RAPTORS TRADING FOR DURANT? NBA PLAYOFF & CEBL RECAP!

RAPTORS TRADING FOR DURANT? NBA PLAYOFF & CEBL RECAP!

hello and welcome to Run It Back on the Raptors Republic Network i’m Zofie Shake here joined by Cody Wilds fortunately no Kyle Ramarine again this week i know I sound like a broken record but he is a busy man he’s an older wiser man now cody his birthday just passed so if you haven’t been able to say that to Kyle happy belated birthday to him everybody show him some love down below in the comments or send him a message on social media cody you weren’t there but we had a basketball run for Kyle’s birthday and uh towards the end he was starting to catch fire a little bit he made a couple threes you know he was feeling good i think I may have instigated him into like a bit of a heat check and he forced up a like a very late break in a close game but you know that’s part of playing pickup hoop but uh it it was a fun time but how have you been Cody hey I’ve been good i wish I could have made it unfortunately was doing some work so uh tough to uh balance it all hey it’s Kyle is getting older man getting a little more comfortable in the league so it’s nice that he’s able to uh start to show it a little bit but yeah I’m glad you guys had fun and happy birthday Kyle yeah I think that’s a it’s a good way to end and I’m doing good too yeah I’m doing Yeah I’m glad i’m glad yeah thank you for mentioning how you were doing well as well Cody we always want to know that you are doing well uh but besides that not a ton that happened in Raptors land this week but we still have plenty to talk about uh we’re going to go over some more star hunting rumors that relate to the Toronto Raptors some possible leak jerseys that are circulating online i’m sure we’ll both have some interesting thoughts on that well we’ll kind of give our initial impressions on games one and two of the NBA Finals uh game three will be later tonight once this comes out and then if we have time for it we’ll also catch you up on everything CBL as we all know that I love to do uh but before we get into it as always please make sure to like this video subscribe to the Raptors Republic YouTube channel that way we make sure we’re getting to as many new people as possible and comment down below what you’ve made of the recent Raptors buzz and again wish Kyle a happy birthday uh but with that being said let’s run it back and Cody we’re going to do a bit of a rumor roundup similar to last week but I think as far as the the big fish the Giannis and Tedmpo front uh I I don’t even want to say things have stagnated they may have gone in the opposite direction of that and we’ll chat about that in a second but uh I think it’s be it be let’s freshen it up a bit by focusing on another name we kind of did talk about this person last week but uh it was recently reported by ESPN’s Sean Trannia that uh Kevin Durant was the name that the Knicks actually made a trade offer for so his name was back in rumor circles i know we talked about how the Phoenix Suns are kind of looking at using a KD as a way to kind of like reset their team and then the way Toronto gets into his mix recently Jake Fiser NBA insider he was speaking on his podcast and he kind of spoke and mentioned Toronto saying that Toronto has likewise been painted by numerous NBA figures as a potential suitor for Durant particularly if Antarmpo doesn’t reach the open market the Raptors furthermore would figure to have a more realistic shot at assembling a competitive trade offer for Durant compared to the mammoth offers that the Bucks would inevitably seek for Antenna Kmpo’s services and just to tie a bow on that Cody uh today as of recording Brian Windhorse ESPN did basically report saying that he believes that Kevin Durant will get traded in the coming weeks so he’s pretty confident that a KD move will happen obviously no like real indication yet that Toronto will be involved we can get into Katie’s numbers and stuff in a bit but Cody your initial impressions of the KD buzz I guess like growing and now the Raptors being attached to that possibility given this logic of no Giannis so what about Katie yeah um last week I was I I we talked about Katie a little bit and I guess when you have Giannis still on the table it was like ah Katie doesn’t seem as appealing and now it’s looking like Giannis uh probably isn’t going to be going anywhere unfortunately for every other fan of a team that isn’t the Milwaukee Bucks so Kevin Durant looks like he’s going to be excuse me the best the best option available um if you want a big fish as the Raptors reportedly want to go get um I knowing all that now taking a week back to think about it i don’t hate it if they were going to go get him um I think I have what the trade would be um I think I’ve kind of put that together so I’ve a lot of my time this past couple days just been sitting thinking about if um if this is what is going to happen and this would be the offer uh would I like it and um I don’t know i don’t know but I I mean yeah if they Toronto’s half court offense has been terrible he would obviously uh help in that um if he were to come to Toronto uh I wonder what the fit alongside like a Brandon Ingram would look like that’d be kind of funny and cool at the same time so um yeah it would be I’m open to it but I mean uh a 36-y old who’s making 55 million on a one-year deal it is also who has battled some injuries um it’s always tough it’s always tough to want to pay a high price you know what I mean yeah I I think that’s a that’s a good way to put it and Cody you wrote about it on raptors.com kind of like the reporting surrounding it and a big note from the I guess the Phoenix Suns front is it’s been reported that they are interested in a center in return to obviously fix their situation there basically since trading DeAndre Aiden they haven’t been able to find a solution for their team whether it was uh uh Nick Richards that they traded for Ysef Nerkish before that nothing has really stuck for them so far obviously I’m not sure what your package that you’ve come up with is i’m assuming Yaka Purle and his money could be a part of it especially with the Sun’s interest so that’s something to keep in mind i think I think in a vacuum the idea of adding KD to this team is a lot of fun given the context that it wouldn’t require as much as Giannis obviously like and that’s what a lot of the reporting is saying if the Raptors could get KD I don’t want to say for pennies on the dollar but for a much lower price than it would have costed for Giannis and keep a lot of this nucleus together like essentially at that point are you trying to throw Phoenix a pick or two plus the the salaries to make it happen to get Kevin Durant who yes 36 yes 55 million yes injury prone but just averaged 26 and a half points six rebounds four assists and two stocks shooting basically 50 40 84 for from the field and uh so like that spacing that fourth