The 6 BIGGEST Questions for the Toronto Raptors Season

The 6 BIGGEST Questions for the Toronto Raptors Season

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Pullup Trey podcast. The podcast co-hosted by myself, Samson Folk of course, but also the podcast where Trey pulls up. Trarevon Heath, the the namesake, the man of the hour. Every time we record, you’re here to talk some basketball with me. For the people who are listening, uh we’re going to give you some topics. For the people on screen, you can see there are six topics for today. The topics are one, will Brandon Ingram improve the Raptors half court offense? Two, how will RJ Barrett and IQ adapt to offball roles? Three, what happens with the defense? Four, which guard will be first off the bench? We’re thinking of Jacobe. We’re thinking of OCI. We’re thinking of Grady and even potentially Jamal. Number four, can Scotty Barnes improve as a creator and scorer? And number five, or six, I should say, I’m counting wrong. How did the Raptors survive without YaKob on the floor? Trey, how are you doing? Are you excited to answer the six most important questions for this Raptor season? I’m excited. It’s been a it’s been a contentious preseason to say to say the least. So, where are you? Where are you noticing the contention? Where’s that coming from? It’s it’s sort of like everyone everyone from the media, from the fan base knows like this is the year. It’s like a line in the sand of like either these guys are are the guys are going to lead the next generation or the last four to five years has been a massive mistake and has altered the franchise in a significant way and either way that’s going to go is going to be crazy and a lot of chaos. So people are just like real sensitive right now. Well, people are sensitive and expectations are high for the team in the first time in however long and uh you know the internet is always going to have a bunch of opinions on it. We’re talking about a few things here. We’re going to start off with something that I think is really fun uh and something that is positive and something that is an easy answer but something that will add a lot of information to. Brandon Ingram really improving the Raptors half court offense. I’ll start off by saying the Raptors were a bad transition offense last year. Brandon Ingram will also improve that surefire, but they need somebody who can create to set the scene. They were the worst team in the NBA when it comes to creating on the ball. Points per possession dead last. They were one of the three worst teams in the NBA when it comes to pull-up shooting. They weren’t strong when it comes to catch and shooting. They weren’t strong when it comes to finishing their location data where they took the shots from said, “Hey, these are good shots.” And all the players said, “This is not my strength.” For whatever reason, Trey, start me off. Brandon Ingram as a creator to help lift the trans or the half court offense. Where are you? I’m I’m very fairly high on that. I I think in terms of like his skill set and the way that the the offense is built around, it’s a ball dominant guy who can both operate as like a shot maker and playmaker is huge for their offense. Like Darko has really emphasized that through his offense. He’s always wanted a point guard to handle the ball for the large majority of those touches and BI looks like he’s going to be able to take those. I think where the Raptors are are lacking, especially in the half court last year, is obviously overall creation getting to the rim and and when Brandon Ingram does get to the rim, he’s fairly efficient in doing so. They need it all. They also need live dribble shot creation outside of Grady IQ, who kind of can’t do that in the paint and in the h in the half court. BI has the length, the shot making ability to warrant defenses actually moving and giving him that added attention which should add which should help with tons of other guys who are great cutters like RJ Jacobe Scotty who’s a great finisher. Yakob who’s great in the in the dunker spot. It it puts everyone in in the places that they should be. And last season, the entire team from from Scotty down was put in a position where they had to kind of punch up to where their skill set is. And Brandon Ingram is the guy that can fit the bill and has done this for several years. Okay. So, I’ve kind of had put this as three separate things that reveal an answer. So, Ingram as a creator, let’s answer that part first. Uh he had four straight seasons on the Pelicans. Oddly enough, it didn’t start with his all-star season, but four straight seasons where he has this huge positive onoff when he’s on. Pelin’s offense is significantly better. Um, they take better shots when he’s on the floor. They hit more shots when he’s on the floor. His gravity as a creator allows other players to shoot better, to have easier shots, and that’s obviously something that the Raptors will be taking into significant consideration. He is somebody who the moment he steps on the floor as you said it moves everybody into the right place. The creating stuff it should be easy. And the way that fits in this is the second thing is his automatic offense. This doesn’t even really need to be integrated. Think of Kyle Lowry’s offense with the championship team and then there was Kawhi Leonard’s offense. Kawas was kind of segregated and on its own. Kawawaii was a guy who operated out of pick and rolls with some partners, some playmaking. Yes, but a lot of getting his own buckets, a lot of isolation scoring. When it comes to Brandon, he’s a guy who no matter even as the Pelgans team changed, whoever was out there with him, he was running very productive pick and rolls. You run pick and rolls everywhere you go, you’re a ball dominant player. Boom. Bob’s your uncle, Becky’s your aunt. Isolation possessions. Does it matter the context a little bit of the team? Sure it does. Yes. But also, it’s it’s just you out there getting buckets. and he’s always been an above average isolation scorer in a vacuum. He’ll be able to do those things so easily. We’ve seen it. I mean, it’s transferred over