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Terms apply, check the site

1:21

for details. Hello,

1:50

and welcome. I'm your host, Lou.

1:52

You're listening to the Helen Welcome

1:54

podcast presented by Betway. Today, Alex

1:56

Wong is taking the day off,

1:58

which means we could... talk real

2:00

hoops and no better person to talk

2:02

real rapture hoops with than Samson folk

2:05

at Raps Republic. Samson man,

2:07

you've been uh, you've been putting

2:09

them work on the podcast side

2:11

man. I feel like you have been potty

2:13

my friend. What's going on man? How are

2:15

you doing? Doing good. Glad to be

2:18

back on. For anyone who was

2:20

wondering about my hiatus from the

2:22

Hello and Welcome podcast. He was

2:24

Alex was jealous of mine and

2:26

Will's ascending friendship. And so he

2:28

stepped in. I think once we started

2:31

talking dims on items, he felt

2:33

personally attacked. I think it's one

2:35

thing for us to talk about

2:37

the nuances of players' games, which,

2:39

you know, he's less interested in.

2:41

But once we cross into those

2:43

Asian topics, I think he might

2:45

have had a point. But Alex,

2:47

I hope you're enjoying a nice

2:49

Wednesday off here in Toronto. He's

2:51

probably vintage shopping. Samsung before we'll

2:54

be so what we're going to do

2:56

here today is we're going to give

2:58

a report card to every single player

3:00

on the Toronto Raptors you know of

3:02

relevance I'm sorry I did cut off

3:04

the the line at 12 players of

3:06

relevance with this team and this past

3:08

season it's a good way for us

3:10

to sort of evaluate their offense and

3:12

their defense but I mean aside from

3:14

covering the wraps you also do a

3:16

lot of coverage of the Indiana Pacers

3:18

and I don't know, I mean

3:20

did you get a chance to talk about

3:22

what happened last night? Because that was

3:24

one of the craziest games. I

3:26

can remember basically. That was nuts!

3:29

That podcast happens in like two

3:31

hours. Myself and Caitlin will get

3:33

together and talk about it. But I

3:35

mean that that series has been pretty

3:37

crazy and I covered them in the playoffs

3:40

last year. They're a very strange

3:42

team to cover. They're amorphous. They

3:44

like... assume whatever role is necessary

3:46

and even in a 119, 118

3:48

win like I'm, they're a very unique

3:50

team and they're fun to cover

3:53

and I mean Caitlin I think is

3:55

the best basketball writer in the world

3:57

so I learn stuff from her all

3:59

the time so. Yeah, it's been good. It's

4:01

been fun. Yeah, that was a great game

4:03

by Gary Tran Jr. and then he makes

4:05

the biggest error at the end there. But

4:07

I don't know. I just feel I just

4:09

feel bad for the Bucks in general.

4:11

Like I guess you make all these

4:13

moves to get them. I remember the

4:15

sort of last season, like this discussion

4:17

was who's the best team in the

4:19

East. Is it gonna be Milwaukee? Is

4:21

it gonna be Boston? I mean both

4:23

times dangerous as Achilles in

4:26

the first round against Indiana

4:28

both times you get eliminated

4:30

in the first round against

4:32

Indiana and I don't know I

4:35

just for me I just This would

4:37

be a horrible way like if I

4:39

were a Bucks fan I just know

4:41

that I would I would be in

4:43

mourning in more ways in one it

4:45

would feel tremendously unfair Yeah you

4:47

want to lose on merit like you

4:49

want it to be earned a little

4:51

bit but Yeah, and also just the

4:54

the cloudiness of what's happening in

4:56

the future like I understand

4:58

Shom's tweeted like Janus and the

5:00

Bucks will have a meeting. I think

5:03

that's just exit interviews by the way.

5:05

Every every player will do that but

5:07

you look at next season even in

5:10

the fact that Janus I mean there's

5:12

three or four more years that he

5:14

might be like top top level and

5:16

you want to have him on a

5:19

good team and you want to be

5:21

competing for a championship and all that

5:23

kind of stuff and and Damien just

5:25

like the human aspect is he's been

5:28

through the ringer man healthwise terrible.

5:30

He's been through a divorce

5:32

he's been through The health issues

5:34

is just, no it's just a lot man,

5:36

he was traded from like the team that

5:38

he was at for over a decade, that

5:40

team did not respect his wishes and sending

5:43

him to Miami, he's, I made the joke

5:45

here many times, but you know, divorce man

5:47

would like to go to Miami, at least

5:49

just for the experience, not even for the

5:52

experience of playing with Talahiro and Bam necessarily,

5:54

but yeah, feel bad for Milwaukee, I really

5:56

do, but that was a hell of a

5:58

finish and big show. to Tyries Hallibur and

6:01

not only hitting the game winner, but also

6:03

for once a player checking their dad for

6:05

being like doing too much, you know. We're

6:07

in an age of like Laval balls and

6:09

like Laval clones. And at least with Laval,

6:12

he has incredible charisma and and get well

6:14

suited to Laval, man. He lost his foot

6:16

and you know, take care of your health

6:18

and everything like that. But Tyries Hallibur and

6:21

his dad stepping onto the court and yelling

6:23

and Janus his face like. what are you

6:25

doing man? And I'm happy that Tyries actually

6:27

called him out and just said like you

6:30

basically got to chill like this is not

6:32

what you're supposed to do. I mean Janus

6:34

is an all-time great man like you can't

6:36

disrespect him in this fashion. Okay let's talk

6:39

about the Raptors and their grades for the

6:41

season and so we're gonna hand out the

6:43

report card. So I'm gonna go in order

6:45

of minutes played for the Toronto Raptors. And

6:48

of course, the player who played the most

6:50

minutes for the Toronto Raptors this season is

6:52

none other than Scotty Barnes. We're going to

6:55

break it down like this. We're giving him

6:57

a grade for offense, a grade for defense.

6:59

A grade for intangibles and intangibles

7:01

can kind of include whatever you

7:03

really want. And we're given an

7:05

overall grade based on offense, defense,

7:08

and intangibles. And then we'll identify

7:10

one area of improvement for each

7:12

player. Let's start on the offense

7:14

event of end for Scotty Barnesons.

7:16

but what did you make a

7:19

Scotty's offense on the year? I mean,

7:21

a season of growth in some

7:23

areas, attempts at growth in others

7:25

and perhaps more the latter than

7:28

the former, a disappointing season. Any

7:30

time a guy, especially when the

7:32

fan base seems like, we remember

7:34

what everyone was saying about

7:37

Scotty once they traded everyone

7:39

away and once the team was

7:41

set and his, then he breaks

7:43

his hand and it's like, and it's

7:45

like okay. he's coming back next season it's

7:48

demon time or whatever the hell right and

7:50

then this season he takes more shots he

7:52

scores less points he has more the ball

7:54

he has less assists he turns the ball

7:56

over at roughly the same rate and his

7:58

efficiency takes a huge It turned out that

8:01

the switch from the second best

8:03

matchup on the other team to the

8:05

first best match up was meaningful. The

8:07

shading that he saw as the number

8:10

one option was meaningful and that all

8:12

those things made it tougher for him

8:14

to score at the bucket and

8:16

forced him into the mid range.

8:19

And so he was just doing

8:21

things that weren't exactly in his

8:23

bag constantly. And he talked about that,

8:26

you know, at exit interviews when I

8:28

asked him, like, are you a different

8:30

player than what you thought you'd be? And

8:32

he said, yeah. And I'm still growing and

8:34

I don't really know what I'm going

8:36

to be. But he's just taking it

8:38

in stride. It was a bad offensive

8:41

season. Like, I think the top 53

8:43

drivers in drives per game, he was

8:45

49th in field goal percentage on drives.

8:47

That's like almost inexcusable of

8:49

the high volume scores. He

8:52

was really inefficient. He had a

8:54

tough shot diet, he had a tough job, he

8:56

didn't do it very well, but the other

8:58

side of the court I thought was fantastic

9:00

and the seeds of growth have been planted.

9:02

So, yeah, I don't know. I think one

9:04

of the issues with Scotty, I think

9:06

that maybe inspires a lot of

9:08

debate and I wouldn't even say

9:10

frustration because I really don't think

9:12

there's any reason to be frustrated,

9:14

but like. It's hard to sort of

9:17

evaluate him because on the season, it's

9:19

difficult to discern what he had to

9:21

do out of circumstance, what he had

9:23

to do based on experimentation, and what

9:25

he did because that's who he felt

9:27

like his game should sort of sky

9:30

towards. Like I think that, you know,

9:32

there was a very memorable interaction when

9:34

I talked to Darko, I think maybe

9:36

in November. Scotty had come off a

9:38

game where he shot like two of

9:41

11 from three, and I was like...

9:43

You know, Darko Scotty's been shooting a

9:45

lot more threes recently, you know, what do

9:47

you make of this approach or whatever? And he

9:49

was like, I actually wanted to shoot more threes.

9:52

Like I wouldn't mind if he shot 10 plus

9:54

threes. And I was like, well, I mean, obviously,

9:56

like he doesn't have the three point making ability

9:58

to actually warrant that much. usage but that's

10:00

a clear sign of like what they wanted

10:02

to sort of experiment with him on the

10:05

season for a while he was a mid-range

10:07

guy for a while he was mostly a

10:09

driver put a lot of point guard too

10:11

which you know not anybody really had that

10:13

much help on the Raptors but I

10:15

thought there were some really bad struggles

10:17

I think in that December period when

10:19

he played point where it was like damn

10:21

like Is RJ better at this role? Which

10:23

is kind of nuts to me because I

10:26

don't really think of RJ as a point

10:28

guard either. Having said that though, like the

10:30

numbers are what they are, I think there's

10:32

a lot of room for improvement. I kind

10:34

of ultimately ended up with like a C,

10:36

C minus on defense overall on the season.

10:38

Is that too low for you? Is that

10:40

just right? Where are you out with that?

10:42

I was thinking C minus, D plus. And

10:44

that's just as far as like the season.

10:46

That's the season. Now, if he

10:48

did take steps in the mid-range and

10:50

that will allow him to exhibit control,

10:53

to draw fouls, that will allow him

10:55

to play make from the middle in

10:57

the future, it's just this season wasn't

10:59

successful. I don't think, you know, a

11:01

C- or a D-plus means that he's

11:04

not still on pace to make. have an

11:06

all NBA selection down the road and that

11:08

kind of stuff. But it wasn't good. You

11:10

can't slice this offensive pie in any way

11:12

to make it good. It just wasn't. The

11:14

one thing he also did in addition to

11:16

the mid-range, which he did shoot it at

11:18

48% from 10 to 16 feet, I will

11:20

be curious to see how sort of like

11:22

that extends, but you know, it was a

11:24

shot that he was comfortable, he looked for

11:26

it a lot of the time too, especially

11:28

when other things were not working. He did

11:30

get to the line other things we're not

11:32

working. I would argue, especially towards the

11:34

end of season, some dark arts for

11:37

how to pick up fouls. He started doing

11:39

the Pascal, like yell as you drive with

11:41

the ball in your hand high, and he

11:43

did get a couple foul calls that way

11:45

too. But I like to stop an approach

11:47

on approach on offense. I thought he never

11:50

really took any games off. And I think

11:52

that's more, it was more reflected and definitely

11:54

more effective on the defense event. I would

11:56

say he definitely led the team with intensity

11:58

and effort. This is was that he was

12:00

absolutely a leader on the defense of then.

12:03

I would say he was incredibly disruptive. Obviously

12:05

he's always been a guy with high steals

12:07

and blocks, but you could definitely sort of

12:09

feel it. It's what he's towards end of

12:11

the season. He was just hunting. and you

12:13

know not only doing a good job on

12:15

his own assignments but also making sure to

12:17

play great help defense which is kind of

12:19

sort of like been his emo as a

12:21

player this year feels like he had to

12:23

guard bigger players a lot more than smaller

12:25

players this is just kind of like like

12:28

me eyeballing it but watching the season but

12:30

what did you make of Scotty's

12:32

defense in sort of like which

12:34

areas that he's particularly excel in

12:36

defensively? I thought the thing that he improved

12:38

at the most was his perimeter defense

12:40

insofar as his denied defense I thought

12:42

was actually quite impressive throughout the season

12:44

and what denied defense does is it

12:46

can change the geometry of where the

12:48

other team starts their plays because teams

12:50

are very particular about whether to start

12:52

their plays for spacing and he can

12:55

change where the catch is and he

12:57

can also move teams into the back

12:59

end of the shock clock and he

13:01

brought it. night in and night out he

13:03

was disruptive every play down the floor like

13:05

the intangibles there were incredible and he also

13:07

would play this very brash denied defense but

13:09

as soon as the catch came he would

13:11

kind of back off and let his length

13:14

do the work whereas in the past on

13:16

the perimeter he would get himself into trouble

13:18

jumping guys a little too much and then

13:20

they would clear his hips and get to

13:22

drive that was the biggest change for me

13:24

was that he actually became I thought a

13:26

strong perimeter perimeter defender where that

13:28

hasn't been the case in the

13:31

past. And the last season he,

13:33

I thought, took significant steps of

13:35

being like a tremendous backline sweeper.

