Jakob Poeltl Gets Extension, Sandro Mamukelashvili Is Newest Toronto Raptor

Jakob Poeltl Gets Extension, Sandro Mamukelashvili Is Newest Toronto Raptor

Purle power shaka purle yakimajuan white chamberlain yaka purle has signed an extension you are locked on raptor Raptors, your daily Toronto Raptors podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. It’s your favorite part of the day. Thanks for making Locked On Raptors your first listen every day. I’m VC Jacob. I’ve been covering the Toronto Raptors for eight seasons across several outlets. You can follow Lockdown Raptors on X, Instagram, and YouTube. And be sure to check out the locked on Raptors Discord where you can talk all things basketball, but especially the Raptors. It is Wednesday, July 2nd, and I am joined by probably the least surprising man to make an appearance here because he’s Mr. Everything Everywhere all at once. Go to Raptors Republic. He’s there. Listen to the Athletic Daily. It’s him. Bleacher Report. Oh, look. It’s him again. Want to watch a 905 game or the CBL? It’s S on the sidelines. Turn on your TV. He’s in a commercial. Guess what? He’s also my teammate at Sports Casting and Basketball Insiders. It is S. Van Barahi.
Thank you for joining me, S.
What’s going on? I actually do like the moniker Everything Everywhere All at Once. It’s one of my favorite movies. I love it. Awesome. Yeah, appreciate you. Thank you for having me on. Um, yeah, I’m excited to talk about Shaka Purle. Let’s do it. Yeah, man. So obviously we’ll get into Sandro Mamukashi a bit later but off the top Yakaporto four-year 104 million dollar extension as far as the specifics are concerned he’s technically opted into the 19.5 million that was in place for 2627 and then there’s three years tacked on top of that at 85.5 mil. So, and then the final year also is partially guaranteed. So, you know, I think all in all, uh, this is a good bit of business for the Raptors. Technically, say for example, if he were to just wait it out, opt out of that 19.5 for 2627, he’s looking at an extension starting at 27 million.
Mhm.
So, there’s a big chunk of savings in that 2627 season. Uh, so I think you got to look at Yakob and be like, man, this is the ultimate company, man. Sits out, you know, the end of last season not knowing what’s going to happen with his contract. Obviously, there would have been some kind of agreement that, hey, man, we’ll take care of you. He’s taking this partial guarantee for the final season. He’s taking the discount in 26 27. What more can you ask for? Yeah, he is really I mean company man is a great way to describe him because he is very very bought into what this Raptors team wants to do for the next couple of seasons. Um to your point about the optin in instead of opting out, you know, there’s been reports that the NBA the salary cap is only going to be going up 7% for the 2026 2027 season. And that’s also massive because it gives the Raptors a little bit of flexibility, especially the fact that um you know Quickley’s contract and and Barnes’ contract those Quickleys is a flat contract, but Barnes’ contract would be escalating in a way that kind of outpaces the cap. Uh if that’s the case, if the 7% reported is actually true. So Yak has helped in that regard. And honestly, um, the 5 million guaranteed that was reported by Jake Fischer in the final year of his contract is actually makes this contract even more sweet from the Raptors perspective because they can look at the next four years as a sort of window with Yakob and depending on how that final year guarantees or parts of that final year guarantee, um, it could unlock some things flexibility-wise for them moving forward even past what Yakob wants to do with the team. So, um I I’m a fan of the contract. I think it’s feasible. Uh I know people will bring up the fact that the Raptors are very expensive now. Uh but they were expensive before and Jakob is making exactly what he would have made uh you know before this contract extension and he’s making it for the next two years. So uh I think it’s a fair contract. If you look at the rest of the centers, starting centers in the league, most of them are making around 27 28 million, especially the ones that have recently inked contracts. The only one is uh Ivita Zubot, which basically is like a steal at this point. If you go and look at his contract, because he signed it before this boom of the salary cap, he’s making like $20 million and he’s, you know, was an arguably an AllNBA player last year. So, um, yeah, I think it’s a fine contract for the most part. It basically at this point the Raptors have to be good, right? The roster with how expensive it is, you are leaning into this playoff window, this competitive window that they have to have in the next couple years. Um, and Yakob is going to be a big part of that. So, good contract. Makes sense. Yeah. Let’s get into Yak the player coming off a career best season. 14 and a half points, 9.6 6 rebounds, 1.2 steals, 1.2 blocks, shoots 62.7% from the field, and a career best 67.4% at the free throw line.
