Is It Time for a Starting Lineup Change? | Raptors Show Full Episode

hello and welcome to the Raptor show on the sports night radio network presented by Kors light go from fulltime to game time Kors light made to chill make sure you find the Raptor show wherever you listen to podcast And subscribe and please rate and review the show I'm your host WHL I'm joined for segment one by my two co-hosts Blake Murphy Alex Wong Alex what's going on man it's a little too cold to be wearing uh Crocs but I see you rocking the Crocs yeah and I've also got my uh Canadian blind Hockey Association Jersey on just want shout out to my guy Luca demontes he's a program manager there a few years ago I had a chance to work on a project get to know the blind Hockey Association a bit more talk to some of the players so just want to show some love to them today so that's awesome also great name Luca demontis you want to does he want to throw yic in as a as a middle name just to get the whole Western Conference uh European star yeah how are you guys doing man what happened last night anything happened in your lives what happened last night we I made a whole pot of chili during the Raptor game it was actually because you know you can't just do one thing during the game yeah you put your dirty feet up okay your little bed set up in front of the TV which no no no that's that's that's the made chil okay that's ni I made chili during the game what did you do what did you do yesterday man I watched the basketball game no I mean I watched the game yeah I I nothing I I was here until like I don't know like five working on some stuff and then there's went home and watch ball that's uh that's what I do on nights where there's like 12 NBA games that's what I do boring I watch uh yeah anyways all right I guess we got to get to it the ton Raptor lose if you're trying to put off the Raptor stuff I did I dusted off my business school uh education and and you have the accounting background that maybe you'd appreciate as all the news about the sh contract specifics were coming out I was like reminding myself what like the time value of money calculation is and I was like in the MLB CBA trying to see how they handled deferred payments and stuff like that it's pretty creative they get the annual hit down from 70 to like 46 million for luxury tax purposes do not the NBA couldn't get their hands on this because contract lengths are are capped anyway but you would absolutely see the Lighty years Warriors giving out like 40-year deferrals to like Steph's daughter gets 20 million and this year down the line to lessen the luxury Tex hold on for context for casuals like me what is the so we we obviously heard he's going to sign for a $700 million deal but it's not structured that way so it is 10year $700 million deal but he will only be paid $20 million during the life of the deal he's going to make $2 million a season and then there are 10 years of deferrals where he'll get 68 million each year so he will get $700 million in real money but because of inflation and the assumptions we make about inflation rates and interest rates um the MLB Collective margeting Agreement assumes uh roughly a 4% annual interest rate or or inflation rate that money is not worth $700 million in today's dollars that is closer to getting 460 million right this second so that's how their CBA treats it for luxury tax purposes like ah 600 you know $680 million 10 years from now is really only going to be worth about $440 million today plus the 2 million he makes every year yeah wow saying Malachi Flynn makes more than shy Otani annually right now I'm telling you right now Garett Temple is over two million at the league minimum any vet minimum who like has 10 years of service time yeah will be making more than show this year but and so why this is possible and I got asked by a couple people could the Jay's do that with like Bose's extension or vlad's extension they could there's no rule against it but the reason sh's able to do this is he makes an estimated $40 to $50 million annually in endorsements okay and so he doesn't need the near-term cash flow he can you know do this get the headline contract item get the money further down the line and take way less now and day-to-day it doesn't affect him that much um and it also frees the Dodgers up you know under the luxury tax cuz they're going to be a deep tax team but like the the comparison is like what if the Warriors and Steph sat down for his you you know or the clay extension they that they're not getting done what if you could just pay him the minimum and give him all the money way later and with way less of a tax impact this is a this is an amazing it's not even a loophole I suppose no it's it's collectively bargained yeah it's it's I I kind of now hope that like other play cuz you know you get to the point where especially when OB Kobe got older in his career where it was like he was taking up so much of the salary cap and it it prevented the Lakers from getting any other town to play with him financially and like it's like a problem that I guess a lot of stars end up putting themselves into because they're obviously worth a Max but there's a salary cap and it's like even LeBron now like imagine if the Lakers LeBron was just like you know what actually I make probably more off the court than I do on the court let me just uh make the league minimum and and just add another Max salary slot to their they would add Russell Westbrook so I don't know if that would actually it might be better that LeBron's taking up some room I I it's fun to to to joke about Rob Pink's management but it's been undeniably better than our management for the last couple years it's a low bar um anyway wait until they sign Gary Trent on a on a low money deal this offseason because the long-term deal isn't there and another clutch client rehabs their image with the Lakers uh like shooting 40% on wide open Catch and maybe we should we maybe we should just get really tight with one agent see then uh it's nothing stopping the Raptors from also applying these strategies yeah Blake you know this cuz it's baseball every time there's this clip that goes around with David Ortiz every time I think the Yankees lose where he just goes the Yankees lose yeah this is what we're going to do on this show now okay the Raptor the Raptors lost again yeah okay we got game yeah uh yeah great game you know up and down up and down we go try to win a shootout can't win a shootout no defense yeah you're a loser throw away possessions in the fourth quarter uhhuh make some threes in the third doesn't matter get cooked by all the dogs on the Knicks Nicks got a lot of dogs man Josh Hart certified dog you got to show some respect to Julius Randall too Julius Randle man he made so many like Leaning Tower AA jumpers J Jaylen Brunson Jaylen Brunson yeah of course Julius can we spend an extra minute on Julius Rand though because like the quality of shot making he made in that game was ridiculous like Scotty Barnes is physical with him but they were basically the only two guys playing physical this whole game um and Randall would just whether it was Barnes whether it was OG whether it was yakob he's just able to against OG even he couldn't like get space but he could just like create enough space to get that fade off I don't think he shot a jump shot vertically everything was fading away he hit so many of those Baseline ones there was one play late where he him and Bruns to do an action and he's got shudder on a mismatch and he's dead he picks up his dribble at the wrong spot he's at the elbow shudder like sits off enough that randle's not going to be able to post him or whatever Randall pivots like three times looking for someone to pass to and then as the clock expires just Fades away in the paint like at the elbow over a couple of Defenders it's just like even that scenario where he made the mistake picked up the dribble wrong spot nobody could get open around him he's just n I'll bail it out with a tough jumper and this is there are a lot of things that the Raptors did poorly last night and the transition defense was bad and their defensive execution against Randall you know the start of the third quarter was bad enough that Darko took a timeout like 90 seconds into the into the half yeah he got his own rebound well first he posted Scotty and Scotty just like didn't angle it right but there was no help there like whoever was on help assign probably kurle wasn't there and then Randle got his own rebound posted up Pascal and Pascal you know I think because it was a broken play angled him middle instead of Baseline when there was no help there and Randall just like yamed it on them um so with the exception of that though this was like good individual defense on Randall and just incredible shot making I'm not saying that as excuse for the whole game because they played pretty poorly defensively on everyone else and especially transition but man you tip your cap to Julius Rand in that one yeah he's uh I think this is kind of like similar to what you want a lot of your stars to do is to soak up all the bad shots in your offense and then because of you're so good at taking bad shots and making them that it allows for you know opportunities for your teammates to get open and so when you do kick the pass out like he did the Grimes a couple of times they get wide open shots now I also think that Randall actively seeks out bad shots as well but like it also has this deflating effect where it's like okay your best defenders are who Scotty and OG both guys had turns trying to guard Randall and he's like I'm just going to go through both of you guys I'm GNA bullyball you guys you don't see OG get bully balled very often OG's typically the one you doing the bullying defensively um but what Rand did to him yesterday what he did to Scotty yesterday was just kind it's got to be deflating because you're playing Perfect Defense and I give even Darko credit because he changed up his defense uh first time the Raptors played the Knicks what the Raptors did was they wanted to force Randle to spin Baseline and then consistently bring the help of the ACA prle and essentially draw double teams and Randle did a great job of picking the Raptors apart in that coverage setting up guys like Divan chenzo who had seven threes in their first meeting this time around they're like okay we're instead going to send the double teams at Jaylen Brunson we are going to have yakob show at the level of the three-point line essentially wall him off so he can't get downhill um we'll even Blitz him occasionally and get even more aggressive but what we're going to do is then if jakob's going to double on r on on Brunson we gonna have to play Randall straight up and that's what I wanted to see from the first meeting and they also get killed in this matchup well they also the Knicks had like a little bit of a counter adjustment and part of this was because you know I'm Mitchell Robinson and I mean Jericho Sims was like precious levels of like if the first dho isn't there like standing there unsure of what to do with the ball like I don't think he trusted himself to dribble really or make any plays he he fit in defensively but like was a non-threat offensively but something they did in the second half was noticing what you're saying even with Randall going against that they started having Randall screen and the Raptors aren't going to switch that they're going to have shudder fought over against Brunson most of the night um you're not going to want to switch that cuz randle's such a bad mismatch against shuder and then what that does though is if Randall pick and pops even if you don't care that much about his three that means when Brunson tries to drive on shooter to the middle OG who is Randall's man has to show at the nail to because he's the help assignment to wall to make sure Brunson can't get pain and then Brunson would quickly hit it to Randall and as OG recovered you know Randall's at a speed disadvantage against OG but he gets that first quick right off the catch gets the like small head start as OG's recovering back to him and it puts OG behind the eightball a little bit trying to take away Randle space or at least you got to meet him a little lower in the paint than you would otherwise so it was a it was a small counter adjustment for the Knicks and like obviously cramps your spacing because Jericho Sims is then just sitting in the dunker but it was you know it was smart to take to put Randall into those actions because you got to send at least one and a half guys to Brunson and one and a half guys to Randall and then a on a high pick and roll where the floor is spaced with two Corner Shooters and a dunker spot guy there's no Third Man to help in that action yeah so happens when you have tactics and also a real Clarity in how you want to run your offense yo the the Knicks almost shot 60 60 60 they really did almost they shot they shot almost better on twos and threes than free throws they they did uh 60 and a half% from the field 58.6 from three and then 15 of 23 65% from free throw line and that I mean obviously we can niick the defense we can hat tip the Randle or whatever even if the Raptors had done some other things better and like we talked yesterday about how the Knicks lead the league in winning The Possession battle they're the number one rebounding team on both ends of the floor they're top 11 in turnover rate at both ends of the floor nobody gets more shooting possessions than the Knicks the Raptors got 13 more shooting possessions than the Knicks yesterday they beat them at their own game they went 2022 2023 Raptors 17 offensive rebounds only turn the ball over 10 times got way more shots got to the free throw line more they shot 12 percentage