Raptors Summer League Final Game Recap

Raptors Summer League Final Game Recap

Hello. Hello everyone. Can you hear basketball rewind? Hopefully you can hear me. I didn’t unmute my mic the first time last uh last game and so hopefully we uh did everything correctly this time. Um let’s just get it started. Oh well, welcome. Welcome. Um it was an interesting game. I’m going to go through the game just for starters and then from there we’ll go through the individual um players on each side that were interesting and you know just kind of mosey along because this was the Raptors final fifth summer league game. If they won today they would be going on to the championship to potentially win it all really. Um well uh since you’re here I hope you can hear me. If you can hear me let me know. Um but other than that, yeah, we’re just going to uh and also thanks for joining. We’re just going to start this off and uh get going. So, few things first. Uh Kings win 9888. That was the final score. Um I’m just going to bring up the scores here, but I did actually write game notes as I as I typically do. Just want to make sure that I’m getting some of the things correct in terms of what actually happened from a statistical standpoint. But um just to just jump right into it, the Raptors were outmatched from the jump. Did not lead from minute one or second one and just from there it was an uphill battle. And yeah, I mean I have I have a lot of thoughts about this one. Uh the first thing that I say is summer league is a different viewing experience, right? Um you’re going to be using it for different um reasons. Um from a viewing standpoint or even from a coaching or GM or whatever decision-making standpoint, you’re going to want to use Summer League in ways that we personally did not use it. Give you an example. So, number one, you want to see there’s guys that come here essentially on a camp invite. Their agents are calling in making deals with Raptor Brass or whoever brass it is with whatever team and they want to get some playing time. And so that is one of the reasons is like yes you want to see what these guys look like in a team context obviously outside of just practice but you also want to see like hey you know from an agent standpoint and from a player standpoint I’m showcasing my game and my gifts in different ways whether it be in the ways that showcase me the best or in ways that you could see the limitations so I can work on those things so I can give that kind of tape to other teams including European teams. I say that because guys like Joiner, I mean, last game he maybe played one minute, this game he played four. I I don’t think he even played the entirety of summer league. It was kind of not great. And um also, you want to challenge some of your second year guys. Uh and this is a good point by Will, but I you know where um overall it was a good game by shed overall, but there are parts of it that he could have done better. Now, I know he’s getting a lot, you know, online, so I’m going to be a little softer with it because I don’t think you need to pile on to guys. But, um, in the end, he actually like Shed has had good moments and bad moments. I think people really have hyperfocused on the bad moments, which are very fair to point out, but I think that there’s also a lot of good moments to also uh, you know, kind of highlight and and and and show and whatnot. So, yeah. Um, one quick second. So, yeah. So, as I get into it, guys like Jacobe, you would have want to see them like what can they do in a self-creation standpoint. I went back, I watched some of um Grady’s tape from last year recently. Like I think it was like last night I was watching it and then I was watching Jacob’s tape this year and I know everyone’s like, “Okay, the defense everything great.” But it depends on what you want out of that last starter. Depending on on a night-to-ight basis, if one of your starters doesn’t have it going offensively, because you’re not going to be running offense superl, is it better to have a guy who could self-create and help out a guy like Brennan Ingram or Brennan Ingram goes down for any stretch of time. Who is the other guy to step up? In my mind, it should potentially be Grady. Um R.J. would be the go-to for reasons like showcasing and whatnot. But if no, I think it should be Grady. Oh, whoops. I think it should be Grady because Grady is able to demonstrate a better level of self-creation. I mean, he has a much better drive and kick game. So, it it just at this point it’s it’s hard. I know that um they had Walter taking a lot of threes and that’s great. and the catch and shoot numbers initially throughout summer league were solid, but then what else are you gonna give me? Because it seems like they’re pigeon holing him into something and that’s fine, but I also want you want to uh from a development standpoint give guys a couple reps here and there to see what do they have and I don’t think that we did that. Uh right now um though based on the what he showed I would not give him more self-creation up uh upside um in terms of this year we’ll see what Shannikamp uh brings but it was a mixed bag from that standpoint. I will get into the defense for everyone. Um defense carried them into uh respectable game but yeah um appreciate it man. Appreciate yes like like and and subscribe. have it at the bottom of the screen, but I always forget sometimes to to to shut it out. So, yeah. Um, but yeah, like I I I think that that’s one thing that, okay, you’re you’re coaching hard to try to win summer league and you’re shortening your rotation in summer league. At the end of the day, summer league doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. So, what is the ultimate reason why you’re doing this? And it’s a good question. So, um yeah. So, yeah, I said that they they didn’t really do that. Um this this was just a funny uh um this was a lot this was a lot to to watch. So, the second quarter uh is where I almost want to start, but we’ll start the So, the first quarter, they they like I said, they started off behind the eightball. wasn’t really good and it wasn’t really until the fourth quarter that they were able to really make gains. They had a small minor gains in like early in the third, but really it just it was a tough game offensively. AJ Lawson I believe was injured if I’m not mistaken. