The Toronto Raptors are all-in on Scottie Barnes & Immanuel Quickley | Are they done making moves?

The Toronto Raptors are all-in on Scottie Barnes & Immanuel Quickley | Are they done making moves?

on your Tuesday episode of Locked on Raptors the future started yesterday you are locked on Raptors your daily Toronto Raptors podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every [Music] day hey what’s going on and welcome to another episode of Locked on Raptors part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day it is Tuesday July the 9th and I’m your host Sean Woodley I’ve been coming the Toronto Raptors now for 10 seasons on various platforms you can find all my work over on the hell website at Woodley Shan you can find the show on Instagram at lockon Raptors and of course you can join us over in the lockon Raptors Discord server where the sickos are out last night someone posted quote unquote whoa BR Bryce senspa lowkey nice uh yeah we’re into the real summer hours on the lockdown Raptor Discord come and join the sickos just like you and you can be part of our growing listener Community Link in the description of the podcast free to join as always of course you can find the show for free where get your podcast on the audio side of things follow subscribe rate review tell a friend all that good stuff much appreciated when you support the show on the audio side of things you can also go to YouTube and subscrib to the lock on Raptors YouTube channel when you do that also hit the notification Bell button you will get a push notification to your device every single time the show is about to Premiere or go live so you never miss a second of that sweet sweet locked on Raptors action today’s lock on Raptors action is brought to you by our friends over at fandu will make every moment more as the playoffs wind down the Sports Stop sporting like we want them to but this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everyone every day all summer long visit fanduel.com lockon to get started all right let’s get rolling here joined today by Lewis zatzman from raptor Republic to take stock of a big blustery press conference yesterday with Emanuel quickly and Scotty Barnes being announced with their new deals with the team all sorts of uh you know Illusions to the Future beginning now and all of that good stuff and also some Illusions to the roster building being done really uh we’re gonna get into all that today with Lewis who is here lovely to have him back on the show Lewis how the hell are you pal hey man the sickos are out I’m ready to be here you know what I can get I can understand watching Vegas summer league all the teams are there but like the first week of July your choosing to instead of going out and enjoying the summer watch Utah Summer League I don’t know man uh seek help touch grass uh we love all the sickos the sickos are what make the podcast world go around of course but please stop posting about Bryce sensal on my timeline all right let’s get into it Lewis uh we were going to talk today about you know the Raptors whether or not they’re actually done roster building as it seemed like they pretty much declared yesterday via Messi Jerry Bobby Webster etc etc we’ve got of course a look at next season and how good or not good the Raptors figure to want to be but off the top we have to talk about Scotty Barnes a manual quickly being in introduced you know you know it was already kind of informally official that they were going to be the guys this thing was built around but it definitely felt like they put the stamp down yesterday this is the Scotty and IQ era and it begins now what were your overall impressions of the presser yesterday from the globan mail center high above the T Skyline uh you know not using OVO not using the arena Fresh locations all that stuff it’s all brand new here Lewis overall thoughts and sort of level of belief in the bet the Raptors are clearly making here on Scotty Barnes and Emanuel quickley being the duo to lead them into the future yeah I was surprised it wasn’t Hotel X that was my that would have been my B to location but uh I so it’s clear that they are happy with their team right Messi was really like the the one word I would have used to describe the mood was jubilant sure like this is the team that they want um Messi even went so far as to say he hasn’t been happy for a long time in declaring that you know himself happy now that’s always risky right to be like now is the first time I’m happy that will never backf but uh yeah I the my level of confidence is not to the same extent as my sa jury we’ll probably get into that but yeah th this is clearly the team that Messi wants that Bobby wants and they are very pleased with how their summer went yeah I look I I think I’m probably a little bit more on the side of you know the Scotty IQ of it all I think that’s a perfectly fine bet to make uh I think Scotty Barnes is excellent I think as a manual quickly noted yesterday it’s rare to find a guy who has that sort of star Juice who plays both ends of the flooor uh you know the creation he brings to the table the multi-positional defense that in theory he can bring I think that’s got to come a long way still uh you know as much as he really found himself as a help Defender and a rim protector there’s still a lot of on ball stuff to clean up and we all know the story with his defense at this point but Scotty Barnes I I think there’s just like no doubt that the