The Toronto Raptors NEED Brandon Ingram to stay healthy next season — will he? | Mailbag Show!
on your Wednesday episode of Locked On Raptors how many games will Brandon Ingram play this year and what’s the best way to build around Scotty Barnes the excellent defender all that and more on a Mailbag show thanks for hanging you are Locked On Raptors your daily Toronto Raptors podcast part of the Locked On podcast network your team every 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 Wednesday June the 11th and I am your host Sean Woodley i’ve been covering the Toronto Raptors now for 11 seasons on various platforms you can find all my work over on Blue Sky you can find the show on Instagram you can join us in the Lockdown Raptors Discord server great place to come hang out talk ball and of course to ask mailbag questions which we’re going to answer many of today and also tomorrow with Katie Hindel so yeah double mailbag action coming at you uh today’s show is brought to you by friends over at Game Time download the Game Time app create an account use the code locked.NBA for $20 off your first purchase and we are off and running here on a Wednesday mailbag edition of the podcast the freaks in the Discord came through asked some great questions we’ve got a whole bunch and so we are going to split this up into two we’ll rattle through the first batch here today we’ve got questions about uh the 2019 championship Raptors were they lucky or were they good we will get into uh draft risers at least in my own mind over the last couple of weeks we’ll talk about precious ata yeah we got a lot to get to today we will do that over the course of the next 30 or so let’s start here with a question from psychic pretty important one asking Brandon Ingram has played an average of 59.6 games per season excluding the 20242 season of course this past year where the Raptors may or may not have held him out uh for losing purposes would you take the over or under on that many games for him next season so going back through Brandon Ingram’s career he has played more than 59 games I guess more than 60 games 60 plus five times in his 9-year NBA career he’s been in the 50s twice and then he had that 18 gamer this past year and a 45 gamer a couple of years ago as well you know the injuries with him a lot there’s a lot of lower body stuff can’t lie there’s ankles there’s Achilles stuff there’s knees there’s also like deep vein thrombosis back in 2019 uh which of course is the thing that kept Victor Webbyama out for the rest of for the back part of this season and Damen Lillard of course missed a lot of time with that before coming back in the playoffs you know that one’s a freak weird one obviously the lower body stuff is maybe a little bit more troublesome worrisome if you are someone hoping Brandon Ingram is going to stay healthy which the Toronto Raptors obviously have a lot invested in Brandon Ingram staying healthy uh look I feel like it’s no fun at all to just pick the under and be like he’s going to be hurt again oh he’s going to we’re going to be sad he’s not going to play enough and so while I don’t feel amazing about it considering recent years and considering he’s usually kind of been in that 60-ish range um throughout his career I’ll take the over just because there’s got to be an effect to not working for the New Orleans Pelicans organization a yes they’ve changed over they are no longer the franchise that has also a football team under the purview of their medical staff no they they’ve they’ve they’ve modernized a little bit but they’re still the New Orleans Pelicans and they’re still so hurt all the damn time obviously um you know you can go on down the list a number of guys who’ve gotten hurt in that team and look probably a lot of it is freak stuff dejonte Murray tears his Achilles what are you going to do about that it happens to even the most durable players in the world like Jason Tatum for example but I think generally speaking the Pelicans are just like a less well-run franchise and I think the Raptors will take every precaution i would bet there will be some strategic rest load management if you will you want to bring that turn back into the lexicon here for the Raptors with Brandon Ingram coming in you know next year beyond um but also like they need Ingram to play they need him to be on the floor they need him to help grease the wheels of an offense that finishes the bottom five again and they’re counting on him being a healthy and functional part of this team alex McKnney is one of the very best in the business when it comes to help you know keeping guys fresh keeping guys healthy obviously the Raptors have had freak injury stuff over the last couple years stuff you can’t really avoid and that stuff could totally happen sometimes Emanuel Quickley falls on his ass real hard in the first half of the first game of the season sometimes he suffers a baseball injury for some random freak reason sometimes Scotty Barn is going to take an elbow from Nicole Jokic or get kicked in the hand by Emanuel Quickley and miss some time with a broken face or a broken hand these things are part of sports it happens and I think if Brandon Ingram suffers injuries next year you know obviously he has the history of not being super