13:37

And then combining those two things,

13:39

like I thought he was sublime

13:41

defensively. If the Raptors were

13:43

a good team this year, I think he

13:46

would be a shoe in for a

13:48

defensive accolade. All defense. He was really

13:50

impressive. And it also, the diversity

13:52

of success means that you can

13:55

piece together. different successful defensive

13:57

lineups like mobile at the

13:59

five It could probably work with Scotty and

14:01

it did this year, the defense, even

14:03

though Mobile in general, the team had

14:05

trouble like rebounding. Stuff like that, it

14:07

matters. And of course he works with

14:10

Purdle. It's just good, great actually, great

14:12

defense. Yeah, I think for me, like,

14:14

it's also the tone that he sets

14:16

as a leader for the group, especially

14:18

how hard he wanted to play defensively.

14:20

Maybe there was a general lull for

14:22

like the entire team in December. Messiah

14:24

did kind of just like he was

14:26

like guys everyone was sick So I

14:28

was like okay, all right, I mean,

14:30

I guess you can't really just come

14:32

out and say it But ultimately there

14:34

was that stretch where the Raptors lost

14:36

like 16 of 17 games and You

14:38

know, I don't think that their energy

14:40

was particularly high, but I mean for

14:42

everything else. I thought Scotty did a

14:44

great job leading the line, especially with

14:46

this effort with his execution you know

14:48

I think there's a communication piece too,

14:50

like you saw him like organizing, putting

14:52

people in the right places defensively, holding

14:54

guys accountable, and not in like a

14:56

negative way I would say, like wasn't

14:58

like he was storing his hands up

15:00

at guys, you know what I mean,

15:02

or like he would let his energy

15:04

drop. And I think all those leadership

15:06

aspects are like really, really important. No,

15:08

I don't think that like, I know

15:10

the focus coming into the year in

15:12

like summer league and in training camp

15:14

was like, you know, like we're going

15:16

to play defense. I don't know if

15:18

this roster can really play defense. The

15:20

roster played defense and it was largely

15:22

made to work because of Scotty's efforts.

15:24

So I'm gonna give him an A

15:26

on the defensive end, intangibles. I think

15:28

for me. This is, I'm gonna give

15:30

him an A, mostly because of how

15:32

difficult this season was between the tanking

15:34

initiatives, between the trades, between the injuries,

15:36

all that kind of stuff. The start

15:38

of the season was really bad based

15:40

on sort of how many injuries and

15:42

absences were in the lineup. Obviously that

15:44

includes Scotty who got elbled in the

15:46

face by Yolkich and hurt his ankle

15:48

for a bit. Obviously his hand was

15:51

messed up throughout the course of the

15:53

course of the year, but he kind

15:55

of just played through all of the

15:57

year. being the undisputed leader, I thought

15:59

he set a really good mood around

16:01

the team. You know, I didn't really

16:03

feel like guys were ever unhappy, at

16:05

least in an outward way. And I

16:07

do accredit a lot of that to

16:09

his leadership. So I'm probably gonna give

16:11

him an intangibles, an A for the

16:13

intangibles part, but for me it's just

16:15

also. I thought there were moments in

16:17

his first three seasons where because it

16:19

wasn't his team, sometimes when the games

16:21

got tough, he would sometimes like step

16:23

away from the responsibility. He'd be like,

16:25

all right, man, you know what, Fred,

16:27

if you want to take over, then

16:29

this shit is on you. Or Pascal,

16:31

you want to take over, this shit

16:33

is on you. But sometimes I would

16:35

be like, why are you disengaged from

16:37

the fight sometimes? I never saw that

16:39

once this whole season. And I do

16:41

give him a lot of a lot

16:43

of this whole season. He also Messiah

16:45

and Darko both credited him as being

16:47

kind of like the spiritual leader when

16:49

things were toughest and that he was

16:51

able to maintain that like put on

16:53

the hard hat put a smile on

16:55

your face and go to work every

16:57

day thing and Like I remember this

16:59

season there were definitely offensive possessions where

17:01

he disengaged and was like and you

17:03

could see him like quit the possession

17:05

and walk back to half court like

17:07

that happened however I mean it's fine

17:09

He's getting credit from the organization anyway.

17:11

It was a really tough season. It

17:13

is what it's. Oh, by the way,

17:15

A-plus on defense for myself as well.

17:17

A-plus, okay, nice, nice. And yeah, and

17:19

Tangibles? N-A, sure. It's also like, this

17:21

stuff, we get a little bit of

17:23

hindsight. If next year they. they maintain

17:25

like the vibes and make a leap

17:27

to a playoff team and everything is

17:29

still copacetic then you can kind of

17:31

look in their rear view mirror and

17:34

be like okay Scotty really was doing

17:36

something good here so yeah yeah yeah

17:38

this was this is a foundation so

17:40

people worn around for this season I

17:42

totally understand because it was kind of

17:44

depressing and a little bit boring at

17:46

times but at the same time we

17:48

might look back at it and say

17:50

this is where we'll all begin not

17:52

improve that that is like a must

17:54

for pretty much anybody who isn't a

17:56

strictly a center and I think also

17:58

to maybe just the overall efficiency I

18:00

think that'll come from narrowing his role

18:02

so that he doesn't have to wear

18:04

five different hats like he can just

18:06

have a consistent look this is his

18:08

you know I mean this is him

18:10

and then you can build the rest

18:12

of the outfit around this one hat

18:14

I don't know why I'm using this

18:16

hat analogy I never wear hats but

18:18

what what what what what do you

18:20

see as an area of improvement for

18:22

Skadi this year this year? as a

18:24

hat expert let me yeah go ahead

18:26

yeah I did up do you build

18:28

your outfits from like top down like

18:30

no no I also see Tahoe in

18:32

chat wants to see my dome but

18:34

I sunburted it's been that's why it

18:36

attracted a lot of the sun the

18:38

other day so but as far as

18:40

like this like this I think actually

18:42

the driving game is where I'd like

18:44

to see Scotty okay improve the most

18:46

I think like Although the shooting, he's

18:48

almost a thousand attempts, 993 for his

18:50

career now at 30%. I know the

18:52

stats say at 750 attempts think stabilized,

18:54

but I believe in the catch and

18:56

shoot shot going forward for Scotty, but

18:58

driving, as you said, not being asked

19:00

to do as much, being able to

19:02

be used as a screener and a

19:04

cutter and an offensive rebounder more often,

19:06

the garbage man stuff that he's so

19:08

good at. because he's so physically dominant,

19:10

that will kind of boost everything up.

19:12

But I think like, comfortable with his

19:14

handle, his strength to get like that

19:17

extra step to use his shoulder to

19:19

clear guy's hips and stuff like that,

19:21

that is really important to me. But

19:23

I mean, shooting, driving, it could go

19:25

either way. And I'm sure for, they're

19:27

probably in the organization, there's probably people

19:29

for and against each thing as his

19:31

primary development as well. Sure. Yeah, I

19:33

mean, this is what makes Scotty actually

19:35

really interesting. We're just gonna have endless

19:37

debates over like what he should be

19:39

doing, what positions should be doing, but

19:41

I think overall, based on the season,

19:43

I'd probably give him a, I'd probably

19:45

give him a, I'll probably give him

19:47

a B. So we gave him like

19:49

a C minus on offense, an A

19:51

plus on defense. I think that averages

19:53

up to a B. Yeah, I think

19:55

when Trey and I did this, we

19:57

did it early before the season ended

19:59

because we're like, okay, we gotta do

20:01

draft stuff. I think we gave him

20:03

a C plus, but then we bumped

20:05

it to a B minus because he

20:07

saved the school. Save a school, you

20:09

get a bump. You know what? That's

20:11

true. That's part of the intangibles, that's

20:13

actually part of the intangibles. That was

20:15

actually really awesome. That was actually really

20:17

awesome to see really awesome to see,

20:19

really awesome to see, to see Scott,

20:21

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21:24

Greenlight.com/listen. RJ Barrett, offense, defense, intangibles. For

21:27

me, offensively, I gave him a B

21:29

plus. It feels a little bit high,

21:31

but I think this is one of

21:33

those things where like, you know, your

21:36

first impression and your last impression really

21:38

stand out. Yeah. And like everything in

21:40

the middle kind of just like, was

21:42

just like, was just like, damn. Look

21:45

at how heroic this is, man. Scott,

21:47

he's out, IQs out, he's going to

21:49

war with Grady Dick and Yaka Purdle,

21:52

and he's making it work. The numbers

21:54

back it up through early December. RJ

21:56

Barrett was averaging 24 points a game

21:58

and 6 assists with respectable 46% from

22:01

the field, 36% from 3, 70% from

22:03

the free throw line. I would say

22:05

a lot of resting the role, maybe

22:07

a little bit like, I don't know,

22:10

motivation maybe dropped a little bit, but

22:12

like his form I would say, he

22:14

didn't finish as strong as he started.

22:17

Also obviously there was a lot of

22:19

like, you know, tanking going on the

22:21

rest of the way, but... I don't

22:23

know. I think overall is like, I

22:26

was pretty satisfied with RJ. My main

22:28

concern was like, is he gonna be

22:30

able to carry over the improvements that

22:32

he showed last season as a raptor

22:35

into this season? The efficiency dropped a

22:37

little bit, but overall, I'm happy, I'm

22:39

like pretty confident with what RJ can

22:42

do offensively. Clearly a guy who can

22:44

get to the rim. Excels in transition,

22:46

probably a secondary crater, looks like they

22:48

wanted to put them with the bench

22:51

a lot, because that's kind of how

22:53

the rest patterns went down the stretch,

22:55

but I don't know. I was more

22:57

than cool with what RJ did offensively.

23:00

What did you make of RJ's offense?

23:02

It's a similar thing to Scotty in

23:04

that he's being bumped up the totem

23:07

pole, one column that he probably you'd

23:09

want ideally, and he was doing really

23:11

hard things. The most impressive thing to

23:13

me was that he actually graded out

23:16

on high volume as a very strong

23:18

pick and roll ball handler this season,

23:20

which is a big step, especially if

23:22

in the future they want him as,

23:25

you know, a second side guy with

23:27

the main guys, but also as like

23:29

a bench offensive fulcrum, just running pick

23:32

and roll to churn through possessions and

23:34

get looks, I think is meaningful as

23:36

a development. His catching two three pointing

23:38

was passable. He did the point you

23:41

made about like first. thing you see

23:43

this season versus like how it ended

23:45

he definitely tailed off and like where

23:47

Scotty Scotty was not resting or sitting

23:50

games Scotty ended up playing 65 ended

23:52

up leading this but RJ sat games

23:54

and RJ was like okay well we'll

23:57

take it off and then at exit

23:59

interviews he was like I need a

24:01

break from basketball it's been a lot

24:03

because he just had nonstop stuff going

24:06

on. Overall I think like he obviously

24:08

had the efficiency dip because he had

24:10

a harder role but he exhibited that

24:12

he can do new things and he

24:15

actually did pretty well at them and

24:17

he struggled at things that he historically

24:19

struggled at when he was a number

24:22

one option and I think next season

24:24

if he's you know in a good

24:26

role we could see that efficiency bounce

24:28

back up I think he could lead

24:31

bench lineups as like a transitional guy

24:33

so yeah. Good, happy with it. Yeah,

24:35

I think good is more than fair

24:37

for what RJ did offensively. Defensively, a

24:40

lot of talk, especially from RJ himself.

24:42

RJ said multiple times on record that

24:44

he's really proud of sort of the

24:47

improvements he made defensively. I think there

24:49

was a point of emphasis from, from

24:51

Darko. I think Scotty brought it up

24:53

as the leader of the team many

24:56

times about how, you know, RJ is

24:58

defending better. Masai is defending better. of

25:00

you just told on yourself because you

25:03

can play defense RJ which I think

25:05

really speaks to how frank my side

25:07

can be especially behind doors he's just

25:09

like yeah you weren't playing OD before

25:12

and now you did so I think

25:14

my question isn't necessarily how much better

25:16

RJ got on defense but just like

25:18

how effective is RJ on defense because

25:21

I would still say I'm gonna give

25:23

him a C on the defense event

25:25

for me the good things where the

25:28

effort and activity was there like he

25:30

went from 1.6 deflections per game last

25:32

year to 2.4 deflections this year, which

25:34

is actually ranked second on the team

25:37

behind Yakov. He tied with Mobile. It

25:39

was like just slightly ahead of Scotty.

