Toronto Raptors Season Preview

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3:15Good morning to Samson Foe, Contravon Heath, who are hosts of the Pull Up Tray podcast. First time coming here on the Athletic NBA Daily, although Samson, you were here for NBA Finals reasons. If I'm not mistaken, right? Yeah. I talked to Dave. They say there always has to be a stark in the north. There always has to be a ball on the podcast. I'm here for that reason. Thank you very much for fulfilling our ball prerequisite. Thank you to that. If you guys don't know, Samson and Tray, they both host the Pull Up Tray podcast over at Raptors Republic. Very good friends of mine, but also for my money, the best Raptors podcast out there in terms of funniness, in terms of analysis, all of the above. Hopefully you get a preview of that. Tray, how's it going? It's good. It's like seeing my friend in the multiverse and seeing what you do on the outside of all this. It's cool to see you like this. I know. It's a little weird, right? For me to be on the side of the thing. Usually just listening to you guys vamp and joke.

4:19Anyways, the Toronto Raptors have had a very busy off season, busy in the sense that they have been waiting for the Kawai Leonard shenanigans to subside to just be clear that Kawai is going to be a member of the Toronto Raptors. And at the point that we are recording this now, Kawai Leonard is going to be a member of the Toronto Raptors. There's still contract negotiations, looming, which seems inevitably that he is going to sign an extension with the Toronto Raptors at some point. Maybe by the time that you're listening to this, he has already signed that contract extension. But all in all, he is a member of the Toronto Raptors. And that completely changes the discussion for this Raptors team that last season took a step, made it to the playoffs, took the Cleveland Cavaliers who made it to the Eastern Conference Finals to a first-key seven-game series. But now it's, it's a different conversation about this Raptors team. And especially in this new look Eastern Conference, so I ask you, knowing that Kawai Leonard is the most look forward to

5:24thing, what is the thing you guys are specifically most excited for? Samson, I'll go with you first. I tore my hair out watching the Raptors operate in transition last year. And seeing a team that had very few shooters and a player like IQ making less than 30% of his transition triples, they had to run offence by having Scotty and RJ trying to ram their way to the rim with a paint that was, have so many guys in it. Now, Kawai does these great things where he just shoots the hell out of the basketball. He's in the bottom, or he's not even in the top 50 in drives, but he's in the top 20 in drives scoring. He's not even that high in the clippers don't play in transition that often, but Kawai is near the top in transition scoring. When he gets the ball, everything becomes simpler. And the thing I'm actually looking forward to most is that for the Raptors that define themselves as one of the fastest teams in basketball, they actually were pretty bad at it. And Kawai almost singularly makes them potentially very good at it.

6:29I think for me, the thing I'm looking most forward to is, can Scotty Barnes shot making from the playoffs trans, translate into the regular season? I think the biggest reason why the Raptors were able to extend that to seven games is that he was able to oscillate as this premier A1 score and allow their offense to be stomachable throughout most of that series. Kawai is still going to be able to take up most of the most of the difficult shots that were designed for Brendan Grim. That just did not go well in the playoffs. But what will define the Raptor season and how far they go potentially in the playoffs will be, can his shot make him from a level that he looked as a borderline all NBA player throughout the regular season to a bona fide perennial all NBA top 15 guy, which he looked like in the playoffs. Okay, so let's start there because I think Scotty was part of this discussion that I wanted to have.

7:30Trey, you mentioned it with how incredible he was in the post season. I mean, in that seven game series, the average 24 points, eight and a half assists, six rebounds, he shot 38% from three, albeit on low volume, was basically around, I would say 50% from the field, just in a series that included Donovan Mitchell, that included James Hardin, that included Evan Mobley, Scotty Barnes, in my opinion, was far and away the best player. And you could look at a bunch of different performances throughout the 2026 playoffs and say that Scotty's first round series was one of the more impactful, one of the more impressive of the entire post season. How sustainable, Samson, do you think it is for us to expect him to be that next season for an entire 82 game regular season? I think he has to make, he has to develop in ways that Trey was just speaking about to be able to do it at that level. Yeah. Basically, you know, I talked to Jason Kidd about this last