points worse on field goals uh 22 percentage Point worse on threes that's uh you needed all 13 of those possessions and probably a couple more this is the funny thing about the Raptors is like from they're meeting against the Knicks like two weeks ago they changed up a lot of what they did defensively you know they even had to start the game OG on Brunson for a little bit uh and of course they Chang with the Rand coverages and by the way the Knicks are actually without compared to last game they don't have Robinson they don't have Emanuel quickley who you know would obviously be the starting point guard on the Raptors if you weren't even available MC Bri had a couple really nice minutes especially in the second half there like the start of the fourth quarter was a lot of my pride but yeah you're down two key rotation pieces and you still look like maybe the deepest team in the league down two guys right and then you see the Raptors they they play differently as you mentioned they change out their strategy they they they they try a couple different things first half obviously the issue was the Raptors Couldn't Shoot the three well they were five of 22 from three there were seven of 14 from the foul line even so just all sorts of shooting was off but second half they do hit the threes at a decent rate when you look at the end of the day like well the Raptors made 14 threes they they went nine of 17 in the second half yeah they that was got them back into the game in the third quarters they made six threes in the third it just all doesn't matter they give up 70 points in the second half and then when you look at the bigger bigger picture in terms of season over season they obviously tried the Nick's approach last year like Nick nurse's approach not the Nicks approach with the with the K uh and now they're under Darko and it's the same roster it's just the roster is the issue the Raptors lose like again this and we're we're back in the same spot again and I think it was the I might be off by a game here but I believe it's the sixth time in seven games that the starters have lost their minutes yeah as a unit Darko got asked about that again in practice today by the way I'm paraphrasing here but he said yes they're considering things and looking at things but he wants to give it another game or two because you know those guys are committed to to trying to fix the issu it's not like Darko looking at the bench and seeing like a chery board or something of options man yeah it's true he doesn't have Emanuel quickly Josh Hart isaah he got emanu slowly he wants auto porter um yeah by the way and Porter both didn't practice today bu left last night's game with a thigh contusion so there's the full th those are your full practice updates as well as Pascal talking about being a boxer and getting knocked down and you can't find find your mouth guard is that what it is yeah apparently yeah hey at least um Pascal Scotty and OG all scored 20 plus yesterday put the ban up go the lose does that does that count for pizza too three straight 20s even shuder got 202o four guys in their 20s yeah damn you you got a good Malachi game and still couldn't win man I was see seeing people freaking out I think maybe a little bit on the broadcast too about how great Malachi was playing and I'm like he's playing a decent he had 10 points four dimes and like some pretty he also had three turnovers including I think you tweeted about one like there was the three-on-one fast break but there was the pass to the nobody in the corner pass to nobody in the corner like 24 Raptors the bar is very low for Flynn on the floor we're also coming off of like a stretch of games where Dennis shuder didn't play very well much better offensively last night but not a good night defensively for him and when it's a night where Gary Trent Jr is also pretty bad you're stretching for like who like they ended up closing with precious not yakob because they just need to try something other than that starting five but that it's what you're saying there's not a there's not a Cherie Board of options there there's a Lunchables l board they only got the crackers too man in the Lunchables there's no meat on that man they got a kiit Kat maybe uh yeah honestly the difference in the benches was huge I look I think the starting unit definitely need to guard better I mean like yeah you think at least not scoring well they did yesterday because of the third quarter boost and OG got really hot but like on the season they have one of the worst offensive ratings of any like super high usage unit yeah they're just terrible on both ends of the floor yeah it I just doesn't matter play better offensively their their defense gets worse they play better defensively their offense gets worse they they try different strategies uh they lose in a different way they tried this strategy they losing a different way they did all those things in one game last night like first half it's like oh yeah we'll win The Possession battle oh we can't shoot at all then it's like we'll get hot okay the defense slid like the transition game wasn't there again the transition stuff's driving me nuts because like we've talked about that the half court stuff you know Julius Randle is going to hit some tough shots against you good offense whatever but the fact that you've had had this huge slide in transition defense and like the Knicks who do not care to run quickly pushes the pace everyone else is like I will glacially Glide up the court and get into our sets and they scored 1.7 points per transition opportunity yesterday Josh har had so many push the break finish or kick out and offensive rebounds he was he was just like a a pure like Raptors in attention Merchant yeah and you know when when we started the season with P Beverly randomly saying Raptors got no dogs it does linger in your mind cuz like some games I'm like okay you know who was going to be that energy that Difference Maker who's going to lift them up you know again previous years you would think back to Kyle I would literally always be that kind of guy especially it's like okay game in mid December it's like okay you probably need a little pickme up who's going to provide that like jolt of energy and Josh Hart came in the game and did that he almost had a triple double on the Raptors yeah which is absurd like he doesn't even have the ball very much for a triple double but you got to credit to him cuz he made all those play plays and it's like yeah when you think back to the no dogs kind of comment it's like yeah the Knicks had dogs and the Raptors really didn't and and like that's not the whole thing the Knicks also shot really well from three once again and I'm sure that you know the next game they go into they probably won't hit 60% from three but they probably also won't play against a defense that played as like gingerly and as soft as the Raptors there were two times where Julius Randall stuck on a pivot like literally picked the ball up and everything he's just pivoting two times he split a double team because yakob came too like lightly with the double team like you're 7 foot you're like 250 lbs fo once you picked up your dribble and you don't have an ey line to the basket and there's an extra body there you should not be able to peek out enough to find a kick out pass by the way they play Utah next so they might actually have a defense as soft as the Raptors in their next game uh but not for very long the other thing like you talk about this this kind of wraps the bench and the shooting stuff all into one like last time the Raptors play the Knicks Dante Devan chenzo hits seven threes Off the Bench today he start or yesterday he starts I didn't even notice him yesterday he had five assists but like he he only hit 1 three and then it's like oh Quinton Grimes the guy who he just jumped in the starting lineup he's going to bank five threes on you uh so yeah I guess you're welcome to the Knicks from the Raptors for letting Quinton Grimes find it and get it going a little bit here the last couple games yeah how many uh how many Nicks bench players would you take before you take one Raptor's bench player like if you line up all the bench players both seven without even looking at least four okay so Josh Hart absolutely Josh Hart absolutely yeah he would start quent grunt Grimes I would take MC normally they have quickly normally they have quickly obviously so that's four aom McBride too you take McBride over anybody on the Raptor's bench yeah sure at this point yeah I don't know that I've seen enough I think you know what would you take Evan fornier over I has he played this year no he hasn't but only for problem is just his contract I feel like yeah well you also can't Google his name yeah that too you guys he's only 31 no he's a new auto porter he's there Auto he's auto porter Jun also a weird thing that comes up every time the the Raptors played the Knicks is like Julius Randle being a little bit younger than Pascal always just like disrupts me um people forget Julius R started his career and immediately broke his leg I think that's what kind of like first game right yeah it was like set his career oh yeah that was crazy but guys what do you say to persevere the story line to keep an eye on here so the Pistons lost their 20th straight game yesterday okay and the NBA record for longest losing streak is 28 okay who said the record I believe the last time was the Sixers process Sixers process Sixers so here's the next eight games for the Pistons to tie the record Philly Philly lost lost Milwaukee L Atlanta lost Utah lost Brooklyn lost Brooklyn lost Boston lost so if they lose all those they'll tie at 28 okay and you know who they be who they'll be playing to break the record no the Toronto Raptors no in Detroit December 30th I'm going be so nervous man if it is for the streak can we Char our bus and go yes okay uh also I'm contesting that that's the record that was it was split over two seasons I don't think that what they're doing okay yeah lit sing season is 26 which the process Sixers also did uh so did the uh Lebron just went to the heat Cleveland Cavaliers for the record if they get to 28 that's what they're going to like talk about like it's the longest streak across two seasons yeah and the they're going to earn this I'm just and we should go to Detroit I really do want to go for this wow yeah what would you do if uh the Raptors the Toronto to the pist Toronto Raptors are going to get Mor Crim's chump of the week on uh on Detroit news I'm G eat some Wing stuff that's what I'm gonna do because the the the Pistons promotion is if the Pistons win flat do you get five free Wings yes the same promotion as Darko people have been starving and the the funniest thing is for the longest time the last two weeks the Pistons uh social media team on their graphic on the final score graphic they kept putting the wing stop right underneath the team's logo so it looked like the other team's logo so it looked like Wing Stop was beating the Pistons every game so I finally get so yesterday they finally moved the logo to the bottom left corner so people couldn't make jokes anymore at at a certain point because obviously you sign these sponsorship deals and it's like you know you don't anticipate them losing 20 games in a row no but at certain points you're like all right like we're going to have to change you some ex Wing Stop had to make you got to flip it and be like free wing if they lose like just free Wings if they lose the these are hilarious things like when like you're saying like where the the lines just change a little bit or the team is different like remember the the championship year um and Alex I believe your mom really appreciated this Raptor fans were getting something free every game because they would hit 12 threes every single game um and then I remember the Jays used to give away pizza if if they recorded seven strikeouts in a game but the strikeout environment in baseball over the last couple years has exploded every team seven times every game now comes out the bat like at least five times a game you know the thing this will never happen but I would love to interview the Detroit Piston social media person oh yeah cuz like the every game they're just like oh Isaiah Stewart with the hustle play and then final 137 to 90 Wing I mean if you wanted to interview the closest thing to that you could talk to the Raptors 905 social person no I want to sit I want to sit down with the Pistons and the Wizards Wizards Spurs yes two and 49 combined since November 2nd yeah and they're not one of those wins is against each other yeah and they're not t that's the thing they're not tanking this early in the season obviously they didn't intend to be like competitive and good teams but like they're not intentionally T they're just actively losing all these games yeah yeah we're trying and we're losing that's what you're saying I have one last rapt before we break cuz we got coach David Thorp on the other side um since November 15th so we're looking at about a month worth now the Raptors are 254th in defense yeah checks out like this isn't they've slid from a top five defense to an to a top 10 or an average defense they have been downright a bad defense over the last month now it's uh the Raptors are Prett concerning the Raptors are like a bottom five NBA team right now the defense side just doesn't make sense to me like they have the Personnel they did it at the start of the Season don't really understand how it slides to 24th over a 13 game chunk okay here's here's here's me as the coach of this of this uh show knowing how to put the talent in the right positions Blake I'm going to ask you how much of this is tactically and then Alex I'm going to ask you afterwards how much of this