To Tank or Not to Tank? How should the Toronto Raptors approach their Top-6 protected pick?

To Tank or Not to Tank? How should the Toronto Raptors approach their Top-6 protected pick?

On your Wednesday episode of Locked on Raptors to tank or not to tank that is one of many questions we’ll examine as we continue our two-part look at the stuff we want to see from the Raptors down the stretch with VC Jacob coming up on today’s show you are locked on Raptors your

Daily Toronto Raptors podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hey what’s going on and welcome to another episode of Locked on Raptors part of the lockd on podcast Network your team every day it is Wednesday February the 21st and I’m your host sea

Woodley I’ve been covering 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 locked on Raptors and of course you can join us as always for free in the locked on

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Here on part two of our look at the things we want to see from the Toronto Raptors down the stretch stretch run goals if you will and here to dig into our second set of goals we would like the Raptors to strive for is our pal big

V from sportset and the lovely Raptors in seven newsletter VC Jacob Big B how’s it going not bad just as good as I was five minutes ago ready the magic of podcasting we’re wearing the same clothes as yesterday no we’re not scrubs we’re just recording backtack episodes

Because it’s Allstar week and what else are we going to do we got to fill the time somehow uh and yeah well let’s run a little batch record big V Let’s uh just get right into it shall we we have uh we’ve just kind of going back and

Forth on yesterday’s show with things we want to see from the Raptors down the stretch we talked about Emanuel quickley and Scotty Barnes getting that chemistry going we talked about Grady dick playing with the best Raptors players more often you can go check out yesterday’s show if

You haven’t yet um I want to start here though because I do think this is going to be kind of the pring storyline with the fan base prevailing prevailing I I’m good at saying words well uh down the stretch of the season and that is the whole draft pick situation of course to

Set the scene for those unaware the Toronto Raptors owe a top six protected pick to the San Antonio Spurs for the yaka purle trade uh right now as we record here on Tuesday afternoon the Raptors have the sixth best Lottery odds therefore they are the sixth worst team

In the NBA standings right now you might think oh wow they’re going to keep their pick aha not quite that simple because being sixth gives the Raptors about a 45 46% chance of actually keeping their draft pick anyway so they’re literally down to a coin flip the Memphis

Grizzlies are in seventh they are really really injured and probably going to lose steam one would think as you know they have important players on two ways who are about to hit the 50-day mark and all that stuff they’re probably not long for this race either they’re going to

Tumble the Portland Trailblazers right now are three and a half games worse than the Toronto Raptors it’s a lot of games to make up down the stretch and so it seems like sixth seventh or maybe eighth with the Nets finering jacqu Von and being really really bad are kind of

The spots the Raptors can land and I know there’s a lots of different sort of philosophical wonderings about what the Raptors should be doing regarding this draft pick big V I will turn it to you what do you want to see from the Raptors regarding this draft pick down the

Stretch I think listeners of this podcast know exactly what I think I think you should just uh play the games like you’re a competitive real basketball team doing an entertainment product not piss away games and waste a third of a season and let the out ofy control Lottery balls fall where they

Might but where are you at with this what do you want to see from the Raptors down the stretch as it pertains to draft pick philosophy yeah I personally would like to see um the pick convey this year and I would like to see the Raptors have a

Pick in the better draft next year yeah and but I think based on the basketball that we’ve seen post trades they seem to want the pick and so I don’t know what that means in terms of setting themselves up for deals on draft day and better positioning themselves

That way um and and what that might entail it still might not mean you know actually keeping the pick right and the sense of you know the conversation that we’re having whether it’s to you know be bad enough or whether to be good enough to not have it um they might

Still work it into a trade or something like that and so uh I think that seems to be their perspective of it uh which I disagree with I would rather just have the pick next year but uh yeah I think it’ll come down to judging you know if you do get the

Pick what type of deals are done thereafter in the summer it’s going to be a big summer right huge summer yeah and I don’t know if I totally agree that they’ve sort of telegraphed that they want to keep the pick I think they’ve been trying they’re just bad I think

There’s a difference between like actively trying to lose games versus um you know just kind of not having the juice to win games and frankly I think the way they’ve played considering the talent they have on hand has been pretty pathetic for the most part and like I do

