Jakob & Co. steal a late one – LIVE Raptors Reaction w/ Samson

Jakob & Co. steal a late one – LIVE Raptors Reaction w/ Samson

That’s pretty pretty pretty pretty good the Raptors win 123 to 117 against the Charlotte Hornets who were starting Cody Martin at the point guard position um we got a game where finally they had yakob purle close he made several huge late plays on the defensive end on the

Offensive end as well blocks and tap-ins they once again didn’t really go to Scotty that much down the stretch which is I think you want to see them get those reps obviously but the players play to win and they won a lot of the minutes down the stretch that was nice

To see largely in this game getting four threes from RJ getting four threes from Gary three from quickley three from shoter and two from Grady huge portion of winning this game massive the fact that they were able to lock down late very important the fact that they were

Able to get stops really big deal but overall this game was uh LZ fair I would say in approach miles Bridges scores 45 points on 27 shots Brandon Miller goes for 20 Cody Martin goes Five Points above his season high he was Caleb Maring the Raptors obviously Caleb

Martin has popped off in an incredible way in Miami and most you know most famously during their finals run 19 points for him eight assists like five boards on 13 shots and absurd game and even Bryce mcgallen came in give him 10 points for anybody who was at the live

Podcast last night which thank you to everybody who came out it was a total blast Trey mentioned Bryce as somebody who uh who did a you know I would say has a chance at being an interesting player and maybe somebody to look at going forward kok says you hate to see

It in Brackets Bridges there is something like you know Bridges is considered not not a great guy because he he’s a domestic abuser and you know it’s women’s in sports day you didn’t want him popping off for 45 and a win um for the people who

Subscribe to that some form of Justice I suppose Mauricio Arena says poor defensive schemes against Martin and bridges um I wonder what kind of schemes we’re talking about we can we can think about that um what I think we saw a little bit of blitzing but mostly they’re playing straight up they did

Switch a lot of stuff late and also the Raptors point of attack defense hasn’t been so good lately which means a lot of guys get downhill a leg watched the game with me we watched it right here and we were kind of talking about you know RJ Barrett being bad defensively since

Coming over to the Raptors and maybe not being super impressive as a Nick but that there are problems Elsewhere on the roster that sometimes it feels a little bit unfair to drill down on just RJ’s defense in that moment Bruce Brown got blown by by Brandon Miller like

Immediately we saw them Blitz is Smith and him split them I tweeted this like tiar on re and get downhill pass to the corner a lot of what Bridges did felt like it came on second side stuff after somebody had already gotten downhill and he had a hell of a game shooting way

Better than he normally does I mean 63% for 45 points is an absurdity seven assists this is not the norm for him and obviously Cody Martin’s performance isn’t the norm for him I like Brandon Miller though I he’s got a very aesthetically pleasing game there’s a lot of like pop to it and

So leaky black also interested me just for what it’s worth og3 says gidy and bridges both frying us as nasty Vibes at yeah honestly truly it is definitely those those are not good vibes however Grady dick and the Fellas have a huge run they snap off an 110 run they get

Back into this game then Grady Subs out they got as much as they could from him he’s he’s not a tank player Grady plus nine he’s a guy who wins his minutes right hell yeah and uh so they sub him out Bruce Brown and Scotty come back in

And they close out the game with yakob yakob has a huge block late gets huge stops gets the tap in um they’re going mostly to IQ actions late what we’re seeing is these slip screens from Scotty trying to slip into space Emanuel didn’t really find him Emanuel was taking the

Lane because they weren’t really digging down from the strong side corner so he was trying to get downhill it wasn’t all that impactful and even on top of that right um at least he got downhill and was able to you know good job on purle to kind of

Warm his way to the rim he had four offensive rebounds tonight and tap it in uh I think like Dennis took an ill-advised three with like three minutes left I think out of the corner he didn’t hit that the Hornet broadcast was like no way as soon as it went up

But but also I people complain about you know as Minos Ramen says here Dennis’s shot selection still hurts my head it he’s only four of nine tonight he took six threes and shot three of six on them he got to the line seven times like five

Assists two turnovers 16 points I it’s I don’t want to drill down on Dennis too much I think sometimes like there are ill-advised plays but I do think that maybe sometimes we over index on Dennis’s shot selection when he doesn’t like he doesn’t take over the offense to

The degree that I think the sentiment suggests that he does and neither does rj Barrett I think that as we see another game where RJ finishes with 23 Scotty with 18 yakob with 12 Gary Trent Jr with 14 quickley with 18 brown with 12 schuder with 16 Grady took two shots

Scored six Thad finishes with four had eight rebounds like this team is pretty egalitarian and I understand why fans would want certainly like they have an All-Star player in Scotty Barnes maybe not so egalitarian like maybe you work the ball to him a little bit more often

Maybe late when he’s slipping out of those screens with quickly for example you don’t say okay let’s well you don’t say like um how do we how do we get him the ball on the slip maybe you should run something with Scotty on Ball and let him take on the switch that’s probably

Coming out of that um out of that pick and rule or even still if they do Blitz it Scotty is a guy who can pass over top of blitzes especially if a guard is involved in the blitz I know that they’re a little bit bigger at guard sometimes the Hornets just because you

Know if it’s Cody Martin that guard it is a little bit bigger but in reality I think that like they have to be a little bit more intentional about getting Scotty the ball but I don’t think it’s always just Dennis on the other side of that equation I think there’s like a

Bunch of guys 13 shots from Gary 13 from quickley nine from shooter sure 14 from Scotty 15 from RJ it’s not always Dennis I guess that’s that’s kind of what it is Gen X Mike says I enjoyed Thad crunching Washington why would you like that man what’s wrong with PJ Washington he did

Get crunched though he got slammed man I’ve seen one wrestling event in my life Royal Rumble with Blake was a week and a half ago something like that that looked like something out of that I was just glad I think PJ was okay right he slammed the floor so hard it was nuts

