Who will be the next Raptors president, and the 3 biggest questions facing this team

Who will be the next Raptors president, and the 3 biggest questions facing this team

Hello and welcome. I’m your host Whimloo. You are listening to the Helen Walcon podcast presented by Bway. Uh another slow week in uh the Raptors. Um you know, and just the NBA and sort of like storyline in general, especially after summer league, people kind of just take vacation, which we will be doing soon actually. So um you know, for for us in particular, we’re probably going to go on break after this. But at the same time, is already in Amsterdam as we’re recording right now. Hello, producer Jerome who will be taking off this weekend um towards Europe. I will be going the following week. Uh we will all be meeting up in Scotland. You’ll hear about all this in a future band. I would be saying like, “Hey, that’s the next time I’m going to see you if I wasn’t playing basketball with you tonight and going to going to Ball Don’t Stop on Friday with you.” I was going to say before anything else, uh if you’re looking for a cool hoop event to come to uh this weekend, Friday night in Toronto, uh Ball Don’t Stop Run will be taking place and uh it’ll be at Ker Hall over at TMU. Uh it’s it was a pretty exciting event last year. We got Chris Buchet to come out. Uh Norm Powell was out there. Bones Highland kind of stole the show a little bit, but uh it it’s also just really cool to just like be in an intimate atmosphere, just focus on the ball. Even some hoopers you never heard about before. I think it’s a good chance to put on local GTA hoopers. So uh yeah, your jersey yet? Have you figured out how you’re pulling out this time? You know what? I I think I’m going to go obscure. I’m going to go real obscure. I’m going to go Continental Basketball Association. um just recently picked up a a jersey from uh In Vintage We Trust. Uh you know, happy trails to those guys. They’re going to be, you know, upwards and onwards doing better things, moving to Manhattan. Um you know, much love to to those guys. They do an amazing job. And uh yeah, just just, you know, just picked up a Great Lakes Storm um jersey. That’s got to be a one of one. I named It’s a one of one. Hey, I don’t They might not even put names on the back of that jersey. Oh, that’s a good point. But not even number. Was there a number on it? No, there’s no number. No, there’s no number. There’s just Great Lakes Storm at the front of it. If anyone knows Great Lakes Storm, unbelievable. Unbelievable. They were only in contention, I think, for four years. They only Peace Collective collection of like that. Anyway, my point is there’s no real Raptors news out there except for the fact that the biggest question uh facing the Raptors is still unquestioned in terms of just who is actually going to be the next president of uh this team. We know that the Raptors have contacted CIA to, you know, lead the search to find candidates. Uh we know that some meetings according to reports have already taken place. Uh we’ll get to all of those candidates in a little bit because front of the program Michael Grin just has done a great job of just identifying who some potential candidates may be. Kind of wanted to walk through um their backgrounds, who they are, sort of get get a sense of like, you know, just what they’ve done in the league so far to get to this position and and maybe familiarize um people in terms of like, okay, if they go in this direction, why they might go with some of these guys. But even before we get to these reported candidates, which by the way do include Dwayne Casey, Dwayne Casey has gotten the most hype. I would say out of all these candidates that we will mention, um there are actual reports from Detroit that the Detroit has allowed Dwayne Casey to take multiple interviews with MLSC. And of course, there’s a familiarity with Dwayne uh being a longtime head coach in Toronto dating back to I think 2011 or maybe 2012. um I think 2011. It was after the Mavs won the title when he was an assistant there. But in any case, before we get to all these potential candidates, I actually just wanted to start with why I think Bobby Webster should just take the job. Um and that I think the MLSC should just, you know, uh they can do their research process, but I think they should realize that their best candidate is already in house. And I’m thinking of this from Bobby’s perspective in terms of just like, okay, what do I have to do to pitch myself for the job? Well, first off, a lot of it kind of speaks for itself, right? like he’s been here as the number two behind Messiah for the most sustained period of success for the Toronto Raptors as a franchise. The the Raptors have been over the last 10 years one of the best teams at drafting. Um they have for the most part made true shrew moves. You can obviously nitpick with the last couple of years, but you know, I think the probably the biggest blunder in the last couple years has been um how that situation worked out with Pascal and even just knowing some of the key pieces in that sort of negotiation and sort of how that relationship fell apart. Um you know, never once did I really hear any issues with Bobby. It was sort of more of a personal thing um almost between Bobby, between Messiah and and Pascal. So, this isn’t even trying to throw dirt on the situation. You can go back to the previous shows I’ve done. you know, I’ve kind of consistently reported that portion of this. Um, but my point is like I think Bobby has been here for a lot of the success of the Raptors. And so, in terms of pitching himself, I don’t think he needs to come in and say that like I’m going to be something different than what it was previously because what it was previously was actually going pretty well. Um, I think in terms of the the points that he could come into a potential meeting with, and obviously Bobb’s a very smart guy. He doesn’t need me to do this, but even I can just walk through some of this uh you know with you guys. I think there’s probably four things that he should try to sell in terms of why he should be the new president of the team and just sort of maintain a sense of continuity. I think actually number one is the sense of like keeping uh the structure that the Raptors have in place. Um I think the Raptors actually have done a really good job of building out um just a good organization. And what I mean by that is, you know, I think obviously when you think about um how operations of a basketball team is run, we mostly think about like the president of basketball operations and then the GM and you know, that’s kind of it. No one really thinks that deeply in terms of sort of beyond that. So I think a couple things have done really well for for the Raptors. So, I think number one, like um one key to the Raptor success, and it will always be a key to the Raptor success, considering we’re never going to be a frant destination, no matter who we bring in to be president, is that it’s the number one most vital thing for the Raptors is that they’re very good at scouting and developing. And I think the Raptors have done a great job of developing a a great network of scouts, but also just good infrastructure in terms of just like um how they’ve been able to scout over the years. I think the Raptors consistently over the course of the last decade have done a great job of scouting, identifying talent, you know, getting, you know, first round caliber value out of second round players, getting first round value out of undrafted players. And then, of course, when they pick in the lottery, you know, these guys carve out 10ear plus careers, right, with Yakob or or or Scotty Barnes, and we’ll see that soon with Colin Murray Balls as well. So I think the scouting department is very very strong and I think probably the best part of this organization is that scouting and I think that like you have a good structure in place. A lot of that is done by assistant uh general manager Dan Tolsman. That’s sort of like the bulk of his responsibilities over the course of the year. Um you know but again as we talked with Bobby in our live event sort of just asking about sort of the scouting process the Raptors do. You know the the thing that makes the Raptors a little more unique about it is they send everybody to watch all the prospects. So it’s not like you got a guy at the top and he hears from three different managers and this one guy’s in charge of North America and one guy’s in charge of you know Europe, one guy’s in charge of like you know Africa and they’re just like okay they come together and then they sort of argue for their guys. It’s like everybody goes to see every sort of prospect and I think the fruits of the labor is is is strong right? So you have uh again if you keep Bobby I think you keep most of the structure of everything in place. Um you know from what I’ve seen just around the team at summer league um just being around the team again since the shocking news of Messiah’s departure um all the same faces right the same scouts uh same you know executives nothing has really changed the literally the only guy who was missing was Messiah himself. Now granted, Messiah was also a great scout in his own right. That’s sort of his upbringing in basketball was as a scout. he worked um like legendary stories um where he would like sleep on friends couches to like build a European network of um contacts that he can sort of rely on and you know he was able to bring that sort of portfolio and dossier to like the Orlando Magic like 20 plus years ago now and impress like Doc Rivers in in some meeting and and eventually go to these you know just work his way up. But like Messiah was working like $5,000 a year kind of thing um scouting random teams in Europe like you know what I mean? So Messiah certainly has a great scouting background of his own. But nevertheless I actually think that like again if you keep Bobby I think you keep most of the organizational structure uh in place. I think in terms of the developmental portion I think that you know especially since hiring Darko and his staff I think they’ve done a good job of improving the players. we haven’t seen that improve in in terms of uh wins just yet, but very rarely do you see young players actually contributing to winning in the first place. I think what’s more important to me. Um not necessarily above winning, but I think especially with young guys, if we can see them consistently improve year-over-year and see a path to them getting second contracts, third contracts, and them tangibly building up their skill sets, that will eventually lead to winning in the long run. So I think uh in terms of just you know if you were looking at the organization in general one case for Bobby is just the continuity for the actual basketball structure in place is already quite good and when you promote Bobby you don’t need to sort of change most of those things. So that’s point number one. I think point number two is if you’re Bobby you got to come into this meeting and say we’re going to make the playoffs this year. And not only is it important to make the playoffs this year but I think it’s sort of to build the interest and the momentum back with the Raptors. Now, of course, I’m not saying that, you know, he should pitch some plan to trade all his future first round picks for a media talent to come in and, you know, try to make some sort of half-hearted push that, you know, you’re going to have a limited ceiling. Like, I’m not asking him to, you know, to fasttrack this sort of situation. But I think what is probably important and I think that wasn’t um ignored, let’s just say, with the last couple years is you’ve heard the the reports of, you know, it it’s true like they’ve gotten less ticket season ticket renewals. Um you know, season ticket holders who did buy tickets who are the their main primary customers, people who are paying five, you know, figures, sometimes six figures for for for tickets depending obviously where you’re sitting for a year. um people who were in their main customer base had difficulties especially because they’ve tanked the last two seasons and of course to a certain degree you can understand like okay this is good for the team but if you imagine you put five figures into watching the Raptors and you’re probably trying to recoup some of that value by selling some of those tickets towards the end of some of these seasons they couldn’t even give tickets away you know I got I have a friend of mine who has tickets like in like a very close up like 10 10 rows back o of the of just the action in the lower bowl in a in a premium seating area that’s like you know I it’s basically like closer to the where the media even sit um couldn’t even give away tickets towards the end literally you would text me like once a week being like hey you want these free tickets and I’m like I’m already in the arena but I’ll see I can ask around hard even giveaway tickets so I think the bottom line certainly became quite affected in the last couple years now granted I don’t think that um MLSC has really helped their own cause by continuing to raise ticket prices probably 15% consistently 15 to 20 every year. Um now you know whatever like they they would say that this is consistent with like the the the rise in prices around the league. Nevertheless, I do think that if your team is going to be tanking and you know going into it the last two seasons that the Raptors were not serious about winning, you should definitely give your most loyal customers a break and you have to eat some of that cost yourself. You can’t say we’re going to tank, but we still want to have our cake and eat it too and pass that cost along to the customer. Regardless, a lot of this gets solved if the Raptors actually become a competitive product. Again, we know the Raptors, especially in this organization. You know, obviously getting a championship was great, but if we’re going to be all honest about it, none of us truly had like championship or bus sort of expectations um coming into um you know, just as Raptor fans and that’s why we’re so happy about 2019 because it’s like something we never thought was possible. We did it and it feels amazing. But if you’re able to get the team back to the playoffs, that’s always been a sellout crowd. always been like a good business proposition to get this team into a playoff position. Now granted, you would like to see not just like the playoffs uh as like their first round and clearly they don’t have enough talent to sort of push over the top. You need some sort of like thrust to get over the top, but I think especially now given the way the Raptors have, you know, gone into the playin and they lost that game, uh, you know, infamously the 910 playing game with Chicago. That was three years ago. Then