An Optimist’s Take For Every Raptor

An Optimist’s Take For Every Raptor

Hey everybody, welcome back to another one of Samson’s Saturday mailbag episodes type things. Not every episode is a mailbag and this one isn’t either. Today’s premise, the pitch is that we’re going to be taking the optimist route on every single player on the Raptors roster. The roster is now set. And just as I mentioned, because I’ve seen some people ask, Chris Bucher, he’s not on it. you will find NBA money elsewhere in the league, I assume. But today’s mission is that we’re going to try and discuss every player in an optimistic view. Of course, not everything weaves together. It’s not possible for everyone to be optimistic about everything all the time. It’s not possible, let’s say, for Jacobe and Grady to have their full optimistic outcome with R.J. and Elijah Martin and IQ and everyone getting the most out of everything, right? There’s there’s a little bit of that. So, we’re going to be talking about it in a vacuum basically why these guys are set up to have good seasons. It’s not going to happen all at once. It never does. And not even necessarily because these guys are in competition with one another, but not every season is going to be your best. It’s just the way it shakes out. This will be timestamped for the people who are coming to this later. This of course will not be timestamped for the people who are listening live. Thank you for tuning in. Make sure to like, comment, subscribe. It helps the channel. It helps me out. And we at Rapids Republic appreciate all the people who have been watching lately. There’s been a lot. Thank you. Okay, everybody. Here’s the deal. Scotty Barnes, the optimistic take on Scotty Barnes. Let’s set the scene. He was and has been for about a year and a half of basketball play of NBA play been around an alldefense level performer. If he keeps that up over the course of a season and does it on a team that’s winning games even anywhere from like 38 wins and above, he will be in contention for an alldefense selection. Now, his offensive production did hit a little bit of a rut last year because he was asked to do a bunch of different things. He was asked to create more and he took the hardest defensive matchup on him all the time. Like the best defender on the floor or wing is finding Scotty and trying to limit him. Some of those big guards attacking his dribble as well. And says, “Another weekend of Samson making my weekend chores easier.” Yes. And CMB is going to make our next year of watching easier. And ND, that’s that’s my promise to you. I know you’re a big fan of ND. Thank you for watching, by the way. So, Scotty Barnes, I think an alldefense selection is in the cards here, especially since guys like Jason Tatum won’t be around and Tatum is in contention for stuff like that. And there’s a been a couple injuries around the league and there’s room and opportunity to take that step into some of these, I guess, accolade situations. And Scotty as well, one of the big things that he developed last year was his mid-range shot. And I’ve watched every single one. I’ve looked at every single one. It’s not an elite tool for him yet, but he took it from being something that was really relatively average or below average for his game. And I think he turned it into an advantage and he turned it into something that is useful and a real tool in his kit. meaningful, really important. That plus the fact that Brandon Ingram is going to create bend defenses and flip them for Scotty and that Scotty will be able to attack more often slower footed bigs and smaller guards because of the Ingram dynamic or Scotty will affect Ingram in the same way, that inverse uh relationship. I think that he’s going to be able to score against easier matchups and I think we’re going to see his efficiency skyrocket. I think he is going to score even though there is a lot of mouths to feed in this kitchen. I think Scotty is going to score over 20 points per game. I think he’s going to have around six assists and I think he’s going to be an alldefensive level defender. Anything else? Rebounding. We’ll see how it shakes out. This stuff can go higher. Yes, no, depending on how often he’s stacked with the bench, how often he’s with starters. But I do think an all-star selection, an alldefense selection, and scoring 20 points per game, if deficiency goes high enough, if the Raptors place high enough, he could be in the running for an allNBA selection. That is the optimist take on Scotty Barnes. And some of these optimistic takes, I think, will not be super realistic, but within the realm of possibility. This one with Scotty, if the Raptors are a good team, he’s going to be in the running for an allNBA selection. His numbers will say it, his metrics will say it, and the Raptors will be looking for some representation. It’ll be between him and uh and Brandon Ingram. Donkey wants uh the pitch for Garrett Temple. Yeah, it’s coming, man. Uh the pitch for for Garrett is not going to be uh it’s not going to be as exciting as some other guys, obviously. Jose Sanchez says they need an official update on BI’s ankle to feel truly optimistic. He’s been working out a ton. Obviously, that’s there’s no official like he’s good. Everything is awesome report from the team, but uh Brandon has been getting a lot of work in this summer. He’s obviously using that ankle every day. He had a ton of time off. He has a ton of time to rehab. He has a ton of time to find himself in his comfort level with that ankle. So, just cuz he’s wearing a brace doesn’t mean anything bad. I don’t think that lots of players wear braces and it can it’s just a preventative measure, right? So, I don’t think it means anything like and Brandon Ingram has become less uh reliant on his burst and that kind of stuff over the course of his career anyway. He’s a player who has um obviously finesse is a huge part of his game and as he joins the Raptors, you want driving to be a larger part of the his game because it started to move away from that and get more into these long jumpers. You want him cutting, you want him attacking close outs, you want him taking a step and finishing at the bucket because he’s such a talented finisher. All that stuff. And I don’t think the ankle should uh prevent him from doing so. Now, that said, big number three on the Raptors roster, Brandon Ingram. There is a chance if the Raptors pop off that they can have two all-star selections on this team. Now, I don’t think it’s realistic really given the context of the team. Like RJ Barrett, you know, he scored really well last year. He well he scored really well within the context. He gave the Rappers a lot of offensive punch that they didn’t have elsewhere. He pro he took a leap in his playmaking, but that avenue to that many possessions probably isn’t there this year because of a guy like Brandon Ingram, because of a guy like Scotty Barnes. I think Ingram, he’s the second allstar and I think that makes sense for most people. If the Raptors were to get two, go Scotty. And then slightly below that, Ingram. Then a pretty big jump between like IQ and RJ, those guys kind of taking that next step. Ingram can be an all-star. And I have a really what I think is a great video essay on Brandon Ingram, why he should be able to return to all-star status with the Toronto Raptors. And largely it is because the Raptors are a team that they ask the structure of the offense to do a lot of work in helping the players and creating looks. The Raptors are a team that created a lot of looks at the rim. The Raptors are a team that created a lot of corner looks. The Raptors are a team that per their shot data, per their where they take their shots on the floor, they did a really good job of creating those looks, they just didn’t have the requisite talent to dominate those looks. Guys like Jacobe and Grady, both of them struggle immensely at the rim over the season. Scotty Barnes doesn’t perform as well at the rim because it’s less catch and go and more dribble and go. He’s more overextended to finish, right? RJ has a down season finishing relative to last season. Emanuel plays 30 games, right? It’s just to help stretch out the floor for guys. Even Yakob. Yakob was really good in the short mid-range. He wasn’t unbelievable at the rim. Ingram is a guy who changes the dynamic of this Raptor’s offense and he’s a guy who takes a more difficult defender away. Probably a defender with size, away from the nail, away from helpside that’s going to help other players. Brandon also is a guy who’s going to punish teams if left alone. This bumps up the efficiency for everybody. He shifts the floor. And of course, stars and pseudo stars are always going to be able to do that. But the thing with Brandon, his best season is like