Did the Toronto Raptors get better this summer? | Can they improve on offense or defense in 2024-25?

Did the Toronto Raptors get better this summer? | Can they improve on offense or defense in 2024-25?

on your Friday episode of Locked on Raptors we ask a very simple question about your Toronto Raptors and their offseason did they get better at all 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 locked on podcast Network your team every day it is Friday July the 12th and I’m your host sea Woodley I’ve been covering the Toronto Raptors now for 10 seasons on various platforms you can find all my work over on the hell website at Woodley Sean you can find the show on Instagram at locked on Raptors and you can join us in the locked on Raptors Discord server the link is in the description of the podcast it’s free to join it’s a great place to come hang out and uh you know watch summer league have really really strong Summer League takes for some reason uh talk about the food you’re making your sports card collections it’s all going on in the lockd on Raptors Discord a great place to come hang out with sickos just like you who love the podcast and want to uh see all of my takes in their Glory uh as they you know come out of the Sausage Factory or whatever uh yeah this is where the podcast gets made in the Discord come hang out we’d love to see you in there of course you can find the show for free on your audio app of choice follow subscribe rate review of course tell a friend much appreciated when you support the show however you support the show on the audio side of things and you can go to YouTube and subscribe to the lockon Raptors YouTube channel as well when you do that hit the tiny little notification Bell button and that will give you a push notification to your device of choice every single time the show is about to Premiere or go live which is of course a wonderful thing uh today’s show is uh brought to you by nobody I there’s no title sponsor let’s Dive Right In baby uh as we are welcoming in our pal Vic Jacob for a little round of uh they get better we’re going to talk about the Raptors whether the roster is better after the offseason moving and shaking mostly just the stuff they did during day two of the NBA draft which was the the the peak of offseason content for the Raptors uh we’ll get into whether the offense stands a chance of being better than it was last season and does the defense have a hope in Hell of stopping anybody they didn’t last year maybe things will be better going forward let’s bring him in it’s VC Jacob Big B is here uh fresh off of a loss for his beloved Dutch national team in the Euros Canada loses this week tough go for you man the sports Karma has turned around after India winning the World Cup is was it worth it for you I mean yeah for India to win the World Cup you know I’ll take I’ll take these L’s it’s okay um that’s that’s like number one on the priority list so I’ll take it um jokovic is uh in the Wimbledon semi-finals so we’ll see how that goes and so if I get you know two out of four that won’t be bad but honestly like you can’t look at the Canada result like a bad thing they got to a failure of the program uh they just they didn’t have the quality they gotta really re-evaluate the overall strength of Canada Soccer or whatever the takes are uh yeah far as two out of three and we’ll see if it it’ll be three out of four semis today final on Sunday oh man Sunday is going to be just a Peak Sports viewing experience Wimbledon final Euros final Copa final and then Raptors nuggets summer league baby let’s go the single most important sporting event happening this weekend other than Raptors thunder in summer league baby yeah it’s going to be a loaded summer league weekend uh hopefully by the time we’re back next week some members of the Toronto Raptor summer league team have proven that they are in fact too good for summer league wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing um all right we’ll leave summer league for another time we’ll have a Sunday morning episode talking about the first Summer League game as prepare to go away on vacation and the schedule is going to be a bit little bit wonky okay deal with it um all right let’s uh dive in to the order of the day which is to determine whether or not the Toronto Raptors got better this summer um you know and better of course can mean different things to different people so we’ll examine it it’s an open-ended concept for us to dive into but the tale of the tape on the Raptors offseason out the door Muhammad gay bye-bye jayen McDaniels cyanara friend Jordan wara uh gone just like any hope of the Raptors playing defense went when he arrived on the team jonte Porter Gary Trent Jr out the door and Malik Williams we hardly knew ye no longer with the team the Raptors bring in Brandon Carlson on a two-way contract alris shamay with the 57th pick Davon Mitchell in that trade with Jaylen McDaniels going out Jonathan mobo with the 31st pick Jamal shed with the 45th pick Sasha venkov uh in the trade with the Kings and jacobe alter 19th overall of course they resigned Scotty Emanuel quickly and brought back our boy Garrett Temple as well they obviously don’t quite factor into the did they get better of it all because they were on the roster last season but I guess just the simple question off the top is this a better roster that the Toronto Raptors are Fielding they lose a starter in Gary Trent Jr but