And you know PJ had a really bad game minus 19 two for 11 his minutes they just got absolutely demolished um yeah Kier Doyle says he’s a plus n in 26 minutes with only nine shots hardle the dominant guy really that’s in reference to denner Shooter that’s true I think like there are

H there are sentiments that get championed there are like easy catchalls that people cling on to and I think like Dennis is maybe too much of he gets a lot of flak now he’s he’s definitely not perfect and deserves like critique in his game for sure and minha brings up

Like kind of the mid-range shooting is what gets to him I get that too especially since Dennis is like it seems like he could probe downhill a little bit more on some of those mid-rangers a lot of them are fading and even though he’s shooting them pretty well this year

It’s not exactly the best process you want to happen um but yeah it’s it’s it’s something that like since moving to the bench I don’t mind shudder and and honestly Emanuel quickly as far as being like a point of attack guy the reason why the minutes are better with schruder

Is because shuder is more capable at the point of attack so Darko obviously has liked a lot of the two guard lineups which means that like Barrett is put in a unique position scoring against wings and defending wings and he hasn’t been you know there’s been some tough games

For him defensively surely but he’s done a really good job offensively in this game 60% from the floor 23 points five assists one turnover just great you know Samy 76 says Dennis is second in mid-range field goal percentage in the leag yeah he shot them super well the

Aesthetics of them are tough and fans you know and analysts everybody is you know influenced by the Aesthetics it’s uh just kind of the way it shakes out but yeah Dennis has hit a lot of mid-range um this season I’m surprised to hear second though um

Usually I don’t look it up in context of the league usually I just go look it up and see what he’s shooting um I’ll poke around on cleaning the glass and see that but over all we have a win to talk about with a bunch of like impressive performances especially the ones that

Come late in the game the ball going up to RJ in the corner you know little toet tap figures it out gets there on time cans it that’s fantastic um Kier Doyle says man that play with yach dribble handoff for RJ where he comes up from

The corner and wraps around to go to the basket on his left is so great yeah um they run quite a few different variations of trying to get RJ on that drive out of the right corner whether whether it’s like a blade cut during a

Pick and roll at the top whether it’s a Miami where he’s coming off of that into a well he’s coming off of the dribble handoff into another screen that’s a Miami action or if it’s a Chicago where he’s coming off of a pin down into the

Handoff they can preempt a lot of his drives with this kind of stuff and also just like the the empty side pick and rolls they’re able to you know the one play we see and this is something we saw him do against Malik Monk and Steph Curry very successfully in the spicy

Barbecue days but we saw it tonight is that RJ if he has a small player on him you can go to a pinch post action that means an empty side post up the four other players on the other side of the floor they have to bring the attention

From you know the doubles come from places he can see he can whip the ball across the floor to create three-point looks we got one early in this game pinch post you you bring it right up Kier Doyle the pinch post versus ish and Skip past IQ that’s exactly it just like

And he he’s been working on you know he can sling it with his left hand obviously but he has a push pass too that he’s able to make and a push pass isn’t as effective as like a right-handed sling but he doesn’t really have the right-handed sling so the push

Pass is um is not so bad John lamb has like the classic um the Russell Westbrook one but I don’t feel as bad about this as Russ did for the famous quote but was this more of the Raptors playing better or Hornets playing bad towards the end of the game and that

That that’s like the what they ask Russ like did you you guys win this or did they lose this and he goes what but I get what you mean I get what you mean like sometimes a team can fumble it away a player doesn’t want to hear that

Because he a player you earn what’s out there on the court and you do to some degree but I like this question I think that the Raptors played better towards the end of the game and the Hornets a lot of what they were doing early on in

The game some of it was driving the ball but some of it was just like insane shot making and the Raptors had to respond to that insane shot making to some degree and then once they responded to that defensively started using driving Lanes to get middle and they built a big lead

Out of that and were able to keep the Raptors at Bay once those jumpers kind of dried up and the Raptors went to these you know the two guard lineups and their point of attack stuff is a little bit stronger and The Hornet’s Wings aren’t just going like Bonkers with

Their jumpers the Raptors can kind of settle in what into what they do defensively and I like I’ll tell you this much off offensively guard initiation they didn’t need Scot to succeed late in game we of course have seen Scotty succeed late in a ton of games and but

They didn’t need it because they were able to get downhill and we got to see like a tap in from yakob we got to see a little bit of plays to put the Hornets in second side rotation and that was good enough to win this game but they

Mostly won this game on the defensive end of the floor so that’s kind of how it shook out so partly the Hornets like losing it partly the Raptors winning it as is the case with most of these games slowmo says would like to see IQ fire

Off more 3es as well certainly um I can’t remember who it was but they they mentioned oh yeah o og3 also said I still feel like IQ is turning down pullup threes I think so too this is something I think I’m probably going to write about over the All-Star break but

I’ve been paying really close attention and trying to talk to a bunch of shot doctors and Scouts about um Quickly’s jumper and some players as well including IQ about his hesitancy to shoot it going left and how I’ve talked about this on the podcast before but how

It’s a little bit odd that he doesn’t like to load up on his non-shooting side for his jumper most jump shooters from amateur house league basketball college NBA players they prefer loading up on the side of their body that doesn’t include their shooting arm it’s easier

To keep the balance that way and keep it steady on your shooting side IQ is a guy who prefers to load up on his shooting side now I don’t know the biome mechanics that allow him to do so successfully but he doesn’t like doing the opposite way which really has

Hampered his ability to score out of the pick and roll with pullup threes because you have to be able to pull up going both ways because if a team is icing or something like that right like let’s say it’s Emanuel quickly and they’re Icing at the top that means they’re forcing

