Can Ja’Kobe Walter be a star for Toronto?
welcome welcome to P basketball live and as much as I said I was not going to do another live tonight big big shout out to the person that I had to do the assignment for giving me a little bit of an extension on it because I really did want to talk a little bit more and I felt that our live was a little bit rushed feels like I cheated the community who was there 700 strong waiting for a deeper analysis and they just didn’t get it we were on a conversation I was reing emotionally and you know what instant reactions are terrible we are living in the age of instant reactions we need to get deeper so here are like I went and I looked at all my notes on jacobe Walter I was able to go in um I did very detailed analysis on this draft it’s it’s really funny because I never got a chance to make the videos that I wanted to make that doesn’t mean that I didn’t take the notes it doesn’t mean I didn’t watch the games I wanted to have an in-depth knowledge of every player coming into this draft and with jacobe I think um let’s talk about the downside the mid the the average outcome and let’s talk about maybe a very beautiful outcome that could happen here right uh goat saying mofo ever heard of sleep yeah I have okay I got to work on a writing assignment right after this but I am going to devote a nice 25 minutes to just talk about jacobe Walter and what I liked in the tape what maybe scared me away why he was 16th on my board and not much higher um and where I am on him as a the prospect in terms of how this fits in with the general schema of what the Raptors are trying to do so first of all this fits Scotty this is exactly the type of player that has worked off of Scotty well um historically personality-wise it also fits Scotty he reminds me a little bit of Emanuel quickly I think I mentioned that in the live stream as well earlier um Luke saying jacobe shows some kcp similarities yes and no I understand that this comparison has caught a lot of steam right for for people but I watched a young kcp and I found him to be extremely switchable defensively and I saw him as a very versatile Defender who could pick up three four positions and that is largely the value I see him as a little bit more so let’s talk about let’s talk about the floor okay now I’m I’m not this is not shade to either of these players these are very good players and honestly this is me being very optimistic about his floor when I say this okay I see it as Tim Hardaway Jr meets Moses Moody I think that’s the best way I can put it um maybe a smaller Moses Moody because Moses a solid 66 with a 7 foot wingspan so just a little bit condensed version of that maybe still growing and a little bit of Tim Hardaway Jr I think this type of player fits very well with Scotty because of the type of offense that Darko wants to run it’s not very ISO dribble dribble dribble it’s it’s effortless you want to get your shot off you want to get guys moving off of screens it’s what they prioritized with Grady last year it’s what they prioritized again him versus Grady is not a conversation I need y’all to shut the hell up about it in my opinion the average outcome for Grady dick is significantly better than the average outcome for jacobe Walter does not me throwing shade at jacobe I think he’s a fantastic young player but there are certain concerns and we should probably start there okay let me start with the concerns number one I don’t think he’s a Sol athlete I think he’s a okay let me correct that I think he’s a solid athlete I don’t think he’s a good athlete I don’t think he’s a great athlete I don’t see twitchiness I don’t see burst there’s no Dwayne Wade there’s no you know John Morant there’s no Jaden Ivy and frankly if those elements were there in his game he’d be a top three pick in this draft so it doesn’t really matter right it doesn’t really matter you picked up a guy at 19 in a weak draft I think he’s better than the 19th pick in this draft he’s going to be better than in my opinion he’s goingon to be he’s GNA he’s going to be better than the top top 20 player in this draft so you found value did you find an All-Star did you find a guy with All-Star upside that we have to discuss but there are significant weaknesses in his game that simply were not there in Grady’s game one the the paint finishing right with Grady slightly larger athlete very different system working at Kansas versus working at Baylor in terms of The Bigs that they employed Etc but I do think that it’s important to realize that this is one element of the game that Darko rakovich was able to work with manual quickly on he was able to work with Scotty Barnes on he’s able to work with RJ Barrett if y’all remember RJ Barrett and Emanuel quickley came into the Raptors from the Knicks and a really big weakness was do they finish well in the paint couple months with our uh you know with our uh resident you know uh let’s call it basketball Whisperer Jama malela and Darko rakovich and suddenly they were getting a little bit better a little bit closer good thing with jacobe Walter is he does get there his first step is not great he doesn’t create a hell of a lot of Separation does that mean he’s never going to be able to get past this man right I think that it’s important to realize that at the age of 19 you have players who are just not physically developed right it’s just not a player who is physically developed enough for you to make a real read on whether or not he’s going to be able to do this when he’s 24 25 years old despite what people might think athletes get better athletically leading up to 25 so if a guy’s not super athletic right now and he’s not getting great burst at 19 right I think there’s a good chance he could probably get there at 21 so the weakness there is he doesn’t really finish super well at the rim and the other weakness that wasn’t there in Grady’s game was I don’t think he’s a natural playmaker that doesn’t mean that he’s selfish it just means that he doesn’t make advanced reads or even sufficient reads I saw him Miss Cutters I saw him hold the ball a little bit too long on you know didn’t see him operate well in the pick and roll so these are things you’re going to have to teach and he’s going to have to be willing to learn is playmaking something you can teach a prospect I don’t know is this like a guy where you’re like okay well you know he can get significantly better at this I don’t know the answer to this question that’s going to come down to him 19 is a very weird age where frankly you’re not picking a four-year college senior where we’ve seen it this you know Season that he had a Baylor could have just been a very small sample size of him adjusting to go up a level a lot of freshmen struggle most of them go back most of them are not in a you know in a situation where they are able to take care of their families forever I’m sure you know for all the projections of people you know trying to map his face and seeing oh he looks very upset I would be upset too because I’m pretty sure he thought he was going to go top 14 I thought he was going to go top to top 14 top 15 so goat saying his defense at the point of attack is a concern blowb Galore I don’t think that he moves well laterally there are certain athletes that are good vertical athletes they’re good transition athletes maybe but they don’t move super well laterally this is not an oai abaji type of athlete where I’m very secure at the point of attack this creates a bit of an issue when you think about the long-term pairing of him with Grady RJ Emanuel quickley and you’re like there’s not a single player there that I trust at the point of attack other than oai abaji and know chaji has a world of problems that are associated to all other things in basketball right so uh o o OAS saying Playmakers usually can’t be made as even as early as 19 it’s too late to turn someone into a playmaker like jic LeBron Scotty okay let’s let’s ignore the absolute obvious point he’s not going to become LeBron James okay can he become better at this I’ve seen players get better at this I’ve seen players get marginally better at this and frankly it doesn’t matter you don’t need him to become Malik monk okay you don’t need him to become Malik monk if you’re the Raptors you’re hoping he becomes better than Gary Trent Jr so that is to me a very big limitation for a young guard who’s 6’4 that if I don’t trust that you can read the floor I somehow don’t trust you with the ball in your hands as a primary initiator at 6’4 6’5 now you’re not really a point guard right and if you’re not a great point of attack guy you’re never going to be a point guard guard defensively so you’re pretty much locked in at the two three so the positional versatility kind of goes out the window you’re never going to be a four you’re never going to be a one so you’re locked in at the two three we’re in the same situation as the Gary right so that is to me where I Ruled him out a little bit as a prospect not a great playmaker not the super great finisher I’ll tell you another weakness of this game I don’t like his handle don’t like his handle at all does he remind you of Norm no Norman pow is a fantastic athlete that is a completely different situation he’s not Norman pow Norman pow went down draft boards because he was an older player if he could develop into something normes that would be fantastic I just don’t see that Norman PO is a fantastic slasher what was encouraging was his free throw rate it was very good that he is able to draw that kind of contact given the stage of his body right now I do think that his defense can improve again with additional pH uh you know physicality he does have the frame to be a bothersome Team Defender he’s not going to be a non- Defender he’s definitely not a non-fender he’s not a Lockdown Defender though this is nothing close to what you were expecting with oai the prospect or even OG the prospect Ryan Dunn the prospect so this is just flash that out of your mind what he does well however is shoot and the guy was born to shoot he’s just a great shooter Steph Curry buddy hee no but he’s a fantastic shooter and he shoots in different ways and varieties he shoots efficiently the the motion is very smooth he can shoot off the catch he can shoot off you know a couple dribbles it’s not like the more he dribbles the worse it gets sort of situation right where it’s a little bit of quickstand he’s not Dynamic like Rob Dillingham where he’s going to shift shift shift and then boom pull up you know it’s not like that there’s no lead Creator type of you know um but if you really really want to buy into the massive upside I feel like I’m just [ __ ] on the guy right now and and I don’t want to get there right um Terence Ross is the freak athlete so no I think Terence Ross is an overrated athlete frankly but yes there there there are elements of Terence Ross here you hope as a prospect that he shifts in another Direction now I want to talk about what I like about him okay because I’ve talked about a lot of things that I don’t like about him and I do like the shooting so that’s an upside what I really find myself believing in him for is his process okay now this is going to sound a little wo way this is going to sound a little bit like whoa you know but you remember that Ahmad Rashad interview that I played right when the Raptors traded uh for a manual quickly and um Joe job Jeet thing saying he reminds me of Isaiah Joe he don’t remind me of Isaiah Joe at all um Desmond Bane [Music] um that’s interesting no no I’m I’m going to go in another Direction in terms of the absolute Max upside but I see a little bit of Tim Hardaway in his game Tim Hardway Jr I see elements of kcp yes I do see that um there’s there’s shades of Gary but it’s a completely different you know style of athlete and and I and I do project him to be a slightly better play player than Gary if he keeps his nose to the ground what I liked about him um and this is based on articles that I read about him a couple of months ago this is like going back to high school and just like looking at some of his you know interviews that he was doing was how much he seemed to enjoy the process of getting better okay now this comes down to the intangible quality of improvement now I can’t look at a 17-year-old or an 18-year-old or 19-year-old and say this is who you’re going to be at 25 any more than you can I think some of us can get better at it some of us can be worse at it um Delon Wright asked absolutely not um Terrence man CJ McCollum CJ McCollum had more guard skills in my opinion but if here’s the thing at 19 we don’t know no one in the world and I promise you I was a very big fan of Deonte Murray I promise you I did not see this outcome for to jeante Murray I don’t think anyone saw the outcome for Fred Van B I don’t think anyone saw the outcom fort if I showed you Pascal seak in New Mexico State there’s no chance in hell you were projecting him doing some of the stuff that he’s doing work is the great equalizer here everything I’ve heard from this guy and everything I’ve heard around him is he just enjoys the process of getting in the gym that’s his Sanctuary Co came he’s building a gym I think his dad built a gym for him there was some article that I remember reading where his dad built him a gym and he just wanted to touch the ball and he just wanted you get a feeling of competitiveness you get a feeling that a guy wants to get better does that mean that he’s going to become an All-Star [ __ ] no of course not it means that if he can he will that is important Reggie Bullock is the closest thing I have seen to an accurate comparison here yes that that that is you are you are now sniffing in the right direction yes he is I see an upside of him being a 40% three-point shooter on very high volume that is an incredibly valuable role player to put next to Scotty Barnes It’s not a star player in terms of your pecking order of who you expect to be what in the Str you know on your team currently you naturally expect Scotty to be your best