Who Plays More?! Predicting how some key Toronto Raptors position battles will shake out in 2024-25

Who Plays More?! Predicting how some key Toronto Raptors position battles will shake out in 2024-25

on your Thursday episode of Locked on Raptors we ask a very simple question and we do it a whole bunch of times who plays more you are locked on Raptors your daily Toronto Raptors podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every [Music] day hey what’s going on and welcome to another episode of Locked on Raptors part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day I am your host Sean Woodley I’ve been covering the Toronto Raptors now for 10 seasons on various platforms you can find all my work over on the hell website at Woodley Shan and you can of course find the show on Instagram at lockon Raptors you can join the lockon Raptors Discord server as well it’s free to do baby the link is in the description of the podcast great place to come hang out talk Raptors talk off season ball Talk video games talk about stuff you’re cooking in your kitchen it’s a lovely listener family we got building around the show again it’s free to join would love to see you become part of our Discord community of course you can find the show for free wherever you get your podcast on the audio side of things follow subscribe rate review tell a friend much appreciated when you go ahead and do that you can also go to YouTube and subscribe to the lockon Raptor YouTube channel look at my mug each and every day can’t think of a better sales pitch than that so go subscribe hit the notification Bell button and you’ll get a heads up via push notification every single time the show is about to Premiere or go live which is a wonderful thing today’s episode has brought to You by Game Time download the game time app create an account use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase terms apply all right on today’s show bit of a fun little game show we’ve got lined up with our pal Jamar Hines the god of the game recap from rapers Republic we’re going to play a little game called who plays more we’ll explain the rules in a second but first we got to bring in our pal Jamar Jamar what’s going on my friend I’m doing good I made the change that I promis I put Skyler Diggins instead of D rozan so we’ll see yeah uh it seems like dear D rozan and his ties to the Toronto Raptors getting more tenuous by the day as uh he continues to tour around with Kendrick Lamar and look I can’t say I blame him very clearly Kendrick Lamar is winning this battle um we’ll leave that there for now we will get into the uh the game we got lined up for today Jamar the Raptor’s roster look it’s weird there are lots of guys fighting for spots at different positions uh we’ve gone through it half of the roster could be classified as a shooting guard if you really wanted to do so and so there’s going to be some position battles one would think some competition for minutes around the team and I wanted to spend today just kind of digging into some of those little position battles some of those fights for minutes and just simply ask who plays more between a couple of guys at a certain spot we will run through the rookies Jonathan mobo jacobe Walter Jamal shed who will play more among them them we will get into uh all kinds of positional battles but I want to start with what I think is going to be the sort of lineup conversation that dominates Our Lives between now and the start of the NBA season will surely be a big topic of conversation once there’s actually preseason games being played and we’re seeing darkar rakovich roll out lineups but number one here Jamar who plays more Bruce brown or Grady dick as the starting shooting guard for your Toronto Raptors I talked about this a little bit on Wednesday’s show uh when when I dug into who I thought would be the fifth starter with the core four that we all assume are going to start and quickly Barrett Barnes and purle I think there’s Arguments for not just Grady dick and Bruce brown but a couple other guys as well to sneak in there as the fifth starter but assuming those two guys are the leaders in the clubhouse as of right now who plays more Bruce or Grady the Bruce Brown thing is still a little bit interesting to me um we talked last time about how he responded to someone on Twitter who was basically wanting him out the door like wow you guys don’t really want me anymore huh um poor hoop Goose just caught up in this online uh Drama We Love hoop Goose he’s he started it um but and then I was also surprised at uh when he was there he was there for the quickly and Barnes conference where with their signings so it’s like he’s a part of the team at the same time when fans and myself included was just expecting him to be gone at some point so now it’s like you’re starting to come around it’s like okay maybe he actually is gonna be a part of the rotation this season which I wasn’t really expecting at the same time I still see him as a very temporary part of you know part of the team so if you’re preaching development it would only make sense for Grady dick to get more minutes um at the whether it be the well this is the shooting guard conversation but there’s even minutes for Grady to be had at the small four position but yeah for me I would personally like to see Grady get more developmental minutes as opposed to Bruce Brown who still may or may not be here that’s just my opinion because I’ve just I don’t know since the trade and since all the rumors about okay you know even it sounded for a while there that he was even campaigning himself to be on the