quarter scoring that half court offense like you said Cody next to Scotty Barnes makes a ton of sense to me i will absolutely concede to anyone that brings up the Brandon Ingram point that is something that would be headcratching it’d be like seeing Kevin Durant and Kevin Durant light next to each other it’s basically like two very similar players in terms of how they can operate i think that’s an interesting part and I will also concede that there’s question marks for Kevin Durant defensively i’ve always been like an advocate to say that especially during his prime and obviously that’s easier to say because he was next to some of those guys in Golden State who were awesome defensively but I always thought Kevin Durant was an amazing help defender i think he’s a little underrated in that aspect to be quite honest but his defensive rating has basically regressed year over year for the last four seasons and this past season in uh Phoenix it was basically the worst it’s been his entire career we can we can give some of that becau away because team context matters it’s a 36 win Suns team it’s not like he was surrounded by great defenders either but he obviously does play a part in that especially if it’s gotten worse year-over-year but I I think in a vacuum the idea of adding KD at good value is something you have to seriously consider so in my mind I’m kind of there right now where like it just truly comes down to what the offer would be okay well I I’ll ask you cuz I mean the more I’ve been sitting studying on it and thinking about it and if the Suns um per you know Matt Moore of the Action Network uh they’re wanting to prioritize acquiring a center back so uh I mean Yaka Purle and RJ Barrett makes the money work and it’s um it’s a matter of what you want to do pick-wise after that if there would be picks uh I’m not sure i don’t think you could give up nine in that scenario from Toronto i think if you’re going to trade Yakob like that you need to draft the big you’re kind of forced into drafting a center at that point so I’ll ask you i mean just to lay the baseline would you do RJ Barrett and Yaka Purle straight up for Kevin Durant i think so i I I think I would just because like see I say that I’m not even selling myself completely this is the hard part because I’m like okay these are Sorry go ahead oh that’s that’s what that’s literally what I’ve been thinking about the last couple of days because if I mean if they want a center I would assume it would Phoenix would want to still be competitive i think they still want to be competitive around Devin Booker and what they got there adding two guys like that it’s just I don’t know if it totally makes sense from Toronto wise especially if you’re throwing in picks i’m not I mean he’s Durant is a ceiling razor right it’s it’s just I Yeah i don’t know i don’t know it’s It’s really It’s funky yeah it’s it’s funky that’s a great word it is super funky because you’re right it would raise the ceiling in an Eastern Conference landscape where there’s so many question marks right now so could that make them competitive absolutely but like I think the way I was looking at it initially was just like okay RJ Barrett Yakaper extension eligible these are two guys where you have to make financial decisions on soon you’re already so financially topheavy so like maybe cashing in and getting Kevin Durant who we know like just it would be like you kind of take away mouths to feed in that process and then you get back a guy Katie who can give you 26 and six but at the same time like you said Cody he has one year left on his deal owed 55 million there’s no like we’re doing a Kawhai situation all over again with a far less better team with not a player respectfully to KD not at Kawhai’s level at that time even though Kawhai had his own question marks so like I like the idea of it i like the funkiness i I’d rather have funkiness with dynamic scores and good spacing than funkiness without it like the Raptors have right now yeah you know what I mean but then like there is just so much risk to it because if you give up the picks and two players that like by no means you were guaranteed to give away in free agency the Raptors could obviously try to resign both RJ and Yakob right so if you give those guys away and you give the pick away for Kevin Durant who may or may not stay like I I do think there’s a risk to it so like in a roundabout way I might be talking myself out of it but like I think again like if you’re giving one pick plus those two guys and you feel like there’s other moves to be made like I’m not saying the Raptors have to trade Brandon Ingram right away or anything like that obviously like he’s he’s younger he has own question marks but he’s under contract compared to KD so I if the Raptors feel like they have other decisions they could make to continue building this team I think it’s very interesting and worth considering but like the more I think about it like you Cody the more I’m like stuck at a crossroads cuz like it it’s it’s basically an all-in type of trade but you’re not 100% sure the payoff is going to be worth it yeah and like Yeah he has oneear deal it could just be a rental i I mean the injuries are there like I mean if you get a really good Kevin Durant then Yeah i mean yeah I I mean I don’t know what a really good Kevin Durant at this stage is going to look like maybe in a new situation with a bit more defensive uh um stability around him yeah he could pop a little more on that end like he uh did in the past you know with that weak side protection and the overall help defending like you had mentioned with his length uh but yeah it’s I I I’ve come around a bit more on it since last week but I mean if the package is going to be the Suns probably want Yaka Purle RJ Barrett plus and it it would be tough to see even straight up is a bit of a a bit of a I don’t know just because you’re Is that really what you want to be cashing in on right now so yeah um I think it would kind of take away from what Toronto was building so I think if it was like a yes or no for me I’d say no right now and keep holding until that guy comes available or like someone like a Darius Garland apparently the Cavs are listening to calls on like that’s somebody you can go push those chips in with uh a bit more i would maybe lean a little bit younger um to go push those chips in yeah I I think ultimately and it’s funny I say this now because I think entering this conversation I would have leaned yes but I think ultimately just like you Cody I’m going to end up saying no because the age and the contract number are two things that are just hard for me to get past because like if you if you’re the Raptors and you say “Okay we’re not going to give you number nine because we’re going to need to trade a center because we’re giving you Yaka Purle we’ll give you a future first round pick.” And in your head you’re probably like “Well if we have Kevin Durant