The Raptors need to choose these players in the draft

The Raptors need to choose these players in the draft

hey everybody welcome to another episode of the pullup trey podcast i’m your co-host samson folk and i am of course joined by the other co-host the namesake trey who pulls up travon heath how you doing uh you got you got your get back in game four against an antagonistic force how how are you feeling i’m doing good we’ve had this is honestly one been one of the most entertaining final series probably in the last like four or five years which is good to see cuz we’ve seen teams kind of get blown out for the last week or so but i’m not i’m not here to talk about this though there’s there is i’ll say a clip of you speaking about what this finals might be and you were like i think it’ll be good i’m looking forward to it and well guess what it was good basketball yeah it it is quality but i a mere mortal just watched the game from my dear old friend how how was it watching the game live dude it was uh it was great it was it was incredibly fun the the crowd at gainesbridge fieldhouse was nuts like absolutely incredible um i and also like pascal and tai were both nicer to me than my friends usually are you know they’re so yeah it was uh it was nice going down there man and also like you don’t realize how small a market indiana is until you know caitlyn and i i guess like looking relative to the other podcast and stuff like that is just see how big the numbers are and then just like walking around it seems like every fifth person at the arena watches the podcast you just get stopped by everybody there and it just seemed it seemed like so small in that sense which was really cool it’s it’s a it’s like an intimate environment you know it’s and it’s like college basketball almost a little bit so that was i mean that was great it was hell yeah but a mere mortal jesus lord in heaven that was great i’m proud of you you’re you’re doing you’re doing your thing you’re watching the finals i know this makes you uncomfortable but i am very proud of you it was awesome to see yeah thanks man i don’t know anyway um yeah we’re here to talk about uh the draft yes as we have been doing for ever at this point god it’s been a lot of draft content we’ve put out which this episode is basically we’re putting like we’re staking the claim we’ve all we’ve looked at a bunch of players we’ve talked about a bunch of players we did the mock draft we’re going to name our favorite guys we’re going to talk about them and we’re finally going to have that head-to-head cmbb versus queen conversation because i’m higher on cmb than queen trey is higher on queen than cmb both have discussed both have talked to the raptors i believe both have worked out so like that’s that’s fun that’s good we’re going to have it out um we’ll be looking at who we like for 9 and 39 trey do you want to before we do this do you want to eliminate five or six prospects with me that like we don’t discuss them because it’d be like i’d love cooper flag for the raptors but that’s nonsensical okay we’ll we’ll go back and forth and eliminate a few guys then so uh cooper flag off the board yeah dylan harper’s not going to be there at all dj edgecomb no ace bailey i highly doubt too trey johnson no way i feel like trey will has a better chance of not falling than ace almost yeah i i would say so too like ace con canipple and trey johnson are kind of like their own like sort of orbit and it’s you don’t know how that’s going to go from like three to like from like four to seven probably how how would you rank those three by the way um i think i think it would depend on the team i think the best current player of the three is trey johnson trey johnson khan kipple and then ace bailey but i think from from an upside perspective it i would flip flop ace bailey and coniple so trey is your highest yeah i think undisputed he’s too good of a shooter he’s his movement numbers are absurd and if he can just put the the ball on the floor just a little bit he’s gonna be great i i think i’m i think i’m like chalk with you exactly the same uh it’s it’s hard for me to choose between khan and ace and i know ace for some people is still like like the second best prospect he there there is a wide idea of where he could be but i guess let’s also say khan sure con khan yeah he’s not okay that’s number six he’s not going to be there okay i’m going to swing it to you then your favorite your favorite prospect and number nine for the raptors the name while we’re doing a live stream you hope gets called you can fall to your knees say “thank you god.” if the raptors make this pick this will be the most excited i’ve i’ve been in the history of my time as a raptor in any pick i know they picked scotty bonds at four i was i was more jaylen you didn’t you didn’t know that he was jamaican at the time that is also fair i it changed immediately in the broadcast yeah if you if you had known if you had known you would have that famous video at the rr draft party you would have been sprinting [Music] yeah but um derek queen i i think if he is at nine he would be the best available player both and also have just an amazing fit with like the raptors there’s like a gaping hole in in sort of like for a backup center they’ve tried with a bunch of g-league guys 10day contract guys and there isn’t any like i i doubt that colin castleton is going to be playing like real nba minutes for the for the raptors um but derek queen fits everything that the raptors are trying to accomplish one through five like darko’s offense has put a huge precedent on being able to pass shoot and dribble and being able to have that versatility to make quick reads and put pressure on the defense from any spot that you’re on on the court um derek queen he’s he’s one of the most unique prospects in a sense that he’s for for his size and his skill set he is somewhat like a six has a skill set of like a 6’4 65 guard he has one of the best handles in the the entire class not even just being a being a big and he utilizes those skills and his physicality and size to be a battering ram at the rim and he also proposes that with quick processing skills and being able to pass all around the court the the raptors use yakob in the sense and run a lot of offense through him they would be able to have another guy who plays 10 to 15 minutes a night that could fill in and do all the things that they asked for yakob offensively with the added pop of him being able to put the ball down on the floor and be a be a real threat offensively in the sense where yakob isn’t aside from his his floater and i think like the defense concerns which are which are fair they are one of the teams that are uniquely positioned to have a center that may not be the the greatest in front of the rim because scotty barnes from everything we’ve seen in the second half of the season is going to be an allnba defensive four beside him so i think it’s a great fit fits what they’re doing for their offense and there’s the upside of him becoming a big star so uh dear friend of the show chuck had a tweet where he was like “what did he have?” like dylan harper is a great 65 driving guard he’s like “what about a 610 driving guard?” and then it was just the the clips of derek queen kind of boogieing this was a question that uh nd detox ball uh dm’d me and i thought it was good uh he didn’t know we were going to be discussing this so kind of like uh serendipitous that way but was wondering how you and i see derek queen playing next to uh scotty and then wants to juxtapose it with cmbb which is what we will be doing but as far as like the five stuff if yaka purle like derek queen drafted at