How successfully have the Toronto Raptors returning to their player development roots this season?

How successfully have the Toronto Raptors returning to their player development roots this season?

On your Wednesday episode of Locked on Raptors yes the Raptors keep on losing but they also keep on developing which is kind of the whole point of this season 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 lockon podcast Network your team every day it is Wednesday March the 13th I’m your host sea Woodley I’ve been covering the Toronto Raptors now for 10 seasons on various platforms you can

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The code all lowercase locked NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 and we get rolling here by bringing in our favorite it is Katie hindle from dime and basketball feelings we’re going to talk today about the Raptor Nuggets game from a couple nights ago that we did not

Podcast about yesterday today we’re going to talk about development and the Raptors seemingly getting back to their Roots as a developmentally friendly franchise but of course it’s warm out the clocks have gone ahead there’s daylight Katie is it shorts time yet Katie hindle’s here no

Man look where you and I are it’s GNA be pretty it’s gonna be 20 degrees today um but it’s gonna snow next weekend yeah but now it’s shorts weather no you don’t want to live it up while you could wear them you know what like you could wear

Them around your house I do that in the winter my house gets pretty warm got a lot of south facing windows so today I have thought like oh shoot do I have to go get my like my basketball shorts out my shorts out to wear around the house

Because it’s like I’m not going to turn on the AC yet so yeah but like no th this is also like just from a a sorial perspective the the rare window we get in like we get a few weeks in Fall a few weeks in Spring to layer to your heart’s

Content wear jackets you don’t really get opportunity to wear time of year yeah your denims your army jackets you could just wear shirt like layer some shirts as a jacket try something out because like soon it’ll be too hot to do anything so um that’s my hesitation that’s fair people definitely

Are gonna be wearing shorts today and I’m gonna think they’re they’re fools um all right Katie let’s move on and talk about the Toronto Raptors shall we uh lost another game a couple nights ago in Denver uh very fun game if you like big first half outbursts and uh you

Know very predictable second half comebacks by the defending NBA champions who employ the best player in the world um you know we could get mad about them blowing this lead I think that would be a little silly on account of like I said it’s the Denver Nuggets and they’re

Incredible and it just kind of felt inevitable that it’s some point they would not be shooting 24% from three and would get on a heater and win that game as they did joic with a what a 35 17 and 12 triple double with six steals there’s

Only so much you can do so we’re going to focus Katie on the good things we liked the stuff you know that we’ve been trying to sort of pluck the little oh that’s nice that’s nice that’s nice out of the otherwise sort of miserable watching experience that has been the

Toronto Raptors over the last little while here when it comes to results at least there has been how however lots of good stuff going on in terms of individual performances Katie I give you the floor what were some of your bigger takeaways on the more positive end of

Things from that game against the never nuggets I will say when that game ended and they announced it was the fourth straight loss for Toronto it really surprised me I think because and I’m maybe not everybody is looking at the games this way but to look at these

Games as kind of individual performances like we’re saying um to look at the really like the bright spots like that was a really exciting fun game um I would also say that they didn’t necessarily blow the lead like they the Nuggets caught up there was certainly an

Energy shift I think the Nuggets like really clamped down on where they were leaking and letting the Raptors get away with a lot of stuff but by the end like Toronto was keeping it close you know there were some sequences where they were still just like no we’re in this

Like we were in this why not stay in it um so I think loss is like that don’t feel very bad because you’ve also like made a run on yeah the former NBA champion so uh I liked a lot of what I saw I liked I thought Kelly alen was

Great I thought like super aggressive in a very fun and like I’m just taking this over kind of super confident like pulling up from wherever he wanted to take threes also I’d say like trying to muscle in as best as he could um around yok sometimes like with a pretty crowded

Paint not just yic hanging around down there uh I thought Grady dick was great also just like very confident um there was a sequence I think it was Michael Porter Jr kind of yanked the ball out of his hands but Grady like really fought for it and then he got right back in