25:41

You know, the issue with effort and

25:43

activity though is just like, I just

25:46

don't feel like he's great at keeping

25:48

the ball in front. Like, it feels

25:50

like... In terms of guys who give

25:53

up the most blow buys it still

25:55

is RJ and that is still fundamentally,

25:57

especially as a primitive offender, the most

25:59

corrosive thing you can sort of do

26:02

on defense. So where would you grade

26:04

out RJ's improved? defense. Yeah, I think

26:06

it like marginal improvement. I don't, I

26:08

don't. Agree I don't think of course,

26:11

you know, I'm a schlub on the

26:13

internet so it doesn't matter that much

26:15

But I don't agree with it being

26:18

like this big cascading change He survived

26:20

in strong defensive units and the Raptors

26:22

best defensive units included RJ which is

26:24

a good thing That's a strong thing,

26:27

but it's also something we saw in

26:29

New York He didn't tank good defensive

26:31

lineups there either which is meaningful, but

26:33

he is still I think a tough

26:36

player to fit in defensively because he

26:38

does not have the typically attentiveness or

26:40

size to like bang with big wings

26:43

who kind of get on the offensive

26:45

glass or want to run like pinch

26:47

post or cut off of him and

26:49

he doesn't have the foot speed to

26:52

hang with particularly bursty guard so it's

26:54

kind of like you know depending on

26:56

the game he could have a really

26:58

strong matchup and do quite well but

27:01

the big thing for him going forward

27:03

I think is trying to be a

27:05

bit more of a terror off ball

27:08

and disrupting things because you're never gonna

27:10

clear the foot speed stuff to be

27:12

a strong on ball defender although effort

27:14

goes a long way there but I

27:17

mean it was he did well enough

27:19

especially on a team that wanted effort

27:21

and stuff like that he provided it

27:23

but there's still there's still big holes

27:26

in his defensive game I think yeah

27:28

there's a lot of issues with like

27:30

matchup data like it's just I don't

27:33

even know how they determine actually how

27:35

they count the matchups that you can

27:37

access on NBA.com but I do think

27:39

if you look at the overall picture

27:42

of like okay who did like RJ

27:44

Barrett guard the most on the season

27:46

and you sort of listed by possessions

27:48

you can at least get a sense

27:51

of like where he was used. you

27:53

know it's like they're not really primary

27:55

guys there's like you know the bar

27:58

is a primary guy you know That's

28:00

kind of me Franz is kind of

28:03

a secondary guy. I actually thought he

28:05

did okay on Franz Maybe those two

28:07

games in Orlando really stood out, but

28:09

Yeah, overall it's like pretty clear like

28:11

you're stashing them on the fourth or

28:13

fifth option and like you mentioned the

28:15

more disruptive you can be in that

28:17

role to better It's almost like Gary's

28:19

in a way although Gary's more of

28:21

a gambler RJ's well I mean RJ

28:23

should not gamble. Let's be real yeah

28:26

if you had recovery speed or great

28:28

length maybe gamble a little bit more,

28:30

but he doesn't really have those but

28:32

he doesn't really have those but he's

28:34

I'll give him a C. I'm going

28:36

to try to be a little generous.

28:38

The number one guys that he did

28:40

defend or number two guys are kind

28:42

of strength creators as well. And that

28:44

is RJ for his size, kind of

28:46

his outlier ability physically is that he's

28:49

extremely strong. And he gets pinched post

28:51

possessions on smaller guards on the offensive

28:53

end and he can kind of sit

28:55

on a guy's hip and guard like

28:57

post up initiators like. a guy like

28:59

Damar on the other end. And OG

29:01

also with his bully drive is trying

29:03

to bash and smash. So yeah, C

29:05

is fine. Yeah. Intangibles, I don't really

29:07

know. I mean, I feel like he

29:09

was a pretty positive, pretty confident guy.

29:12

You know, certainly, you know, I'm gonna

29:14

give him extra points for loving Toronto

29:16

every single time. Like he always shouts

29:18

out like, Jose called her own, he's

29:20

going on a hug. Herbie Coon, you

29:22

know, his dad's always around, his family's

29:24

always around post game. It's, uh, I

29:26

don't know, I really don't know how

29:28

to judge intangibles, honestly. I would say

29:30

he was also a good soldier in

29:32

the tank, you know. I had to

29:34

sort of carry a lot of bench

29:37

units, which in terms of the rest

29:39

patterns, he definitely got the harder portion

29:41

of the rest patterns, but ultimately, I

29:43

don't know. I give him a beep

29:45

because I'm just like, because I'm just

29:47

like, like, like, like, like, this is,

29:49

like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

29:51

like, like, is so informed by just

29:53

what everyone's being told. Like you need

29:55

testimony from people all the time. Like

29:57

Scotty is getting testimony constantly. Jamal gets

30:00

testimony constantly. temple gets testimony constantly but

30:02

there was like three years where Scotty

30:04

didn't get that much testimony and this

30:06

year he got a lot of testimony

30:08

and like it's just for something to

30:10

be a topic like that it just

30:12

has to be talked about otherwise we're

30:14

trying to peer in and see something

30:16

that is imperceivable yeah yeah I think

30:18

areas of improvement I think number one

30:20

for me is just you got to

30:23

get the free throws right again I

30:25

don't know how much that to do

30:27

with the exhaustion but like he's leaving

30:29

at least a point of game on

30:31

the table with the free throws and

30:33

that's a lot that's a lot over

30:35

the course of a season like you're

30:37

just for a guy who gets the

30:39

free throw line a lot this is

30:41

clearly his his best talent he just

30:43

needs to get that back to around

30:46

at least 70% I think that should

30:48

be the goal like if you're if

30:50

you're shooting free throws worse percentage-wise than

30:52

yaka portal who shoots it one-handed there's

30:54

a real issue there as a guard

30:56

and then I think for me is

30:58

just like I'm not sure like if

31:00

he can just outright improve keeping guys

31:02

in front, but I would love to

31:04

see more of that Whether that's like

31:06

attention to detail attention to the scouting

31:09

report Just even just being more alert

31:11

and prepared because I think you can

31:13

cut out a lot of those possessions

31:15

where he just caught like reacting rather

31:17

than anticipating Yeah To the points of

31:19

the free throws, if he made his

31:21

free throws at the percentage that he

31:23

did in New York, his true shooting

31:25

percentage would have bumped a full percentage.

31:27

If he ever got to 80%, which

31:29

some NBA players do, I don't think

31:32

RJ ever will, his true shooting percentage

31:34

would have bumped two full percentage points.

31:36

And a percentage point in true shooting

31:38

percent is usually correlates to more win.

31:40

more impact more all that kind of

31:42

stuff so yeah just meeting like the

31:44

baseline would be transformed at far jay

31:46

because it's been so tough as a

31:48

raptor right overall I want to give

31:50

him a B I think for me

31:52

he did lead a team in scoring

31:54

he did have to carry a lot

31:57

offensively early on in the season and

31:59

I could make in his effort to

32:01

improve on the defense event, I just

32:03

want the results to improve even more

32:05

defensively, but I think B could be

32:07

fair. Third most minutes played on the

32:09

season, I was a little surprised when

32:11

I saw this, but O'Cha Baji actually

32:13

played the third most minutes, it speaks

32:15

to his health, well anything else, he

32:17

was able to stay healthy, be available.

32:20

He's a very interesting guy because I

32:22

think before we even got into the

32:24

grades, by far, in terms of guys

32:26

who exceeded expectations, I think O' because

32:28

nobody expected anything from OJ. Even at

32:30

Summer League. You know, it was like,

32:32

wow, he's there as a third year

32:34

player, he's reinventing himself as an offensive

32:36

player there. He didn't do well in

32:38

Summer League, which I think was not

32:40

a great sign. And so there wasn't

32:43

a lot of expectation coming in the

32:45

year, and yet he was a starter

32:47

for the majority of this season. He

32:49

finishes offensively with 50% from the field,

32:51

40% from three, 80%... I think from

32:53

the foul line as well. So like,

32:55

just a generally efficient guy. I think

32:57

he was one of the few raptors.

32:59

Him and Yaka were like, the two

33:01

guys were above 60% in true shooting.

33:03

What did you make of his offense?

33:06

Because he kind of redefined expectations for

33:08

himself offensively. Yeah, I thought he's like

33:10

eighth man of the year on a

33:12

good type thing. You know what I

33:14

mean? Because... Because his shot making profile

33:16

is not diverse. He's always on the

33:18

easiest spot of the floor. He's always

33:20

doing the easiest thing. He runs out

33:22

in transition. He gets transition layoffs. He

33:24

gets cutting layoffs and he hits open

33:26

catch and shoot threes. So the role

33:29

is easy. But he was a star

33:31

in it. He banged catch and shoot

33:33

threes. He made like we were sitting

33:35

there in Montreal at the open practice

33:37

kind of like then he's making a

33:39

lot of layoffs, contact layoffs. And then

33:41

it happened after not happening the year

33:43

before. It was like. It was like.

33:45

Everything that could be good role player

33:47

shop making he just did it and

33:49

so offensively He's like an a or

33:52

an a plus to me because it's

33:54

just like nobody thought Ochai was going

33:56

to be a creator. Nobody thought he

33:58

was going to be all this kind

34:00

of stuff he just assumed role and

34:02

thrived in it which is unbelievable like

34:04

hell yeah dude great okay I agree

34:06

with you relative to expectations on the

34:08

season that he's an offense I would

34:10

say maybe in terms of like just

34:12

relative to the position of a shooting

34:15

guard I would give him a B

34:17

and the reason for that is as

34:19

you mentioned, he does have the easiest

34:21

role. Like, he got, in terms of

34:23

the shots that he was assisted on,

34:25

80% of his twos this season were

34:27

assisted, and then 96% of his threes

34:29

were assisted. And I think for me,

34:31

it's like, okay, absolutely, he improved, and

34:33

he found a role, and this is

34:35

his role going forward, no one's ever

34:37

gonna complain about out, but also at

34:40

the same time, I'm like, there is

34:42

a bigger responsibility for guards to create

34:44

for themselves, kind of at all, basically,

34:46

like if this is sort of what

34:48

he is going forward then i don't

34:50

see him as a starter level player

34:52

on a winning team that's why you

34:54

mentioned he's kind of like eighth man

34:56

of the year so on that level

34:58

i would say i would challenge him

35:00

because if he actually had any more

35:03

self creation ability and he was able

35:05

to do that relatively efficiently i would

35:07

happily bump up to an a but

35:09

i think for me i will a

35:11

in his role but b maybe relative

35:13

to what you would want from a

35:15

guard overall like for example i feel

35:17

like even even like Jamal and Jacobi

35:19

created more for themselves than Ochai did

35:21

this season. Is that unfair? Certainly they

35:23

did. Yeah, Ochai, Ochai, no frills. All

35:26

killer, no filler. Just like, he's not,

35:28

he puts the ball on the floor

35:30

and the eyes from the bench are

35:32

like burning a hole in the back

35:34

of his head, you know what I

35:36

mean? Yeah. And so, yeah, if... If

35:38

it's relative to himself, then like great.

35:40

But if it is relative to a

35:42

starting guard in the NBA, then I

35:44

mean, there's guards like six or seven

35:46

every year that do what Ochai just

35:49

did, that get put an easy roll

35:51

and hit shots, and then that's good.

35:53

What happens next year is really important

35:55

for him. He needs to prove that

35:57

he can do this on a winning

35:59

team and all, you know. all that

36:01

kind of stuff but relative to himself

36:03

great but no relative to him so

36:05

much I agree this is an A

36:07

plus because last year he was I

36:09

mean wolf that was not good he

36:12

shot 24% from three he shot yeah

36:14

one of 22 from the short mid

36:16

range I couldn't believe what was happening

36:18

it's just yeah yeah defensively this is

36:20

kind of Ochai's specialty again if you

36:22

look at matchup data like his top

36:24

matchup guys are like all pretty like

36:26

primary minimum secondary kind of creators I

36:28

would say he was our stopper but

36:30

I also wouldn't say he like necessarily

36:32

stops people. Yeah. So I don't know

36:35

relative to the team I would say

36:37

he's probably like a B. I gave

36:39

him a B because I felt like

36:41

I was a little unfair on offense.

36:43

So I gave him a B on

36:45

defense but I would love to see

36:47

for a defensive stopper to like stop

36:49

people more often. Yeah. I think O'Chi

36:51

for me is probably like a C

36:53

defensively. It's kind of like the inverse.

36:55

Offensively the role is easy. Right. It's

36:57

like the easiest role and he's really

37:00

strong at it and defensively I thought

37:02

he has one of the hardest roles

37:04

because he's higher in the hierarchy of

37:06

like you guard that guy than IQ.

37:08

Then everybody except Jamal and Davion were

37:10

basically on the perimeter. But I think

37:12

O'Chi is not a super strong defender.