nine he’s a young man you want him like seven years on the team at the very least right you want to be able to do that how do you feel about him at the five going forward even like yes scotty can cover up some stuff but it probably doesn’t give you that elite outcome that you might want right so how do you how do you feel about that pairing they’re they’re going to have to if he becomes like the long-term vibe they would have to change the way that they they play um ironically like derek queen’s like best asset defensively is like his feet and active hands he he has very good feet for his size and maryland utilized that and they switched a lot in in order to hide some of his deficiencies um in front of the rim and i think if he one there’s like there’s the added upside of i hate i hate saying this but like it if he gets in better shape as well nice there’s the added upside of that athleticism popping even further and if you you play within uh more of like a chaotic defense that’s switching all over the court util utilizing their speed from both of their bigs i think it can work in the sense in in the sense where it’s his upside offensively allows for being able to play this type of style of defense because both of those guys should be able to rebound for their size like fairly well and that should make up for the fact that they aren’t playing the most like conservative style of of defense the big thing for me is i believe so much of what he does offensively it’s just it’s just hard to see like that fluidity the ability to get to the rim like he reads low men he reads rotation really well he’s just such a talent going downhill it’s like man that kind of stuff will definitely be there he just has to supplement it with other things and then a big question for queen in particular because we ask it of driving guards is like what happens with the jumper do you believe in it sell me on that i think his mechanics are bad like it’s it’s clear that it’s like it’s more of a dart in in there’s no arc whatsoever on his on his jump shot and he doesn’t i’ve seen aaron smith throw some darts man oh my god oh but i think like his touch is high level you see it you see it from the free throw line you see it on the runners that he makes you see how he can score in traffic and in contact and and use utilize the glass to make shots so i i think that will translate with better mechanics overall because he he has the skills and gifts in order to to do so and then maybe you’re looking at an outcome where he could potentially play play the four in certain lineups like how how minnesota uses nause reed i think that’s an outcome that could possibly happen for him also the nause yeah there’s i guess nas is a little bit bigger but there’s that skilled movement thing that’s that’s present there yeah definitely um i think the settled stuff like the catch and shoot stuff i think he’ll probably figure it out i i agree with you that the touch is relatively elite on the other side of things that my guy of who i think will be available at number nine uh colin murray boils has also is another guy who does not shoot the three ball well y in fact when he was doing the catch and shoot at the combine he went seven of 25 just really really bad on his pull-up twos though he went 22 of 30 which was one of the best marks in the whole combine he is a 71% free throw shooter which is not great but isn’t bad he’s he finished on over 400 like layups 63% at the college level shot 54% on his hook shots he scored 17 points per game colin murray boils can score the basketball and he’s smaller than queen to be sure but those are the two most impressive front court drivers of the basketball in this draft class and one gets talked about as if that’s a huge part of their game and one doesn’t which i find quite interesting colin murray boils is smaller though this is the big thing here you’re we’re talking about what like 69 barefoot versus 66 barefoot 66 and a half or 6.65 barefoot it’s just it’s that’s a there’s a stark contrast there the good news for cmbb is that he has a gargantuan wingspan he has all the tenacity in the world to guard up if asked about it and i know people don’t like i am big cmbb guy i really like his game i just the piece just came out today and everyone is like “god please no.” i see it all the time people raptors fans are not in on cmbb and i i listen i get it because at first brush there’s a lot of things there you want to talk about the jumper that would probably have to come around in some capacity because i know he gets the draymond green comps and draymond is able to succeed without the jumper being a huge like being present for him but having that as like well if his jumper doesn’t work out he can just be draymond it’s like no no no no no no nobody gets to fall back into being one of the best defenders ever the the jumper probably has to come around in some capacity for him he has a disaster of a jump shot he has a low pickup point his guide hand gets in there so that it becomes a two-hand flick quite often the the rotation on the ball is inconsistent and it’s like hitch after hitch it’s like stopping point after stopping point a lot of points of failure and yet in spite of all that i think during his career it’s something that he will be able to sort out because similar to queen i think he has a tremendous level of touch the way he finishes at the rim his his runner his hook shot the fact that he’s you know okay enough from the free throw line and the fact that he quite competently hits pull-up midis it makes me feel hope well actually this is this is not a confident thing for me by the way just so the listener knows i’m not super confident but it but it gives me hope in that and if cmbb shoots the ball at all it he the other stuff that is present in his game is incredible i haven’t talked about his defense yet he is a one-man wrecking crew he can play no matter what you want to happen in defense in 2025 and going forward whether it’s you want like these super aggressive shows whether it’s you want like insanely aggressive hedge and recover if you want to play drop if you want him to switch he can do all of that stuff and we’ll do it at the nba level you know we’re going to talk about jeremiah fierce today cmbb has a hedge on jeremiah fierce where he just sprints him back out to half jeremiah fierce falls over and cmbb just plucks him that is the best handle in the draft that is the quickest guard in the draft and cnb just blew him up coming off the edge like sets the edge no one gets around and doesn’t allow a split i’m using a lot of basketball vernacular here basically yeah on ball players have a really tough time getting around him or getting in between him and that is because cmbb has similar like agility stuff at 240 pounds to carter bryant and cooper flag it’s it’s re and his hands are meat hooks he gets in everything which speaks to on defense if he’s off ball the digs he’s an incredible nail defender he jumps a lot of stuff as like a weak side zone guy he reads players really well and what remains to be seen is that vertical pop that length standing reach plus wingspan how he can do as you know a guy who provides something in rotation at the bottom end of nba defenses at his height you wonder that’s all of that stuff is there anything that i said there that you’re thinking like i don’t believe it or it’s like i you it doesn’t make give you a lot of confidence like obviously the the jump shot there’s nothing that obviously shows that like he’s going to be able to assume but i i the defense i wholeheartly agree i think he’s the best defensive player in in the class to be honest um i think where i differ between you