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but like holy smokes. Um and I agree with this so much. Um, holy smokes, you know, like AJ Lawson can’t be the difference between you putting up uh pseudo respectable offense on a regular basis and especially when you have other guys on the court, other guys who have frankly more NBA experience in your system. Uh I I mean I almost want to start with the Kings to be honest, but yeah, as I kind of go through and I’m just kind of bringing up the summary of the game just to make sure I have it. So yeah, we got outscored. They almost doubled our points in the first quarter. So it was 28 to 16 uh in favor of the Sacramento Kings. The second quarter, you know, again, we were a little bit more respectable 26 to 20. But then the third it’s like again that’s why I said early on in the third like they did their best but you know then they just got like wiped off the floor. I’m going to get to some of the reasons why soon. But in the third quarter was again another 27 to 18 type quarter. And in the fourth it really they had like two minutes where they basically had the same amount of turnovers. I think close to it nine turnovers in like a two-minute stretch that really brought them back into the game. But this goes back to my point of that I keep saying I worry about this style of defense trying to carry it over to the regular season because it is the type of defense that a good better coach or better scouting team can poke holes in depending on who’s on the floor and I don’t think it’s a sustainable defense but we will find out. Um okay so let’s go through and talk about the individual players. Um, I will say that, yeah, again, I’ve said it multiple times, I’ll say it again. That three minute stretch in the fourth quarter really like almost saved their season, but if you’re putting yourself behind the eightball, it’s it it gets tough, man. It gets tough. Um, okay. So, Jamal Shed, uh, first thing I noticed is that he he tried his he had a floater game that was kind of going, but he drove baseline early on and tried to kind of drive away from where his man was going. I know it was kind of a I wouldn’t say a broken play, but the the initial action had broken down. So essentially what happened, at least what I saw is that he tried to go baseline, but as he’s going baseline, he’s seeing chomp, I call them chompers, but Chochi, and he tried to like throw a pass. When you’re throwing a pass away from your your momentum, you’re not helping your pass. It’s possible to make those passes, but it’s not easy. And so you’re making it harder. What I said that is is that you know he understands the notion the idea of trying to control the game but like at the same time it’s the consistency with initiating the offense that is lacking at times this far and that’s what gets people frustrated. Um but he was able to get rev himself up. He was able to selfreate here and there. This is without me looking at like the numbers or anything. We’ll look at the numbers at the very end. But uh yeah, I think I think Jamal shed to me like he had a B+ game overall, but like a lot of that is leading on like the very end of the game rather than um like looking at the overall thing or if you kind of split it up into different parts. It’s definitely not an agame, that’s for sure. Uh and I will get to mobile for sure. Uh also, shout out to you alum. It’s good to good to hear from you. the foul. Yeah, I that was one thing that was weird because like a couple games ago there was like eight foul being called and I thought it was like I thought that summer league was a place where you could have like eight fouls. I don’t know when I don’t know if it’s just like for the for the semi-finals or what, but that was kind of a weird thing. Um but yeah, the fouls definitely played a role in this one down the stretch uh for both teams really. Um, so yeah, I I think that Shed has to do a better job of recognizing like the twoon-one late clock situations. There was one with him and Walter where he got the ball back. Um, and he just didn’t stay calm and like he didn’t really have the right angles for it. He ended up getting to the line on that one, but really the correct decision probably would have been to just pass the ball to uh to Walter and see what Walter could do because Walter was actually ahead of him too. Um, so yeah, there there’s a lot of timing things with this team that are a little bit off. And um, again, it’s it’s fine because it’s summer league, but it’s also something of note because at the same time, yeah, it’s summer league, but these are second year players. Um, so it’s not someone just trying to get their feet wet for the first time. But yeah, I I do think that he did, as I said, A+ job uh in terms of extending the defense out to 94 feet if that’s the way they want to play. He he did a good job. He fought through screens and his play on the defensive end where it started for him really helped them to get back into the game. He knocked down a huge three when they were I think it got them to uh 81 180. Um so yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yes. Yeah, it does. Exactly. This is exactly right. Yeah, exactly. Uh, no, we don’t. Uh, yeah, it’s it it’s like we want to play like the Pacers, but we have a few key things that are missing specifically in the starting lineup because you can’t just sit down the starters to to play that type of defense. It just doesn’t work. So there’s something will be shifted when I don’t know. But