you know the rookie Max extension totally fair value for him and he stands a very good chance of exceeding that value over the course of the life of the deal once it kicks in following this coming season with a manual quickly I think it’s maybe a little bit more sort of divided among the fan base as to how much belief there is listener of this podcast know I am very bullish on Emanuel quickly I think he’s a really smart bet I have no problem with the contract whatsoever interesting nugget yesterday that uh that was sort of released out there that it’s going to be a flat 35 mil a year for the next five seasons so that might feel a little heavy in year one but every single year it’s going to become a lesser part of the salary cap piie that the Raptors are splitting up and by the end of that deal he’d be making 177% of the salary cap that feels like it has the potential to age exceptionally well if things go to plan here with quickly and again I am very much on the side of yes I understand the issues with getting to the rim and picking up the dribble too early although he very much worked on that down the stretch the defense obviously at the point of attack needs to be a little bit better than it’s been although I think you can get by with a lead guard Defender who’s maybe not the greatest Defender alive I think we’ve seen that work just fine for a lot of teams if there’s proper insulation behind him and we’ll get into my concerns about the insulation behind him but I think for me Lewis the thing that really has me feeling confident in quickly sort of making good on this deal and probably exceeding the value of the deal he just seems to have the feel of being a lead guard down and he had it down pretty quickly in a very difficult team context I just think the the sort of finger on the pulse stuff that look for from a point guard it’s hard to quantify the numbers wouldn’t suggest it’s really there he didn’t drive winning when he was on the floor or anything like that but watching him to sort of get command of the team and settle in as a playmaker as a guy who can set the table for others and also be a guy whose value is not entirely tied to being on the ball he’s someone who can wreak havoc away from the ball as well uh which is maybe not so common for lead guard types in the NBA these days I think quickly stands a chance of more than exceeding the value of that contract like he’s going to make it look like a bargain as it progresses maybe not so much in year one but again you’re paying for future performance and five years is a long time and a lot of runway for development where do you come down as being a little bit less sort of bullish on that bet uh what is it that gives you pause about quickly about Barnes about the combination of the two you know the floor is yours I think you want your lead guard to be able to drive Elite offense basically no matter who else is on the court as long as they’re NBA guys you know I’m not saying for Malik Williams but um and I’m not sure quickly will be able to do that okay um at any point in his career is the thing like he certainly can’t now he couldn’t last year um and I and and I love what he brings as an additive measure I think he’s a really nice complimentary player to Scotty um I would prefer to see quickly handling Scotty screening be a little better but at that point when you’re nitpicking that you’re talking about specific play types that’s small right he’s a shooter he’s a mover he’s a screener that’s all nice for what Scotty brings but when you look at you know two star teams which is what the Raptors sort of are betting on being at this point um both Stars can hold up their end of the bargain without the other on the floor right Scotty will be able to drive winning basketball no matter without quickly on on the floor I’m not sure quickly can do the same right Kyle Lowry was able to do that when Kawhi Leonard sat or when DeMar rosen sat or in Pascal yakum sat right in 2020 21 um staff was able to drive winning offense when clay and Draymond and and uh Kevin Durant all sat it’s it’s championship teams Jamal Murray was able to cook when yic sat championship teams have that in their second best Star and I just don’t know if quickly given of the issues you mentioned he doesn’t create layups for himself really or for others uh you know defensively you you need to scheme around him uh I don’t know I see him probably as the third maybe the fourth best player on a championship team I don’t think the second I think that’s fair I I I think I do really buy into the concept of sort of point guards taking May a little longer to figure things out and I do think especially with quickly right like his first three and a half seasons were all right you’re a bench Gunner go do bench Gunner things and you know the the few fleeting glimpses we got of him kind of running the show with the Knicks you know pretty encouraging returns and I think I I just don’t know if any of the sort of winning basketball stuff from last year can be taken into account because like you said he was not playing with four NBA players a lot of the time or if he was he was playing with four eighth men and guys who you know our serious team isn’t going to be rolling out there for serious minutes in high leverage games I think Quickly’s ability to uh you know just just sort of the pull-up shooting is kind of where it begins for me right like I am so high on pullup shooting being the sort of skill that unspools