Scotty Barnes and some of these other guys that pick may not be all that high anyways.” But then if Kevin Durant leaves you and then you have you’re down a couple players as well and you’re even younger now then maybe that pick was going to be super valuable you know you just never know what happens in the NBA and then all of a sudden it just doesn’t look like a great trade at all to begin with so I think because of those uncertainties ultimately I do lean uh no on this deal obviously it’ll come down to the package but Cody you brought up an interesting point where like you said you’d probably hold your chips until you you think that guy is available that you’re ready to kind of like push it all into like onto the table for so recently with all this Kevin Durant news uh ESPN’s Brian Windors he basically reported that Giannis and Ted Kmpo trade market does not exist right now because Giannis has not requested a trade the Bucks are currently and he used the phrase right now not interested in trading Giannis and Ted Kmpo uh so basically I guess my question is if not Giannis are you are would you rather just stay put not make a decision or do you think the Raptors should continue this hunt for a star whatever that may be like you said a Darius Garland who by the way hopefully speedy recovery to him he’s out for a couple months after having to surgery uh but like if it’s Garland again a KD or someone else on those other names we mentioned last week do you still think that it makes sense for them to go after somebody or should they just keep waiting and building what they’re building i I mean I I I do think it makes sense to consolidate and go out and get somebody if the jump is what they want to do and clearly I think it’s something they want to do i mean it’s that’s been all the reporting and their moves have clearly signaled that they want to make a jump so I’m totally fine with that um obviously it comes down to who’s being traded and for what then maybe my tude would change a little bit depending on how much you’re really buying in like for Giannis obviously you’re giving up quite a bit but I mean for one of the guards we talked about last week a Darius Garland also um I I think I would because you need I they need that guard creator like especially if they go get a guard like like a Garland like a Trey Young i mean I’d be a little less sold on Trey Young but um one of those guys that’s available i think yeah they have they have a lot uh that can give all their future picks and then obviously all these rookies and young guys plus two more rookies coming in um but it also there’s no rush to me i mean why not continue to let to let these these guys grow there’s going to be a roster crunch at some point if you’re looking three years in the future two three years in the future like decisions are going to have to be made even next season like we just mentioned with RJ Bear and Yakob Purle what’s what’s going to be the direction here are you going to commit to those guys and kind of start that window or are you going to retool just a little bit to like you know more of like the last year’s rookies age and Scotty so it’s um yeah a lot of questions team building moving forward if they were to commit to somebody like that it would you know clear up a lot of uh they have they’d have a full direction but I mean it’s fine to have the optionality for now i would rather hold than you know go get a I don’t know was giving around a damaged asset i’d rather I’d rather hold than go get go get him yeah i You know this is funny Cody this kind of reminds me of like was it two seasons ago before the fire sale of like OG and Pascal or I guess you could even go the year before that when Fred was still around and then he walked we were always talking about like pick a decision like pick pick a lane like you know make a decision like are you are you rebuilding or are you continuing to be competitive and like we were just like just we just wanted an answer we wanted to know what the direction of this team was direction that’s the word I was looking for uh but I feel like we’re kind of kind of back in a similar spot where like you said Cody they they have the assets to consolidate and like pick a direction to jump into competitiveness which they appear to be leaning towards this upcoming season i I don’t want to say there’s like full expectations but I think they do want to see this roster be competitive for at least a good chunk of the year but like you said there also doesn’t feel like there needs to be a rush on it these guys are naturally progressing again because of injuries and everything that’s happened they haven’t had a lot of time together especially if you talk about the Brandon Ingram of it all who hasn’t played with this team yet even though he’s been signed to a contract extension so like do you kind of just want to see what the guys have which in some ways reminds me back in the day when Messiah was considering trading Kyle Lowry his bags were packed and everything and this was after the whole Ruby Gay situation and they kind of just let things breathe a little bit and then you saw what happened with Kyle Lowry and Demar Rozan they figured it out that team figured it out you just saw what it sparked 10 de 10 years of success for this franchise so like could that happen again possibly so you don’t really need to rush it but like you said Cody they’re just in such a good position if they wanted to they could make a decision so now we’re back to this whole crossroads of what direction do we pick yeah it’s it’s so funny i don’t know if that’s just like us as like trying to one direction i mean I think I think they made good decisions at the draft last year they had by all accounts we I mean going into the year the language that was being spoken at the preseason avail boxes uh I mean all the rookies basically hit i mean you couldn’t ask for much more out of the group as a whole uh Grady had a strong stretch rj Barrett had a career year i mean Scotty stagnated a little bit but uh he took a step defensively like every I think it was a good season despite the record total um and now they’re going to add another top 10 pick and I like it’s it’s so funny like we were all so mad and I I I remember saying like just okay it’s the Raptors are still going to get a good player it’s okay and now uh you know there’s there’s going to be three or four good players at nine who uh should be available who I like for Toronto so uh continue to just keep building keep building still excited for next season like even if they don’t go get a big fish uh apparently that they want to like they should still be a playoff team it’s still it would still be fun to see Brandon Aram but yeah I just wish the Giannis news came out uh last week before we spent 45 minutes talking about him to Toronto that was kind of a we come on here next week all all somber and that he’s not coming but um yeah I mean I push