around like 25 and five, right? I think he had 23.8 might have been his high. He and he shot 39% from three on over six attempts a game that year with a really healthy level of pull-ups in there, too. What you need from Brandon is a very connected player off ball. You need a guy who’s willing to punish as a guy who’s going to dominate smaller matchups when teams inevitably switch. Scotty and Brandon situations when teams inevitably switch Emanuel and Brandon situations. When teams play that style, not of course Brandon is going to be able to attack bigs and make shots over smaller players, but you need him with a little bit more aggressiveness trying to catch on the move and get to the rim. He finish he’s his arms go forever, man. He can finish at the rim not with the best of them, but with the pretty good of them. And we’re looking at a guy who his size on defense is something that the Raptors are planning for and something that’s important to how they play defense. And I’ll tell you why. The Raptors are clearly setting up with CMBB, with Scotty, with very aggressive guards and Yakob at the back end. They want to attack dribbles and force early pickups. This is something that has been trending to the NBA level for quite some time. The Raptors were a team like this under Nick Nurse. They’re returning to that under Darko and it’s partially why they gave up so many corner threes. With a guy like Brandon Ingram and guys like Scotty Barnes, if they’re pos positioned at the nail, you don’t have to give up corner threes. You can have length to dig at the nail and return out to above the break close outs and you can contain and you can give teams harder shots. You can keep the ball in front of you. That’s what Brandon Ingram, even though he doesn’t have a reputation as a great defender, and I don’t think he’s earned one, his length with everything else that the Raptors like to do, if he’s engaged, he can definitely have a neutral to slightly above average defensive season with a guy who scores the way that he does in the situation of the Raptors offense, how they’re able to create looks, the fact that he’s going to get catch and shoot looks, the fact that he’s going to be able to cut and finish at the bucket for points, the fact that he’s going to be put in a stronger defensive position because of the Raptors defensive makeup. All that stuff, that to me means the route to All-Star Impact if the Raptors are good. And a and a selection, it’s pretty straightforward. And he he just like he scores the hell out of the basketball, you know what I mean? He just he really does. He’s really really impressive. Emanuel Quickley. Emanuel Quickley. the optimist take. So, um, okay, I’ll wait. I’ll say this. And we back says, “Can you say more about that? How does nailing two guys to the corners allow us to keep pressure on the ball handler/be high turnover?” Well, no, it’s not nailing two guys to the corners. It just means that the pressure um like they don’t have to help off of the corners as often as the Nick Nurse Raptors do because the the Nick Nurse Raptors weren’t so aggressive at the nail outside of Fred and OG. They were more aggressive helping off of the corner and the Raptors are a team that is not set up to be super aggressive helping off of the corner, but instead helping more often at the nail. And that’s kind of that’s what I mean by that. It’s not nailing two guys at the corner, but also like guys can take away the corner by stepping up and you create a different angle. When you create ball pressure at the front end, you can step up the rest of the defense and you start zoning up different areas of the court and then that’s how you’re going to handle that. Emanuel, quickly, I talked to Emanuel around Oh, yeah. Anyway, nail is sorry. Yeah, ND. Um, the nail for anybody who doesn’t know is around the free throw line extended. That’s the nail. Uh, sorry I’m using this basketball terminology without explaining it. My bad. Emanuel Quickley has like this. He’s very talented. The route to him having a better season. And I I’ve been like I’ve been hard on Emanuel. Not I don’t think rude, but I’ve been hard and I’ve harped on his limitations of course. Um, I think that he needs a lot of work as a point guard. I think that his how he handles the ball over the course of the game could definitely work. How he game manages. I know some of this stuff is kind of opaque, but the biggest critique I have of Emanuel’s game is the lack of driving punch firstly, and secondly, how often he floats. How often he floats above the break. He does not present as he’s such an impressive shooter. He has such a low low volume of catch and shoot threes. He does not take enough of them. And it’s because he doesn’t prep often enough when it comes to playing off of other guys. He does not load up and form up to drives and present himself as a catch-oot option often enough. Too often he floats, waits for the catch, and then starts working on how he creates from there. This is a byproduct of playing under the New York Knicks. Like it really is cuz that’s how the Knicks play. The Knicks have gotten better at it as Brunson has taken, you know, a kind of choke hold on how they create. But I don’t like quickly was a guy who was a sixman who would catch, hold, find his way to a bucket, floater, pull up, whatever. His pull-up numbers need to go up. But all this to say, his talent is very easy to see how this goes really well. He’s had bad luck. He’s been injured. It’s been tough. He’s not got to play his game. When it comes to Brandon Ingram creating, when it comes to Scotty Barnes creating, when it comes to RJ Barrett creating, when it comes to Yaka Purle as a hub, there’s so many opportunities for IQ. If he just presents himself as a catch-and shoot shooter more often, if the, you know, Darko does a lot of things where he makes IQ intentionally, like, hey, you’re in this play as a screener, then you’re coming off of it, shoot the ball. There’s not a lot of like open interpretive catch and shoot threes made for him. A lot of it comes out of set actions. What this team will do, we looking at the guys on the roster, they will draw defenses in. There will be reactive catch and shoot opportunities. And all IQ has to do given that he’s such a talented shooter is be intentional and be and work hard to get himself into position and hit threes. He could take eight, nine a game. I know like Darko has said it many times. I’ve asked Arco about this like give me 10, give me 12, whatever it looks like. He’s a super talented shooter. This is something that I really want to see and it’s something that his skill set easily accounts for, but all it takes is application. If he applies himself in that way, he’s going to hit a lot of threes. He’s going to bend defenses. He’s going to benefit his teammates by so much. And on top of that, when he has the ball, he has the requisite like the requisite skill to run a strong pick and roll to just be a guy who you hand him the ball, the Raptors space things out properly. He gets to run it with Yaka Purle who’s one of the best role bigs in the league. You can have a really strong pick and roll. You can have a really strong offball situation with him. Space the floor, run the offense at times. It’s just like, man, he’s he’s going to be able to to really take a leap in efficiency. He’s going to provide everyone else with a really healthy environment. And he’s so important to what the Raptors want to do. And it’s so easy for him to access that cuz his talent, he can perform this stuff so easily. He can run a pick and roll and it can be good. He can access a few different things. He can kick to both corners. He can get it above the break. He doesn’t play around in the middle very often, but not that many point guards do. He has the floater. Worst thing comes to worst. Has the pull up, which he can threaten with. He forces the pickup point higher on the other team. He can really help the Raptors in this sense. And he’s a guy who if things break right, he can be scoring nearly 20 points per game. And the Raptors offense like Colin Castleton can get six assists in a game. Jonathan Mobile can get 10 assists in a game. Yakob can get however many. Jamal Shed was fourth in the NBA in assists off the bench. They create looks because the structure creates assists. So IQ can be a guy who you’re looking at like around like 20 and six, 20 and seven and it can look really easy for him defensively. He said that he’s working on his body. When I when I talked to him at the end of this season, he said he’s working on his body. You know what I mean? Getting stronger because he’s a tall point guard. He’s a tall point guard, but he’s not a big point guard. I don’t know how big he can get, but it’s something he’s working on. Now, his