does the sort of Return of a bunch of guys who figured to have higher upside perhaps than some of the guys who were going out uh sort of make up and sort of account for the loss of Gary Trent Jr are the Raptors better roster wise before we dive into the various ends of the floor I guess there’s only two it’s not various there’s just two ends of the floor uh I I think they are marginally I think when you look at where they improved it is around the margins so you’ve got mobo in um obviously you’ve got uh our buddy Jacobian you’ve got um Davon coming in for some help at the point guard position and so you’re better in that regard you expect Grady dick to be better than he was last season uh we’ll see where oai is at coming into summer league and then into next season so I think I I’d say that they’re marginally better uh especially when you look at what the minutes distribution probably figures to be uh I don’t think anyone’s looking at this roster and expecting a huge change if anything the huge change just comes from being healthy right and uh and and that’s probably where you see the most tangible Improvement and just having stability on the roster yeah I I think as far as like for next season 2024 25 it’s probably a slightly less potent roster because of the loss of Gary Trent Jr and you know you’re hoping Grady dick can kind of step in and fill that role and become something close to Gary Trent Jr within a year or two and I think that’s on the table because frankly I think Gary Trent Jr um for all the good he brought was also someone who in theory is pretty easy to replace which I think is the reasoning the Raptors had for drafting a couple guys and Dick and Walter who could eventually supplant him anyway if he were going to be on the team I I think why I think the roster is better is I think it has higher upside for the long term now with the four rookies coming in and yes they’re four rookies drafted between 19 and 57 there’s a lottery ticket element to a lot of this and I’m sure that all four are not going to hit in the way Raptors fans really hope they all hit but you have some extra lottery shots there I think Jonathan mobo brings you some real upside with just the the skill and ball uh ability he has at his size the defensive potential he has as a versatile switchy guy um you know I think there’s upside there I think Davon Mitchell as much as I’m not high on Davon Mitchell is a reasonable second draft guy to go and say hey like we think there’s more here than he was able to show off in Sacramento so there’s a little bit of upside there if things really hit for Davon Mitchell and he becomes like a nice combo is guard for you who can defend guys at the point of attack and really improve it was a sore spot for this team last season I think they’re in a better spot roster wise and you know I think just by virtue of probably not rolling out 30 different players next season over the course of 82 games it’s just going to be better overall but I do think the Gary Trent Jr thing matters a little bit here how much do you think because like I don’t think any of the other losses really matter in the grand scheme right um you know I’m not missing Jordan War not missing Mohammad ugay Jaylen McDaniels the J Porter thing we don’t got to relitigate um but you know I just while Gary Trent Jr is probably the best player of all the guys we’ve talked about here going in or out I’m curious how much of an impact you think his loss will have is it more of like a cascading thing where all of a sudden Grady dick is being asked to do too much and starting and playing too many minutes does that uh cause problems at the back end of the roster like I I think it’s an interesting thing and it’s a tough thing to compare because the roster was so misshapen and different at different spots of last year um but that’s the fun of the podcast it’s a it’s an ambiguous question that makes for good podcasting baby uh yeah the impact of Gary what are you looking at with him are you concerned about it I’m not concerned just because you know what’s it changing really ceiling wise right and so it’s not like oh my God this dramatically changes things the priority right now is development the priority is this rebuild and so in terms of the goals there’s nothing to really be concerned about with his departure uh I think from the shooting guard perspective would I have liked more of an easier transition for Grady where it’s like hey you’ve got Gary as the starter once Grady is really up to speed then you can kind of look to transition out of that um I think that’s more even in terms of uh yes there’ll be more opportunity for jacobe but uh again I think it would have just made the transition easier uh to have that kind of Shire starter because if he was around that would be the starting lineup right like Yak Scotty RJ Gary quickley so now obviously you you can look at it a lot of different ways do you go with uh oai abaji uh in the starting lineup do you go with Bruce Brown in the starting lineup do you go with Grady dick do you go big with a guy like like mobo do you throw jacobe into the fire now it’s just it’s it’s pretty much like a you know end of roster they spoiled for Choice with other shoo guardy going on for shooting guard right so exactly so I I think that’s going to be probably the biggest battle that we see um outside of when you go to training camp and have that end of roster um battle but yeah now now it’s just you