The Raptors are RE-CREATING Fred VanVleet

The Raptors are RE-CREATING Fred VanVleet

good morning and welcome to a very early edition of pire basketball live it is 8:30 a.m. we are starting almost on time hope you grab your coffee and let’s get to it we’re going to be talking about the Raptors creating or recreating Fred Van vet in the aggregate I happen to think that Fred Van vet for all the stuff that we’ve said about him on this channel a lot of the stuff that the Raptor fans feel about him and the Raptor faithful are probably happy that the current team is not paying Fred bble $42 million to be on this team I think we can all agree he was hell of a basketball player or maybe we can’t agree but hopefully by the end of this I’ll present why Fred bleet is such a valuable player type and why the Raptors probably miss him right because you can say a lot about Fred vanle the personality Fred vanet the leader but Fred Vleet the player is very effective Fred Le the player is a player that should be studied as model for analytical efficiency and more so than anything Fred vanite the player is exactly the type of point guard you need next to a Scotty Barnes plot twist I’m pretty sure he didn’t expect me to say that but it’s true um a player who guards at least in theory right the Fred Van B we got towards the you know towards Scotty’s career wasn’t exactly the Fred Van B we got in the championship run but the Fred vanet we saw 2017 to 2019 is the player that we are after here and we are going to recreate him in the aggregate using three players that are currently on the roster sounds like crazy Moneyball science but I promise you it is in theory possible okay first some housekeeping rules got a lot of emails yesterday from quite a few pissed off people a lot of DMS a lot of conversations about my last video about the Toronto media we will address it towards the end I promise it will be a coherent and respectful discussion that I think you know we’ll hopefully present both sides a little bit better than maybe I’ve characterized it second I will be on players choice at 11:00 a.m. so to those of you who don’t get enough of me uh on this channel you can definitely go check me out on players choice we’re be talking about summer league and of course the Vegas summer league is starting the Raptors going to be a really big part of Vegas summer league they are not however the only team so we’ll be talking about Vegas summer league in are more broader less Raptors Focus sense there and if you want to go check me out there I’ll be on there at 11: if you’re new around here please hit like subscribe and all that good stuff likes they cost you nothing subscribes you know they’re good for your health I don’t know you’ll live longer if you’re subscribed to pens basketball is that even factually true can I get sued for misleading you there um subscriptions go a long way to helping this video populate uh other people’s feeds they let people know that you want to be plugged in and we’re going to be doing lives after every single Summer League game every single Raptors game this season and also after every single Team Canada the game so definitely um Spencer Dixon saying I love that you called that the media it was a great video yes we did not get a lot of push back on that from the fans we definitely got a lot of push back from the media who thought they were being unfairly targeted and mischaracterized so we will discuss that towards the end so let’s talk about Fred vanley the player man this channel may have may have may have well been named Fred man Le [ __ ] takes you know the last two years we’ve talked a lot of [ __ ] about Fred vanle but I think hopefully if you’ve read through some of my frustration with Fred vbl you’ll know that part of my frustration was that I thought he was capable of so much more he is to put it lightly he is one of the smartest basketball players in the NBA if not one of the smartest basketball players I’ve ever seen in my lifetime um he has perfected whatever little you know god-given ability he had and taking it to the absolute 99th percentile outcome there are very few players that leave Less on the table in terms of development than Fred vanley what do I mean by this I mean when you take the theory of Ben Gordon or the theory of chony bips or the theory of alen Iverson or the theory of Carmelo Anthony and then you start tacking on lazy habits start tacking on bad diets start attacking on lack of coachability start attacking on injuries start attacking on um poor training poor poor skill development all of those things poor learning the game poor schematic stuff typically and this has just been my experience smaller players tend to be better basketball players uh Nick laugh saying he quite literally maxed his ceiling I completely agree and so for the the Toronto Raptors to have picked him out of the undrafted Heap developed him into an All-Star this was of course a story that the Toronto media Toronto fans literally every undersized basketball player could really latch on to you might not be surprised to know that Jamal shed Emanuel quickley and Davon Mitchell all follow Fred van bed on Instagram they all probably given that he is a little bit older than all of them probably all looked up to him as a guy you know where if he could do it I can do it and what’s interesting is that all three guards that we’re talking about here in terms of Davon Jamal shed the Raptor’s 45th overall pick this year and Emanuel quickley are bigger than fed vanley they’re all bigger than him they’re all longer than him so in theory if height and length were the thing that were standing in the way of Fred vanet at least in theory they should be able to recreate some of Fred’s success of course Fred is a very underrated athlete which is something I think that a lot of draft experts and people who passed up on him in the draft really missed because he has these really solid hands and you can’t trade that right it’s like grown man strength it’s like farmer strength you ever play basketball against a guy like Fred vanley you know that ball is not safe they’re swiping down on it you know that it’s not an easy post up I’ve played basketball games guys like Fred vany and I want to say like fred van as in like on the talent level of Fred vbl but I mean on the physical build level of Fred van and it’s a really really really long night when you play against a guy who gets up into your body that way who moves laterally that way it really is scary but what I’m GNA say may be one of the biggest controversial things about Fred Van is I don’t think he’s really a point guard I think he was a combo guard and I feel like he’s maxed out his ability to play off of a lead initiator and maybe he learned that as a six-foot guy he needed to go into more of the primary creation stuff I don’t think he’s overly Dynamic I don’t think he’s great off the dribble I don’t really think he’s a great paint finisher I don’t think his skills are best maximized as that guy I think his skills are best maximized in the role that he had at Championship you know a guy who plays off another guy unfortunately that guy just doesn’t get paid he doesn’t make all-star teams and so van B figured out that the business of basketball suggested or predicated that he go another way with his basketball Journey but that doesn’t mean that the player underneath is not still the same he’s chosen to play a way that is better for his contract which is what frustrated me because in theory a player