pickup point defense, he said he’s looking to improve that. He is a guy who can definitely provide, in my opinion, a healthy amount of ball pressure defense. Now, this doesn’t mean he’s going to be super impressive, but he definitely can do that. And the Raptors ask it of all of their guards. So, we’re looking we’re looking at him doing all this stuff. Sorry, Trey just texted me. We’re looking at him doing all of this stuff. That is a strong point guard. That is, you know, hopefully a healthy point guard. That is a guy who will turn around and become really popular with the Raptors fan base. Will become really popular with the team. He’s already really wellliked by his teammates. All that stuff will trend in that way. And it starts with movement off ball, hitting threes, because there are a lot of guys on this team who want the ball in their hands. And then you you know he rewards so much of this stuff. Brandon Ingram can shoot the three definitely. He’ll never shoot it catch and shoot like Quickly does. RJ won’t ever. There’s nobody on the team who can. Maybe Grady maybe. But it’s just it’s the stuff for for Quickley. If it goes right, it’s going to be pretty harmonious. And a lot of it revolves around how he applies himself off ball. Could be a really strong year. It’s tough to be an all-star as a point guard. He probably won’t get that, but it could be a really strong year for him. RJ Barrett, you have to um Jacobe is a better shooter. Jacobe like and I know Jacobe at the game winner and I know Jacobe did a couple things, but Jacobe was like he took really easy three-point shots. Like there wasn’t a lot of movement. everything was very rigid, very So for him to be the level of shooter that, you know, IQ is, it has to go up a lot and for him to be considered in the same league as Grady, he has to be chased constantly and he has to take a much like Grady’s shot diet versus Jacob’s is like they’re not even really comparable in the in the difficulty. Although Jacobe definitely is I mean he’s got Grady on defense by a healthy amount. RJ Barrett, we have to hearken back to I gotta go quicker on these things. I’ve talked about three guys. I talk too much, man. Anyway, RJ Barrett, we have to hearken back a little bit to his first half season. Yeah, Cosmo says Malik Beasley 40% is not the same as Curry, 40% from three. That’s true. That one is mostly due to the the pull-ups. You know, Malik Beasley, he did work really hard. Although, I don’t know what the hell’s happening with Malik, right? Something’s happening. I don’t know. Investigation. Anyway, um enjoy that AC while you drop knowledge for the fans. No AC. I’m in a basement right now, so that just the windows open. Anyway, RJ Barrett. RJ Barrett, we have to hearken back to his first half season with the Raptors where he was sharing a lot of time with Scotty, where he was sharing a lot of time with Pascal early on and where he got to push in transition and he wasn’t asked to create from the top so often. his efficiency went up. His efficiency went up and because he was put in such strong positions for him, a lot of curls against the defense that was occupied on the strong side, he’d come off and be able to get to the rim and beat the weak side there. He got to push in transition a lot. And RJ, I think, has done a tremendous job of improving as a catch and shoot three-pointer. I He’s He’s average. He can have above average runs. He can have below average runs, but a guy who the strength of his game is kind of putting pressure on defenses, having it be that he can kind of punish guys a little bit with his catch and shoot three. And he’s 25 now, just 25, maybe late 24. He clearly his jumper can be something that he improves over the course of time. And he’s already gotten to like his catching two three is passable. That is what like that is what people wanted for him. And his finishing his finishing at the rim is something that basically it’s just about how much help he’s facing. You know what I mean? How how much help he’s facing at the rim really depends cuz when he’s forced to pick up early and he has to get, you know, has to get into this situation where it’s like float or he has to make these reads on the last step as a passer, man. It’s just he can be put in tough positions, especially when he has to create from the top end. When he gets to catch in motion and he gets to beat defenders to the glass, he becomes a much better finisher. When he gets to be a guy who finishes in transition, a much better finisher. Uh Jimmy Pope says he’s got to get his free throw locked in for real. Yeah, he does have to get his free throw locked in. That’s always going to tank his efficiency. There’s like if you shoot under 70% from the free throw line and you get a decent amount of free throws, you’re just the efficiency is going to take a dip no matter what because you’re just giving up value at the free throw line. RJ could be like a 60% true shooting, maybe like 17 18 points per game guy on this team. I don’t exactly know how his usage is going to look because he is not high on the totem pole. The Raptors are not saying like this guy is priority number one or two. It’s clear. So RJ, I mean, he I don’t know exactly know what his usage is going to look like, but I think I can see an avenue where he’s very efficient, where he takes still a healthy amount of shots, provides rim pressure, scores 17 18 points per game on like 60% true shooting. And defensively, I mean, the players talked about RJ’s defense in a more flattering manner towards the end of the season and in like how they exited the season. So did Darko. R.J. said that he thought he was really strong on defense. I don’t I don’t think he was really strong on defense, but I mean R.J. is a confident guy. You’re supposed to be confident. Um, as as ND said, what’s the cell on defense? The sell on defense is that R.J. because of the Raptors uh their versatility, having guys like Scotty, having guys like CMBB, having a guy like Jacobe hopefully uh step into the lineup more often is that they’re going to put R.J. in stronger positions defensively where R.J. the strength of his defense has not always been how attentive he is, but he certainly was a more attentive defender on the back end of the the season. And as I’ve pointed out before, R.J., and this is a really important thing, R.J. has existed in strong defenses in New York and in Toronto. He is not the level of defender who makes your defense no longer good. The Raptors have had strong defensive lineups with him. The Knicks have had strong defensive lineups with him. That’s a big thing. Doesn’t mean he’s great, but it’s meaningful that he can exist in strong contexts. So R.J. being a guy who doesn’t have to take as many difficult matchups and he had to take more of them this year, you know what I mean? uh which was you know he and he gave effort at like on ball but being a guy who has strength in the back end of the defense to chip guys, bump guys, make them work as they come through. All that off the ball bastard stuff is something that R.J. should look to punish players. When a guy is running around the middle, R.J. should be putting a body on him. When a guy is trying to sift through, R.J. should be putting a body on him. R.J. should be a guy who can uh scram switch out a guy like Jamal Shed and Emanuel quickly if those are the only two guys left on the back end and CMBB and Scotty step up right he he should be a guy who his strength becomes a feature of his defense and when he’s asked to play like ball pressure defense he’s a guy who you know that’s not his strength of course but if he’s asked to exist in the side of the defense and kind of can rough up and play and let his strength be something and pinch post actions against other players. Be a guy who can, you know, tag aggressively, be a guy who’s really engaged. I think the route to be him being a neutral there is really, I mean, it’s it’s it’s a real avenue. And Tyler G says, “Why does R.J. get knocked so bad? He’s a bucket getter and takes it to the rim. He’s not a terrible defender and can improve on that. Is R.J. the Leaf’s version of Marner? Did Mner get traded? Was he the guy who got traded?” Um hm well RJ just gets knocked. Yep. But it’s because R.J.’s a driver who didn’t finish very well at the rim and uh that like that’s tough and R.J. just for people who take a quick look at it, he doesn’t have the markers of what a lot of people like to see. And so he’s against type in that way. I like R.J. people who have been listening to this podcast for a long time know I like R.J. Um, Van Hoot 2234 says, “Doesn’t RJ have limitations with his hips?” He does. He definitely does, which is why it’s harder for him to be a big, you know, front front end of the defense stopper. Um, because