player if I’m mapping just potential alone I think Grady is probably still the second guy in terms of what’s the max level outside upside he RJ andan quickly are in a bucket to me of guys that you could put and say one of these guys could be a one to three time All-Star let it be all three more the marrier I don’t see perennial All-Star superstar in anybody but Scotty Barnes on this team that’s just me right now maybe I’m wrong maybe Grady has a unprecedented growth I don’t know maybe RJ Barrett gets so much better maybe Emanuel quickly is a revelation it all of these guys we’re talking about are under 25 years old who the hell am I to say that they can’t do this or they can do this you know what I mean there’s realistic outcomes there’s hypothetical outcomes and then there’s Fantasy Land outcomes let’s talk fantasy fantasy land outcome and I’ll give you this as a strand of Hope and I will put an asterisk next to this saying if he becomes this player then that is the absolute slimmest of margin he worked his absolute ass off there was something crazy wrong with him at Baylor because this is me just going on his high school tape I wrote down in one of my notes watching his high school tape shades of Devin Booker that’s so hilarious that you just said that okay please list let’s not ever get carried away with this and maybe just never repeat this again and just pray pray on a star that is the absolute God has himself become a Toronto Raptor fan and come down from heaven and just said Raptors we you know we up here in heaven really just want to support your next championship because if that happens for you you got Scotty Barn’s second option the chances of that happening are so [ __ ] slim I don’t don’t even want to talk about it because I feel like someone’s going to misquote it it’s not likely but it is possible for him to become more than what he is what will be required from him other than thousands and thousands and thousands of hours in the gym other than coachability other than a absolutely robust streamlined and beautifully laid out program from the rron Raptors towards him what will be required from him to to achieve I don’t want to say Devon Booker again let’s just not keep that what will be required for him to become a second option type one an in between game right I didn’t see a hell of a lot of that that could be schemed out that could be based on Baylor because I did see let the bits of it in high school so let’s say that we need an in between game because you know we need to be a little bit more Dynamic and a little less predictable right I need him to be able to do something off of three dribbles right I didn’t love his his tape going left I was like literally I think I wrote seven times in my in my notes can’t go left we already have a guy who can’t go left in RJ Barrett he got a little bit better at it right so that’s that’s two things three things I’m going to need him to absolutely dial in defensively I need him to invest in this idea of becoming a defensive stopper if if if what fa said was true I didn’t see it anywhere but if he modeled his game after Kawhi Leonard well bro Kawhi Leonard guarded so you need to go out and you need to be the absolute dog right friend of mine who I trust a lot literally just messaged me he’s like this guy’s got the dog and him I’m like where I don’t see it right I didn’t see dog on defense he’s saying dog on defense I trust him okay maybe right um watching Bobby Webster interview right now are are we okay let me let me pull it up let me see if I can if I can pull it up here maybe we can watch it together that’d be cool um hold on is it on the Raptor’s Channel look overall if if I do this draft 20 times out of 20 probably I’m I’m picking e me a that’s just me maybe I’m wrong I’ll I’ll take the L you know what I mean um this is not a Grady dick situation where I didn’t watch enough tape on him I watched a lot of tape on him um I don’t think it really matters because at the end of the day you’re watching tape in a context you’re watching tape of a guy who’s 18 19 years old who’s physically underdeveloped who is playing probably above his head and frankly he just got drafted in a draft where seniors were the rage man how many players got picked that were foreign like how many freshman how many NCAA freshman got picked not a lot Johnny Fury um we’ll talk about what what might be available for the Toronto Raptors tomorrow but I have a feeling the Raptors are going to get a really interesting offer for that 31st overall pick and I’m very curious to see what they do with it because there’s a chance to move back and still get your guy and probably get an extra asset if a team out there was really high on Johnny Fury um dude I know people who were so high on Johnny Fury they saw him as a lot lottery pick so you know if if you actually do hit that outcome with Johnny fuy and I’m not sure you would but it’s worth a fly or [ __ ] at this stage in the draft as much as I’m I’m a big guy on Jonathan MoGo and I really like him if you can trade down a bit and I don’t know maybe someone values Johnny Fury enough maybe you can get an extra second round pick or something and still take mogbo or someone else that you like because there’s a lot of guys here Tyler Smith Jonathan MBO um that I think it’s it’s hard to go wrong anyways um let’s let’s go to um let’s go to Bobby Webster and then I will continue my diet tribe about the type of players that I think he can compare to guy without having work him out yeah why this guy you didn’t have him work him out I I should probably just shut up I’m just gonna shut up uh obviously feel fortunate to get jacobe at this spot um you know maybe he thought he was going earlier maybe you know the the mocks had him going earlier but um kid we followed you know since high school I just want to be clear that Dan tolzman literally hinted this in his in his uh pre-draft interview where he said maybe there’s a person who thinks they’re going to go higher and we had Intel that they weren’t I think he alluded to this and they and they think they’re going to go higher but we think they’re not going to go higher and they didn’t work out for us so jacobe Walter and E Mei are probably the guys that he was thinking about probably jacobe Balter more than use Mei so this is very interesting um zero Su saying Fury jacobe and dick is too much overlap I I disagree completely Fury is a completely different type of player than Grady dick but shooting is good I think he uh he first popped up on the I think they won the Geico National High School National Tournament in in the states he played for link and so just always been a winner tough kind of you know fits the mold of a two-way Raptor player can make a shot can play defense um so you know some guy we we followed for a while but we necessarily think he’d be there at 19 so you feel great he does seem to have that kind of big personality like Scotty Barnes you look for that bro I just like I can’t no I mean I think you know you want serious guys you want guys that want to win um I think we’re all probably trying to figure out this generation a little bit with you know personal ities and how many of those in the locker room uh but no this was just a good basketball Talent play any any hesitation taking guy that you didn’t wer able to get in for a workout like were you able to interview him at the at the combine yeah so I mean you know we have our staff here that does all the Intel and so we had some people that spent uh Luke probably spent I don’t know maybe a week at Baylor earlier in the year I went down and met him in Baylor and so um we had a comfort level from that um you know you want to do your due diligence and you know it’s tough when you don’t get to bring a kid up here but we feel comfortable he didn’t have great shooting efficiency a failer um my understanding before that he was an explosive offensive player what do you attribute that to and what do you see him as an off player moving forward yeah I think that’s why it’s you know important to scout him in the amateur level and then I think maybe if you look at the splits it’s a little bit different early in the season um and he may have been dealing with some n so but yeah no I mean you got to make shots in this league and you can’t just sort of have the reputation of a shooter you have to do it so um I think obviously that’s our bet bet with him imagined him being potentially a two-way player what do you see his defensive potential as being yeah um so obviously guard ones and twos I think he’s he’s got pretty good length um I think there’s just sort of a uh inner toughness when you watch him and he rebounds the ball well so you know not afraid to kind of stick his nose in there um so yeah talked about wanting to make an an immediate impact um do you see him as a guy that could come in and you know get some minutes off the bench potentially and make that impact yeah we always take these guys I think Grady’s a good example last year right you come in and it’s going to be up and down and so I think that’s probably more of the expectation is um you may be able to come in right away but can you kind of sustain it throughout the course of the Season especially as a young player and the physicality and the travel and all that um but no yeah we’re obviously taking these kids because we think they can come in and play I know you guys generally draft best player available as opposed to drafting for need but uh this is a pretty guard heavy roster and another guard now added to it how might that impact uh your decisions moving forward obviously a decision coming up with Bruce Brown and then a couple of guards hitting free agency a few days later yeah I think we’re still in sort of best available I’m not sure we have enough Talent you know to say hey this where we’re going to go forward with or this is you know we can start picking and choosing so I think we’re still sort of you know amassing the group and then we can kind of let them battle it out and compete against them um as as opposed to saying we took this position and now we need to kind of um you know have it affect our future decisions have the calls already started for 31 and is it nice to how nice is it to be in this position where you’re kind of we had some long debates in there we were like should we trade to get into the late 20s or should we have a little fun with 31 so I think when we did the deal with New York we knew this was sort of a benefit of having so yeah like put that as a log on on on your you know when you watch Isaiah Collier next year if he does pop or if Ryan Dunn pops as a herb Jones type just know that he has just admitted that that was an option it’s not a hypothetical option that’s a real option the Raptors could have traded 31 to get up in the draft 31 is super valuable for the for the value of the the cap implications the second over a second round pick Etc so just to be clear that is on record they had an option to do this which means Isaiah ker Ryan Dunn like those guys right there it’s worth thinking about man 31 was to kind of be able to have this next 18 hours to sort of field calls I think what typically happens right in the draft is it very quickly turns the round two and you have two minutes and I think just logistically you can’t take all the calls you’d want to and so now we have some time we also have some time to sort of consider our list as we think about 31 tomorrow honestly the arrogance here is is astounding I just want to let Bobby Webster know that there is a team out there that has picked 32 and since your draft profile and the types of players that you typically like unless there is like one player that everyone is just after unless there is like a you know like a a fury Mania 32 33 34 are still available I I hope they don’t overthink this man I really don’t have some pretty big fights tomorrow in the morning about who we would take and then simultaneously take these calls and say okay can we get multiple picks can we move back a little bit still get the same guy um but yeah I don’t know it’s it’s a first it’s a it’s a bit of a novelty for all of us here to have two days of the draft and see what happens are there pros and cons to being in this position like is it possible to to maybe overthink in this situation or you just happy to have more time to make a I guess a more measured decision I we’ll see I I think you say you’d like to have the more time I’d say it’s probably it has to be better than the two minutes that you normally would have um but yeah we kind of almost got in I don’t like to be sniffy but I just want to say the energy here is like you just came off like a 60 win season and everything is going so well you’ll love to see it you don’t want to see a guy come out with bags under his eyes looking like he hasn’t slept hasn’t combed his hair like he’s just about to get fired you don’t want to see that but maybe like tone down the smugness a little bit man like like you guys haven’t been great at your jobs for like three years now like can we be real about that just three years three years of mismanaging assets three years of watching [ __ ] go out the door three years of maybe not doing the greatest job managing your young players three years of delayed reactions to [ __ ] like no it’s not arrogance it’s just excitement it’s smugness God damn it I feel the smugness to it there back in the room about who we’re going to take and I think we all just decided let’s sleep on it like it’s probably not yeah you don’t want to fight over it now did you get I mean with 31 specifically but in general did you sense it was quieter than normal just because everybody knows there will be eight hours to talk about it tomorrow morning yeah I think even teams kind of set their board s um knowing that they had a tomorrow to set up the second day of their boards and so kind of more peac meal um so I think that’s probably maybe easier on us or giv us a bit more time were there a lot of fights about who to take at 19 no jacobe was was was pretty