Yeah.
Yes.
Uh obviously, he had that huge stretch where he’s getting the nicknames and he’s getting a lot of love. Obviously, the Raptors were very short-handed during that stretch, which helped contribute to that. And I think with Yak, he’s someone that I don’t believe values his own scoring enough. Uh, and I think for that stretch, it was like, okay, we need this, so I’m going to do it. And I think there’s going to be,
uh, especially, you know, when he’s involved in these actions with Quickley and, uh, Ingram to come and Scotty, he’s got to, you know, look at the basket more. Yeah, as good as his playmaking is, as good as his passing is, that stretch should inform him or should have informed him already on, you know, the value he brings with his own offense. Obviously, on the defensive side of the ball, he’s amazing and that’s why he’s been such an impact player for Toronto. That’s why he’s going to be such a key factor in the Raptors making the postseason uh moving forward. And that’s probably a big factor in why the Raptors said, “Hey, we’re not willing to include this guy in a deal for Kevin Durant.”
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, the the other part of the whole Kevin Durant equation is like, where would they have found a starting center, you know? Um, and that would require sending out even more pick capitals or more contracts to go out and get whatever center it is. I saw conversations about, oh, they can reroute, you know, someone to go get Walker Kesler or go get Mark Williams or something along the lines of that. Well, those guys, they’re going to go for a first round pick. They’re going to go for salary attached. And so, you’re like gutting more of your team to go out and find a solution at center if you trade for Kevin Durant. Um, and so it’s it’s more than just they didn’t want to include him for Ke. I’ve seen it reported that way and I’m like, come on, man. This is not that’s not the way to have the conversation. But
yeah,
uh to your point about Yak and and offensively being aggressive, I mean, I think always, and we saw this with Marasaul a little bit too, where it’s like when your center is aggressive, when your center is looking to score, it just applies much more uh pressure to the defense uh and keeps them honest, right? Um in the bubble, I think you can remember Marcus Solen like not shooting it from above the break and it was like, “Oh god, this is this is cratering their offensive potential.” With Yakob, it’s similar in the sense that like if he’s looking at the basket, if in that short roll area, he’s looking for his little push shot that he has. Uh if he’s dunking, because I know that’s a big thing for Dark Yakovic, he’s requested Yakob dunk more often. Uh if he’s being more physically aggressive at the basket, it’ll help the Raptors offensively. Also, I think a part of him being more confident offensively is trusting in that free throw percentage. So, the fact that he’s knocking down free throws more often makes him feel like, “Oh, well, if I get fouled here, I’m confident I can knock down at least one of these free throw shots.” So, um that’s that’s part of the equation of getting him more offensively adept consistently. But, yeah, I he’s going to be a huge part of their offense just because of the Raptors, the way they want they want to play.
Yeah, no question. And I really like the point you made about the free throws. I think that’s a big part of it when you feel like anything inside, hey, like they might just hack me. And so, yeah,
I’m better off kicking it out. I’m better off finding a cutting teammate, whatever it be, because I have the skill to do that.
You lean that way. And I I think now, you know, having that confidence going to the free throw line, hopefully he can be even better than 67% uh next season. And hopefully, you know, RJ Barrett takes it as a bit of an insult better at the free throw line than me and I got to up my game.
That is one of the most bewildering things. like he was he was basically like a 75 78% free throw shooter in New York. As soon as he got to Toronto, he ended up being like a s what I don’t I don’t know what he ended up finishing with, but it was probably like 60% something along the lines of that. It was bad. Um yeah,
Osmo was give it then Osmo was take it away. Exactly. It’s that must be that secret sauce. That’s it.
Yeah. Yeah. All right. I think that just about wraps it for Yak. I don’t know if there’s any other uh aspects of him that you wanted to touch on.