on a cross, he can get stuck and he can give blowbyss and stuff like that. Um, Kevin plays games, says it’s tough to be a third overall pick. Um, yeah, those expectations are are something that obviously is part of, I guess, RJ’s situation. That’s R.J., though. It’s very easy to see where he can be neutral on defense and a positive on offense, which is great. And given the volume and the type of player he is, if he hits both of those things, he’s a type of player who should not only be really attractive to the Raptors and what he can provide, but would be really attractive to a bunch of teams around the league because a lot of guys are like in that archetype or role that they can’t step out of. And R.J. is a very unique player and he’s not reached the level of efficiency to justify like his uniqueness. People look at him and think like empty calories. If he gives you more calories, there’s a little bit more bark on that bite. Bite on that B. Whatever the hell. Anyway, if that happens, R.J. becomes a very interesting player. That’s that’s the R.J. I’m yapping, man. We’re full yap. Okay, I’m going to take put in the chat whether you guys want me to talk about Jacobe or or Grady next. I’m going to have a little little drink of coffee. We’ll see how that goes for myself. All this talking, man. All this talking. Van Hoot 2234 says, “You don’t get what you deserve, only what you have the leverage to negotiate.” That’s such a great Like I don’t know. I don’t know if Jaylen Rose got that from somewhere, but he’s always described it to himself. What a line. Wow, this is a really healthy mix of We have one. Okay, there’s there is three Jacob’s, three Gradies, and Okay, there’s fourth. Okay, we’re talking Grady. All right. Um Abu says that Grady next. I think he’s the most boom/bust on the roster. Koko says Jacobe, please. Cozmo says Jacobe. Okay, we’re talking Grady. Okay, we’ll talk Grady. I really like both these guys. The Boomer Bust thing is a really interesting aspect of Grady because Grady number one on the roster, his number, not not anything else. Grady is extremely talented. Extremely talented. He has the shotmaking capabilities of a very high level pick. Why he fell to the Raptors was because teams were cons concerned about the physicality and the conditioning. Um, I’ve talked about this before, but Grady’s conditioning and struggling with physicality showed up in other teams draft workouts. That’s why he fell to the Raptors. The Raptors looked at Grady’s talent, which is really high level. You watch him play, he does a lot of things on the floor that you’re just like, “Wow.” And you watch him play and you look at you look at how teams guard him, they they face guard him. They send a lot of attention his way. They really care about Grady. And so even if he’s not making shots, even if he’s not doing anything, he he drags the defense out. And that’s something that not even Emanuel Quickley does. Grady is like that old school movement shooter who the team is just like, “We got to send a guy.” However, that fitness, that conditioning, that physicality, it showed up everywhere. And as he gained the weight over the course of last off season and then came in and was like I’m up 10 12 lbs in muscle and and then I like I was standing there training camp and then everybody started joking about it like ah I don’t know it’s probably five and they say that players lie about this stuff. Grady started off the season gang busters man he was unbelievable. Mike Brown just got hired. I love talking to Mike Brown. Last time I talked to Mike Brown before he got fired, he was saying like, “Well, I think Grady is probably first if we’re looking at who’s the most improved player right now.” And then Grady gave him 30, right? Is that the game he got 30? Anyway, Mike Brown. But Grady lost weight. His conditioning struggled and he got killed on defense over the back end of the year and his offense fell off a cliff. Why? because he’s in a boxing match or jiu-jitsu match. Every single time he walks up the court, guys, to just come off of one screen, Grady has to fight 80% harder than every other player on the roster because other teams really care. Other teams really care. I’m just saying why he struggled. I’ve said this before. Trey and I talked about it. I’ll be reiterating here. Grady, if he gets his body right, is so talented, if he has the core strength, his movement shooting as a two-otion shooter will pop off like crazy. If he has the conditioning, he at the start of last season was a guy who he was using more screens than any other player in the NBA. He was one of the highest miles traveled players in the NBA and his shot the level of how many shots he took that were contested was one of the highest in the NBA and he still had a start where he was like 60% true shooting. He also over the first like third of the season was one of the best drivers from his draft class. I have a video essay on that because he loves contact despite his limitations. He’ll throw himself at the rim. He provides so much punch and dynamism to an offense if he has the conditioning and the physicality and a three-point shot. He shot 46% I believe on his spot up threes last year. That’s not catch and shoot. Catch because catch and shoot can include him sprinting 18 miles an hour coming off of a screen catching fading and trying and like that’s tough. But is stand still spot up threes. He shot 46%. When it’s calm and all he has to do is take a three. He was unbelievable. Cosmo says two motion shot has me worried for Grady’s three-point shooting. It’s harder to achieve certainly, but it also means Grady is a tremendous mid-range shooter and it’s he’s a tremendous free throw shooter. You know, there’s stuff like Josh and I broke this down in his rookie season that the two the two motion shot there’s more points of failure in his shot. It makes him more streaky probably. But Grady, when he’s on, he’s really great offensively. No ifs, ands, or buts. Just really great offensively. Like his offense, he could be like a allstar pseudo all-star level impact offense guy. But the defense, if his strength sits there, and it’s the same story with R.J., although R.J. is much better defensively than Grady. If Grady gets put in safer positions on defense, if his 68 frame is more so a guy who gets to tune in and play off of offball stuff and be a guy who zones up the weak side and be a guy who tags and a guy who is getting in as help at the nail or all that kind of stuff, that’s where Grady can be helped a lot. But he has to be stronger. He has to have conditioning. And when I say R.J. can be a neutral on defense, I think Grady isn’t even close to that. If Grady, all Grady has to do is have the strength and conditioning to really help so much of what they do offensively, which I think is pretty easy to see. And he has to have the conditioning and strength because his feet are never going to be incredible guarding out on the perimeter. Never. So Grady, if he gets everything right and he can just exist on the floor so that he’s a positive overall, makes their offense really dynamite and gets protected on defense while also really help, you know, not not tanking things, that would be great. I don’t know how many possessions he gets on this team. I don’t know exactly how he’s going to be utilized, but he can be truly truly great offensively. Um, Andy says to the Jacobe versus Grady combo, there are more Jacobes than Grady in the league. So, that’s true. Grady’s a more unique player, but Jacobe, I mean, let’s talk about him now. Jacobe was so easy. Like, the the interesting thing with Grady, right, was that Grady was one of the best drivers in his draft class before things fell off a cliff. And he still is one of the better drivers in his draft class. So the thing is Grady gets downhill. Jacobe doesn’t. Jacobe does not get downhill. Jacobe does not register blowbyss. Jacobe does not get in the lane very often. Jacobe when he attacks a closeout rarely gets to the rim. More often he gets to the middle of the floor and has to take a fade away. It’s a good skill for him to have the fadeaway, but you’re attacking a closeout. What does everybody want to see? a a an attempt at a rim. Now, the thing about Jacobe is that he was one of the best per synergy isolation defenders in the NBA. One of the best. He was also one of the worst pick and roll ball handler defenders in the NBA. This is paradoxical. Maybe he struggled with screens. And it was actually one of the one of the things he talked about was that his his welcome to the NBA moment was when the Pacers ran 77 skip, which is a play that the Raptors stole from the Pacers. But the Pacers also stole the Raptors zone buster and ran it in the finals and ran it against the Cavs and all this stuff. So Jacobe got