CAN WE ANSWER THE BIGGEST QUESTIONS FACING THE RAPTORS? | Basketball Island

CAN WE ANSWER THE BIGGEST QUESTIONS FACING THE RAPTORS? | Basketball Island

The long wait is finally over as we had Raptors pre-season basketball last night. Do the pieces fit? We’re about to find out. I can’t wait for that D. Good to be back. This is Basketball Island. Hine Hamone West who’s staring longingly at Hamone and Pat who for some reason is wearing a jaw Grizzlies jersey in case you’re wondering why. It might be October, but it’s hot in Toronto. My glasses are fogging up, too, man. You okay? Yeah. Yeah. Sweattember is over, but Hot October is still in full effect. Look at his glasses. Can we show Can you show the sweat? I mean, I’m just wearing this cuz it’s a great jersey. This is classic. It’s a classic print. Can the series, you know, wraps were in Vancouver on uh Monday night and Jaw just got hurt. Yep. So, free topical free. We’re we’re not going to duck too much into that preseason game, but from what we saw from that initial game will come through. And our main focus is what are the three burning questions we have about the Raptors going into the season? Just three. Well, so many you want to peel back the curtain. We actually had five, but for the sake of time, we thought we would focus on three. And let me ask the biggest one that every Raptor fan is wondering. Is this a playoff team? Maybe. Wow. We waited so long for that. You had all night to think about how you’re going to answer that one. I mean, I have no idea. It was the first time we saw Brandon Ingram on the floor. We only saw IQ, Scotty, Yak, and R.J. on the floor for nine games last year. There are so many unknowns with this team. Talent-wise, probably should be. You know, you’re pushing the tax. I think you’re in the tax. Top 10, 11 salary in the league, littered with talent. a lot of mix of young guys and some guys in their primes. Based on talent alone, you probably should be, but I don’t know how this team fits. And last night’s game against Denver didn’t really give me any more indications of how they fit. It feels clunky, but I’m obviously willing to withhold judgment. I’m a strong yes. I’m a strong yes. I know that’s uh might not have been the case when we did this pod last year, but a big part of a big part of why I like this Raps team, it’s actually the teams that are ahead of them right now in terms of projected win totals. When you look at the Phillies, Milwaukey’s, and Boston’s of the world, three like very capable established teams, you look past all of their depth chart, you know, starter issues, look at a team like Milwaukee that’s playing Kyle Kosma, Gary Trent Jr., Kevin Porter Jr. Gary Trent Jr. filled it up in the playoffs. We made money off of those threes. We know GTJ big time player. But my point being is the depth for teams that are very good like that. They don’t run as deep as the rap the Rap’s bench could very well carry them in the regular season in a way that we haven’t seen in years. I I think there’s a lot of room for error in the teams above. And so whether or not the Raptors get top six or they’re in a playin spot against a team that’s not actually motivated to make a run, I think the Raptors are really set up to be at least in a position to get it. So you’re advocating for over 39 and a half wins cuz that is what the total is right now on FanDuel. If you think 38 38 sorry it was 39. Now it’s 38. You’re advocating for an over. If you if you think you say top six, especially top six, right? If they make the playoffs, that’s an over hit. Yes. I I I would bet you over on that right now. I think show us the slips. Yeah. Got to put the slips on. I again the biggest area of strength to me with the Raptors team, it’s kind of what the Pacers were like last year. They can run 10 12 deep unlike a lot of these other team more established teams that it gets very thin very fast for some of these good teams. And I think the Raptors can regular season wise keep a lot of games. I think something to add on to that too that plays with that the continuity factor. There is an importance that obviously Ingram a little different but I think the continuity played with played with that deb you disagree on the question I disagree man we like their big four played only nine games together last year yeah they may have been together like but even like Vegas like the this is a group that has been together seems like they like each other but okay we have to look at the Raptors in terms of how they stack up relative to the rest of the conference. So, in my personal tier of the East, New York, Cleveland, uh, New York, Cleveland, Atlanta, Detroit, Orlando are locks. Yeah, that’s five. So, you’re