8:33year because he coached guys who were a guy, Yannis, who was defensive player of the year, NMVP at the same time. And Scotty is a guy who expands a great amount of energy on the defensive side of the floor. So much so that you look at and say, it's tough to ask a guy to do a playoff series type of all-encompassing performance over the course of 82. Now you could look at the guy like LeBron James, who walks a lot and somehow is still like top five in transition frequency, perfecting when you run and when you rest. But he has dipped a lot on defense and Scotty, we don't want that yet. The easiest pathways for Scotty to be able to become far better offensively in the regular season is hit more catch and shoot threes, run out in transition more often as the catch middle guy because Kauai is back helping out on defense free bounding or have a guy like RJ and Kauai and quickly play make far better to the rim off of cuts that feature Scotty Barnes. And one of those things is really in his control, which is hit more catch and shoot threes. That's

9:36easy points. The other two, I think are hugely team context dependent. I agree. The shot making will define how easy it is to get there. I think in the regular season, one of the things that we saw also was that he was able to self create at the rim at a level that we haven't seen in his career. And ideally in the regular season, that's going to become even easier because teams are going to be denying Kauai the ball, tilting their defense towards him in a way that just didn't happen with Brandon and Grim also. He is going to see easier coverage as easier looks and ideally that should allow him to drive and get easier looks at the rim and score at a rate that ideally allows him to not be this 30% usage player that he was in the regular season. So I think it's fairly possible. Yeah, I mean, the interesting part about all of this, it feels like there is a lot of easy buckets on the table for Scotty Barnes. A lot of easy opportunity for him to increase his

10:38scoring in the regular season. Like this is a guy who if I remember correctly hasn't broken like the 20 point per game barrier in the regular season yet. And so is this the season playing next to an all NBA star who should take the more difficult matchups on a night tonight basis, who should like you said, Trey have the defense tilted towards him all the time. Is that going to give him more easy opportunities? I like in it a little bit, although it's different and it's seven years ago to, you know, how how Pascal see I can play it off of Kauai and how easy it was for Pascal to get easy opportunities and easy looks in like that dunker spot area working in that short range area to really finish in and around the basket. Maybe that's something in a half court context that works well for Scotty as well. And of course, the playmaking is another wrinkle to this that Scotty can can attach to the Samsung. Yeah, I think the big difference between those two guys is one.

11:38In terms of uses last year, Scotty wasn't allowed to be the outlet guy because they need to too much help on the defensive glass. That was the defining feature of Pascal's rise out of like bit role player into meaningful starter. And then of course, you get to the point where he's like boogieing on Drainman green and in isolation. But the path to get there was through bludgeoning teams in transition. Scotty has not been able to do that yet. I hope that they replace some of RJ's transition usage with Scotty's going forward. And I also in terms of being able to fit in next to those types of guys, I think Scotty is just the usage. I'm really interested to see it. And the in terms of the easy baskets on the court, I'm really interested to see it because it does depend a little bit on how much of Scotty wants to be initiating i.e. probably providing to others versus finishing i.e. rolling, cutting, sprinting because he's a great decision maker with the ball in his hands. And he would have to relent some. And co-I did say

12:40it's Scotty's team when he came over in the open gym episode. So the dynamic I think is a really interesting one. And I'm not exactly sure how it bears out so far. Yeah, I think that also, I'm also interested to see how it is in the half court as well because throughout the regular season, most of the Raptors offense really revolved around their guards, whether that's in pick and roll, getting into actions and initiating things. But in the some of this is due to injury, but in the playoff that flipped, Scotty was became their offensive hub for better or worse throughout every game. And they were able to create more efficient shots, especially more shots of the rim. One thing that the Raptors like really struggled to do with the amount of success that he's had of interest to see similar to the Cal Larry, Kawaii Leonard dynamic in the half court where Kawaii sort of orbited around all the other actions on the the other side of the court that Cal Larry was initiating and also being a school having the threat of being a score. Can Scotty do that

13:43as well? Because some of their guard, if I were to question some of the teammates, maybe their guard plan, if he can oscillate as this all NBA player who is still a offensive hub, it gives their team, it covers up many of the weaknesses of their teams. So he's the key factor of how this is going to go. Okay, since we're talking about Scotty and Kawaii, I thought an interesting exercise because I saw it on social media earlier in terms of like how talented this Scotty and Kawaii duo is, where do they rank in the NBA? Do a little bit of an exercise here. Okay, I'll just name duos and you tell me whether you think the Scotty Kawaii duo and how amplifying they are together, how good they could possibly be. If that duo is better than the Scotty and Kawaii duo, okay? All right. Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson. They deserve to be so that they're better.