caught on screens trying to chase Tyres Halburn. And Jacobe always struggled with screens, but some of that will be helped by playing with guys like Scotty and CMBB and and Yaka more often. Jacobe has real upside as a defender. And like as Andy said, Grady is probably more unique than Jacobe, but Jacobe is absolutely essential. He’s absolutely essential. his archetype is so important to the NBA because not a lot of point guards guard very well. It’s it just is what it is. Emanuel Quickley had a reputation coming out of New York that it probably wasn’t as real as the New York media made it out to be. And so Emanuel Quickley is also a guy who’s better off ball. Jacobe is profiling as a guy who will run out in transition, will and can defend the point guard on the other team, you know what I mean? And can hit open threes. And we’ll see cuz that Baylor, he was really dynamic and could get downhill all the time, had that free throw rate, drove a lot. If Jacobe is a guy who works on his handle, which is rather limited right now, who knows what his upside could be. But as it happens right now, Jacobe has such an easy path to being a guy who hits open threes, cuts off of motion, like as a guy who finishes at the bucket, runs in transition, and plays great defense. Every team needs that guy. And especially in the back court, he can guard point guards. He can guard point guards. And we back says an actual point of attack defender on my Raptors. Exactly. That’s why Jacobe is so exciting. And that’s why as a guy who was super excited about Grady when he got drafted and is still excited about Grady, but there’s criticisms to be had. Jacobe has leveled himself to like the I have the same excitement for both of these players. And Jacobe was more Trey’s guy than my guy in the draft last year. I watched Jacobe. I was like, I like him. I liked Tristan Dilva for what it’s worth. He got picked one pick ahead. Um, Jacobe, he really really could pop off and uh like just he could be one of those players who teams really like because he just steps into a really needed role and he helps the Raptors do things and he’s absolutely essential to lineups and that doesn’t there like it’s good to have unique players and to have unique skill sets but Jacobe is not a super unique skill set yet but he’s an absolutely essential one. So, a guy who bangs threes, guards point guards, and can cut off of motion and dunk and will he put on weight during the season. That’s a incredible indicator to me. Jacobe put on weight during the season. A bunch of muscle. He’ll probably hold it next season. Jacobe maybe is one of those guys who’s going to put on weight for a while and become kind of like big bolic dude. You know, the possibility is there. Bazooka says, “Jacobe will be our Aaron Nmith.” I mean, Aaron Emith rocks, dude. Jacob’s smaller. Aaron is big, but uh I mean, I covered that Pacers championship run. Aaron obviously after he sprained his ankle, he didn’t have the same impact um throughout the rest of the playoffs, but watching Aaron was awesome. And uh Aaron is another pretty limited self-creator, but a guy who’s absolutely essential because of what he provides. Um, Jacobe, he he could have a really great season. Who else are we looking at here? I guess we’ll say Yakob, right? Yakob Purle. I mean, this one is just so easy. We can They’re going to start ending up being a little bit shorter now. Yeah, Jacobe look like Lou Dort. We’ll see. Um, or quickly Van Hoot says, “Can Jacobe grow into a better self creator?” He can. Uh, Will Lou, I remember on a podcast we did, I like the way he described it. He said that Jacobe clearly has an offensive imagination, which I think is true. Um, his kind of meandering and getting to his spot and hitting a jumper is a nice little thing. There was uh some possessions out of the pick and roll where he was able to punish a drop with a pull-up three. That kind of stuff will help him a long way, but he has a very his dribble is very skinny. He doesn’t get wide. He doesn’t manipulate players with his dribble. And his first step uh was meh. his last step pretty good though. He can pop at the rim for sure. Remember that. I can’t remember what team it was against, but he almost had that incredible dunk in the lane. But he he he’s got some pop. But if I were a betting man on Jacobe being like a getting to high usage self-creation and if I were going self-creation Grady versus self-creation Jacobe, I’d pick Grady. But if I’m picking defense, I’m picking Jacobe by like a crazy amount. Jacobe. Yeah. Andy says, “I need more dynamic shooting from Jacobe to be moved. The stationary catch and shoot isn’t going to cut it in the playoffs. To be fair, Baylor film had great shooting stuff.” Yeah, that’s the thing is it was very limited last year. You’re right, Andy. But the bones of Jacob’s game is pretty dynamic. He didn’t and he was like how he played in his rookie year was so much different than how he played in Baylor. And that’s pretty good to me is that he can occupy different roles and it might mean that he’ll scale up as he gets more opportunity which I would love. Uh yes, we’re all talking about Yakob hitting threes. The optimistic take is not that Yakob is hitting threes. The optimist take for Yakob is that he keeps hitting free throws because he had a good free throw year this past season. The optimist take is that uh Yakob is fantastic on defense and is the a stalwart rim protector. And here’s the biggest thing and I harp on this. Yakob has been an overrated passer for too long. his turnover percentage is not good enough for the amount of plays he provides with the pass because there’s there’s really not there’s really not a lot of dynamism to his passing. There is to his screening, but Yakob is a guy who he’s on the team for a long time now. I would love to see his passing improve as he’s seeing the same routes being run as he’s seeing the same actions being run that they’re running a lot of these concepts that he can really take a leap as a passer and also with Brandon Ingram and Scotty Barnes and RJ Barrett you know Ingram and Barnes being really high points of contact to throw the ball to that you can pass over the top like it’s easy it’s much easier to make the pass in to a cutting Ingram than it is to Jamal Shed right like that catch radius is much bigger. So Yakob out of those delay actions, out of the dribble handoff stuff, out of the keepers, I think there’s a lot of room for him to improve as a floor processor. As a screener, he’s unbelievable. So like the floor processor stuff is really what takes him up a level and being able to pass to Scotty and Ingram and and hopefully to Grady who’s going to ping off of him like crazy presumably. Yakob is already one of the best He’s already one of the best pick and roll bigs in the NBA. He just is. He He’s incredible. His footwork is unbelievable. He’ll be able to do He’ll be able to score to the pick and roll until he’s like 37. His that that slow foot step through that he uses, he uses the gather step perfectly on the catch. He transports himself to the rim. He mixes up the timing of help defenders all the time. So good. The push shot is obviously very good for beating teams that are staying at home. It’s not like you don’t want your whole offense to be that. But Joe Mazulo came out after a game and was like he’s a bear. He’s the most underrated player in the league cuz YaKob was able to do that kind of stuff. His floor processing is what takes him up a level and what puts him into more so like the top 10 center conversations because his defense is good. If his foot speed stays the same, his defense will be really strong. And if that floor processing goes up, the fact that he’s so good at all the other stuff on offense, I mean, easy peasy. Uh Andy says, “I Ingram pick and roll pocket to YaKob, then the lob to Scotty crashing from the corner. Sign me up.” Yeah. Well, they can also like what they do sometimes is they can short the pick and roll, right? like if if there’s going to be teams and shorting the pick and roll is where YaKob would come up from the dunker spot and flash and what a lot of teams will do is they’ll use if Scotty is in the corner and teams want to play off of that or whatever you can run the pick and roll between like maybe two guards or something and since teams will be more engaged at the front end Yakob can flash up to the elbow from the dunker spot shorting the pick and roll. you can catch the pass there and that leaves an opportunity for that 45 back cut or that corner crash back cut and Yakob can put a dribble down and either use a push shot or he can lob anybody coming to the rim and shorting the pick and roll kind of inverts a lot of defensive principles and Yakob is very good at it. They do it sometimes. It used to