is them just checking out yeah I mean thanks coach not a ton of it is is tactically unless we're unless we're accusing like poor execution to tactics like I don't think they're really doing that much that I like have huge issue with game to game and like you said last night they threw a bunch of different stuff at the Knicks and it just like none of it didn't work I don't think getting back in transition and picking someone up is or like filling to the pain if you're the second guy picking up the trail shooter if if you're a late man back like I don't think that stuff is tactics I think that's attention and energy and focus so do you see attention energy and focus when you see the Raptors defend I don't think they're checking out they're just not good enough what like they're not checking out getting back on in transition is not like good or bad I get it man some of that you can the speed to do it some of that you can blame on the effort but I just they're just not good enough you if you strip out like the teams that we just talked about like okay Detroit Washington put the Spurs in there probably like what the Raptors three Marquee wins on the season big comebacks against Washington and San Antonio if you think about if you think about all the teams that aren't trying to win right now right the Raptors are the worst team that's trying to win right now like it's them and Chicago I think you know Chicago's only a half game behind the Raptors yeah I'm I'm aware they took so the Raptors are technically the worst team the worst team that is actually trying to do something and I told you guys this last last week when we did triple n like if you look I mean at this point I was citing like an analytic metric that adjusts for strength of schedule and stuff but it's actually done this just in terms of score margin now like how much you're getting outscored there are 21 teams that are average-ish to can be title contenders and the Hawks are a bit weird there because they're four games under 500 but they've basically played even they been a little unlucky but there are 21 teams like that there are eight teams at the bottom who are obviously very very bad now that includes a Bulls team that had one4 in a row until last night so maybe they upgrade but then the Raptors are in a tier of their own sitting at 22nd nice 21 teams that are real seven teams that are not real and then the Raptors and the Bulls we can put them in a co- tier maybe um it is a weird spot to be in yeah and this is not to say the Raptors can't compete with these teams like the Raptors were in a two possession game with the Knicks at the end but the Knicks were also the two possessions yeah that's right that's what there always two possessions from being two possessions away that's the whole Squad that is the whole Squad man anyway so we got David Thorp we also have uh some lawsuit stuff but we will discuss that later on in segment three but we're going to take this break I've been your host will you've been listening to the Raptor show on the sportset radio network welcome back to the Raptor show on the sports night radio network I mean swim L uh we're working to get coach David Thorp of true hoop on the line and David is there uh coach how you doing man I'm good how are you I'm I'm okay personally I'm okay obviously the Raptors uh have not been uh so flattering these uh last couple games are on a four- game losing streak they lost six of seven uh and I think one of the things that's been really concerning is just that uh you know the starting lineup has been trending downward um almost collectively it feels like so coach I want to start with you there because there was already a discussion today with Coach Darko at practice about the idea of will you change the starting lineup and his answer was he kind of wants to give it another game or two now I don't know what he's going to see another game or two but I love to hear your thoughts on the Raptor starting group I mean to defend Darko is to suggest that uh most coaches are loathed for change he's no different than most other guys so understand that part the the answer is isn't so smart a game or two when you're 20 games in that makes no sense at all but um yeah they don't like to change things much having watched that team play some and including uh I think I watched the whole game last night um I definitely think there should be a change and uh if they were winning games I still think they should be a change because I think there's a better formula than what they're using but in in light of what's happening there it makes no sense to me but but listen the elements in the room will and you may know this is your head coach is in love with your point guard so if you think Dennis shuder is your answer but then keep starting him and make some other changes but the rest of the Free World doesn't think he's the answer he has never been the answer he is a nice off thebench guy in my opinion he's a very good very talented player that I don't think 29 other teams would want starting and running their show and I'm not blaming him by the way he ain't the only problem on the team but but that it begins ends with the fact that you have a very very close relationship between an enigmatic challenging guard that's always driven teams crazy and a head coach in his first year who trust one guy and that's him that that's how I see it anyway yeah I was gonna ask you this later on but maybe we'll just get to an now if you're a new coach coming into uh an existing team like darkhole is if you also are a new head coach in the sense that you haven't coached in the NBA as a head coach you've been obviously a longtime assistant right um because I know you also advis coaches around the league like what would you have advised him to do coming into this scenario because it's obviously quite challenging especially when you also consider the fact that a lot of the change this season was supposed to come just on the coaching front well I know I would have started by saying in your media day press conference don't attack the best player on your team that is never a good starting Place yeah and I don't remember anymore exactly what he said but I I remember I'm not sure I ever really knew exactly what he said but I know how people reacted in my world of they're calling Pascal sakam selfish I don't know what Darko said actually I'm sure I once did I just don't remember it was it was back in what October early late September that doesn't make any sense I don't think anyone thinks he he's struggling to shoot the ball but no one ever think Pascal's selfish or has played selfishly so I thought that was a very odd place to begin and quite frankly I think you I often say how you start is is how you finish well you start started off on the wrong foot buddy and it hasn't gotten any better uh seak has found a way to really make an impact and depending on the metrics you use is become kind of the player that you expected him to be despite the offense changing and everything else I don't think the rest of the team can say that although Scotty certainly had a great start and has been centilating sometime since he's not been as good overall which is to be expected teams are going to adjust what they're doing based on their film and everything uh so but I I definitely would say to him can't rely on Dennis schruder as if he's Chris Paul or Fred Van Vleet he just isn't that guy um and and he's more talented than Fred to be honest with you he's I mean I was really taken with him when he was at OKC and remember I remember writing once for True hoop actually so it wasn't that long ago when they were in the bubble that he was gonna be the difference and I don't remember if they were playing Houston or who they were playing was a seven game series OKC lost in game seven and I thought Dennis was going to be the reason why they won W the series because I didn't think anyone could guard him and he kind of figured out over the course of the seven games that you know what no one really can guard me but he's not a decision maker he's not a he's not a reliable character to to run a team uh there's a lot of guys that I feel like uh are better off just ask them to score I say this by Zack LaVine who's a very talented player and someone I'm fond of as a as an analyst and a fan of how much he loves the game but I just don't think he can be your quarterback and and get consistency not a surprise if the Bulls are playing their best basketball with him being out even though he is one of their better players I think trusting Dennis to be the the the face of your offense that's not to say he's their best player or their franchise player but he's kind of the guy that runs the team and I think that's silly no one in the league thinks that about him and yet Toronto is where he is because they made the decision to let him be that guy yeah I think you are seeing at the start of the year denos was actually more involved like even touches per game things like that he was like top 10 in the league pretty consistently and how much he got the ball per game it's come back down now where he's sort of closer to 20th even trending towards the 30th range in the league but that's because his minutes have also come down uh in addition to other adjustments being made I think what's interesting to watch right now is that a lot of other teams are just going under so often and I think he started the season well he continued the hot shooting from the World Cup but now that you're seeing a lot of teams go under on Dennis and him not really being able to punish that kind of coverage you're seeing the whole starting group really crater offensively and I I guess I'm curious to hear your perspective because you cover the whole league um how many other teams in the in the NBA have this similar problem where their starting point guard is somebody that teams go under on on a consistent basis well I I'm gonna push back on one thing okay not many by the way not many but but uh I'm going to push back on the idea that that is the bigger problem to me the problem is uh your your quarterback is your lead decision maker when the ball's in his hands a t and so what most what most players do is they recognize I'm gonna get the ball and it could be me that's doing it to uh to to a player in best position to either score or Draw enough because of gravity draw enough help to make easy plays out over and over and over again relentlessly so you you'll if you look back in the history and I know you know the the game uh from Chris Paul to LeBron James both of them have I think often been too unselfish that way in that they're trying to get other guys involved and yet their teams weren't good enough to be able to go through stretches where they just weren't scoring very much because they were getting the ball to other people and now they've got to make these heroic comebacks LeBron was even guilty of that in the play playoffs when they won a couple years ago he finally stopped doing it in fact I wrote an article and and I bet he saw it uh because we have a lot of mutual friends and I'm sure I wasn't the only one saying LeBron you can't wait till halftime to decide to impose your will fulltime and so I I Dennis to me I Scotty will be rolling or seak will be rolling or even sometimes OG is rolling and Dennis after three or four possessions and those guys are still being guarded by the same people yep will make sure someone else gets the ball because everyone else has to eat no this is a monarchy it's not a democracy you got to feed the king feed the king feed the king and when the king is is gorged because there's so much help coming everyone's far more open then you're just making sure everyone feels like they got to touch the ball uh if any he's thinking that I I've been told by people that he's not even thinking that far he's just not thinking at all I don't know the answer to either one of those things I just know I'll go through stretches watching the Raptors play where compared to some of the other teams I follow all the time which are most of the good teams in the league if not all of them they don't go very long without make their best offensive player having the ball at a good part on the floor or in a place where he can get to a good spot on the floor and then things open up and just watching I mean Scotty and Pascal both are not easy to guard one-on-one depending on where they are in the court they're much easier in some areas than others and both are super willing passers 167 169 plus they're they're they get people open all the time it may look a little weird and clunky but the bottom line is the ball is being moved to an open guy and then you play Seth Greenberg the the ESPN announcer used to be a coach he used to say um you you you create the first double team and then the game really starts yeah you know uh Steve C says you gotta get the first Domino to fall same idea seaka and Barnes are the best at that and you go through stretches in games where they just don't literally touch the ball it was worse early in the season with sakam was getting it very little and you can look at the numbers for that early November whatever and then that was dece that was shooter time that's changed for the for the betterment of the team but I just don't think Dennis thinks that way and again Lou Williams is a great player he was not someone you would ask to quarterback your team Jamal Crawford great player not someone you would ask to quarterback your team the Raptors have a quarterback that I don't think thinks the game that way and and and are running an offense where the point guard is super important that primary ball handler uh to make sure the ball is delivered to where it needs to go and I think that's where it starts offensively with