Raptors Report: Interesting Offseason News

Raptors Report: Interesting Offseason News

[Music] They don’t [Music] matter. [Music] Nobody knowoo. [Music] coming by. He Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Hello, welcome back to the Raptors Report podcast. I am joined as always by my co-host Steve. It is August the 8th. We are in the doldrums of summer and you know I am chilling having a good time with the family. But uh there’s a couple of interesting things going on right now. We’re going to be covering that. Uh first of all we are going to be discussing uh CMB uh Colin Murray Boils who’s doing the summer run circuit and there’s a lot of really fun um highlights from that that we’ll be showing. We can talk about that. Yaka Purle is playing for team Austria and there are some fun stats there. I’ve clipped some of the videos for that. So, we’ll take a look at those. And then we’re going to be getting to something really fun. Uh player comps. Everyone loves player comps and uh they love making them, they love reading about them, they love disagreeing about them. That’s fun. And also there’s some, you know, people are talking smack about the Raptors. So, we’re going to have to take a look at that as well. But welcome to the podcast. How you doing, Steve? How’s your summer going? I’m well. I’m well, thank you. Hello, everybody. Um, yeah, I mean, we got 10 weeks until the NBA season, so I think like anyone, I’m just kind of counting down the days for that while trying to enjoy the last uh month or so of the summer. Absolutely. And um as you may all know, uh Steve was on a quest to uh to lose some weight. Uh let’s put it that way, to fit into his um his gear, his um uh stuff for a wedding. That’s right. And he managed to do it. So, congratulations. Yeah. Yeah. It um it took a lot of uh being hungry for about a week, but really what I learned in those seven days was that uh this whole uh publicity tour that Luca’s going on for this uh body transformation journey, it’s all I mean, it’s way easier than they’re making it out to be. You just he he’s skipping breakfast. He’s just having a good amount of time between meals and just not eating bad junk outside of it, which is pretty easy for most NBA players to do. So, I thought that was kind of funny when I was able to basically do the James Harden and lose a good chunk of weight very quickly uh to get in shape for something. So, uh yeah, it just kind of gave me some perspective on that. Yep. And I just pulled up the video uh or the video, excuse me, the tweet of you uh looking Dapper. So, congratulations. Uh very very cool to see. Uh why don’t we start uh start off the podcast by talking about uh you know the the really cool stuff that everybody wants to uh talk about the new and shiny toy Colin Murray Boils the uh Raptors rookie the player who has not even played a single game for the real Raptors. But we’re all intrigued. We’re all extremely excited to check this young man out. See how he’s doing. uh keep up to date like you know scout him and and see what the Toronto Raptors have on their hands and uh he’s been doing the summer run circuit and if you’re not familiar with that basically all of NBA players get together it’s like a proam thing um mostly pros I think they like to play against one another you know steel sharp and steel they like to play against the other top players and so we have some footage uh courtesy of uh Swiss cultures at Swiss cultures. So, thank you for clipping all of uh Colin Marie Bole’s um you know, summerr run footage so I don’t have to. So, why don’t we just bring that up really quick and we’ll take a look at some of the video here because it’s pretty exciting. Um I’m just going to mute it so we can talk without all the squeaking shoes. There’s no commentary or anything, but if you see, he just he hit a three in the first two seconds of the video. And of course, I mean, they he he made 100% of the shots that he took in this video, so that’s already very exciting. Uh it’s it’s good to see. Uh it actually looked pretty natural. Um he came off and just sort of squared up and shot the shot and it went in uh off the dribble, too. And here he is clamping Evan Moy. I love to see it. Scotty’s I think I think it was actually Isaiah Mobley’s brother. because Evan Evan wears like a do-rag in these runs. So, I think the the guy struggling there to get past him is I think Isaiah Mobley and and I think I joke that uh uh CMBB is uh putting his career in jeopardy at this point as he was kind of a nepo signing in the first place for the Cavs. Oh yes. Uh well, you know, u it’s allowed. These guys are paid like tens of millions of dollars. you might as well make them happy, right? If your if your superstar or emerging Kevin Garnett Light or whatever they want to call him wants his brother on the team, hey, let’s go for it. Uh so yeah, there’s a really good I’m just going to rewind here because there’s a lot of really really nice uh video of of him just smacking the ball away, just getting in the passing lanes and also his man-to-man defense. He has that Marc Gus all thing. I made a tweet about that. How he’s just very adept at using his hands to smack stuff away. Just if you show the ball to him, he’s smacking it away. And as you can see, I think he does that here, too. Um, is that Terry Een? I think Terry wearing his pants, the camo pants. Yeah, that’s so funny. But, uh, yeah. Um he it’s a lot of videos of him playing defense, which is good because you know that’s what he’s going to be doing at the next level, especially early on in his career. Um oh my god, he just absolutely demolished Terry E there. And there he is getting another hand on a an errant pass and just a couple of videos of him making easy layups. But um and I like the uh the catch and shoot three as well with a hand in his face. That’s right. that uh that really caught my attention cuz obviously those are not typical shots he’s going to be taking, but it’s good to see him working on those things. And uh yeah, those couple of threes that they showed. Obviously, they didn’t show the misses, but they looked very smooth and natural. Yeah. You know, like in terms of the the speed of the shot, that’s one of the things that you need to look at when you’re evaluating a player. I noticed like in his college footage, uh it was a little more ponderous. It took a little bit more time to get off. in those videos, it didn’t seem like there was any kind of hitch and he was just going straight up. Uh so that’s a good sign, of course. Um and you know, it probably means absolutely nothing that he’s making these shots in, you know, an empty gym against a bunch of, you know, other pros in a prom summer run, but you try and glean a little bit here, a little bit there. It’s never heard anyone being a little bit optimistic about a young rookie uh drafted ninth overall. So, it’s not like he’s like some, you know, nobody, some bum. He is a pretty highly recruited, pretty special player that we are getting to watch uh evolve, get better. So, I’m pretty excited to to watch him play. And and another thing is is that um uh to your point, the taking a shot with a hand in his face, a set shot, he’s going to be asked to do that, I think. Um, I think that they’re going to be telling him like, “Listen, we want you to be taking open shots and they’re going to be asking him to play off of the ball most likely uh, in his first year.” And so, a lot of that is spot up. A lot of that is, you know, making back door cuts, setting screens, doing the sort of dirty work, like the nonball stuff. And, uh, we’ll see how it goes. So, that was pretty interesting. and and something that was kind of my takeaway from it too was he looks really good next to good players at at South Carolina. He didn’t have a lot of good players. They weren’t uh a lot of their team wasn’t a very good team. Um he had to make do with a lot. They didn’t have a lot of good three-point shooting. They didn’t have So him next to some guys like Clay. Um and in the other run, I think Swiss Cultures put up two and in the other one he’s playing with Carter Bryan a lot of the time. Um he worked really well with him. He seems to play really well off of other really good players. So, I can see him getting some good minutes next to some of the starters and having a lot of success because he does just seem to kind of have some of that maturity to his game pretty early on. Well, absolutely. And uh there’s I mean everybody’s heard the expression before there’s only one ball and uh a lot of what you can contribute on a basketball court involves the stuff that you do when you don’t have the ball. And that’s kind of his whole game. Like of course he he has a good touch and he he can do some stuff. He has some moves, but when you watch him play, like the other stuff is the stuff that jumps off the screen like how h active he is on defense, how good his hands are on defense, like that kind of stuff. I’m really glad they showed that kind of stuff and it wasn’t all just offensive process and things like that. Maybe there wasn’t as much highlight there, but like he has such great hands on defense and they showed so many of those really nice things that he he’s able to do. Uh the the hand eye coordination stuff is really impressive to watch. So, I’m I’m glad that they did a good job of uh you know, highlighting what he’s good at. Um now, there’s another thing. So, we’ve we’ve done the CMB. There’s no stats to report or anything like that, but there are some stats. And there is another Raptor who is playing uh in the summer and that of course is uh the Austrian native Yakob Purle. Uh two-time Raptor uh obviously traded away in the Kawaii trade. He made his homecoming and you know a lot of people were down on the trade and the timing of it was pretty questionable. But I think that as people