know we could just have um a revolving door at that shooting guard position yeah I I think all told the loss of Gary again hurts in the immediate and you know it could be three four months and we’re not feeling that at all because Grady dick is ready or someone else oai abaji has a really great developmental summer and looks the part um again I don’t think reaching Gary Trent Jr level of impact is going to be necessarily all that difficult for anybody it’s just you know how ready are those guys it’s a very young team it takes some time and for all of Gary Trent Jr’s faults he’s been in the league for five six seven years at this point and it’s just you know you have a little bit more sort of equity as a guy like that than someone coming in fresh faced but yeah uh the upside thing I think is where I’m happiest is just like it felt before like there was no chance of any of the back end of the roster guys really popping you’re putting your hopes on you know Javon Freeman Liberty and uh you know two-way guys you’ve signed like I think there’s actually reasonable um like a reasonable level of hope that can be had about Jamal shed becoming like a main stay of the team for for the next handful of years or Jonathan mobo being good or Jobe Walter being the type of player that good teams need like a two-way you know three and D guard Wing type like that’s type of guy lots of teams need and I think that’s there in the upside for jacobe Walter as well so yeah roster little marginally better for the long term maybe not so great right away but that is fine they did a decent job of that could they have done a better job probably if they declined bru Brown and Ed that money for something else but we don’t got to relitigate that because we’ve done that for the last three weeks on the podcast and I’m tired of that all right we’re going to come back on the other side and get into the offense the offense last year had brief stretches of squinting and being able to see something interesting a lot of not that as well we will get into whether the Raptors have a capacity for offensive Improvement after this offseason coming up in just one sec Today’s Show is brought to you by friends over at eBay Motors passion drive and patience the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to Peak Performance superchargers roof racks exhaust kits LED headlights and more whether you’re into speed power or style eBay Motors has you covered with over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die you’ll always find exactly what you’re looking for and with eBay guaranteed fit your part is guaranteed to fit your ride the first time every time or your money back because with eBay Motors you’re burning Rubber and not cash with all the parts you want at the prices that you want as well it’s easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins keep your Rider die live at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusions apply eBay guaranteed fit only available to us customers back at it here with vivc Jacob from Raptors in s and sportset and uh hooting and hollering this Sunday at a sports bar near you probably uh let’s Dive In big V to the offense last season the results not so good 24th in the NBA in offense in the 2023 24 season um again they had little stretches here and there where it looked like maybe things were coalescing in an interesting way but alas it was not to be and things really cratered down the stretch as the offense was just miserable that said the process for the offense I think was pretty good overall uh uh per clean the glass the Raptors finished 10th in location effective field goal percentage so basically what you’d expect they would shoot on average with uh you know regular players taking the shots that they were creating they were creating good looks within the process of their offense the Darko offense the 0.5 stuff and all of that they just weren’t connecting them because a lot of the players taking those shots were not very good and so I I don’t know really how that makes you feel feel about you know if the roster is slightly less talented in the immediate does that make it even worse of a situation for the offense going into this year is another year in Darko system Grease the wheels a little bit and give them some capacity for improvement a couple other notes on their process number six in Rim attempts uh as far as like a percentage of their overall looks that’s very good they were a very good Rim pressure team last season and fourth in short mid range which I think is interesting because Scotty Barnes you know that’s an area where he can get to he hasn’t always connected from there but as a rookie he did and it got a little bit better last season compared to year two and I think there is a short mid-range wizard somewhere within Scotty Barnes we know Emanuel quickley has the floater we know yaka Purtle has those push shots this is a team that can live in the short mid-range and make those looks really count so that’s there in their shot profile as well didn’t have the crazy three-point volume you would have hoped only uh 203d in overall shooting frequency um from three-point range terms of number of attempts per game and all that so yeah it’s it’s a mixed bag process-wise how do you feel about their capacity to be better on that end of the floor next season with this roster they have yeah I mean I think starting off with the three-point shooting if you look at you you’ll