their flaws okay that's interesting I never I didn't think about it in those terms but I do agree with you because you know you looked at for example the Knicks that they played against yesterday Knicks have a very good Clarity in terms of what they want to do on offense very much so they're gonna give it to Randall or they're going to run a pick and roll with Brunson they'll see what the defense does do they switch do they give up a mismatch and then they'll just attack and then everyone else is just waiting and cutting and figuring out a way to get themselves open or crashing the glass they're it's very very clear it's not the most complicated it's almost so simple but you compare that to the Raptors where it's like Raptors will run more intricate things than the Knicks they ran more intricate things than the Knicks yesterday but a because of a lack of shooting but also B Because when you're sharing the ball like that you're also saying that your best player or whoever creates the best advantages don't get the ball as much so it's just a it's just a function of the the other thing with the starting group and I'm I'm curious to hear your thoughts is on yaka feels like he's in the way a lot of the time now I get the non shoting component I even get the fact that he doesn't really jump and he doesn't really have the ability to finish through contact there should have been multiple and ones he finished yesterday um but how do you see his fit with the starting group because we see often Darko takes them out late in games including yesterday I'm a big fan of yaka purle and spent the morning on a trade machine he can't be traded till January 15 but for troop I'm running an article about all I think that I don't do this a lot but um my my Henry Abbott the founder wanted me to write about who can make a deal now to get themselves in position to win in May and June uh because it's kind of musical chair someone's gonna be left out of the arms rates of you know adding assets to your team and Toronto is a team with Pascal and OG and Gary and yakob you know everyone but Scotty really I don't think Dennis is going to have much of a trade value um they can get a lot of teams really really rich and it's not easy because you need to have in order for yakob to be the five that I think he can be at his best you need to have a really sweet shooting four and that's not what SE yakum is right now SE yakum is some people have written he's the best post player in the league he's amongst the best post players because especially because he doesn't have to be in the post to score down there he's got that versatility to start in the perimeter and so I I always say uh he can take your big guy out from the perimeter and attack him and he can bully ball your your big wings and your guards not a lot of guys can do that and those and those that can are Allstars um but if you watch this the Raptors play frequently the moment seak has the ball and this is the same the case for Scotty if he gets it inside 18 16 feet there is perl's man sitting under the rim he'll pop out for a moment and he comes right back in all the time and so I think that's a bad combination so uh I that's and I again I'm a peral fan the team played much better last year when they got him I think as you know they played like a playoff team yeah once they had him but this iteration with with Dennis at won and said of Fred with the way Gary's playing um currently I don't think anything's permanent things can go up and down uh or they can continue to Trend up they continue to Trend down all these options um this iteration is bad that that's spacing is only made worse with a four that can't shoot a five that doesn't try to shoot and a one that is not a great shooter and I would say in siakam's case at least you could let him play in the corner some where he's starting to make he's starting to shoot a little bit better he's not shooting much elsewhere um you can't do that pural at all he's just not a threat he's not gonna shoot the ball so you you gotta you gotta find a really really sweet shooting for if you best want to take advantage of yakob at the five OKC it would be kind of nice for him if you could play him alongside of Chad because I don't think Chad should be the full-time five all the time matchup wise I think you do it you think purle next to Chad yeah in OKC I like that kind of fit and that kind of idea yeah I like I like I like seak there better okay I'm sure they I'm sure they do too sure they do coach that that will be it's already such a difficult team to stop you add in a consistent uh post score I mean yeah wow well we'll see uh we we'll see if there's a if there's a potential move to be made there in the meantime obviously Scotty and Pascal are obviously on the team I think honestly you look at both of them they made improvements over last season in certain areas for Scotty I think it's in more areas I think he's more engaged consistently he's shooting the ball much better he's so active in wanting to shoot the ball now too any opponent going under on him he will just say forget what the offense is saying if you go under on me I'm just going to like take the three and it's exactly the right basketball play he's looking for it more aggressively yesterday he had eight threes attempted he made three like they didn't have any games like that from him last year outside of like one or two Rarities that's on a consistent more basis and I think for Pascal too is like obviously the three-point isn't really there but you go back the last 16 games pascot shooting 62% on two point shots and these are mostly self-generated looks so what are you seeing that's improving from both of those guys offensively this season well I'm gonna I'll reinforce what you said but first I will say this if if you asked me before about Darko uh to me everything should begin with how do we get those guys the ball more in better spots together yeah they they can be an incredibly Dynamic and unique Duo right Tatum and brown have their own thing going on they're incredible Kawai and PG incredible seaka and Barnes are as as a tusome are better passers than those other Duos those other Duos are good passers yeah Barnes and zakum are really gifted passers and willing very willing passers so I'd like to see a lot more of both of them getting the middle of the court and then playing high low with each other they don't do that very much again because of P's presence that's really a problem so get Perle out pretty quickly and and uh and and you can play a little differently um I think the biggest thing with Scotty is what we saw a little bit as a rookie he's just better at it now it's just pure assertiveness and aggressiveness that uh Scotty is a very competitive guy remember I loved him coming out of college the one year I watched him and um really got to know his game well just from afar was Co so I could never I didn't go to a single game right that that year but my son was just a freshman um he just he's asserting himself like never before he more than then when he was a rookie and he's better at it he's just much better at it and and Darko has the ball in his hands more on the team has the ball in his hands more so that's a good thing I'm very happy with him defensively also oh yeah I think Scotty has really challenged himself defensively the metrics are weird some some metrics have Scotty being incredible some have him being pretty bad we're we actually on my show we're gonna have a couple of data analysts come on pretty pretty well-known guys to explain what the hell's going on okay how how Isle how is cleaning the glass have Scotty rated so low and Taylor snar 3es have rated so highly I don't understand why he's the same player the same data yeah but um I I think he projects exactly what I thought when it came out is going to be a multiple time Allstar many many times over and if he continues to shoot like this and that's an important thing because not everyone uh finishes as well as they start even over the course of eight weeks or so it happens where you kind of lose it and you don't get it back but let's assume that he keeps it up I think he's got it he's got all NBA in his future won't be this year I don't think the team isn't good enough anyway in siakam's case he it's listen when you when you start day one and when you and I talked about this off air on day one your coach is calling you selfish and your team doesn't give you an extension despite the kind of season you know last year the team was terrible in Pascal the same year as he did the year before metrically speaking when he was all NBA and so he started off badly and that wasn't a good start and yet he's like you said he's found a way to to continue to impact game score 20 plus a n on most nights I think is take I think he's playing the best defense since he's played in maybe six seasons and can get better in my opinion um uh and yet wants to wants to fit in he's all he's because he isn't shooting the three at all well um he's even more uh looking to pass quickly and has a lot of gravity and he's got a great brain so Pascal finds himself all the time in great positions I noticed this last night and he's got a little Draymond Green in him now where he he's literally playing to create for others and and on a better team of Shooters I think he'd be even more uh a capable of finding holes for himself he's scoring what you just said is incredible 60% and almost nothing is easy yeah they don't run any special high lows for him anymore yeah where he can get a little take advantage of a score at The Rim layups that with Kyle Larry those are gone too like it's just he's creating 60% shots all the time right but early in the season though he was getting early trans early offense post-ups seal scores well as long as Dennis Dennis doesn't let to throw that like Scotty does Scotty will throw it more uh so that they need to find more of that but I still think the two of them together which is why I think Messiah first envisioned this whole thing those two guys plus OG would be a a very unique and I think successful Trio uh the peal sign which I I understood Pascal was shooting it better last year uh that has not worked out great so far and then the Dennis thing I went into the season I'm sure I probably did this show I don't think y'all have a point guard I still say that I don't think Dennis is that quarterback that you need so I I'd hate for him to break things up being him being Messi but without getting a real point guard there to see what they could do with a true pick and roll leader a surgical guy but um nevertheless with Dennis there I think that some changes should be made yeah all right coach we've R out of time appreciate you always for joining the show Making time and if uh people haven't listened or subscribed to True hoop they should do it because they get your Insight and you know honestly I appreciate that you're more blunt than most people too you know because you've been around this thing a long time you work with a lot of players and coaches and you know agents and uh teams call you all the time and you know what to be able to just tell it as it is I think it actually is uh very helpful sometimes so appreciate you coach I appreciate it as well have a good day all right that was coach David Thorp calling in from Florida um and I look I I think that it's good to get an Outsiders perspective on the Raptors too because we get in every day honestly it's so funny that we're repeating ourselves all the time because you end up getting into positions where you're like I don't want to just like come in every day to kill them these are a different angle or perspective it's good to get The Outsiders perspective because they don't have that kind of investment that we do in this team every single day and you could look at it much more clearly and I agree like I it's not the greatest fit if you were to Envision two guys at Center and at point guard to surround pascow OG and Scotty and their skill set you would not be picking the two that they have picked and so how they get out of that is going to be the question but uh you know what that's why the front office is one of the best paid in the entire league to solve a problem like that so we're going to take another break I've been your host will you've been listening to the Raptor show on the sports night radio network welcome back to the Raptor show on the sports night radio network I'm your host s Lou joining me for Segment three are my co-hosts Alex Swang Blake Murphy Blake what what you got for me okay so coach David Thorp in that segment great segment between you guys oh he lit it up man I didn't do anything I was just here I was just here I was a bystander just be clear you were doing what a point guard's supposed to do yeah the Rock and get off ball space out relocate um no but one thing that that coach said in there that they're doing on a future episode is taking a look at why some places rate Scotty as a as a really good Defender this year why some places don't I can explain that pretty quickly so a site like cleaning the glass is looking at it's purely descriptive it's telling you what has happened and it dings Scotty because it doesn't control for the fact that Scotty is playing in those fourman bench units a lot so all cleaning the glass looks at is hey when Scotty was off the floor the Raptors with you know four starters or Pascal OG and a couple bench pieces did this this and this and then when it was Scotty back on the floor regardless of who he's with this this and this happen so if you if that's all you do if you look at you know net rating only well Pascal's you know playing a different share of minutes with different linemates Scotty is is playing the the Lesser end of that and the tougher end