Think there is more in terms of results to be milked out of this roster down the stretch um it comes down to whether or not they kind of pack it in right and turn any sort of little injury into a season Ender and you know we’ve seen

This movie before we saw it with the Raptors back in the Tampa season where the entire team got covid when they were just kind of hitting their stride and then they packed it in fair enough they got Scotty Barnes out of that I I think

This year I I think just because of how messed up this season has been how fractured it’s been how little time they’ve actually had to sort of instill darkar rakovich is system and philosophies how many how a little time they’ve actually just had to play with

The team that they know more or less they’re going to go into the future with I think it’s really important to actually play out the string of these games and not waste time just saying well we can’t get to the playin so what’s the point in playing these games

And I think obviously the wrinkle of the pick protection fuels this philosophy if the Raptors had no shot right now at you know or sort of you know had a guaranteed shot at keeping their pick then I’d be like okay fine you know I get it I disagree with the sort of

Principle in a thing that’s supposed to ostensibly be a competitive Enterprise but I understand why they would go and try to tank down but right now it’s so out of their control anyway that I would rather just see them make use of these last few games and there are upsides to

Both things right I I think conveying the pick I’m with you I think there’s a lot of value to that just going into the summer with a clean slate this is a draft that you know has been sort of branded by those who know about the

Draft as not very topheavy in talent but kind of deep in guys who could be decent contributors and so you have the Pacers pick at 18 you have 31 or 32 depending on where the Pistons finish up like those are two picks that are going to be

Valuable in this draft in a Range where you know the sort of consensus seems to be that like 15 through 45 is very very similar in terms of talent you you’re pulling from you’re going to get two useful players you would think with those picks if you trust your scouting

And all of that and so it’s not like you have nothing if you convey your pick to the Spurs this year obviously it’s nice to get topend Talent as well and as much as we look at this draft and say oh it stinks like getting a top four pick or

Whatever if they happen to get some Lottery luck that’s great like that’s a valuable thing to add to this team if they choose to use that pick and add to this team maybe they get Alex SAR who’s a a big Center who could be sort of a

Big man of the future there’s lots of other players that will examine in this spot Ron Holland etc etc we’ll talk about it once we know if the Raptors actually have their pick you know there are things there are upsides to getting the pick I just don’t know if the upside

Is so clear and obvious and so outweighing the upside of just conveying the pick and getting it off the books that I I need to see them go and try to catch the Blazers or whatever right like it’s going to take a lot to catch the Blazers the Blazers are really bad and

Have a three and a half game Edge in the standings if that’s how you’re looking at it and you know it really comes down to to to being an Optics thing right where okay you give up the seventh pick in the draft that’s bad like you don’t

Want to be doing that but beyond the Optics of it I I don’t see really all that much of a difference in terms of just like the team building value versus getting a top six pick in this year’s draft which everyone deems not very good at the top versus just conveying it

Having your pick in next year’s draft and having all of your picks again at your disposal this summer to try to go and make something happen like am I missing something here is like is it some great you know indignity if the Raptors don’t get the sixth overall pick

In this draft like I I just think the Optics of it are really the thing that has people hanging up on it more than anything else yeah I mean I feel like we’ve kind of gone ahead and aium on what the ramifications are either way and I I just feel like you

Know I ECT the front office enough to just say that hey if they see value in keeping the pick and you know having that flexibility between say six 17 and 31 um as opposed to just having 17 and 31 uh then obviously they might have

Something in the works right uh and so I think you know how that plays out again all comes down to just evaluating the summer if it if it comes down to keeping the pick then okay what transpires are you actually using the pick are does it

Go get does get worked to into another deal um and then obviously it’s very clear if the pick uh just conveys this year right and as you said Clean Slate go to next year you have that pick handy um you’re not uh under any kind of pressure uh in

Terms of what your record is next season right and it’s like hey if if things continue to be a struggle next year then hey that’s no issue at all because you got your pick yeah for sure and also I would say like you know again if the

Raptors jump up to one two three or four great that’s that’s the high-end Talent play Sixth and 18th like not that wide a golf sure it be nice to have two shots at that and get both six and 18 in a given draft but like if you go back through history six