immediately. The preseason isn’t the best barometer for things we’re running. We’ll we’ll have a positive conversation about Scotty in a little bit, but Scotty’s had a weird preseason. Doesn’t matter. It’s preseason. Whatever. Who cares, right? Brandon has been pretty damn good. It’s meaningful to see him play well. Mhm. Thirdly, fitting in with the Raptors, he is an elite finisher catching on the move and when he’s cutting. Now, he does not cut very often elsewhere, but he’s already showcased a little bit of cutting with the Raptors. The Raptors, even if they don’t get him to cut as much as some people want, they justify a whole bunch of cutting. He will be cutting more often. He shot what, like 72, 73% at the rim. Uh, hello. This guy’s arms go forever. He has soft touch, he’ll finish. And then lastly, the easy thing is just like he’s a he’s a good catch and shoot three-point shooter. This is guys who step into offenses. The ball comes to you, it’s pretty inherent. It works easy. All these things point in the direction of he’s going to help immensely. Not to mention that when you go through the stats, and we’ll talk about some of them, Scotty, RJ, IQ, you look at when they make passes, why isn’t the team performing as well if some of those passes go to Brandon Ingram? Yeah. Things start trending in the proper direction. Does anything I’ve said there surprise you or even more bullish than some of what’s been said? No. Uh, he’s we’ve seen him do it and become an all-star doing so. But we’ve seen him do it in the playoffs and excel doing so. I I think the the talent jump that the Raptors got for a very low price just I feel still is underrated within within the league. you from converting Kelly Olen and Bruce Brown to at worst a fringe all-star for several years changes the the dynamic of the offense and you’re entering a situation where you don’t need to feel that Scotty Barnes needs to hold the ball and be this on ball creator that his game might not necessarily fit which we’ll talk about in in a second. It just allows the Raptors to become a lot better while also not forcing this upward trajectory or development from guys that that don’t necessarily have the talent level or skill set to do so. Yeah. The the answer you go look at the numbers and there’s this thing where Ingram didn’t he didn’t become everything that some people wanted him to be. And I get that people have expectations and when players don’t meet it, it’s sour grapes. But Ingram is just he’s a talent. He’s a very talented player. He’s just, as you said, at worst a fringe all-star. Just got to be the health. Just have to be healthy. I’m not asking for 73. I’m not asking for 82. I’m asking for like 64. And if I get 68, the pants are off, man. Let’s go streaking. I’m extremely happy about that. Brandon Ingram healthy and integrated, I think, will help the Raptors immensely in the half court offense. Anything else on that or do we start talking about some of the guys who operate around him? Yeah, I I would just say for anyone that’s kind of like schemish or on on the on the opportunity or what Brandon can provide, the Raptors itself and their their system provides great shots. They’re towards the top of the league and getting good looks for players. You’re turning that from possessions that Jonathan Moble has clear possessions at the rim. Jamal Shed may have and you’re turning that into Brandon Ingram at the very least. It’s an upward trajectory and a talent level increase that doesn’t come by very very often which is why they pulled the trigger on a trade like that. Yep. Especially for what they traded for him. And on top of that, if anybody wants a little bit more specific, uh, I have a video essay on Brandon Ingram’s projected fit, which is good. And I think it’s even it’s almost a year old at this point, but it’s pretty strong. And I just did a film breakdown on all of his uh film with the Raptor so far, and it’s it’s more, you know, intimate looking at what he does than this. Um, if you’re into that kind of stuff, go ahead. Secondly, let’s talk about the other all-star on the team, Scotty Barnes. I feel like that’s probably the most interesting place to go with it, Scotty. Like, listen, I had negative reactions to when I said it seems like Scotty doesn’t care about preseason. Listen, that doesn’t mean I think Scotty’s bad. I just when I see the guy for the fifth time in a game not cross half court to join the team on an offensive possession and what 15 of his 17 shot attempts in preseason have been jumpers. I get the sense that like he doesn’t care that much about preseason. He doesn’t have to. Nobody really has to. He’s been an allstar. I still think he’ll be an all-star this year and I’m hoping. We need to see a good season. The big question is how he takes on creating stuff now that it’s with Brandon Ingram and around a more talented team and two how he operates offensively as a noncreator. How do you feel about you choose whichever one you want to shoot at, go for it? Yeah, I think just the way he’s positioned in the in terms of the team now, he’s a lot of the possessions that like RJ Barrett would get on the catch, on the move, barreling downhill, he’s going to get a lot of those possessions and he does that really well. When he gets to the rim and he takes that extra dribble, he’s super strong. He can finish and he can explode through through the lane. I think where he struggled with and kind of the the he he said this as well, kind of the thought process of experimenting and seeing where your talents can go while also trying to be productive can also be have its challenges. The Raptors are trying to win now. So, you expect those long jumpers to turn into dunks, turn into layups, and kind of use that as as counters. um what you want to see for him as a creator because it doesn’t I like Scotty, you like Scotty. Last season, he was one of the worst creators in the NBA just on the on the on the face of things just in terms of the amount of possessions he got and how efficient he was. He was not very good at doing so. But I do think him becoming a lot better in transition and not bailing out teams with with with