have grown accustomed to just like they after you’ve gotten over the shock of the trade, as you watch him play, he just has a very pleasing game and he does all of the right things. And he is being asked to like carry like a, you know, dog water Austrian team. They are horrible. I watched this game looking for clips and he is like the Raptors asked him to do that at the beginning of this uh this past season as well when it was kind of him and RJ Barrett and and um and uh Grady Dick uh and he can rise to the occasion and so he he has been playing in the um you know FIA uh let me see if I can get this off of memory the prequalifier European Championship tournament. tournament. So, this is like there’s qualifiers and then there are pre-qualifiers. And as you can imagine, Austria is not like a basketball powerhouse. They are kind of like they have one NBA player ever, and that is obviously Yaka Birdle. So, they’re not very good, but he has been kind of dumpstering the competition there. Um, and uh, let’s just take a quick look at uh, the statistics that he was able to put up because they’re pretty like he he he has eyepopping stats in a way that you would expect Yaka Purle to have eyepopping stats. So, he had uh, he was very efficient, 75% from the field. Uh, no threes. Uh, this is interesting, too. Four or five from the line, 80%. You love to see that. And when you watch him play, I’ve got some clips of it. He still uses the one-handed free throw technique, the the push shot technique that he uses for all of his shots now, which is amazing. 11 rebounds, seven of them offensive, uh, two assists, only one foul, uh, three turnovers. But here here’s the the real juicy stuff that makes you, you know, excited. Four steals and four blocks. And this is good, don’t get me wrong. He is easily the biggest person on the court. Easily. Uh they’re playing against the Netherlands and which is weird because the Netherlands apparently is one of the tallest countries in the world, but their their basketball team is not very good. Um so he did have a pretty dominant performance. Look, if we’re going to applaud We Wii for getting blocks, being taller than everybody, we can we can give uh Yak some flowers for eight stocks. I couldn’t have put up any better myself. Listen. Yeah. The the uh the alien. He’s abusing his length against us, you know, mere mortals, us uh earthlings. So, when Yakoba parachutes into some, you know, Ricky Dink tournament and is just blocking every shot imaginable. That’s kind of the same thing. I love that. That is a really good way of putting it. Uh so, let’s take a look at some of the clips. Uh I’ve got a couple here. Um, we won’t spend too much time on it, but um, what what was the first clip I got here? Okay, so Yaka Purle doing his like this is the ugliest basket I’ve ever seen, but it is extremely Yaka Purle. So, he puts up a bad shot, gets his own rebound, gets the the the shot blocked at the rim, but he’s just so big. He gets his own rebound again, and then uh makes a yep, that that tracks. That’s definitely Yaka Purle. Really good hands. Not an amazing athlete, but uh his herkyjerky bizarre style will get it done, especially at this level. But the defense is kind of why, you know, the four steals, four blocks. So, let’s take a look at some of that um on display. He breaks up. I don’t know if that was a block or if that was a steal, but he that was not a foul, by the way. That was a foul on the other team. So he just comes in and swats just a an alleyoop attempt it looked like. Um and uh created a turnover. So yeah, he’s uh man amongst boys. Oh, and here we go. We get to take a look at Yaka Purle’s one-handed free throw. I clipped this for some reason. There we go. One of the uh many he made on the day. And here we get to see him. This guy can barely dribble. So, this is okay. But this is still pretty impressive. He still manages to run out to the three-point line and block a three-point attack. So, and then yeah, he takes it on the fast break and manages to hold control of the ball. But, as you can see, this is not highle hoops. This is kind of um you know, maybe I was aura farming a little bit when I posted his stats uh on Twitter. got pretty good engagement from that because uh people maybe don’t know the level of competition that he was playing against. But in any case, it’s good to see Yak staying busy and uh you know there are a couple of people quite a few people on the stand so it’s not like he’s playing in front of nobody. But maybe we can use this to talk about Yak. Go ahead, Steve. I was just going to say I love to see anybody representing their country any chance that they can. Um a lot of players have the opportunity and don’t. Um, I think for many players it’s a dream and uh they would be absolutely cooked if he didn’t come out. So, it’s pretty cool that uh he can do that for them and and you know he’s probably spending somewhat of his summer over there doing that and I just love to see that because uh yeah, he’s staying busy. He’s playing competitive basketball at least. Um as competitive as some of those like pro runs are, they’re also like not as regulated. You just have one coach kind of and you’re calling your own fouls and stuff like that. So, it’s kind of cool to have a bit more structure to the reps that you’re getting. So, I I I like to see it. It’s good. Yeah. No doubt about it. And the break lab in the comment section puts it well. He says it would be concerning if he was wasn’t dominating. And so, when you see him dominating, it just sort of, you know, it gives you the confirmation that you need that it’s like, okay, he isn’t he is above the level of competition, which is what you would expect. Um, in terms of this this coming year, I think that anytime one of the veterans looks good, that makes me feel a little bit more comfortable. Um, I certainly certainly certainly want to see the Toronto Raptors do well this coming season. And one of the only ways that they’re going to be able to do that is if the veteran players like Yaka Purle are, you know, bringing the Raptors along. They are they are going to have to win their minutes. They are going to have to make like a big big impression in order for the Toronto Raptors to uh you know be successful. He’s going to have to have a repeat of last season. Last season going in, I’m sure that the consensus among Toronto Raptors fans was that you know I think most people were down on Yaka Purle. I would say I would say that most people still had the taste of that trade in their mouth. Yeah. Where they were kind of evaluating him in a way that was sort of maybe below what we know he’s capable of now. And as a result, I think that everybody was pleasantly surprised and he is he he came alive and the team looked really good while he was playing. He did all of the things that you would like from a center and um that’s all well and good, but the fact of the matter is is that they just paid him. And so now the uh uh the optics are a little different. He’s going to be coming into this coming season with more to prove or at least he has a bar to meet and if he doesn’t meet that bar, he is going to be scrutinized pretty heavily and he he needs to bring it. though, like what do you think about how people see him and about the contract cuz cuz we can get into that. Yeah, I think um I think a lot of I mean a lot of the league does not see him that highly and probably half Raptors fans have finally started to see him in a bit more favorable of a light. There are still some people that complain and whine about a trade from years ago which I I don’t care about at this point. There was a maybe some misjudgment made at the timing of the trade, but years later, you still have a player, you still have a center, and who would we have gotten as a center in that time? I don’t really see the options. Unless you draft, unless you’re able to keep your draft pick and draft Zack Edy, maybe to which he’s injured already, would even be better than Yak. I don’t know. They’re a similar kind of player. But, um, I think that he did make a good impression last year. He had a couple of really big games. He made a I remember he made a really good impression on the Celtics coach who said he’s he’s one of the best players in the league. He’s a he’s a bear down there. Like that was kind of the recognition that a lot of people haven’t had for Yak yet. And I think more people have realized that he became kind of the most important player for winning. He had the best onoff stats out of any of our starters. And it’s not that he’s like, “Oh, he’s the guy that’s” but it’s it got harder and harder to win without him. Yeah. Because you just don’t have a a backup center that is in any way comparable um to take his kind of minutes. And he is a workhorse. He’s a guy who is banging down low and he’s taking those hard reps that you don’t want somebody like Scotty to have to do as a small ball five or anything. So, um, in very much kind of my opinion of him grew as well as I I looked at him as this guy’s just an animal in a tank and he doesn’t complain. He just gets down there and he battles and he sets as hard picks as he can and he rolls pretty well. He’s got great hands. He’s catching a lot of difficult passes that RJ and Scotty were throwing at him. So yeah, definitely um my opinion raised of him, but I think uh collectively around the league, they’re still very low because the reaction to his contract was pretty crazy from what I saw. That is a very good point. Um I I think that the disparity between how Raptors fans view him and how the the wrestle league views him was very evident when he signed the deal. um in terms of like people were saying like this is an a massive overpay and I think it was a bit of an overpay but like the degree to which people were complaining and talking about it in