opposing defenses and I think he brings that as well as anybody else and I think as the progression goes as the development goes as he gets more time and Reps I think that skill is going to open up all the other stuff for him eventually he’s finished at The Rim just fine last year 71% at The Rim I think if you can uptick that V that that sort of volume a little bit um in a better team context with better spacing playing with yaka purle in particular with that pick and roll combination really bore a lot of fruit uh I think there is something there especially you know as we mentioned the Scotty Barnes thing the sort of leveling up of that Tandem and their chemistry that’s going to unlock a lot of things for quickly as well um and I do think Barnes is going to have a lot of agency over the development of quickly as this contract goes along um that said you know maybe he is not the second best player on this team I think the contract he’s earning in what the landscape is going to be going forward will give them the ability to find a second guy if they need to right and I think like RJ Barrett probably becomes the the pivot point there if if you want to find an upgrade on the wing maybe Barrett becomes a guy you put into a trade to go and do that maybe a guy appears in the draft next season maybe they’re bad they get some Lottery luck and Ace Bailey becomes your number two guy or whomever you want to look at in next year’s draft I don’t think that as much as they’re giving a lot of Runway and a lot of responsibility to quickly I don’t think it necessarily means that he has to be the second best player on this team for them to find success over the course of the next five years but I do think he’s good enough and talented enough to give him a couple years to sort of figure out hey maybe he is maybe we don’t need to go and pursue that clear second star let’s give quickly the runway here to figure out if that is what he is and maybe works out maybe it doesn’t maybe my bullishness will be proven wrong but uh I I just believe a lot in the sort of slow bur development guys development from point guards I guess if you know I don’t know if you have any sort of rebuttal to that no I I think we’re actually sort of moving closer and closer to the same same argument about it um and and his assists almost tripled right like he he had a bunch of you know mid teen assist games when he was playing with Toronto’s Top Talent last year here uh the pull-up shooting which I love we got to see a lot more of it he only took three a game I think sure uh shot at 37% which is amazing for a pull-up three uh if he can get take five or six which is near the top of the league I think it’s donic took like eight then after that the leaders were six and sixish right Trey young Steph Curry Donovan Mitchell if he can get up there I think that would mean a lot for Toronto’s offense um and the pull-up three thing is uh you want it to be a means of opening other space like that’s what I just wanted to dig in what you said is pull-up threes are big for opening up the rest of the offense um Fred Van VY had to take a bunch of Pull-Up threes he was among the lead leaders in frequency despite being average or slightly below average sure if because he wasn’t great at driving at isolating if quickley can use his pull-up threes and he’s much better at them than Fred was to do more than just as counter to his inability to score in isolation to actually as a weapon to open up his own driving to open up isolation to open up his rollers that’s when you’re really cooking with gas so I think that pullup three frequency number is the one I’m watching next season for is quickly really growing into the role is it going to be a slow burn and I loved what you mentioned about RJ Barrett I mean he’s been so good I don’t want to talk about trading him just because he’s been so awesome as a raptor and so happy as a raptor mhm um that being said trading happy Raptors is sort of a thing that this yeah they have like a weird like fetish for doing that yeah and uh RJ Barrett sort of has could you know redeem his value and and perception around the league to the point that he may well become something like a demard Roan um player and perhaps uh trade who knows that’s way in the future but for now you’re absolutely right that that quickley doesn’t have to be the second best player and he doesn’t have to be the second leading scorer I imagine arj Barett will probably score more points than quickly this year so um yeah we’d be remiss to to discuss what the team looks like without mentioning be who’s been phen for sure absolutely and quickly might be the fourth leading score behind uh my prince Jonathan mobo of course uh I’m on the S train you can listen to that podcast from last week where s and I went off on how good we think mobo is in fact going to be we’re going to come back on the other side here Le ran long there we’re going to get into speaking of you know things we’re watching next year are we really going to be watching a roster that has uh no three no threes and like one five and a whole lot of question marks and 19,000 shooting guards yeah it seems like we will we’re gonna get into that coming up in just one sec Today’s Show is brought to you by Better Health Ben look sometimes you just got to have someone to talk to right it can be challenging you’re in the summertime there’s a million things going on you want to try to make decisions that are lining up with the things