The Raptors plan to dominate Summer League

The Raptors plan to dominate Summer League

All right, everybody. Welcome to the late night Vegas chicken podcast. Trey and Josh have finally arrived. Uh, they made it. They were on the I guess it’s a redeye flight. Is that what Okay. A redeye flight with the Hello and welcome boys. I came with the I guess like the the Raptors PR plus package or whatever. Yeah. And I will say this also, there’s a bunch of like writers on the plane. One of them clapped when the plane landed. I’m not going to reveal who clapped, but somebody clapped when the plane landed. Uh, for people who want to know about I guess the the whole and welcome decorum on on planes, how how did they do? One thing I’ll say with redeye flights, the really good thing is that like no one claps. Everyone’s so tired they just get up. Everyone’s efficient and they just leave. There is no haggling us. There was there was wasn’t a single baby crying. Do you have any other plane stories? No AC on this plane and heading heading to Vegas, sweating for literally 5 hours straight usually. And we’ve been on a few flights together. Both of us sleep right through through the flights. Snore the whole time. I did not sleep a single minute of this flight and was sweating the entire time. He took off his socks. His back his back was his back was sweating. One of the most difficult flights of my life. And I had a window seat. It was just all around a bad time. Have you ever taken the socks off on a flight before? No. That was my first time, bro. There’s no AC, man. What am I What do you expect, bro? It was crazy, dude. When we landed, they told everybody, “Close the blinds and turn the AC on because they’re like, “It’s so hot. We don’t want to worry anything.” I guess it was during the middle of the day. It was like plus 44. I was burning out on the strip today, man. I was like, I had I brought last time we came, Trey, and we all forgot lotion. I brought lotion for everybody this time. Anyway, we haven’t talked any basketball. That’s why we’re here. Uh, we’re in Las Vegas to talk about basketball. Obviously, Travon is credentialed. We have credentialed Trey. And, uh, I went to the Raptors practice today. They established their win ballroom situation. And, uh, yeah. First thing I want to ask, just to get every the sense of everything, what are you looking forward to most or what are you expecting at summer league? I think for me the biggest thing you want to see is like improvement from Jacobe Walter in terms of like his on ball reps. I think like during the season he he showed that like there’s like bones there of being like a decent offball player like he can defend at the point of attack and is really physical. He has good feel and can cut off off of the ball. Like some of the finishing obviously doesn’t hasn’t translated and he obviously didn’t he looks like he’s put on weight actually. He looks he looks looks a little stocky which is a really really good sign. if he can keep keep that weight on into the season. But I think the swing for him in like becoming like a bonafide starter is like him being able to put the ball on the floor, get to the rim, finish, and then also be a shot maker, which he kind of showed at Baylor. So, I do I would take the bet on that upside swing. I think the biggest thing is like just seeing those reps and him being able to figure out like defenses also like honing on him because that’s he hasn’t seen any of those reps with the the big club. He’s so interesting because he was kind of like the opposite of how people expected him to be coming into the league. Like the the defense popped first. The self-creation was way behind where people where we expected at the very least compared to where he was at Baylor. And the jumper was by the end of the season, I think about where people expected to be. That was the consistent aspect. I’m curious. I know you watched him as like when he was younger. you saw him earlier than both of us did, but where is Jacobe on I guess where you thought he might be relative to when you saw him when he was so young? Yeah, I think the thing that stood out to me most when I first saw him when I think it was like 15, 16 was his defense. He picked up full court, bodied up guards, pressed them, caused a bunch of chaos, created turnovers in the back court even. So, it it was cool to see that a little bit translate to the NBA. also thought like the second time I saw him was like a hoop summit and his shooting was it seemed like it was it was much approved and to see it not be like a decent clip when when he first when he first uh was a rookie it it was kind of like uh yeah it makes sense but as he gets stronger I think it’ll it’ll it’ll it’ll turn out. It’s interesting that the defense was something that popped off because that was not like you were like, “Hey, he can he can guard a Baylor. We see it and we’re like, “Yeah, it’ll come.” But it was just immediately there. And the jumpers at the start of his NBA career, I think he was shooting like 25% on wideopen triples. As far as expectation of the self-creation, is there a points per game you’re looking for like a two guard? Cuz this is like summer league is the home of the two guards. It’s it’s a big spot for him in the ideal world. He averages like 20 plus points and like he doesn’t play beyond this this weekend. I think what’s realistic for him is like probably anywhere from like 15 to 17 points and hopefully that’s on good good