Transition like he it was like a real like he got spun around and he didn’t just kind of stand there like you know throw his hands up or anything like that he he got right back into things um so overall I say the confidence and the kind of force and I aggression sometimes

But like that waffled but I I do think like the energy like you and you could tell when they had it like RJ Barrett like grabbing and Swinging out these wild passes or just like kind of going in for the layup or making a shot from the corner um but there were these

Really beautiful sequences of ball movement that I think helped them keep that energy up and like kept them going kept it it it was like really flowing from either end of the floor and I think that’s what the Nuggets had such a hard time getting a hold of and like

Ironically the Nuggets started doing the exact same thing later I thought um I don’t know I I thought I heard this on the broadcast but that the Raptors didn’t have like theyd made basically they’d made most of their points in the first half through fast break points and like

Basically had n in second or fourth quart like second half or fourth quarter so I me down yeah yeah that’s pretty indicative of this kind of energy drain we’re talking about so um other than like those things and I guess losing the game I thought they doesn’t mean

Anything right now it’s fine let’s whatever team that has like there’s this the Saks the Saks are have been dissolved right like they they’re playing quite free um but they’re playing not like wild and you know like maniacs or they’re playing kind of like good Maniacs um but I thought they were

You know pestering I thought they were they looked like they were having fun through like big sequences they look really confident they never look surprised which is also a nice thing to see you know when a team in their position has a team like Denver on the

Run there can be a moment of like oh shoot we shouldn’t be here but I never like I didn’t see that so all in all like a great loss I mean it’s been a run of pretty decent losses honestly like there have been a lot of interesting individual

Things to pluck from these games um and like I feel like we maybe bu delete a little bit the Raptors played this game without a point guard like against the Nuggets they played Without a point guard it’s pretty nuts and yeah I mean nine assists for RJ Barrett I

Believe a career high or tied for a career high um you know he just continues to be so fantastically metronomically consistent it’s kind of ridiculous and we’ll talk about him a little bit coming up as we dig into the Player Development the Raptors have been sort of overseeing this season but I

Mean you get then the platform for Grady dick to walk in and have seven assists and like run some pick and rolls and have more responsibility you know that’s not going to be something he’s often asked to do when this team’s at full health but knowing you can kind of go to

That stuff is really important as you sort of build out a real serious competitive basketball team that wants to go win at higher levels down the line as soon as potentially next season and um yeah I think it’s it’s been fantastic to watch you know obviously there are

The drawbacks the defense obviously does not quite have the juice uh as you might say they give up 74 points in the second half to the Nuggets look you’re going to do that to the Nuggets sometimes but um you know they just are entirely compromised defensively without Scotty

Barnes or yaka purle and even emanu quickly at the point of attack is a valuable piece um that they not have in this game and you know so again I can’t take too much you know negative from this game considering the opponent considering the context and considering

The individual stuff that popped off the screen for a lot of these guys pretty good stuff and and I think that’s been Katie sort of my feeling thinking about the season as a whole kind of taking a 10,000 foot view things have been pretty impressive I think when it comes to the

Player Development machine that the Raptors hope to be we’re going to get into some individual guys the sort of then and now the before and after of their development this season and you know really take a look at the rap’s back as a developmental Hub we’ll get to

That coming up in just one second here on the show Today’s Show is brought to you by our friends over at eBay Motors passion drive and patience what brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your

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Of course a wonderful writer over at Dime and all real other spots on the internet uh let’s uh dive in now Katie to Player Development a year ago just about I guess 11 months 12 months 13 months whenever the season ended last year I don’t know my brain hurts and

Time is fake uh Messiah jiri talked about the Raptors kind of losing touch with the roots with their culture with what they had been to earn all of their success in the previous decade or so um obviously that was followed up by the firing of Nick nurse the bringing in of

Darkar rakovich the eventual moving on from the sort of core of players that dominated over the last few seasons and you know I I think it’s been sort of mixed bag as far as okay like are they getting back to what they want to do the

First half of this season was you know a lot of last year’s you know same problems kind of carried over in a different sort of way obviously Scotty Barnes taken the jump sort of Chang the context of the team and well also not totally changing it in sort of a broader