Versus 18 it’s really not that much of a golf in terms of what you’re looking at if outside of the top three or four the talent drop off every year is basically the same and so uh again I’m not so pressed I just want to see them play

Competitive ball man it’s been a nightmare season as a fan uh just as far as like watching interesting basketball every night it’d be cool to close this off on a pretty nice stretch of all right you know the pick is out of our control is just play the games we have

In front of us see what kind of foundation we can lay and have a bit of a a happy go luck even if it’s a bit of full of a Fool’s Gold close to the season that can be a nice way to send you off into the summer and next season

With some good feelings in your heart um we’ll leave that for that for now we’ll come back on the other side we’ll get to your next thing you want to see from the Raptors down the stretch big V we’ll do that in just one second Today’s Show is brought to you by

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Continue on part two of the stuff we want to see from the Raptors down the stretch series of podcasts big V I will turn it over to you what is your next thing that you really have an eye on that you really want to see from the

Raptors over the last 27 games at the schedule well it’s not so much something I have an eye on because I don’t have a huge expectation of it happening but I personally would like to see um yaka purle and Kelly oen to go into a bit of

A time share sure uh I think there are certain matchups where I would like to see Kelly oen in the starting lineup and have Yak come off the bench just to see what that looks like so say for example you’ve got a game against uh the Nets

And the Hawks coming up right what does it look like if you have a stretch big like Kelly going up against someone like a Nick Claxton or if you’re going up against the hawk someone like a Clint capella or nongu you know what what does that stretch big look like with the

Starting lineup um as opposed to Off the Bench and so I would like to see the team go into a bit of a time share um obviously we’ve seen it in the past between um you know Serge Baka and Jonas Valen chunis uh not so much you know

Once marcusa came over he was pretty much the certified starter uh but I I do think in terms of learning as much as possible uh and what that prototype of Kelly brings to the table I would like to see uh this the starting center role become more of a time

Share that’s interesting I hadn’t even really thought about that I I I don’t even know huh I I guess yeah like yaka has had matchups specifically it feels like against more sort of Rim running super athletic types where it’s been a bit of a problem like he’s I think quick enough

And sort of nimble enough to hang with the more sort of Spacey bigs in the league it just seems like he just kind of gets beaten at his own game a little bit by the more sort of let’s say Dunkey types and so you know I’m not sh linck

Provides much more resistance to like the Jared Allen of the world but it’s a wrinkle on the other end where you kind of force them to kind of spread out their defense a little bit more I like it actually I’m kind of in on this idea

Um I think I’m a little bit more intrigued by the idea of them playing together too a little bit that might come with its own defensive struggles but you know we’ve talked about Grady dick sliding into the starting five over Gary Trent Jr I I you know I could

Totally see an argument for Kelly Ock taking that fifth spot as well just offering a little bit more playmaking a little bit more connectivity and a little bit more shooting obviously to kind of replace what you lose in Gary and having just more size on the floor

Not to say that Kelly is going to go and stay in front of perimeter fours and who are going to you know Blow by him and stuff like that but I think just size is valuable and having Kelly oin out there with yaka purle could be useful but yeah

I I’m not against it man I think that’s a pretty interesting one with the with Kelly swapping in for yaka purle do you think that is like again it’s like an Optics thing right it’s oh this guy you traded your first round pick for who you might

You’re probably going to convey or you might convey is not even starting for you is that like an Optics thing they can stomach uh you know that’s something that I’m sure will cause people to get very angry even if the results are good um you know I think look the yaka peral

Trade toothpaste is out of the tube you can’t put it back you got to live with what you got um but do you envision that being maybe like a reason why they might not do this um not so much just because I feel like with Kelly there’s you might have a

Bit of an agreement in place Doug Smith suggested there might be you know an extension coming the Mike Conley treatment coming to kinic near you baby yeah just former Utah Jazz glue guys getting paid yeah and so I think it’s just the fact that he’s someone that is

Valued by the Raptors and uh this is another thing that Bobby Webster has said after the deadline right it’s like hey we want to see what a Kelly prototype looks like next to Scotty well hey yeah the best way to do that is to get him in the starting lineup um and