clearly the the kind of best available to Josh’s Point wasn’t a really positional fit neat a lot of the talk going into this draft was about how wide open everything was unpredictable and Dan talked about it the other day is that sort of the way that things played out in your I am actually very curious just thinking about this how high jacobe really was on their board and I’m starting to think he might have been like top 13 on their board like I think where I had EAS Mei and where I had jacobe was inverted for their board because I had E Mei at 10 and I had jacobe at 16 I wonder if they had jacobe at 10 and E Mei at 16 you know what I mean like something like that it feels because the way that he’s talking about this like no brainer no qu like they yo like they didn’t talk about this way with a lot of guys so that is good to me I’m happy that you got someone that you’re really happy with clearly you did the Intel you met the guy you met his family did all the calls this I talked to I talked to someone last year when I talked about like it’s actually been something that I’ve been aware of for a while now in terms of how thorough this process is like how no stone unturned like we’re talking sixth grade teacher eighth grade teacher High School teachers a coach travel coach everyone is called Everything Is vetted and if there’s even one inch of a doubt about like how this kid responded to being you know benched how this kid responded like they’re looking at everything I mean at the Youth Level they’re looking at you know one of the things that they often look at is like you know um interaction on the bench like do your teammates like you are you helping you guys get up cour like this stuff you know this stuff all like this stuff think the Raptors are really good at that stuff but you know what’s funny Yukon um both men and women side so Gino arama and then um uh coach Hurley they both they all talk about this like the soft skills of basketball right every coach I’ve ever talked to that I really admired always talked about like that stuff like what energy you bring to practice matters to me they talk about like you know your pickup points your energy your motor all this stuff like how quickly you how much you exaggerate contract contact and sit off you know um how how well you communicate talk on offense defense it’s so much more right so if they’re happy with him if all the Intel that they did on this draft LED them to jacobe Walter was a top 13 guy I’m not going to say top 10 I don’t know but let’s just say if you picked him at 19 and it was no-brainer for you probably he was top 14 on your board so okay cool Barnes Scotty saying I was hoping for a toe pitch yakob spot that would be interesting could you see Eric Gordon with defense um Eric I have to think about that Eric Gordon I mean the physical the physical similarities are there for sure yeah there was no consensus right I think even the number one pick was probably not really known until you know recently um you can talk about the draft it sort of people felt like I think probably when it got to like N9 or 10 we felt like it was kind of all the same after that there’s probably some group at thep top um I think it was hard to predict 19 cuz there was no consensus before so like we’re sitting there 12 and 13 like okay is jacobe still going to be there um when some people had jacobe in the top 10 or some people in the lottery so there’s always that game of trying to you know game plan it out were there any conversations you had um with people from Baylor that really stuck out to you about his character or his game or or anything that really stuck out from Bor things yeah I think just um obviously him coming from link so he comes from a pretty high pedigree high school program and then I think now for those of you who follow college like Baylor’s become one of the Premier winning programs in basketball so I think those kind of things that he valued um from the recruiting standpoint but also decisions he made and so uh thoughtful kid um cares about the right things what do you anticipate the next 16 hours are going to look like are you going home from here not talking about it until tomorrow or come back early how’s it what’s it going to look like I don’t know it’s probably a good psychological decision-making question yeah I’m going to try and not think about it until probably I wake up and then try and come in here fresh tomorrow and not have sort of the preconceived of what we thought you know who’s supposedly on our board right now like can we come in and kind of debate the top three or four players left um for 31 is Dan upset that he can’t make his two-way calls tonight no I think everybody’s happy that we’re not up till three because no that’s we used to do this press conference but then we’d go back and do all the two-ways and so I think I don’t know the drafts at four tomorrow yeah so it’ll be it’ll be a regular work day something else going on at night apparently I know I didn’t think they knew the right date they knew the date when they made this idea oh yeah we’re not going there thanks for watching the Toronto Raptor YouTube channel check out our latest videos and subscribe for more Gary may not be here very for a very long time there is a 29 minute video with Kobe Walter which I have not seen on the sium podcast and I would love to go watch that so probably something I’m going to do afterwards um okay so in terms of like what’s the upside here as I said middle range it’s Reggie Bullock meets Tim Hardway Jr a very valuable player to put next to a Scotty Barnes right I think everything that the Raptors have done from RJ Barrett as much as it made may not seem obvious right um harsh upti saying can we watch it together that might be a little bit of a copyright element here like where well I mean it’s coming off the Baylor Athletics uh yeah we probably could let me let me let me pull it up here I’ll give uh go give full credit obviously to the Baylor Athletics um YouTube page for for putting this up but yeah it might it might be cool to get to know jacobe Walter a little bit better um I I watched one of his High School interviews a couple of his High School interviews talking about covid he was obviously one of the prospects who was impacted by covid at a very young age um you know uh yeah it’s it’s interesting to see how all these guys manage the shutdowns right there are a lot of prospects who just shut down I’m not kidding like they just stopped playing basketball for like you know like three four months he wasn’t one of them and that that sticks out to me the football background the aggressiveness the assertiveness I see why people say he has a dog in him and all that stuff so I I get that and I appreciate that about him too U let’s see here um okay downloading and almost done has the internet been a little bit better I think it’s been a little bit better um Nathan Roberts saying I was hoping to get Ryan dun for his defensive at 31 yeah the pathway to Ryan Dunn becoming a serviceable offensive player is also very far away the Raptors are clearly prioritizing um shooting around Scotty Barnes the way they probably see it is if Scotty can win his Advantage right if he can become the typ of player who can punish the defense and generate an advantage then you want want players who can very quickly milk and accelerate the advantage right guys like Grady dick very very close um okay uh let’s see the ringer got that dog in him on ball uh defense oh you’re talking about the Kevin oconor thing he gonna be a dog like Edwards holy [ __ ] if that ever happened it’s not going to happen Anthony Edwards is a very Twitchy very different type of you know athlete I don’t see that at all okay this is a s podast um definitely if somebody brings me up I want them to be like uh he was definitely here giving it his all every game you could just see the effort that he would put on the court uh I want people to remember me as respectful wait am I am I missing something here hold on what the hell Big 12 tournament we’re going to try to come out on top obviously we’re trying to get a in season um in season champion and Tournament champion and then and can y’all let me know is his face moving on this video at all is it a static picture or is it moving on to March Madness we’re just trying to win another championship of course uh make put a banner up you know coach Drew he always tells us like where’s our banner I mean I was surprised cuz I didn’t expect it nobody I was better at back yeah what size were you I mean were you one of the bigger guys or yeah I was still way taller than everybody I wasn’t like built obviously I’m still skinny but um I was definitely taller than everybody just pretty much more athletic and so that kind of naturally makes people think oh he’s he’s gonna be a basketball player yeah right when you’re taller yeah when did you dunk for the first time what age uh my first dunk um uh whatever I was going into eighth grade okay going into eighth grade oh no going into my freshman year I think after my eighth grade basketball season I think I had my first dck that summer gotcha and at what point uh where were you in school or what age when you thought hey basketball could be a future for me um definitely seventh grade seventh grade just started playing against middle school and then I was just killing the competition early and I was just like uh I think I’m pretty good at this for real for real so uh started getting in the gym more taking it more serious and then as I just got kept getting better I just fell in love with the game yeah I’m going to say this it’s probably not going to mean anything to anyone out there it’s going to be something to some of you guys I have personally okay this is going to sound really strange he brings up God a lot like throughout like my understanding of him High School his parents all that stuff there’s a lot of like God praise gratitude stuff um so did Emanuel quickly so did Scotty Barnes I don’t know why this element is appealing to me or why I trust players who do this a little bit more maybe it’s just a personal bias I have no idea this is no no disrespect to atheists or anyone you believe what you want to believe but I always I always like people who make it about more than themselves personally and I always got that vibe from him so that’s a positive thing I could say about him for sure I bet you where I see jacobe young jacobe as a seventh grader dominating out there yeah no I was I was definitely getting bucket earlier right were do you have some uh unbelievable scoring games junior high or high school yeah High School on my sophomore year uh it was like first when we came back from Co and then some of my teammates I think like three starters had Co and then somebody else Off the Bench so uh I think we were at Denton guy and then I had 49 that game wow yeah I just really couldn’t miss we ended up losing but yeah that was that was my highest score game wow 49 that’s against a good team probably yeah now they won District that we tied with them it was like for first placed right it was a good game um how about going through covid you know that that’s a tough time it was tough for everybody you’re in high school and you’re an athlete and you have to go through that how hard did that hit you uh it really didn’t hit that much cuz we were already out of our basketball season we already lost in the playoffs so it was more just like dang like now really can’t travel nowhere play basketball so I’m just playing basketball in my driveway now uh like probably have some friends come over we just play outside for a little bit but yeah it definitely hit hard but it was a blessing cuz then when we came back started playing and then that’s when Baylor offered me that was my first offer so I mean I see it as a blessing too that was uh was early wasn’t it when you got the offer from Baylor yeah it was definitely early when was that he turned down an offer from Texas as well if I recall correctly uh going to my sophomore year gotcha right so um I I can imagine him you know and his pitch for Bor clip out the audio we’re just trying to win another championship of course hold on I’m G to pull this off and pull it back on hang on one sec definitely came on my last official I was like for sure like this this is home yeah so then just committed soon I got back from back from the visit as soon as I got home called coach AB told him committed and then when I was at the gym coach called me back cuz uh he didn’t answer the first call and then yeah we were just talking then yeah AB is great isn’t he no no he’s a great guy for yeah I I can imagine him you know his pitch for Baylor to you and but it’s just such a a personal thing you know a relationship thing from from him from coach Drew from all of our coaches yeah yeah AB being the main person I recruited I talked to him the most pull myself off so yall can watch it I talk to him the most throughout the whole process watch it so then me and him have a really good relationship and I just want to thank him obviously just for uh like believing in me and like just always showing up the games whole staff will show up the games like it was really just a blessing in that recruitment just to have all those coaches support me like that yeah that’s big and they stuck with you obviously the whole time and but the recruiters kept coming didn’t they I mean just because it looks like you’re going to Baylor maybe even after you committed to Baylor I’m sure the recruiters kept calling uh yeah it was uh it was like a hard process especially like when uh like my curst the ball started saying oh he’s going to Bor he’s going Baylor more coaches would call people were starting to say like come on this official visit blah blah blah but in my head just talking to my parents we just knew like we don’t we just need to shut it down because we already know who I’m going to good what was it can you put into words what it was about Baylor that really uh LED you here uh really like you were saying relationships