get a healthy dose of Threes from quickly uh you’ll get a decent amount of Threes from Scotty uh and then it’s like hey how many more more threes is Grady dick taking because if you look at the start of last season what you’re trying to replace is uh about the six and a half thre is a game that Gary was was taking the six thre is a game that OG was taking and that’s kind of the key area where you’re looking at in terms of the three-point shooting and so uh how much of that is going to Grady how much of that is uh jacobe getting in there um and so I think that’s going to pivotal uh how much Scotty improves his three-point shot uh and so that’s where I think the challenge lies in the three-point shooting there’s just not a lot of options and so you know if you even go back two seasons right when it was Gary OG and Fred and we were always kind of like that was the season where it seemed like one of them was always out of the lineup and so it always felt like oh my God like OG and Fred have to take like 10 threes each a game just to make it kind of passable and now you feel like you’re almost in a similar situation where it’s like man you really need Grady and quickly to get up as many shots as possible uh from Beyond The Arc so um that I think that spacing will be an issue you know you talk about uh you know Scotty’s obviously gonna speak highly of his teammates and say hey every time I pass the ball it feels like it’s going to go in um but I don’t think as fans or as uh you know people covering the team we NE necessarily feel that right and so I don’t think this team has that kind of gravity um that kind of shooting quality and I think that is going to create limitations uh in terms of what the degree to which Scotty can attack the paint and kick out um the effectiveness of just generally running the pick and roll um and how teams are going to be willing to help um and so I think there’s definitely going to be limitations uh I think we’ll still be able to enjoy watching the process of the offense because Darko because of Darko system and keeping the ball moving but I still think it’s going to be a bit of a grind this season yeah I I struggle with this a little bit I think I maybe a little higher on the shooting juice the team has compared to previous Seasons than you are and I think it’s largely because the guys who are going to be taking a lot of Threes you mentioned quickly Brady dick I would imagine if jacobe Walter plays he’s going to be asked to get him up in in just absolute high volume like he did in college he was well over 50% of his shots came from three as a college player and I think the thing that I like here is that quickley and dick in particular are just way more Dynamic Shooters than ogn and noi or Gary Trent Jr to sort of reference those examples you made I think Fred Van vet pretty Dynamic shooter good off ball obviously have the pull-up juice but I think quickly with his mix of pullup and you know scurrying away from the ball off of screens and stuff like that’s just a three-point threat that teams have to care about more than Gary Trent Jr’s stationary you know couple jab steps pull up three sort of three-point Arsenal and ogan anobi basically a stand in the corner and catch and shoot wide openen threes type of guy I think quickley is just he’s got a way more Dynamic array of Threes he’s throwing at you and I think that’s true for Grady dick as well um I think Kelly oin is gonna be a big part of this right like you shot like 40% from three last year he’s basically just like a tried andrue 40% three-point shooter at this point when he’s on the floor which I would imagine is going to be for North with 20 minutes a game he’s going to be getting them up a ton I would think because I think they’re probably going to play him straight as a four um and just kind of work him as a spacer and a guy who can put the ball in the deck and attack a close out which he can absolutely do um so just quickly um the reason I didn’t mention him was because he got up about two and a half attempts from three last season sure sure during his time with the Raptors do you see him getting more threes up I think so because like he was playing in large part as like one of the main creators on that team right and he’s had stretches you know he’s had seasons in Miami for example for his stretch back in 2021 he shot 5.7 a game right like he has dabbled in higher volume and I think just playing with Scotty Barnes and Emanuel quickly for longer than the 10 game stretch he got with them is going to lead to a whole lot more just sort of organic looks within the offense he’s not going to be asked to carry the same creation burden he did as like the second best player on the team down the stretch so I think you’ll just get organically maybe it’s not five a game maybe it’s three and a half or four but I think that’s that helps chip into the deficit that you are are fighting to sort of fill in with Gary walking out yeah fair enough X Factor obviously is going to be RJ I mean if he can keep shooting 39% on those four or five attempts a game uh that would be amazing and so I think that’s going to be kind of an X Factor when it comes to the Raptor three-point shooting next season 100% I I’ve talked about RJ I I think the the fact that his threes are basically all wide openen threes at this point maybe it’s not 39% maybe it’s 36 37 but I think he can be passable and get enough up over the course of a game to give you