jumpers, working on the catch, and also something that Pascal Syakim does so well is getting the early seal, getting a dump in, scoring and finishing super quickly. There’s these little things within his actual game that he can improve while not having to be this great standstill creator that he can do. But in terms of his overall creation from a standstill perspective, I still think he has the opportunity to be a good pick and roll player. If he’s has the willingness to fight through hedges and fight and get to get to the lane, it’ll allow his mid-range to improve and open up because their defenses will actually shift. Right now, nobody is shifting because he’s willing to stop from 12 feet and that has to change this season. Yeah, he full stop is one of the highest volume non-p paint shooters in the NBA and it’s because he is a huge fan of his own mid-range jumper as far as his efficiency with that shot. Uh he’s about middle of the pack, which is a nice development for him when you look at his game coming out of college. It’s a proper counter. I’m glad it’s part of his game. Do I want him to be in the 93rd percentile and upward? Uh like one of the the guys who takes the most of these. Do I want him in that Kawhi Leonard realm? Not exactly. I do want him, as you said, playing out of the pick and roll. Uh it’s been a couple years in a row now that he’s been passable to good as far as the numbers they say he can operate out of the pick and roll, especially as a passer. Put him in motion. Have him catch off of like Ricky screens and pin downs into movement sets with guard screeners. Let him make decisions as an upright passer scanning the floor with players moving around him. And if a seam opens up, let him attack it. As a driver, he didn’t really shine in any type of drive except for when he was able to draw a close out. That means big steps towards the rim. That means big finishes. Guess what though? He doesn’t draw a lot of closeouts. Yeah. That mix of being asked to create so much, that mix of when you look at his catch and shoot jumpers and his dribble jumper was one of the five worst high volume jump shooters in the whole league. I don’t I a very quick question for you. Do you think it’s more likely that he improves himself enough that he moves out of that ranking or do you think it’s more likely that the Raptors put him in stronger positions so he just doesn’t deal with that volume necessarily? Yeah, I think he’s just going to be in better positions to score. I think you saw that with they’ve only played one preseason game together, but it looks like the offense is going to revolve around Ingram and everyone else is going to have to fit in and get into those roles and he’s already done that within his career and excelled in doing so. So, I think he should be able to score very efficiently just simply off of like the gravity that Ingram creates. He’s going to get those possessions like I said like RJ RJ was getting off of the catch coming off a curl and barreling downhill and he also has a playmaking ability that RJ doesn’t have to open up things second side for other guys. So I’m super excited to see see that. Yep. On top of that too uh he had one play type last year where he was like strong. Uh it was when he was the screen setter, the roller in the pick and roll. And I would love to see Scotty used in this play type more often. I would love to see it with R.J. I’d love to see it with IQ. I’d love to see it with Grady. I’d love to see it with Ingram. And with Ingram, is that going to result in more switches and not really, you know, the flow pick and roll type of play? Sure. But I think both of them are going to be able to carve out advantages. And we might see Scotty’s efficiency as an isolationist kind of creep up this year because he’ll be looking at easier matchups because Ingram is taking a lot of the brunt of that really hard defensive matchup that Scotty had to take last year. RJ’s taking a peg down. Scotty’s taking a peg down. It resorts everything and Scotty should be he should benefit from that greatly. I also think he’s not going to shoot 27% on his threes. I expect him to be north of 30%. I mean, I hope so. And uh he has good touch. He’s fine at the free throw line. I don’t think there’s any business for his three-point shot to be that low. As long as he fits in as an offensive rebounder, as a screen setter on occasion, and they let him run the right types of pick and rolls as a baseline, I think he’ll be good. Obviously, he’s still 24 years old, was an all-star in year three. There’s still going to be some experimentation looped in here. He still did take a lot of jumpers in preeason. He’s still working on stuff, but I think it gets better as a creator by the numbers, even though on lower volume as Darko said, and I think it gets much better as an offball player. My fingers are crossed on this, but given his defensive acumen and given everything we just laid out, there’s a real map to all-star status for him. I don’t know if we get two guys this year. I know if you just watch preseason, it looks like it’s Ingram is the all-star and nobody else is close, but you got to believe in something, man. And you got to try not to pay too much attention to like Scotty’s been a very good player in his lifetime at the NBA level. It’s been nasty business in the preseason, but you can’t you can’t let that color you too much. Speaking of Scotty, speaking of defense, let’s go there. The Raptors made a mad dash last year to become, you know, near the top half of the league in defense. They were between 14 and 16. I don’t remember which one right now, but they were top 10, maybe even top six in the last like two and a half months of the season. Now, Caitlyn gave me this really great stat when she came on the podcast where she said when Scotty played, the Raptors were ranked 20th in defense against the better offenses in the NBA. So, when they were playing good teams, even when Scotty was healthy, they still struggled. I understand that they were very strong defensively when the malaise of the season definitely caught up. There’s a there’s a worry there. Given that context, where