yeah. All right. Shifting to CMBB. CMBB really good job overall in terms of keeping the energy up. He had a really good uh great first block to start the game. He got into foul trouble. However, what I noticed is he doesn’t get emotionally rattled. Um he doesn’t play emotional. I I like it. Um, at the same time really foulrone and it was a more muted game overall. I I think it’s hard to get into rhythm when you’re always having to be pulled or kind of like tone yourself down a little bit. I think that this is something that can be ironed out. So, I’m not like freaking out. I mean, I know some people like to either point out box plus minus or selectively, but yeah, it’s it’s it’s from that standpoint, it really it wasn’t really anyone’s night on the Raptors. But yeah, but I do like the fact that he kind of stayed within himself. I did want to see a little bit more going back to shed him running pick and rolls sometimes. is like there was times when um CMBB would come up and he would wait for him to kind of run the P&R. The problem is is that we don’t really have a lot of guards that just wait or or are really truly good at driving guys into screens. So that’s that’s one thing that I would say needs to definitely improve. Okay, Jacobe Walter, great use of screens around CMBB when it was there. Uh it reminded me of him being at Baylor. So getting him in comfortable spots. I’d like to see that more often. Um CMBB plays physical. Really good screener. Probably the the best non-purle screener on the on the Raptors really. That is a willing screener too. But I don’t know if we’re going to run that type of of of offense. So we will see. I would like to I think he can definitely do DHO’s very easily. He has the playmaking ability to do that. So, I I really like um a lot of Oh, a lot of what he done. Um CMBB had this one pick and roll with Mobo. I put it in the Mobo part, but like my goodness, the the way that um it reminded me of like basically what they want to do with Scotty, but he just like had the perfect pass to Mo down low. That was really nice uh with pick and roll with Mo. So, I I’m I’m both scared but excited to see him and Scotty together because especially if CMBB can improve on his ball handling. Again, if you can turn Scotty into the ultimate role man, it might be a little bit interesting. It might, you know, there there might be something there between the two. So, um but yeah, I going back to Walter, really great transition defense. Um, you know, I already talked about the one two versus one. Walter really, um, was able to kind of slow shed’s man. Um, when shed lost the ball, uh, enough for shed to recover to get a steal to go two versus one the other way. Offensively, he struggled to create him for himself through throughout summer league. I think uh if you’re thinking of starting minutes for him, the question will become again one there’s a lack of creation, but like are you willing to deal with it because you want a lower usage player or do you want someone who can kind of take more of that uh creation reps on? Uh like this guy’s going to be in rotation as Will pointed out earlier. Um, and so I think that that’s that’s really something to really keep in mind where in the rotation like whether or not RJ’s here or not to me doesn’t really matter. It’s like these are the guys that I look longterm that are definitely going to be here no matter what. And so who are you going to prioritize? And to me, Grady is still from an offensive standpoint worth uh he just does so much that the other guy doesn’t do. They’re different players, but but they can also play together. Um I Yeah, I I guess the only other thing is like, hey, if you know he’s good at running pick and roll, um where he’s coming off the screen, Jamal, uh almost said Jamal Jamal, uh my goodness, the Canadian Guard. I am People are going to kill me for this, but um Jamal Murray, there we go. Um he if he if they’re going to use him in those type of sets, then use him properly in those type of sets. See what he and CMBB have together. And by the time we get to training camp, I’d like to see that more just to just to see as an exploratory thing. Uh yeah, sorry man. It’s been it’s been that that last game was late and I’m still feeling the effects of it in some ways. That’s holy smokes. Um oh well, we’ll see. Um so far he hasn’t been he’s like the foot speed’s bad, but he has a good understanding and he has the length. So um and part of it is strength. So if he can work on the strength, I think he can become like a slight slight low, you know, slight below average guy, he’s efficient enough on the offensive end, especially if he just improves the finishing at the rim and that if his strength is there, I think that there might be a chance that he could be close to a net neutral or a net neutral defender this year. I think he deserves a chance. Um, yeah, I’m definitely going to get get into this for sure. This is a really good point. Um, but let’s go into Mo first. So, uh, too small. Too small. Um, and it really affected the game. Jones, who I’ll get into, uh, later on, just it just it was tough. There was, he struggled to finish around the hoop. Even the announcers at one point uh, late in the game, he got the I forget who he got the ball from because shed passed to him, he passed to someone and then rolled um, and then got the ball back. and CNB was on the other side and it was either like pass it to CNB right away or go up and because he is unsure of himself and what he’s going to do the yeah like really it comes down to like when you’re in that type of situation you are so basketball is a game where you have seconds and that margin just vanishes like that and so you can’t be tentative you have to be confident in whatever decision you’re going to make whether it’s a pass or it’s going up. He probably just should have went up for the dunk. You got to make that decision. And to make matters worse, not only that, he