Sense um and and I think you know it’s easy to sort of look at this season as a bit of a lost year they’re 23 and 42 they are very bad they are not going to make the play in they are not going to be bad enough likely to guarantee they

Keep their own pick all that stuff but I I ask you Katie like do you feel like the process of getting back to the roots that that made this team what it was during their most successful run is underway in like a promising way this season like in terms of like individual

Player Development in terms of the team kind of getting back to operating as it used to I kind of feel like it is but I’m curious uh where you come down before I go a little bit further into it what you got I think it is by intention

But I also think it has been by accident a little bit you know like I was texting you yesterday when we were talking about um this and as a joke it was like you know this is what happens when you’ve had 28 people on your roster all

Season right and like you forget some of the iterations this team went through I definitely have forgotten multiple times Dennis Schroeder was on this basketball team um and I so I think where they did intentionally hope to develop the team has done a really good job with that

They’ve done a really good job in kind of reactivating not 105 is um not just a one-way pipeline but you know you saw gry dick go down I don’t want I don’t want say go down there go over to miss Saga um try it’s not a demotion that’s

That’s what I mostly trying to say um but you saw him go to 905 because he wasn’t really getting the minutes that he he needed to develop and then when he was in game he did look a little bit lost sometimes we’ve talked about this and then you see him come back after

Playing a ton of minutes more minutes than he could have gotten with the Raptors which is the whole point of using players back and forth like that um and look at him now you know like he’s taking pull up threes against the tver Nuggets without a care in the world

So cool yeah and like you know that flashy stuff is fantastic but he seems to be more aware of his space within a game at any given time MH which is the more important thing he’s got a better SS I think of of like the flow and the

Rhythm of the game and where he needs to be which is you know to go back to that point of some of this being accidental I think is even more impressive considering the Personnel around him have changed like they’ve even changed from when he last played this many

Minutes at the beginning of the Season you know to now um out of necessity from injury and from what you know trades and losing people have brought so I think in the flashes there you’ve seen it there’s obviously been like some phenomenal like opportunity from guys who were playing

With the 905 and that got signed to the Raptors you know I’ve really loved to see like how John de Porter Javon frean Liberty like fully taking advantage of the minutes of the opportunity not just to Showcase themselves but to really like put their skills to work right like

We talk about it a lot as like a spotlight opportunity for those athletes which you can’t really underestimate because it totally is but I think they’re also coming in and as part of a team like as a greater whole which is really cool to see um in terms of players we assumed would

Just continue on in their developmental like trajectory like a Scotty Barnes like yeah that was that one way yeah well underway until his injury and so that doesn’t make me as concerned about his injury um the nature of it as well as just the timing of it um it stinks of

Course you never want to see anybody get hurt but I’m not like oh he’s going to really lose if they were in like a playin sort of situation it’s not like he’s going to lose that experience now so again I’m not too worried about him coming back next season and looking a

Lot better than he did to start this season so yeah all in all I’d say that the development is there some Again by Design and some by maybe happy accident sure um certainly probably not where the team thought they would be at the end of

This season uh but you also get to see like we’re seeing flashes we wouldn’t normally get to because the rotation has been so thin so you’re seeing like what guys can do whereas like if things had stayed a bit more stable to close at the season we wouldn’t get these glimpses so

That’s got to feel good for the front office as well to like know who they have and kind of what they’re working with going into the off season yeah I think like quickly is probably the biggest example there right where you know obviously it you know it’s been

Five or six games games since Scotty Barnes went down and you know he himself is now out of the lineup hopefully he can come back tonight we we’ll see they are currently by the way uh favored to lose against the Pistons which is uh bizarre and sad but that’s the way

Things are but yeah I think you know what we saw from quickly in five six games after Scotty went down like that’s maybe not something we would have seen him get to tap into like a high usage you know sort of spam the pick and roll

You are our offensive Hub type of guy and you know know again six games does not mean that’s what he’s going to be long term or anything like that but the signs are pretty damn promising from that and that’s a thing you can take going into the offseason sort of work it

