Where To For Scottie Barnes? Toronto Raptors Season Review

Where To For Scottie Barnes? Toronto Raptors Season Review

Let’s talk about the younger guys on the Toronto Raptors. Scotty Barnes, RJ Barrett, John Mo, and of course the one and only Grade A Dick Michael Bolton. Thanks Josh. It’s Michael Bolton here and it’s time for another episode of the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast. Let’s get to it. Let’s get to it in danger. You are Locked on Fantasy, your daily NBA fantasy podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast brought to you by Basketball Monster. My name is Josh Lloyd and I’m literally in my chef era. Thank you also for making locked on. Oh, did I tell you that? No, I didn’t. I’m also the lead fantasy analyst at basketball.com and thank you for making locked on fantasy basketball your first listen every day. We are free and we are available on all platforms. So uh thumbs double bangs audio and video do it comments as well. You can do the comments on Spotify now too. So if you’ve got one of those in you give it to me. We are talking about the Toronto Raptors. Uh earlier today we talked Ingram Purle, we talked uh Quickly and you know the big big topics like Garrett Temple and Chris Buchet. And now we’re going to get into the younger guys on this team. The guys who are under 25. So there’s a few of them. The part of the problem with some of these younger guys in terms of roster construction is that they’re all now on their second contracts and uh you know and max contract to one of them and that’s going to make it a little bit harder to try and build things around. So let’s just let’s get into one of those players who is on that max contract who is now 24 years of age. We’re talking about Scotland Barnes, the rookie of the year who was an all-star a couple of years ago and struggled quite a bit this season. In the end of the year, he did he ended up with a hand injury. He played 65 games in 33 minutes. He 26 usage. He was the 37th ranked player for head-to-head leagues. He was 24th in points leagues, but people were drafting him in some cases at 13 or 14. Now, to me, he was more a backend second round guy to third round guy. I was relatively skeptical about what he’ done the year before, the shooting, the block numbers, the rebound numbers, which had all taken incredible spikes in year three. I thought, I’m not sure if that’s all going to hold, and it didn’t. So, what is Scotty Barnes now as a player? I I don’t know. I have been lower on Barnes than most people all the way through his career. That’s not changing now. Barnes, uh, 26 usage, like I said, average 19 and eight. Okay, six assists. That’s pretty good. 1.4 steals and one block. Not bad at all. Really quite solid. Those numbers though did dip from the year before. The problem is is I I don’t know that he can shoot. 27% from three, 76% from the line, 45% from two. The year before it looked like maybe he was figuring some of that stuff out. But as you remember when we looked at the stuff from Barnes last season, he started out the season unbelievably red-hot and then it started to drop back down to that low30s in shooting. I think that I don’t think Barnes did 27% three-point shooter. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that he’s that bad. I think he is a mid to low 30s guy. 33 34, which is okay. But for Barnes to have a large level of success offensively, and I think honestly, again, this is not hating. This is not a bid or anything. I think he is overrated defensively. I think he’s he’s not bad. I think he is overrated defensively. I think he’s not he’s not a lockdown guy. He’s not a number one defensive option. He is a good defender. He is not an elite defender. But offensively to have success he needs to be running almost sort of as a point guard because you can’t have him off ball. He can’t play off ball he played only 82% of his time on ball last season which or sorry 82nd percentile which is not that high for a guy that really does need the ball because he he can’t shoot. So that’s where he on this team becomes a weird fit. I imagine he’s unquestionably their best player. There’s no doubt about that. But adding Brandon Ingram to the mix, what does the usage do? Does the 26 drop? Does the 5.8 assist drop? His passing creation volume’s 95th percentile. His load is 93rd. What do those things hold with Ingram now there? We talked about it with Ingram and Quickly in the earlier show. Someone’s going to have to give up something. We haven’t even got to Barrett yet. It can’t all work this way. Darko and Drip in the Delta numbers all agreed that Barnes took a pretty sizable step back. 38th percentile in Delta for Darko and 45th for Drip, meaning that like over half of the league was able to be uh yeah have a larger level of improvement. He actually got worse this season, Barnes. And I don’t think that’s controversial to say. So the question now is like while I sit here and look at Barnes for next season and go I don’t believe he’s actually a 27% three-point shooter. So there’s a sizable spike that can come there. The 1.23s can become 1.6. That’s that’s possible. 