efficiency as well cuz like the Raptors compared to the last time we’re here. Yeah. Tons of talents. We we we two years ago we we were talking about names that have never touched the NBA that never touched the GL. And now Maris Noel said he’d be the greatest Raptor of all time and that didn’t happen. And but now the the Raptors are playing like their deeper bench. I guess this basically what their rotation is for summer league. So like you’re expecting them to win those minutes and you’re expecting them to be like super productive like overall. So, like Jacobe, I think a biggest thing is like he needs to be the best player on this team. And I think that’s a bad sign if if we leave here and not say he’s the best player from the Raptors that we’ve seen. It’s bad if CMBB or Jamal Shed is better. Yes. Okay. By the way, CMBB looked and I’m not I don’t want to worry anybody. He looked shorter shorter than I expected him to look. Now, I mean, measurements are measurements. It was like when we were doing the podcast and somebody was like, “You keep saying Grady’s so much bigger than Jacobe. The measurements don’t bear that out cuz he’s not that much bigger, but they he seems a lot bigger.” Yeah. Functionally, I don’t know how big CMBB is. He his arms go forever, but he seemed a little short on the court today. He moved really well. He was slick passing throughout practice the whole time. I would feel the best if he was the best player out of this because there is like obviously VJ Edgecomb was awesome. There’s been this is the home of the two guards. This is summer league. This is what it’s supposed to be. But if CMBB was like boogie woogieing on dudes and you know there’s like you get the the big guys who are like fiveyear college players. You get the the overseas guys like these rosters are made up of these bigger boys and some small ones. If he can dominate all the the different levels of physicality, that’s a huge mark because, you know, even going back to Mobile, Momo didn’t have the handle to like exert his physicality, but CMB does, which I think he would be my favorite, but I guess like what’s what’s the pitch for Jacobe instead of him? I think Jacob is just going to get obviously more opportunity and on ball reps. the Raptor current lineup. I’m I’m assuming him and Mo are going to play together at least some variation of minutes and that’s going to be tough in terms of overall spacing. Like him him playing well and being the best player obviously be be a really good thing. I just think like the the scenario doesn’t necessarily suit his his skill set which makes it tough as far as what we’re looking for. Like Jacobe obviously we want him scoring, handling, playmaking, and providing like a whole bunch of defensive pressure. With CMBB, you know, his limitations offensively is the jumper, which is going to hurt him obviously, but he has a pretty expansive offensive game. Is are you looking for initiator reps, postups, screening, because he was used mostly as a screener in practice today from the visible stuff. What do you want to see? I think every action that Yaka Purle occupies like CMBB should be the initiator of of that within the offense. Like he has the best processing skills on the team, he’s pro he might even be the best passer on the team to be honest over Jamal Shed. So I think him getting in in some of those actions and initiating like mid post operating as a a dribble handoff guy like is sort of what he’ll kind of be replicating in some some limited minutes with the big club. And I think it offers him the best opportunity to like get downhill and drive and score, which I want to see. That’s the the one thing I think offensively. He doesn’t necessarily need to have I think a big box score for me to be impressed. But if the handle and finishing like over length translates, then like his his thought goes through the moon. I I’ll find my way to it if we don’t have the big box score. Yeah. But we we we haven’t been getting much of it. Like we haven’t gotten the fun stuff, man. We Why not have the guy? Like remember when Scotty came on the scene? Everyone’s like he can’t score at all. He can’t shoot it. Comes out. Bang, [ __ ] Like that’s Dude, that was incredible. That was something to look forward to. That was fun. CMBB, I would like that same level of punch. Now, he’s not the fourth overall pick in a really vaunted draft class, but N is pretty good. You guaranteed a Hall of Famer even you put the Ben to it. uh CMBB, I guess. Any thoughts on CMBB? Because for anybody who didn’t listen to our draft podcast right after he got selected, you came in and you said, this is kind of what I saw from him prior, but for anybody who’s getting introduced to CMBB through this podcast, what’s the quick pitch? Yeah, I think Trey kind of went went over it was that he’s kind of like could play in the middle of the floor really really well. Short roll, he could play in the dunker spot. You can entry him and initiate actions with him from like delay actions. And yeah, from those those plays, he can keep and attack the rim. And I think that’s kind of the things that we’ll see. And also defensively, I think he’ll he’ll be all over all over the floor, do all the little things. I think he’ll rebound, he’ll he’ll box out. And that’s some some some of the things that I saw from him when I saw him three years ago here in Vegas at the Tarcanian tournament was that, you know, he wasn’t like the big box score guy, but he did all the little