of that cleaning the glass only cares about describing what's happened now what a site like dunks and 3es and I've referenced EPM on here before estimated plus minus the math gets really messy but they're taking not only play-by-play data and box score data but they are looking at all those lineups and regressing it against years and years of lineup data so it can look at hey if Scott Scotty's doing this and this happened when Scotty's on the floor but what happened when Scotty was on the floor and Malachi Flynn was on the floor with other people or pressu was on the floor with other people and they use something called a ridge regression to try to balance out the fact that you know some guys are going to drive your lineup One Way some guys are going to drive them the other so when you filter all of that out and you have this box score component where Scotty is obviously among the league leaders in blocks plus steals this year then when you're controlling for who you're playing with and what situations you're in um then Scotty comes out looking really good which I think backs up what we've been seeing we've talked a bunch about how the Scotty and bench lineups aren't really I mean certainly aren't productive but also aren't putting guys in the best situations to succeed um so yeah that's the answer as to why some metrics will look at Scotty and be like he's been awesome um some will look at him and be like well things have gone poorly when he's on the floor relative to other lineups interesting interesting this is why I tend to trust EPM more you know over a large enough sample you don't want to look at things too noisy early in the season but something that regresses against prior Year's data something that regresses and tries to account for the quality of teammate you're playing with you know did an opponent get hot things like that um you get a little more context in there there are certainly not be all end alls you would not look at it and be like well Scotty Barnes is 13th in EPM so he's the Third 13th best player in basketball I think it has him as like a 99th percenti Defender right now yeah he's 13th overall in EPM and he's the Raptor's best player on both in terms of impact him and OG keep trading first and second in defensive impact on the Raptors um but either way something like that would certainly you know be more accurate if you were going to pull some numbers to make those cases than you know just looking at net rating or or onoff court stuff um because you need that context well that's that's good to know it's good to know have me on Coach th the r yeah sorry that's hard to Pivot out of but um it's it's all good it's all good this is what we pay Alex one the big bucks for Alex what you got for us while I poor coffee big head coffee by the way my salaries all color once again uh you know Blake was referencing Pascal talking about a mouthpiece and boxing match so just pulled the full quote via friend of the program Eric kareim Pascal today said quote it's hard it's hard the way I look at it that's been in my life period it's never been easy hey you got got a fight there's going to be times where it's hard out there and you feel like you're getting knocked down every time you go out there it feels like a boxing match where you get knocked down and everything you can't see nothing you're looking for your mouthpiece trying to find anything on the floor and the ref is counting blood coming out of your mouth and the thing about it is it's going to happen more than once yo so yeah there we go somebody got a holy Field's ears don't how guys boxing more wins party yeah I don't know how much boxing Pascal watches but if that happens to you more than once in a fight the ref's probably going to stop it like you might get the standing 10 count but uh yeah you if if the ref sees you lose your mouth guard and reach around unable to see because of blood in your eyes two or three times in a fight and it's getting called that's it's good that he that's how he feels at least metaphorically in the game because that's how it feels like physically for me to watch the game oh okay so you know I I I see you I feel you know you know what this question that you raised Alex along these lines is what do the Raptors do the next time they win a game because obviously they're not going to just lose all the rest of the games here confident but the Raptors have been handing out this postgame chain yeah so is it weird after this like four game losing streak they play Atlanta tomorrow so they're going to be like 10 and 14 if they win for example the next game and say tomorrow it's an uninspiring win you know they barely hold on okay they're up 12 but 10 run Hawks are like a bottom five defense so this is who who have the Raptors done this against this year Washington San Antonio Detroit the bottom defens is in yeah Trey Young's you know game-winning three just barely rims out the RS make a colossal Air at the end turn the ball over but still win by one like what's the what's how's Darko running into the locker room with that chain like what's what's the energy hey guys where's the party where's the party everyone we're two more wins away from a pizza party y'all want pepperoni you guys want cheese you guys want Square slices yo how we feeling man how we feeling that's literally Darko coming in that locker room tomorrow man I'm telling you but this is a problem of like oh you know so much of the conversation just around the vibe of the team and stuff and like the vibe is always predicated on the quality of your team and the wins and losses said this back in preseason right they won every preseason game and we talked to Darko about it on this show was like okay The Vibes are good right now and everyone's happy but like how do you make sure that you manage the first four game losing streak or the first time someone gets pulled out of the starting lineup or the first time someone's out of the rotation and like it's still probably too early to know how like you know it's it's it's early enough for things to feel bad it's probably not early enough for like leaks and stuff to start coming out it was January last year I think when that stuff started happening uh even though we could plainly see it earlier than that like we can this year um wait for the leaks to come out the chain in general like every a lot of teams around basketball baseball footb hockey whatever have you know championship belt team chain you know get drumstick for player of the game whatever nickers literally had the WWE belt for who got the most deflections in practice there's a danger in attaching the chain to wins if you're not going to be winning a lot when I think about championship belts I remember the Detroit Pistons back in the day used to roll around with a belt cuz they were the champions uh I know Mike Malone gives out uh chain I think for the best defensive player right it's because they're a perennial they're they're the Champions as well like you if you attach a lot of this stuff to just wins and losses and stuff and you're doing positive reinforcement you know you throw this car all the time how you ever going to throw out the stick man like like what what are they supposed to do now now that they're 9 and 14 they're supposed to still hand out the chain when they win once every like four games it's weird that's what I'm saying it's going to be bad awkward when they hand out this chain I'm just telling you well we're still handing out the chains every Friday though we're taking tradition we're not way under 500 and losing six of our last seven we at least every week you know Wednesday show sometimes three and two give us Wednesday sometimes is tough but you know so you telling we had 800 team though that's pretty good y we're at 800 team that's pretty good where the timber wols apparently anyways I'm going do a bunch of Rudy go over here with his French Press gonna do a oh I'm kle Anderson neow um gonna do a bunch of random pivots uh yeah you want to uh pivot from your team Canada Jersey to another team Canada Jersey Alexander won the uh nor Star Award uh yesterday and then he celebrated by pulling up to the Thunder game in a team Canada Wayne grety Jersey uh Blake you did predict this yesterday before we go went on the program and found out you said Shay was going to win who are the other contenders do you yeah I mean there were some I I saw some by the way this is the award for like best Canadian so this is the Canadian athlete of the year you would have known it as the the Lou Marsh award before that name got changed a couple years back um so you know there's a bunch of Canadian sport me I don't know exactly who has a vote I know Doug and Doug Smith and Bruce Arthur and Damen Cox are on the committee I don't know who else is in there um you know I I saw that there were favorites sorry yeah there were at least votes for um Conor McDavid who has the same thing every year where he's the best hockey player in the world but Edmonton doesn't do anything so he's actually never won one even though he'll be like the best hockey player of this generation mid the Chris Paul hits a three to cut the Oilers lead to 43 of his generation he's sh man yeah is he I mean he's the best player he's been the best player in the NHL for years and he's also got really talented teammates but their teams don't win okay okay M DAV was Tong steam arm over there were you know there was some curling candidates that you could make a case for um there was one other one I saw someone making a case for and I can't remember now oh the golfer who did the putter toss at the Canadian open but I think that's more of one big moment than a good year I I thought it was pretty clearly Shay when you looked at it now we're heading into an Olympic year like next year's OIC year the Olympic years are way more interesting for this award because you get a ton more you know I I don't know that even the people voting on this like are they looking at the track and field 2023 championships in wherever you know who was the like they probably do if Canada has a real chance or someone picks up buzz but you an Olympic year these are what way more open and much more interesting and I think you're right I do think Shay has the chance to repeat and he said yesterday basically like hey I'm looking forward to making you guys Crow again in 2024 man that was my favorite part of the summer was getting to watch like waking up literally at 4:30 a.m. sometimes but getting to watch that can on the team like it was so memorable watching that whole group how they came together I think the effects have carried over into the season you look at what Dylan Brooks has done for this season with the Houston Rockets like he's brought that same energy that same Swagger but more importantly that same three-point shot to a different program and of course Shay was just awesome I can't stress this enough because it was obviously like this is way back in August now but that game where they qualified for the Olympics the men's for the first time since 2000 where they beat Spain and they had to come back from being down uh 10 at halftime they climb all the way back then they fall all the way back down 10 because their second unit wasn't very good Shay plays the entire fourth quarter brings him all the way back forces overtime wins it in overtime like the two-way production that he was able to provide actually I don't know if they even got overtime maybe they just wanted regulation regardless Shay literally made every single play on both sides of the ball and it was such an exhilarating feeling getting to root for him wholeheartedly because he's on Team Canada and yeah I'm just I'm really proud of him but also at the same time it's the he's going to be the best Canadian basball player ever if he's not already there and I know how much people value Steve Nash because of the two MVPs and how memorable that team was trust me like that that version of Steve Nash and that Phoenix Sun team got me to watch basketball so it's going to be very hard for anyone to unseat that but as someone who has watched a lot of basketball Shay is definitively a better player than Steve was and he's just starting out right now and he's going to be at this level for a very long time and still improving like like the defense has stepped up this year he's shooting 55% from the mid-range this year like it's there's he's got to be you know if we're if we're excluding the guys like LeBron and Yannis who are just like physically you can't play against them one-on-one they're just too strong they're too bursty like in terms of craft and and moves and handle and things like that y I think Shay's got to be the toughest one-on-one like his skill is Kyrie's probably still close just cu the handle and the range but man I mean Shay's got so many tricks in the bag score-wise pass wise true three level guy he's awesome and he's he's added the defense too as you mentioned too so he's already he's already punked Steph Curry twice this year punked him four times cuz too by the way like the like the Thunder this isn't the 500 Thunder who are a really good story and sh's fifth in MVP this is a Thunder team that is second in a loaded Western Conference and I think look we're coming up on the point where Tim bontemps does his first third of the season MVP straw poll I would be very surprised if Shay is in top three at the at the first third of the way Mark yeah he deserves it man good for him congratulations Shay and that was a sick Jersey to pull out too yeah Bri where get that from Shay is good um I can't say um next up the Los Angeles Lakers uh it was reported are going to be raising a banner for their inseason tournament win and there was a lot of chatter about you know the Lakers being a glorious franchise