Knicks to play with Tom tho or stuff like that it just I’ve never I’ve never really embraced Bruce as part of the team I just always saw him as somebody temporary who’s eventually going to be gone and yeah I’m still surprised it hasn’t happened yet but obviously the Raptors haven’t got the offer that they you know were looking for because they’ve tried apparently like reportedly they’ve tried but they haven’t got the offer yet so I’m just I’m still leaning towards Grady because I know Grady is going to be here for a while one of the great negotiating tactics one can use is to say we want to get rid of this guy we’re trying to trade this guy we’re going to trade this guy trade us your best stuff please uh yeah no we don’t need to relitigate the mishandling of the Bruce situation I think it is fair to say that with the benefit of heinsight with a benefit of a look at how the market transpired uh the Raptors maybe should have just declined Bruce Brown and used extra cap flexibility to go add some other players on the margins but uh we can put that one to rest for now as far as who plays more next season I agree that it probably should be Grady dick and I actually do think Grady ends up getting more starts as the two guard than Bruce Brown when all set and done I could see Bruce being the starter from day one you know I think there is at least a baked in Hope expectation maybe a little strong just because it’s hard to make trades but uh Bruce Brown I think there’s the expectation or or the belief he will be dealt by the trade deadline and so the back part of the Season should very much be Grady dicks for the taking when it comes to the starting two guard minutes and I do think just the way the Team figures to be assembled I like Bruce’s element off of the bench more than I like it with the starters as someone who is at best a fine three-point shooter that defenses don’t really care about um I think Grady dick has legitimate gravity and will continue to become more of a guy who draws the attention of defenses as he gets more of his feet wet in the NBA and I think playing off of better players this is always going to be where gry dick is at his best because that’s the type of player he is he’s an amplifier and other players of high Talent are going to amplify him because of the attention they draw and so I think it makes a lot of sense for the starting group to have Grady dick in there I cited yesterday the number I’ve cited a lot one of the only positive numbers from this past Raptor season which was the starting lineup with Gary Trent Jr in there was a plus 12 near just just about per 100% sessions as the second most used lineup for the team Grady dick kind of has similar gr Gary Trent Jr Vibes in terms of yeah not great defense but lots of shooting and I think more Dynamic shooting than Trent and so I think that makes sense and I also think Bruce Brown has a chance to actually make an impact Off the Bench I think a thing I would love to see the Raptors do more with him Jamar is deploy him as that sort of screening short roll guy in the way he’s been used effectively in the past playing with good players I think with Kelly oin and the benefit of his spacing not to say that Bruce Brown is going to be your quote unquote backup center but because there’s not really a backup center on this team I could see a way by which you kind of get value out of Bruce Brown get production out of Bruce Brown to be on offense essentially using him as your five with space all around him to take advantage of his floaters his playmaking from the short rle uh and his work out of the nail I I I think that might be a way to get the most of him I I think we should have seen more of that last year I I feel like I recall Bruce Brown being like a short roll guy for the very first game he played for the Raptors and then never really went back to it I think that’s a way to get the most out of him and so yeah I think Grady as the starting shooting guard is going to get more run than Bruce just because it makes basketball sense do you have any other thoughts on the best usage of Bruce Brown before we move on to some more who’s gonna play more situations yeah regarding Bruce and short roles he did do a lot of that in Brooklyn I do remember that and I’m just curious do you think that Bruce has to rebuild his trade value a little bit per se or do you think that you know I mean like he’s he was only with the Raptors for half a season do you think it’s it’s pretty much the same as it was before I struggle with this one because I don’t think front offices will look at the back part of last year’s season for Bruce Brown to be like oh he’s cooked he’s terrible like we’re still a year removed from him playing leverage minutes in the finals closing games for the Champions he literally had the go-ahead basket in that game five to win the championship the Pascal SE AUM bucket for the Nuggets yes um yeah I think that is the you know I think the League wide sort of understanding of what Bruce Brown is is probably a little higher than what Raptor fans think about him frankly I think Raptor fans have kind of wildly undervalued Bruce Brown and sort of missed the force for the trees a little bit with him because because of the way last year finished and that’s not to say he’s a great player it’s not to say that because his salary is $23 million that he’s not going to be hard to move and get some real return back but I I think you know he plays decently well the Raptors find a way to deploy him in this system there will be a team out there that says hey we’re a Bruce Brown away let’s go do it let’s send some