do you sit on this, man? Defense, good or bad? I I’m still super bullish on on their defense. Um I think the way that they’re approaching defense, I think we we talked about this in our our previous podcast. Oh, we’ve talked about things, man. Let’s start the basketball. But it’s it fits what the the NBA is turning towards, which is high pickup, aggressive style defense, trying to force turnovers. And through the majority of the league, um, you can create turnovers with their their ball handler just simply through aggression. There isn’t as many Shade Gilis Alexanders, there isn’t that many Luca Don on on other people’s teams. And the Raptors have multiple guys that they can throw at you that can pick you up from from tip off. So, I think they’re going to be able they’re going to be a team that’s going to be great in transition. They’re going to force tons of turnovers. And I think in terms of their backline, they’re going to be one of the best in the NBA. Scotty second half of the year really picked it up in terms of what he can do on the weak side. and YaKob has always been from good to at worst just a bit above average in terms of protecting the rim and being that backline defender. It’s gonna allow them to play a lot more aggressive. And I think even even the lineup of like Quickley and and BI, they’re going to be they have enough length, I think, on defense where they’re going to be okay enough to still have really good lineups around those two guys because they’re going to be a really big team that’s very aggressive and I think they’re going to be towards the top of the league in terms of steals. When I was doing the defensive portion of Brandon’s film room, it wasn’t that bad. Like there there was it’s preseason and there was effort. That’s a that’s a pretty big indicator to me for Brandon Ingram. And he has a lot of length. If they can keep him away from a lot of the off the on ball stuff and allow him to be a guy who like steps into the lane, shows length in passing lanes, I think that he can he can be like average with room to go upwards as a defender on this team. The thing I really question is the the ball pressure. I I do I I’m not worried about Scotty on the back line. I’m not worried about YaKob back there. I’m not honestly, and we’ll talk about this later, how they survive without Yakob. I’m not really worried about the collection of CMB and Mamu and Mobo defensively. I am worried about the guys up front and because they extend their pressure so much, they’re just going to allow drives. They’re just going to allow guys to get in the teeth of things. And it’s going to require more rotation from the backline. And I wonder how everybody plays catch-up. That being said, with enough effort, you can definitely crawl out of the bottom third in defense. And if anything that this Raptors team has been able to give, it is effort. And so, I wouldn’t expect them to be in the bottom third of the league in defense. I expect their offense to improve. When you score more on offense, your defense gets better because you get to set your defense. You get to pressure how you want. And on top of that, there are reasons to believe that they have enough defensive talent on the roster potentially in their rookie joining them as well too to put them in a decent spot. I after seeing it would not go top 10. I know a lot of people were saying like, well, maybe top 10. I I would expect something like 12 14 somewhere in there, but a big win. It would be a big win, especially given that we’re so bullish on the offense and the offense just has to improve, man. Yeah, the offense just has to improve. God, it if the offense didn’t improve, oh my good, that would just be terrible. But top half defense puts them in a good spot, I think. And uh room to go a little bit higher because they’re going to be a fairly big team for parts of the game. They should have decent small ball lineups. And to go back to people who factor into not only the ball pressure defense but making the offense go IQ and RJ playing off ball. What does that look like? Lead take me on an adventure here. What are you thinking about those two fellas? I I think the the Brandon Ingram edition will impact them positively the most. I think out of everyone in terms of the team particularly like RJ um in terms of the most success we had we saw him in terms of like being a finisher and and being and just being efficient across the board was when he had multiple ball ball handlers around him and they had Pascal, they had Scotty Barnes, but they asked him to be a catch and shoot shooter, be a be a a a good cutter and occasionally do a a pick and a pick and roll from second side. his his best finishing year was when his assist assistant numbers at the rim were the highest obviously because he’s a great finisher. He’s he’s a very strong cutter and very willing. That’s one of the things that he did as a Raptor almost immediately which shows that he can play off ball and I think the the biggest swing from him as a Nick from a Nick to a Raptor is that his catch and shooting has been very good the whole time as a Raptor 30 the 38%. If those things hold up, he’s going to be able to play around BI and Scotty and the development that he had, especially as a playmaker within the pick and roll as well, will just be an added bonus and gravy on top of whatever he’s already doing. You’ve seen it already in preseason. The looks that he’s getting are a lot easier. He’s able to get into the lane and dice into the lane. and his rim pressure that he he gets from attacking closeouts is probably going to be one of the the Raptors biggest points of emphasis emphasis in terms of getting to the rim because they have a lot of guys that rely on others to create closeouts or beat beat their man to get to the rim in order to to score buckets. Yeah. To bolster your point there, he doesn’t have a ton of vertical pop when he gets to the rim. He’s good at finishing on his le last last leg last step. He’s good at finishing on that, but it’s usually pretty groundbound and he’s like turning the corner on a guy, which means that he is as a finisher at his best when he