just the relationship we had the whole process and then what what Baylor stands for like being like a Christian based uh like Foundation uh that’s how I am so coming here just felt like family um when I came my visit I like the workouts the workouts like I could just see how I could get better I could see myself in the system and it was always just love from the beginning so it was it really wasn’t a hard decision for me at all cuz um it really just felt like home I was treated well you could tell that they really wanted me on the team so uh I appreciate all that nice uh from McKenna you you ended up at link Academy in Branson Missouri did we play somebody recently that went to link also uh yeah yeah yeah we we just play okl Oklahoma but um he didn’t play he’s reging this year but Jacob Jacob’s on Oklahoma that’s who it was yeah yeah that’s me and him grew up together so not even just at link but we were roommates at L at link too W yeah so just playing playing against him just both of us being on the same court just opposite opposite teams playing D1 it’s just really cool to see that’s really cool what was that like what was that competition like uh it was great you know um early that morning too uh when I came in to get shots I already knew like he’d be in the gym too so he’s on the other side working out I’m on the other side so it was really it was really cool just uh competition just knowing that we’re going against each other this time how much did that year there help prepare you for college I think it helped the most out of anything I think if I came from ack Kenny uh I’d definitely be a different player just cuz um playing that link it was like I’m playing against people like me every day and uh sometimes like I wouldn’t come out on top I’d be on the bottom end of it like there so we’re always competing um coach Bill that ba that’s at the um school right now at link right he used to coach at LSU so he already knows how the college life was and that’s really how he uh ran things at link so I I was really on that schedule pretty pretty early and then just staying away from home just learning how to like uh be by myself and just be around the team it was really good so when I came here it wasn’t like anything too different right so you’re very well prepared when you come to Baylor still there has to be a little bit of a a step up a little culture shock whatever you want to refer to it I mean it’s a different level what was that like um physical right yeah when I first got here obviously it was physical there at length but now I’m playing against people two three years older than me so they have more years than me more strength and uh I just have to figure out how to uh get stronger uh play with them play against them just learn how to be more physical and then uh just talking being active all day and practice off the court watching more films just being more prepared taking care of my body like there’s just so much stuff that I had to learn how to do when I got here but um being at link it made it a little bit easier but it was still hard yeah here’s something I’m interested in so you’re a good person person to ask this freshman year you come in and there’s so much mental uh studying that you guys do like I sit in and on Scouts with you guys and they’re hitting you with questions and you got to know how tough is that to pick up and and really learn like the coaches want you to um when they ask questions about Scout it’s really not that hard for me cuz um they give us the Scout reports early so you can really just look over it and then uh for me I think I pick up on things pretty fast so when I read it through and then I just keep hearing it keep watching it it just really sticks in my mind but also at link we did the same thing before games they would ask about players ask about what their Tendencies are so about just comeing here was really the same thing I got you very good but you got got to be uh you got to be bought into that side of it and it’s not just physical it’s mental also for sure yeah uh definitely mental uh I think I mean what people say 90% of the game is mental the rest is physical so uh you really just got to know uh you just got to be like head on swivel yeah especially out on the court cuz there’s a lot of things going on at once and you got to be able to react quick right it’s really impressive to see how you guys soak that up number one the coaches who prepare The Scouting Report and then get it to you guys and the way guys soak it up uh and can you know spit it back out at them when they ask you that’s really impressive I mean that’s that’s not easy yeah no it’s definitely not but uh I think when you get down in the routine it becomes easier good you start you get here you start practice uh uh you’ve been to Waco several times you’ve been to really several Baylor games um before you got here fulltime what was it like when you landed in Waco and were here full-time I was just talking to one of our G about this but uh when you come here on your visit uh it’s just really much like a whole new world um you know it being college and you’re coming from high school you really don’t know how things are ran around here so but I came straight to practice and it’s just like what it is now um high energy everybody excited everybody dapping up like the culture here it was just the same uh it’s just loud um everybody is cool with each other uh you got secret things that you do with certain people like it’s just cool um so just being here on the visit and seeing all that that happened and now being here is like uh it wasn’t it wasn’t fake yeah and coach Drew you know and our coaches talk about the culture of joy and that’s real isn’t it I mean that’s not just lip service it’s real every day yeah every day uh Jesus others yourself you know we start off practice we pray first um everything we do we’re trying to do it for each other and then at the end of the day then yourself but yeah cultural Joy that’s what something that we’re really big on and uh I think this team this year is doing like a great job of expressing that very much so so your first game at Baylor pretty memorable uh playing Auburn which uh has wasn’t rated at the time but uh turned out to be a really good team playing out in sou Falls South Dakota and you scored 28 points in your first Baylor game that was a great debut yeah it was really cool uh wasn’t expecting that out of myself but uh I just believed really I was just believeing I was super excited to play and God blessed me just to uh knock down all those shots and just compete at the I was it’s a good win wasn’t it mean it was a great win you know us being down at half it was a hardfought game we had to execute down the stretch but it was really fun to be a part of that Arena was cool and it was just like yeah it was just like a surreal moment do you remember uh going into that game do you have any nerves at all or or how oh yeah uh I’d say more not nerves just I was just anxious I was just ready ready to get on the court cuz like a summer summer was long it felt like you know we had long practices we competing tired so you really just like dang I want the season to come so now when it was the day of the game I’m like I’m ready to get on the court like I’m ready to hoop and yeah it was it was fun finally ready to play a game that’s great then you’ve been in some really uh really cool environments since then I mean we played in Detroit we played in Madison Square Garden you know and then the places you play in the Big 12 also pretty cool environments that you guys have played in already yeah um like you were saying that Detroit um that being our first loss and then that was like our first road game for real everybody in there was Michigan State against us and we know how that turned out the Madison Square Garden that was like crazy Moment Like Me and my dad talked about it just him he said just watching watching me on the court play at Madison s garden against Duke which is like everybody wants to play against du growing up so it was just it was crazy and then like Allen Phi house everybody knows about Allen Phi house just now BYU yeah like yeah there’s been a lot of great environments that like me being from mckenny and like just growing up it’s just like a crazy just to go from like high school and now I’m just playing in these huge Arenas right uh along those lines uh you’re part of a kind of a historic year move from the feral Center close down the feral Center open up Foster Pavilion what’s that move been like I like the move I like the move now now now when we come back into Pharaoh it just feels different lights aren’t as bright right it’s just a different whole whole different Arena but um yeah I like them I like the move I like the foster a lot the crowd the crowd and the Foster gets Rowdy get loud so I definitely think like home court advantage is something that we truly have I agree I I think there’s a couple of games that y’all won and the crowd gets an assist you know some like BYU the first time around I think that Cincinnati game Cincinnati yeah yeah we’ve had a lot of good wins in there crowd’s been really good and the lights literally are brighter it actually is it actually is brighter right is that a good shooting uh shooting gym yeah I like the gym yeah I think it’s a shooter gym soft soft rims not too not too not too bouncy so it’s really good that’s cool so as we record this we’re in February you guys have some big games left down the stretch and then on to the Big 12 tournament that’s going to be wild this year in Kansas City and then on to the NCAA tournament you excited about that definitely excited uh just a play in something that I’ve been watching for the longest and then you just know how it goes you know crazy shots just big moments always happen the biggest the best players show up in the spotlights and then so that’s something I’m really excited for both the Big 12 and the uh NCAA tournament any uh March Madness uh moments or players that stand out in your mind just watching it through the years um not really I just I just watch any games you know I always made a brackets I just always want my team to win right uh but I mean just all the buzzer beaters i’ I’ve almost probably seen all the buzzer beaters CU I watch the highlights from those all the time yeah yeah I just the buzzer beater is probably like my favorite moment of just every game game how much did it resonate with you when Baylor won the National Championship in 21 uh I think that’s when I was like yeah I really rock with Baylor like watching that whole entire year and I was saying like I had them my bracket that they were going to win so uh just watching that whole year just seeing how they were competing and like you could really see the culture of Joy on that team for sure so it was really cool just to see them win yeah you had Bor in your bracket yeah I had I had to win the whole thing hey there you go nice so I got the little free win that’s good uh that was a really good defensive team uh and you guys work really hard defensively you work really hard defensively there some nights when maybe the shots aren’t Fallen but you still work hard rebounding on the defensive end contributing in other ways yeah yeah that’s something I’ve always been big on cuz uh Coach P and other coach they were just telling me from the get-go like every night you’re not going to hit shots there’s going to be ups and downs but what do you do that’s going to keep you on the court and what do you do that’s going to help us win so I think I I always try to compete at my highest level try to get rebounds steals dive on the floor whatever I got to do yeah that’s fun to see and and it’s very noticeable very noticeable uh that you contribute in so many different ways what about uh going through the Big 12 especially this year toughest basketball conference in the country I mean every game man is tough isn’t it yeah every game uh before the season talking to keante and just talking to players like JB Lang they’re like big 12 something serious yeah and you know I’m just watching it so you can’t really tell cuz you’re not in the court so I’m just like I mean it just looks like regular Hoops to me I was wrong every game super physical every games close scouting everybody knows what you’re about to run so it really just comes down to what we say toughest team wins whoever’s a tougher team that night they’re going to win yeah and so yeah Big 12 is no joke did you talk to Keon the other night out in Utah yeah out in Utah yeah we talked for a little bit you know obviously we just lost so I didn’t want to like hang around too much but we talk to a little bit me and ke good relationship him being from Dallas too yeah um so last year Keon was a big 12 freshman of the year two years ago it was Jeremy soan from Baylor you’re the preseason Big 12 freshman of the year it’s a pretty good string going for the Baylor yeah no that’s pretty cool I mean that just shows what Baylor’s all about you know um we get high level players and then uh just throughout the year you know work keep working keep working keep working and try to uh get those awards at the end how about uh your first year true freshman but you and it’s Eve in the starting lineup and then miror little also really contributing now uh what’s that like for you guys as true freshman to be a part of a really good team really good program and contributing uh it’s really cool um but coaches tell us we’re not freshman like yeah we can’t we can’t see ourselves as freshman since like you were just saying we always we’re on the court we’re contributing we always putting in big minutes from me Eve and Meo so um yeah we we are freshman but we don’t try to see ourselves as freshman cuz we know that we have to be locked in and we’re playing people that are older than us yeah you are locked in you’re you’re always very mature uh it looks you mean your game is very mature you’re very grounded person where does that come from uh I don’t I definitely give it to