Do the Raptors have star duos?

Do the Raptors have star duos?

Hey everybody, welcome to another one of my Saturday whatevers. It was a mailbag for a short amount of time. It was uh I mean it’s just been like a a draft revolving door thing that Trey and I have been doing. It was a a Las Vegas thing for a while. And today we’re talking about honestly duos which are an incredibly important part of basketball. one of the most important, the twoman game. The Raptors have stacked, at least from the outside looking in, a decent amount of talent on their roster. They’ve paid for it. They’ve brought it in, and they do have to work in the fiveman context, of course, but it’s incredibly important that they work in the twoman context as well. Two, join me. I’m going to let you introduce yourself, man, because you’re you’re a burgeoning member of the Raptors creator class. So, uh, introduce yourself, plug yourself, and let everybody know exactly where to find you. Yeah. So, uh, my name is Abdell, Abdell Taco on Twitter. Uh, I was primarily on Twitter until a few months ago. I started making draft related content and hopefully just basketball soon, uh, related content. So, I’ve been doing that last few months. Uh, prior to that, I was just like kind of a fan on Twitter, uh, Raptors Twitter, just enjoying living life. I was always into the draft which started my channel. Uh so it’s kind of background about me channels taco takes as well. Uh so we’ll talk about that later but you guys can check it out as well. So yeah, we’ll get we’ll get uh Abdell’s uh his perspective on Colin Murray Boils who he did a great video essay on. Um and lots of people have watched this so far. Hopefully a few more people after this and also that makes his perspective I think a very interesting one. So, the first thing we’re going to talk about is those duos. And what I really want to hear is the one that you’re most excited for. Like, what’s what is the duo that it doesn’t have to be the best duo, but we’re looking at a twoman game or, you know, interactions repeatedly that will lead the Raptors to success? So, yeah, the first one, um, I guess I would consider this the most exciting because overall I’m more excited about Ingram, I feel like, than most people. um Ingram and Yakob. So, uh kind of the reasoning behind this was uh Ingram’s we already know he’s a good pick and roll player. Um and also that kind of extends to hands handoffs. I think last year he was pretty good on handoffs. This year was kind of bunch of stuff happened to him. Um but essentially I think the vision is Jakob’s always at the top of the key in delay actions handing the ball off right uh in our offense. So, uh, if we can get Ingram running those hand hand off or pick and rolls, it allow him to get to like the free throw line nail area he likes the most where he likes to pull up, uh, either like pump fake, get to the line. Uh, it also could draw the big out, I was thinking as well. Um, and then Yakob rolls hard and just crashes the glass, right? He’s a probably a best offensive rebounder, right? So, that kind of dynamic I feel like, uh, Scotty and YaKob were already good for similar reasons. Uh but yeah, Ingram just gives a more polished, you know, on ball handle, pull-up game, right? So, I feel like it’ll be similar to Yakob and uh Scotty. Um maybe a little bit I think Scotty’s better like getting the ball over the he has more passing like angles, right? Um but Ingram I think he could like uh similarly gel well with Yakob, right? And that could be like one of our best uh duos, right? Uh because they’re going to be starting most of the time. Um, so I feel like the him, YaKob, and Ingram is like gonna be I foresee like situations in the season that being our like if you look at those two man lineups, our like most positive lineup, right? Similar to Scotty and YaKob. Um, so that’s that’s why I’m most excited defensively. Yakob isn’t as he kind of declined, right, as a rim protector. Um, he can still move his feet. Okay. Uh, Ingram has moments on ball. So, I guess I’m more excited for this offensively. Then defensively, I think it’ll just be okay, solid. But there’s nothing like, oh wow, I’m really excited about this defensively. Um, so yeah, that’s kind of my uh my reasoning behind it is mostly the screen and roll handoff pick and roll game that he could work well with Yakob, right? So that’s that’s what I chose for my first duel. That’s a good one. I’ll I’ll expand on it, but I guess your your volume is a little bit low. Can you go to your just go to your settings, go to audio, and there’ll be a mic volume bar. You can just pump that up and then hopefully that’ll be better. But to your point, I think the comparison between Scotty and YaKob is a really interesting one because obviously, as you say, Scotty as a passer is is above Ingram as far as like especially the check down, two hands to the ball, go over top, check down pass. And obviously, Yakob is great at receiving any type of pass in that regard. But on top of that, where that duo struggled in handoffs and pick and rolls is when Scotty couldn’t beat the guy who stepped out or the push switch. And Ingram, I think, is one of the best players in the world at beating the push switch against a big whether it’s, you know, getting to the line because of his pump and drawing out the, you know, obviously a contest or whether it’s like beating them getting to his spot. I think that there’s a lot of potential there. I guess since you’re kind of higher on Ingram, let’s stay there. What do you think is the cell for why you’re higher on Ingram? Maybe not than I don’t know if it’s than the Raptors consensus, but the NBA consensus, let’s say. Yeah, I could I feel like I’m higher than most people who like kind of like in the fan base. It’s like a like some people who really just are either not excited about the trade or anything. I just feel like I don’t think he’s going to be some sort of like all NBA lock type player. I think you can make most square. He commented on our tweet. He said, “I guess my invite was lost in the mail.” I know he is lower on Ingram than a lot of people. He’s he’s let me know. Yeah. Like like Yeah. They just view him and like they bring up his efficiency as like oh just made efficiency and like but I just feel like especially where we’re coming from right and more I worish we’re coming from the worst. Yeah. Exactly. It’s worse like when I come home or like when I want to watch Raptors basketball I want to see competence, right? Someone on the ball, right? So he he’s definitely going to bring that and a bit more. Um, so I wouldn’t say I’m like, “Oh, he’s gonna be like a legit uh like I troll all the time saying he’s gonna make all NBA 13,” but like I I think he’s gonna be like, you know, we’re going to realize how bad we’ve been living. You know, the type of type of be it was like, okay, some guy who can handle the ball, run legit pick and roll and pull up. Maybe not from three as much cuz our pull-up game, especially from three, was horrible last year, right? So, um, that’s that’s kind of in the realm of excited cuz it was just Scotty like getting the world put on his shoulders, right? So, that was tough to watch game after game after game. So, having someone else be able to do that, that’s that’s why I would say I’m higher on Ingram the most. This is actually we can take a little sidebar here, but medium efficiency scoring is back. Alohos says this is something he’s commented before and also something that I think is a big part of NBA basketball in this new like hyperdefense era. It’s also why I’m higher on Grady is like medium efficiency scorers who do really difficult scoring so that they can simplify roles for other players I think is a re will be a burgeoning role because those types of players definitely got kind of like eaked out in the like the 2010s basically and then everything became about hyperefficiency where exactly you’re taking it but defenses responded and now they know exactly the shots they want to take away that’s why you see Anthony Edwards lack of prowess in the middle of the four. Yeah. Where that would have been a huge feature of his game in like 2017 because it would have been like this guy doesn’t take any bad shots. It’s incredible. He’s perfect. But now it’s like the guys who manipulate and navigate that the Eastern Conference Finals MVP. Wow. The guys the guys who dominate those parts of the floor, they’re a big deal. What do you make of the difficult shots, medium efficiency score as kind of like coming back into the fold for the NBA? Yeah, I think it makes sense. Yeah, like you said, especially defenses are like they’re getting so smart and they’re basically like cutting off like most of the angles of attack that you want to do and like, okay, we’ll concede this, right? And sometimes it’s kind of like you view as eating your vegetables. Like sometimes in a once in a while you just got to take that tough shot. You got to do it just to be like I’m going to do this right so you can uh like prompt a reaction and then go from there. the moment you say you’re not even looking at that. It happened even like Harden, right? Like there there was years where it was just like step back three floater lob, right? And it’s just mechanical even though it was so effective like you could see later on like as as things got like gunkked down in the playoffs, it’s like okay, we know he’s going to rotate between like these three options, right? That simplifies our like decision- making process like we have to he’s going to do this, this, and this. Whereas if he sprinkled in a bit of like a pull-up mid-range or something like that every now and then, people are like, “Oh, okay.” and have the gears thinking, you know, cuz like the more layers you have to think about on defense, it’s it it slows the processing time essentially, right? Then you can like open more gaps. So it makes sense, I think, in my head. Uh that medium efficiency. So I I I’ve always been uh like I’m not one of those guys who are like ball don’t stop. I’ve always been Yeah. more on the side of appreciating that than the guys who are just like, “Oh, no. This is like dead. We’re we’re beyond that, right? We’ve evolved, right?” So, um, yeah, that’s what I think. I think it makes sense. So, I would say I generally probably agree with that. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s something I’ve always again not not all the way to the ball, don’t stop aspect. And also, there’s like there’s it’s a little bit like it’s it goes so far, you know what I mean? You get the Malachi Flynn post, you’re like, man. And then it’s also it’s a lot about how it looks rather than like effectiveness, right? Like nobody cared when Rashawn Holmes was elite in the short mid-range cuz he had that crazy like that wasn’t the sexy release valve. But it makes sense. Whereas like Shay for this era, dominating where he dominates is that’s the spot that the NBA is going to allow you to get to more often than not. And you know, obviously winning a championship with it. I’ll go with my my first duo that I have. It’s a it’s not a star duo, but it is, you know, hopefully in the future a star duo. We can all cross our fingers, but Grady Dick and Colin Murray Boils for the simple reason that Grady Dick, and this goes into the This is why I’m still high on Grady despite the defensive struggles. And it’s something like difficult shots mean that defenses care more about where you are. When defenses care more about where you are, other opportunities open for your teammates. That’s why you can’t just look like raw numbers, raw efficiency. And also with the Raptors being ranked 30th in self-creation, points per possession in the NBA, they were far more reliant on their structure. Like Ergo Grady running off a pin down, sprinting 18 miles an hour into a three and shooting like 28% on those difficult shots. CMBB, big boy who can threaten with the keeper, who can threaten as like a guy who lays the ball into open space and finds the the screen. Not exactly Demonus Sabonis, but in that realm of, you know, like decision-m as a guy on ball and when teams overload on the chase for Grady, opening up gaps, I think that symbiotic aspect of what they both require from a defense to guard is not going to be like a star outcome at all, but I think represents an opportunity to be certain for both those guys to play well off of each other. I think they’re a very snug fit uh on offense and then also defensively Grady needs a guy who can step out and watch his back and Grady needs a guy who CMBB is like made in a lab to help Grady Dick defend because if Grady dies on the screen, he can jump out and set the edge. If Grady gets beat on a line, who’s the most likely to jump and be a guard rail in the lane? It’s CMB. So, from that perspective, and they’ll both be coming off the bench, I think that’s one of the more interesting aspects of the Raptors to watch is like everyone’s really excited for Benchmob 2.0. How however a person feels about it, however a person feels about it, people are excited. We got to find a better name, man. We got to find a better name. A new a new name. Um, but that’s that’s one of the most exciting and enticing aspects of this Raptors uh roster, I think, is those two guys and they’re both very cerebral players. So, yeah, that’s kind of where where I’m going with it. How do you feel about that that pairing? Yeah. Know, I thought about that as well because yeah, Grady’s one of his defining traits is like his offball movement, right? And then you pair him with a guy like CMBB who can like hold his position uh make make the passes like CMBB is a good passer. Um, I think like he’s definitely not like Scotty level or anything. I think he’s just like good, right? Um, nothing special, but just enough the type of passes he’s good at is what will fit with Grady, right? Where like on back cuts or coming off screen, especially like if he’s coming hard off screen and see him be hands it off. He’s so strong, right? Where like the he just hand it off to Grady come around the screen, the guy just bump straight into We already saw the summer league the screens he was setting, right? So that’ll fit really well, I think. Like Yeah. And then defensively Yeah. Like we’ve seen Grady get like smoked multiple times, right? And then you have a guy who just like a computer just like boom right there, right? To to clean it up. So I feel like yeah, they fit together well. They’ll play a lot together hopefully in the bench bench unit. I think that hopefully they become like our focus of our bench. Um so yeah, I definitely agree with that. Uh we have from YA, are we sure RJ starts starting Ochai or Jacobe makes so much sense? Trey pitched this idea on our last episode and while I can definitely see the process that brings about like as far as stacking skill sets in a lineup, what makes sense and also bringing R.J. who definitely had a is not I wouldn’t say a scoring leap, but a playmaking leap last year and a meaningful one, putting him in the midst of the bench. Yes, I see it. I just don’t understand how the Raptors get RJ to the bench without it being like a complete blow up of the locker room. You know what I mean? Where do you see that? Yeah. Like I think logically it makes complete sense, right? Cuz yeah, you have Scotty Ingram handling the ball most of the time, then uh IQ like secondary behind the duty, and then you want more of a play finisher, I guess, right? Uh pair paired with them on the perimeter. Also calling Oai and Jacobe play finishers is like it’s very kind to them honestly. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That’s true. And like that’s what I was about to say of the the people who are replacing RJ with right maybe theoretically the players they can be that’s that’s who we want but the reality right now might not be the case. And then also yeah like like how you going to tell Imagine RJ Barrett and we’re like we’re going to bench you for Jacobe and Ocha. like just let’s just imagine that like like that hit that news hitting you, right? It’s like it doesn’t make like it’s just not re realistic at all unfortunately. So, um yeah, like maybe cuz people were saying, “Oh, let’s we’re going to trade R.J.” If they end up trading RJ that a player like that in that mold they maybe they can look for and like you know, but yeah, I think R.J.’s going to start like no no question in my mind as long as you’re on the roster, right? So, um I I feel the same way. It’s just it’s hard to even think how you pitch that cuz Yeah, I can’t because again I like Jacob’s game. I like how it projects going forward. It projects as like hey this will be it’s easy to see an NBA player there, a rotation player there. But RJ Barrett just gave like what 215 and five and I know and I know from like the people are looking at it ideally some of that production is going to come down so you can replace it with more efficient production all the Yes. But the politics of it and honestly the reality of like R.J.’s just a better player than those guys and telling him like, “Hey, it’s not going to be you.” I think would just going to It would be insane. It would be insane. Like no basketball player is going to accept that, right? Like it’s just it’s just And also, yeah, the locker room wouldn’t either. They’d be like, “How did you why did you do this to RJ?” Because they because they think he’s good, too, man. You know what I mean? Yeah. Right. So, it’s it’s just not realistic. Um, so yeah, I think he’s going to start 100%, but yeah, like maybe next season the player we look to pair on the perimeter, that that would be more of a conversation, right? Um, yeah, I just don’t think Ochai or Jacobe is like worth uh unsettling RJ, right? So, yeah. Yeah. ND says, “If you pitched it as RJ being a prioritized option when he’s on the four, shouldn’t that sell better than being the fourth option in his minutes with the starters?” Yes, it should sell better, but it still doesn’t sell well. Like being a starter means a lot to players. And also, yeah, you could just have it that and they probably will. RJ starts at the 7 minute mark or something. He comes out and then re-enters with bench units and that’s probably how it goes. But I I also like I’m not ex I’m not exactly sure. I know that the hypothetical of these guys skill sets make more sense quote unquote. But again, it is meaningful that R.J. was part of the Raptors best defensive units. That’s not me making the case that R.J. was a huge motivator, but he existed in them and he’s going to be part of their best units probably this upcoming season. I’d be surprised if he wasn’t. He’s He does stuff. It’s important. It does. And and one thing is like um like if you look at starting lineup IQ, RJ, uh BI, Scotty, Yakob, right? RJ’s really the only guy whose mindset is getting to the rim, right? Like everyone else loves to take pull-up jumpers, right? That’s their that’s their game, right? So, he actually, you can argue, brings more of like a skill set we don’t have to the starting lineup, right? Um so even though like the other fit concerns are like very clear right there’s still stuff he can do right on the floor um as a starter and yeah like even if you sell them like oh if you’re