with queen and and and cmbb is that if queen never learns how to shoot i think he’s still going to be able to get to the rim and be able to score in that fa fashion one because he just has the size and physicality and then his his handle he can get within really tight spaces and within college he played beside another nonshooting big and was able his driving numbers were still off the charts because of the the skill that he has um i think with cmbb a lot of a lot of his work is utilizing his like outlier strength to create and score over a lot of guys but at that height i think there’s there’s going to be some difficulty i think he has to be able to shoot to like hit hit a pretty hit a ceiling that you want to be but he but i think what’s not discussed is that he’s actually one of the highest ceiling players in in the class like if he learns how to shoot he becomes one of the most unique players in the nba and one that’s like a lynch pin within like a championship he’s a championship four for a long period of time i just am unsure if he figures out the rest offensively without the jumper yeah it’s that’s a great point is that like he has outlier touch now at the college level and has to use it all the time so what does that look like at the highest level does it require something else in the toolkit because typically things don’t just translate easily and if they do translate typically it’s because it is that elite but also because there’s um compensatory skills around it that help it help elevate it um to andy’s question about the fit i actually though on the one hand the offense could be uh terrible like it could be extremely clunky um however i do think that they obviously have a much higher defensive upside than queen and and scotty and and it would require like those shifts to feature different coverages than what you than what you’d get from queen like scotty and cmbb together i think would be an incredibly uh friendly defensive partnership even if they were the four and the five even if that was quote unquote small i think that the length and tenacity and athleticism and weight that they can both throw around the strength would allow them to compensate and i think they would disrupt a lot of stuff i think they’d be extremely good on that for it to work i think it would require probably more of scotty offensively at the beginning which is different than i think the queen and scotty partnership which you know queen can help a lot of stuff but cmb might have to be carried offensively by scotty in that partnership because cmb would clearly be like the hub guy and would clearly move through stuff and that would put scotty in a position as you know an offensive player that wouldn’t be as friendly as maybe playing next queen that’s kind of the situation ultimately and this i’m a believer in cmbb i think the cmbb scotty pairing is a fruitful one and one that could work because i really do believe in talent so i’d go there but that’s just you and i these are our guys from this draft class you know yeah i i think the question for me with the cmbb pick like with at nine you probably i don’t foresee a world where like he’s on the team for a long period of time and he’s he’s a starter on the team along with scotty barnes is still still around and at nine you want someone that ideally can start for your team or you think has a chance of doing so so i think that’s what also leaves me like some pause like if it’s san antonio if it’s okc that like trades up for him that makes tons of sense even houston to be honest that makes tons of sense i think for the raptors there’s some challenges there too did you think it was odd that san antonio was like sohan is not available that surprised me a little bit yes i thought they would give him away for kevin durant immediately yeah it’s uh i they obviously have a different vision of things his his playmaking is quite unique um at his size but there’s a lot of other struggles there but i cmb i like it man i think he can start like i i here’s the thing and this is i’m sticking to the principle like when we talked about an like talent over fit this is me just leaning into that i’m like i think cmbb is going to be one of the best players from this draft class so i’d pick that guy and let the chips fall where they may and i trust that he’ll be a good enough player and i know that there’s a divide on this like many of the best draft or the most popular draft analysts have said like i think he swings a lot depending on where he’s picked and i’m like i hope he’s good enough that that doesn’t matter and that’s the fingers the fingers are crossed cmbb versus queen we we finally we had it for anybody who wanted uh us us to each state our claim who is your number two at number nine another i would shed tears if we draft this this brother shed fears shed fears wow look at you marketing guy me thanks um jeremiah fierce i i think it’s if queen isn’t there i think he’s probably the next best player on on on the board the raptors in in the time that i’ve i’ve watched this team have never had a guard this this electric someone with this type of handle this type of athleticism you watch kyle lowry oh man he was more like a payton hillis type type guy you know wow yeah dude i hated i hated payton watching payton hillis run cuz i always like the speedy backs yeah and and just watching him hit the gut you know the hp dive repeatedly i was like i hate this dude i hated it four or five yards it’s it’s like kyle larry’s like hockey assist he’s like “yeah you know what this this just this just gonna piss me off go ahead go ahead.” it’s true fierce fierce would be the most like dynamic mover since damon probably yeah yeah and s has watched at least 15 of his games apparently nice yeah okay um jeremiah fears it i think he’s he’s rare in the sense that typically like the the guards that are the most athletic typically don’t also have the handle that he does he’s the quickest guard in the draft along with having the best handle which showed and popped in oklahoma a ton he operated a lot in the pick and roll in the in a sense that in the sim similar sense that an nba guard would and par parading and controlling the entire offense around him even when he wasn’t getting all the way to the rim he was creating looks for everybody on the court just because of the attention that he was drawing and he was able to he doesn’t need a screen to to blow by guys but when he does he has the passing vision to be able to operate an offense which i think is super huge and super super key also isn’t i i think he differs from guys i’ve seen like some comps are like colin ston or like just a straight burner in a in a sense and i think i think his handle is far better than collins now and especially when colin was drafted agreed and i i i don’t think jeremiah ferris is like a straight line driving guy he takes a lot of angles he’s he’s willing to bump his way to to the rim which bolds really well especially as he ages and and fills out his frame and i i like the fact that although his his um finishing at the rim wasn’t the greatest he does not shy from phys physicality it was one of the reasons that drew me to jacobe walter and i think it’s the same for him he’s he’s willing to bump his way to the rim and take contact in order to to finish and then also he’s shown from like a catch and shoot perspective that he might be able to play off the ball and be a good shooter shot 36% from from there his shooting numbers really plummeted from the amount of pull-up jumpers that he he took in the context that he also played in he he also showed really good touch from from long twos and i think for him as a guard if he’s able to hit