be more popular back in the day obviously when spacing was different because you don’t you won’t short the because and like Kevin Garnett used to shoot 19footers right and you don’t or he used to shoot like a lot of 16footers but you wouldn’t want even if you know even if Yakob was a really great shooter you wouldn’t want to sprint him from the dunker spot all the way out to the three-point line so the shorting the pick and roll stuff became not that popular and also you It just is what it is. Should Yaka put on uh muscle? He’s already pretty burly. Become Shaq. Yeah, that would be great. Who are we talking about now? I guess it’s probably Jamal Shed or CMBB. I’ll talk about Jamal Shed. Okay, so Jamal Shed I’ve been I’ve said many times I like and just as a Yakob thing, Yakob shooting threes I don’t think is important because it doesn’t matter. It’s shooting threes does not matter for Yaka Purle, you know. Uh, Van Hoo234 says, “How much of Shed’s defense is a result of Houston schemes?” This is a good question. Jamal Shed last year, I was like, I don’t think he’s a good defender in the NBA. That doesn’t mean he won’t be, but he wasn’t a strong defender last year. He has the aesthetics of a strong defender. Pound the floor, bark a little, get in guys faces, play really aggressive, yes, all that stuff. But he fouled a lot. He gave up so many blowbyss and like the Raptors defense blew into a million pieces a lot of times when he was on the floor because he couldn’t contain. Now, he said he’s been learning. Coaches have said he’s been learning the tricks of the trade, okay? That he’s understanding how refs are going to ref him. He’s understanding all this kind of stuff. Let’s say all of that is true and he’s taking in information and data and now he’s going to set loose himself as a tremendous uh point of attack defender, a tremendous um uh pick and roll defender and he’s going to bother and harass uh ball handlers all year. Then that means that he’s going to take it to the next level in terms of uh his defense because offball defense is never going to be super big for smaller players. I mean, we just we see this all the time. Shed, he has to be a harasser at the point of attack. That would have to happen. The three-point shot, which came around much quicker than I would have expected last year. The the catch andoot three-point shot becoming like a real 100% thing that he’s like, I shoot 38% on catch and shoot threes. This is something if the ball comes to me, feel confident. That would be really good. and also being able to pepper in a pull-up three every once in a while. That kind of stuff would be super meaningful. The most important thing for him is to make that defensive impact real and concrete and for it to be within the Raptors pickup heavy pressure scheme. Of course, that is, you know, that would be the jump he would be making for that to be real would be pretty large. And then on top of that, we’re also looking at running pick and roll. His pacing is pretty good. His finishing at the rim, while not elite, his his push shot and his pacing to keep the helpside defenders and the low man at bay to finish was pretty good. As far as like control and pace, he is very point guardy in that sense. And despite his limitations as like he’s not a super dynamic dribbler and he isn’t an incredible, you know, shooter, he still managed to kind of like herk and jerk his way to the bucket and he’s quick. He’s very quick. His first step is really strong. Um, that kind of stuff means that he can get into the teeth of defense and his push shot has to be okay because teams will funnel him middle. He has to be creative as a passer. But I think that stuff is pretty inherent for his game. There’s a reason people like watching him run the offense and make things happen because he is like he’s in control and he plays at his pace. He needs to be able to create better shots. But the big thing for him is becoming an actual like highle defender or strong defender at the NBA level and hitting catch and shoot threes because while he is going to be point guarding sometimes, the Raptors also have an offense that features a lot of other guys, a lot of cooks in the kitchen. And so Jamal, that’s something we got to look for. Colin Murray Boils. I mean, this one is really interesting seeing how he fits with Scotty and Brandon Ingram because Colin Murray Boils, if guarded by Bigs, is going to boogie and woogie a lot with drives. He was he has a very expansive offensive skill set coming out of um South Carolina. I know his passing like I watched the the film work I did on CNB is pretty popular. The passing didn’t pop all the way off, but people out of South Carolina love his passing. They think he’s one of the best passers in the draft. I didn’t see it that way necessarily, but his live ball stuff is really strong. Um, if he gets to drive against bigs and he gets crossmatched, he’s going to create and disrupt defenses a lot and to the tune of layups, to the tune of rotations passing out to three-point shooters, and to the tune of made baskets for the team. if he gets guarded by wings, we’re able to keep him out and able to stick him and then, you know, help off of him and all that kind of stuff. We’ll see how that goes. The three-point shot, it has to come along. It just has to. Um, but to keep it optimistic, I mean, you could argue he was the best defender in his draft. He is an absolute monster at the nail. Um, his digs, his size, wingspan, strength, presence as a help defender is unbelievable. He blows up and breaks up countless plays every single game. He’s also has extremely quick feet to be a guy who plays extremely aggressive coverage out of pick and rolls. Whether it’s blowing up with a blitz, whether it’s setting the edge with a hedge, whether it’s hedge and rec, like whatever you want him to do, he can do it defensively. And why I wouldn’t sick him on ones and twos all the time uh defensively. In fact, I try to keep him away from that kind of stuff. Twos maybe not, but ones, I don’t know. I don’t want him guarding point guards that often. He can stick guys in isolation and wings. I think he’ll be really strong. He and Scotty will have switchability across a lot of actions. I don’t exactly know how that dynamic is going to be with Ingram, but CMBB should be a guy who gives you real strong defensive impact year one, which is pretty rare for rookies and is the fact that the Raptors run a lot, the fact that the Raptors like cutting a lot. CNB should be able to score in transition off of cuts and he should get opportunities to score against cross matches pretty often. He should have a really strong even though this probably isn’t the number one fit for where he could have landed in the NBA. He’s set up to have a really strong rookie year. He’s he’s a very impressive player. CMBB should be really exciting. Uh Jonathan Mo probably next. Yeah. Or Okay. Oiabaji. Oiabaji. It’s I mean one of the things it’s hard to see him get much better than he was last season because he I mean he was great in his role last season. The Raptors they created like he took the easiest shots on the floor. He took the corner threes. He got the transition runouts. He got the cuts for layups. All that kind of stuff. And he was efficient doing it. And that was great. He started to kind of like add more dynamism to his three-point shooting as the season went on. That was nice to see. And despite my humming and hawing about his effectiveness as a defender, and I do h and ha, he did take a lot of really tough defensive matchups. All that stuff for Oiabaji, he he cemented himself. He’ll play in the NBA for years because of what the roots he put down last season. How he gets much better this season, I don’t really know because he doesn’t show much in the way of on ball creation. I guess the defense the defense is where having more bite there would be meaningful. And who knows, maybe maybe as he gets put in a little bit stronger positions cuz he he tries to be more of a contained defender than like a dangerous defender, right? Maybe he’ll get to try and be a little bit more dangerous. if the Raptors offball defense is is better, right? Like if you have guys like a collection of like Scotty and CMBB on the floor rotating to the ball and help and YaKob, you’re sharing the floor with him and you feel better about how guys are involved. Let’s say quickly stepping up off ball too. You get to play in those types of lineups. Maybe you get to be more aggressive on ball. Maybe we see something pop with Oai there. But he was just like that classic 3 and D player. He cut well. He finished well. He was a guy who took difficult defensive matchups. He shot well. He just did it. And Lewis wrote this great piece that like of the It was earlier on in the season, but