actually on the bench you get more of possession more bro like starter is a starter at the end of our team is not going to be like a top four seed too so you can’t even do the winning cell right so it’s also like RJ his efficiency went down and his efficiency as a driver went down, but that driving is what elevated his playmaking. Like yes, the scoring numbers went down, but overall he made steps as a player. One, two, he can hang on to that development with playing with better players who open up larger schemes and can play off of his playmaking better, but three, when he’s shooting when like he sorted out his catch and shoot three-pointer, it’s passable at the very least now. He runs in transition. He cuts. He does cut. Working off these guys might actually be friendly to him. If it’s 17 or 18 points per game on like close to 60% true shooting, I think everyone will be gassed. Four per game. Easy. All right. Exactly. Give me that. Give me that second tandem. That second duo you got for us. Yeah. So, this one uh I got CMBB and Mamu. Um this one blew my mind when you brought it up. By the way, I don’t I mean I’m trying to I’m I’m going too hipster mode. Uh but I was just thinking about I I don’t know. I just like CM I’m I’m like really high on CMBB. So every time I think about the Raptors, he’s like one of the top two three players on my mind. So that’s why it was like one of the guys I was making duels with and they’re thinking he’s going to be coming off the bench, right? And the the big he’s going to be playing with most likely is Mamu, right? So then I started thinking about that fit and it makes it makes some sense with some caveats where cuz I was watching Mamu his jumper is so flat. It’s actually crazy. So much wrist on that thing. He is flinging it. It’s nuts. So I was like man cuz I thought he was I thought he was like oh yeah he can shoot but can he shoot? That’s that’s the question that kept coming to me. He’s a better driver than he is shooter. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, like I was like, okay, even if the jumper is just like okay mid, like the fact that he can put the ball on the floor and like drive and make decisions will still it’s still valuable as a spacer, right? People will still step up, right? Uh because of that and he could take advantage of the space. So now I’m just thinking like if you have CMBB Mamu 45, then offensively you have two guys who could handle drive, make decisions, right? Mamu hopefully, fingers crossed, can shoot, right? then you’re looking at a pretty uh you’re looking at a pretty good bench big combo and then defensively the concerns we have about Mamu CB just does this to everybody right the defensive current Mamu CMBB can kind of mute those right so I feel like it’s pretty interesting fit so um yeah cuz the starters we know what the starters going to be so I’m more interested at what’s going to happen on the bench and if that’s our four five duo off the bench then it’s like okay I think it’ll be pretty fun to watch so that’s I’m going to keep my eye on. So that’s why I had my second do. Wow. Give you a little thumbs up on screen there. Oh yeah. The So it’s kind of funny. Mamu is It’s kind of similar to the Grady pairing in some sense, right? It’s like protect me, protect me on defense, help me out with spacing on offense. And also low key, it’s kind of like this guy currently has more punch as a driver than he does as like strictly a shooter. Of course, like I the stats Grady when he got set shots like the spot up threes 46%. That’s good. That’s great. But they got him doing so much stuff. Mamu, I’ll be very interested to see cuz the Raptors, God, they’ve signed shooters who just never shoot. It’s just happened too many times. And like even Otto Porter Jr., he would have shot the ball, but he lost his toe, man. He was disappeared for like a year. And um the Mamu stuff is it’s also when you have two bigs who can make reads as passers. And I think or Shamsh showed this has been a battle I’ve been fighting for years, man. Calling calling big men who pass like fake passers cuz they make one one high low read and everyone’s like, “Oh yeah.” It’s like the hyo read is the easiest pass in. Yeah. Yeah. It’s easier to make a high low read than it is to like hit a guy in step curling a pin down. It’s easy and they get gas for and then all the bigs and pickup they get the ball hit and they they think they’re joku and CMBB and that and I think they’ll both cut which gives as you know front court shift to defend them as a fiveman unit and especially depends like if RJ is in there with a transitional lineup if Grady’s out there. Who knows how the defense is moving. Those guys will have opportunities to cut off of one another as drivers. I wonder I wonder how that goes. It’s It’s very interesting. Yang Hansen Yang Hansen is a real passer, everybody. Okay. He’s a real He put the He put the English on the ball. It curved into the root. He’s pretty. And Handsome Young is the Oh, that’s incredible. That brand is crazy, man. Yeah. Yeah. Um, my second tandem I guess because we want to talk about IQ a little bit. I will I the second tandem I want to discuss is Jamal Shed and Yakob Purle. But I guess probably we should just have it be like the larger conversation of point guards plus Yakob. And so first thing I want to get your how do you feel about IQ? because IQ because of his health more than his play uh has had a rough go of things and like you get paid and then everyone gets upset at you. That’s that’s that’s how basketball fandom works, right? If he was making like $12 million a year, everyone’s like this guy is the coolest guy of all time, but you make 32, suddenly you’re not cool anymore. That sucks. Yeah. What are you looking for from him? And is Yakob a path to anything he can improve on to you? Yeah, I feel like I think he’s a good player. Like the thing about IQ um when we got him from New York, right? Uh everyone’s going hyped. They’re like saying and I Maxi um Tyrese Maxi and the people there was a crowd they’re like well if you look at the metrics he’s actually better than OG you know there was actually that crowd too. So, um, but then when I watched him like closely for the Raptors, like the limitations in his game, like two things stood out where like his jumper, he has to be like either like forward momentum, like it’s always like north south, right? Like he’s just like either dribbles off a screen, nobody’s behind him, then he could pull up. That’s his favorite type of shot or in transition, right? But like the moment like he has to go any east west and it gets and if there’s someone trailing him, it’s so easy to block, right? So that the pull up in certain situations really good, but it doesn’t have as much versatility as it needs for him to be the player to pull up threat you want him to be, right? Like the high level high level. And then the second part, I remember from day one, I think it was against the Cavs his first game, like Scotty set a screen, he rolled into like the short roll area, the pocket pass was so like right there open and he pump faked or like he stopped and he just like turned around and passed it. He just does that so many times and his threat off the dribble, especially when driving to the rim, he always is seeking contact and trying to get fouled, right? Or trying to do like a quick layup off the glass. Uh, right. So, it’s not really in control. So, he doesn’t have really much downhill threat. So it becomes he becomes a very player that’s limited in scope where he can do this really good and like this specific stuff. But the moment you want him to like actually do the point guard stuff that keeps the offense like really moving I I that’s where I get concerned. I’m like okay he can’t really perform those well. Um and he always gets into these situations where he’ll drive and then he’ll like stuck and then he’ll like kind of like oh wait come save me or pitch it back. Right. So like th it those type of scenarios really kind of uh soured my taste on him. Um I don’t know how realistic it is at his age to become all of a sudden a good pocket passer and like these weaknesses like work on them and become good. Um so in the context of Yakob uh if he can like in the pick and roll make those passes quicker and make those decisions faster then I feel like okay yeah I would be a bit more higher on him. But it’s just so many phases offensively where I’m like, “Ah, man.” He leaves you wanting, right? It’s just like, “Oh.” So, I think he’s a good player, but flawed. And um some of the flaws really, especially the talent that’s bes around him, Scotty Yakob, if he was a bit better at those flaws, I think the whole team will elevate way more. Right. So, that’s kind of my thoughts. He He’s so He’s so interesting to me because there is that 14 points in four minutes randomly. You know what I mean? And when the because he is kind of like a IQ is kind of like a player who you put all of the all of the traits in like one thing. Like you’re playing like Fallout New Vegas and you put like up to nine on the one thing, right? I don’t know if you play Fallout New Vegas, but yeah, Fallout 3. I don’t think I play New Vegas. New Vegas is so fire, man. That’s what people say. Yes, it definitely that’s that’s the video essay one. There’s like a whole cottage industry in follow New Vegas video essays. When I was sick, I went through like six of them. So anyway, IQ is so good at some things like just so hyper specifically excellent when the game open up opens up for him. It’s just that like counter punching ability. He’s not he’s not been a good counterpunch player. So