they missed the playoffs, then they missed the playoffs. Like business-wise, it’ll be really good to make the playoffs next year. And I think you can showcase a really good business case. And so I think if you’re Bobby, you got to come in and promise, hey, we’re going to make the playoffs this year. We’re going to be serious about it. We have the teams. We got the we got the pieces in place. Um, and you know, that’s that’s got to be like a strong number one deliverable on the item line in terms of why he should be president. Uh, point three or four is that I think you can kind of pitch this as like look, there’s a two-year window, right? I think with any other president you’d have to commit probably four years, three, four years at minimum. Um, now of course you can get out of these contracts. You can fire people all the time. They just fire him aside with 50 million left on his contract. So, you know, um, whatever people will eat some dead money. Uh, but I think with Bobby is just like, look, the extension was already reached in place with Bobby and some of the key other members, right? I think the two most reported ones were Bobby and Dan Tolsman, the current GM and the assistant GM. So, you have the leadership place like team in place. And if you look at the main contracts structures of the team, you basically have this current version of the Raptors in place for two more years. Now, of course, you can always sort of move out of some of these options, but you got two more years of RJ. Um, you got uh two more years of Brandon Ingram and then he has a player option at the end. Basically, got to decide, you know, want to keep going or not. Um, you know, like Scotty after two years will be like halfway through his uh maximum rookie extension. there’s options there. Um I think IQ would be through three of his five years like there there’s kind of an out I I would suppose after two years anyway that kind of lines up with this current core and it’s like if it’s not working after those two years I think you can really really shuffle this team again. Ideally you don’t because the team is able to sort of find some sort of like chemistry together and some sort of like um ability to win. But the two-year window I think lines up nicely with just like the two-year you know structures in place. So you would also come in and say, you know what, give me these two years, see how it goes afterwards. You know, if it’s not working out, if my team’s not working out, that’s fine. It’s a more natural, clean break, right? You bring in a president now after you’ve locked in a team in place uh for several years. You just signed Yakob. Obviously, Scotty’s in entering year one of a of a maximum rookie extension. You’re entering year two of IQ’s contract. You still have other main pieces around. You just brought in Emanuel Quickley. doesn’t even really make sense to bring in a president right now who’s completely new, wants to change everything. It just like creates a lot more sort of like um I think chaos and confusion that realistically if you’re going to already if you already committed to the team for two years, you might as well commit to the leadership team for two years as well. And then the fourth point I would say is just the long-term vision is just like um you know that’s where the young guys have to sort of um break through like we need to see especially the long-term vision if a Grady Dick becomes a guy who can be you know a a good two guard for you long term that the shooting really becomes uh more consistent than it already is. Um the ability to score like you know flirt with 20 points a game. I mean honestly like he kind of did a little bit of that at the start of last season. And of course that tailed off once, you know, the teams adjusted to sort of this new strategy the Raps were playing with. But, you know, we’ve seen obviously Grady have some pretty big games. Um, you just have to look back at the start of last season. Um, if the Jacobe Walter kind of breaks out, if a Colin Murray Boils breaks out, basically one of these young guys even reaches like a fringe all-star level, I think that you could really sell sort of like the long-term vision of the team because there’s always that two timelines, right? you have the team of today which is largely the starters, experienced vets who can really do their thing in the league. But then if the young guys also start to come in and nudge up against the against the starters, that’s a good problem that you have just in general. And I think that like that will be the fourth case. It’s like look, we have all these young prospects which we brought in and they’re looking good and you know the system is going well. The coach is going like they’re responding to coach. That’s again another point. So, I mean, I think that those are the four points um for Bobby. Like, if you can um again maintain continuity with the BAS operations staff, which I think is already pretty good, right? People talk about how good the Raptors medical staff is. Well, first thing the Raptors do. I mean, they say it all the time. They have the best medical staff. Um, you keep the continuity in the medical staff, you keep the continuity in the scouting staff, you uh promise playoffs this year, which I think is again like it should be objectively a disappointment if the Raptors are not in the playoffs in the following season. Like it just based on the quality of the players that they have, they should be a playoff team, especially in a weekend Eastern Conference. Uh, I think there’s a natural two-year out to both the organization and also like in terms of management and also to the roster itself. So, I think that that’s sort of a a natural thing you can keep. And then I think the fourth thing is just I think there’s like some good young players in the pipeline that you just need to give a little bit more time to to see how they grow. So that would be my case for why Bobby should just take over and basically continue the current sort of like um plan in place. I actually don’t think the Raptors are in a bad place right now. Uh they have all their future first round picks. They have young guys coming up. They have lots of young players on rookie scale contracts. And even though the the roster is relatively expensive in the sense that, you know, uh their main guys are getting paid well, I don’t think this is going to be a luxury tax team anytime soon. Um and so there’s enough flexibility for me. So in any case, that’s my thinking in terms of why Bobby should be the president. But ultimately, the Raptors are currently in their search and if I had to guess, I do think that the Raptors will bring in a president and sort of like keep Bobby um in that GM role. By the way, one point, another point for Bobby that I forgot to say is just if you go back to that Keith Py press conference, all they kept saying was we have strong leadership in place and we definitely want to keep Bobby Webster longterm. So, if you want to keep Bobby Webster longterm, why do you need to then try to jump someone else above him to sort of do this? I understand doing the whole search process. That’s fair. That’s totally fair and normal. But ultimately, if you feel that strongly about keeping him in place, then why not you just just give him the job? You know what I mean? That doesn’t really makes full sense to me. But in any case, um we have some candidates that have been reported out there. Again, big credit to Michael Graange of Sportsnet who’s really gone into depth um and and sort of like consistently been on the you know um on this story since obviously that day uh June 30th when Messiah was let go. Um and a couple names have sort of emerged and sort of we can go through um the names in his report. Again, read all of Gr’s stuff at sportsnet.ca. It kind of goes without saying. Um, the first candidate is uh Mark Eversley, who is a familiar name to anybody who has been in basketball uh in Toronto um or just maybe in Canadian basketball because he’s sort of a guy who has been here for well since the start really. So, um Gr’s reporting on on Mark Eversley is that the Raptors have quote done background research on uh Mark Eversley. So, it doesn’t necessarily say if they had a meeting or not. Um in any case, I I wouldn’t be surprised if they sort of do consider Mark. Um, so his background is that he actually grew up here in in uh in in Toronto. Um, his family uh are I believe from the Barbados. Uh, they move they he was born in London. Um, and then they moved as a family to Toronto in like this I think 70s in that range 70s ‘ 80s like there was a big wave of immigration back then. Um, and yeah, I mean, you know, like a lot of immigrants, like grew up in Jayen Finch, then ultimately moved down to the suburbs in Bmpton. You know, Mark has been around like Toronto and just Canadian basketball for a very, very long time, right? So, um, like this guy literally has an offset title, for example, which is I I do find kind of endearing. Um, he eventually becomes a guy who works at Nike, uh, and then becomes a Nike rep for, uh, a lot of prominent athletes that have sort of come through Toronto. So, for example, he’s worked with he’s like the Nike rep for Steve Nash. Uh he was a Nike rep for Vince Carter uh during his time in Toronto. Sort of other sort of big Canadian names that have come through since then. Um he got he gets his first shot in the NBA through Brian Kangelo. That was in 2006 when Kangelo first joined the Raptors. He actually hired Mark to be one of the his assistants. Um actually for a time Mark and Messiah were both um assistants under Brian Kangelo. Um and they were kind of like I guess probably in like parallel roles or similar roles. Um maybe they did different things. It seems like Mark’s um the biggest selling point and I I’ve read a couple stories about him. It’s just like everyone sort of consistently mentions how he’s able to connect with players and connect with just just people in general. Um versus I think with Messiah I think it was probably the scouting aspect although Messiah’s also a pretty good connector as well. Um but in any case um Kangelo hired him um to join um you know just the NBA just at first. Then he goes to Washington, works under Ernie Gronfell for a while and then gets hired again by Brian Kangelo in a new role when uh Brian obviously took control of the Sixers. It’s about 10 years ago now. And of course Brian ultimately flamed out of the Sixers because of the whole Ringer uh burner scandal which is still one of the craziest stories to this day. Turns out Brian Clangelo’s wife had a bunch of burners that was just like ardently defending him but also kind of revealing trade secrets I suppose. Um so you know that was kind of the last that we’ve seen of Brian in the NBA directly as a GM. Um obviously had you know worked in Phoenix before Toronto as well. He just was very prominent right especially because of his dad Jerry Kangelo who runs USA basketball. Um, but in any case, like Mark sort of got those two chances to sort of work in the NBA and of course he got his big break to become GM of the Bulls. He’s number two behind uh Arturo Kiskovas. Uh with the Bulls that’s since 2020. Um you know I I think he’s pretty clear like it wasn’t necessarily like a Bobby Messiah thing where Bobby Messiah always kept it purposefully vague of like who’s number one and sort of like what’s like the well not who’s number one. We knew him was size number one, but it was like who’s doing doing what in terms of responsibilities. I think like Mark’s very on record every time he’s like I’m number two here. Um, but he’s with been with the Bulls since 2020. And of course, you know, it it’s not the most like again I I think this is a a pattern that comes up with a lot of these candidates. They’re not the most sexy names in terms of like we’re not exactly hiring from like the the the OKC Thunder for example. we’re not really hiring from like, you know, the Boston Celtics, you know, like, you know, like these like really successful year after year type of teams. Um, you know, you do come up with like, okay, does it really feel appealing when it’s like the GM of the Bulls or somebody who worked with Kangelo at two different stops that didn’t really go well in Toronto and and in Philadelphia? But ultimately, I think the the bigger thing with Mark is just that his ability to connect with people. I think there’s a familiarity with the local market here in Toronto considering the fact that he’s born uh born not born here but he grew up here. Um and obviously has worked in the Raptors organization before. Um and in terms of the jump to president, I think it really would just depend um on how much this president will have direct say over basketball operations. I think it would be strange to hire president just simply to do business stuff and not to do any sort of team building stuff. I think quite frankly that’s kind of defeats the purpose of having the job. Um, but in any case, I would say that, you know, like the case for Mark is that he’s he’s he’s a good, you know, people person. He connects well with the players, which I think is not an insignificant thing, especially in today’s NBA. Um, and that uh he has familiar with the the Canadian market. Um, so that’s the first name that was reported. Another name that Grinch has reported twice now uh is Chad Buchanan who is currently the number two for the Indiana Pacers. Um you know I believe the the reporting was that he is on the Raptors radar. Um so Chad Buchanan is like clearly has a scouting background. That’s sort of like the the biggest thing that he’s done um to start his career. And I do find like the thing that you start off doing is sort of the thing that you ultimately end up being known for just in general. in in in Chad’s case, I think he spent like 10 years as director of scouting for Portland. Um that’s where he got his like big big break, I would suppose. Um was sort of between that Brandon Roy era to like that Damon Lillard era, like that sort of time in between. Um you know, he he did a lot of that. Sorry, hold on. My phone is ringing. This is a little unprofessional of me. My bad, guys. Let me just ring up turn on my ringer. Um but yeah, like um you know that’s that that’s Chad Buchanan. Uh of course when Kevin Pritchard was let go by the Blazers uh and then he eventually reemerged with the Pacers, he was able to bring Chad over again and and promote him, I suppose, into that number two role sort of as GM underneath uh of what Kevin has done. I think Kevin has um I think he took over for Larry Bird in like 2017. Um so yeah, Chad Chad has been the GM for the Pacers. I think again like there’s a heavy focus on the scouting side as I would expect for all these guys. Like you know you could say a guy’s known for scouting but all these guys have done