27 can become 31, 33. 44 from the field can become 47, 46. Easily doable. I think it will happen. It’s all about offset cuz that’s not happening in a vacuum. What does happen with Ingram there? What happens when Quickley plays more than 33 games? Does Barnes go from 26 usage to 22? Does he maintain 26? Does he maintain the highest passing volume on the team? I don’t know. I don’t know how Darko Ryakovic handles that. I don’t know how Scotty Barnes handles that. I don’t know how the roster gets staggered. So, there is zero shot that you take Scotty Barnes in round two next season. In fact, I I don’t think he’s even going to be a round three guy because the 19 points might be lower. The rebounds and assists, well, the rebounds might stay, but what if the assist drop because there’s more quickly and there’s more. And now there’s Ingram. Do the blocks get back up again? I think some of that was very fluky from that earlier year three season. So, where is Barnes? 50th, 40th. He was 48th post trade deadline. Is that a realistic spot? I I don’t think it’s too too crazy to say that maybe it is. Again, you are going to say that I’m just a hater and that 198 and six is great with 1.4 steals and a block and it is, but things adjust. If I was the Raptors, and I know this will sound weird to you, I would actually be prioritizing him having the ball definitely over Ingram. It’s him and Quickly that should be doing it. But that doesn’t mean that’s what’ll happen because Barrett and Ingram are there. They’re alive. They exist. They’re doing something. And if Barnes loses some of that usage and assist volume and still can’t shoot, then what are we doing? Where are we at with him? I won’t say it’s a crossroad season for him because he’s he’s established as a very very good player. But to be an elite player, to be the guy that can be the best team on a top four seated playoff team, I don’t think he’s there. I don’t think he’s ever getting there. And when I say crossroads, this is the crossroad. This is the season where we need to see like you what what is the step forward that Barnesy takes at age 24? How does he elevate you to become that guy that might be able to do that? He’s played four seasons now. We’re going into year five. you still can be improvement. It’s not great to see a player in these fourth season declining. So yeah, I would say there are or there should be there’s some worries here. Let’s talk about RJ Barrett because again I what what do we do with this guy? Will he remain on this team with Ingram now there? Is he a better player than Brandingham? That’s an interesting question. Who is a better player RJ Barrett or Brandon Ingram? I I I actually don’t know. It’s possibly Ingram, but I I don’t know. He played 58 games, 32 minutes with 28 usage. He’s 25 or he’s about to turn 25. He was the 80th ranked player for head-to-head leagues. I was very happy to draft him around that area. He was 48th in points leagues, averaged 37 points. Very good. He struggled a bit down the end as they were rotating guys in and out, which is to be expected. Ended up with 21, six, and four. And you’ll notice that those numbers look very similar to Barnes. They look very similar to Ingram. They don’t look that dissimilar to Quickly. A little bit though. And no steals, no blocks, horrendous free throws. Part of the reason he was able to be much better in his first stint in Toronto the year before was he cut out long mid-ranges. He didn’t take as many threes and he just got to the rim at will and finished at a high level. And that changed. He was not able to do that this season. His field goal percentage fell back down. And part of the reason why I was looking to sort of turn into that, it’s okay, is it a fluke that his field goal percentage rose and when you looked at it and when you were like investigating it, it wasn’t that he just had a fluky run of shooting. It’s that he changed his shot mix and he was able to be a guy RJ Barrett who decided he was going to take more shots from the more highly efficient areas. But so what changed this season, right? Well, he didn’t finish as well at the rim, down from 62 to 59%. His attempts at the rim about the same, but what we did see was an back to an increase to his highest volume of mid-ranges ever. Not that it’s a big difference, but 4.3 up from four. And he took more threes again. He went back to his Knicks volume. The last four seasons he was 6.2, 5.8 attempts per whatever it was, 100 possessions, 4.9 in the season where he really started to take off, and then back to 5.8. So he just started taking more threes which he can’t do. He he can’t shoot them at any sort of high