like fedan blade is exactly what a lead Wing initiator if I could think back to Carmelo Anthony right an isolation scorer on the wing I think back to Kawhi Leonard I think to a Kevin Durant if y all remember the video I had the 10 players I wouldn’t lose if we traded for Kevin Durant seven players Fred van bed even though at the height of my victory all the games Fred van bed he was on that list because again playing off of a guy like KD you want you want a Fred B Le well you know what playing off a guy like Scotty you want a Fred b v but we don’t have Fred Van and thank God for that but we do have three players so let’s talk about those three players first let’s talk about the two players that we can compare to Fred bble next to Fred B complete now this is crafted it’s not perfect and I promise you that as the summer goes on and I have a little bit more time and I developing a little bit more time as we go you know as pendant stuff has dried up um there’s a lot of writing assignments they have been coming I have the obligations to the panel but I am finding more time during the days to do these videos I promise we’re going to get a lot deeper into the numbers and the analytics than this but just as a basic overview this is what Emanuel quickly looks like next to Davon Mitchell and Fred bamble right or what Fred bamble looks like next to Davon Mitchell and Emanuel quickley and you will see that you know perk crafted the best player on this list is still Fred bble he is very much you know uh the best uh defender of the bunch right um some people could say Hey you know like Davon Mitchell off night blah blah blah blah blah but I promise you he’s not nearly the Team Defender right now the famp Le is he’s not nearly as versatile as Fred Van is and frankly he do have the block percentage Fred vble does and that’s the crazy thing about Fred is just you know his he’s always in the right place he’s thinking the game at a level these two other guys haven’t figured out yet and that’s coming from being a student of the game offensively of course Fred is the best passer of the bunch right uh he is the best you know overall Creator in the pick and role he spams obviously you know he he he boosts his analytics in his own way and what I mean by that is he goes to his strengths a lot he’s very aware of his strengths he plays to his strengths we saw with the Houston Rockets we follow the Houston Rockets if you’re Fred vble Super Fan or maybe you’re a Turkish fan who’s a super fan of Alper and shenon you definitely saw that as the as the Rockets went further and further away from alprin shenon and Fred vble just like when the Raptors went away from Fred vble and yako purle you saw other players flourish in in place of that and obviously for the Rockets going forward it’s not fed Z bed and ALR shenon that they need to really boost up it’s Jaylen green and Jabari Smith and you know uh amen Thompson Reed Shepard they’re young players right and also obviously Al Brin good that team is exactly an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Young prospects but the larger Point here is that Fred vaned has figured out his game he knows how to get to his spots he understands where he gets his shots he understands exactly he’s figured out the muscle memory of how to throw past and he’s figured out the techniques of basketball that frankly these other guys just haven’t figured out yet but right now if I were to compare Fred Van vet to say Emanual quickle you know so far in their career this is so far in their career and honestly it’s not really really that far the real Gap is defensively but offensively Emanual quickly is ahead of the curve and you can make a case that hey Fred played on a really loaded roster he didn’t quite have the same pathes for as man quickly because that first year he kind of lost some time because he was down in the G League that’s fair Emanuel quickley did not exactly you know spend his first year red shirting in the G League Emanuel quickley is also a little a little bit younger coming into the NBA he’s not nearly as physically developed coming into the NBA he had a lot of strength issues but the overall point here is that emanuel’s a better scorer you know he’s more efficient right he’s a it’s not quite that he’s a higher volume three-point shooter per se I think because he’s playing in an era where three-point shooting is more volumous in general but the percentages are pretty close it’s 37.5% versus 39.3% I also think that aan quickley has played Just larger minutes in general like I think he’s played more consequential minutes but again per 100 possessions it really does break in Emanuel Quickly’s favor 26 points right 6.8 assists Fred has obviously got him beat in the blocks in the steals department but yeah like I mean overall like I think they are comparable players and you look at the value of a replacement man quickly is 5.7 through four years FR Vamp is a 5.1 box finus in Fred Van’s favor largely because the defensive box bonus but the offensive box binus is in Emanual quickley favor what is not up for debate right now is that definitively the upside argument is firmly in a manual quick Le’s favor 100% how tall you think for uh how tall do you think man quickley is he is 6 fo three with a 6′ near n 6′ near n wingspan it is unquestionably in his favor when you look at his shot chart I’m take take take a look at a manual quickly shot chart right it is definitely much more starlike now I want I want to put Preface on that he’s not a star he’s not a superstar he’s not whatever but it is more starlike than what you would consider you know um overall I believe it is much more of a star it’s not exactly star but generally speaking to look at it this way when you look at a shot chart if you have upside as a star you’re scoring from a lot of different places your concentration is not all one side of the floor one side of the other floor stars have to be complete stars have to have counters stars have to score in different ways SC Stars typically should be scoring a lot of their buckets unassisted right if you’re a star if you’re going to be more of a star Fred vley earlier in his career a lot of his baskets were assisted right he was a play finisher as opposed to a play driver or play Creator right he wasn’t really creating his own shots he wasn’t really breaking guys down he was feeding off the Demar and Kyle and you know Serge and you know all those guys that they had on the team that were better than him and he was just feasting right it wasn’t like he was really breaking guys off the dribble and going going in one-on-one and that’s never really been his game anyways even right now I believe van is like 59% unassisted and that’s at the peak of his powers right um but overall I think man quickle upside is better now you look at Davon Mitchell this is a role player shot this is a role player shot chart like 100% this is like role player shot shart but this is Fred Van B right Fred Van has expanded his game a lot but you can see where he’s missing is that entire floater range you know what I mean like all his game is like elbow out above the break and right underneath the basket like he’s going all the way or he’s going nowhere and that’s where I say like Emanuel quickley to me under Darko can be a better player than F anlet I really believe that it’s going to be hard for him to replicate some of the defensive upside of Fred Van I really do think Fred Van might be one of the best defenders uh in Raptor’s history and