14:48It was just it was a feeler. Okay, it was a little test. Okay. LeBron James and insert one of Tyrese Maxie or Jalen Brown give me the Raptors whole brain. Okay, all right. So, okay, so Philly Sixers fans, Lil Peave right now. Okay, Donovan Mitchell and James Hardin. Give me the Raptors. I agree with that one. I agree with that one for sure. You don't agree with the Philly one. I wonder how good of a season LeBron will have. I think that's more my my hesitancy, but I would say that the Raptors are better. So if Joelle is healthy for like 70 games, yeah, big question. Yeah, the Sixers have many questions. Okay, Tyrese, Albert and Pascal C. Acom also a team with a lot of questions. This one's a bit tricky. I will if you tell me Tyrese, Albert and his 100% I will lead Indiana just because you've seen that

15:53proof of concept. I'm I'll still go Toronto. Toronto's weakness is not their top two players. Toronto's weakness is elsewhere. If anybody wants to listen to an hour of this, I also did ranking the duo's Raptors Republic. I'm curious what the what the overlap is of like the different duo's that we pick. Okay, Yoke, your Murray, Jamal Murray and Nicoli Opus. I got to give it the boys in Denver. Yeah, that makes sense. Lamello and Ant, new duo haven't seen them yet. Give me the route. Be serious. Be serious. There's there's serious men. Kauai Leonard and Scotty Barnes. They're ready to be serious above the border man. Give it to the boys in Toronto. Okay, SGA and J Dub. Didn't give it to Chad. I gave it to J Dub. Good. I'd give it it to OKC. I would too, especially the Jada because like Kauai, there's health concerns, Tyrese, there's health concerns and B there's health concerns. You may as well operate as if these guys are healthy. And J Dub when he's healthy is all NBA plus an MVP winner. Yeah. And if Kauai and

16:59Scotty ever measure up to that, I'm over the moon, man. But I don't know if they're there. There is a legitimate chance that if healthy, of course, you're looking at two top 10 players in the NBA next season. There's a chance. A lot of things have to go right. We just broke down some of the things that have to go right. But that's sort of the the ceiling of those two together. Is that is that fair to say Scotty jumping to the top 10 is pretty hard. But I mean, if all NBA second team is that available to Scotty Barnes next season? I think that's really hard to do scoring less than like 22 points per game. So he would have to take a big leap on a team that's inviting a guy who has a 7% usage bump over the all star who just left. Yeah. I think it would have to come with regular season success. Like if the Raptors win 60 games. Sure. Yeah. That's why Mrs. Say because of scheduling

18:00our load management 10 to 15 games of that and Scotty really plays well. That's sort of like the Jalen Duren pitch and how he made it last year. I could I could see that. The just quickly the big thing here is that Scotty I might like him more than a guy who finishes higher than him on all NBA, especially considering like the playoff riser aspect. But I think it would be incredibly rare for both those guys to be like a one and two all NBA player. The other two duos I had listed here and I just wasn't sure how to really place them is like Wembee and insert one of Harper or Castle and then Luca and Austin Reeves and I just I don't know. So you and I we did the exercise very similar. I did Wembee plus a guy making a leap by the way. Yeah. Also, bam in the honest. Does that fit for you? That's a good one too. Yeah. Pretty I would say pretty close if those guys are healthy, right? Yeah.

19:00It's helpful because well, here's the thing. Yannis has probably fallen out of consistently being like top three in MVP voting. Yeah. Yeah. Bam has a maiden all-star game in like two years. They probably are they could be really good this year, but they probably aren't really in the running for best duo in the NBA. Yeah. And I think that Scotty and Kauai probably have more of an and more of an inside shot at it than those two, which maybe that sounds insane to some people because Yannis's name has a lot of like it's obviously he's a and bam 83 man 83. But look Kauai. I mean, I think if you compare what Kauai did last year to Yannis, of course, you were taking what Kauai did last year, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I lean Raptors just because the fit is obviously much cleaner like the way I'm air expo just one of the best coaches in the NBA. So I'm sure they're going to figure out a way to above average offense. He always does. But