airled one of the free throws and missed the other. So, not good. Uh, not good. It’s a uh stone hands or beyond hands. Either way, not good. Um, I think there’s a lot of things that Mobo has to do beyond his defense to ensure that he can really fight for minutes because right now at worst, if you’re not putting CMBB and some people want CMBB to start, I don’t know if I would do that, but CMBB is going to get Mobos minutes at least at bare minimum and then some. And so he is kind of becoming the odd man out on this in this rotation based on what he is able to do. And so yeah, battle got the uh shots in the right direct in the right spots. Um when defenses keyed in on him shooting the three, what did he do? He attacked the close out. Good stuff. Again, not much to add. He’s going to somehow factor into the rotation at the back half, but I mean he just he is what he is. I don’t think that there’s much to learn. So that’s why when I complained at the beginning and I said like, “Hey, this is the type of situation where you want to see guys like Joiner or others that didn’t even get to play even more than like four minutes. Like are you prioritizing an overall examination of the roster or are you prioritizing a summer league win?” I think it was like the Raptors PR team that like put out this thing where they’re like, “In five years, where are we going to remember?” Well, we we remember that you didn’t win summer league and we will remember and so no one will will remember this summer league team. And the other thing is that we will remember that this you know like it’s it’s you don’t want summer league to be the highlight within five years of time of your organization. So they might want to find a different angle. That’s all I’m saying. Uh is he precious at Chua? Uh no. I think he’s more situationally aware and and aware of his own limitations than Precious Sua. So, uh, Precious had all the confidence in the world, but yeah, there was something a lot lacking really. Um, but we will see. I I can’t remember if he like signed another one year somewhere, but yeah. Um, okay. CMBB, we’re almost done this. We’re almost done this. So CMBB um I one of the things from switching to defense yeah I saw him switch down low stopped the dribble drive penetration uh from the perimeter uh he only the only reason that he stopped in terms of his ability to stop his man is because he fouled and fouling on the Raptor side that’s the tail of the tape. Um he needs to learn how to not foul at the very last second. He is he stays like down and disciplined in his stance, but he needs to learn. He needs to become less swipy wi and and trusts his length a little bit more. He trusts it pretty good, but yeah, I think um he within the first year and a half could be the team’s best and most truly versatile defender. He he could contend with that, but he has to learn how to take this type of activity, turn down the fowls, and maintain this level of activity into an NBA season. If he doesn’t, then it doesn’t really matter. So, yeah. Um, he protected the ball well, didn’t get really frustrated when they tried to attack. Like this Castleton, for example, like when some guys get a rebound, you worry. It’s like, is the ball going to be swiped away? He doesn’t do that. Um, yeah. So, I already talked about the mobile thing um between him and Bobo feeding that onto Martin. Martin struggled ball with his hands um early on. The undersized nature of Martin showed today and the other guy who was on the um he was on the board when Martin was being selected. He was playing against today uh in the big center Maxine Reo. So, I will get into him. He had a he had a solid game in my opinion. Um but yeah, the undersized nature is just like there was one where Martin was going up and he had to like contort his body like this and then come up. And if you’re doing all that, that means that you’re not strong enough right now. And in general, like it might go in, but you can’t rely on that type of offense to will you through. You’re putting yourself at a significant disadvantage. So yeah. Um, Chi um was another guy that I believe he fouled out too. Like half the team basically fouled out. This wasn’t Chi’s best game, but he did try to back down a guy, but again, the skill needs to improve. He needs a lot of work, but he’ll get the opportunity to get minutes. So, yeah. Hey, Cool. Um, yes. Yes, Chi is is definitely further ahead than Castleton. And too many mistakes on both ends of the ball for Castleton. Okay. On to the Kings. Devin Carter. So, the Kings were fun because there’s So, Devin Carter, uh, his dad, Anthony Carter, used to play for the Raptors for a brief stint. Um, so shout out to that. Um, but Devin Carter, like early on in the game, forget about Yeah, he was three of 10 from the field, but early on in the game, I think he displayed some stuff on both ends of the ball, especially from a passing standpoint. So, the way that he distributed the ball early on, I like a lot better than the way that we were moving the ball around early on. Um, there’s a reason why he had only two turnovers and six assists. Um, and it wasn’t just hunting for those. Like, some of them were lobs. I mean, I just talked about earlier Shed missed a lob. He went right back the other way and got a transition lob. Um, I want to say to Jones, um, Jones is everywhere on this in this game, honestly. crazy. But yeah, uh he did a good job of finish of finding guys. He’s just a dog. Um and like basically slapped up the Raptors early on like from a from a defensive standpoint. I mean again like this style was not sustainable. He had two steals. I think the two of those steals I think were early on. Really good job of digging down on drives. Uh stopping Walter from like one of the few drives that he had. And when he was uh miked up, you saw that he did a really good job of uh the backline communication. So, loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Um