Him to his left they’re going to keep that side of the floor you’re going downhill that way if he’s comfortable going left you can hang dribble and pull right there we’ve seen Steph Curry do it a million times we see we saw kowry do

It a lot if he would if he were to get iced we even saw Fred vanle do it sometimes too right um although Fred is another guy who is very comfortable going right and left though um although I think the ceiling for IQ as a jump shooter is maybe a little bit higher

Than Fred um it’s it’s a unique thing that IQ doesn’t have in his game that is showing up I think a little bit repeatedly and that’s also led to sometimes when he’s headed downhill those kind of like off-balance push right-handed floaters he’s mostly better with the floater going to his right

Floating slightly and kind of positioning it above his head stuff to pay attention to but like Darko said you know I think it was maybe the the last game I was at honestly I’m not sure because they’ve been on such a long road trip I haven’t been at a game in almost

A month now um I guess it is the Miami game or the Chicago game well Darko said he wanted IQ taking like 10 threes a game like just get it up and up and up and up and um og3 also adds I think IQ barely takes corner 3es they’re more

Often contested or movement shots uh it’s hard to control for an initiator to shoot threes from the corner it’s really really hard to control for that because an initiator is usually the guy who gets into the teeth of the defense and for example like Scotty isn’t the guy who

Makes the read to the corner very often he and and neither is Dennis for what it’s worth so if you’re going to run a manual open to get him threes you’re going to have to do it above the break or you’re going to have to stack him on

The same side as Scotty in a postup or double situation even with RJ as well right um RJ is probably the most accomplished drive plus skip passer just because of volume on this on the season and as far as like what we’re looking for from IQ to get him Corner threes or

Something like that it’s harder to control for that stuff that’s why like Pascal in the 2021-22 season I think he shot like 49% on corner 3es but the Raptors had to position Pascal above the break so often because he needs to be there in support if their initial play

Doesn’t work he needs to be able to go get the ball quickly to run the next action quickly is somebody like that and also players who shoot better above the break should be positioned above the break Scotty being able to hit above the break threes is really important and he

Can also make somebody like RJ for example who probably shoots it better from the corner he can go space from the corner where he shoots it better and Scotty can space above the break being an above The Brak shooter means that you make other Shooters who are you know

More prolific or proficient from the corner you put them in more comfortable positions so there’s a lot going into Emanuel quickley and his Corner three-point shooting like the the volume and the difficulty and all that kind of stuff but I I guess we’ll see what happens with all that um it it’s tough

To control for corner 3es of course um I think it was let’s see what are the numbers so you know Fenix play Z said he’s shooting 25% on Corner 3es when he does take them Samson I think we only have an 18 shot sample size he’s three

For 18 on the year or as a raptor I should say so 18 is not very much obviously right um in years past he’s been 41% 38% 36% so not a home run hitter from the corners or anything like that but um of course he’s shooting 49%

Above the break which is insanity um best in the NBA which is awesome well 49% is a raptor around 45 46% on the season so having that is a way bigger deal than having a guy who shoots from the corners of course you want it all

All the time but that’s kind of how it is Antoine rose with you know a comment I think R.J is our best scorer easily probably I think RJ has done a tremendous job of inputting himself without taking over the offense he’s kind of been really a No Frills scorer

And also Antoine Rose commented before this game shows you how much RJ means to the Raptors I think he’s extremely important to the health of the Raptor offense and I don’t think that’s reflected in the onoff statistics but I think it’s evident to people who um I

Think it’s evident to the people who watch you can see the impact he it been able to have and his ability to pressure the rim pass out of drives coll the defense is something that is not replicated by anybody else on the roster currently um Scotty does not drive as

Often as RJ he doesn’t finish at The Rim as often as RJ he’s OB Scotty has been the better player he’s the All-Star but R.J is a guy who feels a very Niche need on the Raptors and for a team that doesn’t get to the rim that often RJ

Being a guy who’s just like I’m getting there I’m taking it there I’m going to finish there and the fact that he has like really good Pace you know coming off those second side AC like if he gets a pick and roll he can come around the

Edge put his guy in jail kind of like crab dribble into the middle cross it back over get to the left side of the bucket that’s really high level stuff and his pacing and aggression is not really replicated Elsewhere on the roster and I think that’s put him as

Like as far as the you know intersection of efficiency and volume since he’s been on the Raptors he’s probably scored more points than well not points overall but I think his points per game would be very comparable to Scotties and the efficiency would be slightly better um

Nabil says a no fril score ellipses dare I say a breath of fresh coair yeah something like that it’s it’s been really really interesting to watch them you know coexist and that’s something that they will get you know more used to over time and all that kind of stuff um

On the corner three thing just to kind of like close this up Fenix play Z says the corner three is the most efficient offensive play in hoops outside of a layup though yes totally however it’s you can’t control for how often you create Corner threes especially since defenses for example

Right like what what is the rotation a defensive rotation let’s say you get the tag or something like that you run a pick and roll with he perfect example you run a pick and roll with Scotty and yakob right you get the tag the tag man

Comes from the corner to guard yakob so that he can’t make that pass downhill so the guy is dropping down to defend the corner Gary Trent Jr lifts out of the corner and hits a three above the break you get a three out of that situation but you couldn’t control for getting the

Ball to the corner why because the defense wants to take that away so while it is efficient you need to be able to score elsewhere to open it up you need to threaten elsewhere and if Gary wasn’t a good above the break three-point shooter then that lift would be mean

Would be meaningless and it could be possible that in the future when they play other teams if Gary and and somebody filters to the corner who is a good three-point shooter Gary’s presence above the break means that he can make that pump and make that Progressive pass

To the corner it’s tough to control four volume in the corner like that’s just them as the breaks it is really efficient the Raptors like layups are really efficient too for years they haven’t gotten that many of those outside of like Pascal and then Scotty in like broken plays and then transition