my parents um cuz I I don’t know a time when they weren’t trying to keep me uh like a good foundation just trying to keep me relaxed mature uh just trying to be respectful all the time U that’s how I grew up and I think my parents did job raising me and my sister just to stay level-headed and never like get too rowdy Next Level past college past Baylor you’re high on the NBA draft boards I know you know that see that you probably hear it all the time how do you how do you handle all that uh I got to Humble my humble myself I got to just live in the moment uh focus on what’s Happening and I mean that’s cool you know uh to be projected Lottery like that’s always been my dream but right now uh I’m in I still have to perform still trying to win a National Championship so I try not to focus on it too much or really much at all cuz I just know that I still got a lot of work to do and if I win in right now then I’d probably be out pretty quick so I just know that I got to stay in the gym good good so your experience here even though it’s just this first year it’s helping prepare you for that oh yeah for sure uh definitely like I was saying earlier uh like taking care of my body staying in the gym more watching more film I think all those things that I’ve learned from uh doing here is going to be great and carry over into my next years anybody uh player in the NBA that you look up to and maybe think your game is like uh I love watching KD Paul George Anthony Edwards and Shay Shay gild Alexander those are my favorite four players in the league and they’re all just super nice and they all have different parts of their game that I just like and try to take very good well we wish you the best when you get to that point whenever that might be but it’s uh it’s great having you here what’s uh how would you describe um this season where you are right now and some big games to go what you have more goals right you guys have goals that you haven’t reached yet this year yeah uh still of course right now after that loss it was a big loss for us cuz we’re still trying to win Conference Championship uh future you know other teams are trying to make the tournament we’re trying to win the tournament so um Big 12 tournament we’re going to try to come out on top obviously we’re trying to get a in season um inseason champion and Tournament champion then and on to March Madness we’re just trying to win another championship of course uh make put a banner up you know coach Drew he always tells us like where’s our Banner cuz none of us got banners John got a banner yeah but nobody else on the team really has banners so uh we’re really just trying to put another banner up oh that’s good that’s good motivation isn’t it how about uh off the court uh any hobbies that you have away from basketball um really not too much um I just like to chill relax just do things that uh can just keep me levelheaded stay away from basketball I’ll just chill play the game a little bit I have a cat so I’ll just chill chill with my cat I like clothes uh like so I like shopping and stuff and then other times uh really just sleep watch Netflix I don’t really do too much besides if I’m not in the gym around basketball then I’m just really much at home probably with the team or just sleeping I’ve heard about your cat yeah what’s the cat’s name Cleo Cleo yeah this cat is already legendary Right uh yeah the whole team knows about the whole team knows about my cat yeah real cool real chill how long have you had Cleo uh almost two months now almost two months oh okay so pretty new really yeah I have yeah I got her uh when we came back from Madison Square guard okay did you have uh cats or animals growing up yeah I always wanted to though that’s that’s really what pushed me to get Cleo and I don’t I don’t think I was ready for a dog right now you know you really got to take care of a dog and I just I know how lazy and tired I am but uh yeah I always wanted an animal so Cleo I think was a good you find her how’d you get I got her at the animal shelter oh nice very good that’s that’s terrific right there speaking of Madison Square Garden when you were there um playing in New York you know and here’s a billboard in Time Square with your picture on it that’s pretty cool man that was crazy I just scrolling on my phone I’m in the hotel I’m like what so I look out I’m walking outside I go outside I’m like y That’s crazy like I’m on the billboard in master Garden yeah that was pretty cool Time Square in New York City that was crazy that is great um playing in the NBA we talked about that a little bit is that uh has that been a dream of yours for a while always ever since ever since I started playing basketball I just always wanted to make the league just play as much as I uh play as long as I can um not trying to do too much on my body but if I could play LeBron years I would play LeBron years because I just love basketball so yeah I just always wanted to make it to the league yeah your game when we watch you play you can tell you love the game I mean you just really love basketball and that’s obvious by watching you and that’s fun and uh it makes it fun to watch you you know Baylor’s had a top 16 pick in the NBA draft the last three years it’s pretty good Legacy there yeah no I’m I’m I’m trying to keep it going yeah I’m trying to I’m trying to keep the street going and yeah good well uh when here’s a question to wrap things up when your time at Baylor is done whenever that is how would you like for Baylor fans and people to remember jacobe Walter uh I definitely if somebody brings me up I want them to be like uh he was definitely here giving it his all every game you could just see the effort that he would put on the court uh I want people to remember me as respectful uh like everybody saying I was good I was a great person to everybody uh never like trying to bring anybody down just trying to bring positive energy and then everybody just remember that I always had a smile on my face that’s what what that’s what I want people to remember amen you’re doing that that’s great appreciate the visit thanks very much appreciate you all right all right all right that’s great uh I hope yall enjoyed that I hope you learned learned something about um the newest Toronto Raptor jacobe Walter through that um I think I learned a little bit I hadn’t watched that interview it’s very interesting uh big shout out to Baylor Athletics um I learned that the guy is very well raised very humble you know things that I already knew about him but you know it’s it’s nice to see that double down it also you know pointed a little bit to his Ambitions of you know being a lottery pick I like the part about him watching Shay gilis Alexander I don’t see that element of his game at all but you know like a little bit closer to Shay is not Shay but you know like it’s it’s interesting Shay was also not a great athlete not a super athlete or anything just a Craftsman and someone who really worked on his craft and you know what I really appreciate about him is with that 610 wingspan the release point the smooth jump shot there there there is something you know there is something there that if you develop it and you hone it you hone it you hone it there is that 1% maybe less than 1% chance that he becomes much more than what he currently appears to be to those people who were very very Pro Keon George last year well congratulations I think you got something close to what you wanted last year in in this player and and I’m not overly surprised that the same people that were boosting ke George are boosting you know him they actually had very similar Seasons so let me just take a look quickly at their stats and compare them Sid de side so jacobe Walter um had a slight advantage on box plus minus over konay George largely because of a slight advantage on both offense and defense um 5.8 versus 5.6 basically it’s it’s splitting hairs okay effective field goal percentage 47% 47.4% literally so so close uh free throw rate which I think was a strong positive um for for for for Keon George was less of a strong positive but still a very strong positive um three-point attempt rate so we’re talking like I mean for Keon George his free throw attempt rate was 36% so sorry I got that backwards for jacobe Walter his free throw rate was even better right it was a 47.8% which means he got to the line a phenomenal lot okay the three-point attempt rate for both guys was in immensely High 55.3% versus 57.4% jacobe cleared him there as well so what did Keon George do better it was the assist percentage 20.1% also an incredibly High usage player Keon George if you remember my take on keante one of the things I was like I don’t really like his high usage I thought it was too much he was a 30.1% high you know usage guy whereas keante uh sorry uh whereas jacobe Walter was uh 23.4% and in terms of win shares jacobe Walter contributed more wins higher wind share per 40 um more win shares total he measured out just about as well if not a little bit better I would argue he’s a slightly better athlete than keontay George honestly stack them side to side it’s really really close it’s really close between those two guys in terms of like who you would pick and I would probably pick jacobe jacobe Walter over keontay George so for those people who were like oh my God you got your keante right so I mean that is one way of looking at this Keon George had interesting flashes last year I think Jacobi Walter um will be uh you know I don’t know this is a player who’s going to play right away in terms of like major minutes but I’m sure he’ll get a crack couple cracks especially if the season tears down later towards the end you’ll see you’ll see cracks um George has better hair I completely disagree with that but okay um steal if you frame it like that it is a steal because Keon George Went 16th in a somewhat decent draft and jacobe went 19th in a according to people [ __ ] draft so I think that you know you can you can frame it one way or another and and you know Danny a picked keontay George and I don’t think anyone’s complaining that ke George Went 16th last year so look on the one hand the Raptors got a steal here I think it’s fair to say the Raptors got a player that in a redraft will be picked higher than 19th so in that sense you got to steal my initial beef with it was I like to use me a little bit more I should probably just go and apply for a job to the New Orleans Pelicans because I have literally had their draft pick every single year Dyson was a guy that I wanted to take at four they took him at eight okay herb Jones Trey Murphy literally I’m I’m talking every [ __ ] player that I like they draft and I love their draft every year last year it was Jordan Hawkins this year it’s EAS Mei let’s see let’s see if the streak ends I trust I trust four teams five teams really a lot when it comes to the draft I trust the Pelicans I trust the Thunder I trust the Jazz um I used to trust the Spurs I don’t know if I trust the Spurs anymore I do and I used to trust the Raptors and I’m kind of like I’m on I’m on a fence right now I’m not sure how much I trust the Raptors but you know like let’s buy into it but the gold standard for me in terms of like who you are as a prospect if these three teams OKC you know um OKC Utah Danny a specifically um if these teams like really like you I’m I’m more bullish on you Danny a obviously is not the greatest drafter in the world or whatever you know he’s he’s had a couple of Misses last year I did not agree with the Taylor Hendricks or keontay George so yeah I don’t know maybe it’s just Sam pry and David Griffin and that’s it right um very interested to see overall uh it was Ron Holland going fifth I thought that was very interesting and very much a New Orleans Pelicans type of pick in that situation also was a little bit higher in Ron Holland I had Ron Holland number two on my first mock draft I obviously moved him down I think to eight or nine or whatever on my big board but I still saw the value there um in terms of winners and losers I read an article while I was waiting to do this uh waiting to do this live Raptor fans will be happy to know they neither were on the loser team nor the winner team nor the surprise team there was nothing written about the Toronto Raptors in this article for nba.com nobody seems to care it’s kind of like okay you got a guy that we kind of saw as the best player available Hallelujah right in a redraft I expect jacobe will be a top 12 to 13 player in this draft I’ll hope for the Raptor’s sake that E Mei is not a top three player in this draft because I really do think that he he has like some crazy like when I when I talk about jacobe Walter’s 1% upside of you know or 0.1% whatever upside of Devin Booker right bro you Yap too much rather than interacting with the chat cool adios I don’t like people who talk like that personally I’m just like I’m I’m I’m I’m not really for it so it’s like whatever you you go and start a live stream you go talk for you know 7 hours and you tell me how much you interact with the chat I try to do it you know um why not better to keep him till then it’s annoying how good prey is at drafting honestly 100% uh laid-back dude reminds me of OG personality wise does not remind me of OG but nevertheless um overall I I think I walk away from this night feeling good and I’m looking forward to tomorrow in terms of the okay meanwhile they’re going crazy in La for picking connect but it is a steal too uh Dalton connect is a legit steal like incredible like I think that that fit with what JJ reck wants to do been doing a deep dive into JJ reck’s podcast and what he wants to do with the Lakers and what I think and I mean of course I’ve been notoriously very critical of to higher I don’t think it’s going to work out blah blah blah it doesn’t matter JJ is a smart guy he he he leans into the analytics he leans into you know future proof concepts of basketball dalon connect fits what the Lakers want to do if they if they met him if they liked him they got a steal