healthy and you you can start point fingers and say “Oh the Raptors been on the wrong guy.” But also sometimes injuries just happen and that’s life and um you know bad things can happen without there being some nefarious force at play or having someone you know get the blame for screwing up or whatever either way I think it’s fair to be optimistic i think they obviously did not want to push it with the ankle thing he was dealing with this year he’s going to have a full summer to ramp up to fully recover fully recuperate go into next season with nothing nagging and again I think they’ll probably be pretty smart about not overdoing it you know careful on backto-backs things like that as a lot of teams are these days with a lot of their star players it’s a it’s a big risk of course to bring in Ingram but the cost still was well worth it considering they gave up one first round pick uh that is going to be the Pacers pick next year the Pacers I don’t know if you heard they’re really good they’re probably going to be like a top three team in the East next year at this rate barring health issues for them um yeah feel pretty good about what they gave up still a good buy low acquisition worth the risks but certainly there are risks there i’ll take the over but I don’t feel amazing about it and uh you know that’s kind of the case with most guy guys get hurt the NBA just like 65 games is sort of the norm these days for most players if you can get over 60 I think you’re laughing if Brandon Ingram is playing 62 65 whatever it might be um another question about another guy this team is very much built around and I lump these in together because it feels important that these two guys get talked about in tandem it’s about Scotty Barnes uh this is from Nico in the Discord asking “In thinking through team team in thinking through team building draft trade free agency do you prioritize Scotty as a free safety ror on defense or as a front court stopper how much does that guide to the kind of guys you want to bring in?” It’s an interesting question i think for me like the the way I view Scotty Barnes in sort of his peak ideal situation as a as a defensive player is that as like sort of a help rim protector mess cleaner upper uh the guy who mops up the mess when the perimeter defense fails when the team gets in rotation and there’s a free lane way to the rim scotty Barnes in help as a rim protector shot blocker possession swallower is really damn good he gave up just over 56% at the rim this season on all shots he contested at the rim that was right in the range of guys like Jared Allen and Giannis attent he’s a very good defensive player he made an absolutely incredible leap this year again I think it almost gets slept on because the team wasn’t good but you know and I know everyone sort of looks at the back part of the season and says “Oh well you know the team was bad and they were tanking and they they they played the awful schedule and so like does any of it really matter?” I do think there is some real legitimacy to some of the defensive stuff we saw from the Raptors this year and as I’ve said they got to reinforce it they got to bring in more guys with defensive talent to help ensure that it’s not Scotty Barnes having to do everything but the Raptors defense with Scotty Barnes on the floor was pretty damn good the Raptors defense with Scotty Barnes and Yaka Purle on the floor was damn near elite for the entire season the Raptors defense was 4.7 points per 100 possessions better when Scotty Barnes played for cleaning the glass so a pretty substantial uptick for a team that finished in the middle of the pack defensively they were a top 10-ish defense in Scotty Barnes’s minutes and then when Yaka Purle and he shared the floor they put up 110.4 defensive rating per clean in the glass that is over 2,000 possessions together it’s a lot of time spent we know Purle and Scotty played a ton of time together it’s equivalent to the number three defense in the league over the course of the full regular season if you were to take that all the way that is like really substantial and it puts you know it’s interesting like I think Scotty Barnes is such a good defensive player it allows you to get kind of creative with how you work with him like I think if you wanted him to be like a big long wing stopper he’s improved enough dancing with guys in space that he could probably do that for you and be just fine i think still he’s better as that sort of backline help defender who can help clean up messes give you supplementary supplementary rim protection i think he can be a small ball center as well and defend well in pick and roll whether it’s switching whether it’s hedging whether it’s in drop I think he can do all of that i think he’s a just like a really special defender um I think basically you know put a good to slightly above average rim protector next to him you can get away with a lot i mean there were very often three bad defenders on the floor when the Raptors played this season and yet in those Scotty and Ple minutes they were still a good very good defense and so I think what I’m fascinated by when it comes to building around Scotty defensively is like what is the compounding effect once you start adding some really good perimeter