the national media versus how Raptors fans saw it and Raptors fans like let me tell you there will be people who complain about a deal if they think somebody’s making too much money but I think that the consensus when you heard what Raptors fans were saying they’re saying like I’m pretty comfortable bringing him back and I I like what he brings to the table and obviously he needs to live up to it. He needs to live up to it and I hope he does because he seems like an amazing guy, amazing teammate and yeah, just hope that he’s able to sort of do what we all know he’s capable of. And with that kind of out of the way, just the little summer tidbits, the uh actual playing that’s happening right now involving the Raptors. There’s some other bookkeeping stuff like um Olivier Sar, like they picked up um Alexander Sar’s brother and it’s his brother, right? It’s not like a cousin or something. Okay. Yeah. And he’s older, less accomplished, less of a pedigree, but he he is on the team. He’s also very large. He’s a center and they picked him up. He’s obviously going to be just like working out for the team. He’s going to be trying to make the final roster. Maybe they’re scouting him for their 905 squad. Just thought I’d mention that. That happened this week. And he he was in the uh he was in OKC system, which gives me um a little bit more excitement and faith because they’ve got very good talent um uh assessment. So yeah. So I I would say their interest in him at all. Um, it makes sense why we would also be Well, yeah, it seems like, uh, the Raptors and the the Thunder are kind of copying each other’s homework. Um, I mean, Brandon Carlson, the guy who was on the Toronto Raptor summer league, they picked him up as soon as the Raptors waved him. Um, yeah, there’s a couple of things, uh, which is a good thing. Listen, um, Sam Prey, easily the best general manager. I think it’s he’s proven it at this point in the league. He’s managed I mean he’s in the enviable position where he’s gotten to like outright tank and basically throw seasons down the drain in order to build a team. But in terms of generating assets and doing the scouting and developing players like they’re just a cut above. And so if they are interested in the same players you’re interested in that’s a good sign. Yeah. So, let me set up the next segment. We’ve already discussed it. We’ve already uh kind of set the table, but we’re going to be doing the player comps for uh a lot of the Raptors. Not all of them, but most of the rotation. And um I hope you guys enjoy this. Put a little bit of time and effort into designing the uh this kind of thing. It’s more of an interactive background. So, let me know how you like this in in the comments. So, let’s take a look here. Uh, we have the franchise player on the screen right now, Scotty Barnes. He is the guy that the Toronto Raptors are trying to build the team around and um we’ve come up with some player comps. Uh, I have Steves, but he hasn’t seen mine, so he’s going to have to tell me whether I’m cooking or, you know, whether I’m just, you know, I don’t know what’s the opposite of cooking. Failing. Yeah. Yeah. Cooking badly. Um, okay. Let’s start off with Steve’s um player comparison. And I think this one’s pretty interesting. You have to kind of get in on the way back machine. If there’s any Zoomers watching, we apologize ahead of time because the first player that Steve um compared Scotty Barnes to is why don’t why don’t you let us know? Yeah. Um I it’s been a a comp that I’ve had for him for some time because I think it uh in many ways it makes a lot of sense, but uh Chris Weber of the uh what were they? The Fab Four way back. But um yeah, he he’s similar in the sense that he is a big forward who can kind of do it all, but a utility knife action. Um struggled with his three-point shot throughout his career, wasn’t much of a shooter. And hopefully, uh the plan for Scotty is to definitely develop that a lot more than what it’s been, but uh for being real, it’s it’s it’s been a struggle for him. And uh Weber came in, uh a better scorer than Scotty. Um, but in a same way of getting the buckets of of very powerful guy. Um, he’s able to get in the lane and like I’ve wanted to to potentially do a Garnett kind of comp for Scotty, but I don’t think he has that much dog in him, but I think he’s got a lot of dog in him, which is kind of the Chris Weber of it all, where he is um he’s an energy guy as well. Um, so I’ I’ve I’ve liked that for some time. um kind of a a big forward hybrid cuz I remember Chris Weber was one of the guys where um a lot of the time in the in the ‘9s and in the 2000s there was a a porative term for a player who was you know a little bit under sized who played as a big and it was called a tweener. that doesn’t really exist anymore because the the NBA has done a good job of figuring out how to incorporate players like that into the league, especially if they can shoot. But Chris Weber was a guy who was kind of broke the mold in a lot of ways. He was a guy who could handle the ball. He was a guy who could pass, he could set screens, finish at the basket. He was kind of uh a pretty revolutionary player. Uh played for the Kings and then he played for the Sixers, but he was kind of cooked when he was playing for the Sixers. really exciting player, multiple time all-star. Uh I think that’s a pretty good comparison. I think Scotty’s a little smaller than he is. I think Chris Weber was like a solid 610. Um yeah, he never he never played like a traditional big and in a same similar way that Scotty Bar Scotty Barnes doesn’t. They’re both kind of like ballers a little bit. Yeah, because that Yeah, I think I think to find like an exact comp right now for Scotty is a bit difficult because he is kind of a an interesting player in the way that he has um a bit of some awkwardness to his movements and everything. So, I think that Chris Weber was a bit more fluid, but when I was when I was going through a lot of tape and stuff on Weber and everything, very similar like uh you know, Scotty kind of has those go- go gadget extendo arm dunks where he he just hangs it out there and just gets up there. Weber had a lot of those. So, that was uh an interesting kind of aesthetic uh comp that I thought was kind of similar. Yeah, no doubt about it. Um, let me put this one out. Yeah. Uh, you got to tell me, am I cooking here? Uh, okay. So, this a lot of Raptors fans won’t like this, but I have uh Bam Adabio. And, uh, Bamab Bio. Okay, he is a very complicated player. Uh, there are a lot of people who are very high on him. He’s a stat nerd guy. There there are people who have said that he’s like prime primed to break out. And I’m just going to put because I I am Homer. I am putting here just a little uh green arrow where I think that he’s going to be better than Bam Adabio uh is and was. Um but I think as in a similar way he is going to be a kind of like hybrid passing big screen setter who can handle the ball a little bit finish on the inside make plays for other people play amazing defense. Um Bam Adabio also they have been trying to make him more of a shooter but he has had issues doing that. Bam Adabio also plays the five more than Scotty Barnes does. So that could be kind of where things are different. I don’t know if Scotty Barnes is is, you know, physically able to do what Bam Adabio does at the five, but I think it’s kind of a similar role for him. Did I cook? I think you did in the sense that there are many people and I’ve considered it too that think that this is the type of player that Scotty should accept being and lean into that role type because I think he could very much succeed as that. Um, if you go back to I think even his sophomore season that was a bit of a struggle season, but there was a moment where Nick Nurse played him as a five and he had like five games in a row where he averaged like 22 like 10 and eight or something. It was like his best stretch of the season and then he I I don’t know maybe Yak was hurt or whoever it was and then they put him back in his position as a three and and that was forgotten about but he really succeeded doing that. So, I think accepting being a bam out of bio, he could um be a very productive player. Little bit less of handling of the ball, a little bit more of getting it in your spots where you’re already going to be able to cook and and get up a floater or get, you know, and step out for more corner threes than those uh early clock pull-up threes, which didn’t work for him last season. I could definitely see that working. I like that. Um something I saw uh I mean, Bam had a bit of a rough season last year. Yeah, he got out to a very rough start and um something that I didn’t really notice was that his his um ability to defend the rim was significantly down. I think he was injured, wasn’t he? Like he had like some nagging injury of some sort. But yeah, continue. Yeah. And um uh basically his his his defensive field goal percent at the rim, what so what he’s um allowing opponents to shoot was like 66 or 67% which is horrible. Yeah. Horrible. whereas Scotty’s was, I think, 54 or 55. He was uh in the top 10. I think he was 10th in uh defensive field percent um in terms of if you qualified if you had over 300 uh rim attempts on you. Um so Scotty did a quite a great job actually as a rim defender where Bam last season was not, but typically before that he was a pretty decent rim defender. So, I think I think it’s a good comp and I think um Scotty could play in that way and it would become a better comp. Maybe we’ll play more in that way this coming season. Exactly. Brandon Ingram. So, yeah. And I’m going to just throw it out here. Everybody has seen this comparison before, but um Giannis attendo. Uh and I’m I just like I put the up next to Bam. I gotta do this. I I gotta like say uh Giannis