in a tier with Philadelphia, ultimate wild card team. Milwaukee, flawed, but they have Giannis. Boston, who knows? Indie, who knows? Miami. Miami. So, where I’ve landed is if you put a gun to my head, I don’t think they’re top six, but I think they land in that 78 and they win one of those playin games to get in like that. That’s kind of how I see it just from the outset. Obviously, a lot has to develop and we have to see how this goes. But that’s how it looks to me at the moment. But how do they get there? Like that’s my question. Like what is the thing that you look at this team and you say that’s the reason they get to the playoffs? That’s the reason they get to seven or eight. What are they good at? Well, it I think to me question. No. Well, I think to me, you have to be a good defense because I don’t think the offense is going to be elite. I just you don’t have enough shooting. But to me personally, I don’t think you have enough consistent shooting to get into that like upper tier offensive level, but you have the depth and the pieces to potentially be good defensively. And we saw this against Denver in the first game. Lot of pressure, a lot of ball turning it over. And you have to generate offense from that. And I think that has to be their wheelhouse. They were a bottom 10 offense last year. They were pretty inefficient in transition last year, which is surprising because you feel like you should be better with guys like Barrett and Barnes, right? I think they’ll improve in that aspect. To me, it’s the defense is if you’re going to be good, it’s got to be defense, man. Like they were what, first in defense last year, like after March. That was that was fraud over like a fiveweek period. That was a fraud. The the schedule was pretty weak. Not everyone was playing games. Guys were in and out of the lineup. It What are you good at? You have to be a bankable defense in my opinion for you to reach those heights. I need to see it. The starting lineup is just it’s so interesting. Like we could talk about like how like the core and all that fits, but like you got to stagger some guys. I just don’t Ingram quickly like Barrett. These aren’t like no 100% you will have even offensively you will need to stagger it to get the most out of each person. But what I’m wondering if it’s not a playoff team, what does that mean? cuz like to me that if this group right now is not a playoff team, I don’t see ownership being patient enough to want to continue to pay like you said a top 10 payroll for a team that’s not even a playoff team. So what does that mean for the core of this group? Are is that is this group together after the trade deadline if you’re not a playoff team? Like I’m glad you bring that up because that’s what leans me towards them being a playoff team. I think there’s so much capital and investment into this team becoming a successful franchise. This is the season where I think there’s gonna be all the pressure in the world to have everybody play as many games as possible. Coaching staff to put best players on the floor like not as much about development anymore. This is win now territory like you said top down. That’s why I think there’s room for them to get in as opposed to a team like Boston that’s intentionally trying to skirt the the luxury tax. There’s a reason why, you know, Milwaukee, they they they have depth issues. They don’t even know what’s going to happen with Giannis, but they will still I would think Milwaukee will also have that same sort of all-in mentality of we need to make playoffs because if not, and especially we just had that Sham’s report about the Knicks today. Those whispers will get louder and he didn’t he didn’t calm them down on media day either. And and you know, you mentioned Indie as well. Indy’s kind of team they’re kind of just trying to bridge the gap. But Indie Indie, okay, fine. No Hallebertton, but those dudes aren’t going to roll over. Yeah, for sure. But they’re Rick Carlile coach. They’re tough. These guys just went to the finals. Like they’re not going to just shrink and become like a non-factor in the East completely. Um but as a for the Raptors, I think this year is going to be a showcase of like what kind of culture they’ve actually built cuz okay, you look at their starting five, you say it doesn’t necessarily all fit basketball-wise, but like if you look at the past, good teams, they sacrifice for each other and they do what it takes to win. Is everyone going to take uh you know a little bit of a stat statistical dip to win games? Like are they going to do the right things to try to to to be victorious in games? Like are they going to like is Ingram going to cut off the ball more and take more catch and