really good job of uh he he also almost he was one heel one in like half an inch of a heel away from a Lowry style uh you know charge. The heel was in the restricted area. So yeah, their pick Nick Clifford was okay today. Um he wasn’t great. He was very foul-prone. Don’t have much else to say, but you could see the size. Like Sacramento’s team from like today, I don’t know what their team is going to look like in like six months time, but their team today was was a big team. Sharif Abdul Raheem, I heard that name and I was like, I got to look up or sorry, it was not um I’m saying his dad already, so spoiler alert. Uh Jabir. Um, so I don’t know why it’s saying that he didn’t play because I literally saw him on the court. Um, but yeah, so that is Sharif Abdul Raheem’s uh kid. So shout out to him. Um, if you are a Vancouver Grizzlies fan at any point in time in your life, uh, you will, if you know, you know. Uh, really solid 13-year pro. So yeah. Um, Maxine Reo. Maxine Reo. So let’s see. I want to get the official stats here. Yeah. So, he was six of 12 um for 12 points, five uh no eight six boards, um one assists. I thought he was like he had this one where he drove past mobile and just yammed it on people like where it was just it was just damn nasty. Um you know, finished through traffic with like a couple tough buckets. Um he passed in transition as a center. Like these are good things and I do think just from like the lack of size that the Raptors have, we we might have missed one. I know people don’t want to like doubt our front office ever, but I think if you’re looking at where I I think it was a missed opportunity, snowlight to the guy that we got is just saying like this guy would have really really fit. And so, yeah, it would have been I I think e even from like an upside standpoint, uh it really would have been nice. Uh so, let’s get to some comments before I continue on. Um all right, let’s see. So, once again, yeah, yeah, no, no, no. A lot of that bench is just gone. Um yeah, they are. And I’m, you know, I’m I’m I’m happy for this. I’m really happy for this. Um so yeah. Um let’s see. I think Okay. Jeez. Oh my gosh. Okay. Yeah. Um [Laughter] gosh. Oh man. Uh no. No. Um he’s he really does. Mobo does he looks like a fringe rotation player right now and that’s not a good thing. Um for a second summer like it’s I know I think it was Gio that said like um I don’t think it was for mobile but I think it was for for Castleton and he was saying like maybe Castleton can like work his way up. Uh which I don’t because he’s not a guaranteed contract but like Mo looked better than Castleton but he did not look great. He did not look great. Um, yeah, this is not talked about enough. There are ways that like and it’s not just the shortness because I know like people are like, well, Brandon Ingram, but it’s like how they play. We in that starting lineup, we don’t have a lot of guys that love contact and love playing physical. So, Scotty is a guy who he by all accounts and from what I’ve seen, he likes to play on the outside. He doesn’t like the physical play quite as much. I could be wrong. I’m more than willing to be proven wrong, but as I’ve seen today, it I have not seen it enough. No consistency with that. Um, and what he’s working on is shooting from deep, not on post moves. If that changes, then again, a lot of things change from my standpoint. But yeah, um we also have guys that are skinny and injuryprone guys that we are reliant on, I’ll say. So yeah. Um hey man, it’s like ABBA and preach. I I you know it’s it’s like a pop the trunk type thing. So I love it. Yeah. Uh, this this is a South Park episode. I will not go further. I’m not going to say the name of the episode, but Raptors could use that surgery here. Um, it’s a certain type of plasty. And um, yeah, that’s that’s all I’ll say. Um, yeah. Um, anyways, going back to the Sacramento Kings, Mason Jones uh was poised, had 17 points, got to the line eight times. Like, my goodness, like three of five from shooting. And then, and then there’s the other Jones, right? We got double Jones, you know, it just just slapped up by Isaac Jones. Now Isaac Jones from in terms of like the little that I’ve seen like they want to try him at different spots. He’s a bit of a tweener, but he’s a 69 tweener. So sometimes he can guard up to I think some threes. Um he can guard fours and he can sometimes go down to fives as well with small ball. Uh the shot was one of three. He got to the line nine of 11 times. So when you’re talking about a size discrepancy, he made CNB look small. CMBB is like six I’m I’m just mainly going with the combine measurements in as as coach would say sockbeat you know he is the type of guy where he’s 69 versus the other guy who is what was he like 67 or 66 and a half so there’s like a a 2 and 1/2 inch difference in terms of height and you notice it CNB has like really good length but like the height is the height is the height I remember Someone came into a space once and was like, “Oh, well, you know, like, you know, that stuff doesn’t matter.” You know, some people just have like a really long neck. I’m like, the neck has nothing that a long neck would make you taller. Like that has nothing to do, you know, and you don’t want someone who’s like a like, you know, like like a tortoise. That has nothing like if you’re if you’re smaller, you’re smaller and like the top of where your shoulders are like it it just No, it’s not how it works. I I Yes. different people of different body proportions, but it just did not really work as a as a as a thing. But, um, yeah, I mean, Isaac Jones was like, imagine if mobile was 69 and like wasn’t afraid to attack the hoop. And that’s that’s what Isaac Jones did to us. Like, he had 36 points. He was 13 of 17, which is the other things is that the Kings did they didn’t waste time. It’s like when I talk about offensive initiation and orchestrating an offense, I’m