good this season has been a real step back and really this is when I talk about you know the damaging toll of wasting seasons of tanking and again I

Know the Raptors right now their tank is partly imposed by injury and personal tragedy so I get it but when you talk about lost Seasons like this like this is the stuff that causes fan base atrophy This Is The Stuff where you lose the the casuals on the p on the fringes

Of the fan base where they turn their eyes towards something else where they become Leaf fans or blue jays fans or just like don’t watch basketball at all it makes the conversation around the team a bummer as opposed to something that should be exciting and fun and a

Shared common interest it’s just like again I know a lot of it’s out of their control but to have this now be a a second season of the last four that’s been kind of lost it’s it’s a bummer and like they just I continue to maintain they cannot afford

To be this bad next year they really can’t like this is just they’re too serious a franchise they have title pixie dust serious franchises don’t go into the tubes for multiple Seasons they figure out a way out of it and I I think the Raptors need to like do some serious

Franchise stuff this summer to find their way back towards competitiveness to at least being like a top eight team in the Eastern Conference next season and I think it’s there for them and frankly I think the goal should be maybe not to this extreme because the Rockets

Have won 11 games in a row but if you can be like the Rockets where you’re on the fringes maybe you’re not like any great shakes but you have some moments where you surprised where you look like oh this is like a fun team on the rise

And you have the capacity to go on a late season heater like that should be the aspirational goal for next season for this team and like I love that the Rockets didn’t just pack it in when they lost a bunch of games and we out of the

Playoffs and Alper and shun went down they said no like we’re going to go and try to like build something here still and keep our guys in and actually push and they did and it’s awesome and they’re giving their fans like something to truly get excited about and so I just

Think you know just the general Vibe of talking to people who like this team who love this team who all they want to do is talk about and love this team just a grim scene right now man like it’s just it’s a bummer and hopefully this is just

A brief little blip on the radar in otherwise pretty successful run here with Scotty Barnes at the helm but uh you can’t afford another year like this man you cannot afford L Seasons they just you’re not the Hornets you’re not the Wizards you’re a more serious legitimate franchise than those teams

Are you have to act like it you can’t just like oh well I guess we’re just down in the tubes for a while like no like do something to take control of your situation and get out of it whether it’s a big swing for a player whether

It’s um you know I don’t know just like just building upon what the good parts were this year leaning into those like whatever it is next year’s got to be more serious this cuz I want to like be at the Raptors public tournament and like enjoy talking to people about the

Team is that such a crazy dream to have um anyway just a thought from talking to a lot of raptors fans and various things this this summer this weekend um everyone’s bummed everyone’s very excited for baseball season and that’s not a place you want to be I love

Baseball but I would like to be more invested in the basketball for the next little stretch um my h to close out the show is tied to the Bruce Brown thing tied to the Gary Tren Jr thing it’s kind of like a would you rather and I’m

Curious sort of what the comments would say about this um maybe I’ll put Pitch this to someone when when I have a guest on the show to kind of throw throw stuff off of later in the week but um but buddy heeled he’s an expiring deal he’s

Going to be a free agent this summer it seemed like his Market was going to be a lot more robust but he’s only been kind of H for the Sixers so far and he is kind of like Gary Trent Jr pretty one-dimensional guy right like not a great defender bombs threes like a

Maniac I think he’s a way more Dynamic player than Gary Tren Jr has a bit more playmaking chops Etc like I think I’d rather have buddy heeld on my team than Gary Trent Jr although it’s close and I guess you know the power of having bird

Rights makes it so Gary Trent Jr is you know he’s just more likely to be around obviously but um I do think it’s an interesting sort of what if like what if the Raptors were to not pick up Bruce Brown’s option decline it we or renounce

Tren J’s bird rights not bring him back go to the cap space route and sign buddy hee and then also throw minimum cheap contract for a one-year retirement tour deal at Kyle Lowry let’s just say that like let’s just because I can’t quit my