Yeah, I I guess I’ll just say like I I think um you know people will obviously look at the fact that their starting five is is linked on to you know it’s 80% of the salary cap or whatever it was. I saw that um reported you know yesterday too. I think generally it just ends up being that the players have to be good. It’s such a copout answer, but like Scotty Barnes has to perform to his contract level and Emanuel Quickley has to perform or outperform his contract level. Yaka Purle now has to perform to his contract level. Brandon Ingram, who hasn’t played a game for the Toronto Raptors yet, has to perform for his to his contract level. It just it’s as simple as they have built a roster to be better than the 30 wins that they had last year. And honestly, probably if it wasn’t for tanking and injuries, they’re probably better than 30 wins last year. Yeah, they’re they’re expecting to be at least competitive next season with this expensive roster. So, yeah.
Yeah. No, this is the talent business and uh you need your best players to be your best players.
Yeah.
I have the Raptors marked down currently as around a 45 win team. I’m I I think the minimum expectation is being a 500 team. Mhm.
Uh and I think you know 45 wins in an east that looks fairly weak.
Uh I think should be pretty manageable. Um now obviously we haven’t seen a game of Brandon Ingram with these guys and so we will have to see how things mesh and all of that.
Uh and you know maybe just quickly uh Brandon Ingram and Yak together, how do you see that playing out? So Yak is obviously an incredible screener and that’s why his connection with IQ is good because IQ has a little bit slower of a release uh on his three-point shot. So it gives him a little bit of daylight. I think the same thing applies to BI in the sense that BI has to load up a little bit more from three than he does with his mid-range jumper. And so I think he’ll be more um willing to take pullup threes compared to the pull-up mid-range shots. Also, I’m thinking of like snug pick and rolls between him and Yaka Purle where the the screen is actually set maybe at the free throw line instead of above the break and it allows BI to get downhill, you know, knock down that little mid-range jump shot that he likes. So, I I see the vision kind of reminds me of uh you know, Brandon Ingram has played with a couple of good screen setters. Uh the the main guy I think of is Stephen Adams and BI had one of his best seasons of his career when he played with Stephen Adams just because Adams is one of the strongest dudes in the NBA. Lays guys out on screens, gives his ball handlers such an advantage and I think Yakob can do some of the same. Uh so it should help BI a lot. Also, I don’t know how you feel about this, but I think BI is a pretty underrated playmaker. Uh and so there will be connections. There will be moments where he can kick it to Yak, you know, in roll into the basket, whatever, or find a shooter, skip pass. There’s just going to be a lot of opportunities for BI to make plays with the ball in his hands.
Yeah. No, I do think that’s one aspect that Toronto should come to appreciate uh about Brandon Ingram during his time here and especially in Darko’s offense. I think he’s going to have plenty of opportunities to make his teammates better. Yeah,
the point about Steven Adams is a good one. And
let’s face it, Yakapurle in terms of offensive uh variety, he’s a lot more capable. Yeah, Adams and so I think that is going to add another wrinkle. Uh Brandon Ingram has already spoken about his excite excitement to play with Yakapurto and I think he has craved playing with a big man like Yak and probably you know as you mentioned having as good a season as he had with Steven Adams around he’s probably like hey man I think this is a pretty good thing for me.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s like okay I can maybe make more money here uh if I if like my efficiency might skyrocket in Toronto because of the way that I can get to the basket. Yeah. Absolutely. Coming up on the other side, we will get to Sandro Mamuk Lashili. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch Money, it can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO. Gives you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. Having all my accounts in one app has been a gamecher and is just so much easier to figure out exactly what I’m doing with all of my money in one place. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com code locked on NBA for half off your first year. And we are back at it. Ready to talk some Sandro Mammu Kashilli. He has signed a 2-year veterans minimum contract. The second year is a player option. I probably didn’t need to tell you that. It’s what the Raptors love to do.
It’s what every team likes to do. If you look at free agency right now, they are tossing out those player options. It’s incredible to see.
Yeah. Yeah. Uh so I think you know in terms of the options as far as getting a big man in were concerned you’re looking at I think primarily the Raptors know that they want to look to Scotty or CMBB or Mo for those five minutes that Yak isn’t on the court. Mhm.
And so just to have a different option, there’s someone in Sandro who can be a stretch big. Now you go to a basketball reference, they say he’s 6’11. You go to ESPN, they say he’s 69. You go somewhere else, they say he’s 610.