the chips in i I think if it the time calls right but I don’t think the time is now if Giannis isn’t available yeah also on that point Brian Whittenhorse what a tease i gotta say he’s the one on the H collective who brought up Toronto’s name as a team itching to make a deal he again the whole phrase of big fish and uh how like Giannis is the name that’s pegged as like the big fish on the market and then he’s the one who comes out a couple like basically a week and a half later and it’s like oh yeah Jiannis doesn’t want to trade Bucks don’t want to trade him just like we to play with our emotions Wendy like it’s like that hurt that hurt a little bit uh part of the reason we’re two weeks away from the draft and we’re talking about talking about trades we barely talked the draft the last two weeks so um yeah we’ll have to I think we should be coming with more draft content these next couple of weeks like screw the trades i’m done getting my hopes up i’m done getting my hopes up yeah hopefully we’re done with the speculation and the rumors for a bit and we can focus on something a bit more concrete and which is ironic because the draft is probably anything but but concrete but it’s at least a bit more known than this uh I guess trade situation that could possibly be in the works for the Toronto Raptors but Cody something even more light-hearted than that that I want to talk about is a there was a bit of other news relating to the Raptors but not on the court i guess it is technically on the court but it was it was about their threads there was a recent leak about a ton of city edition jerseys for the upcoming season amongst them was the Toronto Raptors possible uh jersey for the 2025 26 season the city edition one that is and uh like the show they decided to run it back but in a bit of a different way if you’re watching on YouTube I’m putting them up on screen uh to our left here is the the possibly leaked uh 202526 city edition jersey for people listening I guess I’ll try to describe this uh it is a the dino I guess jersey with a base black it has the dino pinstripes it has the the Raptor on it with the Toronto in the in the dino font but the Raptor is wearing a chevron jersey from the championships the red with the white and the the Raptor is all white like I I don’t know how else to put that it’s basically if you see on the screen here that it it’s it’s a 202122 city edition jersey recolored like genuinely speaking it is the exact same jersey they just decided to go with another colorway for it and again they incorporated white into this one the the original 202122 one was black and gold the kind of that OVO hit that they used to have cody I’ve got some thoughts on this but I’ll start with you what are you thinking here this might low-key be a hot take i actually if this is what it’s going to be I actually don’t hate it i mean I’ve seen everybody online just absolutely trash it um I actually Well one I see why people I understand why people are trashing it one it’s not purple everybody wants purple everybody’s been wanting purple and two the chevron everybody hates the chevron um I I don’t know the white kind of I like it i I sui lock me up throw me away i mean I I don’t know like I think it looks all right the chevron’s a bit funky on the Raptor like I don’t love that but uh it’s it reminds me of the championship and I don’t know i kind of like it i like the black base the white the Raptor kind of pops with it again I’d love to see it in real life i remember we talked about we talked about the league jerseys last year yeah and I remember um I remember liking it and then seeing it in person and being like “Ah no.” And then so maybe it’s the same thing but as of right now I’m probably on the higher end of like people who love it i’m assuming you’re about to come and trash it and speak for I’m not Yeah look I I won’t trash it when I say I have thoughts I just I’m more puzzled than anything one I I feel that yeah i don’t know why you needed to basically rehash a design you’ve already used and then go with Yeah and if you’re gonna go with different colors for it I felt like personally I would have enjoyed if they really switched up the color combination like you went black base again like maybe make the base white because the dino and the writing both being in white something about it throws me off in the way where it feels like you’re not done making it yet like it reminds me of like when you’re in Microsoft Paint and you have the paint bucket tool and you can you know just like click on the different sections and fill them in with color like I feel like they they’ve yet to do that with with this they still need to fill in those those sections with color and like I don’t know like maybe it’s just like again lack of purple like you said i get people’s gripes with the Chevron thing but I’m assuming there’s like brand timelines and stuff and they can’t just rebrand willy-nilly just because the fans don’t want to anymore like there’s probably too much sit stuff that’s that’s my assumption uh but overall like I I don’t hate it right now but I am far from loving it like I just it just feels incomplete still i would have if you were gonna like basically reuse the same design I would I would have liked to for you to go at least a bit more out there with the colors again make it a white jersey with like the red dino or something you know what I mean yeah that’s fair i mean it might not even be complete again this is a leak it’s still it might not be the full thing i believe there was a tweak on the last one uh from last year i if I’m remembering correctly the leak was a bit different than what it came out to be it was pretty much the same thing but there was there was a difference um yeah no I uh I completely understand all that i didn’t even until you had just brought it up I didn’t realize it was a uh I didn’t even think about the uh the 22 uh city edition uh I didn’t realize it was just a reprint of that um with the different color scheme i guess just keeping in Yeah I don’t know the white it kind of works for me um I think it it’s something like I have we’ve never seen something like that before right with uh any sort of Raptors jersey a white Raptor no no not that I know unless there was like a custom or like you know how like Mitchell and Ness sometimes makes like a really really wacky like remix everything maybe something like that but yeah like to that point I don’t I can’t remember when was the last time the Raptors had like a city edition or like a different edition jersey that was like like again white base i feel like maybe there was one recently i’m not recalling like last year they obviously had the purple retro Vince Carter throwbacks they had the the Vince Carter Dunk like city edition one like which were again a black base jersey like yeah I don’t know i kind of I really like back in the day obviously the purple dino jersey is the most iconic one but those