37:14

hopefully that's better next year or maybe

37:16

I could be wrong of course but

37:18

I don't I don't view him to

37:20

be super strong although he does get

37:23

tough assignments and he does when you're

37:25

papeering over like a gradey or you

37:27

know papeering over like IQ who want

37:29

to not be doing that that you

37:31

get some credit for that but I

37:33

didn't I didn't think he was particularly

37:35

strong right right also I feel a

37:37

bad for Ocha he had two game

37:39

winners hit on him this season by

37:41

Tatum and then by Jade and Ivy

37:43

as well. Oh yeah, the baseline. Both

37:46

of those were on OJI. I think,

37:48

yeah, he's such a weird player to

37:50

evaluate honestly. He definitely surprised us offensively

37:52

and then defense. I think, I remember

37:54

one of the things with Masai, not

37:56

this year's end of season press conference,

37:58

but the year before, I don't think

38:00

we asked him about O'Cha that much,

38:02

but I think he actually just said

38:04

like, man, believe me, like, O'Cha can

38:06

be one of those guys, like, very,

38:09

very special defensively. And I was like,

38:11

oh, okay, like, Masai really personally believes

38:13

in O'Cha. and then I was I

38:15

guess on that level I was like

38:17

I didn't see that level of disruption

38:19

defensively. Intangibles I didn't know how to

38:21

guard him or I didn't know how

38:23

to grade him on this because I'm

38:25

just like he's kind of a wallflower

38:27

like yeah he's good vibes he kind

38:29

of fades into the background took whatever

38:32

role the game gave him largely started

38:34

the season but then when he had

38:36

to go to the bench he did

38:38

it without a peep never was really

38:40

upset so big smile good smile We're

38:42

gonna give him an extra grade for

38:44

smiling. Do you have a low, do

38:46

you have an area of improvement for

38:48

Ocho? Yeah, on ball defense. I think

38:50

like I, I think that his screen,

38:52

maybe his screen navigation more than anything

38:55

else, he's athletic, he can be, like

38:57

he's not super wiggly, he's a very

38:59

like up right left straight back, like

39:01

that kind of defender, so maybe like

39:03

getting better at the stab step and

39:05

trail and trail and screen navigation, I

39:07

don't know. Physicality a little bit he

39:09

looks physically imposing but he doesn't have

39:11

a he doesn't have physical prowess defensively

39:13

so trying to Trying to introduce a

39:15

bit more of that like you know

39:17

be a little bit more of a

39:20

bastard on the ball is an important

39:22

quality So maybe that I was hoping

39:24

you will learn a little bit from

39:26

Davion's one of those guys like if

39:28

if you mention like Ochai is like

39:30

he's got like a D pad Like

39:32

in terms of movement pattern like Davion's

39:34

more like a joystick a joystick joystick

39:36

Mm-hmm, and I was hoping he would

39:38

take more of that from from day

39:40

beyond but ultimately like I think O'Cha

39:43

on the season We give him a

39:45

solid B. Would you give him an

39:47

extension based on this year? I guess

39:49

it depends it will because it also

39:51

depends what the team thinks of their

39:53

upcoming guard right? There's a lot of

39:55

guys sitting there, but O'chai if God,

39:57

I hate doing the money thing, but

39:59

I don't know if the money's right

40:01

sure I think he's an NBA player

40:03

and you keep NBA players on your

40:06

team If it's more than like 10

40:08

or 12 a year is it like

40:10

do you look elsewhere? I'm probably just

40:12

letting I'm waiting it out and seeing

40:14

yeah, sure Yeah, you have that option

40:16

the rapids do have that option. He

40:18

is extension eligible this summer. Okay, yacapurdle

40:20

Honestly Look, it's not just the career

40:22

high in scoring, it's not the career

40:24

high in free throw percentage. I just,

40:26

this year developed an appreciation for the

40:29

push shot in a way that I'd

40:31

never had for the sport of basketball

40:33

in general, but watching Yakk cook all

40:35

season. So, Yakk this season finished fifth

40:37

in the NBA in field goal percentage.

40:39

Only four players were higher than him

40:41

in terms of converting shots from the

40:43

field. That was Ivica Zubach, that was

40:45

really go bare, Jaylyn Dern and Jared

40:47

Allen. The unique thing about Yakub is,

40:49

unlike those other guys, Yakub doesn't dunk.

40:52

Yakub shoots 63% from the field and

40:54

he doesn't dunk 5% of his shots

40:56

were dunks. Everything else, so 95% were

40:58

layoffs, were floaters. Actually, 95% were layoffs

41:00

of floaters. You compare that to Zubach.

41:02

20% of his shots are dunks. So

41:04

he stole more of a skill player,

41:06

I would say probably the biggest comparable

41:08

to a guy like Yakub would be

41:10

Zubach. All those Zubach posts up a

41:12

little bit more than Yakub does. Go

41:15

bare, 49% of his shots were dunks.

41:17

Jaylon Durn, 44% of his shots were

41:19

dunks. Jared Allen, 27% of his shots

41:21

were dunks. Again, 5% of Yakub makes

41:23

were dunks, which means he just has

41:25

incredible touch with the floater, with the

41:27

banker, I mean... Just wow, yaku portal,

41:29

the center that you are, I'm giving

41:31

you an A on the offense event,

41:33

man. Two stats. The first one, Rudy

41:35

Gobert is currently one of 10 on

41:38

layups in the playoffs. One of 10.

41:40

So not exactly, there's not a lot

41:42

of touch there. And two, speaking to

41:44

Yachab's floater, the short roll, the Raptors

41:46

were above average in one offensive play

41:48

type this year. The role man. Yachapurdle

41:50

is the only guy who provides a

41:52

shred of offensive competence to this team.

41:54

As you said, like the slide step,

41:56

like he manipulates his pickup point when

41:58

he's the roller to get the jump.

42:00

It's like, oh, I asked him about

42:03

it. two years ago at Eggs and

42:05

Interviews and he was like, what are

42:07

you talking about? But he has such

42:09

great footwork on the role. Yeah, offensively,

42:11

not only is he the fulcrum at

42:13

the elbow for all of their delay

42:15

action, all of their hand offsets, everything,

42:17

like all of their split cuts that

42:19

they want to run. He's so important

42:21

and he sets great screens and he

42:23

is also, he hits shots, which this

42:26

team needs, people who hits shots. Oh

42:28

yeah. The easy thing is to is,

42:30

is like, what's really impressive at Yakub

42:32

is, it doesn't even matter how bad

42:34

of a point guard he's playing with,

42:36

he's still going to be good. Before

42:38

Davion got, went, like, there was this

42:40

first start of the season, he and

42:42

Davion Mitchell were the sixth best picketral

42:44

partnership in the league. That makes no

42:46

sense. But I would say the thing

42:49

with Yakub is, if you just imagine

42:51

the restricted area as like an efficiency

42:53

zone for most centers. It's like, if

42:55

you're in a restricted zone and you're

42:57

taking a shot from there, that's good.

42:59

Yachab's restricted area is like 15 feet.

43:01

So like, I honestly, I feel like

43:03

you could go out there, run a

43:05

pick and roll with Yachab, hit him

43:07

a little bounce pass, and you could

43:09

probably assist Yachab. Just need a little

43:12

pocket pass, just get him in his

43:14

own. Any pocket pass, free throw line

43:16

and then he's in. It's an A

43:18

for me, for Yachab, and it's a,

43:20

and it's a, and it, and it's

43:22

a, defensively. Defensive, and it, and it,

43:24

and it's a, and it's a, and

43:26

it's a, and it's a, He led

43:28

the team in deflections. He contested by

43:30

far the most shots. Those are things

43:32

you would expect from a center. I

43:35

think he actually was. in deflections for

43:37

centers, which are pretty good, pretty good

43:39

mark. I mean, guys above them are

43:41

like Yolkitch and like Wenby, so that's

43:43

all quite good. The only thing I

43:45

gave him a little bit lower on

43:47

was he doesn't feel like a rim

43:49

to turn in the way that he

43:51

was in San Antonio. Like if he's

43:53

contesting a shot at the rim, it's

43:55

not like he's like holding guys to

43:58

like 10% lower than they would typically

44:00

shoot when he consists of other rim.

44:02

But I don't know. I mean, B

44:04

might be might be might be a

44:06

B- might be a B- might be

44:08

a B-be-be-be- B I think is fine

44:10

and to your point is like there

44:12

are guys who they derive a lot

44:14

of their defensive impact from the shots

44:16

that aren't taken which every big man

44:18

does to some degree deters things and

44:20

Yacab does have that but also just

44:23

the ability to close out defensive possessions.

44:25

I think Yacab his effectiveness as like

44:27

a weak side sweeper or the low

44:29

man is fading. but he is still

44:31

so competent at closing up possessions and

44:33

showing size that the Raptors didn't have

44:35

anybody else who could do that. It's

44:37

a pretty large change. And he also,

44:39

especially to start the season, he had

44:41

to step up so high in the

44:43

defense to support the Raptors higher pick-up

44:46

points, which was something that the Raptors

44:48

did less of as the season went

44:50

on, and they asked him to stay

44:52

lower, which was better for him. But

44:54

at the start of the season, he

44:56

had to cover a lot of ground,

44:58

which was maybe not. everything he wanted

45:00

to be. But yeah, B is perfectly

45:02

fine, I think. Yeah, intangible, I would

45:04

say, I would give him an A

45:06

on this, which is very calm, cool,

45:09

collected all the time, very poised on

45:11

the court, literally never loses his composure.

45:13

Zero maintenance off the court as well,

45:15

probably leaves the league, and most times

45:17

he's worn, official team issued here. Like,

45:19

players usually like to show off some

45:21

sort of designer. Yaka Pertel is showing

45:23

off Toronto Raptors basketball franchise as a

45:25

sweater. He dresses like an assistant coach

45:27

and he has the approach to the

45:29

game of an assistant coach. Improvement area,

45:32

honestly, I'm not even kidding, I would

45:34

love to see him shoot more corner

45:36

threes. It's exciting. It adds something, you

45:38

know, if I'm tuning into sports net

45:40

on in March and the Raptors are

45:42

playing the Hornets I want to see

45:44

Yaka Proto shoot a three maybe against

45:46

good teams don't do it, but against

45:48

bad teams Go ahead Yeah, the improvement

45:50

for me is the playmaking for sure.

45:52

Okay. I think high low passes are

45:55

the most overrated form of like this

45:57

guy is nice with it like Jaylyn

45:59

Duran does that yeah and uh... yaukup

46:01

can make those reads but his turnover

46:03

percentage has been creeping up over the

46:05

past couple years and there's there's a

46:07

little bit more meat on the bone

46:09

for his playmaking he kind of floats

46:11

passes more than he zips passes that's

46:13

the number one thing i would love

46:15

to he's a floater always the touch

46:18

shot It's a muscle memory, he's like,

46:20

but this will be softer on the

46:22

hands. But yeah, just whip a couple

46:24

more passes in there, man. Overall, Yaka

46:26

Proto's an A. Honestly, there's no other

46:28

way to grade Yaka. Grady Dick was

46:30

the next most in minutes played, which

46:32

I was a little surprised with, to

46:34

be honest, but we obviously didn't see

46:36

Grady for pretty much everything after all-star

46:38

all-star break, because he had the double

46:40

combo of getting hit in the face

46:43

while getting hit in the face while

46:45

also tearing his hip or... Meers, I

46:47

don't even know man. He just got

46:49

crushed. Whatever it is, yeah. Yeah, he

46:51

just like, it was like a car

46:53

crash. Like it was, I don't, he

46:55

got hit by two guys at the

46:57

same time in the Orlando Magic game.

46:59

Offensively, I'm gonna give him a B-plus.

47:01

I would say the start of the

47:03

season was incredible. Through Christmas. Grady Dick

47:06

was third on the team in scoring

47:08

at 18 points per game. I remember

47:10

one episode of the react pod where

47:12

the react part of the season was

47:14

hey, Raptors lost, but we're gonna bring

47:16

in Samson to talk about Grady Dick

47:18

and how great offensively he was. We

47:20

like, so many episodes, but you know,

47:22

we were even doing a redraft and

47:24

I think we, I think we comfortably

47:26

had him like around like seventh. So

47:29

I think that was already pretty good,

47:31

maybe even higher. If I had to

47:33

guess, he did drop to 11 points

47:35

per game from Christmas onward to the

47:37

rest of the season. A lot of

47:39

it has to do with the changes

47:41

in role. But I think for me,

47:43

I think he hit a new career.

47:45

high like five different times this season.