extensive scouting. They’re they’re all NBA executives, longtime NBA executives. Um you know I I think I haven’t really found out that much more info on Chad. Like I don’t think his story maybe is like there’s like a direct tie the way that like Mark Eversley would have with the Raptors. Um but yeah, I mean I think that’s that’s sort of the situation is that that Chad’s a guy who um you know has been involved in in two relatively successful franchises. I think Portland has done well. Um they used to be a sort of a perennial team. Never really broke through and was like a serious title contender, but like you know successful team year-over-year in a small market. Uh and then goes to Indiana does kind of the same thing. Indiana, even though recently they made the conference finals and the NBA finals, I still think that like the overall sense of Indiana is like they’re going to be a competitive team. They never tank. Uh, but they do scout pretty well. Like when they, you know, draft players, you know, they’ve done a really good job of that. You know, I mean, he wasn’t around for some of these names, but like, you know, Paul George, Roy Hibbert, you know, Danny Granger, these guys aren’t guys who are like number one. Even lottery picks really. I think PG was like 11th or 13th or something like that. Um, but I think, you know, they’ve done good in terms of just like making shrewd draft moves, shrewd trades. I think that’s more than anything else. like they traded for Sabonis which uh then they traded into Halleurn. Um obviously the Pascal trade was pretty shrewd. So yeah, I mean I think that’s also maybe the direct connection is like the Raptors have actually traded a lot with Indiana recently as well. So that’s uh Chad Buchanan. Another candidate to note is uh Monty McNair. Uh Monty McNair has quote unquote met with Keith P already. So you know as you would imagine especially now it’s been a month since uh the firing of Messiah. I think that there’s plenty of time to take meetings. Um we also saw Keith, by the way, in summer league. Uh Keith, he he obviously showed up courtside to that game between the Raptors and the Denver Nuggets. Um which again was super awkward cuz you had Keith sitting on the baseline away from uh Larry Tannen who was sitting on the sideline by the scores table and they sort of really only briefly intersected. you would think the org would sort of sit together if there were a together organization, but regardless, I don’t I don’t even want to speculate on the palace intrigue beyond that. Um, so I think what what happens there is uh you have a guy who, you know, is um yeah, so Monty McNair uh yeah, I mean like I I if I had to guess, I think Keith probably took a lot of meetings in Vegas um where everyone is meeting in just just in the NBA in general. And so I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these meetings that are were sort of discussed here uh took place uh during that week in Vegas. Uh it’s just a good time to sort of take meetings. I don’t know if those are like formal interviews, but I’m sure like again there there’s no reason for Keith to go out there just to watch Raptors Nuggets, you know what I mean? He’s not you with all due respect to us, but he’s not the hell welcome pot. Like he’s running the team, right? Um anyway, Monty Monty uh started out in Houston uh worked his way up uh as a from a senior analyst to director of BAS operations to eventually vice president of basketball operations and then assistant GM under Daryl Murray in 2018. Of course, Daryl Mory wasn’t long for that job after 2018. Uh only goes a couple more years before uh Daryl obviously, you know, leaves Houston and eventually takes up uh the spot in Philadelphia where he’s been ever since. Um, but Monty, I think his background, I think it’s definitely numbers and analytics. I think, uh, you know, there’s certainly a big focus of of just being in the Houston organization, especially under there in that sense. I think, uh, Monty also got his start in like Stats LLC. So, you know, there’s definitely like a a stats background, but he also was an athlete previous to that as well. So, you know, always you would look for this sort of blend of the a guy, especially if you’re the president. You need to be able to connect all your teams between analytics and scouting and, you know, coaching and video, you know what I mean? Like everything, right? So, um, but I think there’s definitely a numbers background. I think he got his big break in addition to the Houston situation. He got his big break because he got president and GM of the uh Sacramento Kings in 2020 uh where he was, you know, in charge of the Kings for 5 years. I mean, I know they they only went 195 and 205, which is obviously just slightly below 500, but I think if you adjust it against the curve, I mean, not only are they playing in a difficult Western Conference, but this is also the Kings that we’re talking about. Like everything I’ve known about the Kings is that they’re a pretty dysfunctional difficult sort of situation to work in. And so the fact that he actually was able to get them to, you know, 500 respectability. There’s like a there’s like a playoff appearance, a couple play appearances, relatively speaking, that’s actually pretty good um for what the Kings have been able to do recently. Honestly, it’s better than what the Raptors have done um in the last 5 years. So I don’t even know why I’m throwing stones here. Um couple notable moves. So, a couple big draft picks took Halleurn. Uh, Tyresese Halleurn 12th overall. Um, which obviously, you know, I mean, Tyresese Halleurn is much better than a 12th overall pick. That year was weird. Halleluiding, but he was kind of like that sort of like sexy blogger pick in a way. A lot of people loved his assist to turnover ratio and just sort of like watching the film, they’re like, “Okay, this guy’s special.” But he also looked weird. I mean, you just look at Hallebert, he does kind of play weird, especially with the jumper and everything like that. But the Kings were the were the ones that actually did swing on him and that was a huge hit. Now granted, um I I would give this a point in his favor if they didn’t also then trade him. Um which to be fair, like they got Damonte Sabonis, who is a guy who is a, you know, all-star caliber player and, you know, walking triple double, you know, a walking triple handoff. Um, but nevertheless, for a while was sort of seen as a win-win trade. I think especially now um it’s starting to look more like Indiana just straight up won the trade cuz Halleurn’s a much better player than um Sabonis, but I also maybe understand it at the time because they also had Fox. Um so it was sort of like you pick one of those point guards, you try to go and by the way when the Kings were making the playoffs like you know it wasn’t necessarily like okay uh at that time was spoken about as a win-win trade. So, I’m I’m not going to sort of knock him fully for that, but he did take take Hallebert in 12th overall. I drafted DaVon Mitchell ninth overall the following year, which did lead a bit of confusion. Um, DaVon was an older player, but a very successful player. He he had led Baylor um to great success. Um, and despite being older, I think Sacramento really decided they needed some defense around their team because Sacramento was never known for defense. Um, and yeah, I mean, that draft turned out to be quite deep. that that was the Scotty Barnes draft in 2021. So, there were other guys involved like I mean obviously Trey Murphy for example was a better player that went later. Alprun Shenun’s a much better player. Jaylen Johnson’s a much better player. Like these guys um were certainly on the board but you know okay Davon ninth pick is probably not the greatest thing. Um drafted Kika Murray fourth overall the following year. Um I suppose there were other names like you know Jaylen Williams afterwards obviously went to OKC and has since uh you know become a star player. uh Dyson Daniels, Jaylen Durren, things like that. But that, you know, like Kika Murray, I think this past season he wasn’t great, but he certainly had a lot of good moments. Like it wasn’t that long ago when the Raptors were trying to call Sacramento to see if they would want Pascal and if they would give up Keegan Murray. Granted, the Kings did not make that trade, which you know, I especially given what the Kings ultimately ended up doing because this past year I this past year will probably be the biggest knock against Monty McNair because Monty actually got executive of the year during his time with the Kings. He got the Kings to like that 48 win season. They took the the Warriors to seven games. That was it. That was the series where Draymond stomped on Sabonis’ chest, you know, uncut gem style. Doesn’t that make you want to step on Deont to Sabonis’ chest? Um, but uh yeah, he actually got executive of the year for building that team. I mean, some pretty good shrewd moves around it like you know uh trading from or signing Malik Monk as well. He’s been one of the more valuable contracts around the league. The the knock against Monty though is whatever happened with the Kings this past year and and I think that um given the fact that he’s gone from the Kings, given the fact that the head coach when Mike Brown was also gone from the Kings, given the fact that they kind of crashed out, they signed Amar Rosen, they traded Darren Fox, uh they traded for Zack Lavine, um they you know what I mean? Like it’s just like what is happening? Like I I don’t quite understand what happened with the Kings last year and they were like obviously a big disappointment. It seems like Dear’s going to move on from them as well. Um, so like things really fell apart. But I mean, you know, if you’re going to call everything fair, like if you would also say that 2023 season for the Raptors when Fred leaves in free agency and OG ultimately walks in next year and trade and Pascal gets traded as well. Like I don’t know. I guess if you manage a team for five years, you’re bound to have one crash out. So this past season was that crash out for Monty. Um, one thing with Monty, too, is he’s one of the younger candidates. He’s 41, so he’s like the same age as Bobby. I think one thing that will become clear for me, like I think I would prefer somebody a little bit younger in the role um just for the long-term permanency, but we’ll get to that in a second. Uh another name, Kevin Pritchard, was also mentioned in Gra’s list. Uh the quote here was that he’s MLSC’s preferred choice according to one source, which um you know would be kind of interesting. I don’t you know, you never know who’s a big fan of who um in general. Um but in any case, Kevin Pritchard is a longtime NBA executive. I think he’s he’s a pretty known name and commodity. Um, you know, he ran the Blazers from 2007 to 2010 as the top man there. Then he was let go by the Blazers. He was pretty popular with the Blazers. I mean, that was a good era. Like they they had, you know, Brandon Roy. Um, they had LaMarcus Aldridge. They had uh just just a decent team that was going to the playoffs. You know what I mean? I think a young Nicholas Batum was already in the mix in that stretch if I’m remembering correctly. Um, you know, Wesley Matthews, you know, guys, actually Wes, no, West Wes Matthews came along a little bit later. I’m confusing eras of the Blazers, but like a successful team, you know what I mean? Like, you know, you remember watching that Blazers, they got Marcus Cami off the bench, Steve Blake kind of thing, like you know, like real hoop heads. Remember that 2007 era of the Blazers? Brandon Roy was like the main reason to watch, but they had some good pieces. Andre Miller as well. Shouts to Andre Miller. Um, in any case, uh, he gets let go though from Portland. Um, he’s relatively successful. Like he was pretty popular at the time. Like I went back and read some of the articles from 2010 when he got fired. A lot of the there was just a lot of confusion basically of like what’s going on here. Ultimately I think Neil O’Shea took over that job. Um but Kevin was able to latch on with the Indiana Pacers and sort of worked his way back up. So he wasn’t like the number one guy of the Pacers but you know just worked up his uh the way of the Pacers and then took over as president in 2017. He continues to be president of the team right now. Um the Pacers have enjoyed pretty successful in terms of just like uh run especially again like you got to grade on a curve like this is a small market team that is also not a free agency destination is also not a team that pays a luxury tax like even this year they made the finals I mean of course the Haliburn injury happens but like they made the finals and they’re like yeah I don’t know Miles Turner you can just walk it’s a little too expensive right so um you know this is not a team that is that spend a lot of money and they also don’t tank either like you never see the Pacers drafting the eye high up. Recently, you’ve seen him take uh Benedict Matherin, um which I think was the sixth or seventh pick, but like outside of that, like they don’t even draft top 10 most times. Um if if they even do and but they primarily are able to sort of sustain by making good trades. Um and yeah, I mean he was around for uh the trade that um you know brought the Paul George trade which brought back Victor Ladipo and Damonte Sabonis, two guys who went on to be allstars. Uh he also uh made the trade from Sabonis to Tyres Hallebertton who has turned since turned out to be you know somewhere between an all-star and a superstar really. Um obviously this year in the playoffs he was a superstar especially in the crunch time. uh makes the Pascal trade which uh definitely worked out for the Pacers more than it worked out for anyone else. But um so I think that they’ve done a really good job of sort of running that team. I think their scouting recently has been pretty strong as well. I think you know you you look at some of these guys you you certainly like the names that they brought in and Nemhar that they get in the second round. um you know that I think that they’ve just done a good job maybe across the board um you know in terms of basketball operations and of course they also have a they’ve they’ve identified and hired and stuck with a pretty good coach in Rick Carlile who um obviously his situation with Dallas had fallen apart but once they did Indiana snapped them up and they’ve been pretty consistent with um you know just their head coaching positions too. You never want to see a team like cycle through coaches every single year. That’s like a surefire sign of sort of like instability and uh yeah, I mean, you know, like they’ve they’ve had I think Frank Vogle um and then they’ve had Rick Carl and those are two pretty good coaches, right? So, um