They’re lying to us. What we do know is that he can shoot the ball and he does have quite a bit of offensive talent. You broke it down over at Raptors Republic. Make sure uh everyone go check out that video when you get the chance. Uh s tell us what you’ve seen.
Yeah, man. Sandrew is Sandro is obviously um a very talented shooter at his position. I would probably peg him more as like a small ball five type of option even though you know 6’11 or 69 or 610 whatever. to me. Um, if Raptors fans want a clear picture of what Sandro can do, it’s like imagine what Chris Buchet at the five is in the sense that like he’s not going to be a physical presence. Obviously, Buché has much more of a defensive acumen, long arms who can block shots, be like a weak side, rim protector, and rover for you. That aspect Sandro does not have, but I think offensively he provides a similar punch in the sense that he can stretch the floor. he can give them a look with basically five out offense where he shot I believe 37% from three last season. Uh he knocked down 37% of his catch and shoot looks as well which was really big. Uh a lot of those were guarded which is impressive. The fact that he can knock it down even if there’s a defender draped all over him. That’s impressive to me generally. Um the Spurs look this is a guy who averaged 11 minutes a game. So, it’s not like he got tons of opportunity or tons of run, but when he got opportunity, uh, the Spurs would run him in these stack pick and roll actions or Spain pick and roll actions where he would be the guy picking popping out. Uh, and defenses are forced to pay attention to that. I think that makes the Raptors wholly unique because uh, you think of what they like to do with Emanuel Quickley in these drag screen scenarios where they’ll have one guy pop out. Typically, it’s either Grady Dick or Jacobe Walter, but now you can do it with double bigs, right, with Sandro and Scotty, or you can have Sandro and Yak and one guy roll to the basket and one guy pop out. Um, and I think that’s just just a little bit more lineup flexibility to what they can do. Uh, I’ve I mentioned it on there, but like obviously he’s the he’s the guy who 15th spot on the roster. Is he 15th guy on the bench? I don’t necessarily think so. I think he has a chance to crack the rotation. Um, but it all comes down to how defensively attentive he can be. How can they fit him into their rotation because of some of the defensive issues that he has. He falls asleep a little bit on rotations. Not necessarily the greatest rim protector or shot blocker. um they will have to pair him with a Scotty Barnes or maybe a Colin Murray Boils or Jonathan Mo, but I think the Raptors are uniquely capable to pair him with a guy who’s a good defensive rim protector in those guys plus Yaka Purle. So, some flexibility excited because I think he actually has more than meets the eye. Uh and if given opportunity, there’s there’s a chance that he can really blossom in Toronto. That said, like there’s a reason he went for the minimum here. There’s a reason that he um you know is is two-year contract versus like actually signing for a real money. But like but there’s opportunity for him to outpace that contract, which is good for the Raptor sake. Yeah, no question about that. I I think as far as the Raptors options are concerned, they probably feel like, hey, Mamu isn’t someone that we want to put on fives, but we believe that we can put Scotty and CMB and mobile on those guys and and hide Mamu a bit defensively. And when you look at the bench options, you trust in Jamal Shed defensively, you trust in Jacobe Walter defensively, you trust in Oayabaji defensively. So, if that’s the one guy you have to hide and protect
when you go to those lineups, uh then I think it’s sustainable at least, you know, for a bench stretch of a few minutes.
Uh
and then offensively it is about opening up the floor, right? And if you’re going to have uh Scotty, CMB, Mo at the five, you you want a guy at the four who can stretch it out a little bit. And that’s what he brings to the table. And uh you know, he can attack a close out. he’s got uh some decent finishing once he gets to the basket and so
uh I think those are it’s a good option for the Raptors to have at the end of their bench.
Yeah.