defense around him right i think Brandon Ingram is going to help a little bit he’s not a great defender you know sort of one-on-one historically but I do think he is long and that there’s like a lot of functional size there to help kind of herang ball handlers stuff like that and then you know we’ve talked about RJ Barrett the elephant in the room with this team like he’s not a good defensive player if you had a better defensive two who could take on those big assignments right this is why I’m so into a guy like Cedric Coward that’s why I’m interested in Carter Bryant though a little less because I think his offense is going to take some time but um like a defensive wing a guy who can go and hang as your sort of lead guy taking on wing assignments you know dancing with some guards from time to time um I think if you just have like one really good defender around Scotty Barnes on the perimeter plus a good rim protector next to him you can build yourself a damn good defense and get away with some less good defense other positions i know people have their issues with Emanuel quickly defensively i think he was actually perfectly fine and you know when he was on the floor with Purle and Barnes like he was right alongside those guys when it came to like the onc court defensive metrics i think that’s more likely because Scotty and Purle were out there but uh he still was one of the better onoff guys for the team defensively you know in a way that like RJ Barrett was not he also shared the floor a lot lot with Scotty and Purle like I think quickly at the point of attack high pickup points fighting over screen screen navigation all of that he showed tangible signs of improvement this year we know he’s a good rotational defender he’s a good shot cont there’s an average to slightly above average defender there and for that position I’m totally fine with it yeah yeah if they can i mean hey maybe Jacobe Walter steps up and is just like a really excellent wing defender you know he’s not super big he maybe isn’t going to take on the 68 69 guys who can handle the ball and stuff like that but you know maybe he’s able to offer a little bit more resistance at the point of attack to kind of free up Scotty Barnes not have to do everything all the time um but I do think there will be a compounding effect to adding just one more really good defender to this team and so yeah find more good defenders man that’s that’s where I’m at um and I think if you found like this is why I’m so into the Kaman Malawatch idea for for for the draft is like if you paired Scotty Barnes with like a true awesome killer rim protector who was so big and wings spanny and ground coveragey for lack of way better terms like if you had someone who could kind of man the rim on his own and you unleash Scotty Barnes just put out fires all over the place dance with guards in space double team with his length and his sort of his understanding of angles and stuff like that then I think you’re weaponizing him as just like this incredible defensive player um which again he still has that helper protection stuff there but if a if a guy at the rim doesn’t need a whole lot of help because he’s just there all the time and he’s excellent then I think that opens up a lot of possibilities for Scotty Barnes as well more good defenders around Scotty Barnes will free up Scotty Barnes to do cool stuff on defense and I marry into that we’re going to come back on the other side get into some more questions from you the listeners including uh look I’m going to be a dad soon we have a very very important question about that as it pertains to the Toronto Raptors plus the 2029 2019 Toronto Raptor were they lucky or good i can only pick one apparently we’ll get into that to continue the mailbag show coming up in just one sec today’s show is brought to you by our friends over at Wayfair there’s nothing like stepping into your own outdoor space and feeling like you’ve escaped to a personal oasis if you’re wanting to update your patio this season Wayfair has made it so easy to turn your space into one that feels like yours comfortable stylish and ready for summer wayfair is everything you need to level up your outdoor space conversation sets outdoor fires fire pits outdoor bars all that good stuff gazeos yes all that big stuff string lights i got string lights in my backyard baby i’m basic as hell i love them so if you want to do all that you can give your backyard a facelift with Wayfair go check them out uh like I am going to be sitting outside a lot i think I’ll be at home with the newborn for the next six weeks or so and yeah I’m just very much excited to Hey you know go sit outside go get the sunshine read a book that type of stuff in the downtime in between feedings and changings and all that stuff i’m really excited i got a really nice outdoor space and if you want that too you can go and do that don’t wait make your outdoor space your dream oasis today and with Wayfair and enjoy it all summer long weird weirdly said but that’s you get the point head to wayfair.com right now and shop a huge selection of outdoor goods that’s wayfair.com w afir.com wayfair every style every home back at it here on your Wednesday mailbag edition of Lockdown Raptors again katie Hind will be along for