light. Okay. Yeah. The the the the arrow down here just Timu Giannis so that we can’t get clipped here. Uh if somebody is hate watching the stream for some reason and saying like, “Oh, look at these homers. They’re comparing him to Giannis.” But um in terms of let’s just say role, okay, athletic, although Giannis is more athletic. uh large fours that can handle the ball and attack the rim and make plays for others. So there’s not a lot of guys like that, which is why, you know, Giannis is one of the guys that springs to mind when people talk about Scotty Barnes is because a point forward that Giannis is kind of like he is the main engine on those Bucks teams. They give him the ball and of course the other team needs to completely collapse and build a wall to keep him out of the paint. So he just has the vision and the passing ability to make plays for his teammates. And I think that Scotty Barnes can kind of do that. Maybe if you were like cross bamabio with with um uh a tenno maybe that’s how you we we could put it but which would be an excellent outcome. It it would be excellent. It would be like probably a Hall of Famer. But yeah, there’s I mean like Okay, so it’s funny. There’s a lot of crossover between uh Scotty and Giannis’ stats on Giannis’ bad stats. So when you look at like, oh, he’s not shooting the three very well. Well, he’s shooting exactly what Scotty’s shooting at. So there’s there’s interesting parts where their their downsides are the same, but Giannis just does every other bit better than Scotty. But yeah, like you for a time your hopeful 99% outcome for Scotty was Giannis. Yeah, I mean that’s the top three player in the league. That’s just so unlikely. But um I don’t think it’s wrong to say that there are times when he plays the same. But what Giannis has over him greatly is the constant aggression and constant downhill punishing because he’s bigger, he’s stronger, and uh he’s more conf Yeah, exactly. He’s a lot more confident in doing that. But I think Scotty’s been developing the uh more confidence in driving constantly. And yeah, that’s a good point. Putting pressure on the rim. There’s literally nobody better than Yannis Atenkuno. He is the number one like for the past decade or something in terms of uh self-created dunks. Like he’s just just an absolute monster. So let’s not get it twisted. But I mean, in terms of a a large, uh, forward who can handle the ball, attack the rim, make plays for others, that’s kind of that’s why I included Giannis there. But, uh, now that we’re done with Scotty, why don’t we go to the guy that we’ve already spoken about, uh, another player, uh, who, uh, a large player, uh, Yaka Purle. Yaka Purle. Um let’s hear who you had as his player comp and then we’ll get to mine. Yeah. So um I had Visa Zubatz um as Yak’s player comp. I think certainly last season Zubat was a lot better. He was uh playing at an all-star level, but in the similar um form of center where um he’s a big guy, he sets good screens, not a three-point shooter in any way. um somewhat groundbound, although Zubos had a lot more dunks, but in having a lot more dunks um and having the same field goal percentage as Yak. So, you could say that Yak is actually a bit better of like a shooter shooter than Zubots, but Zubots does have the floater. Um he he does. Yeah, that’s kind of like the Euro big type uh uh thing is that a lot of them and I think that honestly the way that the center position is evolving right now, I think that that is becoming one of the things that teams are looking for in a a big is the ability to score outside of dunks. And it used to be like, oh, three, a three, a stretch five, and there are a couple in the league, but unfortunately, just the way genetics work, there are not very many 7 foot tall players. And unfortunately, that means that a lot of them are just not going to have the coordination required to be able to shoot threes. But in the case of Jakob Purle and Avita Zubots and some of the other players that we’ll mention here, the floater is like a nice kind of in between where you don’t have to be right at the rim. You offer a little bit of spacing, but the field goal percentage that is why is that a floater is not as good as a layup, but it is like vastly different in terms of uh efficiency than a mid-range shot. And you and because of the verticality and the the size of a player like Zubots and Yaka Purle is that it does not take a lot of effort to be able to get a push shot up. It takes a very short amount of time. So it’s an easy shot to get off. You can get that shot pretty easily and it’s a very high efficiency shot. So those two players like I just wanted to point that out. What else do you see in comparison with Zubot? Um, so rim protection wise, I would say that they’re both similar where they are a uh above average rim protector, but they are not um elite. You know, you’re not Yeah, you’re not they’re not elite. You’re not writing home about them as uh as so great. But um I think Zubat is I I’m going to have to push that back there a little bit. I think I remember looking at the the defensive field goal percentage around him. I think Zub he’s he’s like significantly better than that. And I also think that one of the things that he has over Purle is that he’s like he’s like a tank. He he he is one of the strongest players in the whole league. Zubots. Uh he is probably a lot stronger than than Purle is and um I think a little bit more vertically athletic. I think Ple might have him beat in the foot speed department. I’m not going to say probably. He definitely hasn’t beat in the foot speed department, but Zubots is like a a better jumper, I think, as well. So, yeah, I think I think he had like a hundred more dunks. Like, he he was significantly more more vertical with that. So, um yeah, I I guess um I don’t know if I was going off of their block rate or something like that, but but anyway, um and then I guess uh the ability to somewhat not get killed when they do switch out on the perimeter. Um, something I was impressed with Yak last season is that when he did get caught out there, he was able to to keep up the shuffle and and really not get burned by by too many players. Um, and uh, from what I’ve known from Zubach, it’s similar situation where you’re not so scared of him getting like um, like the way Rudy got caught out there on that that donut shot where Yeah, exactly. Where I mean it’s Luca, right? But yeah, where you get absolutely killed and embarrassed out there. It’s not like a fire alarm fire if they do get uh stuck out on the perimeter. Well, one of the things Yeah. to to expand on that, um, one of the things that centers have uh is height. Well, length, just basically the ability standing reach is very important. Um, and they they’re both good in that department. Long arms is that you can challenge a shot without having to jump and so they don’t have to like fully commit to it. Um, but foot speed is a concern. Like, yeah, can get out on the perimeter and so can Zubots. What they’re looking for is being able to lightly contest a three-point shot and not get blown past to the basket. And they both do a pretty good job of understanding the role when it comes to a switch it is stand in front, get get big, get your hand up in the air to maybe obscure the vision to of the basket to make it more of a, you know, reflex thing rather than a being able to see the basket thing and then, you know, let the chips fall where they may. uh my comparison. Okay. And I don’t need to know whether I cooked or not because like I think he’s the most similar player in the entire league to Ayaka Purle and that’s Isaiah Hartenstein. Yeah. Uh both of them are, you know, their stats are extremely similar. They both have their bread and butter is that push shot in the mid-range. Uh Hartinstein had the three-point shot uh a while ago, but that he hasn’t really gone to it since then because he’s just so much more effective working in the post and use off of screens and rolling to the basket and doing all that stuff. And another thing that he has that Yaka Purle also has is a playmaking ability. Uh I think he’s even even a better playmaker than Yaka Purle is. Uh he is uh very good at making accurate bounce passes. He can dump it off to players like big to big passes. He’s really good working alongside Chad like that that tandem like the fact that he can make those easy passes to Chad and vice versa. That’s really good. Um but the similarity between the two, they’re both the same size. They’re both uh Hardenstein may be a little bit more a better athlete, but I struggle to think of two guys that are more of a you know match than these two. And when I was talking like cuz I had a an argument with somebody on Twitter, which is the stupidest thing you can do. Why would you do that? Just some random person where I had to like go to bat for Yak. And um I I always say I’m like Yak is not like a superstar. He is not like some worldbeating player. And if the right trade came along, I’d be okay with the Raptors um you know, parting ways with him. But with that said, he’s good. He’s a good player. And the the context was it’s like you can’t win a championship with Yakaba Purle as your center because he can’t stretch the floor and he can’t do this and he can’t do that and he’s a traditional center essentially. And I literally said I said okay the Oklahoma City Thunder need a center and they are they traded for uh Isaiah Hartenstein. He’s like almost exactly the same player as Jakob Purle is. if they win a championship. You know what? I’m going to dig up that tweet because I’m going to go back and rub it in this guy’s face. Yeah. And I’m going to say they’re they’re paying Hartinstein $10 million more than Purle just made. So you like this past season. So paying him $30 million to come off the bench to help