white versions were pretty sweet too in my opinion i really like them so like I would like to see some white kind of come back yeah i mean it all starts to blend together for me with these jerseys i’m not the biggest like jersey guy i got the most bland jersey over my left my left shoulder yeah over my left shoulder there so it’s I honestly like it’s I I get why people get a little ticked off about it i think I feel like some people get a little like too ticked off about it because it’s me it’s not like the worst but um yeah I overall if I had to give it a rating out of 10 I’ll give it a like a five like a five or a six and I feel like I’m like the high I’m on the high end of liking them but hey they tried something different um it might not land for everybody um which is fine like obviously not everybody’s going to like it but I do like that they tried I guess something different with the colors even though it was a like a basically the same design from a couple years ago yeah I I I’ll guess like I guess I’ll give it like a three and a half to four right now to your earlier point Cody all of this could very well change because this is a possible leak and also we’ll have to see what they look like on the players we’ll have to see what they look like on the court like you said people’s opinions usually I don’t want to say change but they usually get impacted at least by seeing them on court and like in person so that can make a lot of difference for a lot of people so we will have to wait and see but uh let’s shift now Cody to some general NBA talk and obviously the only game action going on currently is the NBA finals as of recording this game ones and game one and two have completed game one was ridiculous uh the Pacers were down by like 15 with nine minutes left stage eight insane comeback basically everyone contributed from guys like Obie Toppin hitting corner threes Aaron Smith playing a big part defensively Andrew Nehard i still have that step back over SGAA like this burned into my brain like when I went to Kyle’s like pickup basketball run I was like trying to even do bits of it and remember it obviously to very little success in comparison to Nemhar doing it on the the biggest stage in basketball and then Hallebertton comes up huge hits the big two-point shot at the end to win that game with.3 seconds left uh but game two was a different story for the Indiana Pacers they basically got overwhelmed completely by the Thunder defense the Thunder basically tried different things like bringing in a double big lineup that had success in there they were really physical with Hallebertton howie basically was not able to get into the paint at all he finished with six assists on five turnovers he’s averaging like four turnovers a game right now through the first two games in the series just not comfortable at all he finished with 17 points but 12 of them came in the fourth quarter when the game was basically out of hand so two very very different games in the end they’re tied 1-1 heading to Indiana for game three on Wednesday again later in the day when this comes out so Cody to start off what have you made of the first two games of the NBA Finals yeah obviously game one like holy like I mean that was insanity like that shot uh was crazy like I I can’t believe he did like he did it again um that’s like team of destiny like that’s what everybody’s saying right it’s like yeah team of destiny um but yeah honestly like Hallebertton wasn’t even like that good in game one like no he wasn’t but like it doesn’t matter because you hit the game winner um and then yeah in game two u again OKC dominated for the most part again and just like didn’t let up and didn’t allow a comeback um it it it’s so funny like they’re being so physical with Hallebertton and usually you like want to get to the paint and like but like I’ve heard other people talk about this as well like they just have so when you get to the middle of the four they just have arms everywhere and they’re help is getting sent from everywhere like you got Caruso on you turn left and you got Dor on you it’s it’s tough man like obviously we know about this OKC defense so we don’t need to keep talking about it um yeah Hallebertton has been going through it like you mentioned didn’t even play that well um in game two even though he led his team in scoring but it all kind of came at a you know the numbers are kind of lying to you on that one but I mean OKC uh all the momentum has swung back to them after that game too like Indiana really never got into it like OKC disrupted them from tip to uh to the final buzzer i I wonder how for how many more games that Indiana can get their offense going against these guys like can they do it for three more games like they got it’s going to Indie now so they got three games at home uh most likely uh yeah right yeah most likely it’s not confirmed that they have three games at home or no two yeah they would have three games possibly if the series extends past like Yeah the series technically could end but more than likely they should have three games at home unless OKC just wins four straight wins out from here yeah yeah i mean is possible like if they if OKC wins game two then I think that might I I’d predict right now that’s what would happen if OKC wins game two think I I mean I don’t want to count the Pacers out if they go down but it’s it’s it’s tough to come back against these guys in a game and especially in a series yeah I I reiterated this last week again i didn’t come up with this I guess like phrase or like way to summarize the series it was Kaitlin Cooper who covers the Indiana Pacers beat she said that the Thunder are great at creating problems and the Pacers have been great at solving them in game one you kind of saw the Pacers solve a bit of what the Thunder were doing and again it was because the Thunder tried to do something different i guess their idea was going a bit smaller to keep up with Indiana’s pace and they didn’t go with guys like Chad Homegrum or like Isaiah Har is longer they had more minutes in game two but then the Pacers were able to take advantage of that again the Pacers I talked about this last time in game one they took advantage of the way the Thunder like to defend the Thunder will give up a bunch of corner threes so you take the ball out of their stars hands guys like Obie Topphen Aaron Nith Andrew Nehard all these guys around were making corner threes and it was making the Thunder have to move things around you saw a lot more freedom for guys like uh Pascal Seakum who in game two there was a moment if you’re watching the broadcast Tyreso was basically saying keep ceiling I’ll keep I’ll keep trying to get you the ball and Pascal was just like dude I’m trying like he he basically was just like just flustered entirely he didn’t really know what to say other than like I’m giving him my best but these guys are just hounding me constantly which is