They’re really tough to control for so it’s the three-point the corner three-point shop stuff is important but to me it’s way more important to be able to hit above the break threes because teams are less capable of guarding them and it allows you to put lesser Shooters in more advantageous positions that’s

What it is if you can only shoot Corner threes you are really limited as a shooter if you can bang above the break triples you’ve got a ton a ton a ton of utility there it’s um one of the most important things kir Doyle says RJ being

This good so far opens up so many weird questions for future in terms of his value to the org and throughout the league certainly it is it is something to pay attention to of course and RJ I think deserves nothing but flowers really right as far as like well he

Offensively I think he’s been very impressive he’s been very efficient and then once you start trying to build like the best team you can not a team that loses a lot of games wins the the occasional game against the Hornets then you start wondering about like RJ’s best

Role next to Scotty how RJ fits in do you mostly want him playing like the two or the three how do you make the defense work all that kind of stuff really really important and like fantastic those are fun team building questions of course um but to go back to just because

This is an interesting back and forth Phoenix play C play Z says yes but teams usually tilt their defense by helping off the weak side corner along with gap yes but they also do something called xing out so that when that pass does go to the corner the guy above the break

Makes the X Out rotation to the corner and the guy from the paint makes the longer rotation out above the break where the ball is moved from the corner because you’re able to control for that volume by helping to the corner with an X EXO rotation right like teams don’t

Want to give up Corner threes there’s a reason teams like they they love Corner threes and people should but there’s a lot of value in hitting above the break threes because that’s where most plays are initiated and you can control for that because it’s there’s way more room

Above the break and also it’s way easier to control you know you talk about teams that work from the like no middle type of Ideal defensively most NBA teams do work from a no middle process if you work from no middle it’s a lot harder to control drives above the break than it

Is drives that come from the corner corner drives are less efficient because your playmaking possibilities are going through a crowded Lane whereas if you drive middle after getting like if you have the type of gravity as an above the brake shooter pump and get middle you can playmake straight ahead to the

Basket you can playmake to either corner you can 45 cut from strong side or a weak side you can Baseline cut as the defense steps up but those passes aren’t as you don’t have as many ways to like playmake if you’re driving from the corner it’s a lot easier for teams to

Contain the drive from the corner than it is above the brid break so obviously Corner three-point shooting is very effective it is very efficient but the implication of being a guy who is able to hit and above the break three is massive it’s super super important um

Kir Doyle says can you draw an ex out if you got the paper sure let’s do that let’s draw an ex out okay so basically we’ll draw this up we’ll do what um what the EXO rotation is so let me just draw it draw the thing

Up okay um okay I’ll draw it while I do this here so let’s say that we have a pick and roll and the the pick and roll ball handler gets downhill right this guy is tagging let’s say here’s the pick and roll ball handler here’s the the

Roll man the guy from the corner tags the roll man this guy is here that’s a Defender right there okay if you make the pass out to the guy from the corner this this is the rotation he makes to make sure you can’t shoot that corner three this guy will make this rotation

When he moves the ball up there creating quite literally an X and that rotation is called an exot that’s what an EXO is for anybody who wanted to know so it’s um og3 said if Samson was dedicated he would start drawing these plays up on

His walls that would be like a super fun little wrinkle obviously um yeah and and slow-mo has something here says what is most effective in the NBA is having a top five player of course um top five players dictate everything that’s that’s happening um so yeah that’s kind of

Something um I think um X Out is another Fenix play Z I’ll just put on the the coach’s cap quickly for another one X Out is another term for pre- switching the backline right not exactly but there is a pre- switch at the point of attack

In the pick and roll and that is called next thing so we’ll draw a next rotation right so a next rotation is where you’re able to create a really quick rotation and it works like an X Out basically but it’s just done Above The Brak you’re not pulling

From the corner for example so an X Out is the one we saw the last play I just drove but an X rotation would be like let’s say you’re running a pick and roll here the pick and roll ball handler above the brake for audio listeners is

Turning the corner the guy on the weak side above the break is going to pre-switch into the lane to guard the guy on Ball and the guy who is playing lock and Trail defense is going to go over the top to who he was guarding this can be undone pretty quickly by the

Player making a 45 cut into the lane but not all players are proactive Cutters and not all Cutters are good finishers so these are the types of let’s say what Phoenix plays Eis pre- switching is a term you can use of course but we usually talk about pre- switching in the

Draymond Green example where Draymond Green would pre-switch everything out of that back line to make sure that he was involved in picking rolls for example if you have two guys stacked on the same side right here this is where guys are positioned Draymond Green is this guy

Right here they call this guy whoever it is on the opposing team to run the pick and roll for the guy up above the break Draymond Green will pre-switch onto him and involve himself in the pick and roll action because he’s such an immensely talented Defender Now teams after

Watching The Warriors eded this in Draymond Green this became a major Trend in the NBA and it’s something we see happen all the time now and that’s why teams you we’ve seen LeBron James do it many times LCA donic do it many times kind of go through the rigma role of

Trying to pre-switch a bunch of guys and then stack the four in ways that makes it easier this is also why a lot of teams started running empty side picking rolls with their two best players so they can keep all this junk out of it and just simplify with their two best

Players and an empty side for them to work in coach’s cap is off that’s all the defensive stuff of course um Fenix play says draw peel switching diagram as well um I’ll be here talking tomorrow um for the I’ll do a trade deadline podcast the live stream

So um I’ll draw I’ll do peel switching tomorrow come and ask me about that and we can kind of get into it in some in some dead air um yeah Phoenix play Z says Boston pre switched the Kima match up every time we tried to attack him in

Pick and roll correct um there was a ton of pre-s switching going on from both sides what a series that was my God okay so back to the game Who well what do we want to talk about in this game really uh we got like 20 minutes of

The game what are we going to talk about now let’s see let me pull up the box score do we I guess we talked about the guard play we talked about the defense a little bit how important yakob was I guess I I would say that this is a good