that at a really high clip he becomes extremely dangerous it allows his playmaking to pop even even more and it it gets him to a level for that leads to like a star outcome i think i’m fairly high on him because he’s one of the few guys where you can see this guy can make the allnba an allnba team if everything goes right and i don’t think there’s a lot of prospects in this class that that have that outcome when i this is a good thought exercise i think is kind of scoot henderson they’re not they’re not one to one but scoot also really strong handle scoot’s smaller uh shorter i but much bigger obviously yeah um scoot obviously incredible mover for a very very twitchy very athletic has a really rock solid handle although i think fierce is better when you look at how scoot has translated and it has really come around the back end of this past season are there things that you think fierce does better than scoot did at the same age roughly yeah i i think i think jeremiah mixes up speeds a lot a lot better and like is is more creative with like within the lane whereas scoot as a prospect which i i really loved scoo henderson as a prospect i think with his handle and his driving style it still is very downhill in in in that sense and where jeremiah um his best talents is how he moves laterally he he weaves in into the rim and utilizes handle manipulates that and then gets into the rim like scoot i think he he he’s one he was a rare athlete coming into coming into his class he doesn’t nec he didn’t necessarily need that level of creativity to get into the lane like that especially especially in like the g-league ignite where you you aren’t condensed in a much smaller floor like in in college and surrounded by non-nba players like jeremiah fears was in in college that’s a good point the size of the floor i i didn’t think of that when i brought that up that is a good point cuz when i watched you league night and i saw i think i saw five games of scoot uh before he got drafted i was like i did like that he changed speeds and i did like that he because he does change speeds and he did but he didn’t change angles that much which i think is like a really good point jeremiah fears he does create a lot of because that’s what really great point guards do is they change where they have to be met if you want to pressure their dribble and they change who comes to meet them and in that in that switching and you know who’s whose job it is to cover him they they locate you know layups for bigs and stuff like that yeah and scoot definitely was like had a change of speed but a lot of it was just like midi pull and it all stayed on the same side of the floor for the most part that’s a good point and it’s something that scoot is developing now um and big shout out to s who was actually not lying when he told me he was like i’m on he’s like i’m on that scoot train man and then i was like no you aren’t but then it turned out he really he really was historically um any other things on jeremiah fears before we move on um i guess to touch on the the defense is isn’t good there’s obviously concerns from there like looking into the playoffs like it’s it’s extremely hard to play very small guards you you need to have requisite strength in order to stay on the floor these days because teams attack you constantly i do think he has a lot of quickness to like be passable defender i don’t worry about the defense as much because i think he can be the lead guy in your in your offense and handle the ball to be and allow that to be worth hiding him on defense so the the pitch is that he’ll be so important offensively that like you’ll be able to put pieces around him yeah that help him out on defense basically agreed yeah i don’t think he’s going if he hits like his higher higher plane in terms of like his ceiling i don’t think he’s going to need like a secondary ball handler that that relies that he relies on to help create opportunities for him okay so one more selection at number nine before we each decide who we’d like at 39 uh carter bryant i think carter bryant there’s one thing that limits him because honestly i don’t care that much about it’s the same thing with cmbb it’s the same like what i did was i went and watched the film on all these guys and i like i’m very okay with being wrong this stuff is a crapshoot anyway and again i’m not selecting for the raptors they’re the ones who have to get it right i’m just telling you what i see and i watch film and carter bryant puts a lot of great stuff on film and i think his athleticism pops way off the page i think that like again his size and his fluidity is really really great and it’s something that i i think his jump shot is like the mechanics are excellent and i think that he will be one of the best shooters from this class however many years down the road i think he’ll be a guy who steps out on some of the best offensive players in the nba plays off of weaker defenders to gum stuff up i think he’ll like we’re watching in the finals right now how fluid teams have to be and how connected they have to be players like carter bryant really help with that kind of stuff or i presume he will that’s the big pitch is that it is 3 and d right now and 3 and d right now means he has to develop a lot to put the ball down a limitation of his his number one offensive limitation is what it looks like when he dribbles and when he does dribble it looks more like you know he’s been in the gym like trainer stuff like going through combos and stuff like that rather than intuitively putting the ball down finding finding an angle attacking the top foot reading the defense and knowing like i have to put the ball here and and go here attacking spaces it’s not like reading the floor super well on that end although he reads it exceptionally well on defense that kind of stuff will hold him back initially but i i have talked to a couple people that watched him from very early on and around him that like his work ethic is supposed to be like incredibly like big massive and that he is a guy who has been like this is what i’m like he understands the parts of his game that he has to fill out has a very clear idea of what he’s supposed to be at the nba level and that clarity to me with his athleticism is really really important and his jumper and his work ethic because role definition is so important in the nba today and knowing where you have to work and how it might translate to the nba is so so important all that stuff makes me think of him as just like such an impressive 3 and d player going forward which maybe is not like the home run that people want at nine but when i look at guys who play and like it’s it’s hard to draft a star and i would be surprised if the raptors drafted a star and i and i would but you need it’s a hall of famer well there we go so it doesn’t matter it doesn’t matter who it gets picked trav travon told me that messiah will locate the hall of famer so what we say doesn’t matter which is good the pressure is off but carter bryant will play next to the best like will play next to and enhance the best players of this next raptors era that’s that’s what i see here and that i think is not the sexiest pitch and i know you’re big pitch guy you’re like maybe i’m not giving you the best right now but for the audience that’s my pitch it’s not a sexy one but i’m like this guy if the raptors are playing in like 2027 really meaningful playoff games carter bryant will be on the floor and making an impact and that impact will grow every year year-over-year because of what he’s able to bring on both sides of the four i think he’ll plug in and i think he’ll be impressive that’s the pitch are you you’re