if his teammates, let’s say Ingram and Scotty, ascend together this year, they can re if they can create that path for him, he will sprint through it. Like his skill set is so readymade to give you hyperefficiency to threaten the right things, to help out the team as a spacer, to give them, you know, passable pick and roll possessions when they need it to turn through. as long as he’s not the main feature. Because when he’s the main feature, teams are so good at Yes. making him kill the dribble, pump, look back, pitch back out because he he does kill his dribble. And low pickup point, low release point, doesn’t like going left. The pull-up jumper is not as expansive as we want. And he floats when he’s off ball. He doesn’t cut to the ball. He doesn’t form up to drives. Even though he’s an incredible catch and shoot player, he doesn’t play off ball. And I think that’s probably that’s what growing up in the New York system was where it’s like isolation and everything. It’s like cuz he’s a pretty damn good isolation player. Yeah. Gets his spot and it’s he takes the quote unquote right shot. So the points per possession goes through the roof. His counter punch ability. What’s he 26 now? Late 25 something like that. It still can be added to his game. It’s just I wonder how it is. And I’ve man I’ve been asking it feels like every NBA coach last year because I saw the limitations with quickly. So I was like everyone I could ask players coaches how how hard is it for a guard to develop their like middle of the floor game? And then Tom Tibido after IQ gets traded he says I don’t think you can and I was like no man he’s like he’s like I think it’s almost innate because he has Jaylen Brunson right? And he’s like Jaylen just has that thing about him. And then also talking to Eric Spolster who watched it with who had Kyle Lowry at the time and also Jimmy Butler, right? Like Jimmy Butler is an unbelievable guy carving out room in the middle of the four and he’s like, “Yeah, it’s tough, man.” Because there’s just so many things that go into it. And it does seem almost innate. But if IQ developed that, I’d be over the moon about his game. But it is it’s definitely missing. And as ND says, it’s so sad how bad his floater fell off. Lewis when they traded for I don’t know if you remember he was like IQ is shooting 60% on folders and everyone’s like let’s go and he’s shooting I think like 43% since then. It’s a tough fall off but IQ if the team is good he’ll probably be humming and the potential is there for if he gets put in a good role man he could be just an unbelievable combo I think. So, we’ll we’ll wait we’ll wait and see on that. But I did want to get your opinion on IQ. Yakob, I mean, DaVon Mitchell and Yakob had one of the best pick and roll partnerships when they were together cuz literally all it is is just the pocket pass and the floater. Easy peasy. Good at that. If if IQ can work some of that into his game, and I know he does work on the IQ works on the pocket pass a lot. I think that can develop into his game. I mean, you play with Yakob, why wouldn’t you, right? Yeah. And also apparently he wants to get bigger. Good. Fine. Totally. That’s all great. Jamal shed. He likes the pocket pass. Yeah. He likes when he can to work the middle. It doesn’t mean he gets all the way to the rim, but he works the middle. How much time playing together do you think Yakob and Jamal will have this year? That’s kind of where I am. That’s a good question. Yeah. I’m not sure. I’m not sure they’ll have too much because I assume like by the time shed subs on uh Mamu or whoever the backup big um will come on shortly after, right? And maybe he’ll get a few minutes with him, but I feel like mostly IQ and Yakob will be tied uh closely together. So I’m not sure how how much uh IQ like he’s obviously not the most healthy player, right? So if obviously if IQ gets injured then it’s going to be the shed show once again. So, um, yeah, that’s, uh, I don’t think you’ll get much though, uh, based on current roster construction, right? So, okay. Um, there’s actually a good question or a statement from YA says IQ needs to learn how to set screens. Well, I’m going to draw something up on my clipboard, but I want you to tell me how you think he is as a screen setter. Yeah, like obviously his frame isn’t too good, right? Uh, like he’s he’s pretty slight, right? uh shoulders aren’t too wide. Um so, but like even as a screen like first of all, they don’t really even run much Scotty IQ, right? Uh small big or inverted pick and roll. So, the amount of opportunities I had to see in it was pretty limited. But when he did, I feel I felt like he’s more like screening. He’s he doesn’t really want to make too much contact. like he’ll maybe like lightly tap and then really exit immediately. Um where whereas like I think the best guard screeners are the ones that can like legit just sit there and hold their position right as they get hit longer than you expect. Obviously we had like uh Fred and Lowry, so we’re spoiled, right? Um but I think he’s he’s not that good. Um, but honestly I haven’t seen too much of a sample size to make a definitive claim on it. But my first impressions is like not very good as a screener as a guard. So, okay. So, I have two plays that the Raptors run where they use IQ as a screener. So, I’ll try and show them on screen. This one on the right side is Oh, lord. This stuff is always so tough to do teleustrating. I don’t know how they do it on TV. Wait, let me let me turn the let me turn this off quick. Okay, so this one is the easiest and this one is just this is an alteration of 77 skip which if you watch the Pacers run to the NBA finals you would have seen a million times from Tyrese Hallebertton and it’s where IQ is the first screener and either Scotty or Ingram I presume this year will be the one who pitches or throws the ball out to the second screener and the guy from the corner then sets a pin in for IQ as he runs off as the first screener. And that’s because teams will load up on the outside screener, the second screener, and they’ll shift to that side of the floor. And Scotty in the past has been in a really good position as a great skip passer to skip the ball over the top to IQ in the corner. And then the second one is where IQ is the first screener, but there’s no pitch and the or sorry, the second screener, and the first screener turns around and screens a flare for IQ. And Scotty takes the ball outside and throws the ball over the top to of a flare. And this stuff is more so featuring IQ kind of as like an offball screener, but it would be so good if he were able to develop as an onball screener. Like that’s a huge credit to Ochai, something he became really good at this season. They used Ochi as a screener up top for a million different variations of things because one, he could flare out for three. Two, he could stick his man and three, he could stick his man in seal for when they’d short the pick and roll. Yok would flash to the free throw line area or above. They pass they’d enter to him and Oi would cut make a basket cut for a layup. Like screen craft can get you a lot of things in the NBA. And I would just I would love if IQ I mean if he’s getting beefier then maybe maybe that’s something we’ll see but I just in the simplest terms because I know I’ve I’m critical and like not um not super optimistic about Jamal Shed especially relative to Raptors media which Raptors media loves Jamal Shed and his game and Raptors fans love him. I see Kyle Lowry comps all the time. He’s well below nuts. But we everyone everyone has some everyone has some fun. Well, I think I What did I was It was in Jest, but I think when I was talking to Blake, I was like, “How is Grady Dick different than Devin Booker, you know, just just to be funny. Everyone everyone has some comps they like to make.” You should My my Malachi Flynn arc was kind of Oh, who was your comp for Malachi? I don’t know. I was like light CP3. Oh Jesus, dude. Hell yeah. I remember at San Diego State. I was like I don’t know what I was seeing, but I fell in love. Anyways, is sick from there, man. Well, he’s such a nice watch. You know, when he’s going that’s the thing. Ball don’t stop chosen for a reason. You watch Malachi Flynn, everything makes sense. He looks like he looks like a prototypical all-star point guard. He’s like Darren Williams if he was just like a little bit shorter. you know what I mean? Different different jump shot mechanics. But yeah, um Jamal, there’s potential there’s potential for him to if he gets to play with Yakob to use the middle of the floor and use him as a screener. And cuz honestly that’s an important facet of the Raptors offense is like how do we get the ball to YaKob in a spot where he can score and it won’t be as important this year as it was last year. But is Scotty going to be the one who like feeds Yakob? I don’t know. Is Ingram going to be the one who feeds YaKob? I don’t know. Shed coming in off the bench as like a change of pace guard who’s who’s like YaKob I want to feed you, man. This is where you score six points in three minutes. That might that might be a feature. And that would be a very friendly I I think tandem for especially for Jamal because I mean YaKob teams up with anybody it starts to look awesome. You’re like damn this guy’s great. But yeah, that’s kind of where I was thinking with it. Uh your last duo before we get into the CMB of it all. So last duo was probably the one people are most excited about is Scotty and Ingram, right? And I’m more actually just like intrigued or like fascinated how how they’ll fit because um most likely