20:01the Raptors, the key thing about this Kauai, let me try to say that there's nothing that they have to change about the way that they play both offensively and defensively. It's almost a one-to-one insert from a guy who was a sub all star at like a very weak Eastern conference to one of the best players in the NBA. It's like guard. Yeah. It's a guard. Don't let the anger fans listen to this one and they're gonna eat you all up. But what was possibly I know you guys have talked about it on on your pod and there's there's a bunch of videos that I mean, I would recommend once again, Raptors of public. It does a really good job at this. But the difference in points per possession on all of the play types when you compare Brandon Ingram and Kauai Leonard, it's just not in the same category. All respect to Brandon Ingram, who got this team into a really good regular season record, help them become a top five seed in the East last year. But it's just a different category.

21:04Just this. Okay. All right. Look, Duos, we sorted out. Scotty and Kauai, we sorted out. There's still a lot left to talk about with this team. On the second side, we'll talk about it. This episode is brought to you by Onet. You know those days where your schedule is packed to the brim. You're jumping straight from managing work deadlines, to squeezing in a workout, running family errands and trying to handle a million things all at once. When you're deeply engaged in a busy day, staying in that zone can make all the difference. That's where Onet's alpha brain comes in as a daily, neutropic formula designed for daily cognitive support. It supports cognition, memory, attention, focus and mental clarity while you're tackling your daily tasks. It supports the alpha brain wave activity, helping you tune out distractions, get into the zone and support that optimal flow state when you're deeply immersed in an activity. It supports quicker reaction times and relaxes and supports alpha wave activity during normal occasional stress. If you're ready

22:05to support your concentration and focus throughout your demanding days, check them out. Shop now at onet.com. O-N-N-I-T dot com. Hey everyone, it's Chris Kaleboh here, host of the Side Hustle School podcast. This episode is powered by AT&T Business. In my early days, I did some of my best work in parked cars or coffee shops. But when I landed my first big contract, I realized I couldn't bet my future on a public connection that cuts out if someone turns on a blender. As a small business owner, you're already wearing at least 10 hats. You shouldn't have to be your own IT department as well. That's why I rely on AT&T Business. They keep your connectivity reliable, so you have one less thing to worry about. Powered by AT&T Business, built to work. Get AT&T Business at business.att.com. Granger Knows, if you're a procurement manager at an industrial manufacturing facility, you're balancing inventory and budget while sourcing critical supplies across the operation.

23:08Too much inventory? Cost climb. Too little? Production slows. Grangers, $2 billion in on-hand inventory helps you get what you need when you need it, so you can help keep budgets balanced in lines moving. Call 1-800-Granger. Click ranger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the once, who get it done. And we're back talking about the Toronto Raptors here with the Pull Up Trade Podcast, Samson Folk and Trevon Heath. I feel like there is, I guess, a question of how this Raptors team will be perceived next season because of Kawai Leonard, especially in the Eastern Conference, Health, of course, the on-court stuff. But do you feel like there is a little bit of villainery to this Toronto Raptors team next season? Yeah, there's villain or court gesture type

24:08deal because if the Raptors underperform, everyone is going to be taking the piss out of them. But if they perform really well, suddenly everyone's going to start being like, I actually maybe I didn't care six months ago, but now I'm starting to feel a little bit different about what went down. Maybe start counting, checking pockets and all that. You have to be able to embrace villainy when it comes, though. And I actually think the people who embrace villainy well, I mean, it just adds to it. You can't expect to be the perfect, you know, what everyone wants. You kind of just have to adapt how you're perceived and succeed regardless, which these guys are set up well to do. Yeah, Tray, I mean, from like, from the fans perspective, as you so like to say, you're not a fan, how do you feel about the villain aspect of the Raptors? I think it's there to some degree, especially when they play the Clevver's, it's going to be insane.

25:09I think it's one of those situations where the aspiration issue took up so much air out of the room because there was nothing else going on. I think within like 10 to 15 games, it'll kind along the Raptor season is going like status quo. They obviously took some risks by taking on this trade and having this messy situation. But when they did this trade in 2019, there was a messy situation as well with Kauai with the Spurs that lingering over the team the entire year, whether he wanted to stare or go, which seemed and to the players on the team that were there mentioned that that was a very difficult situation. So it's one of this organization has already seen before to some degree. So I think being a villain will be totally fine. Actually, kind of an interesting element to this team and honestly to the Eastern Conference because you think of the Nix and how positive of a story they are for the most part. Everybody kind of enjoys the run that they've been on. I mean, that has its own level of if you love LeBron, you love that move, if you don't, you don't.