Again I I I don’t think there should be a complete changing uh of the center Center position I think it’s just you go into a time share if the matchup uh suits you know things you’re trying to find out and again I made the example of

Hey if you’re going up against Nick Clon and the Brooklyn Nets if you’re going up against a Clint capella with the Atlanta Hawks I think there’s something to find out there right and so what does that just look like and you know you have somewhat of a sample size to look at and

Say okay this is what it kind of figures to be yeah it makes sense and like you know we lived it right with abbaka and Gasol having 48 minutes of reliable Center play and different iated Center play is a really nice thing to have on your team

Um obviously I would say you know Perle and Alin both below Ibaka and Gasol at their levels when they were with the Raptors so we’re not you know doing a like for like comparison here but um you know having those different looks for two guys who are you know exceedingly

Competent I think would be very nice it’s not like they’re throwing jonte Porter out there to be like oh what is Scotty look like with a with a spacing big who doesn’t really do anything else like oen does a lot of stuff to kind of connect that would be I think sort of

The one concern right we saw when purle was out how just sort of unconnected and lifeless the offense seemed they didn’t have most of their playbook available to them is there any concern that taking Perle out who’s very clearly been a real agent for competence someone who has

Helped set up the canvas to be one upon which development can happen does olenic infer purle affect that at all to you is when it comes to you know things like screening and um you know passing and roll gravity and stuff like that like I I think obviously very different players

I think purle skill sets are very valuable to what the Raptors are trying to do would ol Linux different skill sets cut into the developmental potential for the main guys down the stretch do you think well I think offensively yak’s rooll gravity has mattered um I think the passing ability I I wouldn’t

You know pick between them I think Kelly’s a really good passer I think uh uh the positives of that spacing and being able to play that five out offense uh would certainly intrigue me obviously defensively there’s going to be some concerns um but again that’s the positive of just having Yak there right

I think before when you talk about this stretch without Yak it was the fact that you didn’t have him at all yeah right uh and and so you’re relying on oh and while we’re making comparisons Kelly’s better than jonte porker and so uh I like jante I think there’s uh a decent

Player there but right now with where their careers are I think you’d certainly take Kelly over Dante uh and so yeah I think uh again it’s just about asking these questions that are worth asking right and so I do think it’s worth asking hey what

Does uh you know a center that can shoot the ball look like next to uh a quickly and a barn and an RJ and just help you inform your decision- making in the long term yeah to answer my own question I don’t think I’m concerned at all if

Olenic in there and sort of the drop off in competence it would be a different looking team but I do think like you know having oin we talked about yesterday the spacing issues that purle provides when you’re talking about the quickly Barnes you know Twan game you

Know you want to run a little you know Scotty as your sort of nominal offensive center with quickle and oen space in all right I can get on board with that that probably helps you massage that Twan combinations a little bit more effectively than when yaka purle even in

There so I think there are you know sort of upsides and downsides to having both guys in but both guys can bring things that help do the thing that’s important down the stretch which is develop the chemistry and the fit and the just overall games of Barnes quickly Barrett

Grady dick oai those guys who kind of matter for what’s coming up down the line um so I’m with you there an interesting one that I did not expect to get dropped on me today dude uh we’ll come back on the other side see what other surprises big V has in store we’re

Going to go rapid fire through our last things we want to see out of the Raptors down the stretch we’ll do that coming up in just one sec Today’s Show is brought to you by LinkedIn jobs and look when you’re hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals that are

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There’s nothing to play for there was a lot for the Raptors to sort out here after a season of messiness and uncertainty and broken timelines and all of this stuff so uh to close out here we’re going to Rapid Fire through our final things we want to see from the

Raptors down the stretch of this season before we do that however just a quick heads up locked on sports today 247 is your daily all day locked on feed on YouTube go subscribe locked on shows covering all the biggest stories and all the sports all day long from the national shows as

Well as the local shows with the local experts covering what the expertise you only get from lockon go do that right now lock on sports today 247 all right big V let’s go through some quick rapid fire things we want to see down the stretch from the Raptors I’ll go first