that you believe and value and it’s nice to have someone to just throw things off of get the stuff out of your head that you need to get out there and into the world and a therapist can help you make the decisions that are in line with your values whether it’s something small you know the work decision a life choice whatever it is or some big stuff maybe you’re dealing with some major trauma or a massive change in your day-to-day it’s all there for you to be explored and improved upon with therapy and better help can be the place for you to go and do that 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seem to have much of a worry about it we talked last week uh about the sort of uh overwhelming number of shooting guards shooting guard type players and shooting guard sized players on this roster the lack of a backup center behind yakob purle to really provide insulation in the event he gets hurt the lack of a true Wing stopping type guy to throw out to the opposing team’s best players on defense uh you know this is a weird roster and it does not seem like it’s going to change much based on the words from the Raptor brass on Monday of course things can change and you know they lie all the time at these things you know last year Jeff dton Jr and Dono Benton were sitting front row at the darkar rakovich press conference being touted as big parts of the future obviously things can change but what was your initial impression reaction response to the idea that the Raptors are in fact done with major roster moves until the season it kind of caught me a little bit off guard and frankly left me feeling a little bit disappointed because I simply just want to watch a normal roster play normal basketball Lewis is that much too much to ask I no I I wasn’t surprised this is what I assume the team would be um and I think rather than thinking about the team in terms of positions if you think about it in terms of roles then they will be a normal basketball playing normal a normal team playing normal basketball um because yes they have gone into Seasons unbalanced before uh famously they uh were a team without a center or a backup point guard for a long long time um and that was bizarre because they needed what a center did they needed someone to finish easy baskets around the rim to set screens to rebound to protect the rim well they have that this year right and and there’s not a lot of roles that they’re missing they have initiators they have screen Setters and finishers to go along with the initiators they have secondary drivers they have orbiting shooter that you know theyve point of attack Defenders and they might Mi be missing like a big Wing Defender but I think the hope is that mobo grows into that pretty quickly um and I don’t know if you want sign a guy like well I know he’s already been signed but a toan prince for example when I’d rather those minutes just go to mobo in the first case and if he can’t handle it then you can just solve the problem at that point but yeah I I think they have what they want um I do think that there was a little meat left on the free agent bone with how they ran the summer if they had declined Bruce Brown’s option that maybe they could have been the team instead of the Spurs who facilitated the DeRozan trade and got a a pick swap out of it in 2039 2054 2,100 whatever um and Harrison Barnes who I think be like on this roster there was there was stuff they could have taken from the summer beyond what they did but I think Bruce Brown um you know in 2021 2022 I actually thought he would be a really nice fit on the team maybe not at this you know salary amount maybe not after after the half season he just had with the team but I believe his value will rehabilitate if he comes back to the team maybe they can trade him at the trade deadline if not he’s fine he’s a nice veteran to have on the team who can do a bunch of cool stuff and it’s always good to have solid structural foundation in place to help rookies and sophomores grow like he will help Grady he will help Walter he will help mobo just by virtue of setting screens and passing and driving and doing normal NBA rotation caliber stuff mmhm um you know I would have liked to have seen Chris bu get traded because other teams could use him but they’re not going to do that without it being in their interest they don’t want to trade bue in aach a second to get rid of him sure and no one is offering anything to to get bue that sucks but it’s fine right this is the team that they want I don’t think any tinkering is going to change that um and sure they could have done a little more cap absorption this summer um but as not like Bruce Brown is um Goron drage and so it’s fine yeah look I I have been pretty staunchly pounding the drum that the sort of discourse on Bruce Brown went way too Beyond The Pale over the course of the back half of the Season there were very clear reasons why he wasn’t having very much impact on that Raptor’s team which was not really a basketball team by the end the last month and a half was a disaster show it was garbage time and there’s a reason cleaning the glass takes out garbage time when they account for stats it’s not useful or informative or representative really in any way and I think Bruce Brown has always been the type of player who’s going to excel in playing with better players all of the better players were not available down the stretch so and also there’s the knee thing he was dealing with I’m more than