it’s going to be Ingram at the three, Scotty at the four. Um we’ve seen Scotty especially last year like handle the ball a lot right above the break. Um so with Ingram coming in, uh is he going to be handling more and then does that mean Scott is going to be more playing uh down low or like catching the ball free throw line below? Right. Um, and then what does that mean for Scotty if it’s like Scotty’s still hanging around on the perimeter? Um, I guess I think we know pretty well how good Scotty is as a offball player, right? Like he came in the league with Pascal instantly. He was just like finding gaps. He So, I’m more interested in what Ingram does off ball, right? When Scotty is really doing his thing, right? Um, is he just standing there? Uh, cuz I I I had my impression of him, he’s not really that much of a threat as a cutter, right, dude. I watched so much Ingram, he just didn’t cut. And I when I was talking about this, I had some cuz Ingram actually has a lot of fans. He has a lot of fans. Yeah, he does. Like the the Ingram fan base. So, I got a lot of feedback immediately like that was just Willie Green’s offense. Like that’s just the Falcons. And I was like, well, you know, you’ve seen more than I have at that point, so like maybe. But we’ll see. It’ll bear out this year. We’ll see. Yeah. Like obviously I haven’t watched much as these Ingram fans, right? But every time I’ve seen him, it’s I don’t think I’ve ever watched a play with Brandon Ingram. Like, whoa, nice cut. Or like, wow, he like everything is either he’s off ball just like spacing or he’s about to come off a screen to a handoff or run pick and roll. Right. So what he does and especially what Darko does for them too. Uh so I’m very interested to see what Ingram does off ball with Scotty cuz if when Scotty when Ingram has a ball, Scotty’s just going to be roaming around setting screens, catching the ball, you know, like doing Scotty stuff. So that that that I’m interested that part. And then inversely on defense on the other end. Um, yeah, I think Ingram just has to, the only role he has to really do is just be solid containing on the perimeter, right? Because then you’re going to have Yakov and Scotty behind you, right? So, if he can do that, then I think they’ll work together well offensively. Um, cuz Scotty can plug a lot of gaps. And also like um I’m interested to see cuz Scotty when he came into the league especially as a perimeter defender people were like whoa he’s actually like way worse than we thought he was like his foot speed. Uh he’s gotten better but obviously his strength is not on ball right defending. So if Ingram can take up those responsibilities and he doesn’t have to be elite or anything, just be like competent enough, then I feel like, okay, then Scotty can really just purely play his role and then Ingram can just like defend on the perimeter. So that that’s kind of the the the reason I had those duels. I’m more interested to see how they fit offensively. So, and what Darko does, right? um especially Ingram coming into this type of offense, how that looks if Darko concedes a bit or if he kind of just says, you know, you got to get get on the train, buddy. You know, so I’m I’m interested in that part. So that’s why I had them as my my last duel. They are they are so compelling because and I hang on to this month and a half of basketball probably more than anybody else. But before Pascal got traded, the Raptors and before OG got traded even, they had like a month and a half of basketball where they were like a top six offense. And a lot of it was built off of forward screening, like same size screening to find mismatches to create entry passes to Pascal and Scotty both. They had like I mean I have my notebook of all their pet plays they used to run. They can do that stuff with Ingram and Scotty. And that is kind of like the dark arts of offense are these little forgotten corners of where you can grind out advantages. Like if you Scotty Barnes curling even from like 17 ft off of an Ingram screen and they’re like, “Are we switching this? Do we want the smaller defender on Scotty now or the bigger one and then the smaller one on Ingram?” and kind of like using it as a read option is like whoever gets the matchup that we like out of that will be either moving downhill or getting a matchup that we love. So just having Yakob operate from like the elbow extended to make plays off of that. There’s so much potential to work offense from that position. And you can’t do that with R.J. and Scotty. You can’t do that with you can only do that with like Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum. You can only do that with Scotty Barnes and Brandon, like the same size guys who get who put you in the what the hell are we doing here type of matchups and there’s so much potential for that. And Ingram is a good passer. He’s he’s a little bit like he’s he’s a little bit more of a passer live dribble, which is good, which is what you like, but the Raptors are going to ask him to make like stand still passes too to like read the floor and all that. how much he cuts, it matters a lot. His proclivities and tendencies as a guy to catch and hold, it matters a lot because Yeah, that was one of the things that surprised people about Scotty last year was that Scotty went from being a tap the ball away constantly guy to a catch and hold player. Yeah, I don’t think his career will I don’t think that will be the sum of his career. I think it’ll like normalize. IQ a catch and hold player. R.J. Barrett, who everyone said was a catch and hold player, was like the arguably outside of Scotty, the fastest processor of like, here’s what I want to do when I get the ball. Making quick decisions. How fast Scotty and Ingram make decisions? How like how much of a I guess like highway like a quick like what’s the whatever it is in Germany? The one that goes fast, man. Autobon. An autobon highway of decision making. Very quick. because those situations require a quick decision- making. Those those situations require knowing exactly what you want to do against a matchup or against a defense. And you know, Ysef Cassidy says here with the amount of passing across the starters could be I don’t know what he’s referring to, but that is a good point. Like there’s a lot of passing amongst the starters, cutting, filling, some shooting. The potential with good decision-m is there and the Raptors clearly want to play that style. And in that sense, the idealized versions of Scotty and Ingram actually worked together exceptionally well. And I was somebody who always thought that like Pascal and Scotty actually did work together. That I that was always my contention. I know other people didn’t view it that way, but I always thought it worked. Obviously, not they weren’t like an incredible team, but the tandem Ingram and and Scotty, I think there’s potential for a lot of things there. So, and it will be so compelling. is like your two best players, how do they work off of each other? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think um Yeah. It’s interesting because I I don’t know like there’s a bunch of players in the league where you could say, “Oh man, if he really just improved as a cutter, right?” But I don’t think people understand like how much feel goes into cutting. Like you can’t just wake up one day and be like, “Oh, I’m going to cut now.” Like you like, let’s say you’re playing basketball. Oh, you you watch your own tape. you’re like, “Oh man, I should have cut there.” Right? Maybe next time you actually cut, but like you you really have to know what’s going on on the floor angles and not only just be willing, but to actually like identify opportunities and timing, right? So that stuff like I kind of categorize them more as really hard to learn, especially as you get older, right? Younger players maybe. So yeah, like as a cutter maybe he improves, but I would bet money on probably it being like just okay, you know, like just stationary. So well, it’s it’s even just like the baseline the not baseline, but like the the like mediocre level cuts. Yeah. Is you collapse the weak side for a 45 cut. If it doesn’t collapse, then you’re open for a layup. If it does collapse, then you open up the weak side for a three. do doing that kind of stuff. The built-in cuts are Yeah. Also, a lot of people have brought up R.J. and Yak as a tandem. That’s not who we picked, but yes, they deserve a shout. They were like they were a really great duo last year. One of the best duos on the Raptors, just as a mention. So, but cuts, there are cuts that are built into the structure of the offense. I’ve done like Grady and I had like we’re talking about cuts just like forever, but he had to go and like cuts are very some of them are reads. Yes. And some cuts like the Danny Green cut or the Wade cut or the Mcetti cut, they called it Cory cut. Like these guys kind of develop their own because they’re so good at understanding where there might be an opening. But there are cuts that are built into the offense that you have to do for the health of a play because the play has to create this advantage or this advantage and you have to cut from the right place to make the defense choose. Some of that is good. Some of that is like just necessary and then there’s the interpretive cuts where like special cutters like Jaylen Williams is one of the most special cutters in the NBA right now. I think that Grady will end up being one of those like very he has to finish better at the rim, but one of those very special cutters, too. Guys who know that the structure of the offense is trying to tug and