um you know they they shouldn't stoop to this level to to raise a banner for this NBA cup what are your thoughts guys I think it's I think it's lame that people are finding ways to discredit winning you know what you think it's the only reason you're mad is cuz your your team is not putting up a banner in your in your room like you go to for example and I always make the comparisons to soccer but you go to like you know Liverpool's training facilities yeah and you walk in and there's a wall where it has the number of uh Champions League trophies they've won the number of League trophies that they've won the number of FA Cup trophies that they won the amount of League Cup trophies that they won it's just on the wall you celebrate all of them now of course you celebrate certain things like a Champions League way more than others just that you would champ celebrate a championship more than others but like you're starting a tradition and you you have brought this or like the new situation in and they won it so like and like do we want people like everyone like just don't want to do the like everyone says this stuff but like people have asked for a long time to make the regular season more important and the inseason tournament was not perfect but why are we then turning around like clowning guys for caring about something that I mean like is competitive games it made the regular season more important it is a thing that eventually maybe will mean something also like if you just wanted to celebrate and spray champagne cuz you won 500k I wouldn't but if I won 500k right now I I'd pull a bottle out for the three of us I would hope so I would a minimum we got um I don't know I think some of it is just like everyone has an opinion on everything and you're going to get some of that um and they're at least making it look different apparently it's going to be a different color and a different shape and stuff like that um also like I think the real answer is Adam Silver probably told the Lakers you have to do this this is important to the league and and we'll be very upset with you if you don't once again LeBron is doing this you know called Adam Silver a genius you know probably approved this Banner uh so then he can own a Las Vegas franchise while he plays with his son on the Lakers still yeah I see you LeBron I'm familiar with your game man you can't fool me um next up John Morant is almost making his return I believe he was testifying in court this week yeah for the lawsuit where he's alleged to have assaulted a teen and they're counter arguing that it was self-defense and there there's there are a bunch of weird Clips online of like they're getting jaw to like show them like the the technique of a basketball pass and like they're they're showing highlights of his dunks to be like this is the force he can is this when they're going to make azot show show them in cour out a log into Synergy yeah and steal data yeah Drake's in the corner I see a lot of synergy prove to us that Pascal is the number one post scorer in the league walk us through that um anyways um he is uh John Moran is nearing his return MH from his 25 game suspension um you know he slated to be back on December 19th uh Adam Silver was asked about this um I believe when he held the pressor at the in Vegas at the IST and said that so far this he called himself heav Kissinger unprompted I think this was another thing yeah it was okay um I'm enjoying all the banter um anyway silver says he still needs to talk to jaw but he's complied with everything to date the Grizzlies are one of the few teams that are worse than the Raptors right now 6 and 16 six games out of the playin I guess we'll throw it to um uh Grizzlies preseason believer will Lou over here is it too late is it too late for uh for the Grizzlies to get back into things here I don't think it's too late like but six games back of the play and already yeah I I I still think that like Jaw coming in is going to be obviously a huge impact the issue is like they lost Stephen Adams like literally at the start of the Season him without even playing a game and they needed to really like imposing defensively and I think they were able to do that with him and also jiren Jackson Jr together uh and on top of that they've had a whole bunch of injuries since then like they've just kind of been like really really lost but I also do think that jaw is like we can't deny the fact that he's going to come in and like could this team finish 500 like could they be 10 games of 500 with j i mean maybe the the last two years in about 60 games each season he was worth an estimated n and a half and eight and a half wins so if we look at you know that and that is about the number of games he'll get to play here he'll get he's eligible to play in 57 games so you know we can look at maybe that's a eight and a half win difference now he's not replacing replacement level guys like that they have some NBA guards in there but it does nicely shift everyone into a more suitable role gives you more options playing small a little bit um or at least with like an extra guard on the floor so I think it'll help um I just like I think 500 is probably to like they'd have to make up 10 games to finish 500 they would they would they'd have to pull off a couple of long like they would have to throw four or five5 and 25 the rest of the way and that's and that they have a couple games still before jaw comes back so that could be even worse but like look at last game for example the Mavericks um they played against the Mavericks they lost their starters were jiren Jackson Jr obviously Desmond B he had like a 40 piece last night yeah jiren Jackson Jr had 41 Desmond ban had 28 their other three starters San Al dama your boy that's my boy six points David Rody the body eight points yeah the Pacific Mall Dylan Brooks uh and then Derek Rose in the year 2023 Derrick Rose is the starting point guard and they had seven yeah where's Jacob Gillard man Jacob Gillard was not used Off the Bench D npcd yeah they have a guy named GG Jackson that's right he's 18 years old good game Jack they have to uh they also have to clear a roster spot when jaw comes back because they've been playing I think they'll be okay on that yeah um I think Shaquille I got to go um yeah I'm looking at the West right now forget about the Grizzlies for a second let's just assume they don't get back into this right now it's 11 teams fighting for those 10 playoff spots sitting two games out yeah so of these teams Okay so we've got the top six right now we know there can be a lot of movement right now the playin is Houston Clippers Phoenix New Orleans and then warriors on the outside looking in two games back from New Orleans out of those five teams do you see any of those teams being able to really make a push up to the top six I think the Warriors are clearly the most well actually now that the Clippers are on the uprise I don't know but and the Suns get Beal back tonight I know KD is is out so we're still not going to see their big three together but if they're getting yeah uh if they're getting a little bit of of Beal now too like we we're talking it's only like a game a game and a half difference between them and like the Kings yeah which team which team out of those five would you pick most likely to end up in the top six I buy the Warriors but they have literally thrown away I've watched them throw away like four or five games already this season up like 15 to 20 up 15 up 20 points yeah in the the game against OKC they're up like three with like uh about 10 seconds left and they got a guard and Draymond just intentionally fouls Chad hren as he's shooting a three like he's literally shooting the three and draymond's like no no no no I'm GNA foul him and then he's like stomping around being like that's on the floor that's on the floor clearly was not on the floor do you think do you think Draymond will be there when uh Lebron and the Lakers raised their inseason better he probably will be you think he'll be there to celebrate with LeBron he put on a mustache and tell he's like I'm surprised you picked the Warriors man I don't have a lot of confidence in Warriors I've seen them play such a good basketball even with this group not necessarily playing up to par they just make so many dumb mistakes like they have like they honestly probably make more dumb mistakes than the Raptors do they just have really good quality and shot makers around that as well but I don't know I I I'm going to choose to go down with the ship like the Warriors are but like some of this is just so self-inflicted that I think they could turn it around yeah I I'm having trouble picking who I think will be the team that goes up into the top six I'm pretty confident it'll be the kings that come down okay I just I still don't really believe the defense is still bad they've barely yeah I mean the Kings have barely outscored their opponents and they're five games over 500 like they're do some regression there and I think the Mavs are I mean we hear about the Kings but being traded I think the Mavs are going to be desperate to make this work and I think the Mavs could be a team that adds between now and the deadline I guess I'll say the Clippers to to elevate they have one four in a row the you know the plus minus stuff since they figured it out and mooved R to the to the bench is trending in the right direction so um you know I I don't think they're Flawless but I think you know I'm I'm confident that the Clippers and Suns are better than the Kings and the Pelicans probably are as well so I think one of those teams will will jump up in I I was going to pick Phoenix so I guess we all pick different teams I I wanted to pick Phoenix but then I also had them as my lock to be under 51 but under 51 still yeah they they could do both so what about at the top you know Minnesota is 17 and five right now OKC like we mentioned is the number two seed we got Dallas there of those three do you see them holding that kind of top six spot or even top three who we talk you see Minnesota OKC and Dallas they're top of the West right now is there a team where you're like oh I don't really believe this right now I mean Dallas at a top three level I don't know about them sliding all the way out of the top six um but yeah it's a top three level Minnesota and OKC are weird because like I don't I still don't think they're like the ceiling is quite as high as you know Denver who are the defending champs but those teams are also yes we should absolutely care about the regular season we should care about avoiding the play and we should care about getting a top seed in home court advantage so you know we know that teams like the nuggets and Lakers maybe aren't going to care that much about pushing for the top seed so I'm a little more confident in Minnesota OKC OKC also has like a monster Point differential like they have they have the point differential of a 15 and seven team this isn't smoking mirrors they also got great depth and they got a great system like it's just every time you watch OKC it's like it must be exhausting to play against and they're not going to do it but they could absolutely push in for someone at the deadline if they wanted to nobody has more draft assets than them like forp was mentioning it's like if this team was able to acquire a pascal yakum to join what is already a really really nice two-way team like it would just take them to another level even in my suggestion of them getting a center like just go something cheaper get yaka Perle for example in this group you can have him you know go up against some of the bigger centers it doesn't matter if he doesn't close because you can close small with chat but you can play more Miss like matchups I think that's the one thing they're missing is that they don't have a true seven-footer who can like does this sound like an advertisement is is Sam pry buying this but like seriously they have really done a great job of building the den and around a young coach who obviously hasn't really coached in that many levels and people aren't that familiar with but when you watch the Thunder play obviously they're young and that's to the front office but like they all just drive kick Drive kick Drive kick like it's yeah they kick push like they actually this the L Fiasco team will getting real good oh my God yeah if by the way if we trade on pascot I need like it can't just be like Josh giddy coming back or whatever first off I don't want Josh giddy period but like I I would need like give us two Jaylen Williams's man wey to get a two two more things before we go doubt get Jaylen Williams it would be nice but I I don't know um I guess it's a pretty good coach of the year battle shaping up I know the ringer just put out their quarter Mark Awards we might get to that later this week but like Jamal Mosley in Orlando Mark dagno in OKC and our guy finchy Chris Finch in Minnesota like that's going to be looking nice and the note about Ben goer who who's going to join us in the final segment is you know last time he was on it was early in the season I think the Spurs just wrapped up two games in Phoenix and you know W bayama was really impressive they haven't won a single game since we talked to Ben oh wow yeah it's been that long it's tough cuz uh I I felt like Wy Mania would be like a year-long theme and it literally just died with the fact that they never win papovich said no bro the only thing I've heard from the Spurs since then is papovich grabbing the mic yeah Samson folk style being like guys we don't do this here I really thought the Spurs I was like man the Spurs can make the Conference Finals this year never mind yeah never mind that's tough yeah coach your votes tough yeah I agree I don't uh I mean I think you