So, you know, what are your thoughts on maybe the balance of how these lineups should look?

Yeah, look, I'll be honest with you.

I think a lot of the bad or downside to the Kawhi trade almost has nothing to do with the actual basketball on the court.

It would be health.

It would be availability.

And so if he can play 65 games for you and be healthy in the playoffs, then this is like a home run perfect trade for the Raptors stylistically.

If he If he can't do that, then you're left with questions and you're wondering, was it worth it for them to go out and make this trade at this moment for a 37-year-old superstar? Despite him being a second-team All-NBA member last year, probably for a few weeks in the season last year, was the best player in basketball.

Tell me a little bit of where that comes from and what that fire is like and how that maybe affects the team and even Scottie's confidence in his game.

Mm

... a competitive playoff team, but not one that can compete for a championship.

But it's ...

Look, they, the Raptors have seen it before in 2019, where a lot of things fell their way.

You know, Kawhi's health, injuries to a couple other teams.

Of course, the, the Marc Gasol trade, strides from Lowry and Norm Powell and all those guys in that season.

Maybe there's a version of that happening with this team.

Totally.

At the end of the day, how much better,

right? There's no real way to know.

Yeah, it's kind of impossible to know because you don't know which version of Kawhi you're getting.

If you look at his games played over the last three years, last year he played 65 games.

The year before that, 37.

The year before that, 68.

And it's like, so which version of this guy are you getting? Are you getting the 60-plus games or are you getting the 30-ish, 40-ish games? I think that's the make or break for this Raptors season.

Give me something that people aren't talking about with this team.

At the end of the day, how much better,

right? And there's no real way to know.

Yeah, it's kind of impossible to know because you don't know which version of Kawhi you're getting.

If you look at his games played over the last three years, last year he played 65 games.

The year before that, 37.

The year before that, 68.

And it's like, so which version of this guy are you getting? Are you getting the 60-plus games or are you getting the 30-ish, 40-ish games? I think that's the make or break for this Raptors season.

And so that's my hot take on Jalen Brown is we actually will not be talking about him any differently.

... seen some highlights, uh, what, what's your breakdown of him on both sides of the ball?

Well, look, offensively, uh, that's the main draw with him.

He can dribble, pass, shoot in the best way possible, uh, especially at his size and at his position.

Uh, his ability to make decisions on the go, uh, obviously space the floor in a legitimate way, uh, but also just kinda like push the tempo.

He's pretty good in transition with the ball in his hands.

Uh, that really helped the Raptors last season.

Uh, but generally they were, the Raptors were missing this stretch five type of player, uh, and they got that in Mamu.

Hey, throw in, throw a three in there.

What was your takeaways for the 19th pick in the draft, Alan Graves?

I mean, you just talked about it, but, uh, he was everything you kind of expected him or wanted him to be.

Uh, I thought the, the shot was there.

You talked about the, the percentage, but also most of his shots were off of the catch above the break.

Just a good sign in terms of his positioning, uh, and where he'll be in the Raptors offense mostly.

You know, the Raptors like to have their, their bigs and their wings kind of orient and, and create, uh, from above the break, you know, whether it be dribble handoffs or these pick and pop situations.

Uh, so I think, like, positioning Alan to kind of work in those areas of the floor already, uh, is, is something that's a kind of a sign of what's to come for him.

[laughs]

What was your takeaways for the 19th pick in the draft, Allen Graves?

I mean, you just talked about it, but, uh, he was everything you kind of expected him or wanted him to be.

Uh, I thought the, the shot was there.

You talked about the, the percentage, but also most of his shots were off of the catch above the break.

Just a good sign in terms of his positioning, uh, and where he'll be in the Raptors offense mostly.

You know, the Raptors like to have their, their bigs and their wings kind of orient and, and create, uh, from above the break, you know, whether it be dribble handoffs or these pick and pop situations.

Uh, so I think, like, positioning Allen to kind of work in those areas of the floor already, uh, is, is something that's a kind of a sign of what's to come for him.

[laughs]

Yeah

... what he wanted to do.

He knew how he wanted to do it, and there really wasn't [laughs] any way that you could stop it.

And he had counters.

He, he knew exactly where to get to his spots, and, like, he has his three-point shot that's available to him if he wants to.