26:18But that's this now adds another wrinkle to the Eastern Conference, which is crazy. Look, we talked about Kauai and Scotty as a duo. We talked about Scotty and what he'd need to do to take that next leap. This team still has the other factors, whether it's the starting back court and a manual quickly and RJ Barrett, they're starting center ostensibly in Yakka, Pertle, the bench, the very young, but like have done things in the NBA so far bench in Jacobi Walter and Jamal Shed and of course, Colomari Boils of all of those story lines. Trey, I'll go to you first. What do you think is the biggest X factor for this Raptors team to hit their full ceiling? I think it's their bench guards. The Raptors are depending on one, if not both, of Jacobi Walter and Jamal Shed to take a pretty substantial leap to be able to play winning playoff minutes, which they were able to punch up against the Cavs and do a fairly good job. But through the first

27:21three games, Jacobi Walter, ice cold from three, for example, with a team that has like championship aspirations that can happen. Obviously. The Raptors bench, particularly last year, just had this lack of creation and much of it, much of both of their scoring relied upon catching shoot shooting, scoring and transition, winning off cuts and when you're in the playoffs against better teams, those options are just far and few in between. So seeing whether both of these guys can take a step particularly offensively will be massive because they'll allow them both to be able to stick on the court outside of a manual quickly. Yeah, for me, it's a manual quickly and I have had my qualms about a manual quickly in the past. The big thing here though is that the NBA is not about covering up weaknesses. It's about really flexing your strengths and a manual quickly, the vision of who he is as a guard has always been super appealing and alluring. A guy who doesn't

28:25only turn the ball over, a guy who collects assists, a guy who is efficient offensively, and a guy who at the very least survives on defense, that is just a good guard from that point. And yet he's still so much less than he was pitched as when the Raptors traded for him. The self creation has been lesser, the type of dynamic playmaking has been lesser, the defense has been lesser. But on a team that can obviously supplement his ball handling with co-violent and Scotty Barnes, that needs his shooting so much and that should have his dynamic of how much do I expend on offense versus defense can maybe ask him to do a little bit more defensively and relying on his shot making as well. There's a huge opportunity for a guy like this to have just a banger of a season and he just hasn't had one of those with the Raptors yet and he has really high expectations. He got paid based on development they thought was coming and they haven't seen yet. And now he's on a team that I think considering who's on the roster, papers over his weaknesses and asks a lot of

29:30his strengths and he should be able to provide it. And if the Raptors don't get a good season for men, a manual quickly, they're going to be looking at the guard spot the whole damn time. So he is the most important to me. Look, there's a little bit more pressure on all of these guys now because the Raptors are in winning mode. You know, last year it was, hey, how much more can we get out of everybody? Of course, we're introducing B.I. into the fold and how that's going to look. But now, when you have Kauai who's in his mid-30s who can get to a top five player level who can compete against basically any other player in the NBA and any given series, you're telling your team, you're telling the front office, you're telling your fan base that you want to win a championship. And that's as much as Bobby Webster said to Kauai Leonard in that open gym video. He said, let's go get you that third chip. The expectation is to win a championship at some point in the time Kauai is here. That puts pressure on a manual quickly. That puts pressure on RJ Barrett,

30:31it puts pressure on Jakob. And to your point, Trey, some of the younger guys to make sure that they get to the level that they need to, you need to have a deep rotation. You need eight or nine guys consistently into playoff rotation to play positive minutes. Can this Raptors team get that next season? I think that's the biggest question that they have. And, you know, to kind of add to the points that you guys were talking about, I think the front court is just as much a question as perhaps all of these other ones. When you have Jakob Prattle who last year, you know, played and played, I would say not the best basketball of his career was dealing with the back injuries. Played just 46 games in the playoffs. It felt like it was very clear that columnary boils was just one, a better matchup against the Cavaliers and two could just give you more consistently. So out of the, I guess the rest of the starting lineup between a manual quickly, between RJ Barrett who's an expiring salary this season and between Jakob Prattle, which one of those