of the low usage uh players in the NBA, Ochai was one of the best. You know, Kevin plays games says he’s the most non-DFS DFS in the league, uh Dorian Finny Smith, I I presume. Uh he’s just good. He’s just solid. Um, you need players like it’s what ND talked about uh earlier on in the podcast about how good teams are going to they like the shots that Oai takes. Uh, good teams probably, you know, as things ratchet up and the Raptors want to be a playoff team, a lot of the shots that OAI took are not going to be available. You’re going to have to put the ball down and create. You’re going to have to put the ball down and and beat a level of defense, make a read. We It happens in the playoffs. Playoff basketball’s tougher. They take things away. That’s what that’s what would be a really impressive thing for OCI is putting the ball down, getting to a spot for midies, putting the ball down, making guys step up and making a passing read. That’s the optimist take because as as it currently as it was currently constructed last year, Ochai was awesome. Given what he’s good at, it’s hard to imagine if he if he replicated the exact same year, you’d be like, “Hell yeah, awesome, dude.” That would be optimistic. Uh, who are we talking about now? Let’s uh Jonathan Mo. Jonathan Mo, man, one of the best switch defenders in the whole league last year. In the whole league. One of the best switch defenders. Was the when I said that Synergy had Jacobe Walter as one of the worst pick and roll ball handler defenders in the NBA, which there’s contextual stuff. It doesn’t mean that he’s the worst. It’s just, you know, a number to look at. Jonathan Mo is one of the best. And of the like five highest volume uh players, Jonathan Mobile was just when you intersect volume and efficiency, he was unbelievable stopping pick and roll ball handlers when he switched and stepped out on them. Jonathan Mo was one of the best in my mind one of the best switch defenders in the whole league. As a rookie, that’s incredible. how he covers space, the room he gives, how he can close space, he slides with guys, he chops feet. He’s just damn good at it. Now, a huge thing for him is I I wouldn’t expect the jump like corner threes 38%. Sure. But the big thing for him is the push shot and the finishing at the rim. Because the problem last year really was that Mo did get into spots because he’s quick, because he catches on the move, he makes strong decisions when he’s moving ahead with the ball. finishing at the rim, both hands, layups, push shots, all that kind of stuff. He struggled so much at that. I wouldn’t expect a big jump in the jumper. That’s a little too optimistic. What is optimistic is thinking that Jonathan Bobo can help bring himself along to finish the rim and he can re reward some of the shots that guys are creating for him. He’s not going to be dynamic offensively, but he is really dynamic defensively. And especially with how the Raptors are building their defense, Jonathan Mobile should show up pretty big if he can keep himself on the floor on offense. I don’t think he keeps himself on the floor in year two by being like a dynamite shooter. I think he does it by finishing at the rim. Jonathan Mo finish at the rim. Let the rest of your game speak for itself. He can he can run a lot of the stuff that YaKob runs. He he is a great grab and go player in transition. He obviously has a bunch of stuff he can provide defensively. Also improve on the defensive glass a little bit. Maybe maybe that would be good. Um okay. Sandro Mamu Koshilli Mamu. Okay. But quickly. And ND says, “Do you think CNB threatens mobile minutes? I feel like you’d be a non-factor if CNB pops as a small ball five.” Yeah, but everyone’s going to get their chance. you know, like heading into the future, the Raptors have already like CNB is going to do some of the stuff that Mobo does. So, there’s something there, but they’re both going to get shots throughout this year to prove it. You know what I mean? So, Mamu, Mamu is awesome on offense. He’s awesome on offense. He’s extremely coordinated. He’s a lot more explosive than a lot of bigs are. I know he’s white, but he’s very smooth. He’s very explosive. He’s very coordinated among 610 611 players in the NBA. He is one of the smoothest movers in in the whole league. The problem for Sandro is that the defense has not been really incredible. And I as I said with Trey that some of his defensive metrics are kind of exacerbated in the bad sense because you’re replacing Victor Webinama and that means that the defensive falloff is going to be uh horrible because he’s he’s just going to be like he’s just going to not be great obviously right compared to that we’re talking about one of the greatest defenders of all time already. So, Mamu would what would be really good and what Trey and I talked about is that the Raptors are going to be very aggressive at the point of attack. The Raptors are going to be very aggressive at the nail. Mamu as a low man won’t have to contest straight up at the rim so often. He’ll be able to contest from the paint against guys who are jumping from a bit farther out, who are forced into a little bit longer shots. And his lack of verticality and length won’t show up as often. That’s what’s going to help him defensively. Offensively, I mean, he’s had really strong shooting stretches. So, let’s say Mamu gets to shoot the hell out of the basketball. Uh, and he shoots like 40% from three. And, you know, he’s also a guy who can drive close-ups. He’s also a guy who can set screens and run delay action and do some of the stuff that we see uh see Yakob do. That all that stuff. Mamu, I think, is primed, and there’s a reason he chose the Raptors. I’m sure Mamu is primed to have a pretty strong season for a guy who makes like 2.6 million a year. Jordan Kodak says, “Where’s the pod these days? It doesn’t come up as available on YouTube Music.” I don’t know about YouTube Music. Uh, I listen to my podcast on Spotify. I’ve also checked on Apple podcast. It’s on both of those, so I’m not really sure. We did change podcast platforms or whatever at the end of the season and then there was a twoe period where they weren’t showing up but it should all be good now. I don’t really know. Donkey says my Raptors comp for Mamu was less extreme can hit a three-end playmake a little bit but not to Kelly’s level. Not a great defender but not nearly as bad as Kelly. Well, yeah. Kelly also is just Kelly’s a lot smoother offensively than Mamu because Mamu is more of like a a straight line guy and it’s he’s doing like one or two things whereas Kelly has that pacing and Kelly’s ball handling is much better. It’s a really underrated aspect of Kelly is like Kelly can like pump, put a guy in jail, crab dribble into the lane and throw a lob which is like whoa Kelly what the hell? Kelly always did that kind of stuff. Uh he’s a very interesting player for that reason. Okay, who else do we have to talk about? We’re getting towards the end here, man. Uh I don’t know that much about Chucky Heburn. I’ll be honest with you. I’ve watched more Elijah Martin since he got drafted, but I still don’t know that much. Uh, there was a comment that that was on the the condensed version of mine and Blake and Cody’s reaction to Elijah Martin that someone said, “Watching this made me feel like neither of these guys had seen Elijah play before.” Which on the longer version of the stream, I was like, “Okay, I’ve not seen much. Let’s all figure it out together.” Um, but like I literally only saw Elijah in like three games on the the March Madness run. I I didn’t know a ton about him. So, we’ve all been learning together. Who should we talk about next? We’ve talked about Grady, Mo, Ingram, Scotty, Quickley, Barrett, Jacobe, uh, Yakob, Jamal, Oi, Mamu. Okay, Jameson Battle. Jameson Battle. Let’s go. Shoot the hell out of the three ball. Shoot the hell out of the three ball, Jameson Battle. and also incorporate more movement looks because the biggest when Jameson caught and was set, he was one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s he just wasn’t that dynamic a three-point shooter. But when he caught and he set because he has that little wrist roll hitch that if he gets to do that now and I watch him in warm-ups, I just watch him in games. I’m just like, man, when this guy gets to set his feet and gets a little time, I swear he shoots like 65% on set his feet and halftime threes. He’s unbelievable when it comes to that, you know, is unbelievable when it comes to that. And more diversity in the types of three-point shots that he makes if he can incorporate a little bit of movement. Also, I thought Andy Andy says Jameson Battle needs to buy the Matt Thomas DLC. Yeah, man. Cuz if he if Matt Thomas was Jameson size shooting the ball, he