shoot threes? Is Scotty going to sacrifice touches and play, you know, be an alldefensive type player? Is Barrett going to cut and, you know, spot up for threes? Like are they, you know, is Quickly going to play more catch and shoot? Can they do all these things and buy in to try to win or are they going to be gunning, you know, to get their numbers? Well, and that’s one thing that stood out to me yesterday. I know we talked about a lot of the great markets that FanDuel has out of like will Ingram average 22, will RJ and all I don’t trust any of these guys to hit those numbers because if they play the way that they’re supposed to play, this is going to be spread so thin and it’s not sorry to use a football reference, but it’s very much an everybody eats mantra for the team and everybody getting there. And I think that’s the recipe for success to Fab’s point to what you just said like you need to sacrifice for one another and a lot of that sacrifice has to come at the expense of your offense but on the defensive end like again like you know we’re talking about like will this team remain the same like you know I thought RJ Bear was very like mature about how he like kind of handled a lot of the rumors. Josh Wenberg wrote a really good article. Kayla Gray had a report uh in the Denver game as well about like RJ’s kind of he heard them he heard the rumors. I think if you look at the team in the roster construction, he’s the one spot in that starting unit that you can say like does it that kind of tips the balance a little more. I think they kind of they’re they’re suffering from that one ball problem where it’s like you have a lot of dudes who like to handle who like to be aggressive who like to take it to the hole. Like can they play that dark or style where everyone’s moving the ball, drive, kick? That needs to be the key. Well, that sets up question two perfectly. And Fab, we’ll start with you. How does the starting five fit together? That remains to be seen because we’ve seen one one preseason game of 20 minutes that didn’t even include Yaka Purle and we we actually know how important Yaka Purle’s been for this team the last couple years facing was bad there. Well, but with that said, amazing screener. I mean, so he’s going to get guys looks via his screening. I mean, he’s a good little short roll player. He can kick out, you know, he can hit that little floater. So, you know, it’s a cop out here, but I need to see how this develops because we no one we’re all guessing at this point, right? Like we can’t I can’t tell you, but like what we saw uh against Denver was it’s nice to have a guy like Ingram who can threele score, you know, that that’s one thing we can certainly say is Toronto did not have that. And you saw you saw it yesterday. It’s like you can get to the line, you know, hit a three, you can get into the mid-range and like he’s clearly a way better and more polished scoreer than anybody they had. So, that’s a welcome sight. Now, how everything goes around him and how they operate very much wait and see because there’s a lot of moving parts. Yeah, I think BI the best part about him is he’s a completely different tier of isolation scoring in that starting five. There’s just never been anybody like that over the last year. I think the two things for me it’s about about fit that I’d really like to see play out and quickly is how willing are the IQ RJBI guys willing to take that open three when there’s good ball movement and there’s an open shot. I think RJ has shown it a willingness and also he now has to step into that role more. He’s got to be a dead eyee three-point shooter which he’s shown he’s he’s been able to do. catch and shoot, especially catch and shoot when that ball’s open, the ball’s swinging. Can these guys hit those threes? What’s to say they can? If you’re working on that in the gym, that’s that’s a skill you work on. Whether they have the ability, we’ll see what I’m what I’m confident in in terms of who you have in the starting five. I think the ball movement and assist rate stuff is going to be excellent. I think it’s going to be excellent this year. Can they finish the shots? Yeah, that that’s the tough part. I I I think that’s very tough. You know what’s funny? But the the ball’s going to move around and I think if they can hit shots, this offense has good ceiling. You can look at every single player in the starting five like this guy is the key. This guy’s important. Like the the best shooter in the starting five is Emanuel Quickley. You know, we were in our group chat. I mean, the question was asked like where’s IQ? You know, like cuz he is like you’re talking about like the lack of shooting. If he is your elite shooter, that needs to be like exemplified all the time. 10 plus threes a game on good percentages. 