more skeptical than me but are there any holdups for you i i like carter bryant though um i think in especially in today’s nba you you just need good guys you just need a lot of like good good players like it isn’t in the same like heliocentric way where one guy is going to win you the large majority of your games and he’s going to control the entire game like that isn’t probably going to happen anytime soon as a quick as a quick mention we just saw it jdub had more touch in game four than sga because the defense dictated that that was what worked best and while the thunder are historically like they really do rely on sga he’s a special player in that regard he isn’t heliocentric really and their offense isn’t that and then you go to the other side and the pacers are really not heliocentric and and the teams that will be making the finals going forward and winning the finals i presume will not be heliocentric teams and you know there was one and then dallas traded them like we don’t yeah so like the the league the league has changed like big ar like rare archetypes are worth are worth investing in i it’s the reason why orlando is willing to trade four four picks for desmond bane there is no other i like that trade by the way for orlando i think theory i in theory i like the application of the play because there’s no other player in the nba like desmond bane and it’s the he’s like the absolute perfect fit if you think palaban carro is like lead on ball initiator i just don’t think that that’s what he is personally that’s yeah that’s such a good point i feel the exact same way i’m like this is the trade you make if paulo is the guy you need him to be it makes so much sense if palo is a home run yeah and and the four picks i understand but uh like they they i don’t think it’s four picks directly for desmond like they had to get off of kcp like this there there’s a collection of things happening there but you know it does look impressive but bane is really solid and he’s also he’s a good defender he can run secondary actions he shot like what he’s the third highest volume above the break three-point shooter over the past however many years he shoots 42% on them like that is so meaningful playing powell banero drives the ball the dig comes from one pass away it’s desmond bane instead of anthony black that means something in orlando or or it’s not fron or it’s not whoever it’s jaylen that’s important it’ll help yeah and honestly i think if john morant was on the market he doesn’t he doesn’t go for four picks because of the rarity of like desmond bane’s archetype and like carter brad in that sense is rare he he his size and fluidity you don’t see from from wings they’re usually they’re usually big plotters like uh fleming who who we covered he more of a plotter more of more of a big um he moves like this man he does like a goddamn ghoul but but carter bride he he has the size to be able to guard up i think he’ll be able to guard up against bigs and then he also will be able to move with a lot of perimeter players in the league and have this the strength to guard those bigger wings and not a lot of teams have the have that type of player mhm one of the reasons why why the thunder’s defense is amazing they obviously have lou dort alex caruso but like jaylen williams can guard so many different players on the floor because of his uniqueness with his size and athleticism and length and carter bryant has a lot of those same features like at least from his from his tool set if i believe that he’s gonna be able to shoot and i think he has he has shown pop and being able to put the ball on the floor and score from the mid-range and have some playmaking flashes like all this is he didn’t play tons so all of this is in like small doses but he’s a archetype of player that’s very hard to draft the draft the raptors drafted that type of player one time and made a whole vision kind of trying to find that next player but what they found out was og is just there is no og anobi in the nba turns out that og and pascal and scotty are all pretty unique players you know yeah you just can’t just keep drafting guys because you want to get the same player so like i i think he’s worth taking at nine even if he’s not an all-star i think he could be a the fifth or sixth most valuable player in the class just because of how unique he is and what he can do on the floor to that point as well a couple things one jdub like when lou dort is on pascal it’s barbecq chicken as good as lud as as good as lou dort is lou has no idea how to check pascal caruso has is really good denying and but like if if they get flattened out pascal’s been able to go to his back and bully drive jdub has done a fantastic job on pascal and he’s giving up size there and man oh jdub’s so impressive to me he also cuts so well um and also desmond bane when i asked arco he said he’s the most talented player he’s ever coached if you remember that and it was because he said desmond can take concepts he gets coached that day and put them on an nba floor in an nba game later which is an incredible feat obviously all right carter bryant pick 39 who do you got for me who would you like i i like seion james a lot i’m not positive he’s going to be there at 39 the the nil situation kind of like kind of nuked all of the second round to be honest there’s a bunch of don’t feel bad about it man like if if we were in the business of knowing who’s going to be available at 39 we’d get paid way more well i’d get paid you’d probably get paid similar in a different field but i’d get paid more money [ __ ] um i think in terms of of of role it at 39 you want a guy that’s gonna be able to fit a role and the raptors want to be good that ideally has impact kind of kind of immediately seion james is a is a guy that shoots the ball fairly well he has the he has the um like girth and density to to be able to to guard a lot of a lot of perimeter players and give them give them issues has there ever been like a skinny guy named scion or zion i feel like everybody with that name he’s like “you’re a big boy.” yeah he just he he he’s he’s a muscle bro clearly like he’s he’s built like that and his his moving skills i would never compare anyone to lud dort but lou lud dort while not necessarily being lightning quick in in the sense of like his lateral speed he’s able to cover a tons of ground because he he feels you he he puts his hands on you and and is able to direct you in in in traffic uh cion does a lot of those those similar things because he has that he has that size so i think in for the raptors you want more players that can be able to handle physicality i think the biggest thing from the playoffs like defenses are very good at at being able to take away the opposing team because of that physicality and you need guys that aren’t just be able to be not aren’t just able to meet guys at spots you need guys to be able to blow up actions and be able to have the strength of of doing so i think that’s kind of the shift within the league that like drew holiday derek white type of like size and strength andrew nemhard in the in the same sense i i he’s he’s around 6’5 66 i i don’t think that’s like a deterrent of him being able to guard bigger players also so i think he fits a role like fairly easily he’s 22 and he could be in the raptors rotation next season yeah for me it’s adoro he the pitch is actually very similar to carter bryant he’s smaller than than carter is and the jump shot is farther away um but i think his handle is a little bit farther along than carter’s of course being smaller means a lot and that that’s why that’s why he’s talked about in some in one sense and carter’s talked about