salaries back and and make this happen I think the Lakers are a pretty obvious candidate with the D’Angelo Russell contract and the Jared Vanderbilt contract and whatever picks they might have to to throw at the door um you know a couple young players in Max Christie and Jaylen Hood chafino could be in that mix as well um even though it’s hard to make all the math work with the Lakers being so close to the first apron but uh yeah I I I think it’s a you know a thing where there’s a little bit of having to recoup his value but it’s not like the the whole league looked at the back part of last season and just declared that’s the player Bruce Brown is I think they have a bit of a wider view than that when they’re evaluating players and context matters and the context for Bruce Brown last year uh sucks we’re g to come back Jamar and get into a few more of these who’s going to play more situations including Jonathan mobo or jacobe Walter both draft picks of the Raptors one a first rounder one a second rounder who’s going to play more we’ll get to that coming up in just one sec today’s episode’s brought to you by friends over at game time the single best place to buy tickets for the sporting events you want to go to and right now baseball season is in full swing and game time is an authorized ticket ticket Marketplace of Major League Baseball which makes getting tickets faster and easier with killer last minute deals all in prices if use from your seat and they’re lowest price guarantee game time takes the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets uh you know obviously the Blue Jays going strong and playing lots of games losing lots of games but that means the tickets might be a little more affordable you can go and get yourself some tickets and get yourself a little discount when you use the code lock in NBA at checkout when you go and buy tickets for the Toronto Blue Jays of course maybe you want to travel abroad maybe you want to drive down for a little base ball trip go check out uh Camden Yards in Baltimore or take a trip to Yankee Stadium or drive to Detroit the beautiful cica Park oh man that park rules maybe you want to go there you can buy tickets there as well get views from your seat if you’ve never been there before so you know exactly what you’re getting into it’s all there on the game time app Go download game time today create an account use the code lock in NBA for $20 off your first purchase and take the guest work out of buying MLB tickets terms apply again create an account redeem the code lock in NBA for $20 off download game time today last tickets lowest price guaranteed back at it here with Jamar Hines from Raptors Republic the god of the game recap who uh will have hopefully some Summer League games to recap very very soon and we are all waiting with baited breath on those Jamar hin summer league Recaps baby those alris shamet takes fire him off baby um a reminder you can check out all of our other wonderful stuff at locked on including locked on Leafs our Pals Mike and Dave covering a wild off season 4 the Toronto map Leafs a huge pivotal season coming up have you heard this before go check out lock on Leafs Mike and Dave covering all that’s going on with the buds who uh you know make me sad all the time but that’s okay Mike and Dave are there to be my friends among the sadness okay let’s continue on asking who’s G to play more and we’re not going to go with like a positional Distinction on this one I’m just curious what you think Jonathan mobo 31st overall pick 6667 72 wingspan is going to probably get some run at the wing and I would imagine a little bit as a backup five uh jacobe Walter the 19th overall pick the first round pick who the Raptors did not think would even be there at 19 he is of course just barely going to be 20 years old when the season begins he’s a couple years younger than Jonathan mobo and he notably plays at a position where a whole lot of other guys play the position on this Raptor’s dep chart let me ask you here Jamar who plays more Jonathan mobo or jacobe Walter in their rookie Seasons with the Raptors okay so I see comparisons between Mugo and Pascal cakam as a rookie if you remember cakam this was when the Raptors drafted seak this was at a time where they had a rotating new power forward every single season and basically they were waiting for Jared Soler to come back they had Luis skola the year before and the Amir Johnson the year before that so they out of necessity they had to start to Yak him even though he wasn’t totally ready and then he went to the G League along with Fred won a championship there and then became part of the bench mob The Following Season I’m not saying M’s gonna start anything that’s what I’m saying but I feel out of necessity to begin the season he will probably get more minutes than Walter because of also Bruce Brown which we just mentioned the the glut at the kind of like the shooting guard position where Walter normally plays so I could totally see MBO getting more minutes at the beginning of the Season until the roster is a little bit more straightened out and then probably later in the season I could see Walter getting more minutes than MBO interesting depending depending on what moves they make yeah for sure um I just think mobo is straight up going to play more minutes basically start to finish than jacobe Walter I I think Walter’s a little further away from sort of what his Peak is going to be he’s just 20 years old I think 19 still on the day of the draft MO is going to be I believe 23 when the season starts or if not 23 just yet very close to it and look you