that um sort of math Edge that you need and I also think look I’m not high on Davon Mitchell I I’m not but he shot 36% last year he only took two 2.2 attempts a game but if you protract that out to per 36 minutes as I as my b reference page messes up here um you know it was five attempts per 36 minutes he has been around that his whole career if he can hit 36% on you know two three attempts a game I think that is again every little bit will help I’m not counting on that necessarily but you know he he has taken strides as a three-point shooter which need to be noted as well so I I think you know if Sasha venkov plays he’s a dead eye three-point shooter probably nothing else but there’s some three-point volume to be had there and I just again like think d dynamism of quickle and Grady along with the rim pressure this team does create and is very good at with Barrett barreling towards the rim and Scotty uh you know being a really good interior finisher we know what yach can do there um I think there’s some fun creative stuff they can do in bench lineups with you know Bruce Brown working short rle and stuff like that I think the offense is going to be better I guess is what I’m getting at here is it going to be top 15 in the league probably not but I think it’s upside certainly is that if everything really hums along and the guys take the requisite steps you’re hoping to see um I think they’ll be better than 24th I guess is sort of my uh my end thesis here do you would you pick that as well or you think they might struggle to to clear where they were last season I mean they might be better than 24th but uh you know if I had to answer whether they crack the top 20 I’d probably say no I’d lean towards no yeah um and I think you know say if I were to ask you right now Raptors fin say the Raptors finished 27th in three-point shooting as a team last season 34.7% how much better uh do you think they’ll be this season I think I mean the the accuracy thing feels very much variance-based I think they’ll be better percentage wise probably just because they had a lot of very bad players taking a lot of Threes down the stretch um but when it comes to frequency I think that is where things get a little bit more interesting and kind of important right like I think the volume is just as important as the accuracy and so last year they were 24th in volume of Threes I think there’s a world I think they will be better than that I think they’re probably getting into the top 20 just in volume whether they connect them I don’t know but I think Grady’s probably going to be embolden to take as many as he possibly can I think quickly is gonna flirt with taking nine or 10 a game and that alone is going to give them the volume to just be a little bit higher than your teams that are kind of stuck in the uh you know we don’t like to take threes and uh we’re just you know refusing to move into the future kind of thing so right um yeah I think it’s the the process I think will continue to improve with the system the results I think we probably continue to see subpar results based on the process just because of the true Talent on the roster um defense we’re gonna get to that coming up can you be better than really really really terrible that you hope so we’ll get into that and whether the rosters capable of being better than the 27th best defense in the NBA coming up in just one sec Today’s Show is sponsored by better help and look the big thing that you really can get into the habit of sometimes when you look at Instagram and you’re seeing people’s lives the summer times happening you know people are going on vacation and stuff is you can really get into the problem of comparing yourself to others comparison is the thief of joy and it’s easy to Envy other people’s lives it might look they have it all together on their Instagram but in reality they probably don’t therapy can help you focus on what you want instead of what others have so you can 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in a offseason where they’ve done lots of stuff some of it smart some of it not and uh you know that’s an endlessly frustrating hockey team if you want to go listen to a podcast about the endlessly frustrating hockey team our boys Mike and Dave are your place to go so go check them out loon Leafs wherever you get your podcast all right let’s finish up with a look at the defense and whether it will be better than it was last season again a reminder it was a grim scene last year for your Toronto Raptors after it seemed like they had the juice on defense to start the season remember the Dennis schruder OG SE yakum Barnes purle group impenetrable no one’s going to score on them they were really good for like two weeks and then they fell down the defensive charts basically for the rest of the season in a steady tumble like rolling a wheel of cheese down a hill in Britain um they finish 27th in defense very very bad uh I mean like H how could it not be better big V tell me why like let’s let’s start with the negative side of this like why is it worse with the guys they brought in and Gary Trent Jr going out Jaylen McDaniels I guess in theory was a good defensive player although I don’t think that ever really happened in practice um is there a reason why it could get worse or or is it only up from here I do think it’s only up from here if I had to really really nitpick like that’s the thing I think you would have to nitpick um and find