10 10’s a lot. But I think I think we have to just accept that IQ is going to have to play a little more of a reduced role. Like I don’t necessarily want to see him running offense as much as the other guys. And that contract’s just not going to stack up to what they’re expecting from him. Like like fine, you be a good role player who can hit threes off catch and shoots and move around, but I mean that you shouldn’t be paying $32 million for that. I think we all agree that that contract is terrible. For me, it’s also with IQ, but it’s making that more of a leap as a playmaker, which we we saw last year with R.J., but I don’t think he can do that. I don’t think Yeah, I agree. No, I I agree. When he is I want to see him take those pull-up threes, he has a great percentage pullup threes, but if you have RJ, Scotty, and IQ who can all move the ball, then that will that allows you to have a guy like BI who’s not a great passer. What do you need more of, IQ as a playmaker or IQ as a shooter? I think you need that as a shooter, but I also want to see him either shoot threes or move the ball. Make it 12 threes a game. Like to me, his his shot diet should be like eight like 75% of his shots should be three-pointers. Like especially if we’re talking about usage and how he can fit with that starting unit. He needs to spread the floor. And I’m not saying like just camp out there and do nothing else. Obviously, he’s going to have the ball. He’s going to take some of the load off of Scotty. a lot of the other guys are going to want to isolate as well, but he that needs to be what he does well for that starting lineup to thrive. Can he do it? I hope so because that unlocks everything else. Yeah. And I think you know this starting lineup we we’ll see how it starts out through I’d say give it at least 20 games before you make any like rash kind of judgments and then who knows maybe you have to make a swap, right? Like there might have to be a guy moving in or out if it’s not panning out the way they expect. My main take is in the starting five. I don’t think it’s a hot take. Scotty’s the best playmaker. What about Scotty Barnes? Scotty is the best playmaker. So, I don’t think you need IQ in that role where he’s setting the offense up. He’s got so many good players. I don’t need him to set the offense up. I’m just saying take a little bit of a leap playmaking like we saw with R.J. last year. And then you have three dudes who are all Yeah. The original question was the fit and I just think how the fit works in this offense is IQ becomes a volume three-point shooter that’s forcing a lot of the perimeter defenders to have to come up which affords BI RJ and Scotty more space to operate. Um IQ is a good shooter. Okay before sorry before you uh Scotty to average six assists is I think plus 150 unfort. Oh that’s a slam. I’m I’m betting that he averaged over six once in his career. I think he’s in line for more. 5.8 last year. And I I’ll disagree on the I think Ingram’s hitting 22 a night. You do? Yeah, I do. I do. I think they need it. I think they need it. Especially in those situations where the half court’s bogging. So then you see Scotty and R.J. taking a bit of the dip in scoring. Yes. I do actually. Yeah. I pray Scott, but I think I pray he scores less this year. Well, based on last night’s game, he got last night was a good indicator. I mean that So that was my fear again. Like you can literally pinpoint every player in that starting lineup and be like this guy’s a when it comes to R.J. I think if they’re going to if you’re going to see them be more aggressive defensively and turning that into running for easy buckets. I think R.J. is going to be a main benefactor. RJ’s way more of a natural score than Scotty Barnes. My worry I love the assist bet. I think that’s like as as lockish as it gets when it comes to this Raptor starting lineup and Barnes just his natural Is there a minimum games bet for those on FanDuel? How’s that? I think it’s one. So if he plays one game and gets five assists, you’re screwed. Okay. Um I think to me it’s like his natural inclination is to playmake. But he didn’t really fit like on the again it’s one game. Who knows? But I am I watch and I worry the shots he the shots he ended up with were a little bit awkward. But I see what I liked was there was a clear emphas emphasis on just pushing the ball and he was and he was good with the assists. I actually thought he played pretty well defensively, too, considering he had to guard Joic at times, but he was free safetying a little bit. It was interesting. Yo, it’s pre-season. Come on, everyone chill. It’s