Here I want to see the Raptors uh give us some clue as to what the hell they’re trying to do on defense man uh it’s been an interesting year no continuity whatsoever on that end I don’t begrudge them necessarily for not being like a top 10 defense that was sweet when they

Were for the first like two weeks of the Season before the starting lineup that start of the Year fell apart but you know it’s just there continues to be very little in terms of an identity to what they want to do on defense the thing I’ve been checking all season long

Is sort of the shot distribution that they’re allowing to opposing teams does it give us an inkling as to what their defense is aiming towards and this Raptor’s defense is just kind of like meh at everything there’s 16th in Rim percentage allowed in terms of frequency they are 12th in terms of mid-range

Frequency allowed they’re 20th in terms of non- corner threes allowed they’re 12th in terms of corner threes allowed 16th in terms of Threes allowed overall there’s no I think funneling of one specific kind of shot there’s no sort of attention being paid to any specific area of the floor just kind of rolling

Five guys out there and saying stop the ball would you and they’re not doing that big V any thoughts on the defense things you’d like to see on that end of the floor as they try to just kind of get their house in order after a season where their house has been in

Shambles yeah hopefully you know some of it is just you know all the new faces that have come in and having to make the adjustments and uh we’ll see a better team defensively down the stretch here um for me if you know you want to teach good

Habits if you want to teach you know commitment to the cause and just hustling like crazy another thing I want to see is Chris buet be a consistent part of the rotation D hey there you go sneaking in a little guy this is great love it I I

Think that if he wasn’t G to be a part of the rotation if you didn’t see him as a part of the team then you should have moved him at the deadline um he’s here he he is a part of this roster I think he brings some valuable elements for

This young team to learn from um and we saw that to uh go into the All-Star break and I think that he needs to be a consistent part of this rotation um and yeah sure he’ll have his uh down moments but I think on the whole over these

Final 27 games uh there’ll be more positives from him than negatives yeah I like that I I think the last game was the last game before the break he came came in and had himself uh a really nice stretch of minutes and you know again I understand

Why he had been phased out before the deadline I think they were pretty clearly trying to move him I guess they just couldn’t find a deal to their liking or that worked financially or whatever um but now that he’s here like might as well play him he’s here for

Another year and a half and you know if nothing else you make him a more viable guy to move next season as an expiring contract or in the summer whatever it might be and you know you also might get some pretty competent basketball out of him he’s a dude who always brings the

Energy always brings the punch and that’s the thing this team has been sorely lacking they have been uh not the team to throw the blows in a lot of these games and Chris bue maybe amps up their possibility of being that kind of team um another one I had here just a a

Quick one can one of oai abaji jonte Porter or Javon Freeman Liberty who’s been carving up the G League kind of just find their way into the noou plans for the team I I don’t think jonte Porter is really on that level you know he’s shown some nice things I think a

Third big is kind of where he Nets out probably just because of his inability to make a two-pointer and his just general sort of slow lateral quickness you know there’s stuff that you like about him if you can hit a three it changes the game obviously um but like

Javon Freeman Liberty obviously has some juice uh oi abaji is you know I don’t think yet sort of a sure thing in the long-term plans we can add Jordan War into this as well although I’m kind of out on the Jordan War experience already um you know can one of those guys you

Know make a claim to oh yeah we’re gonna be in the rotation as one of the top eight or nine guys next season there’s nothing you can do about it I think that’s a a pretty interesting subplot here do you have any faith in any of those guys in particular of kind of

Seizing the day and becoming a no-brainer part of the plans next season well I mean I I think uh Norah showed a little bit to be excited about um he did in two games and the rest it’s been a disaster yeah and so I think when you look at

That that potential it’s there it’s just you know can he figure it out defensively that’s why he’s moved from Team to team right it’s because he hasn’t been able to get uh on the level they need him to be defensively and so if uh he can figure it out uh history

Shows that he won’t uh because that’s why teams have moved on from him and so we’ve seen kind of that ceiling of what he offers to this team which can be pretty useful but um beyond that uh I like JFL a lot um he hasn’t got the