yeah, Kevin, yeah, I I think he’s a pretty known sort of commodity. I think it’ll be difficult because all these other guys you’re hiring um either they’re not currently in a job like Monty uh or you’re hiring a guy who’s uh a number two and promoting him to a number one like Evers Lee or uh Chad Buchanan. In the case of Kevin will be a little more difficult because you’re recruiting another guy who is currently in the same position to come to your position. But I mean, you know, the way these things go, like if you offer a bigger salary and the other team’s not able to offer it, then unless there’s bad blood there, they usually let the the sort of you know, guys sort of change teams. Um, granted, in the Pacers position, uh, especially now that they’re deep into the offseason, you know, it would be a little bit of a shock to see their like their main leadership has been there for like nine years now, um, change teams in the like the depth of the offseason. it would be a little bit strange, but you know, I mean, stranger things have happened in the NBA. Like this, you know, this this wouldn’t be out of reach is what I’m trying to say. So, and then the last name that has been brought up a lot, uh, is Dwayne Casey. So, um, two parts of this reporting. There’s number one from Graange, um, who has said that, you know, Dwayne Casey has also met with Keith P. There’s also a report from Omari Sanca II of the Detroit Free Press with more details from the Detroit perspective where he says that Dwayne Casey is a leading candidate for this job opening in Toronto and that the Dwayne has met uh and interviewed through several rounds uh with the Raptors in this process. I saw Dwayne a little bit in um in in Summer League. Uh actually saw Dwayne talking with Grange, but I mean that could just be any normal conversation. Um, but in any case, like yeah, Dwayne’s obviously around, he’s actually been around in Toronto quite a decent amount as well in the last couple of years. Like, um, you know, we we, you know, talked to Dwayne a couple times on, you know, the Raptor show. Dwayne’s just around like, you know what I mean? Like, he’s he’s I I don’t I don’t I mean, he definitely had a house here in Toronto and I I don’t know if he kept that. I mean, to be honest, keeping Toronto property just might be an investment more than anything else, but Dwayne’s just around like he he’s just here a decent amount. Yeah. What’s up? Yeah. I’d also like to report that I too met with Dwayne Casey at summer league and that I walked by him and said hello and I don’t even think that I I don’t think that he knows who I am but he was just like hey man how are you? I’m like I’m great Dwayne. We all met with Dwayne Casey in the last month. Yeah. Yeah. Shouts to Dwayne Casey. Yeah, I mean honestly if I said hi to Keith technically I would have also met with Keith Py as well which doesn’t seem to be the talk about it. But one thing in terms of like all these candidates Dwayne Casey does fit the like build of you’re going to love the guy the same way we you know what I mean like just a really like he’s such a good dude but I don’t know if that’s like anyway you go into it. Here’s the thing with the Dwayne. Okay, I want to be fair to Dwayne because Dwayne has never been anything other than fair uh with us in the media. um you know he’s he’s been more than generous. He he just always is a gentleman to deal with. Um like there’s saying this with zero miles. Um the one part with the Dwayne thing that I just don’t quite understand is these other people have done directly the job of either being a GM or being a president, right? And so they’re firmly in basketball operations. Now, of course, if you’re a longtime head coach like the Raptors, you know, like you’re in the scouting room, you give your opinion as well. You know what I mean? Like there’s I’m not saying that Dwayne doesn’t know basketball. Dwayne has spent a lifetime in basketball. Dwayne Casey’s 68 years old. He spent like the last 40 years in basketball, right? So, um maybe more than that to be honest. But my thing is just these other candidates have done this job that you’re hiring for. And so, yes, I think if you bring in Dwayne, I think that there’s obviously a built-in comfort and, you know, just direct experience working with Bobby. I do think that like this could be a good working relationship. I do think that like, you know, Dwayne is great at the other things in terms of like managing like doing a lot of media. I think he’s certainly great with the media. Um, I think that like Dwayne would be great in terms of just even that sort of connection. Um, you know, I think he’s probably familiar with a lot of the board members as well. Like, you know, he’s a known name. He’s a known commodity. He had a lot of success here in Toronto and I wouldn’t necessarily even judge his style of coaching versus like his uh you know just how he would manage because I do think that they’re slightly different. They’re well they’re pretty different things. My only thing is just two actually number one I I would prefer somebody who already has run a team as a GM or as a president uh to be the president of the basketball operations. I think that should go almost without saying. Um, the other parts of the job are more cosmetic to me in terms of like being able to talk to media and being like whatever. Like like Bobby could talk to media. He’s just not as charismatic as Messiah. But like you can compare any executive in the league outside of like Pat Riley and I don’t even know like I guess Pop now that he’s in the front office like outside of Pat Riley and Pop like who’s really more charismatic in front of the mic than Messiah, right? So you can’t really compare. Like it’s that’s like saying like Dear shouldn’t be valid cuz like Kawawaii was here. Like it’s ridiculous, man. They’re both valid. It’s just one guy is obviously like, you know, like the the the creme de la creme. Um so the the other things are more cosmetic to me. I think the more important thing is what’s your experience running a basketball team and sort of what’s your vision on that sense? And then the other thing, I’m not even trying to be ages here, but one of the things that really benefited with Messiah is that like the Raptors brought him in when he was like 40. Okay. And then you had this like stretch where you had this like um great structure and permanence and leadership and of course ideally you hire a president it works out and then you just let him do his job which is kind of what’s happened with Messiah for the last like decade right 12 years he’s been here as a top man. Um during that time you could see the long-term vision sort of what he was trying to do. Um it it allowed for a lot of growth and stability. we didn’t have to wonder, you know, what’s really going to happen with the team. Of course, you have to wonder in terms of like, okay, Messiah was up for different jobs. Like Washington obviously famously called um and there was a report from Woge that like, you know, 2019 after the Raptors won the title right afterwards. Like literally in celebrating, they’re like, “Hey, by the way, Washington wants to hire Messiah.” So, we have to wonder about that. But realistically, Messiah was never going anywhere and Messiah was always like sort of here for the long term run and the long-term vision. I mean, look, do I think that they’ll be so lucky to hire somebody that’s going to be doing do doing a great job that you keep them for 12 years? Um, I hope that, but you know, I also know how difficult that is. But at least you give yourself that opportunity. You know, with some of these other candidates who are obviously younger, who are like in their early 40s or early 50s, Dwayne being 68, like there’s just no chance you see him running the team for 12 years. I I just I just can’t see that. You know what I mean? And so even like again like not trying to make this an ages thing, but realistically that feels like you you you sort of hold it over for a couple years. You have a nice familiar name that you know people won’t like especially the media definitely won’t be going after Dwayne like that. But ultimately I think for me personally if I were deciding and again this is I’m trying to be fair to Dwayne because he was a very successful guy. He’s very wellconed. He’s very wellliked. He did a lot of great things here in Toronto. He’s great with the media. He’s very fair to me personally. But that’s not the direction I would go in this instance. Uh I I would look for you know somebody that again ideally if it works out he could run your team for like 10 12 years the way Messiah did you know and I just can’t sort of see that with with this particular option. But in any case those are the candidates that are out there that have been rumored that have been connected. Uh I think that there’s also maybe that lingering thought that the Raptors may go with um you know somebody who’s currently on the agency side. Um there you’d be I guess I just haven’t really heard that much. I think the one name that’s come up is Alex Seratasquez, which uh was uh or which is uh Giannis’s agent. Um but in this latest round of the articles and reports, you didn’t see that. So maybe that’s not as tangible as sort of what it looks like. I actually don’t even mind the agency route considering um number one, you get obviously an in with certain players if you hire an agent. Um you know, I don’t think that can be ignored. I think the other part is just to um especially dealing it from the players perspective. I think that uh again like I mean one of the cases for Mark Eversley is like he’s really well connected. He connects well with the players. Your job as an agent is to connect well with players. So um I think there might be um like a good reason for why the NBA has trend in that direction with so many agents being promoted and hired as GMs and and and you know presidents of basketball operations around the league. So those are the candidates. I would love to know if any of those sort of appeal to you. Um, if you agree with me that I think Bobby is the best candidate for this, um, you know, or if you just want to see a whole new candidate that hasn’t really been brought up, uh, in sort of the the scope of the reporting, I’m certain that they’ve definitely met with more people than just like five people that we’ve named here. Um, and especially if they’re doing their job right, I think they should be really casting a wide net. Like, you could take your time into the offseason. Like, people are available, people are free, you got get the time to sort of meet these guys. But I do hope that this process does wrap up by the time we get to September. Like I I don’t really want to open training camp with um this still this idea of like who’s in charge and sort of this even till the basketball even the people in the organization like you know like you just don’t want everyone wondering who the boss is going to be. You know what I mean? Like I think that like that question should have lots of time to be decided in the offseason. We have another month to go before it gets real again in September. Let’s get this thing done by then and and sort of figure it out who it’s going to be. But I would love to know who you guys think should be the next um president. Um last thing actually I wanted to to just ask and answer the three biggest questions facing the organization as as of uh right now um because you know whoever the president comes in and and whether that’s Bobby or somebody else uh they’re going to have to you know come up with answers for these three big questions facing the future of the Raptors. But first, take a quick break, hear from our sponsor, and then yeah, let’s let’s answer those big questions. It’s officially the off season, and the Hello and Welcome boys are taking some time away to enjoy the summer. Now, our beloved Toronto Raptors are off until the fall. And so, we thought instead of, you know, squeezing every last drop of content, we’d rather squeeze every last drop of our favorite beverage, Simply Spike. That’s right. We’ve been telling about Simply Spiked all summer and it’s not really going to stop here because they are made with real fruit juices and from firsthand experience, they’re very, very crushable. Now, uh you’ll be able to bring these to split with friends at uh the cottage this summer or at a barbecue. I don’t know how you’re going to spend your summer, but you should spend it with Simply Spike. You know, even if you’re just at home bandwagoning the Toronto Blue Jays like us, you know, Simply Spike goes with every occasion. Now, my advice is actually to just get the variety pack. This way, you get to try all the flavors that are out there and see which one’s your favorite. Like, for me, currently, my favorite flavor is the cherry, and it’s been the cherry all summer, but who knows? I just figured out that there was a peach flavor out there, and I’m looking forward to trying that as well, and seeing maybe if my mind changes. I’ll let you know after the summer time is done. So, go grab a case of Simply Spiked at your local liquor store and bring them to your next summertime function. Cheers to everyone from the Hello Welcome gang and we’ll catch you on the other side. Must be of legal drinking age. Please celebrate responsibly. Now, let’s get back to the show. All right, so the three biggest questions. Oh, appreciate uh Yseph for for putting that comment out there. Yeah, I mean, you know, it’s a Simply Spike saved my life. True story. Absolutely. We’ll be sending all these adver uh testimonials uh to Simply and the Gang. But also, I’ve just been genuinely enjoying these. Like it’s especially summertime. Right now, my my routine is just like uh nighttime. I I live near like a a public pool. Um they have lane swim from like basically 7 to 8:00 p.m. So, my nighttime routine has legit just been to um go out there, especially on these hot, muggy days. Um, you know, make sure I get out the house but in a time that’s a little cooler. Go for a couple laps in the pool. Um, and then yeah, come home, turn on the Jays game. Jays are usually probably in like the sixth or seventh inning. And then I grab a simply speced. I’m not even kidding. This is not part of the ad. This is just this is just my life. Not a bit. I came on to just like re confirm for you like Will will absolutely lean into a bit for promotion. But uh I one thing that when Simply Spiked obviously like partnered with us, they sent us some product. Will’s the only one who has the product. Oh, no. I I I did send it to Alex as well. Eventually did come pick it up. I I have not I’m not a big drinker. I haven’t been drinking alcohol these days. So, uh there’s really no point in me having them outside to like offer them to friends who visit. But no, this is a real thing. Like most of our hangs will end with what are you going to get up to? and you’re like, I’m probably going to pop a Simply Spiked to close out the day. Like, if you can think of like a real summer, what do you want from me? Like 70s like uh family sitcom like the dad sitting on a recliner popping a beer. That’s you with a simply spiked watching or actually just reading off your phone all the potential candidates for the new uh Raptors president. Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, yeah, this was definitely 2 a.m. last night. I’m like, “All right, we got to do a show. Let’s let’s see who these president the candidates are. Do a little research.” You know, I did eventually look at the clock at one point. It was 2:14 a.m. and I’m like, “Why am I researching chatty candidates messages from you and Alex in the group chat? Alex arriving in Europe and you still looking up?” Honestly, W’s in the chat for Will really dedicating himself to this Tuesday stream here. Um, one question. This is less exciting than even just who the ninth pick is going to be. But oh my gosh. Um, one question uh to close out our Simply Spiked conversation. Can I simply uh can I get a Simply More Spiked? If you want to whatever you want to do. I mean, once you get the once you get the can, you can, you know, it’s up to you. You know what I mean? You want to shake it up, you know, add a couple more things, that’s that’s on you. I haven’t even tried that personally. You know what I mean? I just crack the can and pop back and watch Brandon Little get lit up. Um, yeah. Yeah. Once we start getting some real spicy 2 am texts from Will, we’ll know he got simply more spiked. No, the thing is I I just like it’s like it’s like a one can thing for me right now. Like having back to backs. I I don’t know how the far the reach is like in terms of internationally, but I kind of want us to find a Simply Spiked in Scotland. Yeah, why not, man? I put in my carryon. I might put in my checking luggage. Daytime park hang spiked in Glasgow. Pop one by the castle. Um, and I’m not talking elephant in Well, here are some other questions that you need to deal with. Three biggest questions to be answered for the Raptors and the president, whoever gets hired. The next president of the Raptors are going to have to find key answers to these three questions. And these are the three biggest questions in my opinion facing the Raptors um for this upcoming season and just maybe in general. Okay, the number one question basically been the number one question since I don’t know, second year um since he was in the league. But the number one question facing the Raptors is is Scotty Barnes a franchise player. Um or is he just a really really good player? Cuz I think that there’s no other scenario besides those two. I think that the baseline for what Scotty is based on what he is already and based on what he’s shown in the last couple seasons is that he is a very good player. Easily, you know, top 50, easily top 40 even in my opinion, especially with the defensive aspect of his game. the question and again this is doesn’t um I don’t mean to tiptoe around this it’s just is he a franchise player is he the guy that you you stop everything and you build for him in mind franchise player being this is what he’s going to do he’s going to bring in every single night he’s going to be available every single night he’s going to do this at a very high level that’s very special and that we need to supplement these aspects around him right so like you know in the extreme examples when you know the Warriors had Steph they’re like okay we got Steph Curry now okay he’s not strong on defense, so we need to surround him with strong defenders. So, here’s Klay Thompson who can guard the opposing point guards. Here’s an Draymond Green who’s an incredible help defender. Here’s Andre Godala, you know, here’s a rim protecting center and like Boen and I mean even KD, you know, KD’s just a do it all anything. Um, but like we’re building with this idea in mind. Of course, like they structured sort of like, you know, obviously Draymond’s function is basically to do whatever Steph doesn’t do well, which is screen and get open and and pass and you know what I mean? like you know playing fouron threes like when you have a franchise player you build this like the strengths around them or LeBron’s been another classic example like you get LeBron on your team number one thing you’re going to do is get a lot of shooters give LeBron as much space as possible to play one-on-one and then obviously with the help they’re killing them with threes I don’t have to explain this to any Raptor fan who is around for Lebronto um so anyway my point is when you have a franchise player like you know you you sort of identify that person definitively and then you sort of start building around it if we’re going to be completely honest about it and this not um something that has really favored Scotty really, but the Raptors have not been optimized around Scotty Barnes. It’s not like they have said, “Okay, this is our franchise player and every single piece we bring in has to fit perfectly with what Scotty does.” Because if we’re going to be honest about it, if you had to draft if you if you did one of those like um you know, YouTube tropes where it’s like, “Okay, draft a perfect team around this player, right? And if we did that for for Scotty Barnes, the four players you would pick around him would not be Brandon Ingram, Emanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, and Yaka Purle. They just wouldn’t. If you had the pick of the league, those would just not be the the the players you would put around him. So I will give some definitely leeway in terms of like he has not necessarily been optimized. Having said that though, I do truly believe that franchise players distinguish themselves even before the team is optimized around them, right? You know, when you think about like a a young Dwayne Wade, it’s like I mean, again, you wouldn’t pick the perfect team around him to be like, you know, whoever they had around him back then, you know what I mean? Like, you know, man, well, I guess this is a testament old heat history, but like Gary Payeyton and you know, uh, you know, Alonzo Morning and and I guess eventually Shaq and and you know, those kind of guys. Peyton came later, but like Shaq either way, like he really didn’t get to like take off until Shaq came into picture. Dwayne would Dwayne got it popping before the team was optimized around him. Like LeBron got it popping before the team was optimized. Even Chris Bos, you know, like the team wasn’t optimized around him, but like he was there was already a proven track record of driving success and sort of like succeeding in spite of you knew what you had with the team. Yeah, exactly. I I think like and especially now that he’s through the rookie scale contract, that’s four years. Obviously, he’s now entering, you know, the max contract. Like, it’s kind of like now or never. You showcase that special element because the thing is like you can build around players that aren’t like the super super superstars, right? Like the Heat, for example, have done that with Bam. They they’ve sort of identified, okay, Bam’s never going to be our go-to score. Bam’s never going to be our guy that sort of carries um the team, you know, day in day out, but he’s very reliable. He’s very good at, you know, defense. He does these things like on a consistent basis. He does drive winning. He does improve the players around him. And so even though he’s not like the franchise players I was mentioning previously, we’re still going to sort of prioritize sort of what we’ve done. We’ve made multiple Indiana in this finals. Yeah. Exactly. Right. So, I I think that that’s where this season in particular, um, having spent enough time as like the number one on the Raptors, having seen the roster sort of shift and move around them, having seen, um, this, which I do think is a real shift that took place. I know a lot of people dismiss like, okay, the Raptors didn’t play great defense or sorry, the Raptors defensive numbers are maybe more inflated than um what they um appear to be because the Raptors, you know, for the second half of the season were number two defense within the league. The most real part about that stat to me is how hard and how dedicated Scotty Barnes was night in and night out on the defensive end. And I think you got to start somewhere. You know what I mean? Like as a Raptor fan, there’s a buy in that has like extended toward what you see in summer league. everything that we hear from the rookies and the sophomores that talk to us and like for people who haven’t gotten a chance to watch yet, go check out a Jamal shed interview. Jamal says it there like he is following the lead of like Scotty and BI and all them. And with Scotty in particular, he mentions that one of the key moments was just Scotty like leading as a defensive leader. Yeah. And that trickling down for the rest of the team. Right. Exactly. Which I already think that those things are very good. That’s why I’m confident that he’s never going to be anything worse than a very very good player. Like again, like being top 40 in the NBA is already a very, very good player. The thing is, you would love to see that next jump cuz it clarifies everything else. You know, the Raptors don’t make sense on paper unless Scotty Barnes makes this jump to being a superstar. And then it’s like, okay, all of a sudden you’re suddenly looking at this thing like that’s number one. Brandon English clear number two. RJ is number three or IQ’s number three. Either if they’re not, you can maybe change out those pieces. Jagu’s a very good starting center and then just everything kind of falls into place from then if he’s the same level as Ingram or if he’s the same levelish as like well I don’t even want to say he’s the same level as RJ cuz he’s definitely better than RJ but like then you have this muddled situation where it’s like what the hell’s going on and I feel like that’s probably even going back to like that second year when after he won rookie of the year you know the organization decides okay there’s this chance to trade for you know Kevin Durant we’re going to pass on it obviously that was you know headlined by Scotty. Um, and then we’re going to try to like promote him and give him this chance to get the ball more and run the team more. But especially what I saw from the start of that season, it wasn’t like he was clearcut better than Pascal. It wasn’t like he was even clearcut better at running the team than Fred. I thought at that time that it led to so much strife in the team because the whole idea the genesis of the team wasn’t it didn’t make sense at that time. No one had distinguished themselves as clear-cut. I’m better than all these other guys. You guys fall in line cuz that’s how hoops goes. Like even in a pickup run, if you know, everyone thinks they’re the man, your team’s going to lose. But if there’s one guy you’re like, “Okay, this guy’s great and then this other guy’s pretty great. We’ll sort of fall in and sort of slide into our pieces.” That’s how you get a good team, you know, in any context of basketball. And I just didn’t feel like the ceiling. Um, not that these things happen all the time and as far as like this franchise goes, literally once ever. Like if you know the identity of the team and it’s a strong enough identity that you can fit in the pieces to make the rest of it work, like that’s where you get yourself in a position to maybe not contend all the way for a championship, but like have enough to get this far and then hopefully be able to make the moves to take you all the way. Yeah, there you go. So, um you know, I’m still like there’s still a part of me that’s very hopeful for this and I think that like I think the clearest, easiest way for the Raptors to become a good team is for Scotty to make that sort of big jump. So, that’s the number one question. Is he a franchise player? Is he a really good player? Because I think if he’s just a really good player, then you really have to look at sort of the overall construct of your team. Um, and obviously coming off of last year, he’s leaning more in that direction than he is franchise. But I’m still leaving that door open. And I think that any any fan of the team, unless they’re super impatient, should allow for that possibility as well. Um, the second biggest question facing the uh the Raptors up today is can the Raptors get Brandon Ingram back to an all-star level? Um, there’s been a lot of talk even from like I don’t think I to be honest I don’t think it really helped Brandon Ingram’s case or the Raptors case for Rich Paul to come out and basically be like look at look how big of a contract I got Brandon Ingram man like you know you think Ingram would have got that fringe hell no I’m like first off how does that benefit your client right I think the benefit of your client is that you got him a great contract which he did but sort of it continues this perception um which we’ve heard from obviously a lot from the ringer between you know Bill Simmons and and Zack Low But I mean, I don’t think it’s necessarily unfair. It’s just that like the Raptors are really expensive and like what is this confusing mess? And you know, I think Ingram sort of gets hit with a lot of this stuff because, you know, I think there’s just like maybe a sense of like the the shine coming off of Brandon Ingram based on like who he is as a player. Obviously, he’s played nine years in the league, so it’s not like he’s a rookie or anything. Like, you know, you’re not talking about upside with Brandon. You’re just hoping that he gets back to this level, which had largely just been It’s not a question of his quality. is more of a question of his um availability with his health. Um but I think that like once if the Raptors can get Ingram back to an all-star level, and I mean that in terms of he’s healthy, he plays 60 games or more. He averages 23, 24, 25 points a game, which he’s done in the past. He shoots efficiently from two. He shoots efficiently from three. Gets to the foul line a decent amount. is a good playmaker, which he has done in the past. Um, but if we’re we’re talking about a player who can be on that level, which he’s done in the past, and he’s healthy, I don’t think anyone’s complaining about that level of production for guys making 30 uh 38, you know, million. Like, especially in today’s league, like you might say, okay, this year free agency sucked, right? And that’s why there was a lot of like um not even cheaper contracts. You just didn’t see big contracts handing out this year. But I promise you, free agency is not going to suck next year. When you see free agency next year, you are going to see a lot of big contracts handed