The Toronto Raptors finished preseason 4-0. That doesn’t matter. What matters is HOW they did it, and the possible leap some of the younger players on the team are poised to make under first-year-coach Darko Rajakovic.
Let’s grade the preseason, explore the ways Scottie is scoring, find the glass-is-half-full argument for Gradey, Malachi, Precious and Jalen McDaniels, evaluate the spacing concerns and possible remedies when playing Dennis Schroder and Jakob Poeltl, and explore what the Raptors might need to do at some point this season if they find out they’re further along than expected to add that one final missing piece around their core trio.
#Raptors #ScottieBarnes #GradeyDick
24 Comments
Bro's got that chip back on his shoulder like in year 1. He's out here to remind everybody that you don't know me and what I'm capable of.
Good morning! Thank you so much for this! Great listen while I load up on ☕️! Go Scottie!
Most time I listen to people's Platform it's all about money, it's all about how much players make and how much they could make.
It helps to solidify a terrible environment of selfish players who just thinks about money.
Player already make too much. I don't see the game getting any better.
Raptors team seems abit confused, hopefully it will play out well. Right now most of their success is in their head.
lets go raptors!
From the eye test I'd say Scottie has noticeably better balance, the way he's moving on the court is much better then last year and his defensive positioning has improved drastically, also overall his body language is so much more positive this year, excited to see what he does this season! Go Raps!
Can we trade for Jeff's G-Leauge rights? what would it cost?
You think Christian has Asthma?
For the record Scottie has arrived. We are seeing 4th quarter Scottie the whole game. Team’s can come up with game plans to stop him but he can bully anyone inside. His catch and shoot 3s are greatly improved and if you double him he’s one of the best passers in the league… his passing is at a LeBron level. Oh not to mention the Raptors quietly got more shooters around him and Siakim. My only worry is the starting lineup as Schroder and Poeltl aren’t good shooters. Definitely think Trent Jr should start of Schroder.
Then Trent Jr + OG can shoot in the starting lineup and a combination of Porter Jr + McDanials + Gradey can shoot off the bench.
What about a Pascal trade for Markennen, Agbaji, Hendricks?
Just listened a second time. Upon reflection, could it not be argued that Jeff Dowtin was indeed freed? 😊
I was saying Scottie was frustrated with Fred on RR and people asked me for proof. I could only say there were unverfied reports and the eyetest said so. Also really one of the first to say Fred was holding the Raptors back. Took a month or two for others to get to that conclusion until finally a flood of people saw it. I have little to say so far about this version of the Raptors since it takes time to see the patterns emerge. Chemistry can be an elusive concept. So far so good but we will see the warts emerge and how the Raptors adjust when they do. But they really really needed a reset and I am glad that they are doing that.
People forget what Scottie’s first dozen or so games of his career looked like. He came out hot, they iced him once Siakam returned from injury, and kept him on ice throughout FVV’s contract year. All this shit is over now and we are in the #Scottieball era. 21/9/6 season loading
Im here specifically to say f**k the algorithm
Fantastic live Rob. Thanks.
The combination line ups are going to be fun to watch this season. Forget who is starting… This teams strength is the switchblade. If darko is true to his word. He will be dictating tempo with his line ups. Achiuwa, (jmac/poetl), (scottie/pascal),gary,og. Darko will make the defense choose which blade to get slit by.
Dark cringe
Scottie Barnes is Sabonis mixed with Ben Simmons. A big
Got me thinking… The decision to waive Dowtin, had little to do with Dowtin as much as it did with Freeman winning that position at a lower cost. Dowtin would have cost 2 Mil plus waived salary. Raps probably believe they will be forced to convert Freeman from the 2 way. Which means the cost to keep dowtin might even be closer to 10 Mil. The moment no deal got done this off season and the play of Freeman…dowtin got shortend of this stick.
Facts alot of people have been coming at you for making comments on players even as mediocre as Flynn, it’s like people haven’t been on YouTube comments before 😂 how can people be so sensitive…
I can see Boucher playing a haslem role in the future
Great point about Barnes about the “he gets the easy ones” his physical build and willingness to bang is probably his most underrated aspect of his game that really only us as Raptors fans can appreciate. And I agree he’s his own player but if you were to compare him to any player in the league with what his potential can be is somewhere between Giannis and historically it would be Magic.
What do you think Scottie’s counting stats might look like this season?
1:22:51 I miss that back round animation the early pensare days
Scottie improved his shot mechanics. way more fluid. less hitch. great stuff to see.
Agree about the turnovers. A few of them were passes that had no chance of completion but a lot of them were due to the potential recipient not moving to the ball or being ready for a pass (especially Boucher) Way back in time John Wooden said "The team that makes the most turnovers wins ". He meant