Into your plans of how you want to approach next season I I just think you know I’m hard pressed looking up and down the roster I’m hard pressed to think of anyone who like hasn’t improved at least someone who you know has improved in like yaka purle has been

Yaka purle and that’s what you expect right and I think you know he’s gotten more comfortable or he got more comfortable in the defense and within the offensive scheme by the end of the year and all that um you know I think there’s certain development there but I

Wouldn’t say he took like a leap or anything like that but as far as like guys with um sort of development in front of them I wouldn’t say anyone really stagnated I don’t think anyone’s taking a step back and I think a lot of guys have kind of come out of nowhere

Right you mentioned jonte Porter you know I’m not terribly high on jonte Porter as like oh he’s going to be the center of the future or anything like that but decent rotation player who can knock down a few threes he had five assists in that Nuggets game sure like

That’s that’s a great find for a team that did not have jonte Porter even in their sort of system before the season began like that’s them using the 905 more effectively I think Javon Freeman Liberty I know there was sort of consternation all season long oh this

Guy’s tearing up the g- league why is he not on the Raptor Squad and I honestly think my read on it and maybe this is wrong but my read is like he’s killing it down there he’s getting to do things with the ball in his hands which he

Wouldn’t really get to do on the Raptors because you know at the time they were healthy and all that and they were working in Scotty Barnes and IQ and Barrett etc etc and I think it was like a pretty clear let’s keep this guy down

Here let him work at the stuff we know that he’s going to bring to the NBA like as a backup point guard or whatever his gig is going to be long term if he’s going to be with the team and have him sort of use the 905 as a testing ground

For his limits and I think that was a great call like I think that served him more than sort of being the 13th man on this team would have been all season long and I think you know that’s maybe something they didn’t do so well with their two-ways in recent seasons and so

From the 905 guys to you know even like Malachi Flynn at the start of the Season where he showed signs of being like an NBA player of sorts after not showing that at all um you know Scotty Barnes taking a gigantic leap RJ Barrett seemingly walking in getting the sort of

Readout from the coaching staff as this is what you do now go do it and him being unbelievably good at that since with like very little drop off or inconsistency that to me is Player Development it just seems like they have an idea of what they want for all of

Their players which I don’t think was a thing that was the case in the last couple years of Nick nurse um and you know I do think we got to credit darkar rakovich like this has been an incredibly hard year to be a firste head

Coach where are you at on sort of your read of Darko and what he’s done with this team like are you feeling pretty happy and comfortable about the way he’s overseeing this development this sort of again fractured busted weird season um like it’s I like it’s got to be one of

The harder first year gigs anyone’s ever had to kind of manage it’s been to me I think a pretty remarkable job he’s done yeah I think he’s done a great job I also think though like there has been no continuity within roster and and kind of team make up but his continuity has

Stayed the same and not in a stubborn way I think because we’ve seen some coaches kind of hold on to plans and be like well this was the way I wanted to do it but he’s kept this like goal this like larger goal in mind of where he

Wants the team to be and how he wants him to be able to play in his mind and I think has been kind of coaching that all season he got away from how I know he’s flexible is because he like got away from the kind of deep we’re going to be

On a 10-man rotation thing even when they had 10 men to be in rotation um like he got away from that when it didn’t seem to work anymore more um I think that could still be the goal but I think he understood like you got to work

With the people that you have and try and showcase the skills that they have um and I think you know his we we also like we know what we can see but also like being around the team you know his energy and kind of mood has stayed

Pretty even but like even in positive right because like he is he is so he is such a I don’t know he’s like very he stayed like really genuine he’s had like he’s been when he is frustrated he shows it so I don’t I don’t have the sense

That he’s like showing us one thing and then going away and having like a meltdown in the locker room right like he’s a even kill guy he’s not n yorkin you’re saying yeah um I mean you said it but yeah like he as and you’re right like as far as