part two of this on Thursday and working on a fun guest for Friday my last show before I go off for uh an indetermined amount of time probably six weeks or so um for paternity leave and our palette Jacob will be along and he’ll host a show and guide you through the drafting for agency and stuff i might pop in once in a while um here and there when I got a moment and you know something’s you know really on my mind that I got to just get into a microphone or whatever but uh Big V will take over and he’s going to be great so looking forward to that uh this one comes from Nico on that topic what’s the first Raptors jersey you get for the kiddo is this a Shawn decision or you let them discover the Raptors passion on their own um look I’m not going to force my child to uh watch a basketball team when the time comes but I will force them when they have no other choice to wear a babysized Kyle Lowry jersey which I have already purchased uh it is from the uh like the championship era like 2015 16,1 17 18 era it’s uh it’s it’s great looking i love it and I cannot wait to take little pictures of little guy in uh Kyle Larry Raptors jersey this this was a purchase of my wife by the way because she’s way better at this stuff than I am um but yeah that’s a no-brainer baby kyle Lowry you know big baby butts you got big butts kyle Lowry’s got a big butt it’s perfect symmetry either way Kyle Lowry that is the answer to this question next one here speaking of Kyle Lowry in the 2019 Toronto Raptors Mugsy asks “On a previous pod you mentioned a team has to be good and lucky to win a championship were the 2019 Raptors good or lucky you can’t say both you have to choose one and stick with it.” This is an unfair question Mugsy because uh look undeniably the Raptors got very lucky during that run uh Kevin Durant got hurt in the conference finals out west and was not available for the start of the finals and then horribly tore his Achilles his first game back that sucked it was rough and obviously the Raptors benefited from that and the Klay Thompson injury and all that stuff and so if you want to say they’re lucky fine whatever i think every single NBA champion is baseline lucky and I think if you’re just looking at that Raptors team it’s pretty undeniable that they were so good that they made their own luck they were an incredibly built basketball team you had two former defensive players of the year in Kawhi Leonard and Marcus Saul you had Kyle Lowry Pascal Seakam just rising to prominence danny Green like a perfect made in a lab fifth starter for that team when you’re just talking like basketball utopia five players on a floor skills interacting with one another shooting defense playmaking connectivity that team was like perfectly built og Anobi did not even play in the playoff run with the appendecttomy and they were still just fine norman Powell was awesome fred Van Vleet couldn’t miss for an entire two-eek stretch and Sergea was one of the low-key unsung heroes of that team the only guy not named Kawhi Leonard who wasn’t scared out of his pants in game seven against the Sixers uh had some massive moments in the finals was incredible played the double big lineups with Marcus Saul that got them through the Sixers series like Sergio Baka was the man and he was like the eighth man on that team maybe maybe that was Powell was probably the eighth man on that team but still like that team was awesome they were so good they were as well-built as any champion has been non like super team version in years like I think if you take that 2019 Raptors team and you consider like the path they went through the Sixers were like really good that was a damn good Sixers team the Bucks won 60 plus games that year won the first two games of the series nearly won game three before the Raptors pulled it out of their ass and won that one they come back and win the four straight obviously then you take down the Warriors who even without Kevin Durant were horrifying like Clay and Steph still very much at the peak of their powers in that series that was a hell of a run one of the more difficult pathways you’ll see a team take through the playoffs and I think you don’t make it through the Sixers series if you’re not good you don’t win the Bucks series if you’re not good and you don’t beat the Warriors and take advantage of NBA weirdness in the form of Kevin Durant’s injury stuff happening if you’re not good so yeah they were good that team was awesome that team kicked ass i’d take that team over the 2020 Lakers without a doubt i think if they stay together they win that championship in the bubble i take them over the 2021 Bucks who were good yes but also kind of dubious at times and had their wobbly moments and the Raptors had you know obviously Drew Holidayiday wasn’t on the team the year prior but like I’m taking the Raptors over the over the Bucks that year in 2021 the Warriors were awesome in 2022 i’m taking the Raptors like the 2019 Raptors as they were constructed in 2019 against that team as well i’m maybe not taking them against the Jokic Nuggets although Marcusaul probably one of the better dudes who you could pro possibly throw out against Nicole Joic and the Denver Nuggets at the peak of their powers that’d be an awesome incredible series um you