Opportunity yet um but you know we we’ll see how this plays out down the stretch yeah I mean you would think no more Dennis schrudder suggest that maybe there’s some run there at the guard spot for Javon Freeman Liberty at some point obviously Bruce Brown’s there too um you

Know I think aaji is probably like the leader in the clubhouse as far as guys who might be able to make a claim to next year’s team even though I don’t think he’s shown a ton so far you know he just kind of has a bit more pedigree

And you know he’s under contract for another couple Seasons that that is probably the guy but you know the fun one is Javon Freeman Liberty coming in and like kind of blowing up the spot a little bit also like we have to say beware the March and April you know

Surge for a young player because it’s not always real for every uh you know Jason Tatum Catching Fire in the back half of a season there are a thousand Freddy Gillespies and Malachi flynns so you know hold off a little bit on your sort of optimism one of these guys

Starts to pop but if one of those guys by the end of this season can say I am a part of the rotation next season there’s nothing you can do about it I think that’s the success like that you’re not going to hit on all these guys but one

Of the four really kind of standing out and saying you know what make me part of the plans that would be pretty sweet do you have any last things you want to see from the Raptors down the stretch here big V before we close out the

Show one final thing I’ll throw in there is uh just RJ uh you know can he continue to sustain what he’s done as a raptor on the offensive end he’s shooting 61% on twos uh he’s shooting 36% on threes so we how will that play out the remainder of the season um and

Can he start to take steps defensively it’s it’s not necessarily something I expect mid-season um but can he improve on on that end in terms of guarding his position uh and being a better uh perimeter Defender so that that’s probably one thing I’ll throw in there

Yeah RJ’s defense that’d be a nice thing to see perk up there’s no doubt about that uh with that we will leave it there big V thanks so much for hanging out for two podcasts with me you’re a crazy man for spending this much time with me uh

But I appreciate you to no end anything you want to promote for the good people out there uh just uh you can check out my NBA work for sportset you can check out my Raptors takes at my new newsletter Raptors in7 and you can check out everything that’s going on with cricet

Canada on the cricet Canada website as I continue to do that as well hell yeah everyone go support all of big V’s fine works all over the Internet and uh thank you so much for tuning in again you can find me at Woodley Shan on the bad website Instagram at lockon Raptors and

Of course the lockon rptor Discord server the direct line to me baby is the Discord come hang in there we would love to see you become part of our lock on Raptors listener family uh we’ll be back again tomorrow I think Katie hindle’s probably going to stop by we might catch

A little Allstar update from all the went down she was in Indianapolis this past weekend we’ll keep on looking ahead to the final stretch for the Raptors as well Friday we’ll break down Raptors Nets as the Raptors get back in action it’s all coming up for you this week and

Then uh yeah stretch run time it’s a different kind of stretch run they’re not pushing towards much but uh we will cover what we can cover as the season comes to a close over the next couple of months here and then of course draft season will kick into high gear so you

Have all that to look forward to thanks so much for hanging out again uh all the Audio Apps YouTube subscribe get us to 4,000 Subs all that good stuff we will talk to you again on Thursday another episode of lock down Raptors bye-bye

In Episode 1580, Sean Woodley is joined by Vivek Jacob (Sportsnet, Raptors in 7) to break down their hopes and dreams for the Toronto Raptors down the stretch of the season. Off the top, they discuss what they’d like to see from the Raptors as it pertains to their philosophy surrounding their Top-6 protected pick owed to the San Antonio Spurs. Should the Raptors make every effort to tank to a place where they’re guaranteed to hang onto the pick and draft in the Top-6, or with the lottery odds and standings stacked against them, should they make every effort to play out the season competitively, perhaps even climb the standings by a spot or two, and attempt to convey the pick and clean the slate going forward. Next, Vivek pitches Sean on why he’d like to see a platoon at center between Jakob Poeltl and Kelly Olynyk, with both big men working in a time share and getting starts dependent on matchups. Lastly, Sean makes a plea for the Raptors to find an identity on defense over the final 27 games, Vivek advocates for more Chris Boucher in the rotation, and Sean wants to see if one of Ochai Agbaji, Jordan Nwora, Jontay Porter or Javon Freeman-Liberty can stake a claim to a longer term rotation gig during the season’s closing stretch.

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