First year head coaching assignments go this is a tough one you know like I look at I look at the Pistons and I’m kind of like Monty Williams like they haven’t they’ve had way more consistency maybe they in his mind he doesn’t have the Personnel but things have not changed in

The worst way you know um and with the Raptors like they have not had roster consistency and things have still managed to change and improve in all the ways that we’re talking about there’s been really good focuses on like there’s been really positive Focus I think on

Individuals and it’s like okay well if we can’t focus on the team as a whole and what can do let’s at least make sure this isn’t a quote wasted season for the guys on this roster um which is important too because like you know NBA careers are finite there aren’t it’s

Like not you don’t really get to write off a year you know like especially younger guys in their positions so um I think he’s done a great job I know there have been frustrations but like that would exist with even like and that would exist with like a Mike Mal like

That would exist with any coach you know and like in the slums absolutely um by the way if you don’t think that at some point in the off season I’m going to put you and Vic to the test and have you name all 28 players who play for the Raptors this

Season you’re out of your mind it’s going to be great I’m having so much fun envisioning that episode already we’re gonna come back on the other side and get into the challenge which is translating the individual steps we’ve seen from guys into a team next year cuz assume we presume they’re

Going to have a team next year all of the guys will be back and healthy fingers cross etc etc and the challenge will be to sort of incorporate all of these parts into a team that’s cohesive and moving towards something that hopefully has some continuity and isn’t

Playing 28 players over the course of the Season we will get into that challenge coming up in just one second here to close out the show today’s show is brought to you by our friends over at prize picks these single best way to play daily fantasy

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To us customers in good standing Robin Hood Financial LLC member sipc is a registered broker dealer and we round out the show here with Katie hindall from dime and basketball feelings as we uh you know talk about next season and how to take all of the nice little bits of individual Player

Development and put them all into a delicious stew of good fun basketball next season I do think the challenge here is going to be taking all this individual growth taking the individual growth that’s happened when other guys met out of the lineup and piecing get all together into a team next season

What are your sort of outlooks what’s your prospects um sort of envisioning what this team is going to all look like when piec together next next season um I feel like the way darko’s system is set up should be pretty conducive to all of these guys sort of okay they’ve done

Their thing on their own they’ve done their thing in the sort of broken version of the team putting the back into the system they should still be able to you know Express that growth even if it’s not in the sort of same usage or whatever same role I feel

Pretty confident that it’s going to be pretty harmonious once they get there if they get there with full health intact but where are you at as far as um what you think next season can look like and the challenges that will will come from piecing all of the parts of this season

Into a team for next year I mean a part of me did wonder if the team would still look more or less intact to what it does now but because they’ve had so much movement this season would they really want to look at the offseason as another

Opportunity to switch things up um but I think I’m back on the side that they will um not just like the Bruce Brown question of whether you know he stays or goes somewhere else but I think in looking at all the I don’t want to call them upsets but

Just like how things have been disrupted um they’ve had really ample opportunities to get a whole 360 view of this team where their shortcomings are um where like yes development is on track but where they might still fall short next season because I think the

Goal next season is not to be a would not be a play in team like that feels way too incremental it would be to make the playoffs I think that just makes sense for the aggressiveness that we’ve we’ve heard time and time again the front office talk about this team with I think

This season it’s like yeah you have a lot of flexibility with your head coach you’ve shown that you believe in him and are giving him the you know the freedom to do what he wants do but I don’t mean to be like next year it’s down to

Business but I think the Raptors have shown they’re not really happy with incremental grows and that was the reason for the whole changeover um so I would wonder who is going to be best suited to that team right like if you got if you got like a healthy Scotty Barnes coming

Back if quick like quickly is going to be such a huge part of that team so is RJ Barrett um if those are sort of your main three how do you want to like Shore things up around them sure yeah I mean I do think to your point there is every

Reason to think it’s like go time as of next season and look if they don’t make the playoffs I don’t think that’s going to spawn some you know another tear down or anything like that but I I think as long as it’s not like an embarrassment I