all right to give a pass to Bruce Brown for the lack of performance down the stretch I think where my issue comes in is the roster balance thing and maybe I’m a bit more worried about it than you I think the lack of a wing defense Defender type I I like mobo I also think mobo is going to be asked to play backup center sometimes maybe a lot especially if yaka purle gets hurt like he’s gonna have to fill a bunch of holes and he’s a second round pick and as much as I am banging the drub that Jonathan mobo is going to be a fantastic player down the line uh and I’m so in on basically everything he brings to the table that’s a lot to ask of a second round rookie in year one I I just think that’s it’s kind of untenable for the idea of playing cohesive developmentally conducive basketball I don’t care at all right now about the win total for next season I just want to see them play competent basketball that is getting guys into the sort of flow and the the sort of repetitions and these situations where they are going to succeed down the line and I think the lack of the W sort of wing depth on this team the lack of Center depth on this team poses a real risk them to them being able to do that if yako purle goes down I think they’re in serious trouble it’s going to be quite rudderless if they uh can’t get a step up from RJ Barrett in terms of his point of attack defense if Scotty Barnes Remains the Troublesome on on ball Defender that he’s been throughout his career I think it’s going to be really hard for them to have any kind of structure on defense period And I think that there’s just like a Decay to that type of stuff when your roster is not set up for the guys to succeed and sort of be in positions to do the things they do well I think that has like an overall sort of limiting factor on how much guys can actually take take strides in their development and maybe I’m wrong maybe this is too sort of wishy-washy and unquantifiable but it’s just a Vibes thing it’s a sort of eye test thing it’s a human nature thing if you’re playing loser basketball for six months you’re going to develop loser Tendencies and I just think the roster as it set up right now maybe not the most conducive to playing non- loser basketball even if they might lose a lot of games because of the strength of the league and their lack of overall high-end talent I I still want to see them playing competitive and competent basketball and I think while they can do that with their starters I think a couple of key pieces go down for any stretch of time and things get really really challenging and that’s where I would would have loved to see Bruce Brown and his salary slot turned into a Caleb Martin turned into a Harrison Barnes in that pick swap thing from the Kings like there were ways to make this roster less full of guys who are 6’5 and below and I don’t think they took those Avenues and I think they could get burn for it let let me ask you just like straight up either or would you prefer Bruce Brown on this team next season or Harrison Barnes and that pick swap from the Kings just in a vacuum oh well I’d prefer the pick swap obviously but if it’s just the players I think Bruce Brown is a better player and will help the team more um but I actually don’t disagree with you but I think that’s in Toronto’s favor so they are set up to be a competent well EST establish team as long as they’re healthy yeah um as long as yaka purle is healthy they’re going to play solid basketball and Yak is set up to play what 34 minutes a game that leaves 14 minutes at backup center I think you’re fine with Kelly o lenck playing some Center you know not against starters against bench teams I think they want some minutes for Scotty Barnes to play backup center and then yeah maybe mobo can get thrown in here and there but you want a little time to experiment at center right maybe Barnes will be a center that’s very successful when he’s not surrounded by forwards when he’s surrounded by shooting by movement shooting but they want to find that out you know quickly and Dick and Walter if that if they’re on the floor when Scotty’s at Center I want to see what that looks like but as you very correctly point out if any piece of that goes down the entire house falls down without yakob at Center you have 40 eight minutes of Olin well we just saw what that looked like or barns that’s incredibly taxing and dangerous and we don’t want that uh or mobo and he’s not ready for that uh that seems like a good thing that the Raptors are susceptible to a long string of losses with an easy deaf front office touch at any point no let’s uh let’s pick up that thread on the other side uh because I think that’s interesting and I think we might sort ort of disagree a little bit on uh the the sort of sanctity of the game damn it we’re going to talk about the spirit of competition coming up in just one second Today’s Show is brought to you by friends over at fanuel the number one sports book in North America and look you know yes your classic team sports have wound down your classic men’s team 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a bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everyone every day all summer long so head over to fanduel.com start making the most out of your summer FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball and the locked on podcast Network closing it out here with L zatman from raptor Republic uh just just a reminder locked on sports today 247 is