know it's a little early still and they're not on that level but I think some people give Oka love as well for the the rocket being the most improv top yeah the most improved defense 11 right now I feel like it's going to be Orlando and OKC if they keep if they keep their standing obviously honestly between those two if Orlando keeps up what they're doing cuz they're 16 and seven right now yeah they're six the Orlando Magic are is 16 and seven hey man listen if Philly finishes with the one seed Nick nurse going to be there too man I think the issue with that is he's been coach of the Year oh by the way we have this uh Nick nurse Bubblehead yeah why is it in here why' you bring that man your it was your decision you said you said you wish you had a Fred vanite bobblehead too just to taunt Rapp um last thought on that um one I don't think Nick nurse would be in the coach of the year mix just because we've seen the 76ers do this in the regular season before I don't think anyone's going to be like obviously you don't get coach of the year for what happens in the playoffs but I do think some people still look at the Sixers and be like well we don't know it's different until then um but the other thing is you guys mentioned Minnesota Orlando and OKC as candidates and I threw Houston in there those four teams are all top five in defense yeah you can't always control you can't always control what offensive talent you have how much the threes Dro if you don't have Shooters the threes just won't drop cannot be 24th in defense over a one month stretch when you're supposed like I sorry to Circle this back to Raptor negativity strikes home like Orlando is doing Aion of what the Raptors are trying to do last year's OKC team was very similar to the Raptors tactically on defense they prioritized forcing turnovers and they had no they had no natural Rim protection they were the Raptors prea purle and they did a better job of it um you know Houston obviously with with Fred there that's made a difference but Houston's second in defense with Alper shenon on the floor for like 38 minutes a game or 35 minutes a game who you know people had real concerns about his defensive capability this is something not everyone could be a top five defense but you have more control over how good your defense is night toight than you do of hey our R3 is going to drop tonight and it's been so disappointing to see the Raptors not even close to that mix Raptors had like top five top six defenses with JV in the middle Lis Scola at four Demari Carroll at three demard Rosen at two and Kyle AR at one there's exactly one good defender in that group in Kyle ay and they were able to be top six defensively and of course they brought guys that were good Defenders Off the Bench like Cory Joseph and bism Bono back in the day but you compare that defensive Personnel to what the Raptors are working with right now and you're telling me that a good coach is bringing the best out of them defensively no like you look at the Houston Rockets as you mentioned like you you can pick both rosters you could put all the the players up and you can draft who's the best defenders that you want to build a defense with it will take a while until you got to Fran B who probably be the number one guy you would take off this off that team but you know there are better Defenders on the Raptors than Fred who obviously was here for a long time yeah I mean Dyan Brooks probably goes higher my bad my bad Dyan Brooks goes above but still like Dylan Brooks alone shouldn't be tur your whole defense around that's what a strong coach who can really get through to his players get them to lock in and buy in and commit to playing hard things like transition defense which is nothing but playing hard and of course taking good shots but still both things are within your own control they don't do that yeah listen the RS are either going to finish 10th or 11th in the East that is what we're that's what're playing for it's the 1011 Bowl this week two straight games against the Hawks that's right oh boy Winner Takes Pascal seak okay we're going to take another break our last break been your host Willow you've been listening to the Raptor show on the sports radio network welcome back to the Raptor show on the sports night radio network I'm your host wayo for the last segment here I'm joined by co-host Blake Murphy and we are joined on the line by Ben goer of the Washington Post uh Ben you know Alex just made me realize that the last time we got you on was after WBY uh made that great comeback against the Suns and they beat him I think twice in the span of a week and it's been like probably over a month since we had you on and the the Spurs have not won a game in that time so uh I guess my question is are you spending much time in San Antonio these days no and actually I'm reporting live from the airport today still no sign otani's plane but I'll keep you guys updated here in Southern California uh no it sounds to me like you're giving me the credit for being the good luck charm for W's career as soon as I stopped covering the Spurs they just fall off a cliff is that right yeah that sounds that's what we were going for initially until the oani comment and now now I'm going to frame it as you broke him you did something to disrupt the the good that was happening in San Antonio yeah as a neutral as obviously someone who is not partial to the Toronto Blue Jays how funny is it as a neutral that blue jays fans obsess themselves and wi shotani into this plane and then what stepped out was a Dragon's Den member yeah look you guys could treat me like a hostile witness I get it that was probably a little below the belt right off the top I'll just say I mean I do feel like there's some self-inflicted wounds from Toronto fan bases you know you guys just take it a little bit too far sometimes I appreciate the passion I think it's a good thing um you know I actually went to go see pitch one of his last games here in Anaheim because I was certain they were going to trade him at the deadline uh because that seemed like the pretty logical thing to do and they did it and now have BW up in their face and thankfully he'll be across town up at Dodger Stadium so maybe I'll be able to get him see him next year but uh yeah what a circus that was sorry to derail the conversation but uh no it's all good sorry guys at least the Angels through all that managed to duck just below the luxury tax line that's the uh that's the important thing there with Otani all right let's pivot here a little bit uh so Ben instead of being in San Antonio you were just down in Las Vegas you were on the scene for the inseason tournaments neutral sight games um we all you know Saturday was a lot of fun I think most people seem to enjoy the inseason tournament overall you're the first person we've talked to though who was there and you know you wrote a a piece for the Washington Post the NBA cup must craft a better game atmosphere to be a lasting hit so am I reading that correctly that in Vegas itself it lacked just a little oomph oh exactly right I mean I'm sure you guys have been going to basketball tournaments since you were little kids right and I've been to a bunch over the years whether it's a tournaments the NCA tournament uh you know you might might look at the NBA Playoffs as a basketball tournament the Olympics uh and there's been some weird situations too like the bubble when there's no fanss or the Olympics when there's no fanss in Tokyo so it's been a wide range of game day experiences to kind of compare this to and you know I think they got a really strong television rating this was obviously a made for television event but I think if the NBA cup or the inseason tournament whatever you want to call it is really going to have a lasting Legacy and kind of be taken seriously they need to think long and hard about pumping up the actual atmosphere in the Arenas I think the issue that we had in Las Vegas is that first of all they were playing that first game the Pacers versus the bucks on Thursday at 2m they're playing it basically two or three days after those teams even qualified from the quarterfinals so there's no Bucks fans in the building practically there's hardly any Pacers fans in the building yes Tyrese halton's dad was sitting Courtside having a great time loving life but you need more than blood relatives I think to create a real atmosphere right you guys have seen Raptors games and the playoffs I mean it's a little bit crazy sometimes too crazy like you know the Kevin Durant incident right but there was just hang up right now there was none of that intensity there's none of that back and forth between the uh the Rival fan bases in the arena and it just kind of turned into to a Lakers pep rally right because of course there's going to be a lot of Lakers fans coming from Los Angeles or living there in Las Vegas and so the neutral site to me was not neutral and it was not a Charged atmosphere and I think they got to step back and ask you know how many better basketball cities are there than Las Vegas where they could host this thing I mean I think there's at least 15 among NBA cities I would include Toronto in that group there's so many better venues than T-Mobile Arena it's solid Arena it's very passable there's nothing super spectacular about it you would have a much better crowd in Madison Square Garden you'd have better celebrities if that's your thing and it seems like that's the NBA's thing is having guys like Timothy sham sitting Courtside or Stephie graph whoever else they kind of brought out for this tournament right but you put it at like the new in it dome in Englewood when that opens up next year or you put it in Madison Square Garden heck you even put it in Miami and maybe you've got some season ticket holders who decide to show up not having like a designated group of NBA fans in Las Vegas really worked against this event and it prevented it from being something where I feel like people should have fomo about it it's okay if you didn't go it was okay to watch on TV and that's a problem to me because I think if you really want this to be a hit you've got to want people from across the country saying I've got to book my ticket to go see that right I've got to go make this a destination and at this point the FBA cup doesn't hit that standard yeah you know I I there was the comparison made to like champions league and you know what that looks like or even the FA Cup Final for someone like you know well in advance what's City that's going to be in what time that's going to be in and you have a really like even after the semifinals and you have the two finalists determined you still have like two three weeks to arrange plans as you mentioned like you got two three days who who who is just like dropping everything in two three days to fly to Vegas to watch you know uh the Bucks play you know the Pacers no in December that's the answer nobody nobody did it that's that's the problem right do you think they should just back it up a week if you had 10 days let say the Raptors had made it if you guys had 10 days you'd be there right or fans yeah what are you going to tell your boss like hey I'm just not coming it like sorry the inseason tournament's um like and I got to go tomorrow like yeah you probably need to give it some distance just to make it make sense logistically um on the TV side of things so they had a really dim on on you know they had the theater lighting uh which obviously helped to exu like the actual product on the court the court being bright also helped with that in the arena like was it like that dark and also like was it dark because they were trying to hide empty seeds I think so I mean I that was part of the reason why they did it in the arena the court looked awesome the guys really looked like they were on a stage so I thought the lighting worked really well in person but for that first game it was half full you know at 2 pm in Vegas on a Thursday and you know unfortunately there was also a MCH shooting the day before it so Vegas was in a very somber mood um you know because of that UNLV shooting and so you know they did a moment of silence before that and you know maybe that was a contributing factor on Thursday I'm not sure but um you know the the Lakers fans showed up for the second game they definitely showed up for that championship game but I do think the lighting part could stay for me I thought it worked out pretty well I didn't like the red on the court I would have changed that I actually would have gone with like an Ovo golden black Motif I think to kind of match the trophy I think that would have been a better look U you know for that stage but um to me it was less about the lighting and more just about like where are the Die Hard fans if they put this thing in Toronto and the same time I bet you at least 10,000 Raptors fans are showing up just to go see what it's all about right even if the Raptors aren't in it and I don't think they need to worry about home court advantage because the Lakers already had home court advantage in Las Vegas right so the idea of a neutral site to me was kind of overblown I think there's been Super Bowls where the winning team played in their own City in the Super Bowl like sometimes that happens I I just think that they need to consider finding the best basketball markets the best basketball buildings and building this thing out so that true die hards people who are going to get there and cheer and have the old school jerseys on and be really ready to kind of represent for their teams uh are able to kind of create this uh this atmosphere that just wasn't there in Las Vegas it felt corporate I'll be honest it felt a little bit soulless in the building um and that's not what you're quite