Think as long as they can sort of find themselves in the sort of above where the Bulls are tier I think that’s probably going to constitute some level of success and you know step forward and and I think it’s like entirely possible 22 23 24 year old players just get

Better that is how this works and you know it’s not always linear they’re not always going to get better in the ways you think they’ll get better but in general players of that age on the same timeline playing with one another establishing more continuity they’re going to improve and the team is going

To improve as a result and when you have a player like Scotty Barnes who you know was like an onoff King for this team this year obviously the team didn’t win his minutes when he was on the floor but they certainly lost their minutes way less substantially when he was on the

Floor than when he was off like he swings positive play he is like a potential star and those types of players have a way of making you more serious more quickly than you kind of expected and I think with the way Emanuel quickley looks and the sort of

Strides he’s making I think like a serious full season you know most improved player type jump is very much on the table for him next year with a full year in the system a full summer of developing within the system um like I do think there is some Runway here for

Them to go and be pretty interesting next season which is not something you often say about the seventh worst team in the NBA that is maybe not even going to add a draft pick to their mix frankly I don’t think any draft pick they take this year is actually helping with the

Winning part next year because that’s not how rookies work but um yeah I I think go time is a very good way to classify it as as far as day one of next season Scotty Barnes is going into year four right like these guys they they’re

Not here forever and if you don’t start winning at some point things get tricky and hairy and all that they’re still in the fun phase right now they’re not on the clock in any sort of dire way at the moment but um I do think next year is

When you kind of kick into gear and that is why I think this summer there’s a very real chance they they search around they use their financial flexibility they’ve created the extra picks they have on hand to go and try to add like a defense def Wing to this team obviously

They just traded away all their defensive Wings they need one back and I think you know with the way the league is going in terms of the second apron the financial stress that’s going to be sort of pinching down on teams I think the outcome of the playoffs is going to

Really sort of shake some guys loose that said Katie it’s hard to do that and they might just have this team going into next year maybe they just use their draft picks and take the slow route here and so I want to ask you borrowing a

Trade for some some who ties this whole thing together if there’s one say there’s a Magic Basketball Genie and they’re granting you one very specific wish and that is you get to pick any skill on the Toronto Raptors any one skill from one player to take like a

Massive leap over the summer next year that guy is just like okay he goes from here you know down low to okay like this is an elite skill this is a very good NBA level skill what is that one player and what is that one skill you’re

Picking to tie this whole thing together next season barring some trade Edition would it be I’m trying to think it might be like RJ Barrett is like a pure shooter okay but I think it would be with the caveat because we’re in this hypothetical game this hypothetical wish

They’re not losing they’re not losing skills they’re gaining them so I think you know if if RJ could be pulling up from wherever he wanted or thought to and shooting he wouldn’t lose any of his like dynamism of being able to like get into the basket and kind of get into the B

Also just like I love some of the sequences in that Nuggets game again I said earlier but just like where he kind of fit into the ball Movement Like whether he was deflecting it whether he was kind of catch and shoot like waiting um I think the growth that we’ve seen

Him have since coming from the Knicks has been super cool and like so much fun to see um and I also think he has like the he has the like Constitution for it like he’s he’s like a cool customer do you know what I mean like he can like he

It would be very fun to see that because I think he he just looks so like Stone Cold sometimes when he makes those shots um so yeah I think that so I also picked RJ Barrett as my one player but I want the other side of the ball RJ Barrett’s

Perimeter defense like if there is any way for that to be unlocked this team becomes like real pretty quick like RJ has already been ridiculously efficient as a score he’s shooting 42% from three as a raptor like that’s nuts but think about it at like 80% I mean there’s no doubt like the

Pull-up stuff for sure that’s been ugly it’s all catch and shoots where he’s making it happened so you know anyone adding pullup shooting in the modern NBA that is always a game-changing skill I think your point is very uh good for me Katie like his defense has been probably

The biggest let down of watching him since he came over like he’s just not there he kind of gets moved off the spot he’s not super quick laterally I don’t know if it’s something you can get better at right like some of this is just like a physical thing and you know