might take the Raptors there honestly although I think the Nuggets team was amazing um you know the Celtics maybe just like three-point shoot their way to a series win last year but in my own good conscience I can’t pick the Raptors to lose to the Celtics last year so yeah Celtics beat them too or Raptors beat them too sorry uh and then you know the Thunder this year horrifying i don’t know but like that Raptors team was awesome man like such a good basketball team yes I’m a homer but if you go back over the years hard to find a basketball team with fewer weaknesses than that team and we are in the era of weaknesses being the thing that causes your downfall in the NBA that team didn’t really have any that team was awesome it was perfectly constructed i love them with all my heart man shout out to the 2019 Toronto Raptors uh two years two days away from the six year anniversary from that title good times uh but that we’re going to come back on the other side we’re going to rattle through a handful more questions we may not get to all the ones we teased but we’ll try to get to as many as we can and if we don’t get to them don’t worry we’ll get to them on tomorrow’s podcast so Mailbag Action 3.0 coming up just one sec today’s show is brought to you by our friends over at Game Time and look man I love going to sporting events it’s one of my favorite things to do just like with my time with my whatever money I have it’s great and it’s one of the things I’m most excited to do with my little guy once he’s able to go to sports games as well which is what three months that’s fine yeah either way uh yeah I’m very excited for uh you know when I can start taking him to games because it’s one of my favorite things to do when I was a kid with my dad it was awesome uh obviously the NBA playoffs are going on you got the finals and all of that if you are crazy enough to go want to go buy finals tickets and travel to Indiana or Oklahoma City by all means go do that you’ll get the best deal at game time for sure or if you’re more local you’re in Toronto you want to go see the Blue Jays who are absolutely white hot right now you can go see the Blue Jays in person that’s awesome i went with Katie Hindel last week to a Blue Jays game it was great we bought our tickets on Game Time it was awesome we sat in the outfield they were super cheap it was a zone deal it was great highly recommend you go and play around with Game Time you’ll find great seats for all kinds of concerts move theater shows uh obviously sports comedy everything go check it out take the guess work out of buying tickets with Game Time download the Game Time app create an account use the code locked in NBA for 20 bucks off your first purchase terms apply again create an account redeem the code locked in NBA yellow cke and NBA for 20 bucks off download the Game Time app today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed wrapping things up here on your Wednesday mailbag edition of the podcast again we’ve got a whole bunch of good ones from you lovely little freaks in the Locked on Raptors Discord again join the Discord if you want to get your questions in link in the description of the podcast saw some old friends in there we’ll get some uh yeah all kinds of questions over the next couple of days please jump on in this one here comes from Right Hook Ray 54 asking with Spicy Pinning Conference Finals MVP to head to the finals i have a sliding door question sort of why was Jaylen Suggs or even Josh Giddy not considered as valuable as Scotty Barnes to build around Pascal instead um first of all Josh Giddy no nope he stinks he’s not good uh a lot of people are getting tricked by the March Chicago Bulls and I think that is silly i do not think the Chicago Bulls are any good whatsoever and they are going to hand Josh Giddy a contract that is going to get absolutely roasted the second it gets signed and he’s going to go back to only putting up good numbers in March like like like clockwork like as soon as next season i do not think he’s a winning basketball player um this you know takes the offc court stuff even out of it but like you um yeah Josh Giddy not good uh like flashy gets numbers don’t think he drives winning when it matters most at all as we saw in the playin when they got absolutely spanked that he’s just not a winning basketball player awful defensive player no offball juice whatsoever he has to have the ball at all times to be effective and if you’re running your whole team through Josh Giddy you are screwed uh like the fit concerns between Pascal and Scotty would have been significantly worse if Josh Giddy were in Scotty Barnes’s place because not only would you have the sort of overlapping of two large ball handling types but also you’d have the tremendously awful defense that Josh Giddy plays on a nightly basis jaylen Suggs like I just think it’s pretty clear the Raptors just wanted to go for the guy they thought had the most overall sort of athletic juice and talent like they took the most talented player they deemed available if Jayen Suggs were on this team like Jayen Suggs to me is the kind of guy who puts an excellent team over the top if the Cleveland Cavaliers can figure out a way to get Jaylen Suggs on their team like man that would be