you win a championship, but I know they sometimes started him next to chat, right? I don’t Their biggest weakness their biggest weakness and I think he started a lot of the games for them. Yeah, but like their biggest weakness was that they didn’t have size in the front court. They didn’t have a true center to play. And I know that a lot of the time they didn’t want to play like that, but the fact of the matter is a lot of the time it’s about matchups. And if you don’t have a guy who can body up against the Nola Jokic of the league, you’re going to just get dogwalked. You’re going to get absolutely crushed by these giant men. They’re going to pulverize. Imagine chat trying to guard uh you know Jokic. Well, we saw Alex Crew so defendic aka like just like beat the crap out of him. But like Hartinstein and the rebounding is definitely a big thing for the both of them. Offensive rebounding, all of these guys, like rebounding is possessions and these guys help you win the possession war. No doubt about it. And my last uh comparison here, we’re trying to do three for everybody. um is Jared Jared Allen. Uh Jared Allen. These these guys are like the tri the the quadrefecta of just meat and potatoes big men. And they call it meat and potatoes because you are happy eating it every day. Um it is just something that is, you know, totally acceptable to have for dinner. It’s not exciting. You’re not going to be jumping for joy. There’s not going to be like highlight mixes of these players. you know, burning up. Although, you know what? On Tik Tok, there are some absolutely insane mixes of players who are just not stars doing not star stuff, and those blow up for some reason, which I love. I mean, basketball’s a beautiful sport. But these these four guys are just they are going to do what they do, which is protect the basket, score efficiently around the rim, grab rebounds, um you know, set screens, make good passes, and Jared Allen is a similar player in that regard. I think a little bit better than Yak right now. Uh a lot of the same strengths, uh great foot speed, uh good ability to challenge, uh like get to places and challenge shots. What I will say, there’s a positive for Jared Allen. I think that Jared Allen is uh a better finisher around the rim. I think that he’s a better defender than Yak, but he’s also a little too scrawny. Um his issue, sorry, I’m cutting his fro off here, has been just he gets dominated physically by uh other bigs. Yeah. And uh that has happened multiple times and and Yak hasn’t really had that problem. In fact, like the the biggest force on the inside uh for the past couple of seasons has been Jokic. And while Yak doesn’t stop Jokic or anything, it it’s considerably a lot more difficult than he would have otherwise. So yeah, that those are my comparisons. I I I like it. And I think I mean maybe we should take a uh a cue from these two teams there of of Jared Allens and Isaiah Hartinstein of of how to craft the success around a player like that. Having Evan Mobley next to Jared Allen and Chad Homegr next to Now these are top picks. you’re not just going to find one of these, but if you’re looking at a tall 7footer with some skill and ability to step out and hit some threes, that seems to be the type of player to stick next to one of these guys, or rather stick one of these guys next to that to help with that. Like, I’ve always thought that Yak would be looked at way more favorably in the league if he ended up somewhere like Memphis and he was next to Jiren Jackson Jr. and uh taking the brunt for him so he could do his little thing because they always like to put him next to like a Steven Adams or somebody who’s a bit stronger who can allow Jiren Jackson to do his thing with his um kind of like weak side defender. So I’ve always thought that if you put Yak in that kind of situation with a a another Twin Tower four who has a bit more talent, maybe the league would look at him a bit more favorably whereas some of these other guys have kind of gotten a bit of benefit of that. That’s true. But um I think that Scotty Barnes and he uh have a lot of synergy. I mean neither of them can shoot very well, but I mean if Scotty improves in that regard, I think that the other facets of the game, they have a lot of synergy, especially the fact that Scotty Barnes is a very good like rim protector. I think that that’s one of Yak’s I wouldn’t say weakness because it’s not like like we’ve had a ton of really terrible defenders and brim protectors on the Toronto Raptors. He does, you know, show up at the rim and make it a little bit harder, but he’s not intimidating guys all that much and I think Scotty can do that. Yeah. But we’re kind of running a little long here. I’m just glancing at the time and we’re almost at an hour right now. So, we’re just going to quickly head along. Why don’t you We’re at Emanuel Quickley. Why don’t you tell us who you got here? Okay. So, I’ve got uh Tyler Hero for Emanuel Quickley. And reason being is that I see them both as kind of these combo scoring guards who have been asked to do a little bit more than just be a combo scoring guard, especially quickly in the terms of, okay, you’re our point guard now. Um, and really having him kind of step outside himself. He’s always been able to rack up some assists and be a decent passer, but he was really maximized off the Knicks bench as just a guy who could go score. And very much that’s what Tyler Herro was when he was uh competing for six man of the year was a guy who could just come in and be a bit of a mic wave and kind of score. Yeah. And with his role expanding, it was okay, can you be our lead guard? because Miami was kind of all over the place with who they were bringing in as guard and Terry Rosir was not very good and everything until they were able to bring in DaVon Mitchell and kind of work them together that was kind of cool. Obviously Tyler Herro just had a all-star season I would say he is better than Emanuel Quickley right now but looking at that same kind of player who has a step back to his game. He has some deep range. Uh same way that Quickly likes to if he has the chance pull up from, you know, 3 4 feet behind the line. I’ve seen Tyler Herro do that a bunch of times. And uh they’re both Kentucky guards. I think they played on the same team. Um so I think that’s kind of funny. And I think they just both ended up this kind of uh similar combo guard who you would like to play as a two guard, but they do handle the ball. Um, I just think that right now Tyler’s a bit ahead of Emanuel. And I think, uh, defense-wise, neither are that exciting. Quickly is better. Uh, I I’d agree. Um, he’s got more length. He’s he’s longer arms and he fights over screen. That’s the thing. That’s exactly fights over screens a lot better. Um, but uh I think uh people just maybe expected more out of Quickley’s defense coming from New York, but we I mean again he has had this kind of injury thing that he wasn’t used to having. Hard to Exactly. And there neither are very disruptive, but he is better at navigating screens. I think I think Tyler Hero is like just a negative in in terms of defense. Yeah. He doesn’t try that much defense. No. But in terms of like what you were saying like how he’s seen as better right now, I just listen to how people were talking about him even the season prior to this one where it’s like he’s not worth his contract. This guy’s overrated. They all the people were talking about how they kept turning down trades with his name like the hard trade and all that kind of stuff. But he just kind of like flipped the script and had a huge glow up where he, you know, made an all-star team. He looked really good. And one of the things I want to mention uh because I do like this comparison is that I’ve talked about this in the past, but what teams have done is that they’ve taken the playmaking and they’ve moved it up the position order. So a lot of the playmaking like especially on that Heat team, Bayamabio, right? He is the guy that kind of stirs the drink in that offense. They give him so many opportunities to, you know, with dribble handoffs, screen actions, uh, being able to handle the ball with the back to the basket, kick it out, things like that. You don’t have to be as talented of a playmaker at the one anymore. It used to be that you were the guy who handled the ball like 90% of the time and so you had to make all the plays for your teammates. And that’s just not the case anymore. Uh, and in fact, that kind of brings me to the next point. another Kentucky guard and Tyrese Maxi is the guy and and I’m just gonna put like a down arrow here just so that people don’t think that um I’m being too much of a homer. I think that Tyrese Maxi is like one of the most special shooting scorers uh that has the league has seen in a long time. Definitely. Um he is an extremely dynamic player shooting the ball and obviously quickly is not there yet. I mean, I don’t think he will get there, but um I do see a lot of similarities to their games. They do like to come off of screens and shoot the ball. Um they are both Kentucky guards. They’re both around the same size. Um I just I see some a lot of, you know, similarities between the two of them. Um Tyler Hero also a really good comparison. It’s it’s funny how Kentucky just kind of turns out the same type of player over and over again. uh whatever they’re putting in the water there, you know, I want some of that. Um, and here’s the other comparison that I had, and this you’re going to have to go back into the wayback machine. Uh, I’m going to put on my old old head hat here, and I’m going to bring out Mo Williams from uh the LeBron Cavaliers days. And Mo Williams was kind of like kind of dovetales pretty nicely into what we were talking about. You know what? He’s kind of at the bottom of the screen here. I’m