I I’m I’m really not capping when I say that he’s a really good Defender and he deserves credit for what he did on that end of the floor even though when he was compromised you know we all remember the Philly Series where he couldn’t stay in front of anybody and everyone’s picking on him yeah I get it you know but he was really really injured at that point right but Fred vanley the basketball player you know as a two-way Force really hard to replicate with one player so maybe what you do is you replicate a lot of his offensive production if not amplify his offensive production that’s think emanu quickley could be a better offensive player I think for all the work that Eman quickle is going to have to do in the picking rooll and he’s going to have to get a lot better into pick and roll because he struggled with that last year I do think that he will have a better opportunity to finish around the basket than Fred Van B ever did right just the increased length size he can dunk you know he’s got the length Advantage I think he’s going to have an easier time finishing the basket we saw a lot more of that IQ has always had the floater range stuff he’s dead deadly in the floer range so he’s got the more complete scoring package then you know he’s got to get into the lab and work with his trainer and just do like dribble counters turnarounds stuff like that get stronger right that’s the one thing Fred vanley didn’t really have to do too much of he didn’t have to get too much stronger because he came in like built like an AUX right he was a really really strong player right away and we saw that in the G League he was bullying guys and you know his first year and then we saw more and more that he continue to get stronger and stronger and so if emanel quickley continues to Trend towards being stronger I do expect him to be a much better player at 27 than he is at 2425 so I will say that but some of that pesky point of attack stick to guys Chase guys around screen stuff the Raptors gonna have to find that somewhere else and frankly they have two options to find that and that is Davon Mitchell and Jamal shed right look the cool thing about all three of these guys that the Raptors have brought in is that they all fit with Scotty right they’re all second draft guys by which I mean every single one of them was traded well sorry two of them are second draft guys one of them is actually drafted by you but I apologize Jamal shed is drafted by you 45th overall pick this year a trade Sacramento Kings right Sacramento Kings traded Jamal shed right so Sacramento really traded Jamal shed and Davon Mitchell okay IQ second draft guy right you targeted him you targeted him because he fits with Scotty ironically Davon Mitchell also fits with Scotty we saw Scotty run a lot of minutes last year with the second unit I think Davon and RJ will be a good pairing I think Scotty and Davon could also be a good pairing because he does exactly what these guys don’t do now yesterday we listened to a summer league interview with darkov rakovich obviously the team is down in summer league um they’re down in Vegas Scotty partying it up with Shaquille O’Neal if you haven’t seen that clip definitely go follow us on Instagram you’ll see it on our stories but overall I think that these two guys they talked a lot about securing at the point of attack that that sets the tone for your defense right and I fully believe that if you cannot stop at the point of attack which the Raptors really couldn’t last year right they were completely hopeless for whatever reason it was RJ giving blow buys Grady giv blow buys Scotty giv blowb everyone is just getting dusted at the point of attack right then really puts a lot of pressure on the back back line of your defense and yako purle we haven’t talked about yako purle having one of the worst seasons of his life last year because of all the injuries and because the team was such a mess but yaka purle really really underperformed and I think a lot of people in the media are just saying 25 wins 25 wins at best they’ll get 28 wins I don’t think they realize how much some some guys on this team underperformed last year including Emanuel quickle and including yaka per I think both those guys can be a lot better but ultimately if you have no point of attack defense and at The Rim you have Kelly oen you have no defense right you’re putting everybody at risk really so what you get with Jamal shed and what you get with Davon Mitchell are complete point of attack Defenders I don’t know what else they’ll be able to do I’m kind of on the record at this point I say Con on the record I’m totally on the record saying I think Jamal shed will be better than Davon Mitchell but we will see we’ll see how that plays out I really I’m starting to when I dug into the Bor tape on uh Davon Mitchell I saw a lot of stuff that I really haven’t seen translate at the NBA uh he was a pretty good isolation scorer for instance at at Baylor and I’m not sure I’m seeing a lot of that so is it just unlocking an opportunity does he have a chance or is this just kind of who he is at this point right a corner shooter who can be a pressure Defender at the point of attack I think you’ll take it either way frankly I mean it’s a bit of a better flyer than KY than Kyra Lewis last year and he has a chance to stick right he fits in with the culture he fits in with what you’re trying to do what you’re trying to build and you know he talked about it as well like him him getting up pressuring the ball is going to make other people want to do that too defense is infectious you know when guys are just leaking at the point of attack everyone becomes a little bit lazy when guys are really pressuring up and getting up full cord and really bringing energy on that end it really does Infuse some energy to your wings and maybe it gets RJ jumping and he gets Scotty you know motivated you’ll often see Scotty sometimes take on that almost impossible task of picking guys up uh 94 ft which is something he’s been doing since youth level but at the NBA level it’s a little bit harder for an athlete of his size to do that consistently without surrendering blow buys at the half court and so I do think that getting these point of attack Defenders will put Scotty in a more comfortable role for himself which is a little bit in the lower third of the defense offensively of course having Davon Mitchell you know hopefully his shooting translates now we need to get the volume up in fact whether we’re talking Davon whether we’re talking Jamal shed whether we’re talking Manuel quickley that volume has to jump because really right now the gap between you know Emanuel quickly and Fred Van vet is volume look at Fred vampy’s volume above the break this is Fred vampy shot chart just focus to the top part look at how many threes this guy takes man this is like this crazy and then compare that to Emanuel quickly right like this is what makes Fred Van B so valuable it it’s not okay fine he doesn’t shoot well well around the basket fine we get that right but look at the value you provide above the break in terms of providing space now why are these players are this player type so great with Scotty well Scotty is a really good initiator but he’s not a great primary initiator at this point until his handle gets a lot more Dynamic if it ever gets more Dynamic I’m not going to going to count it out but hopefully he gets more Dynamic at this level it’s probably best that he split point guard duties with somebody else right and