as well you could argue the Toronto Raptors got a steal as well this area of the draft 18 to 22 tends to yield a lot of steals it’ll be interesting to see 7 H it’s usually actually it’s usually 18 but it’ll be very curious right it’ll be very curious to see Tristan the Silva uh jobi Walter I mean that’s a shooter that’s a shooter Dalton connect that’s a shooter is scorer more of a scorer than a shooter but sure those are three guys I think we’re all going to be comparing them all year long you know what I mean and there’s a dud somewhere in there as well maybe there’s two right last year was jayen Hood chafino he had a really tough year I think he shot 13 % from three that was tough he played like a little over a 100 minutes for a team that was desperate for for anything off the bench at times so uh someone saying Dalton will struggle there I don’t think so I think Dalton’s going to be fine I really do um I’m I’m I’m high on him so in terms of who won the draft I mean I think I think it’s pretty clear to me who lost the draft and that would be the Washington Wizards um I don’t like The Pick of Alex SAR necessarily going to a team that lacks Direction and lack pecking order and lack maturity um yeah overall let’s just take a look here so just evaluating the draft I like the Reed Shepard pick at three that’s kind of where I had him um initially when I did my mock draft and I totally understand the reasoning for it I think he’s going to be a great understudy for Fred Van B and if you know Fred Van B ever decides to this is a great time to pay it forward what Kyle lry did for you please do for Reed Shepard he’s a really good kid and I think you know it’s just fantastic uh Tristan D Silva I think I would pick Tristan Sila I mean I’m a little bit torn I was very not favor I was not in favor of the jet Howard pick last year and and I don’t necessarily know if that’s ever going to work out for them in Orlando um typically I like Orlando draft picks as well you know fron Wagner was a really smart pick jillen Suggs is interesting um you know so I think generally speaking Orlando Orlando knows what doing there and Tristan the Silva is a pretty solid pick I think sometimes you can trick yourself into thinking you’re closer than you really are and you start to build around a star and around needs I think the Toronto Raptors more so than anything over the last two years have really started to Hon in on a type of player that fits with Scotty which is like sort of this connective movement shooter and it’s not a bad thing to have multiple guys like this you know one of the times when I remember watching Scotty early in his rookie season he was playing with with uh he was playing in a lineup with Armani Brooks right there was another lineup uh in his rookie year especially early on when he was playing Goran jic um there were moments positive moments with Fred vany so you get this idea of Scotty plus little shooter equals good idea right um and I think that’s the same idea that’s been honed into trying to you know trade for a guy like Emanuel quickley it’s not hard to work things around Scotty but it helps to have good sharp pieces that create space I think jacobe Walter at worst creates space I think he creates space how well will he attack space how how much will his you know first step amend so I was talking before we went into the interview with Bobby Webster and before we went into jacobe walters’s interview and we are approaching 1 hour and 14 minutes and I realized it’s 2:30 a.m. on the East Coast right now so I’ll try to tie this up in about five minutes I’ll do my best in terms of like what I think needs to happen right now I think he needs to get stronger I think that’s going to be the number one thing he needs to get more physical I think he needs to get a lot stronger and I think over the next 18 to 24 months that is going to be a major major shift in him is just getting physically stronger so he can compete better in the paint so he can get in the paint so he can guard better he’s going to need to bust his ass off time you know um he’s going to have to bust his ass off defensively I think you know for him I would love for him to just kind of buy into this role of I’m going to come in and I’m going to do the Aaron Smith thing right I’m gonna go and try I do not compare him to Aon Smith please understand I’m not saying that right um but if he can just buy into being committed and disruptive defensively I think he has some physical tools that can make him particularly disruptive on that end I don’t buy him as a stopper I don’t buy him as a point of attack guy it’s going to have to change his phys his physique is going to have to change completely uh I don’t know if hips bend that way I don’t really see like a lot of hip flexibility with him to do that so you know um be a good good Defender be disruptive maybe you know I didn’t love his stock numbers so maybe you know rack up deflections you know put it in your mind every time I go into the game three three deflections one tip you know uh one loose ball one tie up you know what I mean like put the hustle stuff on on the line and then just shoot you know shoot shoot shoot and you’re going to have a lot of shooting opportunities off of solid screeners like Scotty Barnes uh solid screeners like uh yaka purle uh I think the other thing is the handle right the handle and the ability to break down the defense and be able to get to your spots on the court this is something ironically every single player that the Raptors building around literally needs to work on do we need to just put Brian in the gym put a big handle life logo behind him and just have him work with all of these guys on their handle Scotty handle is an issue it’s getting a little bit better I posted a video of him on um and granted it was from his camp and he was playing against you know a guy who’s not an NBA player but the way he’s able to shift his balance a little bit is encouraging from where he where his handle was a couple years ago RJ Barrett Emanuel quickley none of these guys have the shiftiest handle it’s better than Scotty’s for sure but it’s not Shifty Grady the handle got to get better so basically all these guys have the same issue with ball handling I will point to this right so so so jacobe Walter enters that same sphere of he’s going to have to do it that way right he’s going to have to get a little bit better at navigating and getting to his spots because once he gets to his spots the shot is butter smooth and he has a pretty high release point and I don’t suspect that a lot of people are going to be able to bother him so that is good right um Darko rakovich has a lot of experience with players like this Darko had experience with Desmond Bane Darko also has experience with Devon Booker so if there’s any person that I believe is most directly responsible for making this the obvious pick for the Raptors I believe it would be dark rakovich now I’m not saying that the Raptors internally didn’t believe in this I’m not saying that you know Messi and Bobby didn’t sign off on this that Dan tossman didn’t sign off on this but man this is exactly what Darko wants in terms of like what he wants to mold into right the playmaking has got to become so much better the decision mak’s got to become better but there were elements of that and hints of that in his a tape and so if Darko watched that and he and he found that to be promising I think there’s a chance that maybe he has more playmaking upside then I’m giving him credit for based on his Bor tape because he was definitely not an on the- ball Creator point guard light type of guy at no point did I watch him and confuse him for a point guard Prospect at all there were times when I watched konay George and I was like this is a terrible point guard right um this is a guy who handles the ball too much holds the ball too much navigates into gaps and whatever but look there’s two two additional things that I’ll say like one one one I’ve already said which is that Darko has experience with this type I also think Jama Mala who has some experience with this type he worked with Moses Moody he’s worked with movement Shooters in the past he’s worked with guys like Fred vanet in the past so again you know molding out Shooters they have a type they’re working around it Scotty Barnes and a whole bunch of Shooters moving around him you know ping ponging off of him RJ Barrett as a cutter and getting these guys smarter and just making them a little bit more Dynamic and and and getting this 0.5 offense to go you know to click around Scotty right um I think there is a player who fits very very well into what the Raptors want to do as a basketball team I don’t necessarily know if he’s the best player available on the board tomorrow in terms of the players left on the board that really fit what the Raptors like to do Kyle filipowski right um machine gun saying KLA going to the Knicks is that confirmed or is that you just saying that because for whatever reason I mean I can I can look up X Shams whatever but hold on one sec now I got to [ __ ] check X because you wrote a comment nope okay so Kyle Philipi fits in a lot of the stuff that the Raptors like to do playmaking off the four this inverts the entire concept of basketball you know there’s a there’s a concept of basketball where you initiate from the wing and your bigs are setting screens and your bigs are rolling off of the creation from your guards there’s a completely different style of basketball where you can invert the whole action and and then run your offense through the post or through a hub like a Kelly oen a yaka purle a Scotty Barnes Etc I’m not saying Scotty’s a power forward or a center but obviously if you’re going to use them in the middle of the floor at the nail like that then you are initiating your offense that way away and you can run things off of him you can run screens around him you can you can run Cuts around it you can you can run pick and roll off of it so there’s a lot of different philosophies on basketball but I think this is an interesting one to explore and if you’re considering the types of players that would fit into something like that high level decision makers at Big spots who can shoot and and can decide from above the break like a kle filipowski if you buy the shooting and I do then that is a valuable player type okay um how is Walter’s cutting ability I don’t have the most solid read on that Owen I’m sorry uh my my read on it is the two games that I really remember completely and I’m not I don’t have my notes in front of me right now um there were a there is promising there was promising upside but a lot of squandered opportunities it’s not something that I would put as like this is a solid skill of his but honestly this is definitely something he can learn I think he has the he has the tools to to be a very good um off ball mover cutter um he can shake guys out of their shoes and just like cut back door he has like a lot of like you’re GNA have to Trail him around screens and stuff like you can you can you can run off you can run off similar actions for him and Grady on opposite sides of the court so that’s interesting um [ __ ] what the hell was I saying so Kyle filipowski is someone who fits what the Raptors like to do Johnny Fury is also a guy who fits what the Raptors like to do for completely different reasons and another guy who fits what the Raptors like to do Tyler KCK um Tyler Smith right and just look at this video of the best players available and just see who the hell is available here one sec so this is okay so Jonathan MBO right still available Tyler kak still available those are the two guys in my late first Flyers so obviously based on my big board I take donon homes to sorry I take um I think I take Jonathan mogbo but that doesn’t mean the Raptors have to take Jonathan mogbo obviously Johnny Fury is there right Kevin mcculler is there is keesan George there no Kean George is gone Kyle filipowski is still there Baylor shyan just went off the board AJ Mitchell is still there if I recall correctly Tyler Smith is still there Adam bu is still there Nico jurich is still there jit is interesting because he’s the type of player that you really don’t have on your roster if you buy the upside on him and I get it Dylan Jones which is written as Dylan dones right now which is going to become a meme um in and of itself is off the board um so yeah so this is the limit of the players that I really liked for the Raptors that were on my board off this board I’m sure there are plenty of players that you can look at I’m not looking at those players I think that these are the guys and my board wasn’t even that deep I don’t think I went 30 deep right how how how deep did I go here I went 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 20 21 22 23 24 so 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 okay I went 36 deep so that’s as far as I went now bronny James also weirdly enough fits very well into what you want to do defensively around Scotty Barnes having a super high motor very intelligent point of attack Defender if only he had measured out just a little bit better right um was kalle picked yes he was picked by Miami at 15 imagine bronnie doesn’t get picked tomorrow I guarantee you he will get picked tomorrow um I don’t know if it’ll be by the Raptors by the Lakers by the Mavericks or by who but but interesting Jason Tatum tweeted lot of teams going to regret passing up on flip yeah I wonder if there’s a certain connection Alma moer blah blah blah blah blah okay Jason Tatum Pro Scout I don’t TR like look I get it Kyle filipowski was being talked about as a midir rounder last year so the fact that he is survived he’ll be the second round and look man like I think this is a guy who loves basketball I think a lot of people have sold themselves on the down downside of the Prospect and I think it’s sort of weird that we get to a place with prospects where all we talk about is what’s wrong with them and yeah you know what I mean if you want to talk