Example as far as I’m concerned of showing yakov’s importance to the team not only as a guy you know right now but a guy in the future and why I think that yakob is a guy who pairs pretty well with what the Raptors want to be going

Forward and I think having a good Center to create looks for guys to give you space out of you know these two man actions for downhill play whether it’s like RJ or whether it’s um IQ or whether it’s Scotty I think it’s important for those guys to get those possessions

Where they get downhill they see the defense rotating in front of them so they can get those reps in and see what defenses are trying to do and as far as um as far as like the offensive rebounding as far as holding up the back end defensively I think it is important

He’s contested so many shots at The Rim this year the the effectiveness has waxed and waned but it’s it’s something that I think is important Kira asks what did you think of Scotty IQ two-man game wolfond was talking about how kind of clunky it still is with Scotty not

Setting good screens and IQ being a little passive yeah Scotty is not a super accomplished screen Setter just yet you know Pascal never was uh a lot of the best Wing players never are it isn’t typically something that we expect of players like Scotty especially for everything else that Scotty has been

Showing but Scotty is such like Pascal was never the the never had the physical presence that Scotty had so Pascal was a lot of it was like in the 2019 finals right is short rolling and then making plays out of four on three actions whereas Scotty is a guy who can actually

If he plants the screen the guard or Wing or whoever he’s screening is really going to feel that so it’s maybe a little bit more worthwhile to him kind of work on his screening craft not to say that he’s suddenly a big instead of you know a forward but I think that

Scotty is somebody who could benefit from that it maybe is a little bit clunky like I talked about this early on in the podcast the IQ plus Scotty actions they ran late were they didn’t go anywhere and nothing good came out of them because they were either pre-s switched or Scotty was

Slipping out of them before any advantage was gained basically they were just running an action to run an action and if Scotty was very good at sticking screens or flipping screens if they’re trying to pre-switch at the point of attack like a lot of the best screeners

Are and he’s not there yet then they could be able you know they might be able to get something more meaningful out of them but that’s not just on Scotty IQ is also a guy who at this point underwhelms a little bit as a pick and roll initiator and he needs to step

Up his job too if the team like the Hornets are going to try and preswitch something and they’re stepping up to pre-switch I think that IQ needs to be able to take it off the dribble and beat that man immediately it can’t it can’t just be Scotty who gets a switch and dominates

Like IQ should be getting a guy on him that he should be able to get downhill and beat and put the defense in rotation and make those decisions from there so I think they both have stuff to work on and but there’s a ton of value there

Obviously and the the fact simile and I’ve given this stat many times before but last season of the high the high volume handoff Partnerships the sixth most efficient in the NBA last year was Scotty as the screener Gary Trent Jr as the ball handler coming off of that

Handoff so if those guys can make it work you have to assume that Emanuel and Scotty should be able to make it work so as Kier Doyle says here hopefully we get a lot of reps back half of this year that was um that’s certainly correct we

Need to see a lot of it and that will be one of the most interesting things to look for as far as like what we’re seeing at the end of the season as Jacob says talk about dick we will that’s the guy I want to see a lot of over the

Course of this season you know maybe maybe a little bit of qualms with with Darko tonight that we only got 15 minutes from Grady I typically like the games where we’re seeing 20 plus minutes just because why not but also this stuff could be negated pretty quickly if he

Had a conversation with Grady and Grady is like hitting a rookie wall where it’s like you can see he’s getting gassed and you don’t want him getting those reps where he’s just like he’s gas so he’s not going to play the proper way like Darko could come out he doesn’t have to

Say it but Darko could know that or Grady could know that and immediately the criticisms are they’re not really warranted from myself right so it could be something like that um as Raptors fan says here though after tomorrow I.E the trade deadline Grady getting 20 plus

Minutes for the rest of the season yeah I hope I hope so I like watching Grady play and he goes two for two from three tonight I think he’s probably just climbed over 30% % on the season now so that’s nice to see and he the way he

Plays basketball I really quite enjoy I think he has a tremendous feel for the game he reads the floor very well he shapes to the ball on both sides of the floor in a very impressive way and yeah that’s kind of that’s the the greaty stuff in this game plus nine he is

Truthfully when he’s not being hunted and the Raptors did a really good job of bringing two like really bringing two to the ball when let’s say miles Bridge for example saw him on an empty side and was like I’m about to like eat this guy for

Lunch um they bring two and they kind of get him out of that situation sometimes you can see if he’s in an he’s in a disadvantage situation they’ll scram switch him out of situations so yeah that’s uh that’s good stuff and I think he he is 68 69 which is bigger than most

Movement Shooters are and that’s going to help them defensively for a long time um and as long as the the shot Falls in at like for the rest of the season 35 36% or above we’re in like the green Big Time big big big time and um I my

Earnest hope is that comes because he was when I talked to Blake on the Raptor show or it wasn’t even it was on Blue Jays Talk Plus actually I don’t know why I would be on that show um but I was and we were talking about the Raptor draft

And I had said I really wanted the the Raptors to draft Grady and I thought that that was something and I was overjoyed when they drafted him I’m going to be honest and um yeah I I thought that uh I think that Grady has a very bright future um Jacob terasoft

Says Fred screening ghosting for Pascal was my fav play yes it’s it’s it was a fantastic it was a staple of the playbook for a very long time it was a staple of clutch time offense for a very long time and I’ve written about and diagramed that play a ton um will

Cunning says wait is Grady really that tall He’s listed at 66 I think he was listed at 68 coming out of Kansas but maybe the maybe the NBA draft stuff came out different I know they measure in socks as well so that that could be true um he’s maybe he’s a

Bit shorter it’s like the Cade Cunningham thing right everyone thought Cade was like 68 69 well actually not 69 they thought he was 68 and then people were like oh maybe he’s like closer to 66 65 and that for some people that changed what they thought about him