like, you give the ball where it needs to go, feed the hot hand, redo the I remember Lowry against like Sacramento, funny enough. No, sorry. It was against the Orlando Magic in the playoffs and he ran he basically spammed pick and roll like he was LeBron James and Kevin Love with Siaka and like did it like seven times in a row and it’s like I’m just going to do this until you can stop it. If you can’t stop it, that’s on you. Like this year there I’m I’m not saying that you have to do that, but like that kind of stuff breaks the spirit of another team because it’s like no matter what you do, you can’t stop me. You can’t guard me. you can’t do anything. And that’s the type of stuff that I want to see. So, um I thought he was really really good. They got one. They also got got another guy in Maxi Rolo. Like my goodness, like tall dudes, good stuff. Devin Carter, I think he’s like 63, 6’4, but like he has like a seven foot wingspan. Um they got some dudes on the back half of that bench that will be rotation players for sure. Um so, loved it. They’re going to go on. We’ll see what happens. Um, on the Raptor side, just to wrap up the rest of like the actual like stats, a Walter three of 10 from deep, five of 12 from the field. That’s not good enough. Um, shed again on a personal standpoint, really good game in terms of yes, he had 12 assists, but I thought it was a little shaky to start. Um, without AJ Lawson, they really struggled. And someone mentioned AJ Lawson being the MVP of the tournament probably. Yeah, I I think that that’s pretty fair. Um, yeah. I mean, it’s it’s their defense. Without their defense, this game was just a nothing burger. So, yeah. All right, let’s go get into some of this. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt, man. No doubt. Um, so there was a Okay. Um I barely seen any pick and roll. Why ain’t Yeah. Um so Lawson was injured. We don’t play enough pick and roll and we need to do it more and it’s something that really bothers me. But part of the reason why even though there was someone um online that was arguing with me, I’m like they do DHO um because they’re not fat. like our ball handlers are not in general fast enough and not crafty enough to utilize a a a pick and roll on its own and get open and go downhill and turn the corner. It’s also a little bit of a philosophy thing with Darko, but that’s part of the reason why there is that philosophy is to help gain you a little bit extra half second of an advantage to go get going downhill. Cuz like Scotty for example, his uh second or third step is where he gets like a freight train and it where it’s unbeatable when he goes downhill. But like him on his own, he’s not like Zion where he’s just going to blow past most guys. Like the vast majority of guys he’s not he’s not blowing past. but it’s his strength. So, if you can get him going downhill, good. That’s part of the reason why we do that is because we just have not had the athletes to be able to take advantage of just a simple pick and roll. Which to counter the person who said that? That’s why they were like, well, isn’t a pick and roll like that? It’s like, yeah, but if you suck, not trying to be harsh here um and saying something sucks, but if you’re not essentially if you’re not good enough, okay, I’m trying to be nicer. you’re not good enough to or not fast enough to be able to take advantage of that. You need extra help and that is the extra help. Um, yeah. So, okay. Um, yeah, but the problem is is that he played that role when he was lowered down in the pecking order. So, I think the idea, the hope that a lot of Raptors fans have is that by elevating Brandon Ingram into a higher offensive role, you would uh remove him from ball handling duties and put him closer into the hoop. The thing is is he’s working a lot on his three-point shot, so we will see how that translates. I do think he has to shoot the three for sure, but like I don’t want him working on pull-up threes again. And I want him to working on like that 15 foot MIDI. If you can get that at a 60% clip, great. Then you can run uh pick and pop with him or pick and roll with him and Ingram, right? Um but we’ll see. Um the ball handling is going to be key for him as well. So yeah. Uh yeah, I did that already. Um yeah, but like the thing is is that Fred couldn’t finish at the hoop either. like that’s there’s a reason why Fred shot like a Caitlyn Clark stat line where it’s like 39% from the field except that he actually could shoot from deep. Um but yeah, I mean like the like the the the real problem is is like e even Fred Yakob pick and roll which was relatively efficient. It was it was it was pretty solid. like it was done so much that it exed out everyone else on the team cuz it was just focused on those two and there was a lot of other avenues that they started to explore before Purle came here that I wish that they would do now but we have a new coach. Uh I don’t know if we’re actually going to do it. The funny thing is is that we’re going we went away from the nurse philosophy on defense. Um not saying you always guard 94 ft but like there’s super hyperaggressive defense. uh we went away from that and then now we’re back to it and so it’s it’s just I don’t know it’s funny. Um I mean there’s still a chance he’s still relative he’s still 20 maybe he gets he grows like another if he grows another inch he’d be like at a really solid point or even at even a half an inch where he’s 67 like a solid 67 um I think that that would be pretty perfect actually. Overall, I think that this summer league, um, again, I wanted to see more from, you know, guys like Jacobe. I wanted to see them use guys differently. It is interesting to see Keith Py here, and that kind of might might factor into like whether or not they’re going I hope not, but whether or not they’re going to do their job in a way where they’re focused on the wins more than the development and and building on a team, even