your all day streaming Channel over on the locked on sports today YouTube channel you just go there you subscribe and it’s running all day 247 locked on shows covering all the biggest stories in sports from the local and National perspectives it’s a great thing to put on so you can procrastinate doing work go do it all right let’s continue on here Lewis we picked up or we’ll pick up the thread that you sort of laid down before about oh would it actually be kind of good if some injuries befall the Raptors and they lose a whole laack of games at some stretch of the season I as the sort of Resident anti-t tanker of raptor internet uh have some problems with that Lewis now look they’re gonna go into this season the NBA sort of landscape right now suggests that the Raptors are probably going to be one of the bottom 12 teams in the league at the very least you know do they squeak into a playin I think that’s possible with how bad the bottom of the East is going to be I think the Bulls are going to be miserable the Nets are going to suck the Hawks jury’s still out but there’s a lot riding on some guys who I don’t really believe a whole lot in over on over in Atlanta uh we know the Hornets you know if they’re healthy great but when the Hornets ever healthy you’ve got the Pistons you’ve got the Wizards all on down the dregs of the Eastern Conference the Raptors are going to be somewhere in that sort of Fringe playin conversation much like they were for a long stretch of last season I would say I don’t know with the way the league is set up with the flattened Lottery odds if the Raptors need to go and worry about losing a whole whack of games and try trying to engineer this thing they might just be not very good on their own and if they are pretty good I think that’s something that you should be okay letting ride a little bit because I think that probably suggests that there is something with this core that’s worth further investing in going forward it’s not to say that you could never use extra talent in the draft everyone could used extra talent in the draft but you know if you’re not getting into the top four of the draft I don’t know if that’s some kind of disaster if this team shows they’re on some sort of positive trajectory with their play this year I guess like what’s your view on how good they want to be next season you wrote a big piece earlier about how it might be better for the Raptors if they’re not good this season um I I I think you know you let them play and if their plays suggest that something good is brewing then you just kind of ride with it and you’re happy and maybe you start to look at ways to further invest in it um but you know your sort of General thoughts on how good they should want to be this year how good you think they want to be this year that don’t seem like they want to go an outright shamelessly tank like they’re the Wizards or you know the Blazers or the Jazz if they trade Larry marinin but it doesn’t seem like they’re all that upset if they’re you know based on the roster construction and there sort of decisions in the offseason it doesn’t seem like they’re all that upset if they don’t make the play in either um you know how do you sort of evaluate all of that within the context of you know sort of where they sit with the the sort of core they have in in house and all of that this goes back to what we were talking about at the very beginning of the podcast let’s say all their dreams come true Scotty Barnes becomes a top five top 10 player just you know amazing in in every area like that’s all foreseeable Emanuel quickly becomes right on that verge of Allstar maybe sub Allstar level the shooting pops even further he’s taken a ton you know all of that good stuff um you know gry dick and Walter are really really strong movement Shooters and running around the court they add some weight so that the defensively their instincts are combined with actual abilities to hold the ground when they beat players to spots all that stuff happens mobo you know the big Wing mover they’re still not a championship team no they’re good they’re very good team right they’re not that close uh you still need another star even if everything else gets true there’s two ways to get a star for the Raptors there’s three for other teams there’s two for the Raptors you draft one or you trade for one and as we said maybe you can trade for one but the Raptors just don’t have the talent base right now where they can trade for a star and be fine and particularly with the cap being what it is you when the Raptors traded for Kawhi Leonard they had Pascal cakam on a rookie contract Kyle Lowry getting paid way below what he deserved they had demard de rozan as an unbelievable you know reputation guy who’s so successful in so many areas and then they had all of these young and improving players you know ogan anobi Norman Powell D Wright Fred Van F they don’t have that anymore for this team maybe over three four years they can slowly build the talent base develop their rookies sign you know get the when the 905 are winning championships again that’s when they have that ready to go once again a process it feels like they’re hoping to start with the moves they made this summer at the draft right leag right summer league team looks great this year so yes they’re starting or you just draft one this year right right those are the two ways uh this year’s draft looks phenomenal the Raptors have their pick this year there’s a lot