about all that’s wrong with Jobe Walter you will walk away thinking he is going to be a bust I promise you if I talk about his limited Vision his you know uh lack of creativity off the bounds he’s not a very Dynamic Athlete he doesn’t have great lateral quickness not a great first step that’s that’s that’s the read on jacobe Walter that’s the downside the upside is six foot1 really butter smooth shot works super duper hard and he’s 19 years old you know what I mean like yeah it sounds like I’m describing a second a second round pick you know what I mean um I don’t know I think there’s a lot of different ways that tronto Raptors can go personally if I’m them and and I’m not and I know they’re not going to do what I wanted to do because I wanted to pick EAS me see and I’m I’m I’m slowly getting over it but I’m not completely over it Jonathan really fits what you like to do basketball-wise he really does um I don’t know if he’s NBA ready fine you know whatever but he does NBA stuff he sets NBA screens he’s an NBA passer as a wing big to those people asking whether he can shoot yes he can shoot um he talks about you know um some of the youth stuff that he used to do he used to stand in the corner he was a guard right I I trust prospects who grew out of guard bodies you know what I mean mean Anthony Davis is a guy who grew up of a guard body right when you play point guard at an early age it’s a really good thing for your development as a basketball player I’ve always believed this unfortunately there’s a lot of kids who are six fo five at the age of I don’t know grade eight and they get immediately stuck in the post they get told they’re big and they don’t have the those on ball reps when you have a growth spurt like a Michael Jordan like a Michael Jordan had a massive growth spurt grade nine grade 10 uh Anthony Davis had a huge growth spurt these guys it’s usually good thing Jonathan MoGo had a huge growth spurt when you have to shift into your body sometimes it takes a while to adjust to your new frame if you have mapped out the angles of playing basketball as a 510 player and suddenly tomorrow you’re 610 that’s going to take a while to adjust to it right he’s talked about extensively in interviews how his freshman season screwed him up I think Jon’s mobo was solid last year he was probably the best offensive rebounder one of the best offensive rebounders in the country I think his offensive rebounding is something that you need his screen setting and short roll passing is great um guard skills with the big man’s body exactly that’s exactly it and I would be very curious to see you know how switchable they feel he is defensively how many positions they feel he can play defensively they did work him out so this is not a case of jacobe you know jacobe Walter where it’s like okay we’re sailing blind a little bit on the workout no you had Jonathan MoGo in your building you also did they have Johnny Fury in their building I don’t know if they did but Rob who’s the Rookie of the Year coming up that’s a good question who is the Rookie of the Year uh if I had to bet on who the Rookie of the Year is let’s see Zachary Reet no Alex star maybe um he’s definitely going to get the minutes and the Reps I don’t know if he’s got the motor for it you know it wouldn’t it wouldn’t completely surprise me no that would that would totally shock me I was goingon to say Zack Ed um but that that would be shocking um Donovan kingan no that would be crazy uh would it be completely insane if it was someone like Ron Holland um or Stefon Castle or Maus buellis like one of those guys like one of those three guys I think I I will put it down to one of those three guys I don’t think Reed is going to have the Reps or the minutes um or Cody it could be Cody Williams Cody Willam went to Utah right yeah it could be him it definitely could be but bro like backto back years I loved Kon Wallace last year y’all remember me talking about kasan Wallace like all day I was like this guy is going to be so good and Sam pry just swept in and took him I was talking about kasan Wallace for the Raptors when kasan Wallace was being mocked as a 24th overall pick right 24th overall and I was like I take this guy top 10 and then he just he slips right out I didn’t talk as much about drick lley but I did like Derek lab as a prospect last year um I gotta tell you man it’s it’s not just Sam prey I know Sam prey gets a lot of credit the pro Scouts that the um that the Thunder have working for them they are among the the absolute best in the business they are so good at what they do um if the Raptors ever decide to invest you know another 56 million into scouting pay those guys it’s it’s it’s worth it to be this far ahead of the curve and you know they spotted nicoa topic yeah I mean this is just it’s embarrassing I’m just happy the Thunder are not in the East man I’m not I’m happy they’re not in the East because when that team starts winning championships it is going to be an endless dynasty of winning championships it’s going to be Shay’s entire career they have draft picks Galore they have the smartest Management in the league they have let us find out prey is watching the lives Rob no I very much doubt that he would ever waste this time watching these lives but um I I really think he’s a he’s just an incredibly incredibly smart person um do you see a jacobe comparison of Ben Gordon that’s interesting was actually a very big fan of Ben Gordon no I don’t but I see why why that comparison exists yes I I see why that compares it’s hard for me to wrap my brain around it because Ben Gordon was the top three pick right Ben Gordon was the Sixth Man of the Year Ben Gordon was legit like I think people thought Ben Gordon would be like Vinnie Johnson you know what I mean I think Ben Gordon’s a better athlete is that is that crazy to say he was also a long guy but I think he was um better athlete overall maybe I have to refresh myself on rookie Ben Gordon tape right like he was a beast he was a beast in college he was awesome in Chicago I mean if he ends up being Ben Gordon holy [ __ ] like Far Cry from the Reggie Bullock that I was talking about um what’s the dream OKC lineup in five years I don’t know man I really don’t uh but I’ll tell you like whoever the hell it is you know they got they got so many options right Nico topic com coming off the bench with Shooters around him playing off of Chad homr I mean this is just it’s embarrassing it is embarrassing how good the OKC Thunder are man they won this draft they won the last draft with kesan Wallace they won the previous draft with Chad hren like I’m just I’m sick I’m sick I’m sick to my stomach it’s I don’t feel Envy very often but this is like do I want to live in Oklahoma do I just want to go and root for that team no I I can’t abandon [ __ ] but like man I really don’t want to live in Oklahoma either but yo like that that franchise is very very lucky that that they get to witness greatness because honestly everyone want to talk about the Knicks because they’re a big Market team and I’m from New York so I understand you know I get the hoopla I get the hype I get the Legacy I get all of it but just bear with me for a second the OKC Thunder traded Josh giddy and they got Alex Caruso the OKC Thunder just drafted nicoa topic so the OKC Thunders out was Josh giddy their in is Alex Caruso and Nica [ __ ] topic a guy who spent most of this year as the number one projected pick and they were like really close to making the Western Conference Final and this is coming off the heels of probably drafting one of the most underrated rookies last year in ludor sorry in um in Kon Wallace this is coming off the heels of drafting Jaylen Williams and Jaylen Williams and and Chad hren like I mean it’s just it’s embarrassing how good this team is at what they do they are so good don’t let anyone ever tell you that a draft is a crapshoot and they have all these picks and I have no idea what they’re going to ever do with them but man like they can do anything it’s like yo the leag better hope that they don’t cash these picks in at some point because it’s like whatever they want they can get if they want Donovan Mitchell and I don’t know why they would want him the picks are flexibility I think to anyone who thought that they were just holding on to these picks to cash them in I think we’re way past that point at this point you know they’ve managed to become good without ever cashing in these picks they just keep picking up more picks it’s just crazy they they make the West C I mean I don’t think people understand how much better Alice Caruso is than Josh giddy like why did more people not talk about this everyone’s talking about OG and Mel Bridges and I don’t know man the OKC Thunder remind me of you y’all remember yall remember that movie Moneyball Brad Pit Jonah Hill Etc the OKC Thunder are the epitome of bunny ball they take all of these misshapen pieces these unhype prospects you know Shay gilders Alexander was a [ __ ] throw in in in a larger Paul George trade just unbelievable that Dave turned him into an MVP candidate he probably the favorite to win MVP next year right them and the Spurs in a few years see the difference with the Spurs and and what the OKC Thunder did and and it’s no shade to the Spurs the Spurs have wasted picks on you know Josh Primo um Jeremy Sohan no offense right um Malachi Brenham right they they they they I’m pretty sure they drafted Joe whis Camp right so I’m just saying like you g you were gifted right like even now like you traded away the eighth pick right I don’t agree with that move at all you’re you’re building around Victor wanyama you need you need prospects to work out for you now I don’t really buy this whole thing I mean whatever the Spurs fleece the Raptors on the yako prle trade but they did give up a lot of really good players man they gave up yaka purle they gave up Derek Derek white they gave up deante Murray they gave up Mar Rosen they gave up Thaddius young I mean Thaddius young is probably not probably like which of these things is not like the other thing but Thaddius young was a pretty good player they gave up all these players they bottomed out now they got vama but all these draft picks man I don’t think they’ve hit on any of them Lonnie Walker they haven’t really hit on their draft picks in a while you know what I mean de jonte Murray um Derek white I think those are both draft picks they hit on right kawh Leonard that’s a draft pick they hit on that’s a long time ago kawh Leonard is like a really really really long time ago right so again the RC Buford and Greg papovich train maybe it’s losing a little bit of steam in terms of their innovation of Def you know but you got to get the one right as Messiah jur said about Scotty barns you got to get that one right and they got the one right because you couldn’t get it wrong and that was picture one miyama so now I think they added something very good tonight next to him and Stefon Castle I think Stefon Castle would have been my pick at number four as well so I I completely understand that wait would it have been my picker number four let me not cap here hold on what would have been my picker number four um yeah he would have been my pick honestly I I understand the value of Donovan kingan I still would have picked up on castle if I was if I was a Spurs yes so yes he would have been my pick as as well at four but yes I think there are several teams that are going to regret passing on ni toich I I think that guy just lives the hoop man and just he just loves basketball and I know that you can say that a lot of people but he has like this very special ability um to read the game and that’s really what the OKC Thunder are batting on they’re not Visionaries they’re not you know they don’t have a crystal ball they’re just valuing the right stuff in prospects which is playmaking and that’s maybe my biggest complaint with Jobe Walters so I hope that that’s something that they’ll able to coach him up on and and and be a lot better at going forward but as I maintain I don’t think that’s something you teach a prospect at this stage I don’t think at 19 years old you’re going to become like a significantly better playmaker so I hope he can become a passable secondary Creator secondary playmaker just a guy who makes Smart reads and it’s just generally like honing his craft that way he is a bucket getter he’s a scorer he’s a shooter hopefully he can become a more Dynamic one hopefully he can become a more efficient one and hopefully he can become a guy who with an expanded handle and more you know dynamic range and maybe with a little bit of time in the waight room can become a more interesting offensive player who’s more efficient and the paint so that’s 1 hour and 38 minutes of me rambling about this I hope this was enjoyable um you know I’m probably going to take a lot of people telling me that I was very sour on the pick I really wasn’t sour on the pick he’s just lower on my board than this one other guy he was the next guy up I was not as high on jacobe Walter as the Tron Raptors were I hope as a raptor fan that I’m wrong I hope as a raptor fan that there’s things in this tape that I’m missing I hope there are things that are contextually true contextually true about his time at Baylor that are not going to be contextually true about his time in the Raptors I hope he is way better I hope he does become Shay Guild Alexander or Devon Booker or whatever um in terms of uh in terms of the live tomorrow we’ll be live tomorrow at 3 o’clock we definitely be live tomorrow at 3 o’clock and we’ll take you through you know the second round and it’ll hopefully be like a little bit of a quicker smoother draft obviously the Raptors pick first if the Raptors pick their pick at all maybe we get breaking news when we get when we wake up that the trono Raptors have traded this pick and maybe we don’t have to do the live or we’ll still do the live because we’ll you know but it won’t be as popular it won’t be 600 people watching or whatever so I don’t