know we can get into ceiling and all of that but you would assume that the 22 23 year old is going to be a little bit more ready for the NBA out of the gate than the 20-year-old who yeah uh you know had some very clear issues with his defense and has some clear development to do it’s not to say mobo doesn’t have development to do but I think he’s got a more well-rounded skill set right now and it’s a skill set and a size set that this team is badly going to need I I think he’s going to get asked to try to guard you know opposing wings and see what he can do there I think he’s going to get asked to fill in as a backup five and playing lineups next to Kelly oen playing lineups next to Scotty Barnes in the front Court just to see what he can do um it doesn’t mean that he’s going to go drive winning very few rookies ever do that and I’m not expecting that of Jonathan mobo even if I am very in on the Jonathan mobo experience and the longterm upside that he might have um but yeah I just think because of the positional glut because Walter very much feels like he needs a lot of seasoning in the G league in a way that mobo maybe doesn’t just because of his sort of mature physical frame and the skills the sort of soft ball skills he has I I think we’re going to see mobo just kind of very clearly lead the Raptors in minutes and among rookies that is and let me just sort of get even a little more bold with this okay I think Jonathan mobo finish is like top eight in minutes on the team period I think he’s going to end up being a rotation piece for this team that is not exactly trying to go and win but I think he’s going to give him the best shot in a lot of cases of just having functional size on the floor from a from a guy who they want to see something from um you know again he might probably loses those minutes because rookies lose minutes but I I think just because of the the lack of guys his size who had his defensive profile I think he’s just going to kind of be thrust into the job and you know I I I think he can perform quite well with that minutes load uh any retort or rebuttal for that no uh I pretty much agree with what you were saying and remember just last season we saw Grady do a couple stints with the G League especially like at the beginning when he was a little bit struggling with his shot and whatnot so he’s kind of had an extended run at the G league so obviously it wouldn’t be surprising to see Walter there too uh but you’ve kind of convinced me on the fact that I was thinking that maybe like you know the last couple months of the season might see Walter get more minutes to mobile but like out necessity I I actually kind of changed my mind I kind of agree with you there convincing podcast argument score one for me uh all right next one here let’s go with a bit of a one guy versus the field question Davon Mitchell uh I don’t think he’s a point guard some people do it seems like the Raptors maybe think he is a point guard so what I think matters not Davon Mitchell or anyone else as the backup point guard for this team who plays more uh you got Davon Mitchell or the field as the backup point guard for your Toronto Raptors I’m trying to rack off the top of my head who the field would be um Jamal shed is in there I would say Scotty Barnes will get some nominal point guard minutes although I’m not sure he’ll ever be out there with no other guards um and then I think Bruce Brown I guess sort of qualifies as a backup point guard in some cases yeah it’s kind of a it’s a big old nebulous mess because they don’t really have a backup point guard on the roster but someone’s got to do it I did see the conversations in the comments regarding your thoughts on Mitchell being a point guard or not so I’m not going to touch on those but I feel the Raptors are going to give him a shot there so they’re gonna they’re gonna see what he can do there and then decide based on his results whether they you know if backup point is viable for him or or to even have him as a small wing to defender or something like that I don’t know but I think I’m probably going to take Mitchell and again I think this is something to begin the season and can be changed later on but for the start of the season I think they’re going to give Mitchell that shot at the backup point to see what he can do that would be my guess obviously we’ve seen Bruce Brown able to run it and Denver we’ve seen obvious we’ve seen Scotty kind of have those transitional minutes and in the past where he didn’t really have great options to run with being backup point but I figure hey just just give Mitchell a shot see what see you gota see what you have right so yeah no for sure like if you’re GNA do the Reclamation project you should really put the project out there and see what you can get I I just think I see a lot of Mitchell playing with Emanuel quickly and I would not classify him as the point guard in that situation but that said like you know as much as I would love for Jamal Ed to walk in and just sort of be like hey I’m the backup point guard for the next 10 years deal with it uh I think it’s going to take a little bit of time if that’s going to happen and any second round pick is inherently a lottery ticket that is probably not going to cash and so I don’t know if you can go and say Jamal shed’s gonna be the backup point guard through the season next year I’d probably go Davon Mitchell I don’t think that’s great for the Raptor chances of winning bench minutes necessarily but I’m open to being surprised and um maybe a change of scenery is good for him I just think the the lack of Pull-Up shooting the fact