Bernard balion says Grady dick shooting 46% from three in the last 10 games we’re so here brother we’re so here this is what we’ve been waiting for certainly um to the Jordan War point I’m that’s another thing with Darko who I’ve been um more I’m certainly more Pro Darko

Than I’ve seen sentiment shared from the chat or from like Twitter or the Raptor of public comment section so far this season I’ve liked as far as um as far as what Darko has been doing I’ve liked his job as a coach genuinely and I I’ve explained why many times on this podcast

However I do think that it is odd that war isn’t getting playing time and when I you know I tweeted about this on Twitter the the quick response many people have is like we’ll see after tomorrow and that’s why like some of this stuff odd rotation decisions you

Know as far as like teams that are giving a lot on defense teams that seem a little bit disorganized or whatever or maybe aren’t getting the most impact or effort this time of year it can be really tough and as Raptor fan says wise buet do not play and brown is getting

Minutes if both are on the trade block I don’t know like th those those those conversations I wish I could tell you like I I can’t get msai on the phone or like Bobby on the phone and be like guys you know what’s what’s the what’s

The motion here I couldn’t tell you all I know is that those are the two guys who I expect to be traded tomorrow and yeah that’s kind of how I feel about that War I I would like to see see War getting some minutes like I I wrote

About this but the Gunner situation between Gary Tren Jr war and Grady you know I think war and Grady could be pretty rewarding as far as like giving wara a lot of those minutes when Grady is like maybe Gass or maybe the Raptors are like no we we like the look with as

Far as we like the look with war right now that’s that’s fine um I think it might be a little bit more rewarding going into the future than having Gary not war and Grady just because of how the minutes and all that kind of stuff might shake out I think I think Grady’s

The future of the position but I think like War could be like a very affordable team-friendly stop Gap um but this stuff can be affected of course by interpersonal relationships on the team expectations um the ongoing what a player and his agent or his team are having as far as like what

They expect to get during the summer how they communicate that to the team and the decision makers all that kind of stuff um is impactful Kier Doyle says maybe sneaky suppress Gary Trent Jr if you want to keep him next year yeah that’s I they already did that last

Season like Gary has lost a lot of money like Gary there’s a reason it was reported that he was looking for 25 million a year he wanted to get the big uh contract he probably would have taken like something close to a repeat of the contract he signed three years ago

That’s why he took his player option and then as far as as far as like can they suppress it any further I think Gary’s will be like around like a midlevel exception or like15 million a year type of guard in the NBA and I don’t think the Raptors can suppress it any further

And also if you do that kind of stuff to players too often which they already have to Gary who’s been like a consumate professional and all that kind of stuff um it might as far as like agents and stuff like that and just on the human

Level it might put a bad taste in some people’s mouths so that kind of stuff and um og3 asks how shocked would you be if Dennis was traded I talked about this at the live show because William Lou we we were on the same panel and we were

Talking about it and when I mentioned Dennis like being a possibility to be traded everybody was like what you think he like you think he could be traded I was like why not like I like I I understand it’s not a likelihood that he

Will be traded but as far as as far as like could he be traded of course I know I know Darko likes having Dennis there and Dennis can move Darko through a lot of the stuff he likes to run and he’s kind of like a a safety blanket for like

Getting the Raptors back into the sets they want to get into and all that kind of stuff and I know probably there’s a big big gap or Chasm between like fan sentiment on Dennis and Darko sentiment on Dennis but it’s certainly a possibility this is and this was the

This was the joke I made at the live podcast was like Messi you know he said the hardest phone call he ever had to make was the one to Demar rosan he said he was pacing around a hotel for two hours and um I asked will like how

Difficult do you think that decision is to trade Dennis and let Darko know and he said well know the 10 steps to walk into the office and I think that’s it if there if there’s a team that’s like gungho and Dennis and Dennis has been I’ll say it Dennis maybe his style of

Play or the expectations for what he’s supposed to be in supporting Scotty or anything like that I’m not sure they’ve aligned perfectly I don’t think that speaks poorly of Dennis Darko or Scotty or anything like that just like it’s tough to get aligned ideals in in this

World it’s tough to get aligned ideals Dennis for a midlevel exception guard is doing the job and has been doing the job now Raptor fans I think more than like any other fan base are so spoiled about point guard play because Kyle Lowry was such a freaking genius for Forever at

Somehow touching the ball six times over the course of a quarter never taking a shot but creating 24 points or sorry 18 points like he just his impact on the game was so cerebral and so perfect that every guard who comes after and like cam Whitmore in Houston was like fred is a

Genius he I shoot the ball better because I play with Fred and Al shenon is like I love the way Fred sets the table and they love Fred Raptor fans did not like the way Fred set the table and I think it’s because when you’re compared to Kyle Lowry whose brain was

The size of Earth as far as like making decisions on a basketball court I just Dennis and Fred they they don’t have it easy nobody who comes after Kyle lry has it easy um yeah biggie 35 says I think everyone thinks shuder was a panic signing that affects people’s perception

Of him I’ll tell you this much I was paying very close attention to the perception of Dennis shoter um people very quickly talked themselves into thinking he was a better player than Fred vanet and very quickly talked themselves into thinking that like he played very differently than Fred vanet

That he was a true point guard a pass first point guard and that he would do all the stuff that Fred didn’t and people talk themselves into that very quickly and obviously Dennis who had 10 years of NBA tape on him that I watched I said this probably won’t be the way

People view him after a handful of games and that’s that’s what it is dog 2233 says Fred’s problem last season was he intentionally left Scotty out of gelsea he said it himself that I’ll tell you I saw what he said that is not a reliable aggregation of what of what Fred said um