one game, 20 minutes. Like, manu’s not chilling, you know, dialing it from. So, uh yeah, I mean, let’s just We got what, five more preseason games left before we even get to the season. So, yeah. My my take on Scotty is if you had to pick one or the other as a fan, you’d much rather see Scotty have a careerhigh assist season than a careerhigh scoring season. This is the year that he should really see his assist tick up because he has capable scorers around him. Some of the passes Scotty can make even in a halfcourt set offense, nobody else on that team can make but him. That’s his true gift in this offense. He’s not the most gifted scorer of these five. I think he needs to literally take less shots, set his guy, his teammates up more for success. And to even aside from the offense, I need to see Scotty just lock in defensively every night. Like to me, if he’s doing that and that’s your baseline, I can work off that. I actually have no doubts that’s going to be him. I think that’s his MO this year. Very volatile defensively. He definitely takes risks. Like he shoots the gaps, he switches. I kind of like him as a more of a disruptor, like a helper than an onball guy. But definitely feels like how they employed him in last night’s game. Again, it’s preseason. You’re trying stuff. They went over every screen on like defense. Oh, so you you ran into a a a Denver team with without Purle. Without Purle. It’s I mean like Jonathan Bobo’s trying to guard JV and Joic. Like it was the wrong matchup. So going back to Scotty then, do you guys think he could be all defense? I think that’s a bit of I think No, I think he could. I I don’t I’m not saying he will, but I think there’s a world where the skill set is there, but I just think there’s too many other dudes. I know. But if the if the refs have to be a top 10 defense, if the Raps crack top 10, say they’re 10th, and he is racking up block and a half, steal and a half, he’s their best defender. I mean, there’s a case. I think Scotty’s an alldefense player. It might not be an alldefense year. Yeah, I think the personnel around him would have to change in order for Toronto to be a more stout defensive. That’s exactly what I say. And I don’t think the team success defensively will be there to be there. Okay, our final question, and this plays off of They all play off of each other. Look at that. How much pressure is on Darko this season? A lot. I think you know you were afforded two years of a rebuild situation where everyone kind of knew where the team was going to go. You got destroyed with injuries to start last year. So you had a little bit of grace. Now it’s time to Can’t have a little grace. Play the clip. Play the clip. Yeah. Back it up. I like to think I have a little grace. Not as much as Jack have a little grace. You either have grace or you don’t. So to me it’s like you have to prove yourself this year. I know they didn’t make him a lame duck, so they extended him for a year, but that is the lame duck extension. You’re still a lame duck. It’s a nice peace of mind type thing. Uh I need to see if the defense was real, if it wasn’t a mirage last year, and can these guys buy into his system. If we’re looking at the summer league roster, that roster pushed the floor, was super aggressive defensively. They forced turnovers sometimes at the expense of their defensive like principles, right? Like it is their principles, but like they were less solid in order to gamble a little bit more. Do you have the personnel to play that style across the board? I think the bench plays that style. I think Scotty can do that. I’m not so sure about the rest of the starters. So, can those guys buy in? Can they excel in those situations? And if again, comes down to the defense. If they can be a top 10ish defensive team and be middling on offense, I would consider that a win considering how clunky the fit seems to be coming into this year. On the subject of pressure for Darko, I think the salary cap situation puts that pressure on him. They don’t have time anymore. There’s no time for them to wait to see if this team’s got it and he’s going to be the scapegoat if it doesn’t come. So, is play in enough to keep his job? Play in, play in, don’t make playoffs. I think play in it has to be and get in. I think play in and make, I think, is probably the line in the sand. And what works out for him is that the East isn’t great. So, I think that’s a pretty reasonable. The East is better than it’s better than everybody’s saying it is. It is, but it also like it’s not it’s not compared to the West. You know what I’m saying? Fab took Embiid in fantasy the other day, so we know he’s going to have 82 games healthy season. Yeah. Bet over fourth