honestly that’s where Kyle Lowry was best as well right I mean it was Kyle and dear it was dear sometimes initiating Kyle sometimes initiating you know Kyle and and Fred you know what I mean it helps to have two you don’t need to have Chris Paul and Jason kid on this team you don’t have a Chris Paul or Jason kid on this team you don’t have that one guy who’s like a ball handling Maestro where he needs to milk all possessions you don’t have a Luca donic on this team but I do believe that if you create enough space around Scotty that he could become Luca light or Luca like or Luca light on this offense right because again what space provides right I want you to imagine that Scotty is just going one-on-one against Alex Caruso now we’ve seen this we’ve seen Scotty go one-on-one against Alas cuso and dust him and go past him and dunk all over him right you remember that we remember that highlight I want you to imagine Scotty going one-on-one against Pascal seak right or literally you could list about 99% of players in this league are going to have a really difficult time stopping Scotty Barnes oneon-one okay yeah the quickness is not the greatest and the burst is not conventional and maybe the the handle is not hot sauce and maybe the shot package is not as sexy looking as somebody more dynamic or more naturally fitted for that role but I’ll tell you that at some point he’s going to score right it’s going to get clunky it’s going to be a lot of bump bump you know maybe it’ll be you know a couple counters and then he’s going to score and as that jump shot gets better and better you’re going to have to you’re going to have to give him less and less space because this really does work on a string right just defense works on a string offense works on a string it’s the same thing it’s a domino effect if you can’t shoot they back off and then you have less space to drive where you have more space to cover on your first step which means your first step isn’t going to get you free then you got to go into this bump bump bump stuff and then they’re going to send a double on you now that’s never a problem for Scotty Barnes because he can just spray it to Shooters and he can find Cutters Davon Mitchell is a good cutter Emanuel quickley in my opinion will be a good cutter this year I don’t know if he’s been a good cutter usually but Davon Mitchell has been and I think Jamal shed’s a pretty good cutter so you have guys who can play off of him who can keep defenses honest away from him and who can also do the one thing on defense that I believe he has trouble with which is point of attack defense and Screen navigation I mean obviously we have seen him navigate screens well and I think Scotty gets a little bit underrated defensively because people just keep poking holes of what he can’t do defensively so they miss all the great stuff he does do defensively I really think Scotty can make a couple of all defense teams he’s that good defensively but you have to put him in the right place and you have to give him the right matchups Scotty Barnes on Jason Tatum is a really good matchup okay it’s a great matchup Scotty Barnes on Steph Curry is a pretty damn good matchup and Steph is going to have a really long night with that matchup it’s going to be really shitty for Scotty because his legs are going to be tired on offense and maybe you need to preserve that a little bit but that’s what I’m saying but Scotty Barnes on John marant Scotty Barnes on dearen Fox these are the matchups that people really point to and say oh that’s why he can’t do that well cheat sheat nobody can do that right Scotty’s got to learn to trust his length a little bit on those matchups if he gets crossmatch but he really is one of the best defenders in the league and I don’t think he gets enough credit for his defense and and really like as much as you want to poke holes that oh he can’t do this and he can’t do that whatever like look at all the things he can do defensively he don’t he’s not on he’s not at a disadvantage against anybody really like you put embiid on him he’s in a better position than 99.9% of small forwards in the league 99% small forwards in the league there’s like maybe one or two small forwards who can guard and beat better than he can right so it’s like I look at the full package of Scotty as a Defender and I say man good coaching will find a way to put this guy into a position to be very successful this building by aggregate thing I think it’s something that the Raptors have obviously explored I think they’re familiar with the fact that they have a player type that works with Scotty and really that player type is a player who can sort of Bounce away from him we’ve seen stretches of strength with him and Armani Brooks we’ve seen stretches of positive play between him and Fred Van specifically in the rookie season in his rookie season when you know seak was injured for I think the first seven or 11 games and Fred and Scotty were great I think it was like seven and four they started out the season without seak and it was largely because those two just had instant basketball chemistry it was great and so you really do want this sort of like co- Co ball handler stuff I think another player that would have been great for Scotty would be like a guy like Damen Lillard which is why I was like at least on board with the idea of trading for Dame back when it was possible because again like you want to create space for this guy to attack because he’s not necessarily as quick as you know I mean to put it lightly he’s not as quick as Anthony Edwards right and he’s not nearly as Dynamic with the basketball as someone like lamelo ball and so what you need to do is you need to give him the maximum advantage to milk his matchup before they can send a double and then you need to create space so that his angles are wider and so the defense has a longer way to recover right when when you create space it becomes very hard to double team right it becomes very very hard to cheat it’s hard to send a double and frankly oneon-one I don’t think there’s a defender in the league that can outright cut off Scotty you know what I mean like sometimes you get for van in a matchup and it’s like he can’t score in this matchup for Pascal SE yakum I think there are matchups for Pascal seak where I’m like I don’t think he can score in this matchup right it’s like he’ll have a really really tough time generating offense above of you know 70 against certain matchups right he’ll have to match he’ll have to miss match hunt he’ll have to ask for a screen to get the guy off of him or whatever right but with Scotty really the problem is speed right speed and Pace if you remember and this is an early early example if y’all remember the fourth quarter he had against Brooklyn if you remember Ben Simmons KD he talking [ __ ] to KD he scores crazy number of points in the fourth quarter if y’all remember that for whatever reason whether it was Pride ignorance or just ego the Brooklyn Nets decided to guard Scotty Barnes like he was Damen Lillard they were guarding him at the logo and he was just getting past Ben Simmons and everyone else was just getting out of the way they put four Shooters on the court with him Nick nurse bless his heart wherever he is right now Philadelphia and Scotty just got downhill and it was just over and over and it was relentless and it was against some good Defenders there was Nick claxon there was Ben Simmons there was Kevin Durant none of those guys are schops on defense I just