Maybe he just doesn’t have that but I do think he’s shown that in flashes with the Knicks where he’s been like kind of their best Wing Defender at times not anytime recently it was more like his first couple years where that was a thing but you know just kind of looking

At some of the numbers and sort of the individual defensive play data in nba.com you know he’s 30th percentile as an isolation Defender he’s 33rd percentile percentile as a pick and roll ball handler Defender like that’s just not going to cut it for a team that you

Know presumably is GNA play either Gary Trent Jr or Grady dick as a two Emanuel quickley is a decent point of attack Defender but his defensive strengths most mostly lie in rotation and shot contesting and Scotty Barnes as good as he is as a low man has not been a good

Perimeter Defender really in his career and so like if you had like a real Wing stopper in the form of RJ Barrett you maybe you don’t need to go out and drop a whole bunch of trade stuff on a wing to bring in to add to the mix like you

Can take the slower Pace you can use your draft picks and develop them slowly and have um sort of guys join the core as you go I don’t know how optimistic I am that it happens but if RJ Barrett becomes like a wing stopper this whole

Thing gets a lot more serious a lot more quickly Katie um so that’s my my my biggest hope for next season is RJ suddenly comes out and is locking dudes down what a dream it would be um Katie we’ll leave it there for now do you have

Anything you want to promote for the good people out there you’ve been all around this week the Raptor show holy boats what you got to promote um yeah that was fun had a good time on the Raptor show but I’ll promote what I was on there to talk about at least when we

Weren’t talking about the Raptors which was was a piece I wrote for basketball feelings um called sports but make it content which is about like a broader kind of look at what’s happening in the sports media industry but I think why it’s gotten so much traction with people

Outside of our world is because it’s affecting publishing in general all media in general like you know you’re seeing the shuttering of like not just Legacy Publications but I feel like when sites pop up they’re gone in six months as well um and I’m really worried and

Curious about what this means in terms of the way that we you know writers and artists are people that don’t just process information for us they’re record Keepers you know they help us kind of translate the the world that we live in um when we lose these things as

Much as people big grudge quote media um when we lose those things we we’re going to lose parts of our history and a lot of it can’t just be replaced by AI so um WR I say about that it’s making the rounds was chasing Kareem Abdul Jabar last time I checked on the

Substack popularity meter um so I’m just gonna do my own horn there but yeah you can find that at basketball feelings.com few things that I’ve read in recent times have uh hit me squarely in the chest quite like that uh I mean it’s just brilliant uh Katie’s amazing everyone go subscribe to basketball

Feelings read sports but make a content and uh you know do art do provide places to do art uh that would be awesome as well if anyone out there with lots of money is able to listen and put that into practice um we’ll leave it there thank you so much

For tuning into the show as always you can find the show for free wh get your podcast follow subscribe rate review tell a friend etc etc uh it’s always appreciated uh and we’ll be back again tomorrow to talk about Raptors Pistons Baby Can You Feel the Rush we’re going

To get into it tomorrow with Jamar Hines break it down for you in the meantime thanks so much for hanging we’ll talk to you then byebye Katie last time you were here I hit the shot but I didn’t actually hit the shot upon video review let’s see if I hit the shot this

Time so close it’s never happening bye

In Episode 1594, Sean Woodley is joined by Katie Heindl (Basketball Feelings, DIME) to break down the Toronto Raptors narrow loss to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets before taking a look at the ways in which the Raptors have reconnected with their roots as a development-first franchise. Off the top, they chat about Gradey Dick and RJ Barrett’s big nights against the Nuggets, and why the blown second half lead isn’t really much to get upset or excited about. Next, they dig into the ways in which the Raptors have gotten back to their developmental ways this season, and how the fractured natured of this year’s team has helped guys progress in unexpected ways. Lastly, Sean and Katie discuss how the individual strides made this season can be parlayed into cohesive team success in 2024-25 and discuss the single individual skill improvement on the team that could most unlock them next year.

Join us on the Locked On Raptors Discord server! https://discord.gg/884S6G8W

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