I I now I’m not saying team Fred or team Scotty or anything like that I think Fred got the bag I think Scotty has had a chance to flower into an All-Star player and the Raptors they couldn’t really afford to pay Fred $40 million they’re on the right side of it however

That is not a faithful retelling of the the Fred quote um I think that is a I I don’t think that’s faithful to the the spirit of what he said or anything like that and sommo says here imagine where RS would be paying Fred 45 million I

Think it was 40 million but yeah it’s it’s completely untenable like they just that’s what we said when he signed like it sucks that you get nothing back for Fred sure and I also disagreed with the people who said this is addition by subtraction I thought that was kind of

Ridiculous but it’s just not table for the Raptors to be paying Fred $40 million for the caliber of team that they are or would have been right so that’s kind of like how it’s shaping up um I don’t I don’t want to do the Fred stuff too much I think I’ve done a

Decent job of Towing the line without upsetting any camp but um they couldn’t pay Fred that much it made no sense but also point guards in Toronto have it really hard because Kyle was literally the best a Hall of Fame player all like just awesome I loved Kyle uh watching

Him play and I was never ever ever on the other side of like CU Kyle had it tough for a while in Toronto too people wanted him traded people called him all types of things and like even Messi evidenced by his attempts to trade him away a couple times and like the riffs

That they had even people in the Raptor’s organization weren’t really wise to just how impactful and incredible Kyle lry was he’s just like he is so far removed as far as like explosiveness shop making all that kind of stuff and I understand that he’s not

You know he’s still up in the air I mean the Raptors technically just played the team that Lowry plays for although he’s not there and but Lowry still could give something to a team and it’s just because he reads the game so well he has such an astute understanding of how to

Play basketball um so he set the tone for expectations of raptor point guards he is a Goliath a Hall of Fame level point guard who brought them their first championship and is the greatest Raptor of all time good luck replacing that or stepping into those massive massive

Shoes um deer Doyle asks what’s your number one Niche wish list item over this deadline slthe summer for this team other than just overall talent I would love um a guard who provides Rim pressure now do you go and do like a biannual exception or you know like minimum contract for Jaylen noell

Or something like that and and maybe you say well in the like continuous motion continuous screening offense of the Raptors maybe he pops off a little bit maybe that’s like the you’re not even risking anything signing it could be that do they try and like throw money at

Malik monk or something like that who is no longer like so so easy to guarantee like hardly any money and a ton of impact which he’s been for years and the Raptors didn’t take advantage of it although you could go back to podcasts myself way back then and I was

Championing that I also championed ran Holmes so not everybody bats 100 um although I did like hartenstein as well so you I mean we all have our guys Jaylen noell is somebody I’ve been interested in a long time um Bryce McGowan as I said at the top was somebody who

Said um Trey at the live podcast mentioned that he liked um Bryce mcgallen I know that Lewis really liked Bryce mcgallen coming out of the draft um I saw I believe it it’s Jake fiser today reported that uh oai abaji and Kelly oen was the rumored package for Bruce

Brown I I think that’s a pretty good package I think that Kelly o winck although he is expiring so there is that and there’s no guarantee that he will sign back with a team that isn’t very good um but Kelly I think is been an underrated big man for a very very long

Time although I was a little bit disappointed with his performance at feba he had a tough tournament um although was asked to kind of like battle against some really real like some Bashers in the front court and he didn’t necessarily um have his best uh tournament or anything like that but I

Think he’s been so underrated at the NBA level that he could really Elevate the Raptor front court and I think oai or oai ohigh I actually don’t know I know it’s aaji I don’t know how to say if it’s oai or ohigh he’s really handsome you’re basically waiting on the guy to

See if his jumper Falls but it’s a a little less you feel a little less eager or you know confident about that like we’re waiting on Grady who as I can’t remember who said shooting 47% over his last 10 games um waiting on Grady but

Grady’s like 20 um abaji came out of the draft I think at like 22 or 23 years old right like he was a four-year player um he’s not as young if you’re expecting the jump shot to turn around or perform at the NBA level it’s probably more of a

Long shot but if it does come around I’d be really interested to see how that looks and to see how he can kind of like you know get his reps in and stuff like that um it’s not a slam dunk as far as like you know a trade for

Bruce brown but I think I think that’s I I wouldn’t be upset at that um I could talk myself into that being quite interesting and I think like Kelly o lenck and and Scotty Barnes there’s a ton of like really interesting stuff that you could do there Nesta says give

Kelly some slack he’s old in basketball years also fun fact Kelly o linck I worked with his sister at Foot Locker I like I went I went to the ufs um Maya she played for the University of Saskatchewan huskys and I worked with her at um and played basketball with her

Um occasionally um in Saskatchewan when I was living there and she was great and um I guess Kelly I I had met when I played um not playing foran zega but when is at in zega um as well so cool stuff weird ties to the only o and

Obviously the oin family has like a major impact on Canada basketball as well so yeah fun little thing Maya was was always awesome so yeah um K Doyle says I used to do research at ufs that Buffet run by the culinary school slaps hm how odd they cool very very unique I that’s

Cool to know I’ve never had the buffet at the culinary school I’m GNA be honest with you so maybe I missed out while I was there but when I was there I was just like a gy little college kid who was not eating the best certainly not some culinary

School buffets or anything like that I was also really poor just like my whole adult life so I didn’t I wasn’t springing for anything fancy um Dawson Ned says I would love to see ton Horton Tucker on the Raptors if you had told me a few years ago I probably would have

Been more excited about that and after after watching like a decent amount of t over the years probably not that excited about that Kier Doyle says $15 Buffet so maybe nobody put me on but $15 is it $15 now or was it $15 like back in like 201 like5 or 2016 because

Like $15 back then was not cheap I I I don’t know how much money you had I don’t know I’m not trying to like Rich shame you or anything like that but $15 buffet for a student when I could go get like a $6 meal somewhere I don’t know know I don’t know