that he actually did kind of flash some stuff as a catch and shoot guy last year and the defense I think he’s going to have to play on Twos for this team just because of the sort of lack of Defense they have in that guard rotation I I think he’s going to be more classified as a two than a point guard a lot of the time but I also don’t see anyone else racking up a ton of minutes as the backup point guard at least not until they sign Kyle Lowry on a minimum um we’ll come back on the other side Jamar and get to a few more who’s going to play Moors to wrap up the show we will do that momentarily all right back at it here closing things out with Jamar Hines from Raptors Republic a reminder locked on sports today is your all day streaming Channel on YouTube you can go subscribe to the locked on sports today 247 feed and you got lock on shows covering all the biggest stories in sports from the local experts who can only cover those stories the way that we can it locked on so go check it out put it on in the background have it be white noise have it be the thing that preoccupies your time while you’re trying to work it’s all beautiful go check out lock on sports today 247 all right couple of uh guys here Jamar who might be on the outside of the rotation looking in who may or may not be on the team for all or some of the Season we’re still waiting to hear exactly what’s going to go down with one of these guys but as it stands right now he’s on the team the Raptors are not letting him out of his contract and he is at a position where you know the Raptors could use a little bit of juice I suppose in the front Court who’s going to play more this season Chris bue or Sasha venkov who you got that’s a tough one um so the whole Sasha his enov thing he’s not going overseas as of right now and Mark deak said a a big thing on this a good NBA cap guy about how uh you know basically it’s in the Raptor’s court and if venkov is okay having all the $7 million of his deal bought out and not getting any of it um then he can leave and that’s fine but is he going to give up that money if the Raptors decide they want to do like it’s still he’s on the team he’s under contract with the Toronto Raptors whether he likes it or not as it stands right now um thing is obviously subject to change at a moment’s notice but as it stands right now it seems like venkov is going to be on the roster going into the year b is another weird one because he spent so much time last year like how many times was Darko asked about playing buet right a ton a ton in different parts of the season and then you saw over basically like the last month or so he didn’t he basically didn’t play at all we thought that this is the last we’ve seen of Chris BU as a raptor yet he’s still on the roster so um I’m I’m like doing this in them like in real time in my head I could see some sort of because I’m I’m still pretty uncertain about the whole is zenov gonna even be here period and also he’s more onedimensional where I basically he’s just as far as I know uh basically just a shooter I don’t really see much he does outside of that he didn’t really crack the Kings rotation and obviously the Kings have a better team than the Raptors did but I could see some sort of random turnaround where Cris B is in the rotation again out of necessity along with mongle as opposed to fenov getting minutes when he pretty much seems like he wants to be overseas as opposed to being in the NBA so I’m gonna lean towards the buet uh part of this which is kind of weird because he’s along with Bruce he’s another guy that fans were expecting to just be gone yet he’s still here do the Raptors lead the league in uh guys who you say your farewells to who don’t actually get traded Kyle lry this happened basically held court for an hour the day before the 2021 trade deadline only to not be traded uh Bruce Brown Chris bue they simply love to not trade guys who everyone thinks is about to get traded um I am with you I think Bush ends up playing more I think they’re just gonna need his athleticism in length and I don’t think he’s a great defender but I think he is a better Defender than Sasha venkov is and as much as venkov three-point shooting is nice I think they’re just going to get that three-point shooting from the four in the form of Kelly o and yeah and I don’t think you’re ever GNA want to be in a situation where you’re playing Kelly oin and Sasha venkov together in a front court because that will be an absolute disaster show and so I think it’s a pretty good chance fenov gets buried again because as much as this roster is like limited in certain front Court spots they do have a lot of power forwards and I think there’s a real chance he just gets kind of push down I think he’s going to lose minutes to Jonathan mobo because of the defense I think he’s going to lose minutes potentially to Chris buet because of the defense and I I I just think it’s going to be hard for him to crack the rotation as a guy who is basically a stationary three-point shooter maybe there’s more to his game he didn’t win Euroleague MVP for no reason but I don’t know if he’s gonna get a chance to really flash much more than stationary Corner shooting and because of that I think they’re just going to have other skills in the front Court they’re going to need in particular Chris bu’s offensive rebound bounding and you know three-point contesting and all that stuff I just think he does a little bit more that this team is going to be crying out for as far as you know rotational needs so yeah I’m gonna go bue over venkov and I frankly don’t think it’s gonna be close I would love