made up word schops schleps uh what word am I looking for none of those guys are schy is that a word or whatever all right what I’m saying is if you give him space to operate he’s going to have a great he’s going to have a great time operating um in that space and he’s going to have an easier time scoring and it’s going to offset some of his weaknesses and it’s going to accentuate some of his strengths and I do think that at some point we need to talk about how much space yakob Purtle is taking away and how much space he’s giving back because yakob is not some sort of you know stationary you know postup big like J Lo for and he’s not stupid you know like certain other basketball players who just signed with certain other teams you know he’s not a player who’s ignorant when it comes to the game of basketball he knows how to get out of the way he knows how to screen and set away and then he knows how to he kns he knows how to keep his he he knows how to keep his Defender occupied but nevertheless he cannot keep his Defender occupied to the level of uh nicoa vuich or you know any basically any stretch big and so it kind of puts the Raptors in the vicarious situation because really the only rim protector you have and frankly you’re going to need some Rim protection here right the only Elite rim protector you I don’t want say Elite but only above average rim protector you have is a complete non-shooter and I think that as much as yakob is able to attack space and he is able to keep moving and he’s a great screen Setter and he’s able to sort of attack the space that the defense leaves him so when the defender completely cheats off he’s like able to score in that 12 foot area I don’t think that long term when the Raptors do win that Scotty will will be without a stretch big I think at some point you’re going to need to I don’t know either draft one develop one you know some thing like a m Turner prototype where you know you have the shot blocking you have the rim defense you maybe make up for the rebounding in aggregate or by committee right because you’re going to have some big Playmakers like Grady who are pretty good def defensive rebounders rg’s a good rebounder Scotty’s a good rebounder they can gang rebound they can help maybe a weak rebounding Center but they’re not to be able to make up for a complete you know um non-shop blocker like a Kelly linic at the five but it’ll be interesting to see how Scotty fits in with the five sorry at the three spot or the two spot or the four spot with the second unit because I do think the second unit is very optimized to him especially if that second unit includes Davon Mitchell plus Grady dick now if it doesn’t include Grady dick and Davon Mitchell probably include jacobe Walter and Davon Mitchell in either case this is a better synergistic fit basketball-wise than Jaylen McDaniels and Jordan wara right and so yeah like you have Cutters like you have a cutter like Bruce Brown you have a cutter like Davon Mitchell you have guys who can sort of pressure on the ball you have guys who are moving targets they’re smart basketball players and you have movement Shooters jacobe Walter Grady dick Emanuel quickley like this is what you need around Scotty Barnes so there everything is built around Scotty But ultimately if you could without the ego without the contract without to bet on yourself [ __ ] if you could just put Prime Fred lead I’m talking 2019 2020 2019 2021 that area Fred vany Allstar Fred vany if you could put that player and he buys in if you could build that player on this roster this roster is a playoff team that’s how far it is that’s the gap between a man quickley and and you know uh Fred vanley Prime and so Manu quickley and Davon Mitchell if they can together or manual your ball shed over time if they can together in aggregate build that up so to the point where Emanuel quickle becomes so great offensively that some of his defensive limitations and you know shortcomings on that area are not as glaring and then maybe Davon Mitchell can just hold water offensively and his defense is so overwhelming that the 20 to 22 minutes he does play or Jamal shed for that matter the 20 to 22 minutes they do play that the point of attack defense is so great that it kind of offsets some of that then by aggregate at the point guard position you will together create Fred vanet for 48 minutes and that would be a very very good outcome for Scotty Barnes and RJ Barrett because again I think Fred vanle is very very good for players of that sort um let’s get to 22 comments here um zerm saying you are using schle correctly oh thank God uh Bryce Lawson saying is venkov even on the team he is but he is not down in Vegas this feels like a nice stream at a reasonable time great for breakfast says osar osar Sanchez sure um thank you um um what are you eating for breakfast uh Captain cameral loock saying dick will be a good cutter venkov is a good cutter for someone with negative hops I agree Sasha venkov is also a really big part of this if he decides to buy into it um Daniel Harris uh just hopping on this live hell yeah Fred vanan Fleet uh it’s Vleet is being reincarnated Visa V 2024 draft off season Davon has a chance for sure hopefully he can seize the opportunity says Brutus Sparkles um yeah I hope so too he’s 25 years old so this is really put up or shut up time for him for sure um Roberto with the beautiful hairline in his old age bro I don’t think I’m even older than you am I I’m not that old um Brock CA saying good morning I also think dear and Kyle made a big difference in the making of the bench mob I completely agree um Casey uh crucial fact saying we need Lowry on the bench to help these guys well unfortunately KY Lowry just signed with the Philadelphia 76ers for what will be his 19th season Lance saying Davon talked about bringing this sort of leadership to your thing to sorry Davon talks about bringing a sort of leadership to the team do you think he’s going to pull a schroer absolutely not Davon Mitchell is not a culture killer I promise you that I’ve talked to a lot of people covered him for a long time talked to someone who covered him at Baylor just a couple of weeks ago um he’s a he’s a very very good person and a very good team Builder and uh you know Leo my boy Leo who covers the Sacramento Kings he’s talked very very glowingly about him he was never negative about him at some point he did I I think he agreed that the king shouldn’t have drafted him ninth but really no one’s ever said anything like that about Davon ever and you know I had a completely opposite opinion of Dennis schroer so look I may have concerns about Davon Mitchell the player but Davon Mitchell the person is kickass man um I don’t get those Dennis Vibes at all from daveon he even mentioned coming off the bench and his voice well yes he is definitely coming off the bench um Nick laugh saying I’m curious to see how brenon Carson turns out well you will see tomorrow and um okay let’s talk about let’s talk about the last live because I mean I don’t want to make this super long people have said a lot of people have said they really really like the long lives but I think for an early morning live this is probably a good place to partition and parse away from this Davon and Fred vble and Emanuel quickly talk which probably could have been summed up in 15 minutes I just rambled on for 38 minutes for no reason um let’s talk about you know all the emails and stuff now I felt kind of overwhelmed frankly by the response I didn’t