completely fair for Pascal Zakum it is hard to kind of deal with this defense so in game two when they did adjust whether it was the double big stuff whether it was the help that they were sending around and being more physical with a guy like Pascal like now it’s on uh Indiana in game three to again solve this problem one more time and that was your point Cody right like can their offense figure it out to keep this series going that is truly the big question right now uh if they if they can’t generate paint touches and kind of penetrate and force this defense to bend a little bit it’s going to be a really hard time for them rapids Republic’s very own Esperhaney he put out a tweet today talking about the paint touches and basically in the first two games the team that won the paint touch battle has won each game obviously that’s not the entire story but Hallebertton basically through two games has averaging less than like 10% of his paint touch 10% of his touches or less are in the paint right now like this dude just can’t get into the paint against this team and we know how he’s a great player at driving and kicking and generating that way and it opens up the rest of his game and right now he’s just not able to get into the paint much if at all against this team so if your engine can’t kind of generate the looks that he’s used to and it’s going to be a really hard time for other guys to be able to do things offensively for Indiana i am interested to see again I I tweeted this basically in response to what ES posted where like towards the end of game two the Indiana basers were trying some stuff with Hallebert and basically bringing him off ball more whether it was pitches or different type of handoffs basically give him a giving him a running start and he was able to break loose for a couple plays he had like a floater and then a dunk off of like semi-transition obviously like you said Cody those are towards the end of the game the decision was basically already had maybe OKC wasn’t really trying to defend the same way at that point so we’ll see how much of that really does come into play in the game three but I think that’s really what it comes down to can this offense figure out just some kind of a crack in this defense can they make some kind of adjustment to make OKC have to defend differently again and unless they do I think I’m leaning with you where the se the series might end up kind of closing sooner rather than later yeah it should help with them being at home i mean OKC is doing a really good job at not letting the Pacers get out and run and that’s like their whole game um at home it should help it should just naturally be better and last thing I’ll say on it like the Thunder haven’t necessarily been the best on the road in these playoffs four and three on the road um they’ve lost a game uh away the last two series including two against Denver so I mean hey that indie crowd is going to be nuts like that’s a uh that’s a basketball state and they are all waiting 25 years so uh and this could be the Pacers best chance in well it’s the Pacers best chance in yeah a long time and I guess they got a brighter future going so uh maybe they could be back but I mean I think yeah if you’re Indie you got to at least take one at home right like you can’t you can’t go down 3-1 obviously so um they come out and play with more pace and yeah just I’m I’m honestly not even sure what Hallebertton can do like I don’t know nobody’s been able to really crack these defensive-minded guards so I’m not going to sit here and tell you i mean you ask Caitlyn Cooper and Samson they probably they’ve been they probably have more ideas than we do they’ve been Well they’ve been covering it a whole lot closer than myself for sure um uh yeah it’s been I guess a fun series game one was a lot more fun than game two game two was a little bit of a little bit of a a slog I guess but that’s OKC and when you’re when they’re making Indiana look like sluggish like that like that’s um that’s a testament because those guys do not look like that usually so um yeah uh back home to Indie back home to Indie let’s see what they can do yeah back home to Indie uh I think a word you used Cody was momentum i think that’s going to be super important for this Indiana team like if you ask Indiana and their fans like going coming into the series if you split the first two games a lot of them would probably say like we’ll gladly take that but the way that split happened like you said kind of how overwhelming game two was like Indie was within single digits for good chunks of that game but I don’t think anyone really thought they were going to complete the comeback like they kind of inched towards in game one i remember watching game one with a buddy and like after halftime he was like I I feel like in the end comeback i I just feel like they they they’re figuring this out versus game two everyone watching was kind of like no it looks like OKC has control of this and that took away a lot of the juice from that game one and the stealing it and the momentum Indiana game from it so that if they really do want to kind of recapture some of that spark and carry it from game to game you want them to kind of have a bit of a statement performance in one of these two games so we’ll we’ll see if they can do it but yeah Cody it looks like you have something to say yeah last thing I was just this is kind of reminding me of the Denver series for OKC lost a close one in game one lost by two then blew the blew the brakes off of the Nuggets in game two winning by 43 and all the motives won back to OKC but then Denver came out and won game three in OT so and then uh OKC would obviously win three of the next four to win the series so I mean I’m I I don’t know the Nuggets and Pacers I think the Pacers are better than Denver I would say um yeah they obviously don’t have like the best player on earth but as a team like they’re just so much deeper it’s not even close and I think play with OKC a bit better than uh Denver is so I don’t know maybe we’re counting Indie out or maybe I’m counting Indie out a little bit too much they’ve been counted out all um all playoffs pretty much like if they win this would be the most unlikely champion in like forever i want I should go I should have found the odds for like their their preseason odds of winning a championship because I’m sure it was way up there and I’m sure if somebody took them like they would be going uh they’d be pretty happy with themselves right now but yeah this is playing out similarly similarly to how OKC and Denver played out so I wonder if uh Indie is going to get another win back or if you know OKC is going to change it up a little bit and uh win two straight yeah look this Pacers team I think they’re kind of at their best at times when their backs are against the wall or at least when when they’re doubted and all the numbers say the team up like I guess not up because of