of possible Stars you know last most of them are shooting guards I’ll note and it drives me insane but yes most of them are shooting which would be great the Raptors need like that’s fine I think Cooper flag would fit perfectly Dylan Harper would fit perfectly barely would fit perfectly Edgecomb you know there’s a lot of guys who I’m not a scout I don’t know who is most likely to become a star but there’s a lot of guys that if the Raptors happen to end up with a top pick could really make the um the process from a three-year process to a one-year process uh and that’s if everything goes right if things don’t go right maybe Emanuel quickley is who he is at this point he has a lot of minutes in the NBA maybe Scotty Barnes jumper never comes around these are all possible things right it’s not stuff that fans want to talk about but front off offices definitely have to these are all possibilities and if that happens then the Raptors are going to be okay for quite a time right they’re sort of locked into being okay uh I think this year being a to bottom five bottom 10 team makes the worst possible scenario a whole lot better the best possible scenario a whole lot better it just makes things a lot easier I’m not saying you rest Scotty Barnes from day one absolutely Ely not that’s ridiculous that’s insane I agree you want players to get winning habits you want to try to win games but if Scotty Burns tweaks an ankle I don’t think you want him to play on it right if yaka Purtle has bumps and bruises it’s okay if he sits a week like I think there’s there’s a balance between tanking and you know we’re fighting for every last minute Nick nurse was fighting for every minute the Oklahoma City Thunder two years ago were putrid tanking the Raptors need to find somewhere in the middle where they can play for the present and for the future yeah I think that’s fair I I think maybe my concern comes from how bad I think the real real tankers are going to be and how many of them are all of a like there’s a lot of teams that are going to try to suck this year and to be at the level of suck to guarantee yourself a top five pick or something like that it’s going to be hard and it’s going to require some pretty ugly stuff and I think you don’t need a top five pick this year that’s you don’t need a top sure I mean you look the draft don’t get me started on the draft and the crap shoot that is right like we can look at all these prospects and say oo all these guys eight potential franchise players in this draft but you know if you’re outside of the top two or three typically most years you’re not really picking in the star tier or you’re hoping you get a lucky case of development from someone outside of that upper range and maybe that happens maybe that or maybe it takes three four five years for that to happen and you’re already in Scotty barnes’s eth nth season and you have not really reached the heights you wanted to because you were waiting on on some guy you took sixth or seventh overall to become the player you really wanted him to be like there’s I guess my sort of lack of belief in guarantees in the draft is what sort of puts me towards the star comes via a trade kind of thing and I think you know if you get the 13th pick in next year’s draft because you made the playin you know that player can eventually be the Avenue or one of the Avenues by which you go and acquire your star down the line with you know a handful of young players going at the door the way the Raptors typically have kind of or did things decade ago right where they kind of had this Shadow core they could then parlay into more when the time was right you know I look I think it’s just sort of a matter of preference and taste I I just think with the way the bottom of the league is shaping up you’re G to have to be real stinky to really get into that sort of range of and look if they end up with the eighth best odds I think that’s that’s the perfect place to me between like seventh and Ninth in the lottery odds it’s a flattened Lottery world if you end up with one of those picks great and you still have the the chance to jump up and it means means you probably didn’t pull the escape hatch until like mid-march to get there that I could make my peace with but the whole idea of it falling all apart if yaka purle rolls an ankle in week one of the Season that is what leaves me feeling very very concerned about the sort of the competence we’re going to see on the court and maybe Yak stays healthy all year and things are fine but he’s a guy who’s missed time he’s a guy who they went four and 28 with without last season and they didn’t go and find a credible backup for him that almost concerns me more than the lack of any sort of Defender and I think the you can go into the season with the best intentions of we’re going to be competent for six for for five of the six months and then we’ll maybe sort of soft tank our way into the back part of the the sort of top 10 or so but I I think you’re really gambling on the health of your Center and if without him you kind of don’t have any foundational pillars to hold things up and I think that is where my concern with this offseason comes in um but hey I would love to be wrong man I would love for this just to be a competent lovely you know surprising spunky oh they’re developing nicely and also they’re going to get a nice pick type of team that would be lovely I I just think it’s hard to have your cake and eat it too in this situation