If that was 2019 that’s not so bad although I was living in Mexico in 2019 so I I didn’t have the opportunity but interesting to reminisce on this jacob terasoft says you go to school at gona question mark no I played um Club basketball and there were two years in a

Row that I went to gona for a tournament and part of it was that we would go for a tournament between like a lot of the like team Sask team Ontario team Quebec like and and a bunch of like Club teams from the United States would play at that tournament and then also

There’d be a week afterwards where all the kids would be separated into an ID camp and then you’d be like a fantasy draft you’d be drafted and the gona players would coach teams and you would play in a tournament and all that kind of stuff and um that was what I did that

Was that’s my relation to genega playing basketball there um David Stockton was the coach of my team which is why I make jokes about David Stockton teaching me how to run the pick and roll so that I am you know there’s John David Samson folk I’m in the the Stockton family of

Of pick and roll the lineage that’s the the joke of course um but David Stockton also who is a right-handed shooter beat me in a left-handed shooting contest and I’m left-handed he’s very impressive like he was 5’8 and made the NBA um his his ball skills and everything are

Insane um yeah he’s very impressive from that point of view although just like was I’m doing analysis of him he coached me um he’s just too small for the NBA as far as that goes so yeah all that good stuff but yeah hell of a college career

And just making the NBA at all super impressive that feels like a podcast though the Raptors win RJ awesome scoring game Scotty kind of on the in between in this game it’s tough to find your way through all these games we’re seeing it happen yakob with a massive

Close Emanuel cashes enough threes gets downhill a little bit not in an assist way not in a made shot way but you know finishes six- 13 18- four Bruce Brown four of five get some of those Baseline floats to go and uh yeah Dennis I thought had a better game than most

People seem to have think he had and Grady hell yeah big time hell yeah Grady um Raptors fan says is there scheduled Messi pressor tomorrow there should be yes so um although I probably won’t be going to it uh but I’ll be doing the the podcast live trade deadline podcast I

I’ll have guests on I think the the only guy I have scheduled right now to come on the podcast tomorrow the live stream is s but um yeah cir Doyle says Samson running pick and roll on the beach in Cancun Elite um it West Coast P of ARA

Was where I lived and um there was a lot of pick and roll they also have this crazy thing in Mexico um in Mexico they only clear the ball out of the paint which which I hated because it just meant that like the the real grimy Grinders would just like

Start posting up immediately like they’d get the rebound and the guy would like clear the like touch pass out of the paint and then you just like post entry it back in which to me I was like this takes no skill at all what the hell like we’re not even like dribbling the

Basketball you guys don’t clear the ball to the three-point line I thought it was nuts I thought it was insane like not after a maid shot after a miss you don’t clear the ball um animade shot you just like it was insane to me I I I didn’t really yeah

The Hoops were chaotic Fenix play Z says Samson would you ever try to pull a hammer set in a pickup game or twoo complex well a hammer set requires the guy’s off ball completely on the other side of the court to run a hammer screen

And you need like because it it could be a flare or a pin in technically if you wanted it to be but if you’re running it from the the strong side to the weak side then it’s that’s what makes it a hammer it’s you know based off of Darin

Ham on on the Bucks and so it would be very tough to get the other guys to like coordinate the action in pickup basketball anyway right and like pickup basketball is mostly about twom man actions like if you have a good guy to run pick and roll with you can kind of

Like demolish another team or if you can just cook guys in isolation which was always when I first got to Mexico that was kind of like what I did I was keeping it at a tally in my brain of how many games of one-on-one I could win in

A row like I’d just go to the to the court and just play like whoever was there which is also how I met my best friend in Mexico who I’ll see in a in a couple weeks Betto I met him playing one-on-one and so I’ve made a ton of

Friends playing basketball what a what a great sport just fantastic um Koko asks what time will you guys be on for the live stream I reckon I’ll start at like 12 or 1 if I if one if nothing interesting has happened probably 12 if something happens I guess I’ll be ready to start

At 12 but want to be on at one for the for the draft podcast or something like that I’m sure it’ll go like four hours but the trade deadline I don’t want I don’t want to do like four hours on that kind of stuff um Fenix play Z says how

Chaotic would pickup Hoops be if we call three second violations you won’t get through a game you need that plotting guy in the middle because you know pickup games you don’t it’s just guys who show up girls who show up NBS who show up there’s always going to be

Somebody who wants to hang around in the paint of course all right we have 160 concurrent viewers make sure to like the video while you’re here I’m supposed to ask that during the when it’s at its highest sorry I’m forgetting and also I hope people appreciate that there was no

Ad today because the live podcast happened last night I want to thank everybody who is in chat that came out I know there’s at least a few people in there it was a total blast I love meeting the people chopping it up and those types of you know that’s like a

Fundraiser basically for Raptor Republic because Raptor rep public you know as you see Sports Illustrated folds Yahoo sports folds these huge things in sports media fold and Raptor Republic still keeps going strong and a big reason for that is support from the community obviously so um paying for those tickets

Is a big deal for Raptor Republic thank you to everybody who did um the on Three Tournament is another thing like that we never have problems getting entries from teams that’ll be a blast and thank you to everybody who subscribes to the website and to everybody who likes this

Video and to everybody who you know subscribes to the YouTube channel any small thing helps some things are bigger than others I appreciate the big ones obviously but um yeah og3 says now we just get a retroactive ad in the form of a thank you I’m on to your game that’s

Right man always plugging always working it always working it um all right thanks to everybody for hopping in I’ll see you some of y’all tomorrow for the trade deadline live stream okay all good Bernard says go watch Pelicans at Clippers looks like a good one I might

Al also might try and get me to play FIFA he doesn’t get tired of losing apparently all right everybody thanks for hoing in and whether you got into this in the morning or at night have a blessed day and goodbye

Samson Folk details the Raptors win over the Hornets.