Yeah. Exactly. Like you can’t be asking too much out of where the Raptors were at flexibility-wise or anything like that. I to your point like if you remember last year there was a reason the Raptors were rolling when Chris Bucher was cooking in January when Kelly Olen was part of their lineup in January because that that like floor spacing five really enabled them to maximize some of their lineup flexibility especially with Scotty Barnes. Um and so I think Mamu can serve in a similar fashion for this Raptors team. The other side of it is um like you said, he can put the ball down on the floor. He’s sort of I I believe he played point guard in college and so his ability to like catch and go, grab a live rebound and kind of dart will help in transition kind of reminds you of like what Scotty Barnes and Mo and those guys typically do. RJ Barrett does the same thing. So, I think Mamu can kind of fit into what the Raptors want to do in transition. Um and yeah, I’m I’m intrigued by him being able to put the ball on the floor, make plays. This is obviously a darkyakovich type of offense and Mamu fits the description for the type of big that he wants. I think that’s the difference between him and Chris Bucher which makes him a little bit more Kelly Olicki where you know in dribble handoff scenarios he actually has a feel for the game, can make plays, can find cutters. Um and that’s that’s kind of the difference here between what Bush provides and what Mama does. Yeah. And I think to finish off right there, you know, Chris Bucher, shouts to the man.
Shout outs to the man, man. Yeah,
pretty much uh the end of a really fun tenure.
Yeah.
Uh in Toronto. And you know, let’s face it, right now he’s probably the best unrestricted power forward free agent available.
That’s right.
Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. I mean, I’m I’m interested to see what team goes out and grabs him. I think he could fit for a lot of playoff teams. I know Denver has been interested. I think he would be perfect. It would be also funny to have JV and Chris Buché on that team. It would be like West. Um, yeah. I I think it would be great for him to go on a playoff team. I think like Atlanta would make sense for him too. The Hawks in their system. That would be intriguing.
Well, remember the Knicks had interest in him, too.
True. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I I I wonder if like the Yabelli signing uh ended up changing that for them, but it could still work truthfully. Um, even the Lakers, honestly, maybe Luca and Chris Buché. Why not? Let’s get weird, man. But, but Chris is definitely a fan favorite and one of my favorite players to have covered for this Raptors team just because he’s like an enigma in the way that he plays and how crazy some of the games, you know, he had was. Think back to the crazy comeback versus the Mavericks with him and Kyle leading the way. Um, you know, there was another comeback. I can’t remember who it was against, but he had a crazy moment for them, too. Maybe you’ll remember it and I won’t, but um
so there was the Dallas comeback. They had the big Indiana comeback.
The Indiana comeback. That’s the one. That’s the one. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And then that was the one where like Buché had the nice stretch and then Serge came back in and then Serge hit the big triple.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Uh oh, what a season.
What a season. What a season. Hopefully the Raptors can return to that level eventually. But yeah. Yeah. Looking at the Raptors, we will get into that next. Py says there’s a lot of stability right now. But is there really and we are back at it. Ready to wrap up. And as I wanted to touch on, you know, Keith Perry when he spoke to the media uh to announce the dismissal of Messiah Ujiri, he said that it was the right time to do it because of the stability that the organization had currently. And to me, that’s very much a surface level statement because you can come out and you can say, “Oh, look,
Emanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Scotty Barnes, Yaka Purle, Brandon Ingram, they’re all committed to extensions. They’re all under contract for at least the next couple of seasons. There’s nothing to worry about.” But then you start to dig a little deeper, and we know that R.J. J Barrett and Emanuel Quickley have been in trade discussions as recently as last week that we uh we know that hey from an onc court perspective we still don’t know what this group looks like even without Brandon Ingram we have a very small sample of the BBQ lineup
and so it’s not a situation where we’re saying oh we know exactly what Kyle and Dear are about you know we we don’t know what this group is capable of So, uh, you have Darko Rayakovic, who I think deserves a lot of credit for the development we’ve seen to this point, but this is going to be his first season with real expectations when it comes to winning. And so, we don’t know what he’s capable of with those expectations. Yeah.
Beyond that, I think about Scotty Barnes having a great relationship with Masai Jiri. How does he feel about what’s just transpired here? And you know, you go down the line to Bobby Webster and Michael Grange of Sportset reported that yeah, on again on the surface it’s like, oh, we got Bobby to an extension and then you do a bit of digging and Michael Grange is able to report that the extension is through to the 2627 season. So technically just a year tacked on to what he originally had and I would imagine the same has been done with Dan Tolsman. Yeah.