this tied series but like all most of the numbers suggest like OKC is looking really good right now and again like if you look at game threes throughout these playoffs India hasn’t won a game three yet I’m pretty sure like this entire playoffs they’re they’re 0 and three so far so let’s see if the game three woes come after them again can they kind of buck that trend but I think at the end of the day this Indiana team has been doubted again and again and again throughout these playoffs and kind of entering this season especially after this slow start so if there’s a team that has the ability and the resilience to kind of turn things around I do think it is this Pacers team so we’ll just have to wait and see again game three on Wednesday uh but yeah Cody I I want to like kind of go on a bit of a I guess light-hearted note maybe not it’s another like aesthetic thing but uh I kind of want to get your I want to get your thoughts on this but obviously if you’ve been a fan of NBA basketball for quite some time you know back in the day a very common thing for the the presentation of the NBA Finals was was logos on the court from big Larry O’Brien championship logos kind of pasted on midcourt to the NBA Finals signature script put onto like different sides of the basketball court and that was a thing fans really enjoyed it’s a lot of this like I guess it kind of speaks to this complaint where we don’t have that nowadays it’s like well the NBA finals doesn’t feel special it feels like any other game they’re not really making it feel like it’s an occasion it’s not it’s not being treated like the Super Bowl is in the NFL for example right like you don’t have that pageantry associated with it so I guess I guess the NBA kind of heard those those complaints and decided you know what well we’ll give these guys what they what they want but not really so if you’re watching on YouTube here I’m going to put it up here this is the solution that the NBA came up with or maybe the broadcasting team with ESPN came up with they they digitally pasted logos onto the court but they made them tiny as hell this is not the Larry O’Brien trophy pasted on the entire midc court these are two tiny trophies on opposite sides of the basketball court and they just look again just super pasted on there i I I I don’t know what your thoughts are Cody but just what do you think uh I saw someone on Twitter uh quote tweet that would be like uh in quotations marketing like the NBA being like here damn take it like sort of look at just like okay geez you want something like here you go i mean I this is something I can more more than like the jerseys this is something more I can get behind where I fully am in support of yeah it doesn’t really feel like um obviously with the commentary like that’s all you’re really having to go off of for this and visually there’s really not much so yeah I um like even like the score bug um I feel like could be could be switched up a little bit as well for yeah just to add add to the viewing pleasure but yeah it feels pretty bare bones it’s something I didn’t even really I guess like it didn’t even come to the top of my mind until like other people started pointing it out and I was like “Oh yeah this really is just not feeling like you know how it used to or even I’m trying to remember like what the branding looked like last year.” But uh yeah I definitely would like to see more changes I guess i mean it’s kind of hard to do it mid-series and it doesn’t feel authentic you know what I mean but yeah that’s something I can get behind obviously I think I think we’re all in agree it’s that looks like Pop that up again like that looks like right there let’s look at this again this is This is kind of sad to look at yeah that looks terrible i guess the Yeah I guess the the square bug is a little bit different at the bottom there but yeah I mean I’ve Yeah we I think you get what I’m trying to say yeah so like in general Cody I’m guessing you’re you’re like your thumbs up on like finals logos and like putting those things on the court right yes okay yeah i I think most fans are basically I think it was in 2014 when the NBA stopped doing this don’t quote me on that and this big conversation around it had to do with this idea of like well it’s it’s a safety thing because like obviously putting more like different like prints or materials on the core can maybe cause slippage and whatnot that that that that explanation does lose a lot of merit when you look at these days in the NBA Cup courts which they are doing which some teams haven’t been able to actually properly install because of issues like that some players have complained because there’s been slipping issues i think Luca Donuch the first year of the NBA Cup complained about that being the case so maybe the NBA just needs somebody to pay for the courts and then they’ll do it because that’s what it comes down to these days it’s all about dollars so who knows what that is but in general I think you can’t you can’t halfass it like this that’s my point like you said Cody like they’re tiny they were there they took them away after a couple minutes then they threw on the NBA Finals like script logo on there digitally for a couple minutes and got rid of those two like if you’re going to do it don’t halfass it like commit to it make it again make it look like pageantry it it can be gimmicky it can be cheesy yeah but right now the the the way the presentations are going is like you’re basically relying on the fan atmosphere and the quality of the basketball game to do all of the work for you which like you saw in that second game against against uh OKC in Indiana like it wasn’t the most exciting game so you’re it’s it was a bit of a slo so you’re not going to get that that intense atmosphere like you did in game one so if you’re kind of banking on that you’re selling yourself a little short like again the Super Bowl may not be the best example because it’s such an extreme is a single game elimination type of thing but at the end of the day like good or bad Super Bowl you know it’s an event you know people are going to get together for it you know it’s going to be something that feels extra special which the NBA hasn’t really been able to capture these last couple of years like you even said Cody that score bug the word finals is tinier than everything else on there and it’s next to it is presented by YouTube TV which I I get you have like media obligations and sponsorships and yada yada but like make it feel like it’s special you know yeah yeah totally in agreeance um okay uh final thing here i have a uh timer ready to go oh you do i’m I’m branding this Zulfi i don’t know we got Zulfi CBL minute Z CBL minute or something anyways we’ll workshop it we did it last week you went a little overboard but you get some time obviously if you go over I’m not going to wait i’m not going to like make you stop but you’re just going to you drop me from