47:47

He was like the secondary option for

47:49

the first month of the year which

47:52

is nuts. He actually did a pretty

47:54

good job of it to the point

47:56

where teams were putting them into the

47:58

scouting report and firmly if you can

48:00

get yourself in the scouting report that

48:02

is already a win for you for

48:04

what you can do offensively. So I

48:06

think I'm pretty happy with giving him

48:08

a B plus. What would you give

48:10

Grady on the season offensively? He's a

48:12

little like the inverse of Ochai. where

48:15

Grady had one of the most difficult

48:17

jobs on the team. And even like,

48:19

if you, before my Synergy got revoked,

48:21

but I think this season. Grady finished

48:23

43% on spot-up threes and 46% or

48:25

45% on unguarded threes. Like, the easy

48:27

threes, he hit, but he finished around

48:29

34.5% on the year. It's just, he

48:31

took a lot of difficult shots constantly,

48:33

and that's what the Raptors needed him

48:35

to do, his presence as a guy

48:38

on the scouting report who bumps out

48:40

the top line of the defense, creates

48:42

more room for other players, but... He

48:44

was drafted as like the shooter in

48:46

the class maybe besides Hawkins and Right

48:48

the movement shooting was not as good

48:50

this year as I would have expected

48:52

The finishing I think will still come

48:54

around but wasn't as good as people.

48:56

It was just bad and The touch

48:58

shots they have to start going down

49:00

and overall he gives you a lot

49:03

offensively and you were talking about that

49:05

shooting guard thing with oh try where

49:07

it's like you want to provide stuff.

49:09

Yeah, he definitely projects to fulfill that

49:11

role it's just has to become more

49:13

competent all that kind of stuff. Yeah,

49:15

B, B minus I think is perfectly

49:17

fun, especially because it did fall off

49:19

for sure. It did fall off a

49:21

pretty significant way. I also think with

49:23

Grady, I love seeing, he just made

49:26

better reads year over year in terms

49:28

of like whether he's using one or

49:30

two dribbles to get to a spot.

49:32

I think where that really shows up

49:34

the most is the mid range. Like,

49:36

like moving wise. he was he was

49:38

hitting crazy shots in the bid range

49:40

I was like a lot that has

49:42

to be like a lot of touch

49:44

a lot of finesse and I just

49:46

wonder if he can extend that beyond

49:49

the three obviously that's a difficult ask

49:51

but if he can at least there

49:53

is a basis to sort of say

49:55

like he's taking these difficult shots but

49:57

it's not like he can't make them

49:59

like right I think he just needs

50:01

to extend his range a little bit

50:03

further defensively I mean I mean I'm

50:05

the perimeter I mean Yeah, I heard

50:07

Darko. He was like I want Grady

50:09

guarding every player between like one through

50:12

four in this league I was like

50:14

holy moly dude And he it was

50:16

disappointing his most second year players they

50:18

go from struggling to improving throughout the

50:20

second year, but great he came in

50:22

with that extra weight and actually had,

50:24

if he had maintained his defense to

50:26

start the year, I would have probably

50:28

given it a C plus, but he

50:30

lost weight over the course of the

50:32

year and he lost a bit of

50:35

that punch and ability to hang in

50:37

with guys, and by the end of

50:39

the year, it was just like, every

50:41

game was a D minus or a

50:43

D. and he was just continuously he

50:45

got he really got beat up especially

50:47

when they're saying like go pick him

50:49

up 38 feet he's like oh brother

50:51

so yeah you can't do that defensively

50:53

probably like d or d plus something

50:55

it's a it's a it's a as

50:58

a big grady dicks supporter over here

51:00

the defense is there's a concern level

51:02

for me at this point yeah for

51:04

sure if he doesn't become a starter

51:06

in this league it'll 100% because he

51:08

can't handle starters on defense intangibles I

51:10

give him a B. One of the

51:12

reasons as a formty is just, we

51:14

had like a little chat with Messiah.

51:16

It was at All-Star Weekend. Grady was

51:18

the only All-Star representative for the Raptors.

51:21

He was doing the post game press

51:23

conference and after he was done, Messiah

51:25

was there like a proud uncle like

51:27

literally like just taking videos of Grady

51:29

and it was really cute. Grady was

51:31

in an incredible mood. I mean obviously

51:33

you're at All-Star weekend for the first

51:35

time too. and we were just chatting

51:37

with Messiah a little bit about Grady

51:39

and he was like look the one

51:41

thing we love about Grady is just

51:43

how tough this guy is like he's

51:46

just not gonna back down from any

51:48

challenges if you start slow he'll fight

51:50

through it at the start a lot

51:52

of season you know That was pretty

51:54

bad. I mean, he was a rookie,

51:56

like it is what it is, but

51:58

like, so our last season was tough.

52:00

You got sent down to the G

52:02

League. There was discussions, like Sam Decker

52:04

was like, raptures, tried to change his

52:06

shot. And then it was great. He

52:09

was like, he was great. He was

52:11

like, I never changed my shot. My

52:13

mom taught me how to shoot. My

52:15

mom taught me how to shoot. My

52:17

mom taught me how to shoot. My

52:19

mom taught me how to shoot. My

52:21

mom taught me how to how to

52:23

shoot. My mom taught me how to

52:25

how to shoot. My mom taught me

52:27

how to how to shoot. My mom

52:29

taught me how to. My mom taught

52:32

me how to. My mom taught me

52:34

how to. I. I. My mom taught

52:36

me how to. I. I. I. I.

52:38

I. I. I. I. I. I. I.

52:40

I. I. I. I. I. I. I.

52:42

I. I. I. I. I. I. in

52:44

like the Disney made for TV movie

52:46

like that made Western kid he was

52:48

like I can't give up I was

52:50

raising he kind of does have that

52:52

aura to him like yeah I'm a

52:55

rinder yeah yeah that's why you guys

52:57

relate um improvement was I think it's

52:59

pretty clear he got to find a

53:01

role defensively mmhm like we'll talk about

53:03

mobile later but mobile's got to find

53:05

a role offensively he got to find

53:07

a role defensively because uh Grady you

53:09

can't be Like erasing all the contributions

53:11

you give offensively by giving up defensive.

53:13

I think overall give them like a

53:15

solid I'm gonna change this to us

53:18

a C plus in real time actually

53:20

C plus for great a dick C

53:22

plus I think makes sense for me

53:24

because you have to You have to

53:26

account for how tough the role is

53:28

but some things just he did not

53:30

do at an NBA level and that's

53:32

the can't get around it. Yeah, okay.

53:34

We're gonna hit a stretch of four

53:36

straight rookies here first with Jamal Jamal

53:38

shed offense I'll give him a B

53:41

feels like he solved his issues as

53:43

the year went on which I really

53:45

like seeing progression from a player turnovers

53:47

were big issues for him just especially

53:49

passing turnovers he was like spraying it

53:51

all over the place which is not

53:53

good for a point guard I think

53:55

he really turned that into more manageable

53:57

it went from like a big problem

53:59

to like more manageable and then three

54:01

point shot like he was not shooting

54:03

a while to start the year there's

54:06

concerns because that's what he didn't he

54:08

didn't shoot well in three in college

54:10

but the three percentage normalized and he

54:12

actually became a pretty good three-point shooter

54:14

by the season's end he got in

54:16

a good rhythm and I think one

54:18

thing else he learned how to use

54:20

this burst to get paint touches pretty

54:22

consistently for everybody so overall especially relative

54:24

to the expectations for a rookie in

54:26

the second round of him would be

54:29

for the offensive then do you I

54:31

feel like yeah I mean where do

54:33

you see Jamal's future offensively his offenses

54:35

would impress me the most and he

54:37

has elite NBA quickness which is yes

54:39

that wasn't guaranteed coming in but it's

54:41

really meaningful uh... he's still like a

54:43

shot diet when it started out of

54:45

just like push shots was not tenable.

54:47

But it became more layoffs got introduced.

54:49

While he is not like a strong

54:52

three point shooter, he was significantly better

54:54

from the NBA line than he was

54:56

from the college line. There was real

54:58

development there. Things that have to get

55:00

better. got better and things that had

55:02

to be good, were good. I would

55:04

almost give it as his offensive side.

55:06

As a 45th overall pick, as an

55:08

offensively limited player, maybe like an A

55:10

minus or a B plus, and his

55:12

future in the league. can really take

55:15

like a step if as he started

55:17

to diversify his three-point shooting which is

55:19

a big ask but if that really

55:21

if that like guys like Jose Alvarado

55:23

guys like Chris Dunn guys like players

55:25

like that you have to shoot the

55:27

three and if Jamal gets that he

55:29

can hang for a while because he

55:31

can move with the ball he impressed

55:33

me offensively way way more than the

55:35

other side of the court which I

55:38

know is the inverse of a lot

55:40

of people yeah I would I wouldn't

55:42

even put him in that category with

55:44

Jose and Chris Dunn, because I feel

55:46

like Jamal already does more offensive than

55:48

those guys. Wow, more than Chris Dunn,

55:50

I think, but not Jose, I wouldn't

55:52

think. Chris Dunn's just jumping around, man.

55:54

Chris Dunn's like a hard version of

55:56

Ronda. Chris Dunn trick, y'all, man. He

55:58

does. I mean, stop going one for

56:01

nine from wide open three. reason. Just

56:03

come on dude, like that's just unacceptable.

56:05

Jose, Jose has some like pretty high

56:07

assist games. There might be some similarities

56:09

there, but I would say that Jamal,

56:11

the quickness to get into the paint,

56:13

touch it consistently and then just kick

56:15

it out, I think that alone gives

56:18

them like the basis for being a

56:20

backup, a good backup point guard on

56:22

the offense event. Defensively, he's

56:25

not a stopper, but he is a pest.

56:27

I think that's the best way

56:29

to describe him. Brings of great

56:31

intensity for the second unit, sets

56:33

the tone for those guys. Maybe there's

56:35

more to improve. I hope there is

56:37

more to improve. I guess the impact

56:39

metrics aren't that strong from defensively. But

56:41

I test wise, I test wise, I

56:44

want to give him a B on

56:46

the defensive. Well, I'm curious to hear

56:48

what you think of his defense. Yeah,

56:50

I think it's, like, like it's tough

56:52

for small guards if you're not really,

56:54

really strong on ball. The sight lines of

56:56

passers the amount of surface area

56:59

you take up offball and all

57:01

that kind of stuff it is

57:03

felt small guards have a really

57:05

tough timing time hanging in defensively

57:07

and just like pinch post actions

57:10

or something like that we saw

57:12

RJ Barrett annihilates deaf curry for

57:14

example on pitch pinch post actions

57:16

Jamal he was described as like

57:19

a prodigious level defender coming in

57:21

right and for me it's probably

57:23

like a sea although I'm like eager

57:25

to eat humble pie on this like

57:28

if Jamal is like extremely strong next

57:30

year on ball I'll very gladly be

57:32

like I was wrong but yeah his

57:34

his on ball defense I thought was

57:37

like overzealous didn't have enough contain

57:39

and like definitely was a pest

57:41

but just overall the defense I

57:43

did not find to be very

57:45

strong but he's a rookie and

57:47

he has the willingness and the

57:50

quickness I do think for Jamal

57:52

in particular first time around the

57:54

league the league You know, I think that

57:56

there's a lot of lessons to be learned,

57:58

right? He by nature is... is like a

58:00

bit of a gambler. And like, sometimes you'll

58:02

like heavily overplay, and then like,

58:04

but you gotta know where you can get away

58:06

with that. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, there's

58:08

certain guys you can do that with, there's certain

58:11

guys you can't, and you really need

58:13

the experience to go around the league

58:15

first to sort of get that in.

58:18

I mean, there's only so much film

58:20

and, you know, everything that you can

58:22

anticipate. I would have pushed back, I

58:24

love Jamal, give me a B minus

58:27

at worst, defensively, I'm sorry. Intangibles, A

58:29

plus, just such a wonderful spirit. Always

58:31

singing as well, behind the scenes, like

58:33

this guy is just straight up always

58:36

singing. He is beloved by all, like

58:38

he's a fan favorite, he is a

58:40

favorite on the team. He was really

58:42

willing to do all the rookie stuff,

58:44

which I thought was really... Not a good

58:47

sign of like you're a good rookie you

58:49

falling in line, but like that old school

58:51

like you know what I mean like old

58:53

heads would appreciate Jamal yes I Don't know

58:55

great interviews too like he's for honest

58:57

transparent He's so likable it makes me

58:59

hang my head in shame that I

59:01

like say like I don't like the

59:03

defense right now like I'm like I'll

59:05

be like yeah I don't I don't

59:07

find Jamal to be very impactful defensively

59:09

then to go talk to him like

59:11

god damn it man this guy's so

59:13

nice and he had one of the

59:15

best quotes because I asked him on

59:17

exit interviews like hey you know you've

59:19

won so much in your life what

59:21

was it like you know taking that

59:23

you know that step and and being on

59:25

a losing team he was like I don't see

59:28

it is losing now he's like I see it

59:30

as like preparing to win and I was like

59:32

oh this guy's got it man wow he's dark

59:34

rolling the court that's unbelievable we got dark on

59:37

the sideline a dark on the court yeah improvement

59:39

areas. Honestly, there's lots of improve. He's a rookie.