So
you take all that it’s not feeling very stable. Yeah, it’s not feeling very stable. And even if it was surface level stable, um, taking away the president of basketball operations, longtime president of basketball operations, can have a destabilizing effect because now there’s, you know, everything kind of gets put into questions. Whether it’s signing a PL player, whether it’s a trade opportunity that comes up uh in the front office, you know, there’s no real chain of command here. Uh, who are they answering to? who are they sending out these things to get approved to, right? Is it just a direct line to Keith Pelly’s office? Like what what is the process there uh for them to do things the rest of the summer and moving forward? As far as the sta stability on the roster, um I think they are locked in in terms of what this team is currently. And I think part of that is probably the inability to move these contracts moving forward. Uh, you know, I was talking to Samson about this yesterday and and we were kind of like, well, there’s there’s no surplus value contract that the Raptors have, right? It’s either they are underperforming their contract or they are at value for their contract. And I don’t know if that’s the scenario you want to be at when you’re in a stable position. You know, you can’t be opportunistic um with some of these deals and some of these contracts that you have. And so now you’re that stability is kind of being positioned what they’re being positioned at is stable, but if anything, I would probably label it inflexible because of them not being able to really go out and do anything outside of what they have. And so that’s why next season is a big test to me. Forget stability. Next season is a test. It’s a proof of concept to see what this team is made of, what the potential of this team is. And that’s why Bobby Webster’s contract is only until 2026. 2027. Dan Holesman is only till 2026 27.27. I believe Darko also until 2026 27. I know they they extended or they they opted into the final year of his deal as well. So there’s a window here, a two-year window for the Raptors to be like, “Hey, is what we’re doing currently, does that make sense? Could it be fruitful in the NBA? Could it be a winning pro product? Basically, um I think both you and I can agree that there’s potential for that. You know, you you mentioned 45 wins. I think that’s a fair estimate. This is a team that when they were decimated early on in the season, uh went 1 and 17 or 1 and 18 at one point,
one and they lost 16 out of 17,
right? 16 out of So, they went one and 16. And you know obviously the end of the year they were going back and forth between what starters to rest and that probably accounts for a couple of losses in the category. So really
no I mean even even before the losing 16 out of 17 they had the whole ethical tank thing going right where they were in a bunch of games and then all of a sudden last five minutes we were like uh we’re not trying to win these games. Yeah. I I can remember like that Nuggets game in the Lakers game. Like there was there were moments uh man remember Grady in Denver how incredible he was in the first half and then they just blew that game in the second half. They didn’t no chance whatsoever. A lot of moments like that to start the season. And so you look at a team that won 30 games but probably was like a 39 40 win team if they were fully healthy and BI eventually played etc. Uh, I think there’s a potential they can be better than that this season,
especially. Um, yeah, I just I think they can be better and they need to be because it’s a proof of concept for if ownership, if the Raptors, if Keith P can keep buying into what this roster and what this front office can be. Yeah. No, I I think with any tanking team, you have to really understand the entire narrative of the season and understand what they’re capable of when projecting for the season after. Because another example I’ll turn to is Detroit, right? Statistically, we’re all like, man, they went from 14 wins to 44. Like one of the greatest turnarounds in NBA history. Uh but last year that was not a 14- win team,
right? Yeah.
They were so focused on the tank.
And so I think when you assess the team moving forward, you kind of have to understand what was really going on to be able to make a proper estimate. Uh, and so,
you know, when Bill Simmons thinks that, you know, there’s no way Toronto can be in the top six, I I think there’s a lot that you’re missing out on in terms of what this team is actually capable of when they’re healthy. Now, obviously, all of that is going to play into it, right?
Yeah. Emanuel Quickley is going to have to play at least
60 games. You know, RJ Barrett is going to have to, if he starts the season with the Raptors, is going to have to show that he can fit in uh that starting group. Brandon Ingram is going to have to be healthy. Uh Scotty Barnes, as you said, you know, to this point, the development he’s shown on a rookie rookie contract is good. Now, we’re getting into the big boy talk. You are the face of the franchise.
You are on uh a big extension.
Now, we’re going to have to see that next leap.