pull, but what else can I add? And then the gravity of how much teams care about them? There’s just so much room to affect as a cutter. It’s why like the spacing stuff is always interesting because what they figured out when you really looked into Zion is like Zion has an inverse type of gravity as a cutter around the middle and can drag like he can keep defenses away from the nail just by standing like two feet away from the nail. He doesn’t even have to step out because he makes this semicircle cut to the other side to catch and then finish at the rim. Scotty can do the same type of thing. Ingram probably not, but Ingram like on a stampede cut, who knows? There’s just so much potential for cutting and it’s actually so complicated. I’ve like I knew all this, but I learned so much about the structure of basketball after like two years of working with Caitlyn Cooper. Just like what the hell? like us going into those deep dives after every game and seeing like exactly what a team is trying to do and how intense it is and how it changes on personnel is just like holy smokes, man. They’re Yeah. Oh, we’ll we’ll see. Scrambles, you say to be a cutter, someone else has to be drawing the doubles. He didn’t have that much in New Orleans. He will have that more with the Raptors. One, people don’t need to be doubled. Two, Zion drew a lot of doubles, man. like a whole bunch. We’ll we’ll see. But Ingram, it would be pretty late in his career to become a cutter, but I’d love to see it, man. Of course, I’d love to see it. All right, we uh we got to talk CMBB. Also, another type of like it works is the corner crash for offensive rebounding and then the tag up for defensive like transition defense. Oh my god, man. There’s like there’s a lot of stuff there. or the in between. CMBB, you have a great video essay on them. Actually, while you talk about CNB, I’m going to put the link to that in the chat, but go ahead. Colin Murray Boils. Yeah. Yeah. So, I made a video CMB just covering like it was after I think after we drafted him. Yeah. Um, so I made a video on other prospects prior just leading up to the draft. Um, but obviously Raptors drafted CMBB, so I was really excited. So, I dove into him prior. I watched a decent bit of him. I think I had him like fifth on my board during draft night, right? So, he was like my number one him and I think I had Queen second for the Raptors as guys I wanted for the in the ninth pick. So, yeah. All right. So, we drafted him, then I made a video going into his game, and I I guess to start with, one of the things that stood out most, like immediately, obviously, I think everyone knows he’s really a good defensive prospect, right? Like, or like top two in the draft at least, right? Right. Maybe even the best, right? Depending if Cooper flag. So, like that immediately stood out. He’s like insanely quick processor. We saw this in summer league. He’s in short areas. He can cover ground like very quickly, right? And he’s also like very big. Uh his hands were crazy, right? And that we saw a lot of that in some He’s got the most nuts hands. Freakish freakish stuff like the stuff he was doing, you know, like the speed of it, the strength when he actually gets the ball to like pull it. Um and even like when he’s like offensively just at the top of the like key like handing off or like passing around, he has like a weird like rhythm to his game where he like pump fake and then like launch a pass to the left, you know, and it kind of like tilts the defense more than you expect. But essentially, defense stood out for first, but I I started to realize how how much higher I was in this offense than I thought I would be. Like he’s like his driving game. Um he’s not like insanely crazy burst type of driver, but the strength is actually like crazy levels of like he’ll drive and like take two, three bumps from like center size guys and just like keep going, keep going. And then when he gets to the rim, like the type of finishes he’s doing, he’s mostly left-handed obviously, but he’ll be like at an angle like this going like crazy fast, getting bumped and just like laid in, and then he can go like has counters. He can spin. He has a pretty quick spin move. Uh his post game, he he like posted up a decent amount. I think it’s pretty simplistic his approach. He’s not nothing crazy, but he just like makes quick moves uh and then he tries to get to his left hand right for the for the floater. He has a good touch there. So, but his driving game, I’m really interested cuz I saw a couple picking rules he was running with his guards that he really like would drive. Some guy would step out immediately. He spin off the counter, got to got to got to the lane, missed the missed the layup. But there was a couple of those possessions that were like sparse. I’m like, man, I wonder if they put the ball in his hands more and like with like obviously some shooters like I think cuz even like when you compare him to Scotty, I think they’re similar types of players in terms of their strengths, especially defensively, but there’s pretty stark differences, especially like Scotty when he came into the league. Um, my biggest concern was his lack of burst and like lack of pull-up game. The combo of those two really scared me as an onball player, right? but he just does everything else in between. And the touch and strength combo are kind of underrated, but he still doesn’t have that penetrative game, right? CMBB kind of has a bit more of that where he can really like push through guys and even slower foot guys get by them and then cause more pressure downhill. So, offensively, I think I’m a bit more higher than I thought I would be on CMB. And the shot I think also like ah it doesn’t look that bad. like a couple mid-range jumpers were like, “Okay, I could I could see it.” But even though like even if his shot never becomes good, I could still see him being a good offensive player because that’s how high I am on the driving, cutting uh offensive rebounding is really good, too. So, like elite defensive prospect and surprisingly good offensive like people are comparing him. I think I watched a stream like a couple weeks ago when he drafted him. People were saying Moogbo for CMV, which that bugged me. in the process up to it, I was like, “These guys are not the same at all.” We drafted another Mog. I was like, “Bro, like it’s so reductive.” Like that that that type of stuff like especially when you watch him for extended periods, you see how different a player he is. So essentially, yeah, I I think downhill threat as a driver, as a passer made him made me really higher on him offensively than I thought I would be. And then obviously the lead defensive prospect go with that. So at nine, I was over the moon when he drafted him. I was like so hyped, right? So yeah, obviously did you see the video of my reaction? Stupid man. You cuz he was my favorite guy. I was like, “Yo, I can’t believe it.” Um, also it was lowkey cuz I was like, “I don’t have to do any work. I already did all the work.” You did the pre-work. I was scrapping. I got to I got to get a video. I was like, “Yo, this is this is a good way of summarizing the point you’re making about Scotty versus CMBB and their their different strengths.” And he says the way they move is very different. CMBB better in short spaces explosion while Scotty better in space. That’s why I think CMBB will be so good as a driver. Yeah. Like there like if CMBB catches from 18 feet away on a 45 cut, catches high and gets one dribble, he’s probably going to have to like bump take or take two steps, bump and finish on the outside of his right or left hand depending on the side of the floor. Scotty catching that maybe wouldn’t even have to put the ball down and would finish above the rim with a dunk like that. His length and his ground coverage once once the engine is going. Scotty is just way different than CMBB. But CMBB, it’s a shame. One, he didn’t finish this play and two that he missed both the free throws. But he got weaked in the pick and roll and he went between his legs, burst off the back foot going right and like beat a guy downhill, went to the link, got fouled and he missed the free throws. But I was like, whoa. I was like that was sick, dude. And obviously his his first step in that explosivity is just it’s way better than Scotty’s because Scotty Scotty similar to OG big movement players. When they get to move big, they look incredible. And that’s like, and they both look so good when giving, you know, defenders or prospective offensive players defensively when they give them a buffer and use their length to disrupt and let their wide steps guard rail. Yeah. Incredible. Whereas CMBB is like, where you going, bro? And those hands are clawing at you, disrupting everything. They’re they are very different. I think like that brings an interesting conversation how they fit defensively when they share the four, right? Because this was also what I was thinking about where like man Yeah, it’s it’s crazy, right? Like I think CMB like obviously I think Scotty would be better as a low man or like a ROR, right? Uh than CNB cuz like you said like large spaces like he can cover like crazy, right? I think CMBB could be an upgrade of what we’ve been lacking on ball. I don’t know if he’s going to grow and I don’t want to really pigeon hole him to be like a point of attack really starter like not starter but point of attack defender in our in our defensive scheme when he’s sharing the floor of Scotty but I feel like if Scotty have Scotty roaming and then you have like CNB one pass away just like digging down on any drives like