31:36guys gets traded if there is a guy, one of those guys who gets traded. I'll go to who wants to answer that first. I'll go first because I do think it is RJ Barrett. This is not me assigning value to any one of these things, but RJ being the expiring salary. RJ being the guy who in terms of projecting the future of basketball or how front offices think has the least desirable, let's say, profile of skills. And he's the easiest to trade because he's good. He just had to play off performance. He's become an objectively pretty strong offensive player. If you will get lineup data, he doesn't tank defenses really. And he's expiring another team might want to add him for size in their back court. And a manual quickly in Jakob Prattle are both on long contracts that they are currently underperforming, whereas RJ, a team might want to get him and then find a deal that they like themselves. That's probably the easiest way for them to move if they decide to do that.

32:40Yeah. I would say outside of RJ because I do agree if you would be a manual quickly. I don't think Jakob Prattle's contract is currently tradable just based on the average salary of bakes in the NBA right now. But with a manual quickly, there's a world where Jamal Shed played tons of minutes in the playoffs and was a very productive player for them. There's a world based on the way that the Raptors want to play where he takes over more minutes and they use the manual quickly's contract to create more depth throughout the team. When you smile, is there is there a robot? I just I just wanted to hear the people's champion pitch from Trayn. I won't interrupt a little kick cooking because with IQ, his contract, I do agree it's it's unhe's underperforming his contract and the expectations from the next trade. But it's a contract that runs flat and is a lower percentage of the cap every year. So there's perceived increased value the longer that it continues to go. With IQ, I wonder if he can truly sniff it in the playoffs. He yeah.

33:48Historically, he's really struggled with physicality and the way that the Raptors want to play defensively is very physical. They want to pick up guys right after a bucket. They want to be aggressive. They want to be a team that also plays very fast in transition. Jamal Shed does all of that while being a worse player. But I think IQ, if there is a need for like one of the things the Raptors probably will need is a backup big or potentially this big wing player. They don't really have that outside of koai Leonard or maybe Scotty to some degree. If they're looking at finishing touches, I think it would be him. I mean, I agree. I think I wonder if post-co-y trade the and obviously after RJ's really impressive performance that perhaps the calculus has changed just a little bit on RJ and the expiring salary. Maybe that's not true. But at the same time,

34:49you start to wonder there has been two years now of a track record of RJ Barrett to your point Simpson, like playing good positive basketball, especially as an offensive player. How much do that does that weigh into the future of this Raptors team and what they can do? And at the same time, you're right, the flexibility in order to make a trade, you have to take and give something up and RJ at this point outside of your top two duo and outside of columnary boils is likely the best piece that can get you the most. And so, yeah, I wonder what happens there. I guess the next question is maybe like, do you think that this is a team? What would have to happen on February, whatever it is for the trade deadline for this team to make a trade like that? Yeah, I think they'd have to be completely underperforming in the back court. I think it would be chickens coming home to roost from last year where the Raptors had what looks like a pretty poor

35:51defensive back court and they still had great defensive numbers. I think that they'd have to be underperforming on offense. I think both those things would have to be leading to mismatched lineups that aren't winning as much as they should. And I think it would have to make the Raptors look at, okay, we're going to make a deal here to change the back court because one, we were already concerned about, as Trey highlighted, the toughness angle in the playoffs. And two, this is the place where we can really supplement Kauai and Scotty. But and to the point of like making a change in the front court, good teams very rarely trade their centers. All the best teams are like, we need a really good big. Sometimes they have two. And one, if the Raptors can upgrade on Yaka Perl, obviously they'd like to. But they'd probably be trading with another contender who will be like, why the hell would we give this big to the Toronto Raptors when we have a playoff run of our own coming up? Guards, it can be a lot more, you can, and also there could be like a smaller guard who's

36:55a little bit out of folk who's really talented offensively that you say, maybe we take a chance on that guy. But yeah, that's kind of how I see it shaking out if it does happen. Yeah. I could see, especially if they make a back court change, if the Calcas of this team changes and Scotty is this initiator that he was in the playoffs, that changes what the responsibility of whatever is that fifth starter as a guard is and it's playing off of both Kauai and Scotty. So that, that actually happens and he's able to translate that into into the playoffs. You're then changing your expectation of what that player is and you're probably like similar to what Samson said, want someone that has a plus defender to help supplement some of the other things that Scotty would have to give up to be this big level offensive creator. So my current starting line of projection as it should be probably for both you guys is Scotty Barnes, Kauai Leonard, Jakob Perl, RJ Barrett, Emanuel quickly. And the bench guys that we have are Jamal