round. Fab’s horseshoe on Embiid now. Oh god. Well, hey man, make your own luck in this life. Um, but uh, in terms of Darko’s pressure, I think it’s an average amount of pressure. I don’t think it’s like he’s not on the hot seat. I think he’s it’s normal NBA coaching pressure. If things if things go off the rails quickly, sure, but that’s any coach in the NBA, man. Like, but is off the rails. Okay. Sure. Okay. Take any team and start five and 15. Yeah, you might be on the hot seat. Five five games under 500 in like mid January. I don’t think No, I I wouldn’t worry about it at five games under I wouldn’t say he’s like his job’s at risk. If you’re hovering in five games under All right. You start getting like closer to double digits under 500. That though if you’re 40 and 42 and miss out on the 10 seed or get the 10 seed and then get smoked, I don’t think he’s back in the East. Yeah, I think pretty far there. So, here’s the thing. Are are the Raptors hoping to be some like deep playoff run team? What do you want? So, you want to get in as the seven or eight and get squashed. And so, that’s Hey, that was a good season, Darko. Yes. I think I think that’s the floor for him. I think anything worse than that, they’re like, okay, the team’s talented enough to be better than this. Maybe we need a change of leadership. Sure. And especially the it’s an astute point about the the tax and that this team is already pay is expensive paying a lot of money for but I just want to rope this into the odds a little bit. Uh Darko coach of the year he’s a long shot as he should be but it’s funny how in the NBA it’s such a fine line like if the Raptors win mid4s that’s the exact kind of profile that wins coach of the year. the overachiever. You took a bad team, made them pretty good. Yet, if they win 32 games, he gets fired. So, that’s kind that’s kind of the MB in a nutshell, right? You think the Raptors are going to be good this year or can win plus mid-40 in games? Bet Darko plus 2,000 to win coach of the year. Well, that’s it’s once again that’s how you profile as a coach of the year candidate. It’s always biggest overachiever, right? For the most part. We’ve talked a ton about the payroll though. So, say it is a disappointing year. What’s easier to change then? The group that you have and not want to pay those high salaries for a team that’s not even a playoff team or hey, we trust these guys. Let’s just like let’s give it one more kick of the cam with this roster. It’s a bit of both. Yeah, that’s but also it’s easier said than done. Like if you No, but if you have a really bad year, the perceived value of your players isn’t going to be good. So what are you trading quickly for? What are you trading there for? No one’s lining up to get those guys. The irony is that if you are having a good year, there might actually be more interest in a guy like Barrett now. But if you’re on course to finish with 44 wins, do you want to trade Barrett? Do you strike while the iron hot or do you say this is working? It’s probably it’s working. It’s probably working and you don’t want to mix it up. I mean, I think one thing that we’ve talked about and alluded to a little bit too and it relates to Darko. I think Darko gets a lot of credit for building the culture of how this team operates right now. It feels very much like benchmobbesque when Pascal, Norman, and all those guys were coming up. There’s some level of camaraderie you see coming off this current version’s bench unit. And I think I I love seeing it and you see it in the preseason game. You can see they’re actually putting a bit of pressure on the starting unit. You love to see that as a fan. That’s great. Don’t let any of the starting five have the grace that their spot is secure. And I think Dargo, I think, deserves some credit. He’s the one that’s instilling a lot of that. that’s making all this defensive pressure stuff actually go. I think that’s where Darko wins is development. He was brought in to do that. He is a player development coach. So to your point, it’s funny that like you’re very like I’m also pro the bench. I think they play with a lot of energy and I think they can they can kind of force the issue defensively with a lot of like a lot of energy. It’s just offensively they scare me though. No, they can’t score. I think they scare a lot of people in the league. I think you know for us we’re close to it. We we watch summer league pretty close. were like, “Oh, no. We’re pretty deep.” Like 10, 11, 12 guys. I don’t know if they’re necessarily seen that way. But, but here’s the thing. I think eventually someone might have to be okay. So, Grady Dick, I’ I’ve you know, I’ve been a fan. I think he’s developed okay last