really think that my last live was out of pocket um but without completely you know maybe sometimes when you speak off the cuff you do realize that you say something that may seem a little irresponsible and did I sort of inadvertently but completely totally implied that the Toronto media has a bit of a racial bias yeah I did I did and some people reached out to me and they said hey that’s not true I have a friend who’s black that whole thing let me try to be fair about this in my last live I presented that there could be three options as to why the Toronto media covers Scotty Barnes the way they do right and I left a couple off the TBL let me include those as well to be completely Fair the three I included were number one anchoring bias number two was scy didn’t play politics number three was a cultural bias towards him being from West Palm Beach and talking a certain way looking a certain way dressing a certain way being a certain way trying to be himself is not really about West Palm Beach obviously um you know I can tell you right now Jonathan mobo is going to get perfect perfect grades from the Tonto media look at how he talks right and man if you know you know and if you don’t know don’t bother right but you get my drift right Jonathan mobo is a very very Wells spoken extremely articulate person and I don’t think that your ability to articulate your thoughts should necessarily be held against you because not all of us are Communications majors and not all of us communicate the same way and not all of us feel comfortable communicating with the same people because frankly let me tell you something I seen Scotty Barnes given an interview when he was 16 years old and be very very articulate with that person but that person wasn’t Josh Bloomberg and that person isn’t Aaron Rose and that person isn’t Michael gra frankly you know different show for different folks I I I think I agree uh I think I would tell you that most people feel a little bit differently talking to different people depending on who you’re talking to you’re going to be a little bit more articulate a little bit more open a little bit more friendly with certain people over others right if you know if Scotty Barn’s had a difficulty talking to his teammates maybe I feel a little bit differently about it but Scotty Barn’s having a difficulty giving a quote to Josh lenberg that he can print doesn’t bother me doesn’t I don’t care about that but let me present options four and five option four there has always been a bit of a a I don’t want to say disdain but a lack of favoritism towards lottery picks High lottery picks in general right Andrea barani was not black you know he was Italian but he was kind of crucified by this media space as well they called him all sorts of stuff because he was the first overall pick right they didn’t see him as a hard worker they didn’t bring him as a they didn’t see him as a lunch paale guy and almost like certainly you know to this day this culture and this you know fan base and not really this fan base but really the city has identified as blue collar for whatever reason like there is uh I hate to plug the Tron star ever in my life but I will say one thing there was a fantastic article which links to a one and a half hour um it’s almost like a podcast with Bruce Arthur and Dave fesik right it’s interesting to read it’s sorry interesting to listen to and they talk about everything they talk about the Richard Patty era they talk about them Wiki they talk about him being a Carnival Barker they talk about you know the Shanahan era you know with the Leafs and they talk about uh the Messi ujui stuff and they really talk about where Trona Sports is right now and how all of this ties together with how they cover the Raptors and how they feel about the Raptors and of course you know overdrive TSN overdrive can we really feel upset that TSN overdrive has a negative opinion of Scotty Barnes no you know because let’s talk about the fifth thing is that this is a very um this media space is very old school and old school is um oriented in uh you know the pension fund that mentality okay there’s a mentality in this city now I want you to ask yourself a question have you ever in your life heard of somebody come from another country to another country and ask people in that country to believe in themselves believe in yourselves believe in your city why do you think messery had to say that why if you already believed in yourselves if this was New York he wouldn’t have to tell you to believe in yourself if this was Los Angeles he would have to tell you to believe in yourselves the Lakers fans think everyone wants to come there even though everyone basically opted not to come there Nick’s fans think it’s the greatest thing in the world to be Nick but Toronto Raptor fans unfortunately and Tron Leafs I say Leafs fans but just Canadian sports fans General have an inferiority complex and I think everyone everyone has kind of picked up on it every American who’s come here has sort of brushed into it at some point because you’re immediately asked how do you feel about Toronto do you like Toronto what does it remind you of is it okay are you happy here are you going to leave us and it’s sort of like a weird insecurity and typically it is the lottery picks that leave right it is the Florida based lottery picks that leave it’s the Tracy mcgr and the Vince Carters and frankly maybe there’s a bit of pain there that people like Scotty typically High Lottery picks don’t stick around for long American you know High lottery picks don’t stick around for long and so you’re going to get a lot more favoritism towards an RJ Barrett because he is going to stick around for long he doesn’t get covered like a lottery pick who’s a brat no you know he gets covered like a lottery pick who’s a HomeTown hero right and Kelly o Linx is gonna get a lot of love from this media space right and Jamal shed’s GNA get a lot of love because he’s you know an underdogg they can they can root for that right Jamal Jamal shed and you know Josh lenberg can almost see Jamal shed’s eyes right he’s just like looking up at him he’s like oh great you know this guy this guy I’ll root for this guy right so jabal shed and Davon Mitchell and maybe even to lesser lesser extent but maybe to some extent you know someone like Jonathan mobo and Emanuel quickley and all the PE players that I just mentioned well apart from Kelly linck are black so it’s not a black thing necessarily it’s not necessarily an American thing it’s just more like an American athlete who you know we perceive CE ceive as being not super blue collar right and it didn’t matter that Scotty bars wore chrisy stclair Jersey it doesn’t matter that he we in Edmonton Oilers Jersey or Vancouver Canuck Jersey or that he Embraces Canada or that he goes to Leaf Games it doesn’t matter to these guys doesn’t matter that he he’s you know showing up to the Dugout and the Blue Jays and riding a scooter around Toronto none of these things endear him to these guys for whatever reason because they made up their mind for whatever reason that he is not like us he’s not like us that’s really what it comes down to I think that’s what it comes down to so I was reached out to a lot of people by in the Toronto media and then you know four or five you know different people reached out and they said hey this is really unfair and you’re being really mean and blah blah blah we’re really good people and I thought to myself these guys don’t even know what they’re doing