has one man to beat and typically that one man being his check who he’s driving to the basket from the perimeter. He’s quite strong when that’s the case. You can like in the preseason he’s not been strong finishing at the rim. He’s also played a lot without Brandon Ingram. He’s been asked to create a lot on his own and for that Denver game was like the only guy driving towards the paint and and missing a little bit. He’s overextended as a finisher I think is clearer than anything. As you said, like when you think about the fact that Oiabaji is shooting like roughly the same on catch and shoot threes as a Raptor as RJ Barrett is, you’d be like, “Well, RJ Barrett’s percentages are way worse.” Yeah, R.J.’s taking a lot of damn pull-ups that he should not be taking. And why is he doing this? Because the Raptors are like, “We ain’t got nothing going on, man. We don’t have Ingram yet. Go out there and get us a bucket.” He was one of the worst pull-up shooters in the NBA. The Raptors very lucky to have two of those guys last year. You know what I mean? Getting getting Barrett off ball. He He’ll thrive. We saw him thrive before. And how much does he thrive? Does it change the calculus on how the league views him or the Raptors view him? I don’t know. This podcast is a very pro RJ podcast. We’ve liked him from the moment he’s been there. We don’t quit on this guy. I like his game offensively for this team. On top of that, pick and roll playmaking. He’s at his best on drives when he gets to pass actually. And as Brandon said, he’s not just a gunner. As Darko said, he’s one of the great players in the league who can find offense without having anything drawn up for him. That’s a great case there. I’ll take the lead on IQ. IQ. So, a fun stat or maybe a stat that Brandon Ingram will help improve is so last year he was IQ was 35% on spot-up threes. Just 35%. Not good. Uh he was really low percentile. He so low in volume of spot up threes. He was bottom 10 percentile in the NBA in stationary three-point shots. So, what this means is that there’s a lot of defense paying attention to him. So, he doesn’t get wide open shots real easily. And two, he’s not beating his man by getting open and forming up and cutting a lot. He is kind of just using his body to create space for other guys. I would like him to find a middle ground here where he is actually landing his feet, getting more stationary three-point attempts and hitting them. I’d love to see it. and Brandon Ingram as your number one. Scotty is a number two. Well, actually, honestly, creating Scotty R.J. probably will have similar numbers as far as raw creation. Those guys having IQ to finish possessions. I can’t wait. IQ is a guy who some of the possessions he’s had skip passes in preseason been pretty good. There’s been some nice pacing there, but I would like to see him improve, you know, moving the play on if he gets run off the line. the passing get a little bit better. And I hate floater first players instead of layup first players, but he’s a floater first player. Yeah. Hit a higher percentage of those. There should be there really should be more room for him to succeed. Am I missing anything on IQ here, do you think? I think one of the things we probably want to see from him, and what will go up is just him shooting just more off off screen. He like like you mentioned, he’s a player that kind of tries to to float within the offense. Um, and the Raptors require their offball players to run really hard off screens, create create that gravity, create that pressure to open things up for other players. And he only hit eight eight threes off of off of screens. And he’s one of the best shooters in the league as well as his team. So that has to increase that has to change significantly which will allow his playmaking get a lot better because teams will pick up a lot higher will help the roman in that situation. It will also help his overall like efficiency when he drives because when he gets hard closeouts when he was on the Knicks and he was playing against he was playing with a really big star who handles the ball. He he was able to get downhill his floers became a lot easier. His floor percentage was significantly higher. And as a Raptor, he’s been asked to set the table a lot. And I think that’s where a lot of people thought they were going to see that that star trajectory, that all-star trajectory, and that just hasn’t happened. He’s going back to a role where we already have seen him succeed at. We just need him to turn into a more more of a movement player that can hit shots off movement that helps everybody on the team. I think that’s one of the most significant changes we need from any player on the team. Yep. I’m I’m excited to see it. I really want to see a good year from IQ so I can stop laboring on about the things that he doesn’t do. And I think he’s in a really strong position to have a good year. I think he and RJ both are. Uh does that mean that they’re getting all the usage that they ideally want? Maybe not. They’re they’re down a spot on the totem pole. Does that mean it’s going to change how the league views them? I don’t know. But I think they’re both in a decent spot to succeed. We got another question here, man. It’s basically first guard off the bench. I’m g like you could incorporate Jamal Shed, but I I don’t really Jamal Shed is the only point guard. Chucky Heburn has actually been playing good. Yeah. Uh but Jamal is like the roster has been made in such a way that Jamal just has a spot. Yeah. And it’s just like you get this possession Jamal. depending on how the creators do elsewhere, the RJ’s, the Grady’s, the IQ’s, um maybe Jacobe by the end of the year. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. But this this topic is like Ochai Grady Jacobe. I’m going to start off with a sentence. See if you agree. Ochai is currently the best player, but the Raptors hope that that isn’t the case by the end of the season. I I agree. I think game one he’s the first guard off the bench. He’s their He’s their best defender in terms of in terms of picking guys up really high and being being aggressive. He has the length to to do so. Wait, I’m gonna because you’re really high on Jacobe and I’m also really high on Jacob’s defense. Who do you think’s better at picking up, Jacobe or Ochai? I would say Jacobe because he’s physical, but I think he’s way worse in terms of screening. Like if he does get screen Jacobe Jacob’s ball pressure defense is really good. Yeah, he’s super physical. Y, but I I think Ultra is a player that you could slot even in your starting lineup just because he’s he’s such a stationary player. He he doesn’t require much usage. He he does exactly what a fifth starter should do. Hit hit stationary threes, be an active cutter, play good defense, hits bottom threes. He he does at a at a really high clip and he’s done that as a as a Raptor. Um, but I think just because of the the Raptors like lack of creation across multiple positions, especially on their bench, you want this you want this to be Grady or Jacobe that that step up that shine as a guy that can take take the ball or be a guy that can score off movement for them because OAI doesn’t necessarily require the defense to draw any attention to them. He he still gets a lot of open threes because it’s just something that teams are willing to live with. And if Grady takes that role and takes that spot, that just isn’t gonna happen. It makes things a lot easier for for everyone across the board. I think a success for the Raptors is one of those two take Ochai’s spot. And that and that leads to I think better offense across the board. Yeah. Ochai also is just much improved as a connective passer and as a finisher since we first saw him as a Raptor. Obviously the three-point percentage going up really meaningful and you hope it stays around 40%. But do you want some preseason numbers? And again we preseason can mean some things. It can also if someone hand waves it all away I have no problem with it. Do you want the preseason numbers on Grady and Jacobe? Okay. Grady. There was a lot of hand ringing after Grady’s first preseason game. And I said, “Listen, I don’t care about the offense. They’re like, they’re defending him, you know, 28 feet from the basket. It’s fine.” He wasn’t hitting shots. His defense did worry me a little bit, though. Uh he he doesn’t look on balance when he closes out. Gives me the I’m like, damn, what’s going on? Anyway, we’re here after four games of the preseason. He’s his 66.5% true shooting. That’s incredibly high for people keeping track at home. 53% from the field, 44% from the three-point line, and he is eight of 10 at the rim so far. Now, this is bolstered by some transition numbers, but he’s also shooting 67% at the rim uh in the half court. Now, Jacobe, who is far better on defense than Grady, is 43% true shooting. Uh think Precious Sichua to start the 202122 season. It’s about that bad. 30% field goal, 20% three-point. He’s three of seven at the rim overall. So, I think the preseason numbers obviously say what they say. They reinforce what I believe, which is that Grady is the far better offensive player with a far higher upside there. But I can never escape from the fact that all Jacobe has to do is not shoot 20% from the three-point line. And if he’s like a 37% three-point shooter with his defense, that guy might strike the middle on what the Raptors need. We argued about this or debated a contrived debate. A contrived debate, but I guess with four preseason games, as if that would change your mind, where are you on this? The same the same as we discussed. I I from the Boston game, you you love to see that like one of these guys show like with more extended time, with more extended possessions, like they can they can score and they might be able to punch up and steal some minutes from other guys. And Grady Grady did that. Offensively, like I said, his ceiling and the debate about who is the better player, I don’t think there’s a debate on that necessarily. Like Grady’s upside and trajectory is super high. Jacobe still hasn’t had a run like Grady had the first 25 odd games of of the season. And that was him punching at near like fringe all-star levels. So for for Grady, it’s a matter of the roster construction because Emanuel Quickley isn’t necessarily a guard that’s going to provide you um provide just provide you like comfort as uh a backcourt duo obviously defensively because he needs help sometime himself. Darko has been gassing him though. There was I haven’t seen it. He I can see the effort and I appreciate I appreciate the effort. Yes. When we were I can’t remember who asked it, but they asked Arco, you know, like oh yeah, you know, you have Chucky, Jamal, and uh Jacobe with this ball pressure. Like it’s so great. And he like was like, hey, Emanuel is also very good at this ball pressure. We appreciate Emanuel. I appreciate it, too. But anyway, go ahead. Yeah, I I I need to see the f physicality. I don’t I don’t believe you, but I’m hop hoping to be wrong. Like, like you said, but like Jacobe, his true shooting will go up and down depending on how well he shoots threes. That’s going to be the bulk of his possessions because he’s very limited in what he can do offensively. He they try to give him more possessions in both summer league and in that Boston game. He just is very limited as a ball handler right now. And that’s okay. He’s a secondyear player, but because of his level of defense and he has had extended stretches of being a really good shooter like he did the back half of last season, that’s a guy that you can plug in. You can play 15 to 20 minutes and be a a fifth player out there and provide impact. It’s not a matter of um whether he’s going to be the better better player. It’s just a matter of he can fit in and into more lineups and that might win him the job and win more minutes across the board. I think as a Raptor fan, you want to hit that upward trajectory and you want to see that player, one of these three hit a higher projection than this. I think Jacobe winning that winning this job without improved um creation experience or creation um reps would be a failure on Grady’s part. Honestly, Grady, he is a talent, you know, and the def he’s had a couple okay defensive games