couple years. Looked very bad against Denver. So, I think he can bring a lot to the table offensively with his movement. You know, hopefully more of his shots start going down. But, if he’s on the bench and the whole ethos of the bench is about ball pressure and defense, how does that fit? He’s a target. So, I don’t I don’t know if that lines up with what they’re trying to do. So, at a certain point, does a guy like him get benched because he doesn’t fit with what they want. No, because I think you will need you need that spacing. And if you’re surrounded by other plus defenders, you can hide that a lot better a little bit. You need four other good defenders. Who pops from the bench? Like Jamal, I’m a Jamal Shed guy. I’m a big Jamal Shed guy. I love his defensive intensity, his aggression. I think he sets up everyone else around him to play with a certain pace. It’s infectious. Yeah, it’s very infectious. But with that said, he’s not gonna he’s not gonna score 15 points a game. Like he’s, you know, I I don’t know if anyone as a scorer is going to pop to me. Jacobe Walter should be the guy theoretically the most in terms of like guy who could actually make the league cuz he can give you something defensively. If the shot is real, that’s really good too. It’s just you need one or two guys to pop. I love the way Mamo Killy played. I think he kind of fits dark, the pump, the drive. Jack’s got to start saying his name. Oh man, we’re gonna We’re gonna grill him. We’re gonna get You can’t keep getting away with Sandro every time, man. Mamu with the three. Got it. He can stretch it. Space it. Say it with me. Sandro. Mama Kellisville. Come on. It’s going to take me a few games. Come on, Jack. question of this year’s like panel is going to be ask the panel to spell his name. See what happens just right away before the season even starts. Um I but he fits like to me he’s kind of the the guy the fact that he can shoot and he can put on the floor at his size. CMBB I think is very intriguing especially defensively. He can’t shoot though. He played small ball five and I love but his playmaking is an underwriter. He’s a nice handle. He can playmake a little bit. Someone’s got to pop from the bench for them to be solid. They have so many options. So if you’re Darko, who’s the guy that you’re going to like sixman, seventh man, the guy who’s playing every game because you know what you’re going to get from that person? Consistency on both ends of the floor. That that that question still needs to be answered. I agree with Wes that there are a lot of choices. Don’t the versatility of the bench though is actually like a nice little strength and depending on what you need, you can get that. But you want you want to be able to have someone you can bank on that you know what you’re going to get both ends of the floor. I think Jamal Shed’s a great candidate for that. Who else? Like shed can’t really shoot. Like who else? You know what I’m saying? I think that it’s going to be very very interesting. It can actually sway it especially in the regular season. To me, it’s not like a hockey shift five in five out type of thing. I think you’re going to see a lot of West Wes loves bringing up this puck. Let’s get the B. Hey, opening night. Uh the big thing, the big thing is like I would say they’re kind of like big dumping chase guy, right? Clippers is a great example. Chris Dunn not a score. Derrick Jones Jr. not a score, but they need those type of guys in the starting lineups with like a James Harden to like be able to have a guy on the defensive end. I think the Raptor, you’re going to see a lot of that this year. I think they’re going to be earlier substitutions where a guy like Colin Murray Boils comes into the lineup where they just want a guy clamping dudes down. On the other end, you have enough mouths to feed on offense anyways. You don’t need five shooters on the floor. I think you see quicker rotations like that and I think it’s going to be very effective. And then you put the credit to Darko, coach of the year 2021. On that note, Wes has a Pens Rangers watch party to get to. So, uh, we’ll be back next week. Don’t forget, catch us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, wherever your podcast. Go dogs.

Toronto Raptors fans finally got a sneak peak of the team in Monday’s pre-season game against the Nuggets. However, many questions still need to be answered as we approach the regular season. Will this team make the playoffs? How does the starting five fit together? How much pressure is on head coach Darko Rajakovic? Hein, Hambone, Wes and Fab are here to tell you. 

00:00 – Raptors Playoff Bound?
10:12 – Does The Starting Five Fit?
19:05 – Darko Under Pressure?