volume. You’ll see that you again 94th percentile in load 78th% on ball. He doesn’t do anything defensively. Something has to give quickly. Barnes Ingram Barrett cannot maintain these numbers. They cannot maintain them. So his 28 usage might become 24. Does that mean he starts taking more more shots at the rim? Does it mean he cuts out those threes? because he can’t substantiate or he can’t subsist on his defensive numbers. So, I think we might be back to a scenario here with Barrett where I’m out on him because I don’t see how he’s able to even replicate these numbers which was a bit of a downturn from his Toronto tenure the year before. So, again, we’re at a crossroads with Barrett. We’re at a crossroads with Barnes. We’re a crossroads with Ingram. How the hell do they all work? How do they fit? That is why I don’t understand this team at all. They they don’t make sense together. Somebody needs to make a drastic adjustment to their to their game. And Barrett can’t be a spot-up shooter. Barnes can’t be a spot-up shooter. Ingram can’t be a spot-up shooter. But you want your best passer in quickly to be the spot-up shooter. Maybe it’s it’s an incredibly weird fit. So I think even though he’s only 25 that the reason he was able to be successful at the end of that 23 24 season RJ Barrett was he just started getting to the rim and finishing at a high level and that was able to you reduce some of the impacts of other categories that he struggled in but now we’re in a spot where usage might drop. He reverted a little bit back to some of his bad habits and I think I might be out again. I think I might be out which I guess we have to find out. But that is again that is where when looking at past numbers or past rankings in fantasy can have use but it’s got to mesh. You’ve got to balance. You got to be able to put it together with the other guys on the team. And that that’s where it’s going to get weird. We got more guys to talk about on the Raptors. First of all, today’s episode is brought to you by Wayfair. As the weather begins to warm up, people can spend more time outside. Well, you should be spending more time outside, and that means it’s the perfect time for you getting ready for that summer to refresh your outdoor space. It might be a big backyard, a small balcony, whatever it is. Wayfair has all the things that you need to fit your budget. They’ve got a great mix of styles at Wfair. Maybe you are art deco, maybe deco deco. Yeah, maybe you are postmodern gothic. Is that a real thing? I don’t know. Or maybe you’ve just got your own eclectic style. 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He was a an undersized big man coming out of the University of San Francisco who played this high usage, high offensive load, ball handling, point forward, point center, defensive guy, right? He did all of those things which is an incredibly intriguing fantasy prospect. He flashed a little bit of that earlier in the season and then disappeared, went back into the G- League. And then by the end of the year when they were doing the starter shuffle, Mo was getting some big starts, especially down the stretch. and again flashed that ability, which we all remember that March and April basketball doesn’t really mean anything. But Mobo showed an ability to at least do some of those things. Now, he wasn’t awesome in every game. Like his last two games, he played 38 and 35 minutes for 8 and 8 and 9, 14, and 10. But he had four steals in one of those and two blocks in another. But then he also had a 17, 10, and 11 triple double. Hit a 17, 11, and 7, two seal, two block game. Like these are ridiculously good games in games that don’t mean anything. Remember that for the year he was 131st post trade deadline in category leagues, 180th overall in 20 minutes at 14 usage, which as a second round rookie is really impressive. He had six and five with two assists,.9 steals. Now the shooting is a problem. 24% from three, 73 from the line, 44 from the field. Darko and Drip both were very impressed. Improved his numbers a lot. He contested a lot of shots. He deflected a lot of balls. He wasn’t an on ball guy. He passed at a decent amount for a center. He wasn’t a guy taking a big offensive load. There is a lot here that can improve. The problem with Mo to me is twofold. Can he be really productive, especially in games that don’t matter? Yes. But he can’t shoot and he’s undersized. And to be the next Draymond Green, well, you can’t do it. It’s this these are the sort of players if you want to put unrealistic expectations on someone. It’s like saying, “Well, this guy’s on a Shay Gudis Alexander trajectory.” No. No, he’s not because that’s the trajectory that never happens. Or he’s going to develop like Kawawaii. Shout out to Patrick Williams. Well, no, because Kawawaii is the only one who did that. And a 6’6 power forward becoming one of the best centers in the