in a row. And when I say okay, it’s okay. I would never an okay Grady game is like not bad. Yeah, I’ I’d be very scared to suggest that it was average. He has a long way to go, but he commands so much attention on offense. His shot making can be so impressive, and despite his limitations, he still manages to slither down to the floor and put pressure on the rim. Mhm. And I’ve been long been a proponent that I don’t think the the finishing woes will stay at the same level. I think it’ll come around. He has good touch and he’s pretty big. Also, he kind of has pretty good offensive rebounding juice. Uh he the the Raptors are a team, as I’ve said it a million times, tagging up. He’s been crashing hard and he’s created a lot of extra possessions for the Raptors. He’s an interesting player and a guy who, you know, was after the Boston game, I asked Darko about his usage and he said other guys need to look for him more. They don’t realize, you know, how available he is and what he can do. So that was why they ran him ragged for the first eight minutes of that game. He was walking with his head back like that. I do wonder the point you make is so good. It’s really that’s the clarity of the situation is Jacobe winning this job without improving much is not just not great for Jacobe but it’s really bad for the team. Jacobe winning I I mean Grady winning this job. It’s obviously his upside. You like it. Ochai winning this job. You’re like, “Ah, okay. You got you got to pay him. You got to see what’s there.” But if Brady and Jacobe both really that competition, you know, iron sharpens iron, that would be cool because I think those guys can play some spot minutes together and have it be good. And I think those guys can plug different holes in what a rotation needs. I would love if both these guys are killing it because as much as I take the Grady side and you take the Jacobe side, you and I are both huge fans of both these guys. We’ve just contrived a debate for whatever reason. Uh we have one last topic. Yakob Purle is not the lone big on the roster the same way he was last season. Unless you’re a huge Colin Castleton fan, in which case, hell yeah, Mrs. Castleton, I’m very glad you’re listening. The Yaka Purle minutes. Uh, that’s all we’ve seen so far, but take me on a trip of how you think that’s going to go and do you have any remedies to what I guess problems may occur? Yeah, I I will say I’m more bullish on it than I was probably like three weeks ago just just because of how good Mamu has been through throughout preseason which is like dude I wrote this in my piece after today’s game and I was like I hope this isn’t like SVI cuz you know how SVI tricked us. He was also a He’s also a white guy who buzzed his head, you know, and he was like slick on drives in the preseason and then suddenly the season started and nothing was there. I hope he’s not tricking. I don’t think he is, but yeah, he he’s been much better than I think anyone expected. Like there’s obviously like flashes of him being a spur, but like 90% of people are referring to game 82 when he’s with 30 in a bunch of threes. But I the people pretending to be Mamu experts. I knew it was going to happen. Look at him on drives. Dude, that was my takeaway when I saw him. I was like, “Okay, he shoots above the break threes. That’s important.” And then I was like, he’s very coordinated on drives, but I saw six of those. So like, what what are we going to say? I saw six drives. So, we’re going to see. And then obviously like CNB has been phenomenal in in terms of at least like in terms of expectations. What I was hoping to see like he’s defended at a very high level. He’s been able to defend bigs. He’s been able to switch out. So they have multiple options. The obvious like big answer here is they’re going to play Scotty at the five a lot. They’re going to use him as a big his his n his numbers as a a rim protector are and the swings of that are are super high for the Raptors. You see that on defense even when he plays with with Yakob just because of his athleticism, his length and his versatility. He can switch out on onto wings and shot clock situations. He can defend bigs. He can front bigs and he also has the strength to also just defend them in in the post. I think you’re going to see probably a lot more lineups where he plays with with Mamu where they they can both switch in and out together in terms of guarding other bakes. Bamo’s like movement skills defensively like I I wouldn’t say like he’s a stalworth there but like he’s he’s a he’s he’s he’s a better move than I thought in space. Good feet. Good feet. Yeah. So I think you you put yourself in a lineup where you’re you’re super versatile. You can go five out in a lot of situations, attack tons of closeouts and like defensively like Scotty Wo Ray all tides in like the non in the the non yaka minutes. But that monster also happened with with CMBB where he’s guarding the traditional big cuz he has the strength. His physicality is translated immediately and Scotty’s playing right beside him and doing exactly what he does with with Yakob. So so far like so good. Um Mobile tried to do a lot of what like CMBB and Mamu were are going to be asked and it didn’t necessarily work out well because they couldn’t rebound the ball. But both of those guys can rebound for the position better than I expected. especially Mamu. So, yeah, I I’m I think they can do it. I think they they won’t be brutal like they were last year. Also, this might make us I’m hopeful that this will make us reassess how good Yakob is. Uh and make make us think that he’s not quite as good and they’re not quite as dependent. Uh and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just mean like this team absolutely cratered without Yakob last year and for obvious reasons because the reason why Mamu is so important and was like you know I I had that tweet about his movement skills and Sam Vassini who apparently is very high on these Raptors. I’d not seen the video but everyone’s talked about it said that he thought one of the best uh signings of the the offseason was Mamu for what the Raptors want to do. Mamu