though it’s summer league, that’s important. So, yeah. Um, and that’s part of what it’s for. So, let’s see. Also, shout out to to to 416. So, yeah. Um, yeah, I I basically covered that all. Um, yeah. So, does anyone else have any uh any thoughts before I get out of here? Um, because if not, I’m gonna I’m going to get out of here relatively within the next little while. But uh obviously I I can’t see, you know, how many people are liking or whatever, but if you haven’t liked the stream, like it, give it a like and whatnot. That really helps the algorithm. But um yeah um I will say a lot of people argued with me about whether or not we could win the summer league championship and I had my concerns and unfortunately it looks like uh looks like uh we did not make it. So yeah. So one final point just about the summer league stuff. looking at the a good example is the Washington Wizards. They didn’t play Trey Johnson today because they had enough of a look from Trey Trey Johnson, but instead they were focused on other guys, you know, your Ren uh Ren Smi, your Liam Robbins, like just other guys that they’re trying to see what like should this guy even be on a G-League team. So yeah. Uh yeah, I mean you’re gonna have to look for the equivalent of Rico Hides runs. There is one floating out there, but I’m not going to talk about it right now, but uh it was interesting. It was not it was it was not amazing to be honest, but hey. Um but there’s been a couple there there’s um like I’ve se seen like some IQ uh clips uh floating around. I’ve seen some other guys and I can’t remember but I isn’t like Scotty and like Norm and like a bunch of the other Jamaican um descended players supposed to like link up this summer to actually make a team Jamaica. If that happens that’s going to be interesting. That’ll be some like oops and stuff. I don’t know if it actually happens but we’ll see. Some some of these things are like all talk like it’s like the last time Nigeria tried to build a team I remember they had fights with Emeoka and even Masayu Jiri because like the funding on the team was kind of janky on their side so it just didn’t happen but yeah it’s Gio was not a good game. It wasn’t a great game. Was not a good game. Um yeah I don’t know. Does anyone have uh thoughts on on on uh you know is is anyone looking forward to anything in in terms of the what’s remaining in summer league um other than just sitting sitting down and like staring off into the abyss and missing Raptors games. If not, then I think that that tells me, yeah, other than Gio’s comment about marks on mattresses, um, uh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. No. Uh, Gio, I I don’t expect them to be I expect them to be better this year than they were, but they weren’t a good team last year. Um, I’m expecting between 8 to 12 wins at max in terms of my range, but realistically, I think that they’re mo more than likely going to be in the 10 win range. So, 40 wins is where I have them as of today. assuming nothing else changes. Um, we have a lot lack of length as Koolcat pointed out. We have guys that have not are just getting factored in in terms of on the court who are going to play big big um big big roles. And so, yeah, but I will get into this type of stuff at some point. Yeah, I I agree with this. Or at least um a buy low more buy like if we got Cam Whitmore that would have been very interesting to see Cam Whitmore at this summer league uh for this team for the price that he was at for or if you know like that I I would really be mad if they traded out of this upcoming draft. Now, P’s at their uh at at Summer League, there was a let’s call it a um article that came out seemingly from the organization standpoint. It seems like there is a real Let me put it this way. I don’t I think as much as people assume that Bobby’s job was like set in stone, I don’t know if it truly is in terms of moving up the ladder. So, he might have a new boss. And if he does, well, he may not want to work for a new boss when he is felt like he is the next in line. Let’s put it that way. Now, I don’t know. I’m not speculating and saying that he’s well I am speculating but I don’t know if that means that he is out or if he’s in or what. I’m just saying that they are still searching for a president of basketball operations. And as they’re doing the search, some nervous energy in terms of leaks are coming out where he’s basically pulling the shaggy song, it wasn’t me, when you’re looking back at certain Messiah/BY moves. And that offered both of them in some senses a bit of protection because back in the day when you would say this is a bad move, people would be like, “Oh, that’s Bobby’s move.” Or they’d say, “Well, no, that’s Messiah’s.” The way I look at it, they’re together. He needs to establish that he is different. So yeah. Um, no, I disagree. Why would they hire a president of basketball operations, spend big money on looking for candidates, hire Bobby Webster to fire him in a year? That wouldn’t make sense. If they’re going to hire him, like they might, but if they will hire him, they’re going to hire him outright. But also, wouldn’t you have just hired the guy? Why string him along? Why go through this rigma roll? It’s not like they haven’t like Keith Belly didn’t just get on the block like he’s been here for a couple years like two years. So, or this is at least his second year and he like was in on practices was like he actually went like two practices and has been in the summer league. So, at it’s not like he doesn’t know these guys. So, at some level, like he’s probably interviewed. I mean, he’s interviewed Bobby and there’s a chance that it’s Bobby, but I doubt that they’re just going to like push everyone up a peg. Uh, I could be wrong, but I that’s not really my read on it. Um, I mean, yeah, like if if if if Bobby’s Yeah, I think Bobby has a year to prove himself or to clean up his resume, so to speak. But throwing