NBA, multi-time defensive player of the year in Draymond Green. You know how many times that happens? Like once. So expecting him mo to be Draymond is just not a thing. Can he be a really really strong backup? I think yes. Can he start at a pinch? Yes. But those numbers down the end of the year when he was playing with Colin Castleton and Jared Rhoden and Jameson Battle while he was facilitating against some of the worst teams in the NBA. It’s interesting. Of course it’s interesting. And he’s a rookie, but he is also an older rookie. So where he’s already 24 and you know while we expect guys in year two to improve and I think some of that shooting will improve especially the 44% from the field like the finishing inside is going to improve. I think he’ll hit 50% at some point but will he ever get enough playing time or enough volume to matter in fantasy? I would say there will be a time that yes, that is true. And you could say, well, he played 20 minutes as a rookie, that should go up. But he played 20 minutes as a rookie on a team that was terrible and deliberately trying to lose. So some of those minutes came in unearned situations. And as the team theoretically gets better, he might not have those unearned situations there. So while the improvement comes, the opportunity for minutes might be fewer, meaning it’s a little harder to get there. So I like this season. I thought it was encouraging. I thought he can be a very strong backup who probably could start half a season at a pinch in three or four years and be a strong top 100 fantasy guy, but it requires a lot of things to happen. I wouldn’t be as a dynasty manager or as a Raptors front office executive going, “Right, we got a future starter here. Let’s not worry about that spot. We’re locked in. Momo is the guy.” He could be there, but I’d say it’s a very low possibility of that happening. The shooting needs to be there. But he can pass and he’s a really really good defender. An incredibly good defender. I just wish he was three inches bigger. I just I just wish he was taller. But it was good. It was good. I I I don’t I don’t think we got much good dick this season. Grade a dick in year two. We wanted the prestige penis to step into a larger role. And we got larger dick. We did. He played 29 minutes. He’s only 21. He had 20 usage. But playing nine more minutes a game. He was worse than John Mo for fantasy. He averaged 23 fantasy points. He started big chunks of this season. But he gave us the not even the indication, but I guess the confirmation of what do you do that’s not shooting threes? You had opportunities when quickly went down. Barrett was served for periods and Barnes was out. You had opportunities to do more. And we got 14 3.6 rebounds with 1.8 assists in 30 minutes, which is basically just full starters minutes. And 32 is maybe full starters. Close enough to being a starter. We got 14 three and a half and 1.8. We got 0.9 steals. He shot 41 85.8, which is great from the line, and 35 from three. And if you’re going to be that guy, Dick, I I need 38. I need 39. Shooting from three. I need something else. Look at that passing creation volume. 48th percentile, bro. Rim contest. Deflections bad. Time on ball didn’t have it. Offensive load low. He improved as from a rookie because he didn’t do anything as a rookie. He was quite bad as a rookie, but we wanted him to step up into a larger role and he and he did. But I won’t say that the production followed him. He was a guy that I didn’t really love coming out of Kansas because I was like again, what do you do here? You could be the best shooter because the idea of Dick was he’s the best shooter in the class. I’m like, you want to be pretty confident of that because I don’t know what else he does. And very rarely does the guy that we project is the best shooter in a draft class become the best shooter in a draft class. It just usually doesn’t happen. In fact, Dick, who has been, you know, reunited with his Kansas teammate who was the best shooter in his draft class in Osha Abaji, has also been terrible in the NBA. The this idea of this guy is the best shooter is just not a thing. Has it ever translated? I don’t think it has. He can be a good shooter, Dick. But he’s not sitting Luke Canard 45%. He’s got more to his game than that. He did improve some of his passing. Defensively, still a real problem, but the fantasy game is not there. It’s bare bones. He needs three starters to be out, I would say, because of the way this team is constructed. He’s not playing 29 minutes. He might be lucky to get 24. Maybe he is traded in a consolidation deal somewhere, but even then, he would need to go to a situation where his usage could hit 25 where he bumps to 39 usage and he plays 35 minutes to really make a difference for us. He was pretty poor for big chunks of this season. And yeah, I guess you could say best case as a shooting guard archetype