pressures the offensive glass. He is, you know, a very talented and coordinated driver for a front court player. He will shoot above the break threes, which is very good for the Raptor spacing, and he can run some of the elbow stuff. Part of the consideration here is that the Raptors couldn’t really get away with their lineups on one hand, not because of how they defended, but because they couldn’t score. Like that that was a huge deal. And Mamu facilitates that end of the floor. while also not tanking everything on the other side of the floor. Especially in my mind, if you anchor him with Scotty most of all and two, maybe CMBB. Uh obviously Darko when I asked him the question on media day has he’s referred to CB and Mamu playing together a bunch. Then we see that they’re playing together a lot in the the second unit. There’s room for them to survive the minutes defensively and to have it be pretty seamless offensively. As far as this team, look where the money is, man. That starting lineup has to work. If this team is going to be good, that means they’re going to win minutes with Yakob on the floor. That means he’s going to play a lot. And if they survive the minutes outside of that in these transitional lineups, then they’re then the then they’re doing it. Then it’s there. Then they’re surviving the minutes. What I really wonder about is the like funky stuff like Scotty and CMBB or Scotty and Mobo and or CMBB and Mobile on occasion or maybe just like mobile plus shooters. It was what they opened up with to start the Sacramento game is mobile running like not point forward but delay center action and the Raptors playing a very heavy shooting lineup around him and surviving it. You have to come up with lineups over the course of a season. The Raptors have more options than they used to or at least more good ones. Yeah, I think Darko can pull the right strings. I think the talent and size is there to survive it. Anything we’re missing on that little tidbit? No, I I think just like preseason makes you feel a lot more positive in terms of situation because Mamu doesn’t necessarily have center size for for the most part, but he’s he’s fit everything the Raptors are trying to do like a glove and to have that extra offensive upside and especially if the shooting translates like it has initially, it’s going to open up a lot for their for their bench lineups and allow you to play Ingram plus bench have him be a space or be a pick and roll guy that offers some pressure when he does pop out and make things a lot easier and allow their bench lineups to really score cuz they struggled last year mightily. They just that everything damn near. They struggled at a lot. This for this season to be what we all want it to be. It’s a big jump in wins. um if they if they’re losing like if they don’t win more than 42 and maybe maybe that comes across to like people listening for national media as like way too optimistic. I mean I did the you know the Celtics media with Bobby and Noah and they asked me where I thought the Celtics were and I said I thought they were a playing team and Celtics fans are they’re pissed at that. They’re like, “Damn, there’s seven teams better than us.” And I was like, “There might be 10, dude. I don’t know.” Like, but it’s we we all like our team and we all like what we see, but the Raptors, it’s got to be good, man. And there’s reasons to think it’s going to be good. We just walked through a bunch of them. Is there anything you want to say before we get out of here? I I just think with everything going on the preseason and it’s like a privilege to have expectations and have pressure. The Raptors had literally nothing going on for three years. We’ve done this podcast for three years and there’s never been a trajectory of us thinking they’re going to make the playoffs or have a puncher chance of proving the league wrong. This is the first season in several years. It’s a privilege to be to have these these pieces have this expectation. So, like it’s going to be fun and be a part of the ride and be a part of the roller coaster. like it isn’t going to be sunshines and rainbows from from day one, but like they’ve given themselves a chance and that’s all you can really ask for. This is uh hearkening back to a point that Lewis made. He was like the honor in being, you know, like a 500 team has died in the NBA. And uh there’s not much honor, but there is honor in it. There is honor in keeping things together and trying to move forward. And you know, with this podcast, uh, the team has gotten worse and worse. And I think anybody who pays attention to this stuff knows that, uh, there is a direct line between team success and media around the team success. We’ve still managed to make this podcast more popular and popular over time without delving into any like nonsensical drama or anything crazy. We just as friends talk about the game and more and more people are listening to it. Thank you to everybody who’s listening now. Make sure to like, comment, subscribe hype. Uh, this is a big year for anybody who I think Raptors Republic can be the number one place for you to get your Raptors news. I really do. I think we can beat Sports Net. I think we can beat anything out there. Anybody who wants to try and compete with our podcast, Mine and Lewis’s podcast, S’s game recaps, all of Mine and Lewis’s writing, plus the whole team, guys on news, guys who are writing like gamers, guys doing all that kind of stuff. I think we can be number one and it’s a very talented staff of people. So, I’m really excited for it. Thank you to everybody for tuning in. Trey, thank you for joining me once again. and listeners, whether you got into this in the morning or at night, have a blessed day and goodbye.

Samson Folk & Trevon Heath discuss the most important issues for the Toronto Raptors this season.

0:00 – Intro

2:00 – Will Ingram improve the halfcourt offense?

10:30 – Scottie Barnes’ Offense

18:26 – Is the Defense for Real?

23:25 – IQ & RJ Adapting

31:00 – Gradey, Ja’Kobe & Ochai

41:00 – Surviving without Jakob Poelt

49:00 – Good teams are fun

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