you know I’m forming these guys as like big bad wolves and you know like they’re they’ve got some nefarious you know calculated you know plan to destroy Scotty’s career and really that’s not even the case they’re they’re just they’re they’re just bad at their jobs and they have really poor self-reflection and they really don’t understand basketball as well as they think they do and you know they have they have to occupy the space that they do and so to them I say you know if I’ve come at you super super strong and have asked you to lose your jobs lose your things and I sort of you know but definitely suggested that you be doing s favors on the side of the street because you wouldn’t be able to make sponsors I think that is probably crossing a line on my on my end so my bad I promised that I wouldn’t be negative with this Channel and hopefully you know that’s the end of it it pissed me off to see the the overdrive stuff with Scotty’s you know leadership being questioned but honestly you know whatever it’s fine question it all you want it’s not going to make him a worse leader it’s not anything that’s going to make you know a dent or a difference in anything you know um but yeah I figured yeah I don’t know I do not trust the Trona media this coming from K Korean dude halfway across the world Joshua does not know what he’s doing that’s you know it’s funny my girlfriend and I were just watching the episode of Friends Josh Joshua so it’s funny that you call Josh lenberg Joshua lenberg that’s hilarious all right um I wonder if we can get Ingram for a few firsts and either purle or brown um You probably but almost Ely could get Brandon Ingram for yaka purle for a few firsts yes a few firsts can get you a lot of things in the NBA I personally would like to see the Raptors uh move away from Trading away first at least unless it’s for something really really that fits Cameron Johnson uh Lori marinin and I would like to see them go into the accumulation mode of trying to rack up 30 2031 draft picks so anyways to those of you who are paying attention to the beginning 11:00 a.m. I will be on the panel definitely check it out on players choice uh to those of you who know yeah it’s it’s going to be a cool hang I’m sure chilltown who will be there chilltown had a lot of really nice things to say about the shron of raptors the other day uh there’s a bit of a viral a viral video of him going around talking about the Raptors being the best development team and him being really excited for man quickly I thought that was super cool um it’s nice to see a little bit of raptor coverage coming from the panel and um you know those guys are solid so anyways I’ll see y’all on the panel at 11 and then I will definitely 100% see you tomorrow after the game I am really looking forward to Vegas summer league for a million reasons uh I think that it’ll be really good to see these players um you know seeing them all in Vegas at the you know at the ballroom that they set it up um okay I’m sorry I cannot read this language I cannot read your name out I wish I could probably something to put on my bucket list what do you think of Cooper flag after his play against the US national team he definitely seems quite talented for being 17 or 18 years old I don’t put a lot of stock into um scrimmages in general because one side may be going a lot harder than another side and obviously Cooper flag is a very physically developed and very athletic big player right so him you know scoring you know 15 18 points as a you know like college freshman right now doesn’t surprise me at all if you had put a Kobe Bryant at the same age uh he would do more damage than Cooper is doing right now that doesn’t mean that Cooper’s not amazing I think he’s a little bit overrated though but we’ll see you know there are people saying that he’s going to be the best player in college basketball wow if that happens holy [ __ ] then he should be the first overall pick and he should be you know by he will be the first overall pick there’s a lot of marketing that goes into this play player personally having watched them both a lot now and believe me like if the Raptor season goes the way that I think it’s going to go and I’m starting to warm myself up especially when I hear about Grady dick starting and you know unless Grady dick has taken a massive step up he is years away from being a good starter in the NBA and so I will say this if Grady dick starts and next to RJ Barrett on the wing with Emanual quickly at the point of attack and saying damn you could read Korean no I can’t I wish I could but I can’t um what is it saying yeah if if if that’s your starting five and yakob purle isn’t completely bought in or dialed in or whatever we really don’t know where yakob is in the world right now but wherever he is you know hope he’s having a great summer but he is not with the team right now so if he’s not completely dialed in and bought in he really is your only hope to being a playoff team this year in my opinion yaka Perle is the balance right sounds crazy to say right because he’s not a superstar or anything like that but it’s just because you don’t have another one of him right so everyone else can do a great job but if he decides to just not be himself this year for whatever reason I mean he’s also approaching year 29 in his career this is where a lot of big start to tail off a little bit so I don’t know man I think this season could go south real fast but I also think you know you got to try right like my I think what was my low side I think 32 wins was the lowest I think it could be and then I think 44 was the highest I think it could be something like that I’m going to lock it in before the season because obviously I need to see what these guys look like in training camp and whatnot but yeah I mean look Scotty’s coming out to win clearly right he’s got a lot on the line he’s got $41 million on the line for making all NBA and I think that that should be a very powerful motivation if not winning is is a really powerful motivation I do think that you know we didn’t talk about it in this channel yet but let’s talk about this sort of disjointed but Emanuel Quickly’s contract coming in at 32.5 million instead of 35 I would like to scrub the internet clean of my initial reaction to this contract because every new detail that we get about his contract makes me feel 100% better about his contract first of all the contract being flat means that look everything has to be judged as a percentage of the cap I promise you if you look at these numbers in isolation without thinking about it you’re always going to think they’re over they’re always going to look B they’re they’re going to look too big because you’re comparing them to some contract that was signed six years ago right um Nick laugh saying flat flat contract flat contract chef’s kiss I completely agree this means that you’re going to pay a premium early and you’re going to get a massive discount late in theory again in theory it may go the other way we don’t know prospects develop in weird ways sometimes people fall off in Theory Emanuel quickley should be worth about 22 to $24 million next year in theory he will be paid 32.5 with the 2.5 as an incentives and I don’t know if I think Blake said it was unlikely incentives so he will be $10 million technically underpaid sorry overpaid next year sorry no $8 million overpaid next year and then the next year if he continues to get better and better and better he will slowly move towards being fairly paid