going to just move him up a little bit. Um, so Mo Williams, um, was, as you said, a a score first guard, a guy who played sort of more like a two. He was a guy who loved shooting, coming off of a screen and shooting the ball. And what they figured out is that you don’t need to have a playmaker at the one when you have LeBron James. LeBron James is the guy who is going to be dominating the ball. He’s going to be the one, you know, with the ball in his hands the majority of the time. And so what you need is a guy who can, you know, come off of screens and hit shots. And that’s what Mo Williams did. And I think that that’s going to be what uh Emanuel Quickley does for the Toronto Raptors this season. Do you know, are you uh uh uh old enough to appreciate the uh Mo Williams’ of the world? So I I was aware of it, but I avoided watching um Cavaliers LeBron basketball uh completely. So I don’t think I really watched him too much, but uh as you describe it, yeah, it makes sense to me. And he he he made an all-star team, so it’s I’m not being too low on quickly here. He he was a pretty good player in his prime. Okay, let’s move along. We’ve got uh Brandon Ingram here. So, who did you have for Brandon Ingram? This is, I think, the easiest comp you could pull. He’s he’s always been Baby Durant is what um he’s a mid-range guy, right? So, I think the you look at it and you go, “Okay, who who would he be at his peak? What you would want him to be? It’d be a long skinny guy who can get to the mid-range and get his own bucket.” And he’s just kind of been that. He’s he’s he’s not quite Durant, obviously. Not right. Okay. So then I can put the little down arrow next to Yeah, I I would say definitely put the down arrow next to Durant. But um can he be highly efficient hitting really tough shots in the mid-range? Absolutely. Um he has a lot less uh defensive chops to his game than Durant has. Yeah, exactly. He’s he’s he’s several inches smaller, but uh yeah, same same deal as the the long shot making uh three sometimes put him as four. Um yeah, I mean there’s not much more to say. the ball like there’s a lot of like to to build on your point here like when you watch him play the smoothness of the dribble the ability to go between his legs and then raise up for a shot in that sort of fadeaway the same way that Kevin Durant does. There’s no doubt about it when you watch him play you’re like okay you really start to see the comparisons. Uh, so yeah, that’s that’s a very natural comparison. And sometimes, you know, easiest is best. Like why like you don’t have to get esoteric and be like impress all the basketball nerds or something. Just go with the thing that pops into your mind first. Why not? Um, okay. Now, here’s mine. Uh, you know, boss boss baby man who’s only seen boss baby. Okay. Uh, I’m going to keep referencing that even if people don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. And uh, I’ve got um, Demar De Rozan here. So, Toronto Raptors fans are very familiar with Demar D Rozan’s game. And, uh, Demar De Rozan is like a very good regular season player. Um, amazing mid-range scorer. He’s actually gotten a lot more efficient as he’s gotten older. Uh he’s been he he’s been able to shoot the three a lot better as well. Um but obviously operating in the mid-range being an assassin um using his footwork, his ability to generate his own offense, he takes a lot of um shots that other players could not. And that sounds like a lot of people would say that’s like being a ball hog or or like you know being unnecessarily difficult. But in the NBA shot creation is at a premium. You need players who are able to when the going gets tough, you know, if you give the ball to so and so, they will be able to at least get an attempt off that is that that they that looks good. Like that is why Demar De Rozan has been so clutch uh in let caveat clutch in the regular season because we know what happens when you know the lights get a little brighter. But he has the ability to use craft, the skill, footwork, ball handling to get a good-look shot up. Mhm. And a lot of being clutch is just being able to do that because everybody forgets the shots you miss, but they’ll remember the shots you make in the clutch. And the thing about it is it’s just wraps. So if you’re able to generate a shot for yourself, you’re going to get the ball in those situations and you’re going to be able to shoot it. And I think that that is what Brandon Ingram is going to bring to the team next season is that when a game is tight and you need somebody to come in and just get you over the hump and and take those shots, it’s going to be Brandon Ingram. And a lot of them are going to be mid-range. A lot of them it is going to be like Demard D Rozan. There are obviously some differences between the two. Brandon Ingram is bigger, has longer arms. Uh he could he shoots more threes than Demar De Rozan. Um, Demard Rosen gets the line more. There are a couple of differences as well, but I thought I’d point that out. I like it. And and for brevity sake I have here, uh, Paul George. Paul George is another comparison. Um, I mean, we can share the the, you know, down arrow. I’ll put it between him and Kevin Durant because Paul George, as you know, he’ll be in the Hall of Fame. Yeah. Um he’s, you know, was terrible this past season, but um he is kind of like a three-level scorer, a large wing, a player who can generate his own shot, make plays for others. Pretty similar player. What do you think about that one? Yeah, I like that one. And I think uh like this is kind of the if you look at these players, this is kind of just the hooper category, right? Like who’s the the pure hooper? Very aesthetically pleasing game, you know, beautiful shots. Um, and the Raptors desperately needed a guy like this. We desperately needed a guy who could get to his own shot. Um, last season proved it’s not Scotty, it’s not RJ who can pull that in the clutch. So, I mean, I think everybody should be super high on Brendan and especially if you look at these comps because all of these guys are guys who have been able to take some spotlight in big moments with varying degrees of success. Yeah, no doubt about it. Um, okay, so let’s move on. Uh so the final starter here or potential starter because you know we’ve been talking about how maybe he should go to the bench but RJ Barrett and you have a pretty interesting comp for him and so do I. So we’re going to have to talk about who cooked more here and who is more you know did some anti- cookooking. Yeah. So so my comp it it I’m sorry but it is purely an offensive comp. I cannot put him in the same category as this guy in the same way, but it’s Fron Wagner offensively only. If you look at their shot charts from the last couple years, very similar. Neither of them really have a mid-range game. Their pull-up shooting numbers both kind of suck. They’re both around 34% 35% on pull-up shooting, but they both get to the rim. I think uh they both drive I think their drive amount was around uh 11 12 drives per game. in the same way. Fron is a bit better of a finisher. He’s like 5 in taller than RJ. Um, exactly right. But, uh, both pretty strong handle, get downhill, um, and have always kind of had to find their offense, uh, as a second or third option, uh, in between the cracks when things aren’t exactly run for them. And, um, you’ve they both have their own kind of stands that are saying, “Oh, they could be the star if you gave them the ball more.” And I think there’s a lot more argument for that with France, but um they made it work in Orlando, at least uh with him and Paulo. I mean, they’re both a lot taller than our group, but uh I think the goal was to try to make a much shorter version of Scotty and R.J. work. It hasn’t worked for for various reasons, but I think offensively when you look at um the way that R.J. approaches defenses and the way that he is a consistent uh he’s he’s good at getting to the line but can’t hit free throws. Fron can hit better free throws but um I would say yeah offensively similar type of game of being able to wiggle their way to the uh rim. Yeah. And um well let me see. I had a kernel of a thought in there but um yeah they they both like getting to the rim. Oh and they’re they’re both good playmakers. Um yeah, they they they are looking for their teammates um when they draw an extra defender. They both play the game the right way on the offensive end. And I think a lot of people have been saying like France Vagner needs to to to have he has like a role players mentality where I I don’t think he sees himself as the dude or or he doesn’t play like he’s the dude when Yeah. It wasn’t until Paulo was injured that he actually did that. Yeah. Yeah. And he had the injury issues as well. Otherwise, he probably would have been an all-star. Okay. Here’s mine. And we both went with white guys. Mine is Josh Giddy. Okay. Okay. And this one is a little strange because, you know, Josh Giddy is kind is a point guard or build is a point guard. Yeah. So, they’re Josh Giddy is taller than um uh R.J. and but R.J. has longer arms than him. So, they’re both kind of like they’re a similar sized player. I would say Josh Giddy has struggled with um pullup shooting or coming off off the dribble shooting. So does RJ. They both have struggled with that. They’ve gotten a lot better both of them at spot-up shooting, at catch and shoot. When the ball when it’s created for them, they can stand out on the perimeter and hit open shots. They’ve both gotten better at that. They both like to attack the rim. They both are good uh passers. Um and they’re both not very good defenders. Uh so they that is my comp there. What are your first thoughts on that one? I I like it and my the first thing I thought was that um New York moved RJ for OG and they moved Giddy for Caruso. So, they