out. You’re going to see a lot of big names change teams again. It’s more similar to the free agency sort of bonanzas we’ve had in the past. This year, the situation was that there was one team with free with cap space. It was the Brooklyn Nets. Actually, this is part of what Rich Paul was saying. Basically, it was like if you looked ahead to the free agency market, there’s just no market out there. So unless you want to sign a mid-level, which obviously players like Brandon should not be signing for the mid-level, unless you want to sign above the mid level, there’s no money out there unless you want to go to Brooklyn. And by the way, Brooklyn didn’t even sign anybody. They just use that cap money to get Michael Porter Jr. So how can you expect big deals to happen if you don’t even have money available in the league to sort of make the situation for for that to happen. Next year there will be a lot of cap room. Next year you see a lot of free agency. But in any case, I think the situation with Brandon was this. The Raptors had Kelly Olnick who, you know, was basically a trade chip in terms of the contract value. Um, they had Bruce Brown, which was an expiring trade chip, which they kind of needed to get value on immediately. And then they had a first round pick, which I mean, yes, since then, Indiana obviously had this tragedy of uh uh Tyrese Halleurn, you know, tearing his Achilles in game seven of the NBA finals. Um, and so that made the pick a little bit more valuable in hindsight. Um but ultimately at that time when that trade was made that pick was going to be a mid20s pick which again especially not even under team control by the Raptors you know what I mean more than fair value to sort of give up and get another player like Brandon Ingram who it let’s say the Raptors just rolled it back they didn’t make the Ingram trade and they kept the roster you know relatively the same what the hell is this team then you know if we’re talking about like the optimism on the upside of the Raptors yes farmy is hope holding and hope that Scotty makes his jump. But the real optimism for me is you’ve added Brandon Ingram to this team. Uh a team that really needs scoring may Okay, look, their defense has, you know, you know, improved. How much they’ve improved, I think that’s maybe debatable. Um I think that you can certainly wonder like how much is the Raptor starting lineup going to be good defensively if you have IQ and and R.J. out there, which, you know, again, totally fair. Um but this team has improved on defense, but I just don’t see the improvement on offense. there’s just not enough pieces and then the construct in place is just not strong enough for offense and especially when you go in a crunch time and stuff like that. You bring in a guy like Ingram that’s a talent that’s a skill level that you just didn’t have on this team. Again, if even if you look at the history of the Raptors, there’s not that many players that have even scored at a level and with the the talent that Ingram has like, and maybe that speaks more to the history of the Raptors considering it’s not like that um you know what I mean like it’s not that like uh shiny outside the last 10 years in terms of that, but like we in terms of guys who can get a bucket who has won a Toronto Raptor jersey, um It’s Kawhai can get you a bucket. Kyle can kind of get you a bucket, but Kyle was obviously great in terms as a team player. Obviously, Kyle’s a much better player than Brandon Num. There’s I’m not going to even try to debate that. Um, you know, Demar can get you a bucket. Chris Botch can get you a bucket. Vince Cart get you a bucket. Damon Startar back then can give you a bucket. Outside of that, like like Pascal can get you a bucket. Fred can kind of, you know, freaking give you a kind of bucket if we’re going to be completely honest about it, right? So yeah, like you’re getting a player that you just didn’t have that skill set. And again, the in terms of direct upgrades, like Bruce Brown wasn’t doing much for this team. Um, you know, beyond just regular role player things. Um, more his value was in the fact that he was making a lot of money, so you can bring back a lot of money in a trade. And then Kelly, it was just Kelly Oick, man. So like, um, all due respect to those guys, but like you’ve made an undeniable upgrade. And again, it’s just can you keep him healthy? You know, obviously he’s he’s had lots of time to rehab this ankle injury that he’s had. Um this is probably the longest time off he’s had in his career. You know, hopefully leaving the Pelicans organization. Again, you talk about bad dysfunctional organizations. Like the stories out of the Pelicans are never good. So, um do you get him healthy? I think this is no one’s talking about his contract anymore. You know what I mean? And especially with his skill set. But again, that’s a big question. And also the bigger question to me is how Darkho is specifically planning to use Brandon Ingram um and fit him in the contract of this team because the Raptors have not played a lot of ISO basketball. The Raptors have not played a lot of pick and roll basketball. They they you know they definitely even passes per game stuff like that guys just don’t hold the ball. And I’m not saying Ingram has to be a ball holder. But Ingram’s a guy you would because based on his skill level you would actually like to have him hold the ball and initiate a lot of offense for you. But I think there’s another level to be reached in terms of his overall efficiency based on how well he shoots the ball, there’s definitely a trade-off. Okay, he’s an amazing mid-range pull-up shooter. Like an amazing mid-range pull-up shooter, right? But you would love to see even as good as he is on that, him get to the rim more or him shoot more threes just overall efficiency wise, this just is kind of how it goes. Um, and if you can do that, you can get him to sort of play a little bit more off ball than he did in New Orleans when they had no point guard and they basically told him to be point forward. Um, which again I think he has the skill set to do. You unlock a higher level, you get him to an all-star level. Again, nobody’s complaining about that contract. What’s, you know, so that’s probably the second biggest question for me beyond what’s going on with Scotty is just what’s going on with Brandon. And then your third biggest question is, do you have a blue chip prospect? Right? The Raptors have gone through this like um this this two-year tank. Um, now granted tanks are usually longer than two years. Like I remember Messiah actually once popping into the press room. We were just waiting for I don’t know somebody to interview um and come to the podium and Messiah popped in. You know this happens all the time. Messiah comes in just a cordial end strengthening conversation. Um and Messiah’s like, “Oh, so you guys want this rebuild, huh? So like uh I hope you guys are ready cuz uh you know it’s going to be a while.” And so you know it was kind of like that kind of like half joking but also I think he’s pretty serious. It’s almost like a warning. It’s like all right you guys killing me about not rebuilding the team. I’ll rebuild the team now. Now, let’s see how long it’s going to take cuz you never really know. In any case, the Raptors hopefully they’re just rebuilding for two years. And hopefully, like especially this year, the widespread expectation by the players is that they’re going to go back to the playoffs when Scotty and Brandon both say that definitively. Um, as the leaders of the team, you as the two best players on the team, you definitely have to follow that sort of steps, right? Yakob said, you know, I hope to get back to contention as quickly as possible as well. So, expectations are going to be competitive and and that means they’re not going to be tanking. Okay, fine. You’ve gone through two years of tanking and now you want to win. That’s fine. You have some players that are ready to win now. That’s also perfectly fine. Having said that though, in that process of tanking, did you come out with a blue chip prospect right now? The answer is probably no, right? Because you know, I think if you look at like when Detroit went tanking, they came out with Kate Cunningham, they came out with Assar Thompson, they came out with Jaylen Durn, you know what I like that that was sort of like the fruits of like that situation. And obviously only last year did they actually become successful, but they were pretty damn successful last year. Um if you look at let’s say Houston, right? Okay, James Harden is wearing a fat suit. He’s like I’m I’m trying to leave. All right, fine. He he goes Westber goes couple years later you have I mean Jaylen Green which whatever turned into KD so it’s not terrible. Um but you have Assar Thompson, you got you know Alpin Shenon, you got Jabari Smith Jr. like there’s there’s a couple guys there. Some of them are definitely blue chippers, right? Um so I think in the Raptors rebuild, you’ve certainly gotten a volume of players, right? Last year you bring in five rookies who are still going to be on the roster this year. This year you bring in three rookies. I want to be kind to Chucky Heburn, but like realistically two guys um that you took with the your draft picks, ninth overall and the 39th overall in Colin Mary Boils and Elijah Martin. The year before that, they got Grady Dickin, which was their 13th pick. They didn’t get anybody else really in the draft that year. Um, nobody undrafted was like particularly popped. I think they tried out with like Maris Noel. I mean, come on, dude. That was never All due respect, but come on, dude. Um, so I think you brought in a volume. I think you also took a gamble on Oabaji, which was available pretty late. Um, they they traded the 30 the 29th pick for him. Um, and so you have like a decent number of players, right? And so the reason I would say that I wouldn’t shut the door on the Raptors having a blue chip prospect is just because they have like 10 guys that they’ve taken a flyer or like eight guys that they’ve taken a flyer on. The thing is, who’s actually a blue chip guy? And when I say blue chip, I mean like has the potential to be a future all-star. Um, so you have, you know, in terms of their highest picked players, Colin Maros was ninth. You have, uh, Grady Dick who was 13th. You have Jacobe Walter who was 19th. And then you have some second rounders who are promising like Jamal Shetta. Obviously, I like Jamal a lot. Um, you have Jonathan Mo. You got Elijah Martin. Um, you know, you know, Ochai, I guess, if you want to sort of throw him into the mix, although he is 24. Um, these are the sort of players that we’re talking about and I think a lot of these guys I feel confident about their trajectory as NBA players, as five, 10 year NBA players in terms of being able to sort of provide a an NBA level skill set. Um, these guys are all pretty strong professionals, I feel like, too. I’ve never really heard too much about how these guys don’t work hard or anything like that. You know, you just haven’t heard that. Um, they’re not bad character guys either. They’re not in the headlines for the wrong reasons. That’s all fine. I think it still remains to be seen if any of those are blue chippers. And again, I’m defining that as like a has a real chance to be a future all-star in this league. You know, like when the Raptors got Scotty, that was a blue chipper. No one even debated that, right? So, um, so I think that that’s another question is that like, okay, even though you’ve gone through this process, have you actually gotten something out of that process? So, I’m I’m curious to see it. I think that a lot of the things like I mean with the Scotty and Ingrams, those questions will be answered this following season. like if if you know I mean if if Scotty’s the same guy we we understand we accept it but you obviously have to make sort of moves around your team to adjust for the fact that you just don’t have that potential franchise player. Uh if Ingram is not healthy and he’s not able to get back to an all-star level then you know all the valid criticisms are are totally there and the criticisms have been made preemptively. Let’s just see what it looks like on the court first. I’m definitely willing to hold out hope for what that looks like cuz again considering the talent level and what this team needs certainly makes a lot of sense. And then the last thing, the blue chipper. That might take a couple years to answer. I’m not expecting Colin to show you that in the year one. It’d be great if you did. If you came in and was like Scotty Bars level, you know, rookie of the year level was like, “Okay, well all of a sudden we have a blue chipper. No doubt.” But um yeah, I think you probably need a couple years just to answer that. But uh um those are the three biggest questions facing whichever new president does ultimately come in. Uh, and I’ll love to hear your answers in terms of, you know, what the reps are at with some of those questions and also just again who who you want to run this team long term. But, uh, yeah, that’s kind of it, man. I think you covered it very very extensively. So, um, I think like right now we’ll just go through a couple of comments. Um, okay. Sure. uh most of which aren’t really to do because I feel like the chat has like already extensively themselves like talked through it pretty well and I’m not sure how much we can add to what they’ve already said. But here we go uh with at least one general point uh from Coach Roach who’s been very active. Shout out Coach Roach. Not sure how desirable the job is for an external candidate when everyone else has extensions. Can’t bring in your own people at least right away. That’s a fair point. Yeah, it’s a fair point. Um, I think that again like MLSC moved in a strange way where they were like, “We’ll secure everybody except Messiah.” Yeah. And then we’ll let Messiah go, which does feel like you like everybody in place. You just don’t want to pay Messiah, which whatever. I mean, there’s been certainly been a lot of cost cutting across MLSSE. Absolutely. Um, so yeah, man. But again, if you like even putting aside the costs, if you like the the team in place, you should empower the team in place. If we are to trust um everything that was said in the press conference, then I wouldn’t go that far. I wouldn’t go that far, but I’m just saying like if we’re to operate on that in that way, uh then yeah, it seems the logical decision is to bring in Bobby or someone who like really just like would kind of match whatever is going on like trusted direction. Um you were talking about uh just in terms of attendance, things like that. uh from uh Buster here. I live in the States, so I get to see the Ratchers for like $20 every year in the Lower Bowl. We are not a premier uh