or relatively close to fairly paid by the middle of his contract what’s important for us as rapid fans obviously fans of the team and wanting them to have a clear chart course in terms of you know rebuilding is that the parts of his contract where he is quote unquote unfairly paid or overpaid Scotty will be underpaid Grady will be under paid when both Scotty and Grady will be fairly paid Emanual quickly will become either underpaid or fairly paid so his contract is being kind of like his contract kind of goes like this and there contract goes like this and you sort of intersect in the middle and you have that perfect you know uh balance throughout your roster right this would be like I don’t know having a really old player on your roster sign a descending contract and have a really young player on your cont on your roster sign an ascending contract so that they basically count cancel each other out it’s a little bit like that um B saying 32.5 million for IQ isn’t too bad see here’s the thing it’s not even the 32.5 it’s the fact that it’s flat because the cap is going up every single year right so that’s why we’re not fing in every single year these contracts that these rookies are signing right they’re going to go up and up and up and up right every single year we’re seeing it right even the gap between Tyrese Maxi and you know Emanuel quickley that year and Scotty’s year is a little bit higher right so when you factor in the type of extensions that I don’t know who would be good example amen Thompson Grady dick when you see the extensions that these guys sign they’re going to be even higher because they’re gonna they’re going to factor into the new CBA they’re going to factor in for the cap that year and so as those contracts get higher contracts like long-term contracts they Manu quickly are going to get cheaper by default and so in theory right now right you could argue that manual quickly is okay just I don’t have the numbers in front of me so let me just make a guess that he’s going to be like the 13th or 14th highest paid point guard this year right and he’ll be probably unless he gets way better the 18th best point guard in the NBA by the end end of it he could be the 20th best 20th highest paid point guard and he could be a top 10 point guard so you’ll receive value at the opposite end of the spectrum and by the way you’re not contending right now so where you’ll really need value is later on in this deal also worth noting he becomes a very very enticing trade asset in year three largely because he’ll have two years left under team control and he’ll be underpaid so if you ever decide to move off of him he will be an extremely movable contract in years three and four um so again Emanuel quickly is just I mean I’m I’m not thrilled about the contract obviously I’d be much happier at 2728 as uh you know as um B is saying here but um B saying saw on Twitter he’s 14th highest paid point guard based on annual average currently exactly but as I said as those new contracts filter in as scoot Henderson signs his extension Shaden sharp signs his extension etc etc um again that contract will look cheaper and cheaper and cheaper because it’s flat it doesn’t keep going up so it’s there’s going to be no point in which you’re going to be paying a man quickly 39 million dollar that’s never going to happen right and again I would love to know what these unlikely incentives are are they you know winning a championship is it whatever I think the other part of this that’s worth noting for people who are not as familiar with the CBA is that for the purposes of the apron your unlikely incentives count towards the apron so it is a little bit like he’s being paid 35 even though he’s not getting paid 35 at the end of the year obviously you won’t pay the you won’t pay the luxury tax right because if you don’t pay it but for the purposes of the the apron the second apron first apron his contract counts as 35 all right that’s enough rambling from me cleared up a lot of topics hopefully it was a insightful listen for you thank you to the near 200 of you who’ve been here in the morning it’s uncharacteristic of us to do to do lives in the morning but I really do appreciate it because I think I stammer a lot less the internet connection was not stupid today because the last two lives has been really really shaky and uh I like doing these things in the morning even though I spent most of the night up for um you know doing some work but yeah I’ll talk to youall later and definitely check us out tomorrow for Vegas Summer League believe the Tron Raptors start out the season against who are they starting out against I believe it is where is the summer league schedule do I not have it here I moved it I think it’s against the thunder so anyways it’s going to be really really fun to watch that and I’m really looking forward to seeing uh Jonathan mobo and he’s been talking a lot like a lot of you know positive smack and you know summer league uh don’t don’t stress out Don’t Panic if you know one of the wings or UL shamay looks totally terrible and please don’t overreact if UL shamay or you know Jonathan mobile scored 20 points or something like that either it do a guards lead though summer league is always going to be based on guards and guard play and so you know hopefully Jamal Shad is not selfish you know with the basketball but I mean I’ll be curious to see Grady and oai right those are the two guys they are the older guys on the roster if you look at the Toronto Raptors roster there’s an interesting fact about it that I think I should mention as the final fact before I go maybe this will earn your sub the CH Raptor Championship season they had zero lottery picks this year’s roster which is projected to be one of the worst teams in the league by most analyst pundits Vegas has seven lottery picks so seven lottery picks and possibly one more on the way but two of those lottery picks are playing in summer league well at least two of those guys and that’s oai and Grady and hopefully they look too good for it I’ll talk to youall later bye

The Toronto Raptors have a secret and no one realizes it. Fred VanVleet was almost absolutely the ideal teammate to a Scottie Barnes-like player. Sadly, it never quite gelled and the timeline and chemistry was off, but a deep shooting, competent playmaker like Fred who could in theory be a super plus defender and navigate the point of attack when healthy was the optimal sidekick to any wing creator-be it Siakam, be it Barnes, be it Kawhi, be it KD. Fred’s value is felt in his absence, as a struggling Dennis Schroder could barely hold the team above .500, and of course, a new-to-the-primary-position Immanual Quickley had his own challenges.

But over time, have the Raptors sort of figured out a “type” of point guard to stack next to Scottie? And how might the Raptors use all of their knowledge of developing Fred to help players like Immanual Quickley, Jamal Shead, and Davion Mitchell, all of whom have certainly watched and modelled their games after Fred from afar.

Ways to Support (outside of super stickers and superchats)
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Let’s talk about what they need to do, what they already do better, and what Fred did well. The Raptors have parked a ton of money into Quickley, and the Kings burned a lottery pick on Davion. Who has the best qualities to achieve that outcome, and might any of them actually clip that mark altogether?

Let’s talk about it. Grab your coffees.

#Raptors