He can get to the hoop if he wants to.

Uh, I'm, I'm also curious, Sam, like, where does he fit in on this Bucks team? Because they just traded for a bunch of guys, you know? And this is a guy, in my opinion, like, you wanna give ample room to develop all of the decision-making process stuff.

Yeah.

'Cause the Summer League team build was, uh, a catastrophe, I thought.

It was a catastrophe, I agree.

Uh, and man, like, you think about how easy his life is going to be, at least initially in his rookie year, like, playing as fast as I think the Bulls wanna play with Matus Bez- Bezelys and Josh Giddey.

Obviously having Norm Powell as sort of this release valve of a score, I think the game will be simplified for Caleb Wilson.

Like, yeah, sure, they are making him and allowing him e- to experiment here in Summer League and, and they gave him free rein to, "Hey, you wanna try pick and rolls? Try to pull up from three on five straight possessions? Go for it." But will that be, I think, the development curve or, or maybe the reps that he gets i- year one as a rookie? I don't think so.

I think, I think there will be much more time for him to operate off of the ball, to be, work on his ability as a screener.

I think he will just get a lot easier looks as a driver.

Yeah

... uh, from, from Jalen Smith power.

Well, there is one power that we'd, we'd, that can nerf this.

So we'll s- we'll see if, uh, that's gonna work out or not.

Jalen Smith, what do you have for us? [instrumental music] Whoa.

He start at the top of the key every time.

Sure.

Yeah.

Of course.

No overreacting with that aspect of it, but for you, Es, what was your main takeaway from either AJ or DP or both?

Look, I think the number one takeaway, uh, I will say is that there is so much excitement for Wizards and Jazz fans.

Looking at this court and looking at this arena, this is the most amount of Wizards and Jazz jerseys I've ever seen in my life.

Genuinely ever seen in my...

And I think that, that excitement is palpable.

Uh, so when you see guys like AJ Dibonda and Darron Peterson on the floor, I think Dibonda, his size jumps out almost immediately.

There's a couple of guys that I watched today and I'm like, "This is, these guys are boys amongst, or or men amongst boys," and AJ Dibonda clearly is that.

Mm

When you do hear that, considering how the Raptors usually don't give you anything in these conversations, was that something, everything, or nothing to you?

Ooh, a little something, nothing, everything.

Let's go.

I think it's something.

It's absolutely something.

It's an acknowledgment from the assistant general manager and vice president of player personnel saying, hey, there is this specific thing that we need on this team, and whether we get it through the draft, whether we get it through the free agency, or whether we try to address it via trade, it's something that we need on this roster that we don't currently have.

You know, I guess the only time Scottie has really played with guys like that is like – Precious Achua and Christian Coloco like those are really the only two like lob threat athletes types and those two guys were were flawed in their own ways like Coloco was still trying to figure out what a pick and roll even meant at the NBA level you know and then Precious you know didn't necessarily have the hands at that point in his career he's clearly a much better player now for Sacramento but generally they haven't had a player like that they haven't had an archetype to fill next to Scottie and to CMB.

What has you sold specifically on LeBaron, especially for the Raptors?

So 13 of his 18 shots came in the paint in game three, and by game, his first two games-

Shot distance Shot, shot distance was closer.

Assisted opportunities, he was 10 of, 10 of his 21 shots in games one and game two were assisted opportunities.

In game three, 14 of the 18 shots were assisted opportunities.

So they've realized Karl-Anthony Towns has this guy under control one-on-one, self-created chances.

We're [laughs] gonna find ways to get him buckets at the rim with assisted chances.

It was, uh, I honestly think it had to do with Wemby's level of aggression.

I know

Yeah

... cut into that lead, and it didn't take long at all.

And, you know, in the post-game, Victor Wembanyama talked about the, the Knicks stealing the momentum from them and them not being able to wrestle it back.

Is that youth? Because we've seen them be able to do this against the Thunder, like, i- i- in previous series.

But the Knicks just felt like they were, they were able to answer every single turn.

Uh, a- and, and obviously they took the lead and were able to then pull away at the end.

when Harper's cooking

...

Or are some modifications at the very least needed?

Yeah.

Could they have won this series if they were f- fully healthy? Uh, maybe, yeah, probably.