opponent for any team. No way. No way. Last when was the last time we were like I don’t even know even in the 2019 season if we were a premier opponent. Um because like we don’t really become a contender until we win essentially. Well, I mean premier opponent is not necessarily how good of a team you are bringing it in. It’s the like the names you’re bringing in, you know what I mean? Like the Lakers, even when the Lakers were bad with Kobe towards the end, that was still premium top of the line, top of the line tickets. Was Kawhi drawing though in that year? No, man. That’s the thing. So, that’s what I’m saying. Like, I don’t know the last time like that we were like really uh that um No, but it’s definitely cheaper to go to Detroit and buy tickets to go see the Raptors than it is. That was a classic move all the time. Like you would see uh our away games having louder Raptors fans than Detroit fans. I don’t know that we’re going to pull that off uh right now with Detroit’s current era, but hey, this is looking good these days. We used to be a fan base there. Um this is this is killing me. Hold on. Someone said I I I almost flew to Charlotte that one time they had Raptor tickets for bucks. There you go. Right. Yikes. Yikes. Big yikes. Um $4. Come on, man. That’s insane. Um here’s a very cheeky one. I mean, he’s been around the franchise for years now. just seems to know the ins and outs. Uh really loves our process and understands how we work. Can we get Lawrence Frank as God? Yo, we we do have a lot of Toronto ties in these candidates like Mark like tell me who has like a better understanding of the Toronto infrastructure especially in the last years including the championship year than Lawrence Frank. Can we can we hire Lawrence Frank so we beat him up and then fire him? Like I mean just you know kind of nice feel like we owe him. He kind of did like an unpaid internship for like the entire 2018 19 season, right? Shadowing, you know. Oh, he he got paid. He wasn’t paid by us though. That’s the only thing, you know. He probably paid off a couple people too, you know. Yeah, he uh he he interned at MLSC longer than I did. Yeah. Oh, man. Uh we talked about this pre-show. Brandon Ingram is dating Glowilla. He popped at least like Yeah, he popped out there. Yeah. And and this is not a conversation that I really want to open up, but I did think about it in terms of just like the most like famous people, the Raptor, the Raptor people have dated and I really could not come up with a good list at all. Like there’s just not a very like deep roster in terms of like what has happened there. So I it’s like people like definitely date and like you know I don’t even want to get I never go on to touch on you know what players are sort of doing but like yeah like obviously players are they’re out here. They’re young athletes, right? But Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. They’re usually out here with not celebrities. And I think this might be one of the first instances of a raptor doing this. Um, now that you mention it, it might be like an interesting roundabout way of talking about Toronto. Uh, I I don’t want to say this, I don’t mean this in a crass way, but like they talk about Toronto as a market and like just the differences between Toronto and the US or like Canada and the US. Like maybe that does play in of just like the idea that like being able to find high-profile people um and not the country where they’re usually from. Yeah. I mean, I think it also speaks to the Raptors never being a high-profile team. Like the Raptors haven’t really had famous even relative to NBA players, we haven’t really had famous players play for the Raptors outside of Vince and maybe Kawaii. You know what I mean? Even Tylen Demar, they were not famous famous. They were like they’re locally famous, but we have Chris Humphre and Kim Kardashian. That’s the number one. Yeah, that’s definitely But the key point, were they together? They weren’t together when they he was playing for the Raptors, right? Were they? I don’t think so. I thought so. I thought it was I assumed it was like when he was already with the Nets at that point. Okay. Yeah. But yeah, cuz the key part about all this is like how many players have had a high-profile uh partner or someone that they were dating um when they were actually a member of the Toronto Raptors because like the one I threw out at you was uh Sergio Baka famously was engaged to Carrie Hilson at a point. Yeah. Right. But that was prior to when he was in Toronto. I think the engagement had broke off. Yeah. Um, that’s it. I’m I’m going to go to another one here. Um, this is a far more awesome one. Uh, Tala asks us, “Did you see the Hansen Yang and Kai talking to each other?” Not only did you see it, you reposted it. Yeah, I reposted it. I dropped it in our chat. Like, I feel like I feel like Hansen has like um Okay, if we’re going to be completely honest about this, it made me think that Hansen Yang was playing for the Clippers for a second. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think the number one thing to know is that like NBA players almost universally do a lot of um marketing in China. Like, it’s just absolutely it’s it’s the biggest basketball market. There’s more NBA fans in China than there are in Tyrese Hallebertton’s popularity skyrocketed during the season that they were doing a indie all-star, which is a 2024, I believe. Yeah. in part because he engaged with uh Chinese social media platforms. Yeah. So, I think that like there is a marketing element that I think cannot ever go ignored um with all this. Now, granted, the part that was interesting to me was I didn’t really like Okay, so Kawawaii’s obviously signed with New Balance, so he’s not signed with like the same company like um yeah, I thought it was not even that. Yeah. So, it’s not a it’s not a branding opportunity there. Um, and as far as I’m obviously they’re not teammates as well. Sure. So, like I was just like what is actually the connection here? Like what’s the angle? Cuz like for me I’m like because I don’t know I guess maybe I follow the NBA too strongly but I’m just like okay what’s the secret angle here? Um they’re not the same agency either. Um Hansen is clutch, Kawawaii is Uncle Dennis. So so like but in any case um yes of course I saw this video and I thought it was very endearing. Um I like that neither of them can really understand each other. Well, the other thing too that’s so funny is because it’s like um obviously Kauaii native English speaker. I doubt that he is a very interesting conversationalist like in the form of like an interview like an online social interview. No, no, in terms of Kawaii. No, like I don’t think that Kawawaii is just so hilar I think he is behind the scenes. I don’t know. I think Kawhai’s he just does an interview. Uh which is again also quite rare why this happened too. It’s not like he’s a very you know he’s not like Jared McCain called Hansen. You know what I mean? Kawhai is like the least online NBA player in today’s league by far. Um, you’re actually talking me into this. But like I feel like I think Kawhai was just I think there’s some level of like genuine um Yeah, like it was a genuine curiosity and maybe even a genuine connection. Um, I thought it was very cute that like I mean Qu wasn’t even ready to talk, man. His hair like his hair wasn’t braided. You know what I mean? Like it’s like if I didn’t like tie my ponytail and I came up here to talk to you guys. You know what I mean? Obviously, when you open the door, when you give me coffee, it like Yeah, exactly. You know, I’m just like, “Yeah, I look nuts.” So, it’s like I I think um um yeah, I think there was like a like a genuine connection there. And it was just kind of funny cuz like neither of them really could understand each other cuz Hansen doesn’t really understand English. And then even when Hansen spoke English to Kawhai, like Kawawaii was like, “What are you saying?” I think he said, “Keep in touch.” And Kawhai was like, “What does that mean?” He’s like, “Keep in touch.” He was like, “Oh, okay.” And it’s a classic thing, like the number one thing, especially if I’m like talking to somebody about like a language that like I don’t understand, I always ask them to teach me like bad words basically. Which was like very cute. Yeah, exactly. Which was really cute cuz I think Hansen was like, “You can’t guard me.” Um, and then he also taught him like how to say dummy and stuff. So, it was cute, man. Wholesome interaction. I think Hansen has this like genuine um likability and like a star vibe where I think partly because of the lost in translation it’s cute but I also think he just understands sort of how to be naturally charismatic and funny in a way that’s not forced and genuine and that’s the similarity with him and Kawhi because Kawhi doesn’t ever try to be liked. He just there’s anyone who’s uh more endeared by a new mainlander in the picture it is William Lou. Oh, absolutely. Hansen, I was I was going to put you on my roster of uh of young Torononians who are Chinese. Um that that I One minor gripe about uh Quai is uh he really undersold his like he asked uh different words in Mandarin acting as if he didn’t know any. And if we revisit this clip here, it’s clear that Kai knows at least one phrase. Accomplish there. A win. Um you know, that’s what we go out here and fight for is to get a win. And you know, it’s your first time being our camera especially facing all the Chinese fans which you don’t really to do. So is there any word you like to say to all the fans especially the way that you play in the record? It’s so good. I’m sorry. It’s so good. It’s so good. Why is Kawhai doing a random NBA chat interview? Oh my god. During the 2019 playoffs. No. Nihow is one of the greatest uh like Kawaii memories for me. Hands down. Well, Kawawaii Kawawaii has like uh Kawhi has uh what would what would the popular term be? Micro dosed the Kawawaii has micro doed uh Asian cultures because there’s also that infamous Kawawaii commercial I think he did for like for HB which was like the super market chain out there in San Antonio that they all do commercials for. But there’s the one where he’s like he’s like dressed in like a karate outfit and he’s like oh no that’s after I think that was I’m about to chop y’all up. Uh, that might have been like something Gatorade or Really? That wasn’t HV. Okay. I just assumed it was. No, because I’m about to chop you all up is he’s already in with the Clippers. Oh, really? I think he’s already there by that point because like chop you all up was great. Yeah. No, which is great. No, it’s just I think it’s one of the things too is just like I mean this definitely doesn’t apply to me because I’m such I’m such a yapper, but like I think there’s a real value in like saying less um and then your words hitting a lot harder. And I think Kawhai is like very naturally funny and charismatic in that way anyway. People are like it makes people curious about you. I think he knows he knows his aura around even if he claims to not. But I think Hansen is similar in that way to Kawaii in the sense that like he’s not gonna say too much partially because he’s obviously um well he probably does interviews all the time but they’re definitely in Chinese so they’re not gonna hit in the the English market but right um the couple the fact that he’s already gone viral for many things like that like there’s lots of rookies like we don’t know what Cooper Flag likes to do but we know that Hansen likes to sleep and play PS5 uh and that he used to be a fat boy like these are endearing facts man it’s like Giannis loving smoothies I think when he like came to Yeah, it’s very much like Yeah, that energy. All right. Um, to close things out, uh, as you know, our presenting sponsor is Betweight, and we do have a Between segment for you. We Jerome, there’s there’s no NBA hoops on. What are we going to talk about? There’s no NBA hoops on. Uh, you suggested, rightfully so, uh, as an opportunity to talk about the Blue Jays, but your boy’s going to zag. And we’re going to talk about some other basketball. No, it’s not the WNBA, which I’m wearing a jersey of. It’s the big three, which I found out you can bet on. No way. On that way. So, will you know of the teams that are uh competing in the big three, there are two teams that are tied to win the whole thing? I did not know that, but okay. The Miami 305 and the Dallas Power equal at 4.25 odds to win the Big Three 2025 championship. Who’s on these rosters? Can I can I at least get that? Here’s uh the thing I also prepared for you. I loaded up the pages for each roster. Okay, let’s go through them. Let’s go through them. Let’s go through them right now. Let’s go. Here you go. All right. We start We’re starting with one Greg Monroe 611 NBA seasons 10 of them there. Paul Milsap. Yeah. Who is a co- captain along with Glen Rice Jun Jun? Wow. John Milsap who is is he John Milsap. Okay. Shouts to John Milsap. Um TJ last pro team was Argentina. Yeah. Argentina. Okay. Sick. There you go. TJ Klein. TJ Klein. Okay. And Nancy Lieberman. Nancy Lieberman. Oh, legend. Okay. Legend. Legend. Wow. Um, so that’s who you’re working with there for that team. Yeah, it’s a big team. That’s a pretty big team. Yeah. I’m going to load up now the Miami 305, who is from my learning about these teams literally this morning, uh, my favorite. Okay. Uh, okay. So, so cuz cuz I I think I could have sworn I saw Greg Monron as an assistant coach with I think the Pelicans I think it was him him and Jody Meeks were assistant coaches on the Pelicans or working with the Pelicans. I did see Greg and Cory Brewer was the head coach by the way. I think Cory Brewer is also playing the big three. He’s also playing the big three. I forgot which team, but he is in the big three. I didn’t know there’s such a big three um NBA coach crossover here. But here you go. All right. Who’s on? Here you go. We’re starting with one Miami legend, Mario Chalmers. Rio, uh, isn’t he from Alaska? Yeah, he’s from Anchorage. Yeah, that’s also the funnest fact about Mario Chmers. It’s It’s a good one. Uh, we got Michael Beasley, of course. Probably one of the most big three players. You actually can’t design a better player for big three than Reggie Evans. What? Raptor legend. Yo, I used I used to get so gassed when Reggie Evans got 20 rebounds for the Raptors. You love Reggie Evans moves with the Raptors. Oh man, Reggie Evans. Sick. Lance Stevenson. Oh, whoa. This is a chaotic team. Hold on. This is a crazy team. This got This got real chaotic. Shout outs to Lance Stevenson, I guess. My goodness. Sean Williams. Sean Williams. Okay, I remember him. Yeah. And coach Michael Cooper. Michael Cooper. How Cooper? Wow. Cuz I think the Lakers just put him in like their like their version of the I retired his