were both shipped out in favor of a more talented defensive player, which was allowed both of those teams to reach further in the playoffs as they kind of decided that we can’t move forward with this young player who we drafted and we had a lot of uh hope for. So, I think that’s pretty interesting. Um I I would say yeah I like um I don’t even know who I would really want on my team more because I think they have yeah they have very similar downsides but yeah Giddy obviously a bit better of a playmaker but RJ’s playmaking is kind of underrated uh largely. Um I think uh I see I have a thing with Giddy in terms of watching him play. I find him like the opposite of aesthetically pleasing. I hate the way he dribbles and I hate the way that he touches his hair every 3 seconds. I can’t stand it. But um I like the comp. He’s very played as well. Like he’s kind of moving around like he he looks like I hate to bring race into this, but he looks like what you would imagine a white guy would look like playing basketball. He’s kind of running around upright like going around screens but he did have like and also I think trajectorywise um they uh are both kind of having a bit of a career renaissance where they started off the season highly I mean their careers highly touted high draft picks then they hit a swoon with their teams where the fans pretty much gave up on them. they were traded to a new situation and they’ve kind of had a kind of a career renaissance where both of them have I think improved their stocks considerably and they have both have similar strengths and weaknesses. So I thought that was a kind of an interesting one. So and then the other one I like it. The other one I have here which is kind of a team Canada connection in a roundabout way. So Jaylen Williams. Uh so Jaylen Williams hold on we got to make some more space here on the screen for his afro that we’ve have. We have afro problems here with him and Jared Allen. They just keep getting their afro um obscured by the other players. Secondary ball handler, secondary creator. Uh when you watch R.J. play for Team Canada, he’s playing the role that Jaylen Williams plays uh on OKC alongside obviously Shay Gilgis Alexander who is like the most talented guard in in the world, one of the best all time in my opinion. But they both kind of do that thing where they um catch the ball uh on broken plays or maybe on a kickout, attack the rim, off of the dribble, off of closeouts. They’re they’re good playmakers. Obviously Jaylen Williams is like a lot better of a defender. Um but that was kind of what I thought about when I was thinking about an RJ comparison. I I like it. And yeah, like again, it’s like kind of an offense only. Um, I like I think JDub’s got a bit more mid-range to his game, but but at the same time, yeah, there kind of in lies the the rub with R.J. is that if he had uh this these players level of defense, he’s a I mean, he’s obviously a starter. He’s he’s obviously a guy that you want to keep, right? So, it would be nice if they could unlock some kind of level of that in him because that’s really his hold back. He’s he’s not a a negative player on offense in the sense that he takes away shots from players or anything like that and he’s like you said career renaissance in terms of um his efficiency in his production everything has been is ticking up and um but yeah it’s really just those uh downsides of the defense but otherwise I like those comps. Yeah. Uh the the just to go uh to continue that point that you were making about defense, the the odd thing for me is that his process and his awareness on offense is good. Like it is um he doesn’t make stupid plays the majority of the time. He’s doing the right thing. Yeah. But on defense, I think that if he were like if he process the game on defense better, Yeah. he would be a good defender because he’s a good one-on-one defender. when players try and get past him. He’s got those broad shoulders. He can put up resistance going to the basket. It’s just he falls asleep constantly and sometimes the effort isn’t there, etc., etc. So, I I also think certain coaches could get more out of him. Like I think if you put him with Spo or if you put him with Hudoka or something like that, somebody who it’s a non-negotiable thing to play defense is that you’re coming off the floor if you’re not playing defense, right? He would probably have a bit better of a defense. if there’s a knock that you can make against Darko is that maybe he’s a bit too kind um with certain players. So, uh I mean potentially, you know, Tibs was his coach, but Yeah. Yeah. I I’ve seen I’ve seen funny clips where uh RJ takes a shot and he missed it and he laughs to IQ goes, “I’m not coming back in now. I’m not coming back in now.” So, he almost seemed to uh have fun with the fact that Tibs was a hard ass about that. So, um, yeah, we don’t really know exactly. Yeah, it’s hard to glean from the outside like what’s going on and what what all the things are, but yeah. Um, definitely R.J., it’s right there. It’s right there. He he could be an impact player. Okay, next up, we’re going to the bench here, or perhaps the starting lineup with Jacobe Walter. Uh, Jacobe Walter, we have a couple of player comps. Why don’t you go first? Yeah. Um, I I was tempted to make a lot of other ones that were kind of star players, but I I had to temper my expectations here and uh I really started to think um early young career uh Gary Trent Jr. If you look at them size-wise, similar height player and if you look at the way that they get their offense and how they don’t exactly really create for others, I think there’s a lot of similarities there where GTJ could create his own shot, Jacobe can create his own shot. Um, and defensively I think Jacobe is a bit better of a defender in terms of as a team defender. But if the way he played in summer league defensively is the way that he hopes to play as a defender, that’s very similar to the way that early uh maybe his first year as a Raptor or his second year as a Raptor. Yeah. that where he would play as kind of a ball hawk uh gambler risking it for plays and and trying to be a playmaking defender which I could see Jacobe trying to be if that’s what they try to have his role at because he was awesome at that in summer league of getting out there taking the risk and uh creating a transition opportunity out of it. What you’re saying about Gary Trent Jr. is very very good because um in that second year uh basically what the Toronto Raptors did is that they tried to take advantage of the rules change. So there was a massive rule change in um the summer leading up to the following season. They kind of had it with the uh you know offensive players doing riproughs and you know uh diving into players for for foul calls. And so they lightened up on the whistle and Nick Nurse being a savvy operator realized this and he’s like, “Okay, prison ball time. Uh, go out there and just mug the other team.” And Gary Trent Jr. was like leading the league in steals. He was just ripping people. And when they started calling fouls like the normal way again, his defense fell off a cliff. Yeah. But you’re absolutely correct that when he was gambling and doing that kind of stuff, he was like really effective, like really doing a good job and being a quality 3 and D starter. So, I I I definitely see where you’re coming from. Hopefully, like I have high hopes for Jacobe Walter. I would be a little disappointed. And I I have to say, I’m just going to blow up this uh screenshot. I found like the least flattering photo, like the head shot that they did for Gary Trent Jr. as a buck. Like I know that he the the ladies on Twitter, he’s like a thirst trap. Like they love this guy. Um and they just got like the absolute worst photo of him here. So I just thought I’d point that out. Um so we’ll continue in a Raptors uh trajectory. Well, trajectory uh we’ll stay on the Raptors, former Raptors. I have Terrence Ross. Okay. Yeah. And uh Terrence Ross um again another guy who didn’t quite live up to the expectations that a lot of player people had for him. Um but the similarities are kind of there in terms of being a movement shooter. Terrence Ross was that he could come off of screens, shoot the ball. I mean he scored like he was on a heater. How many points was it 51 or 53 or something? Yeah, he had a I think it was a 51. Yeah. And yeah, so I mean the guy could shoot the ball. Uh the problem was uh the defensive end and he didn’t have the other things that you would expect. So I’m just going to put here I’ll put the little um up arrow between Gary and Terren Ross just to indicate that I think that Jacobe Walter will be better. Maybe that’s the Homer and me talking. But um I I think that in terms of what I expect from them is going to be similar in terms of the role that they’re going to play. They’re both similarized guards. They’re both like pretty athletic. Uh good foot speed, can move around screens and shoot the ball. But that’s a guy that I thought of and you know why not? We have the Toronto Connection here. But here is a good upside comp and I think I cooked with this one. You let me know. Okay. KCP. Yeah. So KCP is kind of like what I would hope for uh hope Jacobe gets to and I think it’s totally possible. Uh KCP is one of the unsung heroes uh on two championship teams. Uh first of all uh the Bubble Lakers. I mean that’s not a real championship, but um they did he did get a technical championship and then with the uh with the Denver Nuggets. That’s a real championship. And he was the primary on ball defender for both of those teams. and he is was very disruptive, very sticky, could move around and and and stay attached to players and was never like the the best defender in the league or at his position, but was just really good at at defense. And then on the other