Contavius Cordwell Pope without the steals, which as we know is not a good fantasy player. And go back and look at some of KCP’s past seasons, not the ones now where he averages 9, 10 points. He could be a 15 16 point per game scorer. I think Dick could do that. But I wasn’t I didn’t look at Dick and get excited. Nothing about his season was a little bit like, as many of you have uttered in the past, I’d like a little bit more dick. And we didn’t get it, which is a shame. Who else we got to talk about? Some young players who did impress, some rookies who had some moments, and some two-way guys who had to be forced into larger roles. But let’s go to one of those rookies who came across in a sort of a basically a salary dump trade from the Sacramento Kings. Shout out to them who gave the Raptors Jamal Shed. They gave him Davon Mitchell and they also gave him Sasha Vizenov which was the salary dump and then they just cut Vzinkov and took on that money. And then of course the Raptors gave away Davon Mitchell for PJ Tucker and Mitchell turned into a competent NBA player. Now, Shed and Mitchell are very similar players. Undersized, older point guards with maybe some shooting concerns heading into the NBA. I thought Shed in his time in Toronto, well, when Mitchell was in Toronto, was way better than Davian Mitchell. Shed ended up playing 20 minutes a game, 18 usage, 75 games, which I wasn’t sure he’d get that many. He was 237th post trade deadline. Um, his deflection numbers I would have hoped would be higher, 65th percentile, only8 steals. is a very high steals guy in college and he was like a 40% three-point shooter in his final year in college but some of his previous years not quite like that and he shot 32%. Now I do think that’ll go up but I don’t think he’s a 40% shooter. 77 from the line is pretty good but overall I would say that shed’s numbers this season were on the impressive side. He absolutely can lock in as a backup point guard in the NBA and in some spots I could easily see him being a starter and being a low-end fantasy guy for standard leagues. But like when we talking John Mo, he’s old. He’s 23 already as a rookie. He will be again a backup this season. We what we want to see in year two from shed is the improvement in shooting percentages. Um usage probably won’t spike much. But the other thing is is like coming in with your focus was steals. You need to get steals. When you’re a big steals guy in college, we need to ste see you being a steals guy. And that doesn’t always happen. Often steals guys in college come in and are very good NBA players, but it’s not always because they get good steals. It’s because steals in college often leads to a level of basketball IQ and understanding that translates to them being good in other areas. And maybe that happens for shed. Maybe he bumps up his passing ability, which again I thought was actually really good. So I would pencil at this point Shed in to be the backup point guard playing 18 to 21 minutes a night. again fighting Barrett, Barnes, Ingram quickly for ball handling, but we need to see the deflections and the steals rise and we need that shooting at 36%. Overall, it’s a big W of a pick. It’s a positive rookie season, but when I look at it, is he a guy that you think, oh, three years down the line, he’s our startup? Don’t think so. It wouldn’t pro they could also pick number eight, pick Jeremiah fears. They could pick Asparis, Yakushonus, and then Shed is like, where am I now? That’s sort of the player. Look, he’s fine as a backup. I love what he did. I was impressed with it, but do you build your team based around that? Probably not. Gary Trent the third, Jacobe Walter, was drafted in the first round by the Toronto Raptors out of Baylor. Did not like him as a draft prospect at all. He just gave that view of an empty shooting guard with bad percentages. And he came in here and had a couple of interesting games for the Raptors. Overall, I would say that my assessment of Jacobe Walter was pretty spot on, at least in year one. Like, he played 21 minutes a night in 52 games. He was the 38th ranked player for Fantasy. He averaged eight and a half points with 1.3 threes with not really anything steals wise and nothing really exciting deflection wise. His passing volume is low. He had three rebounds. He shot 35 from three, which actually not too bad. 80 from the line, which is fine. 41 from the field, which is not good. He had a couple of solid games, a 22-point game, a 17-point game, a 17-point game in the meaningless period of the season. But again, when we’re talking like with Dick, Jacobe Walter just profiles as that stereotypical shooting guard who’s a low rebound, assists, steals, and blocks guy who’s not hyper efficient and needs a lot of usage and probably never will get it. He The Darko and Drip Deltas actually liked him, and I thought there were some impressive