in another but i do i think could be you know we’re talking we’re just talking about like dort kuso and derek white and drew holiday and like this slew of you know 6’4 65 size like i guess adoo is a little bit bigger than that but these types of guards who you know drew is the exception but guards who get drafted a little bit later develop and work on their offense over time and make sure that they get on the floor with their defense i think he represents an opportunity to like pick a guy like that and again i don’t know if he’ll be available at 39 as you said nil and the ability to like take a guy who might want to enter the draft and be like you can have $7 million or something like that that’s and that’s good for these players like that’s a that’s a clear positive that stuff it changes it but adoo i think is a talented mover i think i’m not exactly certain about the jumper coming around but it’s a second round pick it’s a bit of a flyer you like if it if it happens it happens if it doesn’t it doesn’t you know like sometimes sometimes it’s i mean who who dewan hernandez sometimes and and and sometimes it’s norm or shamp with with those back end of the second round picks although 39 isn’t ex remember how excited we were about 39 before the nil stuff we’re like i was like “oh man it’s basically a first round pick.” it’s better than a firstrounder because of the the contract flexibility you know um yeah very funny so do you hear that no i can’t oh somebody’s like pouring water somewhere and it’s like anyway so but regardless what i mean to say is that i think given his movement skills his size his athleticism that there’s a reasonable chance that he can develop some of the finer skills of being like a larger guard and then he can provide some pop at at the next level and it might take him a while to define to define those skills for himself and see what it looks like at the next level but he’s a second round player with all the flexibility that comes with that contract with all the affordability that comes with that contract and if you’re the raptors and you actually believe like hey we develop and make players better in-house i think he’s a good guy to take a shot on although if i had to guess both the guys we talked about are probably going before 35 yeah but yeah they’re if they’re there at 39 because like i’ll just be happy if a name i recognize is picked at 39 to be honest i’ll be like “nice hell yeah dude.” because this is the thing this is the one thing that this podcast will not do we will not pretend everyone everyone pretends and you and i were just like very honest like we’ve seen this guy we know this guy we don’t we we earnestly attempt to cover the draft we go in and watch stuff but we don’t pretend like “oh yeah i’ve seen this guy he’s you know,” and then like vague descriptions of a basketball player we don’t pretend we’ll be like “who the hell is he?” and and if we get a guy i’ve seen and know at 39 i’m over the moon cuz i’m like i know i can talk about him if i were to guess i feel like they don’t pick a 39 i feel like they’re they do they do some maneuvering i guess the question i’ll ask you since there’s been lots of talk about the raptors trading trading this pick which i would be so sad about nine yeah if they trade this pick there’s also talk about them trading back is there’s obviously two teams with two first round picks there’s the oklahoma city thunder who have 15 and 24 i believe and atlanta who have 13 and 22 would would you take any of those offers to move back from none it’s tricky i don’t no no no no i don’t think i would because honestly like let’s let’s be real about it yeah unless unless like if you’re just doing it from like the value of it i don’t think you do it because the most important thing from this draft is getting a guy mhm it’s not it’s not like i mean brandon ingram is on the team now scotty barnes is on the team yeah caple emanuel quickley rj barrett they’ve drafted grady and jacobe they clearly like both of them they’ve like they could pay ochai they could move him on like they could you know i pitched actually on the i did the video earlier today i was like i wonder if there’s an ochai kissert situation that you can do like if if maybe washington really liked ochai but there’s just you have to get a guy they don’t need like copious amounts they they need a guy that you feel extremely good about and let’s say you’re playing the system you the raptors have a really great sense of like we know exactly how this draft is going to turn out which no team no team does then fine if you know you can still get your guy great however those are pretty far back you know and the val the value of it i think with with this team what’s more important is definitely like getting that guy on especially if you especially if you like jamal shed which i’m not like a huge jamal shed guy for the basketball player the person i mean he’s unbelievable but i you got to get a guy you love and you believe in more than anything from this draft i think it’s so essential that i wouldn’t pit around preying around like we have all just get just get the guy and get it right is is how i feel in the past i mean you and i have giggled like you know school girls like oh we got more pics you know like but i’m over it we’re past that stage you know yeah i’ve been thinking about this all day i i i’m still leaning to keeping the pick i don’t even think the raptors in an ideal world want to have two rookies on the on this team because there won’t be minutes for there won’t be minutes to go around because they’re going to be trying to to win so i i think you’re drafting at nine and you’re drafting someone that you’re confident that they’re either going to a be a starter like fairly soon year two year three or like they can have some impact because it looks like the raptors are going to want to compete for like a championship within the next two years at least if they don’t make the playoffs next year that’s a huge miss you know yeah i’d be very disappointed like this team wants to and the selection this year doesn’t impact that very few rookies ever do but by year two year three it’s it’s showtime you know it’s time to go brandon ingram got paid we’re clear clearly something is happening in toronto we’ll see if it’s a good thing or a bad thing but they they something is happening and i’m glad they abandoned it because can’t remember it was austin rivers talked about maybe where he was like the the most job security anyone ever has is what when they’re tanking and how that’s kind of proliferated throughout some of the organizations in the nba is just like you just say like oh yeah like it’s this genius thing and we’ll be tanking and then in five years check back in with me it’s like yeah and some and like sometimes like it doesn’t work out like we talked about it all the time yeah that’s actually true utah traded donovan mitchell three years ago going on four years they’re they’re in they haven’t even gained a little bit of ground on getting good because they purposely have tried to be be poor with and for what and for what man like come on for the fifth pick dog like i just it’s rough and they’re that team yeah they obviously have lori markin who’s a who’s a good player but you’re you’re they don’t even like him themselves man yeah so like you’re not in a position where you’re any you’re any further along and donovan mitchell is on a great similar to the raptor situation donovan mitchell is on the the one seed rudy gobear has made two western conference finals in a row like really good players are hard to it’s it’s hard to recreate the magic of having those good players and hitting hitting on players