59:41

I would say a bit of it is poised

59:43

for me. I feel like it's because if you're

59:46

gonna be the leader, then your energy really does

59:48

impact the rest of the team. And I do

59:50

feel like sometimes, especially early on the season, he

59:52

would show like when things were going his way,

59:54

like he would get a little bit emotional and

59:57

like he would sort of like hang his head

59:59

a little bit. couple bad turnovers, he might

1:00:01

get pulled or not the shots might not

1:00:03

go in, he might not be as aggressive.

1:00:05

Especially as the leader and he's really, at

1:00:07

least as sort of himself for that second

1:00:10

unit, I'm just gonna need a little bit

1:00:12

more poise, especially at the point

1:00:14

of our position. That also extends

1:00:16

to actual tangible things like limiting

1:00:18

turnovers and picking the right moments. And

1:00:21

I suppose defensively too. Like sometimes like

1:00:23

the, it's not just gamble, it's not

1:00:25

just pressure, sometimes it is contained. and

1:00:27

finding the right balance with all that

1:00:30

but overall Jamal shed you're getting a

1:00:32

teacher's pet and you know teachers pets

1:00:34

get a he's bringing it if anyone

1:00:37

was shining an apple and putting

1:00:39

it on the table for the teacher

1:00:41

it's it's Jamal shed Jonathan Mobile

1:00:43

next um offensively I hate to

1:00:45

do this for rookie man but it's

1:00:47

kind of a D I just don't

1:00:49

really have like an identifiable this is what

1:00:52

he does on a good level offensive

1:00:54

yet he does a lot but nothing effectively

1:00:56

yet This is this is one of

1:00:58

the biggest as a also I really

1:01:01

liked mobile coming out of college But

1:01:03

the big problem is one that he

1:01:05

doesn't he wasn't getting enough punch

1:01:07

at the rim to justify playing

1:01:09

as a big Right which makes

1:01:11

his role easy as a delay

1:01:13

decision-maker and in a handoff hub

1:01:15

But he just wasn't he couldn't

1:01:18

provide punch that obviously york a

1:01:20

purdle was able to provide with

1:01:22

the soft touch and when the

1:01:24

ball hits his hands it just

1:01:26

sticks so much it just craters

1:01:28

the offense and he was so

1:01:30

impressed defensively which we'll talk about

1:01:33

but yes until he figures out

1:01:35

because the NBA isn't about like

1:01:37

papering over weaknesses it's about operating

1:01:39

from strengths and he has none

1:01:41

on offense he didn't have the confidence

1:01:43

on offense so it meant that just

1:01:46

like where do you work from what do

1:01:48

you do and he didn't have a lick of

1:01:50

that in a rookie season which is it's tough

1:01:52

like he's at risk of that without you know

1:01:55

big improvement he's at risk of that

1:01:57

like making him not viable for a second

1:01:59

contract it was it was disappointing

1:02:01

offensively. I would say if you

1:02:03

look in the like I would say he's

1:02:05

a nice connective passer like you know

1:02:07

he doesn't not know what to do

1:02:09

like he makes a decent read he's

1:02:12

learning to shoot I think that there

1:02:14

was progress over the course of the

1:02:16

year but the progress was from zero

1:02:18

to like. He's honestly

1:02:20

20th percentile as a shooter, you know 27%

1:02:23

or something like that the free throws improved

1:02:25

a lot free throws. Yeah, you know like

1:02:27

I even watching like warm ups and stuff

1:02:29

like that like he was he's getting better

1:02:31

on that end like you know You know,

1:02:33

whatever I guess people don't want to

1:02:35

off-season warm-up report or anything, but he

1:02:37

started doing this thing where he kept

1:02:39

putting his thumb really back on his

1:02:41

on his left hand on the guide

1:02:43

hand he like It was like pronounced,

1:02:46

he would like, it would be almost

1:02:48

like backwards. I guess that's like a

1:02:50

point of emphasis, maybe like the

1:02:52

thumb was like impacting the shot or

1:02:54

whatever. But there is a lot of

1:02:56

inconsistency, like the misses kind of look

1:02:59

really bad sometimes. So offensively, yeah, like

1:03:01

you got to find a role and

1:03:03

you know, it doesn't have to be

1:03:06

like an outstanding role. I'm not expecting

1:03:08

him to be like, you know, like

1:03:10

he handles well for a big as

1:03:12

well, but you just got to find

1:03:15

something. Defensively already pretty good. I would say

1:03:17

give him a B plus. Honestly, I

1:03:19

would keep me talking to my A

1:03:21

minus. Already incredibly disruptive. Probably him and

1:03:24

Scotty for me are the two most

1:03:26

disruptive guys in terms of like any

1:03:28

deflection, getting blocks, creating defensive events that

1:03:30

really help you win possessions. The efforts

1:03:33

there, he's switchable. He guarded mostly bigs

1:03:35

this year based on the roster construct,

1:03:37

but I think he also did better

1:03:40

on wings. Did pretty good on guards

1:03:42

too. So. defensively already playable, which is

1:03:44

hard to say for a lot of

1:03:46

rookies. I think he immediately stepped into

1:03:49

being like one of the 15 best

1:03:51

switch bigs in the NBA, which is a

1:03:53

really meaningful thing to be able to do.

1:03:55

The problem and why he was so much

1:03:57

better playing next to Scotty and Yock.

1:03:59

was that when he would switch out

1:04:02

then there would be nobody on the

1:04:04

off on the defensive glass to close

1:04:06

out possessions but as far as like

1:04:09

bumping players out repeatedly keeping contain and

1:04:11

limiting dribble penetration Jonathan Mobile is like

1:04:13

flex tape like you slap it on

1:04:16

and it helps it helps so very

1:04:18

much ends Like the backline sweeper stuff

1:04:20

I didn't think was really impressive. He's

1:04:23

not a huge rebounder either but just

1:04:25

like being able to stop the ball

1:04:27

is really meaningful. So yeah like B

1:04:30

plus I think is pretty good and

1:04:32

that's a real NBA skill like an

1:04:34

elite NBA skill that he has so

1:04:37

yeah good. Intangibles not really sure had

1:04:39

a great this but I would say

1:04:41

that all the conversations that you know

1:04:44

we have with him he's a he's

1:04:46

a really smart kid. This is a

1:04:48

this is a nod to the hot

1:04:51

mic situation. Nobody. No, but he is

1:04:53

a smart kid. Like he really is.

1:04:55

That's the part that I flabbergasted by.

1:04:58

I'm like, I don't understand how anyone

1:05:00

could think otherwise. I think that you

1:05:02

could probably like go look up the

1:05:05

tweets from his introductory press conference and

1:05:07

just every reporter being like, damn, this

1:05:09

guy is like cool and like, like,

1:05:12

it surprised me a lot to hear.

1:05:14

But again, I've had. people have messaged

1:05:16

about like trying to clarify what was

1:05:19

being said obviously like we were there

1:05:21

that conversation was on the other side

1:05:23

of the room so we're hearing it

1:05:26

through murky i don't know but john

1:05:28

seems great people of them yeah exactly

1:05:30

uh... overall improvement just fine a role

1:05:33

offense any role in offense and we

1:05:35

can go from there overall i'll give

1:05:37

him like a c plus c plus

1:05:40

on the season yeah i'll go c

1:05:42

or c minus i think probably If

1:05:44

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1:07:20

season strong really like he was the

1:07:22

guy that I was most looking forward

1:07:24

to watching on a night-to-night basis when

1:07:27

the Raptors were tanking so offensive I'll

1:07:29

give him a B plus maybe this

1:07:31

is again because you remember the most

1:07:34

from the start of the season and

1:07:36

the end of the season But the

1:07:38

end of the season was strong for

1:07:41

him. From January 31st onward, he was

1:07:43

11 points per game, 42% shooting from

1:07:45

the field, 41% from three, 90% from

1:07:48

the foul line. I like that he

1:07:50

can already kind of create, like he

1:07:52

can do a good job of like

1:07:55

catching a shooting, playing within the role

1:07:57

of the offense, but he can also.

1:07:59

extended advantage by dribble into a spot,

1:08:02

maybe pump faking, using a head fake.

1:08:04

The guy loves a little pump fake,

1:08:06

a little head fake. Even his teammates

1:08:09

also tease him about it, but it's

1:08:11

a skill those other guys can learn,

1:08:13

man, because he draws fouls. He has

1:08:16

that game winner, that alone gives me

1:08:18

a half bump on the grade. And

1:08:20

I like that his game isn't necessarily

1:08:23

dependent on the three, which... You know

1:08:25

he had a stretch where there was

1:08:27

like probably seven straight games he had

1:08:30

double digits scoring and it wasn't always

1:08:32

because he was hot from three like

1:08:34

he can also create inside the arc

1:08:37

as well so maybe this is also

1:08:39

projecting a little bit forward but I'm

1:08:41

giving a B plus offensively it's probably

1:08:44

a little generous because he wasn't really

1:08:46

a B plus over the course of

1:08:48

the season but the way he finished

1:08:51

strong was was really memorable. this this

1:08:53

might be our biggest disagreement I think

1:08:55

probably like the Jacobi's offense thing I

1:08:58

probably go like C or C plus

1:09:00

it was really important that the catch

1:09:02

and shoot three came around and you

1:09:05

you use this term when we're doing

1:09:07

one of the podcast early on the

1:09:09

season that I loved you said he

1:09:12

had an offensive imagination which I think

1:09:14

was really apt way to describe you

1:09:16

the way he attacks closeouts and kind

1:09:19

of meanders middle and stuff like that's

1:09:21

so good but as far as the

1:09:23

like off his own dribble from a

1:09:26

static i thought there was like nothing

1:09:28

and ultimately i thought he struggled a

1:09:30

lot on drives but his mechanics are

1:09:33

so pure he clearly is going to

1:09:35

be such a strong catching shoot three

1:09:37

point shooter it's just he looks to

1:09:40

me and again he's so young i

1:09:42

could like i could be a jackass

1:09:44

immediately we'll see but like he looks

1:09:47

more of like in that limited guard

1:09:49

who hits like does a lot

1:09:51

of the easy stuff offensively role rather

1:09:53

than like inexpensive offensive However, with hindsight,

1:09:56

I might look dumb. But yeah, I

1:09:58

think, yeah, like C or C plus

1:10:00

offensively for me. I agree with you,

1:10:03

like, some of it is like, I

1:10:05

want to say this, I feel like

1:10:07

we've been so starved for offensive creating

1:10:10

cards. Like we just don't have bagwork

1:10:12

guards. No. As an organization. Like you

1:10:14

really have to, like we got a

1:10:17

lot of Jose Calderons in our history,

1:10:19

you know what I mean? Like guys

1:10:21

who run out good play, got the

1:10:24

right spots, Fred was the same way,

1:10:26

you know, it's like that kind of

1:10:28

shit. Like even Kyle, like bag work,

1:10:31

if you put together Kyle's 10, best

1:10:33

highlights, it just would look worse than

1:10:35

like, I don't even know, someone clearly

1:10:38

worse than him, like a... Who

1:10:40

would you say? Raymond Felton might have

1:10:43

a better like highlight bag than Kyle.

1:10:45

But Kyle's a Hall of Fame point

1:10:47

guard. I'm saying, but it might like

1:10:49

Raymond might have. Oh my gosh. Red

1:10:51

Felon did have a bag, but yeah.

1:10:53

Okay, that's, come on. Like, Kyle's for

1:10:55

example, way better than like Baron Davis

1:10:57

was. Yeah. But David Davis will have

1:11:00

like an incredible highlight reel. And Kyle

1:11:02

will have like. Left, right, crossover on

1:11:04

Victor Oledipo, kick out the Landry fields.

1:11:06

And I'm like, all right. The dribble

1:11:08

right, pick up, lean forward, pivot, hit

1:11:10

the fator. Like it's a great shot.

1:11:12

It's just not super flashy. Yeah, exactly.