things, especially defensively. I thought he did show some some stuff that I didn’t think he could do, but it didn’t translate to stats for us. He did contest shots at a pretty high rate, which is interesting. And the shooting’s probably a little higher than I thought it would be from three, not from two. Terrible there. I could see a 6 to 7% spike in his two-point percentage next season, which would help. But again, where does he play? At least he’s younger, not like Shed and Momo. He’s 21. But where does he play? Because Dick exists. shed quickly Barrett Ingram Barnes pick eight. Where does he fit? I don’t really know. I don’t really know what sort of a player this is going to be. Um the two-point efficiency stuff is pretty bad for Walter. And while he’s a decent enough size, I he’s just not a player. Yeah, this is a future starter level guy. I think he’s one of those players who sort of floats around, who gets opportunities. Okay, look. Again, the other guy that he’s very similar to is Lonnie Walker, who can have those scoring outbursts, but just offers very little else. I think Jacob Wal has got more defensively, but from what I expected out of him and then what I saw, I was impressed more with his defense than offensively. And otherwise, the offensive stuff just sort of confirmed my concerns. Colin Castleton’s a guy that does have a good fantasy profile. He’s on the Raptors still with a n-g guarantee for next season. No guarantee he sticks around. We saw him in Memphis. We saw him in Toronto. We saw him in Philly. We saw him in Toronto. Only 13 usage, 17 minutes a game. He had moments where he was a guy that you needed to roster in fantasy because he was hitting some threes sort of. Well, that’s not actually you know what he wasn’t. 13% from three. He was grabbing rebounds at a high level. Five rebounds in 17 minutes. Pretty good number. He blocked decent amount of shots. He was incredibly low at uh usage and scoring. 11th percentile offensive load. I thought that he was fine. He is about to turn 25. And if you had him back as your third string center replacing Chris Buché, totally reasonable, but the numbers that Castleton put up at the end of the year were the definition of March and April basketball. And as much as I think he’s a solid enough player and better than some guys that get roster spots, I wouldn’t say there’s any level of huge excitement there. Same goes for AJ Lawson, who had some like he’s a hyper athletic guy, had some interesting moments in the G-League, had some decent moments in the NBA, played 19 minutes a game, 19 usage, shot only 33 from three and bad free throws. He averaged half a steal in those 19 minutes, averaged 17 fantasy points. There were moments where AJ Lawson again was useful, but with so many guards ahead of him, nothing that he did this season makes me any level of excited for AJ Lawson who’s now off that two-way developing into a seventh man, an eighth man. I don’t think he can do that. He was there. We’re talking about him. He’s about to turn 25. It’s the first time we’ve really seen him in the NBA. He was in Dallas before up in Toronto now. I think he he’s got to stick around for at least one more year here. But that shooting just needs to be at such a high level. The athleticism is great, but turn it into something defensively. This deflection is not there. Like he’s not doing it. He doesn’t pass. He doesn’t do anything that well. And I’m not really any level of excited at all. Jameson Battle, if you’ve never seen Jameson Battle before, I guarantee you what you’re picturing is not what he looks like. He just That’s just not what he looks like. Whatever you’re thinking, he doesn’t look like that. He was a guy that started the season on a two-way and was in the Raptors rotation basically every night. But what what is he? He’s a three-point shooter. That’s what he is. 41% as a rookie from three is unbelievably elite. 89 from the line is elite. 1.83s in 18 minutes is elite. Low usage playup. Absolutely. 277th post trade deadline in category leagues. 12.6 fantasy points overall. I don’t like that the DPM and the drip delta was really down on him. 31st and 17th percentile respectively. They thought he’d decreased. And I guess that is true. He started out the season better than he finished it. But from a sort of an unknown guy to come in and shoot threes at that level, like you’re impressed with it. But there’s a lot of other numbers there. You should be going like you got to do something else. Second percentile deflections, eighth percentile time on ball, 31st in passing creation volume. In what is it? 18 minutes a game. He averaged 0.9 assists with.3 steals. He shot threes and that is it. Nothing else. And while it’s nice, it’s great to see as a rookie. He filled roles at times, you you have to do something else. You can’t subsist at being that one-dimensional out of him and Jared Rhoden and AJ Lawson