awesome he’d be so good um but I I I think you know running your offense through Jaylen Suggs I was you know I thought they were going to pick him at four that year i I I thought hey like you hand the keys of the team from Kyle Lowry to Jaylen Suggs you’ll be all good i think what we’ve seen is that the shooting is just not there for him to be a primary creator whatsoever and clearly the Raptors saw that too when they chose not to take him against everybody uh and their expectations right it was a really kind of out of left field pick that it seemed like it was like a shocker on draft night um again Jaylen Suggs is a really good player but I would much rather have Scotty Barnes than Jaylen Jaylen Suggs you know obviously Suggs has proven he can be a cog in a winningish team in in the past scotty’s had moments too as well unsuccessful teams especially as a rookie obviously um but I just think you know it was a clear best player available thing for them and they didn’t really care about the positions and obviously they things have gone the way they did i still totally think Scotty Pascal together with the right team build around them would have been very good i think it kind of got doomed the day they traded for Yaka Purle and had a non-shooting big man next to those two if you had a shooting big man with those guys I think it could have made beautiful sweet basketball music for a very long time just didn’t work out that way and by the end they just had to move on from Pascal to restock the cupboards a little bit and reset the team um but yeah Suggs Giddy no thanks the one guy from that draft who there’s a little bit of Huh how would that have looked to me is I mean Shangun’s one i mean I don’t think the fit with Saka would have been very good he’s not a good shooter um not a great defender and he’s fine defender he’s okay i think the Rockets just sort of defensive infrastructure makes him look better than he probably is just in on an island um you know that would have been all right again I think the fit’s kind of rough the one guy who really I think had they drafted him which they wouldn’t have drafted him at number four but the one guy from that class who might have really made the OG Seakum thing really work is Trey Murphy um you know just a damn good lights out shooter 6’10 would have fit the vision um was never going to be the fourth overall pick so it’s not really worth considering or thinking about it and man oh man am I happy they avoided taking Jonathan Kaminga number four as well so yeah I think they did as well as they could have with that pick at this point and you know it’s a weird sliding doors thing but I I’m not sitting here hoping that wishing they had gotten Jaylen Suggs or Josh Giddy i think they probably end up moving on and breaking up that team faster if it’s one of those two guys as opposed to Scotty Barnes coming in the door uh last question here from Glass Casket asking “Nicks may not may not plan to resign Precious Achua do we take another chance on him as a backup?” I think I’m out on the Precious Achua thing man uh I just like if I’m bringing in a big I need the big to be like actually a big which I never really thought Precious Acha was a big i I think his path was going to be as like a three four guy who could hit threes if he was ever going to hit threes but he doesn’t hit threes and I just don’t think he does center things well enough he’s not a good enough kind of classic rim protector he’s more of a guard guys in space and switch type of guy you know they have Jonathan Mobo i I don’t really need to see Precious Achua in that role um and I think yeah he’s not a good offensive center he doesn’t set screens well he doesn’t roll he doesn’t pass like not a whole lot of connectivity there we will always have the back part the last 35 games or so of the 202122 season where Precious Achila was banging threes and looking like he was going to be the guy that made Vision 69 viable just didn’t pan out like we’ll always have the the pullup three in the face of Joel Embiid and all that good stuff but um yeah it’s just I think you’re just trying to make fetch happen at that point if you’re going after Precious at Chua trying to make him part of this team not the backup I’m looking for i’m looking for like a real large big man who’s just like eats space can be a classic rim protector for you or someone who has some offensive touch some skill some shooting passing whatever i think Precious Aua kind of brings none of that and you know it’s a shame like Precious he was fun really fun player we love the poster coaster in these parts but um you know the the coaster part he was a roller coaster man and I think the Raptors need some stability in that backup center spot for sure i I just don’t quite see it with Precious sadly hopefully he latches on somewhere but maybe the end of the road for him because he just kind of doesn’t do a lot of things you need from NBA role players um lastly here let’s jump into a question here from Jay Rich asking “As a front office does it make more or less sense to shift from rebuilding to trying to bring together a championship contender given the potential weakness of the Eastern Conference?” Um I think in the Raptors case I’m glad to see that they’re making steps