to see a Chris bue Renaissance in his last year probably with the team um I think that would be a really nice fun story for him to be like a nice ninth man for this team I think it’s on the table all right couple more quick ones here who plays the most as the backup center on this team I’ve listed Kelly oen Jonathan mobo Scotty Barnes you could throw in Chris bue maybe there’s someone else I’m not thinking of who could slide in there uh but who plays more as the backup center to yakob purle if you’re calculating all of the center minutes over the course of the Season who do you got getting the most minutes of that group I just laid out I’m probably gonna go Scotty yeah because just to play some small ball minutes which he has done in the past because um I I I I think it’s going to be more likely he does that that to do a backup Point roll and I would assume he’s going to be on the qut of ton obviously so I figure he’s going to get more of those small ball big minutes than small ball Point minutes so ID pick him over the other options that would be my guess I think that’s fair I I do think when all is said and done like the cleaning the glass positional breakdown we probably have Kelly oen as the sort of nominal guy who played the most backup center but I think that will be sort of a misrepresentation of how things actually worked because I think when you have Scotty Barnes Kelly OIC lineups which I think we’ll see a lot of that was of course a big sort of staple of their bench units when they had their team together for that one month of last season um like I think Barnes is the nominal Center in those lineups I I think he is the the sort of last line of defense at the rim and I think we saw just it’s it’s not kellyo LX position anymore he cannot really hang as a five in today’s NBA he needs to have some sort of Rim protection next to him playing the four you know maybe up against sort of slower guys who aren’t the super physical beasts on the inside that a lot of centers are these days like I I think that’s like oen should be exclusively a four on this team he’ll probably get some minutes at the five just because of the lack of guys they have there but um I think Barnes is a good call I actually to go back to my Jonathan mobo belief I think you know will he get 10 minutes a game as the backup center and is that enough for him to be the leader in backup center minutes for this team I think that’s on the table I think him and o l could actually be a pretty fun second unit uh you know four five combo even with mobo being undersized he’s got the 72 Wings span he definitely plays bigger than the 66 that he’s listed at and I don’t think 66 is accurate we could do the thing where like we did with Scotty Barnes a couple years ago where we just increase his height every time we talk about him so by the time it’s October Jonathan Moo’s actually 7 foot4 um we’ll see maybe we start that bit today but um I’m going to say mobo gets more minutes as the backup center even if I think actually oin is the one who will be listed as the backup center the most I don’t think that will be how the lineups actually function in practice um let’s get to one last one here Jamar sure who plays the most who plays sorry who plays the fifth most clutch time minutes on this team we’ve talked about the starters but who closing games alongside RJ Barrett Emanuel quickley Scotty Barnes yaka purle the most uh I think there’s a few candidates here who you got as the fifth most used player in clutch minutes for your Toronto Raptors in 2024-25 this was another conversation near the end of the season where when Grady came back and we wanted to see Grady in closing lineups not obviously to space the floor but just to you know give him the experience on a team that wasn’t winning anyway to see what he could do in clutch time and he had a couple moments I remember a Hawks game where I think someone got the seal or maybe he got the seal and he had a huge layup and I think scottty Scotty even kissed him on the forehead or something like that it’s like one of the one of the few moments from last season that like good moments from last season that I can recall um I would like to see Grady be the fifth guy in those situations probably at the beginning of the Season again the Bruce Brown Grady dick conversation I feel like Bruce Brown might be that guy but eventually as the season progresses I’d like to see Grady those closing lineups I think it’s going to be Kelly oen I don’t think they’re going to start with that that lineup because I think it’s going to be important for oin to you know come in Off the Bench and offer that extra creation and whatnot and three-point shooting with what figures to be kind of a uh questionable second unit at the moment maybe something rounds into form there and you get bench mob 2.0 we’ll see but uh I think the lineup of quickley Barrett Barnes OIC and purle okay a it’s like the biggest functional lineup they can throw out there and I just think the blend of shooting and skill will make that a pretty damn good offensive group defensively it could struggle but I do think you stand the best chance of sort of insulating Alin by having purle Rim protection out there having Scotty’s helps side stuff out there it requires a lot of Scotty and RJ as individual on ball guys on Creative wings but uh I think that’s the lineup like that’s just their five best players probably right like oen is still like he’s better than dick he’s probably better than Bruce Brown at this point it’s just their best five and I could see that being the look they go to to close games now well they win