and Colin Castleton. I think Battle’s got the ability to be a rotation player moving forward. But fantasy wise, it’s going to be one of those, hey, we’ll just take a flyer when players are out and see where we go because I I don’t really think it gets any further than that. The last guy is an incredibly incredibly hard player to evaluate and that’s Uric Shamshi. We didn’t have any data from him. He’s a two-way guy. He’s back on a 2-way next season. Incredibly young, youngest player in the draft, I believe. Picked a pick 57, signed a two-year two-way. So, he’s back on a 2-way for next season. Tory’s MCL in the middle of the season, missed the second half of the year. We had three games of data from BL from him the year before. So hard to judge that. He played 5 minutes a game in seven games in the NBA. Can’t really do anything with that. Under 10 usage, blocked one shot, no steals, 7 points. None of these numbers mean anything like at all. But what I will tell you is what he did in the G-League. And there are certain things there where you go, well, okay, I’d like a little bit little bit more than that because he’s 14% usage in the G- League in 33 games in 24 minutes. But he averaged eight rebounds and almost three blocks a game. He didn’t take threes. He can’t hit free throws or get to the line. The time that I watched him in person in summer league, he had no idea where he needed to be, but he was very athletic and he showed some really interesting instincts. This is the long-term development situation. Three blocks a game in the G-League. I think there is and 54% shooting. I think there is a 58% shooting upside 10.10 rebound, two and a half block season in in like a 25minut random roll in four years time. Maybe I think he’s got some potential to maybe be a bit of a shooter as well. But it is complete dark throw stuff for the guy with sort of no experience, one of the youngest players in the NBA. The fact that he even did that at the G- League level should make your antennas go a little bit up and go, okay, that’s something to watch. I don’t think he’s going to be ready to take on any backup sort of role next season. I think we’re more talking 27 28 honestly before he’s able to maintain a regular role. But this this will be a key year cuz it’s the second year on his two-way and we’ll see what he does in the G- League and how much he comes up to the NBA. But Shamshi was a guy that given how poor that draft class was last year, I would have taken a flyer at the end of the first round honestly just to get the four years of control of development on him. Nobody did that. It might not work out at all and maybe he can’t do anything apart from block shots. But there have been players who can only block shots who’ve turned into reasonable NBA players. And I think Shamshi’s got enough there where I I can I can actually see it occurring. It’s a long shot and we I got nothing to judge it by in his NBA minutes, but the G-League numbers were were pretty interesting. And that’s the Raptors. That’s the end of the Raptors. That’s the end of looking at this team. Tomorrow, I think we’re going to be doing the Phoenix Suns. Yep. We’re doing the Phoenix Suns tomorrow. Raptors are done. And yeah, hit the subscribe. You’ll never miss an episode. Check the earlier episode if you haven’t seen it when we talk about Ingram and Purle and who’s the other one quickly and the other older players and and big discussion on Garrett Temple as well. Guys, we are done here. Thank you so much for listening everyone. See you. [Music]

Toronto Raptors’ young stars are under the spotlight as Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett’s performances are dissected in this NBA Fantasy Basketball episode. Discover how Barnes, a former Rookie of the Year, and Barrett, with his evolving role, are shaping the Raptors’ future.

Josh Lloyd, from the Locked On Fantasy Basketball podcast, dives into the potential of Jonathan Mogbo and the rookie seasons of Gradey Dick and Jamal Shead. Are these players the key to the Raptors’ success, or are there hidden challenges ahead?

Explore the dynamics of the Toronto Raptors’ roster, the impact of Brandon Ingram and Immanuel Quickley, and the prospects of other young talents like Ja’Kobe Walter and Jonathan Mogbo

Don’t miss out on this comprehensive NBA Fantasy Basketball analysis – watch or listen now to gain insights into the Raptors’ future!

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🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOFantasyBasketball?sid=YouTube

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0:00 – Introducing young Raptors players
0:37 – Scottie Barnes analysis
5:44 – RJ Barrett evaluation
13:22 – Jonathan Kuminga review
17:58 – Gradey Dick assessment
24:05 – Jamal Shead discussion
27:09 – Colin Castleton and others
31:15 – Ulrich Chomche potential
33:49 – Outro and next episode preview