Dudes uh what if they were to be sort of like okay you swap out Bruce and Gary Trent Jr bring in an upgrade I think in buddy heeld over Gary trench then probably a slight downgrade in Kyle Lowry versus Bruce Brown although uh that feels Saed to say and maybe it’s

Not I don’t know having just like a sage veteran backup point guard might not be the worst thing in the world for this team um someone for a manual quickly to learn from etc etc like I think there would be certain upsides if you were able to convince Kyle Lowry to spend his

Last year on a midling team at best um maybe that’s enough I don’t know but maybe maybe you’re rooting for the Sixers to win the title this year so he feels accomplished enough to just come back and close it out with the Raptors for a season I don’t know but either way

Just the sort of what if of if you could swap out Bruce Brown and Gary Trent Jr for for Buddy hee and Kyle Lowry is that something you do I I know this is just kind of like a segment we’re doing on the show now where the Raptors play a

Team and I look at their pending ufas and say h what about that guy but I mean it seems like as good a topic development thing I could be doing at the moment uh so I think it’s a fascinating one I think I you know I’m

Not super keen on buddy heeld but I do think his spacing and sort of the dynamism he brings is pretty huge and like I think he would be an upgrade in the starting five over Gary Tren Jr defensively kind of a wash and I think he’s just like a slightly more uh

Terrifying three-point shooter that kind of makes defenses worry a little bit more I think his self-creation is a little bit more interesting as well he can create for others way better like twice the the assist numbers of Gary Trent Jr typically and so I I think that’s an interesting one you know again

It’s not a long-term solution it’s probably like a shorter deal for Buddy hee but um you know if you’re looking at a stop Gap to kind of keep things competitive keep the team functioning and healthy and and able to produce decent basketball next year you don’t

Want to Gary Trent Jr around for two three years I do wonder if maybe like uh you know if you have the cap space a one-year balloon payment to Buddy hee maybe make him like a trade asset like the Pacers did with Bruce Brown too there’s something there uh or like a

Couple year deal whatever it is uh plus a again a cheap retirement tour deal for Kyle lry might not be the worst thing in the world just a thought as we round out the show uh we’ll leave it there thank you so much for tuning in thanks for

Supporting the show as always really appreciate anyone who’s still sticking with it lots of you still are you’re all maniacs and and I love each and every one of you Maniacs you’re the best uh and we’ll continue on with draft coverage we’re going to hopefully get Richard staman from lock on NBA big

Board on this week so we’ll sort that out um and have a good little chat about the draft and what’s going on there um and we’ll uh yeah we got V coming back tomorrow we’ll probably play a little game with him maybe a little would you rather something like that a little

What’s more likely something along those lines to keep things fresh uh as we continue on this week and talk about the games talk about the draft and everything else there is thank you as always for supporting the show we’ll be back again on Tuesday another episode of lockdown Raptors thanks for hanging bye-bye

In Episode 1605, Sean Woodley goes solo to recap the Toronto Raptors’ 13th-consecutive loss, a 135-120 defeat at the hands of the Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers in which the Raptors’ defense was as lifeless as it’s been at any time during this dire late season stretch. Off the top, Sean rejects the notion that this was some sort of moral victory for the Raptors, who to their credit managed one of their better offensive showings in a while, but completely failed to offer any resistance against a Sixers team without its two best players — a troubling item considering how badly this Raptors team could use a couple of guys popping on the defensive stretch during this phase of end-of-roster evaluation. Next, Sean talks about a strong effort from Bruce Brown, and lays out the case for just keeping Brown around if they can’t find a deal for an upgrade on the wing involving his salary before his deal becomes guaranteed for next year. Lastly, Sean runs through The Good (Kyle Lowry, still doing it), The Bad (the generally checked-out vibe of the fan base) and The Hmmm (Would you Rather: Bruce Brown & Gary Trent Jr. OR Buddy Hield & Kyle Lowry on next year’s team?) to round out the show.

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