like the exception to think that this team will be worse defensively than last season and what would that exception be what would that nitpicking point be it would probably be that you know there is no natural you know big-sized Wing Defender and so you’re GNA go into those games against the guys that OG loves to guard and you don’t have that option anymore and you’re going to in a struggle right um and so again you go back to the point that you want yako purle and Scotty Barnes defending um the rim and playing in the back line and so who do you have on the perimeter that’s necessarily going to be that stopper oai is under undersized uh you look at mobo that’s that’s a lot of expectations to put on a rookie um you look at jacobe that’s a lot of expectations to put on a rookie so I think that’s where the challenge will lie I think that’s where they’ll face the most difficulty you can take a lot of confidence in the rim protection um but I think when you look at even at the point of attack you know quickly how much does he improve his defense RJ how much does he improve his defense though that’s where you would pick at it but at the same time that was the case last season so you don’t expect it to be worse yeah right and I think you know yaka Perle missed 32 games last year yeah he’s a guy who’ll Miss 10 games a year or so typically most guys do but 32 games feels like an outlier he had two extended stretches including the last month and a half of the year and without him the defense had no Rudder and so I think just by having purle for more than 50 games they will be in better shape I think you know Scotty took great strides defensively last year you hope that sort of solidifies and refines and only gets better as well and like they’re just simply has to be some improvement from RJ Barrett he was very very very bad as a wing perimeter Defender he’s been better than that in his career and I I just can he get closer to average if he does that is a pretty significant change for things here you know when you look at the new additions obviously yeah mobo it’s a lot to ask of a rookie that said he’s enormous and has 7 foot2 long arms and maybe can just give you a little bit of length and juice for stretches of minutes that someone like Jordan wara was not giving you off your bench in that similar role um I think look Jamal shed if he’s going to find his way onto an NBA floor this season it’s going to be because he is an absolutely menacing point of attack Defender got some more on Jamal shed’s defense coming up in an episode this the next week with Parker answorth of lockon cougs who covered shed’s career at Houston um it’s really exciting stuff he’s a bloody incredible defensive player at least he was in college we’ll see if that translates to the NBA maybe it’s not for a couple years that we see it but if there are minutes for him to be had this year he helps directly in the thing that was their biggest problem on defense last season so there’s that Davon Mitchell of course his nickname is off night if he’s playing heavy minutes off the bench that’s going to improve things defensively as well and I just think the sort of General Vibe of this doesn’t matter everything sucks from last year had to have played a role in how the defense performed they were number 27 in points sorry 28 in points allowed per possession in transition defense last year that is the stuff of a team that just doesn’t care sorry it just is and I I think there’s going to be a little bit more care a little bit more buyin this season from the team they were 23rd and halfcourt defense also not very good of course um and again I think a lot of defense is buying and and caring and there just wasn’t any reason for anyone to buy in down the stretch of last season because it was obvious viously going nowhere and the team seemingly wanted it to go nowhere and so I I think fresh start you sort of reinvigorate the culture the offensive system has been in place now for a year maybe there’s a little bit more Focus paid to defense and training camp I think last year they were very very offense heavy kind of instilling those new principles I think there will be a a better sort of floor for the defense they could easily be 27th again I will say they can sort of climb into that like Fringe top 20 probably not higher than that just because of the true Talent barring some enormous defensive leap from someone be it Barrett or Scotty Barnes is like a true lockdown Wing guy um but there it just the circumstances of last year were just the circumstances under which really bad defense gets played and I think there’s going to just be sort of a a tangible uptick in the level of want to if you will from everyone on that end of the floor is that a silly hope for me to have big V I’m about to be crushed and watch another season of uh just walking by pylons on the way to layups once again yeah I don’t know that that’s an expectation I have uh I think that’s definitely the hope and I think this is where this becomes a really interesting season for uh you know analyzing and evaluating Darko right last season it was like hey what is the one thing that we’re going to see a tangible difference in what are you going to incorporate uh into this team and and you would at the offense and the passing and say the process was much better even if the results weren’t necessarily there right and so now I think offensively I would say okay we’ve established to a certain