your old boss, you know, under the bus, so to speak, like just like that when you’re trying to prove that you can be a leader and you’re like, well, like none of that was me. Well, what were you responsible for? Cuz if you weren’t responsible for anything, then why do we need you? Like that’s the way that you got to look at it from the Keith P standpoint when you’re talking to these guys or whatever. Like they’re like the reason they’re not happy with how things went otherwise they would have kept things going for that re and obviously negotiations didn’t broke down. I know some people think that’s just financial. It wasn’t just financial. So you have to Yeah. like you’ll have to see what what what happens. And to Cool Cat’s point, this is the interesting thing, right? It’s like um I I do think that eventually he will. We’ll see. But I think my point is is that if there is a new president basketball operations, you will probably see Bobby move on eventually anyways because that person will slowly want to bring in their own team and Bobby will want that autonomy. Yeah. Um, Bobby doesn’t. Yeah, the thing is is like they’ve really emphasized someone with that personality. Now, I know that there have been articles that have outlined that the way that he interacts with players is kind of cool and he seems to have a cool relationship with everyone, but like you know, and they’ve never really heard anything in terms of him being difficult to deal with, which fair, fine, but that’s not also a super huge ringing endorsement of what just went out the door and a guy who was essentially a PR maestro practically like a politician level type guy where he he commanded the room. Bobby is not the type of guy that commands a, you know, a room. And so, yeah. Um, and just in terms of, uh, yeah, I mean, in terms of the Blue Jay, it’s just a shift focus. I I know everyone wants to make that automatic thing. Well, you know what? You say what you want. Blue Jays are winning right now. So, I I don’t know if they’re winning at this exact moment because they were playing earlier. I’m just going to double check on the score. Um, yeah. So, I know that the the the Blue Jays were playing earlier. Here we go. Yep. And so, they did win. So, they beat the Giants. So, and they won yesterday, too. So, I mean, as of today, they’re winning. So, um I don’t know if it’s as fair of a comparison. I think that this this um market needs to grow up in some ways and go away from like just hunting the stars for validation. They think that that’s how this market seems to feel validated. It’s like no, just build a team out and then like and then you can go get the stars, you know? You can’t skip that step to go to the next step to then like so that you feel validated. But hey, that is what it is. Um uh well yeah that that’s not my point though. I mean like my point is that people want to like always like right now today dunk on the Blue Jays and like the Blue Jays are doing well now. So it’s like you it’s had better legs last year but this year is not like the best time. Like it’s like me dunking on the Pacers and being like, “Well, the Pacers didn’t do this.” And it’s like, “Well, the Pacers were are right now in the finals.” Uh, now Blue Jays aren’t in the finals. We see what they do for the rest of the season. They’re seven of three in their last 10. It’s a long season to go. They are first in their um in the uh AL East. So, yeah. But I mean, if we’re keeping it a buck, uh, the Blue Jays today is probably not the best example to use to dunk on management. I don’t think that this is just a cost thing. And this is my point. I do think that they do want to make money. I do think that they’re shifting more towards the money making this, you know, type of operation. I think that that’s just going to happen leaguewide. So, that’s not just a single out Rogers or or anything like that, but the fact that they’re willing to spend time and energy to find the right BA president basketball operations and we will see. If it is Bobby, I’d be disappointed. And, you know, fair enough. I don’t know if it’s Bobby or not, but if it’s not Bobby, I think that that speaks to the fact that they are serious about the asset and product that essentially makes them the most amount of money. So, yeah. All right. Uh, Harold Ballard. I have to look that one up. Let me see. What does he own? Oh, yeah. That dude. Um, I’m not a Leaf fan, but yeah. Yeah, I I did. I heard that he was very cheap. Again, I mean, we’ll see. Um, we’ll see. So, yeah. But, um, that’s been Basketball Rewind. I don’t really want to talk too too much about the Leafs. Not really a Leafs fan. Um, you know, I don’t mind the Blue Jays, but I’m not Leafs fan. And we’re not talking about basketball anymore. So, that is my cue to leave. So, everyone take care, stay hydrated, stay well. Uh, cool cat. Um, a shout out. Uh and yeah, I mean it’s like it’s not just like oh the decision to you know not pay uh uh luxury tax or whatever but I mean there’s a lot of things that go into it at the end of the day your product both uh especially from a a media standpoint because Rogers is the media as well. Your product bleeds into everything else. So they are incentivized to build a good product and I I think there’s too many excuses. Um, yeah, probably. Um, I I don’t know if it’s a for sure, but I think it’s there’s a good chance that I mean, the second that Messiah went, I think at that point, all bets are off. It’s this whenever you have a major shakeup or ownership change or leadership change, all bets are off. Does it mean that they’re usually unless the guy like croaked, right? Which no one croked. Uh trying to get more morbid here, but you know because of that um you’re looking at a different direction. So yeah. All right. So everyone take care and uh yeah um peace.

Going live to discuss the Raptors Summer League Final Game Recap.

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