1:11:14

I think Jacoby, having a little bit

1:11:17

more of that off to dribble juice,

1:11:19

I think, would be huge from a

1:11:21

stanceal position, like you mentioned, because I

1:11:23

think they want to test them out

1:11:25

as like a point guard towards the

1:11:27

end of the season. I would be

1:11:29

curious, because I would be curious, because

1:11:31

a lot of that would be curious,

1:11:34

because a lot of that would be

1:11:36

curious, because a lot of that would

1:11:38

be curious, I do think that especially

1:11:40

in the system that the Raptors want

1:11:42

to play, where there is very little,

1:11:44

like standstill, create the advantage, that that

1:11:46

kind of suits Jacobi's play style. I

1:11:48

think that like, in terms of what

1:11:51

you can get off of clothes out,

1:11:53

I would still, Grady's still, I would

1:11:55

still, Grady's still a little bit better

1:11:57

than him, especially because Grady's taller, and

1:11:59

you could take two hard dribbles, get

1:12:01

to a spot and just elevate. half

1:12:03

maybe or six seven but the like

1:12:06

it's the next yeah yeah he does

1:12:08

have great he's got like a crazy

1:12:10

long neck yeah yeah the second spectrum

1:12:12

stats on like blow by percentage and

1:12:14

stuff like that great he had unbelievable

1:12:16

numbers now he didn't convert on as

1:12:18

many drives as people would like but

1:12:20

teams freak out when he catches the

1:12:23

ball teams don't freak out so much

1:12:25

when Jacoby versus second year Jacoby has

1:12:27

the world ahead of him okay prove

1:12:29

me wrong make me look dumb be

1:12:31

nice I like the drawing fouls and

1:12:33

some of that. Some of that is

1:12:35

just like, he's got a good poise,

1:12:37

he doesn't really feel rushed to do

1:12:40

anything. Grady does feel a little rush

1:12:42

sometimes. I don't know, we'll have had

1:12:44

me Jacobi, Grady debates for at least

1:12:46

the next two years, because they are

1:12:48

in their contention. But the same minutes,

1:12:50

defensively, I would say he could play

1:12:52

defensively in the style of the Raptors

1:12:54

want to play. He pressures the ball

1:12:57

really well. And I think over the

1:12:59

course that season did season did a

1:13:01

season did a better job of season

1:13:03

did. That's that's kind of what they

1:13:05

want from the regards and Chicago can

1:13:07

do that. He can extend his defense

1:13:09

30 feet out Yeah, either a or

1:13:11

a minus for me on his okay.

1:13:14

He was really bad with his screen

1:13:16

navigation Which he talked about he was

1:13:18

like my welcome to the NBA moment

1:13:20

was the 77 skip play that the

1:13:22

Pacers run where they throw it over

1:13:24

the first staggered screen and the tires

1:13:26

chases and he was like I was

1:13:29

getting killed on screens he was really

1:13:31

bad as a screen navigator but his

1:13:33

isolation defense was unbelievable I think players

1:13:35

only attempted four threes on him in

1:13:37

isolation the whole year because he plays

1:13:39

up so high and he also doesn't

1:13:41

allow drives he's just sticky and strong

1:13:43

at the point of attack and that

1:13:46

is going to be so important for

1:13:48

this Raptors team going to the future

1:13:50

like Jacoby might be the answer to

1:13:52

who guards elite guards in the future

1:13:54

and I saw the the seeds of

1:13:56

that really in this season and and

1:13:58

I think he gives you a little

1:14:00

extra on the defensive glass as well

1:14:03

too he can really burst to close

1:14:05

in possession so a minus or a

1:14:07

I think defensive for me. You know,

1:14:09

there's like a bit of a, you'll

1:14:11

appreciate this because you're a big Pokemon

1:14:13

guy. Oh yeah. Shooting our position, we

1:14:15

kind of have like a Charmander, Squirtle,

1:14:17

Bubblesore situation going on. Yes we do!

1:14:20

Let's go, yes. So if I were

1:14:22

to ask you, who's Charmander, who is

1:14:24

offensively high sealing, defensively, the frailest, I

1:14:26

would say Venusaur. Probably the most disruptive,

1:14:28

maybe the least strong, but still relatively

1:14:30

well balanced. And then squirtles like good

1:14:32

on offense, good on defense, but not

1:14:34

excellent on either. Based on that comparison,

1:14:37

who would you rank Jacobi, Ochai, and

1:14:39

Grady as the original Cantonian starters? Yeah,

1:14:41

I think probably Ochai is squirtle, Grady

1:14:43

is the charmander, Charzard line, and Jacobi

1:14:45

is like Venusaur. Poposor that's that's probably

1:14:47

where I would go with it. Yeah.

1:14:49

Yeah. That's pretty good though Each of

1:14:52

them have their own merits. You know

1:14:54

what I mean? Like depends on what

1:14:56

kind of journey you want to go

1:14:58

on I wrote about this this year

1:15:00

that like there they all paper over

1:15:02

each other's weaknesses like Jacoby being a

1:15:04

guy who depends on the offense great

1:15:06

for him playing next to Grady who

1:15:09

disrupts the defense constantly and creates gaps

1:15:11

for other players and Jacoby being a

1:15:13

guy who can take the most difficult

1:15:15

matchup which can protect Grady and he

1:15:17

can keep the ball in front so

1:15:19

you don't have to double so Grady

1:15:21

can stay home Ochai also does think

1:15:23

like it's there's a there's a yeah

1:15:26

a synergy there There's this energy. They're

1:15:28

in competitive Pokemon. They call it the

1:15:30

Firewater Grass Corps. They cover each other

1:15:32

really well. You can switch in, take

1:15:34

a couple hits, and no one wants

1:15:36

to hear this man. I'm just, I'm

1:15:38

like, a little, a little Pokemon nerd.

1:15:40

Anyway, Jacobi, buddy, you're getting a B.

1:15:43

I would, you got a B plus

1:15:45

for me. Sounds like you're probably got

1:15:47

a B plus. Like, you had a

1:15:49

good season. Sure. Yeah. James and Battle.

1:15:51

We're going to keep this one. We're

1:15:53

going to keep this one real. three

1:15:55

that's the best on the team 42%

1:15:57

of wide open threes. I think I

1:16:00

if I had to pick one guy

1:16:02

to convert a wide open three for

1:16:04

me on the Raptors I probably picked

1:16:06

James in battle. He's just very consistent

1:16:08

that little weird hitch actually makes it

1:16:10

so that he's shooting the same shot

1:16:12

every time which I also enjoy defensively

1:16:15

I I didn't really know how to

1:16:17

grade James in like I think early

1:16:19

in the season he was bad like

1:16:21

he was fouling a lot but end

1:16:23

of the season he was maybe still

1:16:25

not good but I don't know, is

1:16:27

Jamison a good defender? I don't view

1:16:29

Jamison as a good defender. I think

1:16:32

like all of the things that RJ

1:16:34

struggles with, Jamison struggles with, too, more

1:16:36

significant degree. Although, what you, the point

1:16:38

you make is like Jamison, just keep

1:16:40

it quick, is like... He was not

1:16:42

promised a roster spot. A lot of

1:16:44

times guys in his position, shooters come

1:16:46

into league and just they're like, I

1:16:49

didn't hit shots, I didn't get enough

1:16:51

run, you don't come around. He didn't

1:16:53

allow for that. He was like, no,

1:16:55

I hit every shot. I hit every

1:16:57

open three. Give me money and let

1:16:59

me play in the NBA. He really

1:17:01

just, no frills, I hit shots. And

1:17:03

he did. And he never stopped. Impressive.

1:17:06

Yeah, that's for the tangibles I had

1:17:08

he earned himself three different contracts this

1:17:10

year from exhibit 10 to two way

1:17:12

to a standard contract Last guy to

1:17:14

do that for the Raptors. Well, actually

1:17:16

that's not true. There's been a couple

1:17:18

guys this year But this is the

1:17:20

same path that Chris Bueschet took And

1:17:23

very different players though, I gotta say.

1:17:25

You can actually find two different, more

1:17:27

different players than Jamison and Chris, but

1:17:29

ultimately actually did end up taking Chris's

1:17:31

minutes too. But improvement wise, I'm just

1:17:33

looking for maybe a little bit more

1:17:35

diversity, you know what I mean? Like

1:17:38

a little bit more off the balance,

1:17:40

a little bit more movement, three, movement

1:17:42

two is basically just harder jump shots

1:17:44

in general. Not expecting them to do

1:17:46

too much else besides that, but I'm

1:17:48

more than happy to have him as

1:17:50

like he could be fighting neck and

1:17:52

neck on. Just movement shooting. I think

1:17:55

overall give them like a B, happy

1:17:57

form, and manually I want to speed

1:17:59

through because IQ. to somehow play less

1:18:01

minutes than all those other rookies, largely

1:18:03

because of the fact that he had

1:18:05

three different injuries in the first half

1:18:07

of the season. He did manage to

1:18:09

finish the season healthy, which is more

1:18:12

than anything else, I'm happy for him.

1:18:14

But I find IQ to be almost

1:18:16

the hardest player to evaluate on both

1:18:18

ends of the floor, so I would

1:18:20

love to hear what grade you give

1:18:22

them on the offense and the defense

1:18:24

event. I mean, like, and it's not

1:18:26

fair because he's not fair. He could

1:18:29

have a big year next year and

1:18:31

I would love it, but like it's

1:18:33

I would say like I see on

1:18:35

both ends and it's just The things

1:18:37

he's so good at shooting. He's just

1:18:39

not shooting enough He's not getting to

1:18:41

his jumper enough. He's not as like

1:18:43

heavy in movement off ball. He floats

1:18:46

too often above the break. It's like

1:18:48

you're such a good shooter. Go form

1:18:50

up to the ball and hit a

1:18:52

three. He also when Lewis looked at

1:18:54

all of his drives, he only had

1:18:56

four assists where he touched the paint

1:18:58

and created a layup for a teammate.

1:19:01

The whole season, it's just like, and

1:19:03

that's like, I'm sure you know who,

1:19:05

like the Korean sports doctor. uh... polar

1:19:07

like i remember he sent me a

1:19:09

map when when the raptors traded for

1:19:11

a manual quickly of his like his

1:19:13

passing map and he just never passes

1:19:15

middle and it's true he just doesn't

1:19:18

create lapse for himself or others and

1:19:20

that's a huge hole in his offensive

1:19:22

game and it's just like we need

1:19:24

to see these things improve but he

1:19:26

wasn't healthy so he can get in

1:19:28

a rhythm you know okay it's just

1:19:30

it could be a bit of an

1:19:32

incomplete i can hear that out too

1:19:35

because he only played thirty three minutes

1:19:37

my issue is if you look at

1:19:39

the like the like the like the

1:19:41

like the like the If you just

1:19:43

open like this is like the one

1:19:45

of the most rudimentary ways to evaluate

1:19:47

a player But if you just look

1:19:49

at his like basketball reference page and

1:19:52

you just look at his per game

1:19:54

numbers You might just scroll a little

1:19:56

bit down you look at his like

1:19:58

per 36 numbers Is he not kind

1:20:00

of been the same guy for like

1:20:02

three four years now? He like he's

1:20:04

like yeah, this is what he does.

1:20:06

I've been lower on quickly than consensus

1:20:09

since the trade, so I don't want

1:20:11

to be like sour grapes grapes here

1:20:13

but yeah, but yeah, it's there's a

1:20:15

lot of stuff he needs to improve

1:20:17

at to be like a lead guard

1:20:19

in the NBA for sure. Right. Luckily

1:20:21

on a team like this he doesn't

1:20:24

necessarily have to be a lead guard

1:20:26

in that same way but especially looking

1:20:28

ahead to the draft this will definitely

1:20:30

not preclude me from drafting another point

1:20:32

guard like I don't know if Dylan

1:20:34

Harper's there if you want to take

1:20:36

a swing on fears even Casperus like

1:20:38

you know these guys like I if

1:20:41

you think that those are the right

1:20:43

guys don't let IQ stop you like

1:20:45

put him in your system, hope IQ

1:20:47

improves a little bit more, but defensively,

1:20:49

I don't think he's as bad defensively

1:20:51

as maybe like, you know, his reputation

1:20:53

suggests. I think people just look at

1:20:55

him, he's like more slender, so they're

1:20:58

like, oh, he's a weak defender. Say

1:21:00

he rotates well, he knows where to

1:21:02

be, he's not at the turn, he's

1:21:04

not really switchable, that's probably my biggest

1:21:06

things, but you know, he's in the

1:21:08

right spots. He rubber banded like He

1:21:10

was seen as like this really slick

1:21:12

off ball guard in New York because

1:21:15

you get the New York bump and

1:21:17

then he came to Toronto and it

1:21:19

obviously he was not strong and then

1:21:21

maybe it's one too far But he's

1:21:23

like he's like a perfectly fine baseline

1:21:25

defender. Yeah, yeah, he's he's He's a

1:21:27

little disciplined, so I feel like he's

1:21:29

not gambling and creating more like steals

1:21:32

and stuff like that, but I don't

1:21:34

know. Do you really want to go

1:21:36

out and gamble? Just do you get

1:21:38

more steals? Like, it's not, I mean,

1:21:40

if Nick Nurse was the head coach,

1:21:42

maybe you would average more steals. I'll

1:21:44

say that much. And even if you

1:21:47

do, he'll tell you, like, your name

1:21:49

is Gary Trent, and you're not part

1:21:51

of the core. Intangibles, I like IQ

1:21:53

a lot. I actually like his personality.