many close games when this is their lineup we’ll see the defense is probably going to struggle a little bit but I think they’ll have the offensive juice to hang and if you get incremental growth or you know significant growth on defense from anybody in that group um Barnes and Barrett being the two guys I’m circling you know quickly obviously has some growth doe on that end as well but I think that is going to be their most potent lineup they can throw out when things are really on the line and that maybe suggests that this team is going to win like low 30s games and that’s fine uh I think that’s probably end of the day where they want to be regardless um any any sort of retort to that yeah yeah no that’s that I wasn’t even considering Alin to be honest but that that’s pretty fair in terms of um the versatility that he can bring on the offensive end I was just more into more again seeing that the Raptors need to develop some of their younger players I just figure that Grady should get some looks at least you know he’s gonna need that experience closing out games like we discussed last season so but yeah I can see that going either way yeah I also think there’s a world in which Davon Mitchell’s defense is needed in closing lineups and he becomes a guy in there too um yeah look they should try to win games before crunch time I guess is what I’m really saying here not a believer in their crunch time offens or defense I see I’m a Believer in the offense I don’t know if I’m a Believer in the defense just yet we got to see but uh I’m I’m very open to being proven wrong we’re gonna leave it there thank you so much for hanging out and thanks for being here Jamar as you uh you know indulged me in another one of my very silly offseason game shows do you have anything you want to promote for the good people out there that was a good game show idea though um promotion I’m finally doing some game recaps as Sean kind of teased a few minutes ago so I am going to do a recap of the first three Summer League games I believe the first one is against Oklahoma City on Saturday so I should have a recap up by Sunday and then I think they play Utah or Denver or somebody like that but yeah anyway my point is I’m G to be doing some game recaps I haven’t I’m Rusty as all hell because I haven’t done a recap in like three months that’s what happens when the Raptors go out of the or don’t even qualify for the playoffs just there’s a there’s a big big big break so yeah and try and get rid of the rust I guess for lack of a I had I had another I don’t you know whatever a great bit of self promotion from Jamar yeah yeah yeah it’s horrible on all fronts hopefully I’ll be better at my recap than promoting my recap let’s just put it that way I think that is a fair thing to Hope and expect because you are the god of the game recap for a reason you’ll shake off that rust in no time uh on the not the topic of Summer League uh I’m away on vacation next week I’m pre- canning some episodes got an episode with Parker answorth of lock on cougs uh covered Jamal shed for all four years he played for Houston that’s going to be a really good one we’ll drop that next week we’ve got a mailbag show with Katie hindle uh and some other stuff but I will have a summer league recap for the first couple of games that drops hopefully Monday morning I gotta again figure out times and all that stuff but uh at the very least you’re gonna have three or four shows to dig into W away next week they won’t be the most timely in the world outside of that summer league one after the first couple games but uh we we will have stuff for you nonetheless in the coming days as summer league ratchets up and we will of course cover it all in its totality once I’m back from vacation as well uh we’ll leave it there thank you so much for rocking with the show and for supporting it on all the audio and video platforms you can find it it’s of course for free so go do that tell a friend if they like the show too to go do those things as well I know there are more people who listen and watch to the show that we have YouTube subscribers so go subscribe if you haven’t yet please even if you don’t watch on video just give me the numbers just boost my ego please it’s very nice uh and we’re going to leave it there my basketball is behind me so I’m going to have to uh break kayab for a sec and go and get my basketball so I can definitely make this shot in front of Jamar hang on one sec Jamar Phill time te up this shot for me please build a suspense okay play bypl I see the basketball under the couch he’s going down to the couch he picks it up he goes back to the chair um he’s going over his head again and did that go in that went in that was backboarding in baby the bank’s open thanks for hanging bye-bye

In Episode 1675, Sean Woodley is joined by Jamar Hinds (Raptors Republic) to chat about the Toronto Raptors’ crowded depth chart and which players at key positions will end up playing more minutes in the 2024-25 season. Will Bruce Brown get more run as the starting two guard than Gradey Dick? Will Jonathan Mogbo or Ja’Kobe Walter lead the team in minutes played by a rookie? Will Chris Boucher or Sasha Vezenkov find themselves in the rotation? Who will get the most run at backup center between Kelly Olynyk, Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Mogbo? Will Davion Mitchell get the lion’s share of minutes at backup point guard? And who will play the fifth-most crunch time minutes behind Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl? We discuss it all on today’s show!

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