like donovan mitchell they what picked like i think i want to say 11th rudy gobear they got super late 13th for donovan 27th for rudy what are the odds of that ever happening again the raptors is the same thing fred van vleet they get undrafted pasco sakum they get what 28th 27 yeah what are the odds of that happening again you you kind of have to strike pick when the the iron is hot and i’m glad the raptors are doing that yeah og was early 20s too sexy blogger pick i remember at the time man it’s it’s tough to get it right and like also i talked about this in the video i did but it’s like the pacers you you go look they they very seldom resign the players they draft like it just doesn’t really happen nemhar just got just got it but and matan hasn’t signed yet by the way but go look at the the pacers draft pickics they don’t resign guys they draft guys they pull out their contracts then they leave or they get traded and the pacers built a finals team off of just trades just trades and there’s opportunity for the raptors to obviously move up using trades as well um but you have to supplement it with good drafting and that’s that’s what the pacers did with nemhard more than anyone else and and matine obviously scoring 27 was nuts but yeah it’s just like but also matine is the sixth pick and they’re like we’re not exactly how he fits going forward it’s like we traded for n smith we traded brogden away and we got this n smith guy and n smith is more important than the sixth overall pick jarus walker i do really like though i think we’ll see it next year if i had to guess but yeah man the raptors they have a world of opportunity in front of them but i hope they stick with the ninth pick yeah me too if yeah because i watched and i liked the guys so i’m like yeah cuz the farther they go down i’m like i know less and less i don’t know i didn’t i didn’t see much liam mcneely if you know fair enough imagine we go on stream the raptors just straight out of the drafts that would be that was that was like josh when he was here for the draft lottery he and i were sitting just hanging out alleg was sitting on the bed we’re just talking about like “oh who would you like?” and then the raptors the lottery happened and they got eighth so the pick went to san antonio and i was like “oh okay uh i just turned to josh like “is there anyone interesting at 31?” and he was like “okay yeah i know a couple guys i don’t have that pivot in me i i i don’t have that pivot in me and i know you don’t either no it’s just yeah we need we need to get a liar on the podcast we need a third mic who who’s like will lie i mean there’s a very obvious [Laughter] that’s funny okay before we get out of here tell me about kofi kingston please wow we’re finally hitting this okay this is this is mid mid 2000s you know dance hall regga music is is some of the the greatest it still is but really popping popping off at the time not not for me in in in saskatchewan it’s more like we’re think of limp biscuit that kind of stuff you know or the the song from coach carterations okay anyway go ahead k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k kofi kingston who’s like originally from from ghana he’s coming up am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am am amateur wrestler vi vince mcmahon has has wanted to hit on the caribbean market so he goes to you and says “god damn it we’re going to make you jamaican.” and and he he he wears he wears the jamaican colors his name his name is kofi kingston and i you probably haven’t seen this in saskatchewan have you ever heard of the dance like the thunder clap no i don’t think so what is the thunder clap you just it’s like oh that’s wait was that like the was that the precursor to the it’s one of the moves it’s one of the moves okay okay so he they they would play i think it was a mobato song was a dance artist and he would just run through the thing run through the entrance and just start thunderclapping everywhere he had a jamaican accent the entire time so he’s in he’s in the wwe for i want to say five five or six years now maybe a little longer can i ask a question go ahead what what’s his real name he’s ganaan yes kofi kofi mensah there you go okay okay okay kofi mensah is now kofi kingston just like sean so obviously like social media comes and then the entire internet realizes that he’s not jamaican and jamaican twitter beats him down to the freaking ground tearing him up add adding wwe constantly so he has he goes i think this is like maybe two or three weeks after they they they find out and i forgot what the the particular line was but they just go and go you’re not jamaican he’s like no i’m not jamaican and they just move on like nothing ever happened he still goes by kofi kingston but he just pretends like he’s not jamaican wait so he’s when he wrestles he’s not jamaican anymore now no he’s not jamaican anymore at all they just gave it up they just gave it up yet people found out but i that’s but i thought kayfabe was kind of like part of it or is that not that’s not kayfabe kay fabe is he’s supposed to kayfabe would suggest he’s supposed to to continue it on but he like they they said it in a way where like he just said he wasn’t jamaican and kept it moving but like he was still kofi kingston which is like a middle ground gray area that is interesting because i would have thought he’d be like like the undertaker would be like guys i’m not actually cuz he’s dead right yeah yeah i guess well death and jamaican culture are not exactly synonymous but like they they just drop things sometimes like the muhammad hassan guy i i told you about in our first they just just real i watched a documentary about him like two days ago i didn’t even know he was italian [ __ ] like that damn so kofi kingston is kofi kingston does he wears different colors now yeah he’s in like a tag hall of fame tag team though it’s great like they like it’s for like kids they’re called the new day they you play like one of them plays the trombone they dance it’s a good time wow i think i think i saw him wrestle last year with blake was he at a royal rumble last year last year was he in the rumble i think it was the year before that then okay well i i saw him wrestle and i was like i missed an integral part of the story oh what’s what’s what is it he after he drops the jamaican stuff he becomes insanely popular and he then he becomes he becomes the first black wrestler to win the wwe championship wait did did like who’s who’s booker t never won booker was he popular booker t won like the world heavyweight championship which is like number two wait so what year did kofi kingston win i want to say it was preco i want to say 2019 kofi kingston wow that’s crazy so he dropped the jamaican stick and then they elevated him to a win or i guess he got super popular was it just people talked about him i think so it was like combination of that like he does all he’s super athletic does a bunch of tricks but then like yeah the internet really knew about him after that moment like so no press is bad press kind of thing like everyone it was a scandal but only only the jamaicans were out for blood everyone else was just kind of like responding it to probably the way i am where i like that’s funny he’s a good wrestler though yeah yeah he won in 2019 wow interesting i so basically my understanding of wrestling is just like lying but with acrobatics yes it’s pretty compelling because lying lying is kind of like a very compelling like i watch game of thrones man i read game of thrones lying as entertainment is you can also look at the political age we’re in all that stuff huge and you throwing like kofi king i’m pretty sure he was