1:21:55

He's he's pretty bright. He's pretty open.

1:21:57

He's pretty fair as well, mentions God

1:21:59

at every moment, which has been like

1:22:01

a, I feel like this is a

1:22:04

sports wide trend. Because I was watching

1:22:06

Liverpool like, you know, beat Tottenham over

1:22:08

the weekend to clinch the Premier League

1:22:10

and. Jack Post Gordon he like immediately

1:22:12

took off his shirt and it's that

1:22:14

I belong to Jesus and I'm like

1:22:16

oh wow like this is we're definitely

1:22:18

there's a wave there's definitely a wave

1:22:21

yes of speaking out more which is

1:22:23

not like I'm not for or against

1:22:25

it I'm actually not religious but just

1:22:27

noticing exactly yeah IQ I think overall

1:22:29

see but see see what the I

1:22:31

mean I know if he's healthy next

1:22:33

year I think there's a chance to

1:22:35

turn into like a bee a bee

1:22:38

Chris Bouché... Actually, you know what? We

1:22:40

have an interview with Chris coming out

1:22:42

on Friday. We're able to catch up

1:22:44

with Chris yesterday. A little bit of

1:22:46

a short interview guys. Please don't expect

1:22:48

like a long expansive conversation, although I

1:22:50

was certainly expecting a long expansive conversation,

1:22:52

although I was certainly expecting a long

1:22:55

expansive conversation with Chris. We'll talk more

1:22:57

about Chris, but I did obviously asking

1:22:59

the question of he's going to come

1:23:01

back next year or not. So you

1:23:03

have to stay tuned on Friday for

1:23:05

the answer. Look let's take off offense

1:23:07

defense. Okay. This that's not what this

1:23:09

game is about. I just want to

1:23:12

talk about Garrett Temple's intangibles Yeah, dude

1:23:14

Sky might have the best intangibles per

1:23:16

36 in the entire league He gave

1:23:18

money to the teachers unions. He stood

1:23:20

with them. That was a hell of

1:23:22

an introduction to a player. He I've

1:23:24

shared a few elevator rides with Garrett

1:23:27

as well Yeah, he's he's he's a

1:23:29

he's a He's a good man. Yes,

1:23:31

and we need good men in this

1:23:33

world so and on the rafters He's

1:23:35

like he's an adult in the room.

1:23:37

I loved how like he maybe played

1:23:39

like three or four times In like

1:23:41

the course of the season before the

1:23:44

tank he started and like one of

1:23:46

them was one of the rap whose

1:23:48

wins over the Pacers big swing, you

1:23:50

know, I remember I was sitting with

1:23:52

Pascaz agent You know because he Just

1:23:54

comes around a lot, you know, we

1:23:56

talk a fair amount and usually we're

1:23:58

rooting for the same things. You know,

1:24:01

I mean, like we're rooting for the

1:24:03

Raptors. past goes on the Raptors, you

1:24:05

know, we might say past the Pascal

1:24:07

a couple times, but like ultimately we're

1:24:09

rooting for the Raptors. First time I

1:24:11

had the experience that we're rooting for

1:24:13

two different teams, and I just could

1:24:15

not stop laughing at his face for

1:24:18

how much Garrett Temple was owning the

1:24:20

Indiana Pacers. Pacer started the season super

1:24:22

weird. There were like 16 and 18

1:24:24

on one point or whatever, but like,

1:24:26

Garrett, that performance was memorable for the

1:24:28

team too, because I think I've heard

1:24:30

Jamal shed, bring it, like, He's in

1:24:32

the league. So, but no, I think

1:24:35

Garrett Temple, at least as far as

1:24:37

veterans go, I think it's like a,

1:24:39

almost, it shouldn't be a must because

1:24:41

it depends on what other roster moves,

1:24:43

wrappers want to make in the off-season.

1:24:45

If you get squeezed out, fine, like

1:24:47

I would understand, but if you have

1:24:50

an open roster spot and it's between

1:24:52

like taking a fly or another Orlando

1:24:54

Robinson or Garrett Temple, give me Garrett

1:24:56

Temple. Yeah, I think there's probably like

1:24:58

the tension between. the the the team

1:25:00

is like we'd love to have you

1:25:02

back as a development coach and Gary

1:25:04

is like and Gary is probably like

1:25:07

I'd like to come back as the

1:25:09

what 2.8 million minimum contracts situation yeah

1:25:11

probably well there's no stopping the team

1:25:13

from paying him 2.8 million it would

1:25:15

just make all the other assistants very

1:25:17

jealous because I think the rest of

1:25:19

the assistance might make 2.8 million total

1:25:21

so yeah Yeah, it's a you can

1:25:24

circumvent the cap. It's just you gonna

1:25:26

have problems on staff. Yeah Ultimately, I

1:25:28

want Garrett Temple as part of the

1:25:30

organization I think that it really does

1:25:32

speak well to his ability that every

1:25:34

single person you will not hear one

1:25:36

negative word about I mean I don't

1:25:38

know man just just please stay on

1:25:41

the Raptors organization he wants to do

1:25:43

one more year Vince Carter style he

1:25:45

got one more in him so hopefully

1:25:47

that's the case those are your report

1:25:49

cards grades for this season Samson we

1:25:51

appreciate your time we know you got

1:25:53

another pot to run too so we're

1:25:55

gonna let you go and me and

1:25:58

Jerome will tackle the tangerine questions but

1:26:00

Samson buddy we appreciate you I hope

1:26:02

I don't know what are you doing

1:26:04

the summertime besides getting I thought we're

1:26:06

all getting dim sun together getting some

1:26:08

oh yeah yeah the three of us

1:26:10

the three of us getting dim sun

1:26:13

yeah I got let the dome heel

1:26:15

from the the fiery fiery sun and

1:26:17

I'm gonna cover the Pacers until they're

1:26:19

no longer there but yeah lots of

1:26:21

draft coverage and then hopefully summer league

1:26:23

may well be a big old summer

1:26:25

league I'm throwing, I'm throwing down a

1:26:27

gala. Raptors, you better go out there

1:26:30

when the Summer League championship. I think

1:26:32

we're sending like eight of these guys

1:26:34

that we talked about the Summer League.

1:26:36

Well, not eight, but like at least

1:26:38

five. Yeah. They should win something, yeah,

1:26:40

that'd be cool. But yeah, that's about

1:26:42

it for me. I'll leave you guys

1:26:44

to it. Thanks for having me on.

1:26:47

Random question, Samson, before you go hat-wise.

1:26:49

How are you going on bucket hats?

1:26:51

Bucket hats. I like book hats when

1:26:53

I see them on other people but

1:26:55

there's kind of like a genre of

1:26:57

white man wears bucket hats and I'm

1:26:59

not that genre of white man you

1:27:01

know I never had braids you know

1:27:04

what I mean like I like a

1:27:06

like a post Malone type yeah it's

1:27:08

interesting because generation like I like if

1:27:10

you go back a bucket hat where

1:27:12

it would just be someone who likes

1:27:14

to fish a lot I'm guessing yeah

1:27:16

sure like it's a very practical item

1:27:18

there's like the long fishery sure bucket

1:27:21

right the long fisher bucket Okay, yeah,

1:27:23

you know what I mean? Is it

1:27:25

like the short beanie that doesn't cover

1:27:27

the years that I've heard all the

1:27:29

time? Exactly. Yeah, the photographer beanie. Yeah,

1:27:31

all right. All right. All right, guys.

1:27:33

See you. See you. All right, and

1:27:36

on that note, it is time for

1:27:38

the Tangerine fan inbox. Tangerine is the

1:27:40

official bank of the Toronto Raptors foundational

1:27:42

partner of WMB Canada and NBA Canada,

1:27:44

and of course, they're not just fans

1:27:46

of... basketball. They're fans of fans of

1:27:48

basketball. They're fans of fans who will

1:27:50

grade each member of the Toronto Raptors

1:27:53

over some best friend and some fans

1:27:55

of fans who work on a yack

1:27:57

of purdle, push shot on their Tuesday.

1:27:59

they pick up run. If you're hearing

1:28:01

this, there's no doubt in your commitment.

1:28:03

Fans like you were at the heart

1:28:05

of what makes this game great. So

1:28:07

while we wait for Brandon Ingram to

1:28:10

be the offensive first option, Tangerine is

1:28:12

turning the spotlight from the court to

1:28:14

the stands and celebrating the way Ractus

1:28:16

fans support their team because this is

1:28:18

how we fan. To learn more, visit

1:28:20

Tangerine.ca-C-A slash basketball. I'm going to master

1:28:23

that Yaka Purdle, by the way. It's the

1:28:25

only shot you don't have in your

1:28:27

bag. You got to pull up three,

1:28:29

you got the cash to shoot three,

1:28:31

you got like, you got, honestly for

1:28:33

a guy who's like taller and bigger

1:28:35

than you, you somehow get under me

1:28:37

and get to the basket a decent

1:28:39

amount when we play once. Low center

1:28:41

gravity, I think. Yeah, like you know

1:28:43

how to body bump, like that's like

1:28:45

a real skill that like you really

1:28:47

need to master. So, but if you

1:28:49

want to avoid those bumps, especially like,

1:28:51

you know, That floater, that thing is

1:28:53

eternal man. You can hit floaters on

1:28:56

people when you're like 60. I

1:28:58

did a floater yesterday. That worked

1:29:00

out a little bit. I also

1:29:02

feel really bad. Joel, who I

1:29:04

don't think listens to the show,

1:29:06

story for knocking you, trying to

1:29:08

get into the post. Bully ball.

1:29:11

All right. Okay, so going through

1:29:13

some of the comments here, in

1:29:15

a grading system that involved intangibles,

1:29:17

I'm going to shout out a

1:29:19

friend of the show, Coco, for

1:29:21

bringing up some astrology signs.

1:29:23

Oh. I know this is a serious

1:29:25

basketball podcast, but Scotty being a Leo

1:29:28

would want to be the center of

1:29:30

things and a leader and thrive in

1:29:32

that. So how are you thinking will

1:29:34

Scotty as a Leo is affecting his

1:29:37

ability or maybe improving his

1:29:39

ability to be a leader of this team?

1:29:41

I... don't know how this works so

1:29:43

I want to feed more explanations

1:29:45

from you or cocoa on this

1:29:47

yeah interestingly enough okay from um

1:29:49

one sec from Kayla oh no

1:29:52

cocoa also also to note Jamal

1:29:54

is also Leo mm hmm heart-prised

1:29:56

leadership so do you think the

1:29:58

two leaders of the team Our

1:30:00

Leos, wow, okay, I like this. Yeah,

1:30:02

yeah. So that might be something in

1:30:04

play. Also on top, Caleb has noted,

1:30:07

as someone with a gentle tourist father,

1:30:09

I hope Garrett Temple's qualities as an

1:30:11

elder are addressed. So, Garrett Temple, a

1:30:14

tourist. I guess. That makes perfect sense.

1:30:16

You know, sometimes it is kind of

1:30:18

funny how these things work out. So

1:30:20

I'm looking at the AI, the Google

1:30:23

Gemini overview. This is not my ad

1:30:25

read actually for ACAS, but I do

1:30:27

endorse the Google pixels, by the way.

1:30:30

Thank you for sending us a pixel.

1:30:32

This was a great phone. Shasta Google.

1:30:34

I've been using it for a long

1:30:36

time. Please. We're in a tangering segment,

1:30:39

Will. I also shout to Tangerine, you

1:30:41

know, stress-free banking. Leos are known for

1:30:43

their confidence, natural leadership skills, generosity, and

1:30:46

loyalty. They are passionate, creative, and enjoy

1:30:48

being the center of attention. Leos are

1:30:50

often described as bold, warm, and expressive,

1:30:52

and they have a strong sense of

1:30:55

self and charisma. That does sound a

1:30:57

lot like a track for both of

1:30:59

them. It does really work and track.

1:31:02

Yeah, I totally agree with that. So.

1:31:04

I uh... yeah you know what that's

1:31:06

good for them I was gonna look

1:31:08

at the other way because you know

1:31:11

we're Chinese and we did kick Samson

1:31:13

out so we can be more Chinese

1:31:15

on the show I thought we include

1:31:18

Samsung to be more Chinese apparently that's

1:31:20

only just only to cut at Alex

1:31:22

yes by the way enjoy your Wednesday

1:31:24

off and your Thursday and Friday off

1:31:27

he's been texting and checking in oh

1:31:29

good we'll have supposed production calls we

1:31:31

might come up with something to do

1:31:34

on Friday but TPD okay The thing

1:31:36

is, as people know, Chinese people also

1:31:38

love horoscopes. It's just based on our

1:31:40

birth year. So I'm gonna look up