would have he’d still be in the NBA probably. I don’t know how old he would be right now. 30 something. Anyway, um so Donkey says, “Martian death beam point at Earth. Fate of the universe on the line. Wide open set shot. I want Jameson battle.” Hell yeah, dude. Give me Jameson. He’s a hell of a shooter, man. He really he’s so impressive. He’s so impressive as a shooter. More diverse shots. Uh keep helping out on the glass defensively. Uh be put in stronger positions defensively. Chop those feet, baby. Make it work. Shoot 48% from downtown over the course of the season. Be a dynamite 11th or 10th man. Jameson Battle be, you know, maybe the Raptors will come out with a a great jersey and a Battle 77 jersey. So fire, dude. Also, I watched Coach Carter like a week ago. Junior battle when he catches that lob and they got the here they come to get you that. Oh, that’s like the best basketball montage of all time. By the way, Coach Carter is such a great movie. Like, yeah, there’s some austerity politics in it, but it’s such a great movie. Student Athlete. Hell yeah. That Oh, man. That movie, I love it. Um, yeah. more sideline insanity after dunks as well. Garrett Temple, keep supporting the unions, brother. Garrett Temple, everyone on the team loves him. All the coaches love him. All the players love him. They talk about him non-stop. They’re like, “This guy rocks. He’s the best. We love this guy. He also in solidarity with money to the teachers unions. This guy, that’s my guy, Garrett Temple. GT our guy. Yseph GT our guy. Garrett Temple. keep up with the with the solidarity. Uh Elijah Martin. So, as was the case with everyone else, cuz I went and watched more Elijah Martin after he got drafted and then you watch some of the FAU tape and then you think like, whoa, what the hell? There’s a lot of stuff going on here. There’s a lot of pop. And people make the reference to Norman Pal. You know, I references are always tough. They’re always They’re always tough. Boon Boon says, “Finishing 5K with my guy going live.” Nice. I I ran 5K the other just yesterday, too. I hate running, man. It’s important to do, but god, I hate running. I just hate the damn thing. Calves get a little sore. Got to use like a theraun on them. It’s like ah, you get bored. But you got me to listen to at least. Um, thank you for listening. So, yeah, as 592 Don says, “Yay, finally, Martin.” He’s very dynamic. You let him put a pound dribble down, collect, and pop, he can dunk like crazy, man. I saw the highlights. And also just like the three-point shooting, it has to come around. And the thing too is that like he the way that Jamal is very point guardy, Elijah Martin is not very point guardy. He’s not very point guardy. And that means that he has to do one thing. Shoot the basketball well so that he can attack close outs and pop the hell off at the rim. And defensively, I mean, he’s going to be a dog. He’s like, can I have a hot take? Can I have a hot take? What if Elijah Martin is a better defender this year than Jamal Shed? What if that’s the case? I don’t know how I don’t know how often he’ll get on the floor. I don’t exactly know what their plan is, but what if that were to happen because he he gets after it, man. Elijah Martin, he’s very impressive defensively. And again, I’ve not seen the full I’ve seen much more Jamal shed than I’ve seen of Elijah Martin, which means I have a lot more to nitpick of Jamal. And I’ve seen Jamal at the NBA level. I’ve not seen Elijah there, but Elijah is like he’s he’s bigger, too, which helps. He’s very explosive. Elijah, I think the a point guard defender in the NBA is a could be a real thing. And he also he helped Walter Clayton out a lot on that end from what I saw. And again, this is not that much Elijah Martin, but the three-point shot has to come around. Let’s say he hits threes. Elijah Martin hits threes next year and plays good defense. Is that a role player in the NBA? Is something happened there? Who knows? Elijah Martin would be that would be really cool. Chucky Heburn play great defense. I don’t know enough about him yet. I will have more Chucky Heburn thoughts after uh summer league. I gotta go talk to all these guys and watch them play against other NBA level players or quad A players. Who else do I have? Oh, Rich Shamshay. Shamshay. Hell yeah. Uh, play NBA minutes. Play like 20 games in the NBA. Give me like give me give me like 200 minutes in the NBA. That’s I would love to see it because Shamshay when he sets his feet and he gets to cover ground, it’s just like a a million miles an hour. He’s got a lot of mobility and a lot of size. He It’s just a lot of that basketball stuff has come around. A lot of the catch the ball, hook, shot, finish at the rim, all that stuff needs to come around to like making reads as a catch and hold screen guy. Shamshay has so far to go, but if he just like he’s the type of big who if he in 2016 came into the league and just got to set screens, turn and run towards the rim for Kyle Lowry, he’d have like a 12-point game where you’re like, whoa, who the hell is this guy? What the hell? You know, James in Battle says with that injury, you think he’ll be that fast still? I think so. Is an MCL. It’s it’s a serious injury, but it’s not it’s not as serious as like an ACL. And also, guys have done a really great job of uh recovering from this stuff. And he’s young. I think he’ll recover just fine. Sean, I’m just trying to see NBA minutes. I’m trying to see him catch a couple lobs. I’m trying to see a couple of those big sweeping backside blocks. I want all I want to see all that kind of stuff. Uh who else needs to be talked about? Is it just Colin Castleton? Colin Castleton. All right, Colin Castleton. I want to see him hit a three at the NBA level. Like, I saw Colin Castleton shooting threes in warm-ups and I saw him miss a three the game before and I tweeted out, I was like, I think Colin Cassin’s going to hit his first NBA three-point shot tonight. He still hasn’t hit it. It was games and games and I thought, oo, I’m going to try and call my shot here and see what happens. King of the Castleton. Yeah, I want to see him hit a three. If Colin Castleton is playing on this roster, that’s optimistic because I’m think about the bigs that are on this roster now, right? They signed Mamu, they have Mobo, CMBB is like a forward, not a big, but Shamshay, who knows? If Colon Castan hangs in, he’s like he’s doing his thing, man. So, if he hangs in on the roster, feel pretty good about it. I’m not talking about Bobby Webster. I’m not talking about Darko. I have to be able to talk about other things this summer. Okay, everyone. I’m done. I talked about everybody. We’ve been talking for an hour and 13 minutes, an hour and 12 minutes. Um, would Brendan Carlson get minutes on this roster over Castleton? I think so. Yeah, I think uh Castleton uh Yeah, I think Carlson is better than Castleton. But uh James and Battle said, “Could you create a video on the ideal lineup for each player that would maximize their performance like their synergies?” I’ll that sounds like a lot of work, but I will look at it. We’ll see how we’ll see how slow things get because that’s something that I would like. It would take a lot of time because I wouldn’t I wouldn’t want to just like vibes it. I’d want to give some statistical analysis on it, too. So, that’s a lot of stuff, but that’s a good idea. That’s like a Yeah, that that it’d be a lot of work, but it’s in it’s in the thought process. Um, yeah. Okay, that’s it. I got to bounce. Thank you everybody for tuning in. It’s a beautiful day. I got to go catch some rays, man. I got to get a base, a tan base before I head out to to Vegas. Sounds like a late August vid. That’s right. And Yseph says, “Hey Samson, could you have a great day and get a popsicle?” Not a popsicle. Might get a creamsicle. We’ll see. All right, everybody. Make sure to like, comment, subscribe, all that good stuff. It helps out the channel. Thank you very much for tuning in. I appreciate you all very much. Next podcast will be live from Vegas with Travon. So, that should be fun and good. Alrighty, everybody. Thank you for tuning in. Whether you got into this in the morning or at night, have a blessed day and goodbye. Gonna click and

Samson Folk talks about every Raptor from the brighter side of things.

0:00 – Introductions

1:40 – Scottie Barnes

5:00 – Brandon Ingram

11:29 – Immanuel Quickley

20:44 – RJ Barrett

29:03 – Gradey Dick

35:15 – Ja’Kobe Walter

42:22 – Jakob Poeltl

46:50 – Jamal Shead

50:34 – Collin Murray-Boyles

53:16 – Ochai Agbaji

56:38 – Jonathan Mogbo

59:09 – Mamu

1:03:44 – Jamison Battle

1:06:10 – Garrett Temple

1:06:40 – Alijah Martin

1:09:30 – Chucky Hepburn

1:09:55 – Ulrich Chomche

1:11:28 – Colin Castleton

1:12:35 – Goobyes