towards being competent within the East do I think they’re going to be a playoff team i you know they can be i would know if it’s like a surefire thing by any means but the East is bad and they’re going to have a lot of effective good players um you know and potentially some internal growth guys in terms of Jacobe Walter and Grady Dick Shed Mo etc whoever they draft this year as well um I think they’re going to be a pretty good regular season team how equipped are they for the playoffs i think that’s a very open question and like getting to the playoffs and learning that stuff is a really important thing and so I hope they do it next year um but yeah I think considering how many bad teams are in the East considering just the state of the lottery right like we just saw it you can tank your ass off all season long and still pick fifth or sixth like the Jazz or the Wizards and you’re like what was all that for i don’t think it would have made sense for the Raptors to run it back and try to tank again this year um you know you’re just it’s all lost time you’re just not getting back the Utah Jazz are not getting these years back the Wizards are not getting these years back and maybe one day it all works out for them and the lottery saves them but again you’re not getting the time back in the intervening moments and so um yeah I’m glad to see they’re trying to do the build from the middle thing collect a bunch of good players have flexibility you can quibble about how flexible they are at the moment with like trade value for guys like Quickly and RJ Barrett they’re not really at like super high peaks of value although I think Barrett you know might be an eye of the beholder thing with teams around the league but like if the team is good next year then all of a sudden things start to look a little better in terms of the value of those contracts and their tradability and how you can then use those guys to improve and find guys elsewhere like that’s the model they’re doing here this is what the Raptors do this is what they’ve always liked to do going back to 20134 when they had a team of kind of you know solid good players who were a little unsure a little uneasy and then they got good and then when you’re good it be gets get being good for longer ter longer periods of time so yeah I think this is the right move I don’t think they’re going to be a championship contender next year by any means but I also don’t think championship contention can be the only bar for team building especially when you’re a franchise that has won a championship when the odds suggested that your franchise was never going to win an NBA championship which like let’s be real if you would asked me in 2011 will the Toronto Raptors ever win an NBA championship my answer would have been hell no like there’s no way this franchise is ever doing it have you seen this franchise they did the impossible i’m all right to just be like a pretty good team for a while and I get that rubs the people who are championship or bust the wrong way um but I’m not that way and so I just want to watch good hoop man and I think they have the capacity to play good hoop assuming Ingram’s healthy like we talked about earlier assuming you get internal growth and you know all this type of stuff quickly stays healthy and looks good etc um but yeah I think it’s the right move to pivot towards trying to be competitive because doing the tanking thing sucks uh we’re going to leave it there thank you so much for rocking with the show be back again tomorrow for my penultimate pre-paternity leave podcast we’ll have Katie Hindel on we’ll finish up the mailbag we got lots of good ones still left to get into and then Friday my hope is that we’re going to have Keandre Ashley from Hoop and Elect my favorite YouTube draft channel he’s great he was on last year and we’ll talk about some draft guys so you have to let that to look forward to on Friday um like 95% fingers crossed if it doesn’t work out you’ll just get me and I’ll uh you know send you off into the weekend either way thank you so much for rocking with the show as always follow subscribe rate review go to the Discord link in the description of the podcast we’ll talk to you soon thanks for hanging bye-bye i am awful
The Toronto Raptors need Brandon Ingram to stay healthy in 2025-25 — but will he? In Episode 1885, Sean Woodley goes solo to field listener questions about the health of Brandon Ingram, building around Scottie Barnes’ elite defense, and whether the championship Toronto Raptors of 2019 were “good” or “lucky” in a world where only one can be true. Off the top, Sean answers a question about whether or not Brandon Ingram will play more than the 59.6 per-year average he sported before just playing 18 games this past season. Plus, what’s Scottie Barnes’ best defensive role, and how can the Raptors build with that in mind? Next, which Raptors jersey will be the first that Sean buys for his soon to be born son? And if only one of the two options can hold up, were the 2019 Raptors lucky, or good? Lastly, Sean fields questions about the sliding doors of the 2021 NBA Draft, and whether it’s the right time for the Raptors to pushing to be competitive in a bad Eastern Conference.
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