going for I thought they got pretty good games H Burton was incredible on Saturday right uh LeBron played the best game I've seen him play since the 2020 finals in that semi-finals against the Pelicans who you know who knows maybe they went out a little bit and had too much fun the night before they just didn't show up and the championship game was close like they got a decent game it's not like they got skunked but the atmosphere did not reflect the quality of play on the court and I think that's where I would try to start with the tweaks everybody wants to say oh you know change the stakes you know you got to make this more meaningful I think that's important too but I would really try to figure out how can you uh turn this into an electric atmosphere sort of like a Cameron Indoor Arena at Duke right or a crazy high school basketball tournament where the two fan bases are yelling back and forth at each other overrated and all that kind of stuff they just need more of that to uh you know so they can lighten up the arena and just show the crowd rather than trying to hide the crowd to me the crowd is such an important element of any big event like this especially when that's trying to build credibility and build momentum and build a history here over say the next 10 or 20 years in terms of that history that you're going to try to build with this um certainly you know if it was always in one spot that's one thing if the homec court advantage became a big part of the story and who knows those point itial tiebreakers matter even more at the top because you want the home court advantage we'll see how that shakes out but in terms of the history and setting the stage for what this is going to become how helpful do you think it will be for the league that it was LeBron and the Lakers who won the inaugural one well David Stern's old line was his dream finals match up was Lakers versus Lakers I mean once they got the Lakers into the final if I was an NBA executive I would have been down on my knees praying I would have been so happy because had they not had the Lakers in the semi final in the final I think you would have had the same issues at the gate in terms of attracting fans and then you really would have had to kind of talk about well is this a success is this even working are people buying into it and I think the Lakers presence and especially LeBron's presence in terms of how seriously he took this tournament from the start and how well he played in Las Vegas kind of setting the tone for the tournament it papered over a lot of the potential weaknesses and so if we fast forward to next year and the Lakers don't make it that's what I'm concerned about if they don't take some of these steps to address um you know fan involvement that are you know giving like season ticket holders for the teams discounted or free tickets so if they're willing to travel to that Arena they can go watch their team play something to just get some real genuine energy in that building because um you know the Lakers save their butts there's no question about it right if the Lakers aren't in there this this entire thing feels different and you know you can say the same thing about the bubble too you know I was there for sure and it uh it ended on a high note because it adds to LeBron's Legacy it gets people uh you know taking that entire experience more seriously or you know it gets the haters to say Mickey Mouse ring I understand but that's also good for business because you're getting people talking either way had this been Pelicans Pacers in the final there may have actually been tumbleweeds in the building like it's definitely possible and uh there wasn't they didn't narrowly avert that because the Lakers killed the Pelicans but they were only one game away from having that sort of worst case scenario yeah the league owes LeBron a lot maybe even a whole franchise in Las Vegas which was kind of the subtext of the whole it was funny even watching cuz you were there in person watching the TV broadcast and it was like uh maybe five maybe 10 minutes right before tip off and the broadcast had the panel on on ESPN and all of them were picking LeBron to win and they were openly begging LeBron to win this for the sake of the tournament which kind of did you know obviously happen but as you mentioned there is also um yeah just this very soullessness about it but I look the games were fun and I think that's for me the biggest thing um did you hear any feedback from players coaches you know the league etc etc on and sort of like the reception the experience of playing in it well I think there was some nerves going into this event like was it going to work and so I think the league came out very happy with how it played out I mean they got like 4.6 million people watching on television they got the LeBron getting to hold up the trophy you know they uh they got all the interplay between silver and LeBron kind of feeling like best buddies making the jokes that you were making about is he going to get a franchise no it doesn't come with that ha haa I just want to paint the color behind the scenes though so know they did this very brief Champagne Room situation where it was like not in the locker room it was like this is the designated place where you can go spray champagne if you want it don't ruin the locker room is crazy but all right yeah no but I'm just give it to you straight and then when they got back to the locker room LeBron's just sitting at his locker he's like you know caked in ice he's just sitting there he's not really celebrating he's munching on some grapes you know it's just like this is the least excited title celebration I've ever seen the trophy is sitting on the table unattended right next to some bandages and some gum you know it's just there like this is not didn't feel like any sort of playoff title celebration we've ever seen before right so um he had the goggles on probably didn't actually need them and so and then they tried to kick everybody out of the building by 11: p.m. they're like look you don't have to you know leave you don't have to go home but you got to get out of here right so you basically had like two hours or so to write your story and then you had to bounce and they were already turning the arena over to whatever the next thing it was going to be so uh like I said I mean they came they saw they conquered I think that was sort of the uh you know the feeling and you know the one guy who whose comment stuck out to me was D'Angelo Russell because you know he said he was really excited to win the money because it was going to finance his All-Star Weekend vacations and his offseason vacations I like great that's very good for D'Angelo Russell it's very good for the Lakers guys who aren't making as much money as D'Angelo Russell I'm sure the players are accountants were massive winners from the inseason tournament right but if you're trying to appeal to the Casual fans or people who might be considering a trip uh to the tournament in the future years you've got to have something for those fans to kind of get invested in whether it's increased Stakes or or or something else a better environment because who really cares where D'Angelo Russells you know which island he's going to go on in July nobody cares and and it was a little bit cringy and the whole thing you know again it felt a little soulless like nakedly capitalistic right here we are creating this event solely so we can hand money out that's like the entire purpose of it and and kind of milk money from consumers and I just think the NBA can be better than that personally get ready to learn capitalism buddy that's uh that is going to be a part of it uh before we let you go I I know you had a piece at the Washington Post heading in about the actual Hardware players receed that Trophy and things like that um the all tournament team does it look as much like a bowling ball in person as it did in the pictures or does it look like is it a basketball oh that's a great question it I've only seen the pictures I actually didn't get to see I thought you got to have a look well they somehow never um named the all tournament team until like Monday everybody had left I don't know if there was hanging Chads involved or like you know they really had to go through this very careful voting process sorry that was an American political reference for you guys um yeah no it was just like come on we can't even name the alternate team what's going on here so I saw the MVP trophy which was very cool and the actual NBA Cup trophy I thought was excellent like I wouldn't change it it was solid it was the right size it felt very soccer you know when LeBron it up but um I do think that the bowling ball comparison is fair based on the pictures that I saw but I can't confirm I don't know if they had the three finger holes or not uh but uh you know it was different you know and LeBron handed his MVP trophy immediately to Maverick Carter I don't know if he ever got it back or if that was just a gift uh but maybe you know somewhere on Maverick Carter's uh you know fireplace is going to be the first inseason tournament MVP trophy one day yeah all right well last thing then um you were there for bronnie James's USC Deb uh we got like two minutes for this so how how was that obviously the context there being that Ronnie had the health scare he had uh I believe a cardiac arrest and then he came back and he was able to take the floor again it's really great to see him being healthy first and foremost but what was the atmosphere like and what was the reception like there well UFC basketball is like pretty low on the totem pole in terms of the biggest you know events sorting events in La I mean obviously UCLA is the PowerHouse USC is kind of the little brother uh you know Demar D rozan kind of helped give them a little era and he's got his own weight room you that he paid for for USC so they got some pretty nice facilities thanks to to De Demar D Ro it but uh normally they say the student section's empty and the buildings half full you know it was completely packed out for bronny James they sold the thing out uh students were lined up two hours in advance to kind of get their spot in the student section and I think everybody felt like you just felt which is it's so nice to have this guy back on the court it's almost incredible that he's been able to get back five months after you know career and life-threatening incident I also think it's changed the conversation this is no longer about can Brony like live up to his father's Shadow is he gonna be the next Marcus Jordan you know all that stuff is like put to the Wayside and it's all just about like man this kid seems pretty cool he seems pretty down to earth for being as famous and rich as he's been his entire life and hard on defense he moves the basketball on offense he's kind of a three-point shooter off ball type of guy he's not trying to put his head down and dunk on you every single moment and he's just a good kid and I think that he really rallied a lot of support not only from the USC fans but I think actually from a lot of the media who was attendance who really appreciated how he conducted his business and uh are just kind of glad to see him back on the court and maybe getting back on track towards a potential NBA career uh Lebron was overjoyed showed up early gave bronnie a little love tap when he was going to take a seat to Courtside Gloria James was there you know filming uh with her camera phone just like a proud grandmother his little sister was there a whole bunch of clutch people were there Lakers GM ra pinka was there to show support as well so it felt kind of like this warm embrace for bronny and in this age where like everybody's just hating all the time especially on Twitter or X whatever you want to call it it was like actually kind of nice and like refreshing you know it's like people are actually kind of behind this guy and excited to see what he can do yeah that's that's really great and I'm really happy that he supported that way so Ben goer of the Washington Post appreciate you for joining us once again all right thanks guys are we going to let him back on the show after he yeah made fun of shi and if we're going to only do guests that didn't make fun of Toronto for missing out on sh tracking planes and stuff uh we're going to be a little light on guests he is a he is a great guest and uh yeah okay that does it for us today been your host one tiny update what's up justice winow is making his Raptor 905 debut tonight he's finally going to play game 13 that's what we need another four who doesn't shoot the ball well you do there's a 905 player potentially on the show tomorrow so let's uh this could be this could be win number two tonight can you do the outro faster than you did yesterday I've got to have to I'm your host W you've been listening to the Raptor show on the sport radio make sure you listen to rap the show where you find podcast subscribe please rate review Thanks once again to David Thor B Oliver producer and co-host Alex SW Blake Murphy board producer Derrik mandale Jen Rick Dave sis Jr manatad and uh we'll be back tomorrow

Channel: SPORTSNET

Views: 3,864

Keywords: Sportsnet, Sports, Canada, nba, nba basketball, basketball, toronto raptors, raptors, toronto, toronto basketball, in-season tournament, nba in-season, nba in-season tournament, raps highlights, dennis schroder, garrett temple, scottie barnes, pascal siakam, malachi flynn, chris boucher, gary trent jr, scottie barnes highlights, shohei ohtani, los angeles lakers, lakers, lakers highlights, lebron james, miami heat, new york knicks, knicks, julius randle, knicks raptors

Id: MByehDHhgUA

Length: 98min 15sec (5895 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 12 2023