the Streamyard you’re going to be like “No this guy’s done i’ll close it for you.” All right Zofi recap the last week of CBL go all right let’s do it another week of CBL hoops it was actually a lot of fun this week Cody the Montreal Lions of all the teams are at top the Eastern Conference they’re 4-0 they set a new franchise record for points in a game in back-to back games largely because their new addition Tavian Dun Martin he’s been huge he’s averaging 22 points a game he’s making four threes a game on 46% again Tavian Dun Martin he’s been awesome for them the Lions have not been good the last two seasons their first two years in the league but now all of a sudden they’ve completely turned it around the next thing the Bandits they lost their first game to the Calgary Surge but they’ve gotten back to their winning ways they’re seven- one at top the West they’re 4-0 on the road the Bmpton Honey Badgers got their first win of the season no more winless teams in the CBL they took care of business against Winnipeg at home fun win for the Honey Badgers they’re now one and six I believe and a couple notable returns for the Canadian Elite Basketball League cap Barber one of the all-time leading scorers and assist guys is back with the Scar Bro Shooting stars they haven’t been doing so hot so far but hopefully he can help them turn it around and get that chemistry back and Jaylen Harris Raptors fans should know him former Raptors graphic he made his debut with the Winnipeg Seab Bears i believe this is his fourth consecutive year in the CBL his first game wasn’t all that great his second game though he hit a gamewinner for the Winnipeg Cab Bears he banked in a midi jumper from the left elbow jaylen Harris is back he holds the the league record for points in a game at 45 he set last year with Saskatchewan so keep a lookout for him but that does it for me i covered everything cbl did I get it all in a minute Cody oh no you were like 30 seconds over it’s fine it’s fine so good i thought I did it no you honestly it’s fine because you’re jam-packing in a lot of information in there um honestly it’s crazy to me how the Western Conference is like there’s clearly a tier like there’s clearly the Bandits and the Surge at seven and one and six and two and then the Seab Bears Stigers and Rattlers are all two and five kind of fighting for that third place uh spot in the West so um yeah how Yeah the Alliance the worst team the last two years and now are undefeated quincy Garrett complete turnaround man yeah Quincy your guy that’s my guy so yeah lots of Raptors and former well I guess you should say former Raptors or Raptors ties um doing good things in the CVL but uh yeah anything else that you wanted to touch on uh nothing super major i was actually so I was at a BMPon Honeybadgers game against the Montreal Lions so I talked to Quincy asked him a bit about his time with the 905 and how that played into this i think it was just a lot about like we’ve talked about Cody with him his roles changed a ton so he’s kind of used to being a consmate pro the like just throughout volatility and stuff like that and then with the with the Montil Alliance he basically gets to shine in a way where he wasn’t necessarily asked to with the 905 so if you were a fan of Quincy Gary’s game and you wanted to see more of it that you couldn’t see with the 905 roster I highly highly recommend checking out the Montreal Lions he is one of their captains he’s obviously a hometown guy playing for Montreal and like you see some of the stuff he does there he brings the ball up for them a bunch he’s handling i saw him hit like a size up step back like three at one point which I don’t think I had see him do that at all with the 905 so obviously he gets to be one of the guys for this team so it’s a lot of fun if you want to watch him other than that I know Kyle wanted us to mention this so we’ll do it for him uh Tristan Jass TJ Jass he’s obviously still recovering from a hamstring injury he is not currently playing but you obviously if you know who TJS is he is a social media influencer who got his first pro contract with the CBL and the Vancouver Bandits super cool but he recently released a YouTube video chronicling the start of that journey so it shows him arriving in Vancouver speaking to head coach and general manager Kyle Julius going through his first workouts from getting team gear to going through practices to meeting his teammates all very cool inside access type of stuff even for a guy like me who’s been covering the CVL like for the actual league for a couple seasons this is stuff I haven’t even gotten to see really up close like this before so this is awesome access from him if you want to learn about how the Bandits do things again obviously like you said Cody a very very good team at 7 and one see how they operate it’s different than some other teams check out that YouTube video but that’s all I had for the CBL i think that’s all we got today um more trade buzz um some CBL obviously uh what else are we talking about today oh yeah the NBA finals yeah the NBA finals jerseys so funky funky episode but yeah what do we what’s on the docket next week pro I think we got to do some draft stuff right yeah we gota circle it back for some draft stuff yeah I’m not sure if that’ll be our final show before the draft i don’t think so maybe we’ll I think we’ll be able to squeak in one more like the day before the draft so yeah yeah run it back it’s probably going to be pretty heavy on the draft the next couple of weeks but I think we’re all excited for that absolutely and let us know down in the comments below if you have any specific questions draft related that you want us to cover whether some prospects that we haven’t talked about i know guys like Samson and Trey will be doing their draft coverage cody and Brandon I don’t know if you guys are possibly cooking some other draft stuff we shall see but if you guys have any specific questions about draft stuff or otherwise let us know down in the comments below and for the stuff we covered today did you like the Raptors possible leak jerseys let us know below do you think the Finals logo should come back in the NBA let us know about that as well but that’ll do it for us here at Run It Back for this week uh in the meantime obviously please be sure to subscribe to the Raptors Republic YouTube channel like this video so it can reach more people and obviously all your Raptors news opinions and analysis will continue to be at Raptorsrepublic.com offseason content still going strong like Cody said the NBA draft is only a couple of days away we are getting so so close but until then for myself Kyle and Cody we’ll see you next time when we run it back peace

In this episode of Run It Back, Coty and Zulfi recap the recent Raptors trade rumours with Kevin Durant, cover the NBA playoffs and discuss the recent CEBL action!

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