jersey. Shouts to the Minister of Defense. Um is it the Minister of Defense? I mean, but that’s uh I feel like Miami is definitely better, man. No, I mean they don’t have the size to contend. Like I don’t really see how they can guard like I mean cuz it’s threeon three like you can throw on the post like you know what I mean? You know what I mean? But I I believe it’s like twos, threes, there’s even a four-point shot. So like I definitely take a perimeter game uh some of the questions that we have about the Raptors. I got to say the Miami team has shot creators. Oh, they they got they got hoopers. They should be the Miami Hoopers, man. I’m taking the Miami Hoopers. There you go. the Miami 305. Give me the hoopers. So, you got the 305 to win the big three 2025 champion. I got the 305 to my city. That’s That’s what I got. I got 305 to my city. For listeners, again, the reminder is the odds are 4.25. And if you believe in either the Miami 305 or Dallas Power and feel spicy enough to bet on the big three, scan the QR code below. All right. All right. Sick. So we we’re not talking Jays. All right. Damn. I was about to talk about I was about to take Hey, listen. Blue Jays last night. You could give me some Jays talk. Okay. Lock in. Lock in Blue Jays. Lock in. All right. Backto back games. And I know whatever. Lot lots of happened, but back toback games are giving up 10 plus runs. First time all season. Let’s lock in guys. All right. This Jay’s team had won 22 of 26. this incredible miraculous run um which got them to not just the top of the AL East, but just the top of the MLB standings just in general across the board briefly, but then we followed up with two games where our pitching staff just got blown up. I mean, I get it. Max Sher older, you know, it’s kind of a gamble anyway. Although 50 million is a lot for a gamble, but whatever. Like, it’s kind of a gamble. Uh the bullpen gets hit a little bit, whatever. You know what I mean? Chris Bass gets lit up, whatever. Let’s lock in, guys. Okay, let’s not let this momentum drop. I’m I’m a little worried. Okay, cuz the last two games we got Alejandro Kirk getting hit in the head uh with with like a a foul, you know, I guess a foul tip or whatever, but it caught him pretty good. And of course, last night, George Springer gets pegged in the head with a 90 m per hour fastball and a three- 0 count, too. What are you even doing throwing that high? Cuz the game was like 11 to four. Not top of the ninth inning. You’re just ending the game. The game’s over. It’s a three-0 count. Why are you throwing up at his head? Just I mean, whatever. that simply spiked watches watching this happen. No, but listen guys, Jays, lock in, okay? Because as good as momentum is right now, and as much as this team has been the the team of the summer, especially here in Toronto, watching them has been a true pleasure, um I just want to see the momentum slip up. I like the vibes. I like seeing the postgame Gatorade showers. I like the, you know, the I mean, I just like the the fact that you got contributions up and down the the the lineup. One of my favorite games Dun’s podcast that is Lindsy. Oh my god. Six inning stretch has been amazing. Yeah. Um they get great guests on there. You know, Kevin Gausman was on there. Um they just went to Allstar recently. Um no, seriously, it’s it’s it’s very fun. Don’t just listen to the clips, like listen to the whole show. Um I I do think it’s a really cool idea. Go follow, go subscribe, watch like done with Whit Mirfield. Um it’s it’s a it’s a pretty good combo. They got good chemistry, too, the two of them. Um, but in any case, yeah, like just Blue Jays, man. Lock in. That’s all. I’m feeling generous with these betaway segments. Oh, we’re doing another since we have it here. What? Since since you want to lock in, do you think the Toronto Blue Jays will win the American League? They are the favorite right now at 4.0 odds. You know, Alex Wong is is is punching himself right now cuz you know, he’s just walk the man is just walking around Amsterdam right now by himself listening to he’s cranking out pods. Yeah. you know, um, one of them is not he’s sick that he can’t be here for No, no, he’s listening to this. You think he’s listening to this right now? He’s sick that he’s sick that he’s he’s not here to talk about, man. Um, yeah. Give me a chance to win the American League East. Have you seen the American League? Oh, the American League. Oh, the American League. Yeah. Oh, okay. Um, yeah, why not? Why not? We are the hottest team. I think that there’s obviously room to make some uh some trades ahead of the deadline. I wouldn’t I would love if they added one more starter, one more guy to well, probably two more guys to add to the bullpen. You know, I think our bats are done pretty well this year. Um, so I’m not necessarily looking forward to making more trades on that side, but just let’s strengthen up the pitching just a little bit because every day I’m always hearing on the broadcast like, ah, they got to give Jeff Hoffen another day off. You know, it’s like he’s pitched three or four. I’m like, okay, let’s get some more NARms in there. You know what I mean? So, sure. That’s it. But yeah, I mean good, man. Team of the summer. You can continue doing the lockin thing while I close out this segment. So, if you just keep on hitting it, locked it. So, yeah, if you think that the Jays are going to lock in right now and win this American League with 4.0 odds, scan that QR code below. Lock in, guys. Lock in. Lock in, guys. All right. All right. That’s that’s that was fun. Uh, thanks everyone for listening. Uh, oh, here. Uh, just like uh some programming just because this is technically our last live um before we go on a bit of a hiatus. That’s right. So, right now, um, we’re looking to get a Chucky Heeper interview from Summer League out later this week. That’s right. Uh, we also have a couple like fun like two, three minutes with Sandro that we’ll probably put out either later this week or sometime next week. It’s almost four. It’s almost four, guys. Almost. But depends on what the editing looks like. It might be cut down to two. Yeah, we’re cutting it down. It’s better as a short, but it’s get get to know Sandro. Cheers. It’s it’s it’s a very cute fun get to know Sandro. But we’re going to also have uh we have it already recorded two championship react pods for game five and game six of the NBA finals. So we made it to the end. Although we had to cut off the uh game 61 early because Alex had to catch a flight. So that means we’re going to actually come back after we get back from our trip to talk with everyone. So like your homework is listen to those while we’re gone. We’re going to release them while we’re out. We’re going to release some like old clips from like favorite episodes throughout the week. We’ll have some shorts. We’ll have a little bit of everything. I’m sure if you’re following us on socials, you’ll find some content of us over in Europe. I’m sure you’re going to see Alex’s whole concert. If you want to watch the whole Oasis concert in uh Edinburgh, I think just like follow Alex. I feel if you want if you want to hear a live stream where I’m balling slashscreaming the whole time. There you go. Yes. Oh man. When they play Slide Away. Oh my god. Woo. But, uh, we do have some content coming out, uh, over the next couple weeks. And then, you know, knock on wood, I don’t have wood near me. We might have some interviews that we’re going to lock down right when we get back. Oh, man. Yeah, we’re we’re planning, man. We’re planning. We’re planning things. So, AJ Lawson, we’re coming. Andrew, we’re coming. We’re coming. We’re trying to come as well. So, you know, like just just just, you know, you you know, like there’s might be coming for a couple of minutes with Alex Wong. Who knows? That’s right. Yeah, who knows? Nor’s he’s going to have to interview Norm with his phone. Let’s let’s see how that goes. Yeah. But um No, no, we even though we are taking a break, which we need, we do have a lot coming because we’re just so excited to do this stuff with uh you. So um stay tuned for all that. And Will, I’ll see you later tonight uh and later this week. I got to stay hot, Jerome. Got to stay hot. Coming off back toback 30 balls in the Sunday league. Unfortunately, in the Tuesday league, I average like 12. So, if you play with a Sunday mentality tonight, I’m telling you, it’s going to make all the difference. The Oh, man. Uh, not to gas myself, not to do a podcasters gassing podcasters stick. That happens on every show, right? Um, but I can’t resist. Oh, man. The way the last touch of basketball we played, you know, we were down in the last game. Um, we got some surprising contributions um from Chris from a from a stretch big that’s not necessarily a stretch big, but he was stretching it out. He had eight of our points. Imagine that he’s tall. Yeah, we’re we’re playing a 15, right? So, he’s already got the first eight points, but the other team’s coming back and they’re scoring and then I’m just like exhausted. We played for two hours at this point. Like, I’m just like sweating through like soaked through all these jerseys, but you know, my jerseys dripping. Yeah. I come up on the court, I got the ball, got the high screen. I’m just gonna pull that thing because I’m tired. And I also break my last five drives to the rim. Pull up three going uh going right. Next time down, pull up three, going left, fading over a good contest cuz I just made one. So lucky. shot, but hits the back board. I need you to talk about that final play though. Hits the front of the rim, hits the back of the rim, goes in. So that’s six more points. So we’re now on game point on our side. Uh it’s game point on the other side as well, cuz again, we’re making a comeback here. Yes. Um I make a drive to the rim. Okay. I I cuz guys are jumping out. I made a three-point line. I just made two. Drive to the rim. Go for the floater. Complete brick. I think Jerome goes in for the putback knowing that I was going to brick layups because we played it a lot together. Gets a hand on the tip but couldn’t tip it back. Exactly. And then they’re going the other way. They probably have their best player handling the ball. He’s a pull-up shooter. I’m guarding him. He’s he’s he’s handling the ball. Drums in front of him. I’m I’m I’m tired, bro. I’m We’re playing So, we’re playing a little chess match cuz like back and forth like through each game, Will is telling me like you need to let him have the lane. We’re going to guard and close out. But the problem is the bigs are not closing out on the uh on the lane to like so you got to press up and I need to like dare him a bit. So I’m trying to create just like the smallest amount of doubt just like have just enough space that they have to take a couple extra dribbles. A couple little bits. He is a bit of a dribbler. He’s a bit of a dribbler. Bit of a dribbler, right? He’s handling. He’s handling the ball. We’re caught in this like one-on-one that what he doesn’t notice Yeah. is one Will Lou defensive player of the year who I’ve never even behind like that. If you want to imagine like if you want to imagine Michael Jordan Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. final shot of his Utah Jazz run slapping the ball out of Caramel Carmel’s hand. If you want to imagine and I don’t want our boy to catch strays, but if you want to imagine one Kyle Lowry guarding Demar D Roz. Oh yeah. And together they half court at half court which is basically where we were. Yeah. Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi Will Leonard. Oh god. All right. We’ve gone too far with this. Keep going. Keep on going on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I’m lazy. I’m lazy. So I’m I’m I’m like not coming back on the play. And then I guess you forget. The reason why you’re available is because you didn’t run back on defense. I’m sorry, man. I can’t do all the scoring and all the defending guys. Yes. But like Will uh catches up late on defense, but no one notices. And ironically or coincidentally, the gu person I’m guarding is also Will. Will steals from Will. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then cuz I know he’s like he’s like like doing the crossover. He has like a little dance. So I’m like if I just come from behind him and he doesn’t see me coming at all and I just like try to anticipate he’s going to go to his left hand. Clean clean clean super clean pick. Like literally all ball and then somehow had the energy to race it up the court and even though I missed layups professionally races generous. But I was going as fast as possible. Everyone else was catching up on you sprinted. I turned a one and0 fast break into a one-on-one fast break. I I I was I was contemplating chasing after you for the rebound, but I I trust you. Two hours in, dog. You were exhausted. Yeah. No, but even though I break layups and I break my last three layups to the point where one of them was so bad it hit the side of the backboard. Um the side of the backboard, but made the layup, dropped in. Um game over, runs over. We chess bumped. Yeah, that’s right. We don’t even have bolic behavior, but it was we chest bumped. I got myself some milky special and then we had some patties over at June Plum. June plum. It was a beautiful afternoon, you know. Great afternoon. Beautiful. Beautiful. So, I’m looking forward to that tonight uh on Tuesday, but most likely I’ll drop 12 points on four uh 12 shootings. So, um Jerome, I will see you later today. Uh enjoy lunch. Uh to everyone else, uh have a good summer. See you on the other side from the home welcome podcast. Check in, but of course, we’re going to be once a week. Uh, look out for a Chucky Heburn interview as Drum said and uh, Sandro somewhere down the line. And of course, we’ll be we’ll be in Europe. Alex is already there. Drum’s going to go second. I’ll be there third. So, um, yeah. See you from the other side of the pond, you know. Um, let me know again if you guys got some connections to tickets. Please, please. I’m trying. You’re always trying to see some some footy when I’m out there in Europe. But more than anything else, um, appreciate you guys for listening. Let us know what you think. uh it’s going to happen with the team this summer and just also enjoy some time off yourself. Okay, so this has been the Hello Welcome podcast presented by Bway and uh yeah, signing out. See you guys.

Will Lou discusses the latest round of reported candidates for the president of the Toronto Raptors, makes the case for why Bobby Webster is the right choice, and the three biggest questions facing the Raptors beyond who will be president.

He discusses reports of Dwane Casey, Chad Buchanan, Marc Eversley, Monte McNair, and Kevin Pritchard (19:20).

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