things. And I think that’s the the type of player that uh he’ll kind of be like his baseline will be. So it’ll be fun to watch. He really is, based on what you told me and then going back and learning more about him as I studied his game was he really was a guy who kept showing more and more like he’d establish the baseline basketball stuff and then he’d take more more to chew more to chew more to chew and then he eventually ended up being like a star and then obviously a top 10 pick in the NBA draft. But you brought up the defense. This team should be excellent at defense. I guess the starting lineup projects something close to like Jamal Shed, Jacobe Walter, CMBB Mo, Castleton, maybe Battle might be in there. Shamshay, I don’t know if he’ll start, but it would be pretty wild if he did. I’m I’m trying to get And also Elijah Martin fits in there. I had a one-on-one with Elijah today. If you want to go, it’s on the website. There’s a write up on Yeah, there’s a lot of good quotes in there. He was actually like, “Not often do you get the 39th overall pick comes in is like I want to guard Joic and he’s 6’2.” But that’s what he said. He was like, “I was watching Caruso and I thought I could do that. That’s incredible.” Um, but the defense, I guess, what’s the pitch? You’ve been preaching a potential championship at Summer League for years, man. We’ve been waiting for years. So, I’m curious, where will the defense lead this team? I I think at the point of attack, like they’re phenomenal. like Jacobe and like Jamal Shed is like such a high plane for defense at summer league. They’re both guys that like really get after it and I think the Raptors are gonna play like a super aggressive style defensively and then like you topple that with like a guy like CMBB who has like I think what makes him great defensively is like his like spatial awareness. Like he makes rotations that aren’t that aren’t asked of each individual player. He has the awareness to fill up spots and make up for the other mistakes around around him as well. And like he uses his length to like protect the rim and then also is able to like create events just because of that like spatial awareness. So like I think across the board defensively like even mobile as well. Ch’s he’s chaos like personified. They should be able to like protect the rim be aggressive defensively. They’re probably going to pick up guy a lot of guys full court and I think a lot of their offense will come through creating tons of turnovers which is sort of the style I think the Raptors kind of want to play next season. So it should be fun to watch. Who’s the who’s the defensive player of the year on this squad? On this squad it’s going to be CNB. I I think like he’s he’s going to make like one or two plays per game where he was not in he was not even in the vicinity of the action and he blows up the play. Like he did that so consistently in in South Carolina. And like although he wasn’t he isn’t blocking two or three shots a game, he’s in every he’s in the vicinity of every shot and the overall defense is significantly better because of him. And that’s not not even to mention like AJ Lawson is not a vaunted defender at the NBA level, but he he definitely plays to the Raptor scheme. He’s like whether you want to say like quad A or just an end of bench guy in the NBA, I don’t know, but he can hoop. Yep. He certainly did towards the end of the season. That’s a great guy. Like he’s a guy who if he was on like the Bulls or something, he might have an awesome summer league. But I guess like who knows? There’s there’s a lot of minutes to go around, which is probably why Grady’s not here. Is there, by the way, Muscle Watch, do you guys see the picture of him? He looked pretty beefy, man. We’ve been waiting on this. Um, is there anything else you’re really looking forward to from this summer league since we’ll have the, you know, obviously the opportunity to go watch a bunch of other players throughout this whole thing? Where is Charm shape? That’s it’s that’s I’ve been dying to watch him play since the Raptors have drafted him. Went to the 905 game and he called he was called out like literally 20 minutes as I was arriving which was brutal. Um like for him like there isn’t necessarily like a box score stat that you’re looking for. Like for him you’re looking for overall like feel. Like from the games that I’ve watched, it’s like feel and having pacing as like a a screener and not sprinting to to the to the rim who looking for a lob immediately. Like actually playing playing with your point guard and giving him space and actually opening up um scoring opportunities both for himself and for and for the point guard. And then like defensively like although he has like amazing gifts, he blocks tons of shots, he’s super athletic, you you want his field to improve there also because some of that overrotating although it leads to to blocks, it also leads to guys getting you at the back end and your overall defense is is harmed by leaving leaving the rim open. So I think for him, you just want to see that like that feel is improving. The Raptors have obviously made a big commitment to Yako Purle. So like he has time also to to get into that role and obviously earn NBA minutes. So I don’t have huge expectations, but I do want to see that like the game is coming to him in some sort of capacity. It’s a really good point with Shamsh because a guy he clearly is very talented, especially physically, athletically