Uh, but I, I don't know if that changes anything in terms of the long-term ceiling of this group.

I think they kind of are who they are.

Maybe they're a second-round team.

Maybe in a weird year they end up cracking a, a conference finals berth.

But, so how would you, how do you think they'll prioritize a roster after Scottie and CMB?

Yep.

They were getting quality shots, just missing them.

Um, I think when it comes to Ingram, ultimately you wanna see a, a, a fully healthy version of him.

I don't think we're gonna get that in game six, especially after heel inflammation.

Uh, from what I remember in the regular season when he did go down with heel inflammation later in the year, he actually missed one or two games with this heel inflammation.

Yeah.

Take the three-point shot seriously.

Uh, take the mid-range scoring seriously.

Yeah

... he's playing and he's healthy enough to play.

Um, he also allows them to play a little bit smaller.

I know i- it's funny to say smaller, but just because of his versatility defensively, he can pick up.

You don't have to necessarily play in as deep of a drop as you do with Klingon, which is I think an issue here in this series sometimes.

Um, uh, i- he works extremely well for what the Blazers wanna do in terms of going smaller in certain situations.

Uh, I, I remember in that playing game they went to Jerami Grant at the five, but the other look that they had was Rob Williams at the five.

It's just, you can blame kinda everybody to me for all of this.

This has the makings of potentially, once again, another epic Denver Nuggets-Minnesota Timberwolves series.

Yeah, it's, it's genuinely a rivalry in the NBA.

I- in an era where we don't see too many rivalries just because of how much player movement there is, uh, both of these rosters are basically the same from the last time that they played each other.

Of course, there's some role players and ancillary guys that are new to the table, but for the most part it's Nikola Jokic versus Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle, and it's Anthony Edwards against Jamal Murray, and of course Jaden McDaniels and all those guys are still there from that playoff series.

And so you look at a match-up that I think the Wolves look at the, the Nuggets and say, "We have a mental edge over them." And you look at the Nuggets and what they have developed this season, how they've comfortably, truthfully beat the Wolves in the regular season.

They probably think they have a mental edge over Minnesota.

Um, I, I also think Minnesota has been a little bit uneven here to finish out the year, given the, the Anthony Edwards injury, given the fact that McDaniels was also out for a little bit with his injury.

I just believe it

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Ooh, yeah

What's the sentiment amongst Raptor fans? Is it like, finally, we're getting the version of Quigley that was promised on the night of the OG trade?

Yes.

But also, I think it's just...

I think people are just waiting to see it for longer.

You know, he's had a really good month, even outside of this four game stretch, he's averaging like 25 and five or something along the lines of that shooting 61% true shooting.

Like he's been very effective and truthfully, the only difference between this month and the start of the season is that his shots are falling.

Like he's making his shots and the shooting regression has regressed back to the norm, if you will.

Yeah.

It's just, th- this offense is just fun to watch how selflessly they play.

Yeah, no, they absolutely are, and, and I, I'm glad you brought in the assist percentage because I think that's something that, uh, over the last two or three seasons, Head Coach Darko Rajakovic has really been trying to instill in this team.

It's playing this egalitarian offense, which is, on any given night, you don't know who's gonna go off, right? Uh, recently it's been Immanuel Quickley.

You know, in December and November, it was Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram.

E- early in the season, it was R.J. Barrett.

So you really don't know who's going to be the main guy on any given night, and that has its pros and cons, of course.

Because when you don't have one consistent source of offense, you have to go searching.

... generate buckets in the half court?

When it's looked the worst, though, if you want to talk to Knicks fans, how has it looked like? What is something the Knicks could potentially take advantage of in this game?

It's funny because it just recently for the first time looked at its worst against the Pacers.

That was like there.

I think they they shot 41 percent was their effective field goal percentage.

And I think Keeks tweeted this, but that was the worst effective field goal percentage for a team that has won this season.

That's how bad they shot the ball.

You know that.

Yeah,

Yeah.

When they had their fair share of injuries, like, he was, he was running the team for a little bit too.

So he's had opportunity to work as a play, like a lead guard.

Um, but the great thing, as, as you mentioned, is this is an ensemble.

Like, Jalen Johnson is, is carrying the ball.

He's, he's moving it around.

He's making plays.

(laughs)