you just have two threats on defense like the offensive players are always worried about right and I wonder if they play them small or at the 34 that’s going to be another interesting thing um if they ever at small ball time or at the um 34. So yeah, like that that was probably like for the fourth duo I would have mentioned cuz it’s going to be very interesting. But yeah, like summary over the moon with the pick. I think he’s going to be really good. Um and I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people offensively. Uh cuz they’re they just look at the shot and like turn their brains off. Like bad shooter equals bad offensive player, you know, end of the day they’re done. Um but no, I I think he’s going to be really good. So yeah, I’m excited. There’s there’s a lot of Carter Bryant versus uh CMBB. And the I’ll say as a guy who those were the two big deep dives that I did. I came away liking both guys for for Carter. The thing obviously is that I said I believed in the jumper a lot. The jumper really has to be there for Carter because has to and he and you know we talked about how cutting is such a cerebral and interpretive aspect of a game. Carter one has to be really good at that. two, he has to shoot the ball. And defensively, Carter really has to work on screen navigation because Carter is really good closing off those big spaces and keeping that buffer, but navigating the small spaces. Carter is not so good. I really like him. I would have been happy if the Raptors selected Carter, but I did like Stev better as a prospect. Um, Ro says Carter Bryant has zero shot right now. I wouldn’t say zero, but he definitely he struggled immensely offensively at summer league. He did. He was not able to to find his space, but he also the C the Cooper flag match up for Carter is actually incredibly friendly to all of his strength. When Carter defends guards, that’s when you’re going to be like, “Oh, wait.” Because Cooper has very bad screen craft as an offensive player is actually and when I did the Cooper film room is and Josh Codona it was on the when we were going to Montrembla the car podcast that died he was like there’s actually a lot of similarities to the proclivities and decision-m in Cooper Flag’s game as there is to Brandon Ingram. He doesn’t have a strong last step. He he’s not able to anchor himself and finish at the rim with his last step. think of like I guess like there’s a lot of players who do it, but R.J. is a really good example even though he’s he didn’t finish that well is like getting that last step to step around guy pivoting and going up strong. Cooper the reason why he fell down trying to drive to the rim so often is because he can’t stabilize himself. You know what I mean? He kind of buckles under that. So instead of pressing to step around guys pound dribble pull. And so Carter was in such a great spot playing like buffer defense guy against a guy who only wants to get to the middle of the floor and doesn’t really he’s not great at getting to the rim off the bounce. So that stuff showed up. I’m really interested and excited to see how Carter looks guarding elite guards. And I man I I really like Carter. I think there’s I think there’s an NBA role for him. I think easily I think he’ll be really fun. But in doing a deep dive on both and a lot like a lot of work on both, I did like CMD better. I’m very excited for CMB. Yeah. I think it’s just he he’s just more dynamic, right? Um like he definitely is more dynamic. Carter like Yeah, he Carter has a lot of ingredients to be like actually like a very potent NBA player, right? Um it’s just that yeah, like some of his game part of his game like anytime he puts on a floor, it’s like really really raw right now. Obviously, that’s a big uh selling point against him, right? But the jumper is promising. It’s actually I think it’s just like going to be good. And then a defense obviously his frame, like you said, is like exactly what you want, right? Um but yeah, when he puts on the floor, then it gets it gets spooky. But um yeah, if they drafted him, if they drafted him at nine, I think I would be okay. I think I would rather Oh, to be honest, to be honest, I was hoping Queen would be serious about his body a bit more, but like he he he was he had the wrist surgery now, right? Yeah. Yeah. I just saw that news. 12 weeks out in New Orleans. I’m I’m scared for my boy, man. You know, he’s going to come back. I don’t know. He’s going to be the same. But yeah, I I wanted Queen and CB. Um if we draft a card, that would be okay. Um Malawak, too. That would be okay. But I had CMBB like the clear number one guy I wanted. So thankfully we drafted him. That’s like you’re the amalgam of Trey and I cuz I really love CMBB and Trey really really loved Queen. He was he kept calling the chess piece the chess piece. But could you imagine cuz obviously going to going to like CMBB what he average like 10 points on it was pretty high true shooting but it wasn’t as much as we all would have liked but like imagine if the Raptors drafted Carter Bryant and he shoots less than 29% at the from the field 26% from three you know like seven points one assist the clips that go viral on Twitter. And again, I advocated for Carter. I like Carter. But the clips of him going viral, like guarding Cart guarding Cooper flag, that is nice. Yes. But if you watch the actual games, he he struggled. And if the Yeah. If he had been on the Raptors and like 27% from the field, it would have been scary hours as far as like the the conversation around him. But we’ll see, man. We’ll see. Is there is there any other topics on your mind before we get out of here? Um, yeah, not much. I guess I guess duo wise, Scotty IQ, similar to the Yakob one also like this was like remember when we drafted him where like oh man the fit people were like RJ. Okay. Okay. IQ and Scotty, man. Imagine they put out the open gym clip of Bobby Webster saying it and it wasn’t true. It wasn’t true. Yeah. I was like, and then they played together and it just never clicked. Will will it ever click? That’s the question. So, it’s kind of like a hopeful duo, like please work. But, um, that was the only thing left on my list. So, yeah, I’ I’ve talked about that before. For that duo to work, and it can work, but only if Scotty lowers himself from star to role player in that dynamic, right? Because what IQ really needs is someone to do all the dirty work for him and clear him up and free him up. And Scotty is like, I’m an allstar wing. Exactly. I don’t I don’t want to carve out space for you as a you know, a driver by being a, you know, a gritty screen. I’m not Marcen Gortat, bro. Like I’m going to I’m going to like I’m going to do a rub screen pop and give me the ball for an ISO. And IQ is the same thing. is like IQ is like h like I don’t want to form up that often. Like I’m not gonna I’m not really going to plant screens. I’m not even going to like sprint and and pivot and like do the go screen thing. They’re just neither is doing a lot to help the other. And Scotty Scotty is really and also IQ isn’t going to drive collapse the defense constantly and like make this great wrap pass to cutting Scotty on a corner crash or something or from the 45. But Scotty, if he wanted to, could be like a gritty screener. But IQ, if he wants to elevate Scotty, I don’t think he I don’t know if there’s much in the twoman game, but in the overall sense of like spacing and offensive prowess. Yes. But man, it’s it became pretty clear like once when you were when I was watching all of IQ’s P like Lewis sent me this stat, it broke my brain. We went to we went to a movie together, Mickey 17, which was, you know, I love Robert Patson, but it wasn’t that great, unfortunately. And he told me, he’s like, “Yeah, I’ve been watching a lot of IQ’s drives.” He’s like, “How many times do you think he drove the paint and created a layup this year?” And I was like 20 times. And I’m thinking that’s not often. And he was like, “It’s five.” I said five. Oh, poor man, man. And then and then my friend Polar, he sends me he’s like been charting like IQ’s passes, never passes to the middle of the floor. And I was like, oh god, man. And then you watch it all and it’s just like the ball is never going middle. And who did we watch, Kyrie? That guy always got the ball middle. Oh, so elite at getting the ball middle. And you know who would benefit a lot from a player who gets the ball middle? Scotty Barnes, man. Scotty Barnes. We’ll see. Yeah, but to to cap it off, I mean IQ, he’s still if they get him in the right role, he can really take off like the efficiency in shot making, they can coalesce. Yeah, I think Yeah, they just kind of have to like laser focus his strengths and have everyone else cuz like the moment I think he just overextended, right? Like we the hope was he could scale up like a player performing that well in New York, you trade for him, you make the bet he can scale up into like a higher level star. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out. So maybe him being like more scaled down in terms of not like touches or anything but more like okay what we’re we’re asking him to do right could it could improve him. Um one other guy I guess I I I wanted to bring up and I I I think I know you feel about him but Jacobe um cuz when we drafted him I wasn’t too high on him like I probably I forget I probably had him in the 20s so not too far from 19 but I was like wasn’t my number one option right? Um, I think he’s past my expectations because I was lower on him, but his shot is like he always like it’s always short. Like, is he going to be a real deal shooter? Like, I I’m starting to really question like the level of a shooter he’s going to be. Uh, the defense of intensity he’s brought and all that stuff has really like, okay, buoyed that. Like, maybe if he’s not like an elite shooter, he still be solid. But I was actually summoning and outside those explosions like it was like front rim, front rim, front rim. And I was just like, man, like I don’t know if it’s worth doing like mechanical tweak cuz you know that could screw everything up, but like yeah, I was just that was on my mind. I’m not sure what level of his jump shooter, three-point jump shooter he’s going to reach, you know? Well, I I don’t think like as far as the the diversity of shots that he makes and takes, I don’t think it’ll ever be that high. But for him, it’s that it’s the kinetic chain, right? like he can get stuck up top and he can let his legs get a little straight so that he loses the the the kinetic chain going upwards. And basically what that leads to is being short repeatedly and just kind of like he gets like up on his toes and he just kind of pushes the ball at the rim and he get front rim front rim front rim when he gets to when he gets to like catch sit in his stance and transfer all the way through. That’s why he had a really hot finish still last season was simpler shots and but when he’s constantly mixing like these creation attempts, it kind of confu and he’s, you know, bringing a lot of these pull-up attempts into it, he’s constantly changing like where he’s gathering. He’s just not super consistent. But his jump shot mechanics are super simple. Yeah, super simple. Nothing crazy, right? I think Yeah, it’s just like the lower the power generation, right? The lower body like you’re saying. So, I think I’m going to keep an eye on that this season. Um because yeah, he ended last season well, but yeah, I really hope because yeah, if he’s like a legit like real deal shooter, then like you’re you were talking about some like a valuable player on a roster, right? So, um yeah. So, I’m interested. I’m going to watch that more. Uh cuz I’m I’m more like monitoring him because Grady, I think I know what he is, right? And like even though like the finishing struggles, all that stuff, like I know what he’s going to bring and I’m pretty still pretty high on him like in terms of that. Big year coming. Yeah, big year. Yeah. So, but Jacobe, I’m like kind of still trying to uh kind of clear out the picture of a player he’s going to be, right? And so, I’m I’m looking at the jump shot cuz I think mid-range pullup foul drawing really impressed me like the sort of stuff he was doing. I’m like, “Okay, like he showed that some of that Baylor.” And then the defense to be hon like he’s really like bought in completely. So, I’m like really impressed defensively. So, I just want to bring Jacobe up last. So, great great ball pressure defender. Um, as Andy asked, this year’s greatest extension year, right? Yeah, he can sign an extension this year. And the Jacobe thing is there’s like there’s four things that are going really well in his favor. You hit on most of them. And the A, it’s ball pressure defense, which is incredibly important in in today’s NBA. He definitely can do it. two, he can be a two guard who guards ones. He his his screen navigation definitely has to improve, but he was a rookie and he was good. He was a good isolation defender. That’s an incredible starting point. He can be a two, he can be a low usage two who guards ones. Incredible people. That’s incredibly important in the NBA because point guards don’t want to guard. Uh three, he cuts well. He like he definitely cuts well. Four, as you said, attacking closeouts and getting middle for mid-range jumpers, if it’s a grenade possession, or if you just need to beat somebody over the top, drawing fouls, great. Five, if the catch and shoot three is there to draw those close outs, he’s in a lower usage starting role, something like that in the future. Easy. Even if he’s the seventh man or the fifth starter, whatever that 19, that’s like a home run. Unbelievable. and and the ball pressure I like the 26 points in the third summer league game, right? Or sec second, third, I don’t know. That was so impressive. Not because of the 26 points. It was the seven steals. 26 points was like he hit a couple pull-up threes. He hit threes. He ran out in transition, but there wasn’t really any creation. Seven steals cuz he was on dude’s asses just like, “Yo, give me the ball.” I mean, he hit that pull-up three, they dribbled it down, he picked the guy’s pocket in the half court. It’s like, okay, this is elite. And that’s that’s why I’m actually I from the point of view of like Grady Jacobe, who becomes the more prioritized player on the roster is compelling. But I also think that like those two guys could play on the same team their whole careers and it would be it would be very friendly to one another and good. Yeah. They they they have a very uh friendly dynamic between their two skill sets, I think. Yes. Yeah. So, all right. 100%. Dude, plug yourself. We got to you got to tell everybody. Uh, obviously everybody has enjoyed listening. Um, this is a new guest on the podcast. There’s been like no guests on the podcast this past year. I’ve been so just just Trey and I for the most part and RR people. So, I had to extend the the web out farther. Abdell, no. Let the people Appreciate it, man. Yeah. So, you could find me on uh YouTube channel, Taco Takes. Um, so you can my CNB videos there. Raptor fans, bro. They roll deep, man. They so like this is like this video got to like 4K instantly, which is by far my highest. So, uh, really appreciate that. And then, um, I’m making a video on Camboozer hopefully this week and starting the 2026 draft stuff. Um, and then, yeah, hopefully I’m going to try to do like, uh, basketball content or something like that, um, more general outside the draft sometime this summer as well. So keep an eye out. So yeah, you can follow Taco Takes. Uh also at Twitter, Abdel Taco. I kind of troll on there a bit too much, but uh uh you can follow me because I also tweet out my thoughts there. Um but no, I appreciate you having me, man. This is a awesome podcast. I was listening to you guys. So dude, you you did excellent. I thought this is Is this your first podcast you’ve done or you No, I did uh one of my buddies Dly for three. He’s like a Hawk guy. Oh, I Yes, I know him. You know D, right? He had he had the funniest thing, dude. It was so I didn’t I didn’t follow him until I saw this. It was incredible. And like listen, I’m you know, Kevin has had Kevin O’Conders had me on the show and like I met Kevin at summer league and everything like that. But when when D for three had like his video on the difference between Paulo and Fron and Kevin O’ Conor like tweeted and then D was like just roasted him in response. I I was like, “Damn, I followed him cuz I was like, that’s so funny, man.” And then I was like, “Oh, he’s he’s great.” Yeah, he’s great. Yeah. So, I I did a couple of hits with him, too. So, that’s I guess that made more comfortable. But no, um appreciate you having me on, man. So, keep up the good work. He also I don’t know what he does for his uh like his UI like he publishes all those things. Like, I don’t know what I don’t know if he’s good at coding or programming or something to put like he made that website. I think he was telling me he coded himself which is very impressive. That’s impressive. Um and then he has these graphics. I think he works with someone else for the graphics but like he’s his content is actually like the some of the best I’ve seen from the Hawk. So like yeah if you guys want to follow him as well D for three is a good good guy. It’s very it’s very impressive for just being a single person. That’s like dude all cuz I’m such a schlub like I did carpentry before this. I wasn’t like, you know, a lot of people go from doing like an office job to this kind of stuff. And so they’re like really nice with Excel or graphics and I’m just like, I can’t do a lick of it, man. You know, I could put the siding on a house, but I definitely I don’t know how to organize the Excel sheets or any Yeah, Excel stuff. Like I’ve learned a bit more like some videos I have to like organize a bunch of stats I’m doing. But still, I just know the basics that these stat Excel gurus are like real deal, you know? They don’t play about this Excel stuff. So, dude, they can they can turn like six hours of work into six minutes. It’s so special. Yeah, that’s it’s crazy. All right. Um, podcast. Everybody, go follow Dell on YouTube. Go subscribe. Go watch his video on CNB and uh go follow him on Twitter as well. I’ll link everything in the description afterwards. Thank you so much for coming on, man. Everyone, like, comment, subscribe. It helps the channel. All right, everybody. Uh, thank you very much. later. Take care, guys. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Samson Folk & Abdel from Taco Takes team up to discuss the Raptors potential for this season.

Watch Abdel’s vid on CMB here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiNECDV_UbU&t=140s

Follow him on twitter here: https://x.com/abdel_taco

0:00 – Introductions

1:55 – Ingram + Jak

7:10 – Medium efficiency scoring

10:37 – Gradey + CMB

14:25 – RJ starting?

20:15 – CMB + Mamu

24:35 – Immanuel Quickley

32:32 – Jamal Shead + Jak

33:30 – IQ’s screen setting

37:00 – Outrageous comps

39:20 – Ingram + Scottie

47:06 – The art of cutting

51:30 – Abdel’s thoughts on CMB

59:30 – CMB v Carter Bryant

1:04:40 – Scottie + IQ

1:08:25 – Ja’Kobe ahead of schedule

1:13:44 – Goodbyes