very talented. We have to see the skill come along. But players like that a lot of times they have to ping around between different teams because they don’t get the vote of confidence all the way through, right? Like Bruno Kaboko is a good example of this that he didn’t get as long with the Raptors franchise as people might have expected and the push was to get the G-League team the 905 there to help you know encompass him and and and guide him. Encompass is definitely the harbor him incubate. That’s that’s definitely the word I was looking for to incubate him. But with Shamshay, the Raptors seem like they know it’s a long road ahead and he’ll have time to just develop because he’s younger than CMBB by like half a year. And it’s not like CMBB is an old prospect, but Shamshay was just that young when he got drafted. It depends on like how they negotiate contracts in the future. Who knows? You know, the card is head ahead of the horse here, but it should be really interesting to see like what his career looks like. Because by the time he’s like 27 or 28, he should be an NBA big. Like with with the, you know, he’s very talented. Yeah. But is it on the Raptors? A lot of bigs, they have to go to three or four teams. They have a stint in a bunch of places and then who knows what. But the thing I’m looking forward to most at summer league, I I do I don’t know if Well, VJ is not going to play anymore, but he obviously I was very high on VJ. He played really well prior to all this. Um, I do want to watch Dylan Harper because he Dylan Harper. Yeah, exactly. He said he’s been he said he’s been wa like just absorbing all the Manu stuff which I mean that’s a pretty good guy to learn from. They have very similar builds except I think Dylan is a little bit more blessed. Maybe not on the last step. Manu had a very special last step. Yeah, that flexibility. Yeah, exactly. Um, but I think that’s outside of the Raptor stuff probably what I’m looking forward to, Josh, before we get out of here. What are you looking forward to from Or is it the Red Rocks? Yes. Is it hiking in and all of us getting heat stroke? Yeah. Uh, Dylan for sure cuz Filipino, you know, um, Filipino or should I say? U, but I think uh, I think Elijah Martin has a chance to kind of pop off, especially if Jacob’s out early. uh pop off the way that Raleigh Alkins and uh Terrence Davis did. Um Norm as well. Norman as well. Yeah. Yeah. Just as a quick, it’s it’s in the piece I wrote, but he was listing guys like he watched Drew. We talked about the inverted dunker spot spacing and he was like, “Oh, I did that in high school.” Which was cool, but he mentioned Norm as defensive tape that he watched. And I was like, “How far back do you have to go for that?” But anyway, go I kind of lost my ch. But yeah. Yeah, he’ll pop off. Yeah, at least he’ll start getting hot from three, maybe get a little streaky and yeah, make some big plays in the open court. Yeah, play off the defense. So off the the the team defense. So I think um he has a chance to be kind of like the best finisher as far as like the fast break offense goes. It’s a good point because he is an archetype that the Raptors haven’t had for for a really long time because he wasn’t lights out from three, but he’s like 35 36% on like six attempts a game. He was constantly getting up. He’s also extremely explosive. It’s his handle. And there has been handle problems on the Raptors, but it’s usually not encompassed in his skill set. He’s a pretty unique player and it’s definitely usually the guys who succeed with his skill set are usually like maybe 6’4 6’5. It’s tough to do it at a 6’2 but man standing next to him today that dude is like frolic as hell. He’s very jacked. Anything you want to say before we get out of here Trey? The New Orleans Pelicans will be probably my number two team just watching through summer. The Hornets, they’re not they’re not over. No, just for summer league. Just for summer league. I’m just saying they had two of the the five best prospects I thought that they had. I wouldn’t have I wouldn’t have trade away like the 2026 pick. I’m not I’m not saying I would, but like Derek Queen and like Jeremiah here should be like super duper fun. They should be able to play like super fast and like play off of each other. So, I’m going to be I’m going to be looking forward to seeing that also. All right, everybody. This is just a little snippet of all the work that’s coming out of Vegas from us. We’ll be doing a a podcast, a combined thing with Hello and Welcome as well. So, that’s coming. Uh, but yeah, more insights and more fun. Uh, get ready for summer league. This will be out a day before the Raptors play. Uh, just go to Raptors Republic on like Instagram or Twitter. All the scheduling will be out there and follow us and like and comment, subscribe and all that and stay tuned. We’re live from Vegas. We’re talking to the players. We’re tapped in. We’re here. Thanks for tuning in everybody. where they got into this in the morning or at night.

Samson Folk is joined by Trevon Heath & Josh Codinera to lightly preview the Raptors upcoming summer league.

0:00 – Arriving in Vegas

2:25 – Will Ja’Kobe Walter take the leap?

6:10 – Can CMB be the best player on the team?

11:26 – Will the Raptors have an elite defense?

14:45 – Tre is excited for Chomche

17:43 – Samson is excited for Harper Jr.

18:25 – Josh believes in Alijah Martin

20:15 – Goodbyes

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