hand, on the other end, he could shoot the ball. And you he could shoot the ball coming off of screens. He could shoot the ball from the corner. He was a great outlet. That’s what I want to see from Jacobe Walter. I want to see both of those characteristics come to the four, be a really good primary on ball defender and shoot the leather off of the ball. And if you can do those two things, you know, you’ve got it made and KCP similar size, you know, I thought that was a pretty good comparison. I I think so, too. And I think that that would be obviously a godsend if if he became that premier 3 and D player. Again, we’ve been looking for that kind of three and D player and that’s what the starting lineup is kind of missing. So, depending on how he does this season, if he can embody those traits a bit more, that’s kind of his way to wiggle in there because um if he’s going to skip past Grady, he has to do it by being a better defensive option in there. And um like I’ve seen the the overly excited um comps of uh oh my gosh, we have uh Jaylen Brown in the waiting. That’s pretty extra. But Jaylen Brown was not as good as Jacobe Walter was in his rookie year. He struggled a lot worse than Jacobe. So it’s maybe too early to judge something on that. And then the um the the fun stuff that I see from Jacobe is uh when he does take the ball inside, he has a bit of slitheriness and he has a bit of uh decent footwork and um he’s good with his pivot foot and everything and it it starts to feel like you would never say Shay, but it feels like that type of player who is very aware of their surroundings uh on the inside of the arc and able to get those kind of little bit of euro, a little bit of step unders and draw fouls very well. Jacobia has been a pretty good foul drawer um throughout his career so far considering he’s coming in with like no grace from the refs. He’s he doesn’t get that kind of benefit of a whistle of being a top pick, but he’s still able to uh you know get get some shots up that are good enough to get a free throw out of it. Yeah, for sure. like um spatial awareness, body control, the ability to sort of sense your surroundings, understand where you know the defense is going to be coming from. And you’re absolutely right about the um the foul drawing. I also think it’s a mentality thing. Yeah. I think that um unlike a lot of other shooters and guys who have the shooting rep, I know he didn’t shoot the ball very well last season, but he wants to get to the rim. like he is trying to put the ball on the floor and his handle is is kind of the limiting factor at this point. Like what you’re saying is absolutely correct about when he gets in on the inside. He’s good at drawing fouls. He he is kind of crafty, but I think that he needs to to get in the lab and make that uh handle just that much tighter so that he can get from point A to point B. But yeah, I think that’s a that’s pretty good uh little segment on him. Last on the list here, uh Grady Dick. And we only have two comps here. Um we just I just kind of ran out of time, so why don’t you go with yours first? And this one is an optimistic uh take, but I like it. Yeah. So, um sophomore Gordon Hayward. Now, this is going back to like 2011, 2012. Um, but in a similar fashion where you could see the shootings there, but he only shot 34% from three. Grady was like 35%. I think Grady has a nicer looking shot than than uh Hayward has, but um I couldn’t make a comp of Grady with other pure shooters like Luke Canard and everything because he hasn’t been that knocked down version. And he’s also not a guy who settles from being a three-point shooter. He does have some aggression and he does like to attack. And though his interior finishing was kind of all over the place and ended up not so great, um he does have some sauce around the the net and he was able to finish a lot of uh tricky um opportunities while getting smoked because he’s still pretty small. And um in watching old Gordon Hayward tape, he was similar where he would put the ball on the ground, go up, go up for it, no problem. um he dunked a bit more, but it was always these kind of two-handed dunks, whereas Grady’s got a little bit more flare to that. Um and Gordon Hayward had a very good NBA career. So, if if Grady ends up as a Gordon Hayward guy, I think that would be amazing. I’ll push back on that a little bit. Um, I I I do see what you’re seeing here, but like I think that the big kind of push or like what Gordon Hayward like was really his greatest ability was just the ability to at his size to be able to handle the ball and be able to be a primaryish creator, maybe a secondary, but but you know, when he was in his prime, like when he was on Utah and before he got injured on the Celtics, he was a sneaky, oh god, I used the the stereotype word. He was a guy who could move around the court, get to his spots with the ball in his hands. And um I don’t know if I’ve seen that with Grady. I think maybe I’m going off of more so his first 20 20 or so games where he got the ball a lot more and was able to put it on the floor more than we had seen from him and he was able to create a lot of stuff, but it was a lot of just like tough shotmaking and he was shooting an absurd amount from the mid-range like he was shooting in like the 60s for a portion of that. Um, so I guess I’m seeing that kind of upside and I think as I’m comparing him to like early like sophomore Gordon Hayward who didn’t uh exactly have that to his game yet, he was a a lesser minute player fitting into Utah before he developed into what he was. So, um, it’s, uh, yeah, I I see what you’re saying for sure. And because Gordon Hayward was always stronger than Grady is now, too. And I think that makes a big difference because Grady’s any size that he put on, he wasn’t able to keep on. And I think that is a limiting factor for him. Yeah. And especially with his his uh workload like moving around the court, like when you see him come off the court, he was like a lobster, beat red and just sweating. I’m sure it’s very difficult when you’re doing that much cardio to keep any kind of bulk on whatsoever. So, yeah, I totally and and I went with just the most obvious comparison here. Uh there’s there’s going to be absolutely no uh spicy takes here. This is going to be as uh vanilla as the uh faces of the players we’re comparing. It’s going to be uh Kevin Herder. And so Kevin Herurder uh has had an up and down like one of the reasons I picked him is because he has gone like he has the rep of a shooter and when he is hitting his threes he does do other stuff. He can he can handle the ball a little bit not amazingly. He can he can make plays. He can do he he’s a a larger similar size player. Um, and he he kind of knew how to play the game. Um, the problem with him is that he he goes up and down. So, some years he’ll be in the high30s and in other years he’ll be like 34%. This past season when he was with the uh Kings before he got traded to the Bulls, he’s having a miserable shooting season, just absolutely horrible with the Hawks. I remember he had a couple of seasons like that as well. Then he went to the Bulls and he was good on the Bulls again as well. So, that’s kind of like um how I see Grady at this point. Of course, I would love it if Grady were to become if if Grady becomes a consistent three-point shooter and he has he he is in the high30s for the rest of his career, he’s going to be in the league for, you know, a decade plus. Um which I’m very happy with. Uh but, uh just like Kevin Herder, he he needs to show that consistency from shooting the ball. And um yeah, that’s kind of the guy I picked. Yeah, I like it. And maybe for the third comp, why not just throw Duncan Robinson in there? We’ll go with the uh the the four palad faces of white white guy shooters uh in the NBA. So uh yeah, that is those are the player comparisons. We had a couple of other topics that we were going to discuss uh maybe for another episode. uh the Hoop Collective. We’re talking smack about the Toronto Raptors and we were going to discuss that. But uh we’re already, you know, almost an hour and a half in. So, we’ve been we’ve been here with you guys. I hope you guys enjoyed the episode. Uh is there anything else you wanted to uh brooach before we get going? No. Um no, but thanks everybody for hanging out and being active in chat. And uh uh a couple of win predictions I’m seeing down there. Absolutely. And uh I am going to be uh visiting my mom on the other side of the country next week and the week after that. Um I will see what the physical the capabilities are in terms of the laptop and the camera and all of that stuff. Maybe we’ll be able to get up uh the stream over there as well, but we might also take a break. Um just letting you know. I’m letting Steve know right now, too. I don’t think I mentioned that, but um yeah, thanks for showing up with us, hanging out with us on this uh August evening. We’re right in the heart of summer and I hope everybody’s having a really good time. But as always, thank you guys for tuning in to Raptors Report the podcast. Hope you enjoyed. Click the like, click the subscribe, do all of that fun stuff, and let us get in touch with us on uh Twitter. And uh you know uh Steve is uh Raptorshack Raptorshack on Twitter. I am rapsreport. Uh we are going to be starting up. Maybe that is how we’re going to contribute uh over the next couple of weeks. Yeah. By creating some Instagram, YouTube shorts and Tik Tok content. And if you follow us on Twitter, we’ll be sure to drop some links for that. We’ll let you know. In any case, thanks for tuning in to Raptor Report. I’m Julian. This is Steve. We’ll talk to you in a couple weeks. Cheers.

Steve and Julian analyze some of the more pertinent bits of news from this summer, and we have some fun with player comparisons!