Yeah, absolutely. Also, like, um I don’t know, we can kind of go through the thought process here of of the rest of the Eastern Conference. I think there’s a clear like three or four teams I would say that are that are better when it comes to you know Cleveland, Orlando, New York, um you know Atlanta maybe I would say at this point is is better. Don’t my defense for that. We know how you feel about Atlanta. You can
you can guess Atlanta is a top four team. Yeah, I love the Hawks. I love what they’re doing. So yeah, lock in the Hawks. Um, I have no idea what the Pacers and Celtics look like next season because uh it doesn’t see like they’re missing obviously key pieces and neither team now has a starting center. Um,
yeah. So, I’m that is in flux for me. I’m not I think the Raptors could be better than those teams. Uh, even though they have the infrastructures of like playoff proven teams. Um, yeah. So, I why not? you know, Detroit is obviously going to be in the mix and be competitive, but I think for the most part, the Raptors thoroughly have themselves in that conversation to be um in my opinion like at the very least a top eight team and possibly a top six team in the Eastern Conference. Why not? I could see it. Yeah. And uh you know, Milwaukee is doing the whole we’re trying Jennifer thing,
right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t know. Don’t know.
Not Not sure. Not sure how you can win with Miles Turner as your second best player, but hey, cook, you know, try your best. We’ll see what happens. Honestly, I I feel like if I were Giannis, if I got any word of what was about to happen, I would have just been like, “Guys, like,
yeah, let’s just let’s
let’s not like I think it’s over.” This actually kind of reminds me of um remember when when the Blazers signed Jeremy Grant to a massive contract in order to persuade Dame to stay and then two weeks later, a week later, Dame decided to say goodbye. This feels a lot like that where obviously the Bucks are trying their best to keep uh Giannis happy and appeased, but when the dust settles after, you know, July 30th and it’s August and it’s the dead moments of the offseason and he looks up and it’s like my third best player is Gary Trent Jr. Um and AJ Green and all all respect to those guys, good shooters, good players. Bobby Portoris is maybe my third best player, whatever. Um, I’m not necessarily sure that’s a recipe for a team that’s going to make win a playoff series, let alone make the conference finals or the finals, you know. So, yeah, who knows? Maybe Alex Herreratus is the next president of basketball operations for the
Yeah.
for the Toronto Raptors, you know?
I feel like the cell job is they’re just going to put up like the meme of, you know, just try to inspire Giannis with the whole like I asked my landlord to raise my rent here. Yeah. Let’s think about think about what happens if you can carry this team, Giannis.
Right. That’s the pitch. Yeah. You you this could be another MVP season for you. You know, why not? Yeah, I guess that is the pitch. That’s the pitch. But yeah, I mean, just to finish off on on a Raptors note,
yeah,
uh I think you know to conclude, Yak solid extension. I think the last point I’ll maybe make on him is, you know, some people might look at it as like, hey, he’s entering age 30 season. Um, so this is pretty much age 30 to 34. I think he’s the type of player where, uh, you know, he is pretty groundbound as you mentioned. Darko wants him to dunk the ball. Um, and so I don’t think he’s someone who’s going to see like a huge decline over this period. I think you can expect uh good value uh and you know consistent value at what we’ve seen
uh and you know he tacks on some more free throws
then you’re golden.
Yeah. Yeah. I I’m fine. Shout out to Yak. I think he’s a very very important part of this team. This team absolutely fell off a cliff with him off the floor last season and pretty much every season before that. So um yeah, I I see no problem with Yak being extended like this. And also there’s a little bit of flexibility towards the end of the contract too that um will be feasible for the Raptors. Awesome. If you want to carry on our discussion, head on over to the Locked On Raptors Discord. Link is in the description. S Why don’t you remind the people where they can find all your great work? Yeah. Um come and talk to us at Raptors Republic. We do a lot of stuff on YouTube, obviously. Do tons of writing as well. Um, we also are, you know, obviously doing the podcasting, listen to pull-up tray and whatnot. Um, I am part of the athletic podcast network, so you can listen to the Athletic NBA daily as well talking about the NBA generally. And, uh, yeah, VC, appreciate you, man. Thank you for having me on.
Of course. Thank you for joining me. Thank you fans for making Lockdown Raptors your first listen today. For your second listen, find the Lockdown NBA podcast where there is no offseason. Doug, Matt, and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors, and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find Locked On NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day.

Jakob Poeltl is committing to a four-year, $104M extension while stretch big Sandro Mamukelashvili will sign on a veteran’s minimum. Vivek Jacob is joined by Esfandiar Baraheni to discuss Poeltl’s deal, what Mamukelashvili brings to the Raptors, and whether Toronto is in a stable position as things stand.

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