degree the process can we see some better results now on that end and defensively as as you said there’s too many moments where it looked like pylons too many moments where it seemed like there was a lack of accountability and that maybe goes to your point about the care level just not being there and so uh I think that’s something that we should be measuring should be looking at and saying hey this is something we should be able to expect now and and I think that’s the area of focus that I’ll have and so I would be pretty disappointed if they were a bottom five defense um I I probably I’m closer to you in terms of flirting with that 20 Mark uh maybe in the the late teens I’d I’d like to if I had to set like you know a high-end goal I would say you know can you get into that 16 to 18 range right and show tangible Improvement on that end of the floor yeah it’s not like yaka purle can’t back stop a decent defense right he’s not uh a walking top five defense like he’s Rudy goar or anything like that but he’s a good rim protector and Scotty Barnes is also a good rim protector who’s a good sort of free safety uh obviously counting stats machine on defense as well it’s not like this is a toally defensively talented defensively untalented roster they just need more defensive talent for things to really have high upside here but I think just like the collective uh give a crap meter being higher should sort of lift things up a little bit from where it was I also just love to see and this maybe just comes with another year of coaching and another year in the system and some more Focus paid to the defensive end but some sort of defensive identity of like what they actually want to be doing out there it just felt like there was no real designed plan from the defense they weren’t you know funneling shots to a specific place or anything like that um you know they gave up the 16th most Rim attempts in the league the ninth most mid-range attempts and the 21st most threes like it’s like what are they what are they trying to do what are they funneling towards what’s their defensive intent like I would like to see some of that and I think with more intent with an actual designed game plan of how they want to approach teams that’s going to help as well and they just didn’t really have the capacity to do that because the roster changed four times last season and it was just this constant you know recycling of new guys and uh you know just sort of hey pick up the basics go guard the ball do the basic things and see if we can get by and they were not able to get by we did get by on this podcast though it was pretty darn good uh do you have anything you want to promote for the good people big V before we send them off into their weekend and summer league basketball I should have my latest Raptors in seven post out uh later today so you can look out for that uh besides that usual stuff uh going at sportset and you can follow me on Twitter vcm Jacob everyone go do that you can find me at woodlean on the hell website you can go and join us on Instagram loon Raptors and join us of course in the Discord Link in the description of the podcast free to join as always please follow subscribe rate review on your audio app of choice you can find us on YouTube as always as well if you haven’t yet even if you don’t watch the videos just subscribe so we get them stats baby uh and with that we will send you off into the weekend again going to be a bit of a weird schedule next week I’m away on vacation I have a couple episodes in the can a mailbag with ktie hindle uh Jamal shed Deep dive with Parker answorth and then I’ll have a couple of Summer leagy episodes uh kind of over the weekend sprinkled into the start of the week just keep an eye out it’ll all be there for you and uh we’ll be back with regularly scheduled programming the following week as we continue to go daily here through July with plenty of Summer League reaction and overreaction and all that good stuff can’t wait for the Jonathan mobo Rookie of the Year train to really pick up it’s going to be thrilling we’re going to leave it there thank you so much for hanging out have yourselves a wonderful rest of your weekend enjoy summer league thanks for hanging bye-bye oh

In Episode 1676, Sean Woodley is joined by Vivek Jacob (Raptors in 7, Sportsnet) to talk about the Toronto Raptors offseason moves, whether or not the roster is improved at all, and whether the team has a shot to improve on either offense or defense in 2024-25. Off the top, they chat about the final tally of guys coming in and guys going out, why the loss of Gary Trent Jr. might make the roster look less talented in the immediate future but in the grand scheme, they upside of the roster probably leaves them in better shape than last season in which the team rolled out 30 different players. Next, Sean and Vivek discuss the offensive side of the ball, whether the sound process of last season might start leading to better results, or if the lack of high end shot making talent will still leave the Raptors toiling near the bottom six or seven in the offensive charts. Lastly, they take a look at the defense, which was completely hopeless last season, and will still be in tough in 2024-25; but will the collecting give a crap meter of a team that isn’t totally checked out and mishapen lead to a finish higher than the 27th-ranked mark they posted last season?

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