and um yeah I think there’s real real downside for this just to be kind of a wasted season and a wasted season with the with your important players on second contracts there’s a toll to that there is a tax to just not playing real basketball for long stretches and not getting the developmental reps that basically last season they got none of because of the constant turnover and uncertainty you can’t have another season like last year I guess is my point we’re going to find out so the the number that really everyone is you know tied to is the uh barbecue net rating right right the net rating with purle and Barrett and quickley and Barnes was positive they won their minutes yep uh we’re gonna find out if that remains true I think there’s probably a pretty good chance that when healthy this team is a 500 basketball team sure uh a lot of teams that are 500 can handle a couple injuries the Raptors cannot um but look if yaka purle plays 30 games uh the Raptors will have a whole lot of bigger issues than like I don’t think that’s something that uh a moderate backup center is going to be able to hold the cards up on of sure that’s fair and if yaka purle plays 60 games I think they can survive that anyway mhm you know I I I just think the edges are such that uh the Raptors are sort of seeing winning or losing as a as a win this season um and particularly when you look at Emanuel quickley contract the flatness tells you when they want to contend sure like totally pay you more money now when we’re not ready and when it becomes 17% of the cap in what’s that in four years yeah the last season of the deal yeah yeah then well that’s when we have space to get that guy we want and that’s also if they draft a star now that perfect mix when he’ll be ready to play and he’ll still be on the last year of his rookie contract sure right so I think the numbers are sort of indicating that the Raptors want to lose I I look I know that you’re on the far radical end of you got to play good basketball and if you weren’t the guy on the other end of this computer screen I would be on the radical end I’m I’m you know I’ve been I’m okay with losing I’m pretty against tanking early and I want there to be you know foundations to help development um you’re just far beyond that it’s also an entertainment product right and have to talkable watching the team for six months yeah like that would be cool yeah yeah that that March was pretty rough I think without a doubt no matter what whether they win or lose try to tank try to make the plan we’re not going to get a month like that again here’s hoping man here’s hoping uh if if we do I’m bringing you on every day of said month uh and forcing you to talk about it with me so if we do I’m having another baby so I can go on Pat Leaf again uh Lewis this has been wonderful we’ve run long but I think it’s uh justifiable considering how sort of big yesterday felt is like a page turning moment if you will uh so so thank you for sitting here talking through it with me and putting up with my uh radical opinions on uh again competitive spirit and whatnot much appreciated as always do you have anything you want to promote for the good people out there no nothing to promote Sean thank you so much for having me always a pleasure R radical conservatism that would be your stance here let’s not say that let’s not put those words not political like about you know you want you want the team to be competent right that would be the yeah yeah yeah let’s uh let’s say that instead uh we’ll leave it there and we’ll come back on tomorrow’s show uh topic TBD we’ll we’ll figure it out maybe Katy H will be along maybe we’ll do a little mailbag or something like that either way uh lots of good stuff on top this week Jamar Hines will be along we got a got a good pal Jacob back on Friday as well and I gonna try for next week to be our over under spectacular uh takeup episode and we’ll see who won and all that good stuff so uh lots to look forward to as we continue through July here we’ll stay daily through the rest of the month with a couple of days off here and there for vacation and whatnot but either way thank you so much for rocking with us follow subscribe rate review tell a friend on your apps of choice on YouTube all that good stuff and we will talk to you again on Wednesday another episode of lockdown Raptors thanks for hanging byebye Rick

In Episode 1673, Sean Woodley is joined by Louis Zatzman (Raptors Republic) to talk about the Toronto Raptors’ press conference announcing the new deals for Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley, why it seems like they’re done making roster moves for the summer, and just how bad the Raptors want to be in 2024-25. Off the top, Sean and Louis dig into the Raptors declaration that the future starts now, and discuss how much belief they each have in the Raptors getting rewarded for their belief in their leading duo, and their different levels in belief that Quickley can be the starring lead guard the Raptors are hoping he can be. Next, they chat about the implication that the Raptors are done making moves for the summer, whether that leaves the roster too imbalanced, and the team’s handling of the Bruce Brown situation. Lastly, they discuss how bad they thing the Raptors will and/or want to be next season, the value of playing competent and competitive ball vs. tanking into the upper reaches of the lottery and more.

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