know it’s interesting um I I really you know there’s an interesting question that Bobby Webster asked is like can you overthink this I think that’s paraphrasing what he was asked and I completely get where that question is coming from so um are you back in an hour again don’t lie this time no I’m definitely not back in an hour I definitely do have to go and finish off that writing assignment but I did want to you know just have that like better more deep discussion right like I I did not expect us to pick him so if this dude is better than Mei two years from now we have to rub it in for life why no they’re completely different players I look I’m not going to hold it against the Toronto Raptors if you know um someone that I liked more than Grady like cam Whitmore I liked more than Grady um I think I liked him more than Grady I’m pretty sure I liked him more than Grady I mean I had him low but like I had him 14th on my board I had Grady lower I’m not going to hold it against the Raptors if um you know what I mean like I don’t I don’t get that energy at all that to be honest I don’t get like 85% of the [ __ ] you said so it probably it checks out right um yeah like to me right now where the Raptors stand this is a flyer right this is this is a player that you hope that you can develop and he’s definitely an upgrade in terms of as a prospect over someone like oai it’s encouraging to know the Raptors would have taken him with a lottery pick because it’s almost like hey you lost a lottery pick you got a lottery pick I don’t know maybe that’s one way to look at it and honestly when I was doing the mock drafts one version of my mock draft I was like let me see where I had jacobe going through in my mock drafts and my internal notes the highest I had jacobe going was actually eight to the Spurs um three weeks ago it was like shortlived every other simulation I had him going somewhere between 12 and 20 so this is his range I didn’t think we were going to be the team to to go for it so yeah was the coloo bit a joke too yeah so I mean let me address this and probably not something even worth addressing or giving attention to at this point I do think it matters why people fail um you know people fail for all sorts of reasons I understand you’re trying to be you know like whatever you’re trying to be right now you know tough like it doesn’t matter why you fail you fail because you fail uh Christen Colo had blood clots bro you don’t hold that against somebody that’s that’s just crazy to me that’s crazy um it’s crazy to call that guy a bust um specifically because I know how hard Christian Koko worked to go from camon to the United States to Arizona to the Raptors like like I mean come on man have a heart have some humility have a [ __ ] brain have a like I don’t know I don’t know why that concept of Christian coloo is a bust bothers me so much but it does it bothers me ethically it bothers me just as a human being that you can take everything that this young man accomplished and reduce it to a single four-letter word that makes you feel good about yourself oh he’s a bust he’s not doing [ __ ] he’s a bust bro to me the only way I’ll ever call someone a bust is if they didn’t work hard Christian Colo worked his [ __ ] ass off bro check his check his free throw check his free throw percentage year one Arizona year two year three it bothers me because personally I think that this guy worked his tail off and that he got the short end of the stick in the situation now no one’s crying for him he was an NBA player hopefully hopefully he will make a comeback right I really hope that he will right I I love Christian Koko I think he’s a really good player I think he did all the right things and even when the Raptors were holding him out honestly he was still doing all the stuff that they were asking him to do right they were working you know all the shooting and stuff like so I don’t know man um I do agree it was insensitive and I was Cutthroat there at the NBA’s business though okay let me let me just try to meet you as a human being here something being a business right it’s never cool in my opinion to be Cutthroat it’s okay internally to to have you know boundaries and to and to draw strong boundaries and to be factual and to be matter of fact and maybe not to lament right it’s it’s it’s okay not to dwell it’s probably healthy not to dwell on things but it’s okay to also have a realistic examination of what is and what isn’t I don’t think it makes you weak to empathize with a person who worked this hard to achieve what he achieved and and I mean let’s be real Christian Koko at the age of 14 did not play basketball Christian Koko at the age of 16 was in Cameroon attending camps Christian Koko at the age of 18 flew to a country in which he is new to the language I mean my God man like like imagine the journey as an 18-year-old now think of yourself at 18 and try to imagine you doing what he did and imagine how many temptations there were like I know dudes who are literally so happy when they go to a club and one girl looks at them imagine being s feet tall on the campus of Arizona and how many [ __ ] distraction could have spun you one way or another way I don’t know I have a lot of respect for you know the path that some of these people take because it is not easy I know it’s super hard and I don’t think it’s often examined and so I do believe that when someone has a situation like blood clots that being insensitive in that moment does not make you tough it just makes you look like an [ __ ] um I wish we could prioritize different things as a society I don’t control Society I frankly I don’t control this community but I can try to influence this community to try to be more thoughtful about things I believe that it matters why you fail I believe that Greg Odin having you know a slight disparity in how long his legs were and him being super injury prone but him still playing for the big three right now I think all of this is part of his journey I think we become too results focused as a society in general and we start to just completely lose sight of the fact that this is completely a process personally I don’t care if you’re successful I really don’t and you know what one of the biggest things that stuck out to me with jaob Walter one of the biggest things that startu out withing is Scotty Barnes just generally speaking any prospect that I respect is they have a sincere respect for the process as opposed to the result almost every person that I have seen fail in life is more obsessed with results than process the process does not guarantee results the process guarantees a continuation of the process people that I respect specifically I give a shout out Brian Mon Scotty’s trainer everything about that guy is so process rooted from how he approaches workouts to how he approaches communication with people to how he approaches his camps to how he approaches learning it’s all process-based and you can tell that he enjoys that process the results are so secondary to the process so again if you fall in love with the process of yourself then you will learn to appreciate the process that other people go through which means that you would empathize probably greatly with someone like Christian Koko who would go through this entire process do everything the right do do it the right way right and then succumb to something that was so out of his control like blood clots anyways I think it’s a worthy discussion to have I I feel a lot of people think the way you think I think a lot of people look at kwami Brown and say he’s a failure because he’s a bust because he didn’t work hard I think there’s a lot of people that think that way but I believe that the process of succeeding or failing in the NBA is far greater than any one person there are very few players in this league that can end up in the wrong situation have bad luck and still be successful there are very few Kobe Bryants in this world and I don’t think Kobe Bryant ended up in a bad situation but I’m saying like to have that sort of Herculean will to say even though I’m in a bad situation even though I have the wrong coach even though they’re as me to do all the wrong things even though I got hurt on my second day I’m still going to push through that is a testament to the human will for the vast majority of prospects it is going to require a remarkable amount of luck a remarkable amount of teaching and a remarkable amount of right place right time for them to work out and the ones who work out we’re going to say worked hard and the ones who don’t work out and they’re out of the league and they’re in Europe we’re going to say they’re busts and that’s just simply not true that’s just not the way it worked there are plenty of guys who didn’t make it in the NBA went on to have 10 12 year careers in Europe Anthony Parker is a great example of a player that I admired so tremendously when he was in Toronto he was one of my favorite Raptors I loved him in mcab Tel Aviv and he was a guy who ended up in the wrong situation he’s playing behind Jerry Stackhouse and Allen Iverson in Philadelphia he ends up going overseas bouncing around a little bit finding success winning Euro League MVP coming back being of the Raptors and going back to the Cleveland Cavaliers and then all the jokes were that’s Candace Parker’s brother la la la la la that’s the other Tony Parker la la la la la and now what is he he’s he’s what right he is the president like what what is he the the the general manager of of the um Orlando Magic and then you got Landry Fields another guy who was obsessed with the process but ended up having really bad results and where is he now he is the general manager of the Hawks it’s ironic the two you know very two Raptors that I really appreciated just as people ended up becoming so successful why because they learned to reinvent themselves because they were in love with the process the same process habits waking up being prepared treating people well all this stuff the same process that makes you good at basketball can also make you good at other things and something Brian often talks about is something that I very often echo which is let’s use basketball to teach people to be good at other things I hope that this community is is you know to some extent influencing you to be a better person or to be better at your job or to be a better husband or a better whatever but ultimately just comes out to the process so my point is when we shut down any critical evaluation of the process and just say this guy’s a bust this guy’s a criminal this guy’s this it is regressive right if you just look at incarceration statistics in the United States and just say well this many people are Latinos this many people are black and so therefore black people and Latino people commit more crimes and you shut down the conversation there then you are not being Cutthroat you’re being an idiot that’s the point Critical examination to some degree is always valid and I think that we should all aim to do a little bit more of it in our lives anyways talk to you’all later have a great one this is a strange departure but yes also there was a super chat here HT 963 appreciate you very much super chats were off the off the hook today thank you guys so much for that one all right I am off to finally write the rest of this article and um yeah talk to youall later
The Toronto Raptors shocked no one but yours truly when they selected Baylor freshman Ja’Kobe Walter with the 19th overall pick. While Walter didn’t work out for Toronto, he has certain qualities they also valued in Gradey Dick last year.
With a shift in focus with Darko Rajakovic, let’s talk about the worst case, medium case, best case and fantasy case outcomes for Ja’Kobe, what it’ll take for him to become better, and why the Raptors may have to wait 2-3 years for him to return serious dividends.
We can also briefly touch on how Ja’Kobe fits in with the current core of RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes, Immanual Quickly and Gradey Dick, and why wings like him are sold at a premium in the modern NBA.
#Raptors #WeTheNorth #Baylor
10 Comments
Appreciate this coverage Rob!
Notable names available tomorrow, off the top of my head- Kyle Filipowski, Tyler Smith, Tyler Kolek, Melvin Ajinca, Adem Bona, Jhonny Furphy, Jamal Shead, Cam Spencer, and of course, LeBron James Jr.
Personally, I would prefer Tyler Smith or Cam Spencer, out of these options.
If i had to venture a guess as to who the Raptors prefer of this lot, I would lean Bona or Ajinca.
Looking forward to round 2 tomorrow! Thank you again for putting in yeoman's work, Rob.
Great program! Watching again! 👍
Raptors are going to have a lineup of all shooting guards 😂
1st tier: reed>saar (but depending on team i might go saar)
2nd tier: risacher cody williams tyler smith kalel ware yves missi
Clingan
Tier 3: kyle filpo daron holmes edey ron holland dalton dillingham collier
I dislike most wings this draft, i think most bigs in the draft is where its at my favourites are tyler smith and kalel ware i think you get unreal value for those guys where they are projected
Reed is the best guy in the draft. imo saar is good but theres a world where someone else of his type in this draft is better.
I dislike topic matas jakobe walter
I strongly dislike castle
Im okay with thier pick but id rather a few guys over him missi might be a big miss
He reminds me of Maxey. Maxey has more burst definitely but the way they finish at the rim and their willingness to just let it go from deep.
I hope we get a decent stretch big for the bench. Most likely through free agency but who would that be?
It seems that, we as fans, always expect tricky trades and rob the rest of the league blind drafting and when they don't happen we feel let down. I get the feeling that tonight's 31st pick and what they will do has a similar air about it. We'll see.
Makes sense they picked him for shooting and his processing speed, you gotta be smart to play with Scottie Barnes.
As long he likes it here I love him on the roster