like he was doing some sort of stunt when i saw him where he was like he’s just hanging out and like refused to fall out of the the the the whatever cuz he’s so jacked and like talented good idea yeah he he does one of those stunts like every year for the rumble there was one where he he jumped he jumped and i think it was like at least five or six told me about this and he lands on on the the little announcer chair and then jumps all the way back i went insane for it yeah that’s yes i remember that blake was like “yeah he he just jumps he the floor is lava basically right like you you can’t touch.” god i love that game growing up i was i was so happy when the the tv show community which i know you’re not really into but you know of they did a fors live episode that was television man peak wow peak okay so now i know more about the wwe cuz i never like when i say i haven’t seen it people are shocked because and i’m a little shocked too because it was like everyone it was in the background you know what i mean like everyone had seen it to some degree but i just really didn’t see a lick of it which is also strange because my dad loved wrestling jeez who’s who’s his favorite wrestler oh i don’t know it would be old because well my dad loved it as a kid but he didn’t watch it much growing up i think you know you have a kid at 18 you gota grow up pretty fast you know what i mean like he’s like this wrestling is such [ __ ] man i i got to buy baby formula whatever you know what i mean um and so i don’t know who his favorite wrestler was but yeah he watched a lot of wrestling growing up but yeah never never in our house which it makes me feel like i’ve missed out on something cuz i just like hearing you and kai scream and i was in the i was in the shower downstairs and i just and i was like and i ran up and there’s people running around everything and i was like what could possibly motivate this i i remember it bro or rumba you’re like i think couldn’t jay you so when mir car like that could never happen it doesn’t fit the story line at all he wins we we explode you’re like just another yeah and then there was yeah the latter match too with kevin kevin owens is the best wrestling i’ve ever seen man insanity mhm all right anything you want to say to the people before we get out of here um there likely will be an nba champion the next time we we we speak um i just think it’s like the ratings talk and like that’s that’s been going on i think it’s it’s cool to see that like good basketball is like being played and it’s two small markets and i i watched it with all of our our ds friends on the weekend like having a ball watching it i i think it goes to show like the the new stars of the nba are are are cool tyrese halurn sga have been going back back and forth and like there isn’t i i’m confident there isn’t going to be like a gape like i’m going to cry when lebron james does retire but i don’t think there’s going to be a gaping hole in like the same sense like it was in like say like early 2000s when michael jordan retired like the talent in the nba is enormous right now yeah it’s it’s similar to soccer there is no messi or ronaldo stepping up it’s just like mbappé is not that you it’s almost like the media environment of that like ear late 90s early 2000s so badly wanted uh like that replacement uber star that they created these guys and and guys like lebron guys like messi guys like ronaldo and and let’s say even like federer even like nadal and djokovic like everyone stepped up and took the mantle that was kind of fo hoisted onto them but now i don’t think we’re desperate for that mantle and lebron how could you ever walk those like step into those shoes i don’t his his story is so he was the greatest prospect of all time and then he was better than that every year until he’s 41 like just yeah like we’re just never going to see that again and like even even those type of players are kind of engulfing in a sense where like if they feel inevitable like as a raptor fan if you put those raptors k those kard demar rosen teams in 2024 2025 you’re like they’re a cool interesting team they have a chance to win it all but you just didn’t feel that way in 2016 2017 because the the talent gap was just too large it was eight years in a row he he represented the east in the finals eight years in a row it was like it was the most earned inevitable feeling of all time you know what i mean like it’s after a champion wins and then it’s they they’re always the like like odds on team to win the next season even though it hasn’t happened there hasn’t been a repeat in however long even two titles in three years just hasn’t happened everyone’s like “well the nuggets won in 2023 so like they’ll probably win the next year.” it’s like no and then you go back just like five years before that and it’s like eight years in a row of lebron being like “no one is touching the nba finals out of the east except me.” and it didn’t matter what team it didn’t matter what players were there he’s like “matthew delvadova this rat from australia we’re going to the finals.” you know what i mean it’s just it’s just time like times have changed i think it’s it’s it’s more interesting in the sense and like a team like orlando could just say “fuck it i’m gonna trade for desmond brandon are going to go for it the raptor said “we’re going to trade for brandon ingram and go for it.” and it looks like they’re probably going to do something else too so it’s fun times it definitely it’s good for the the parody is good and also for you know a media environment a fan environment that is very horny for transactions it’s good for that too just constantly teams trying to load up it reminds me a little bit of when the warriors kind of like got to the top end there was like four teams that were like “we’re gonna annie up with them and we’re gonna like try really hard to knock them off the pedestal and it really didn’t like it didn’t work necessarily.” like after once they got kevin durant other teams tried to load up and match with them it just didn’t happen they couldn’t take him off the pedestal but now it seems like that group of four teams is like a group of 12 teams and there’s 12 teams in the league at any given time that are like let’s just let’s see let’s trust in these guys it’s a good place to be it’s fun and i understand like from like i don’t watch la liga the spanish league but eláico is huge because it’s real madrid and barcelona and there is some brand association that’s important the nba might lose a little bit of that but for people who watch a lot of games i think it’s never been in a better place there’s a lot of good basketball agreed yep all right listeners thank you for tuning in with us forgot to do the like comment subscribe at the top i was so good last time not good this time uh we appreciate you very much it helps out the the podcast from myself and javon thank you and whether you got into this in the morning or at night have a blessed day and goodbye

Samson Folk & Trevon Heath get together to discuss the latest in the Raptors realm, with a specific focus on the draft.

0:00 – Introductions

1:00 – Samson covered the Finals

2:28 – Picking our favorite prospects

5:00 – Tre’s fav, Derik Queen

11:55 – Samson’s fav, CMB

22:05 – Tre’s #2, Jeremiah Fears

29:45 – Samson’s #2, Carter Bryant

39:40 – Tre’s fav 2nd rounder, Sion James

42:15 – Samson’s fav 2nd rder, Adou Thiero

45:13 – We’re an honest podcast

46:10 – Should the Raptors trade their pick?

49:52 – Tanking

53:10 – Trading out of the draft

54:22 – Tre teaches Samson about wrestling

1:03:10 – The Finals have been great

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