38:00Shad, Jakobie Walter, Columari Boils. If I had to tell you that one of those three bench guys was in the closing lineup for more than half of the games next season, which of those three would it be? CMB, I think it would have to be. Yeah. And if it's Jamal, then it would be like there was a trade. Okay. All right. All right. Great. CMB is a lock for that. So I mean, to that point, what's the expectation for Columari Boils next season? Who has, I think was was incredible. Showed everybody like the defensive potential that he has. What is the thing that you want to see from him next? Trey, I'll go with you. Yeah. My expectations for CMB are high as you guys know last year. I thought he was going to be a positive NBA player from day one, which he proved to be. I think my expectations for him is becoming a neutral to like positive offensive player. It allows the linemps to be more tenable.

39:08It allows him to potentially even play with Jakob Perl to a degree. If some of his driving prowess shows that in the way that it wasn't South Carolina, if he's able to hit open catch and shoot threes at a respectable level, if he adds any of those two things, it allows the raptors to want to have a stronger bench and it allows him to play in most of their linemps. And while being on the bench still probably playing more than Jakob Perl, I truly think he can be one of the ten most impactful bench players in the NBA. So the expectations are high. To build on Trey's point, when CMB and Jakob played together, the defense was bonkers. They're so, and because they're often playing with Scotty as well last year. And then you add Kauai this year. I mean, the size, the tenacity on the floor and the defensive IQ is through the roof. If CMB can be a guy who actually makes that tenable on the offensive side,

40:11or let's say they're not even that good in the half court, but they just get out and run often enough from how many stops and steals they get. That's a huge win for the raptors. But if he's replacing a guy like Jakob, let's say he's the the closing five, a huge dynamic would be one hitting free throws massive. He can't be in the 60s anymore. You got to get into the 70s. Second, you have to be able to make bigs really scared to defend you in space because of your driving. If bigs play too high, he should shred them. If they play too low, he now shares the court not with guys who don't take threes, but he's playing with both IQ and Brandon. And the dynamic is that if big or it's not Brandon, Kauai, and if the dynamic is if bigs play low off of CMB, all he has to do to create a wide open three for both IQ and Kauai is plant a screen. And then if the big wants to step up afterwards, you create all this huge dynamic of advantages. And it all starts from I think CMB being able to punish bigs in space. And that's not necessarily

41:13a shooting thing. That's a driving thing. So that those things loom very large for him. Yeah, we saw that a little bit in the Cav series where if they did give him space, he was willing to attack mobility or Allen and like that was especially big in the one win in Toronto. It's just about doing that against every matchup, right? And every type of player. That's the big question for CMB moving forward. Okay, time for for crystal ball predictions. I usually ask everybody to give me three predictions for their respective teams. Since it's two of you can go back and forth and then agree on a third one if you want to. Trey, you start first for us. I think for the first time in a long time, for context by the way, for context by the way, us three are going to do a awards draft. So if you do use awards as your predictions, you're kind of giving away what you're doing a little bit later. So I'll just put in that up there.

42:16This one. I think the raptors are going to have two all in VA plays for the first time in a long time. Okay, we're laughing, dude. If that's the case, the poetry podcast is already has a lot of laughing and a lot of jovial vibes. But if that's the case, we're losing it on the nightly basis. My thing, Emmanuel Quiddly shoots 41% from downtown. This is this is the year where everything coalesces where the shots drop. That'd be wonderful. He has not done better than 40% from downtown according to basketball reference yet. 39 and a half, couple seasons in a row, never cracked the 40% barrier. Okay, I like it. And then agree on a final one. Are the raptors hoisting the Lario Brian trophy. Samson, you joked about it being the first European championship in the NBA. Are they winning the trophy? Is there any other prediction? Where do you think the season ends

43:18for this raptors team? I'll let you guys discuss among yourselves. I'll pause it the idea that we can see the parade for the very first European champions on on Lake America. How nice is that everybody? So, so look, title is the is the high of highs, of course. But where does this team land in the Eastern Conference ranking was? Standing wise? What can we can we get that as a prediction? What do we think? I think they've finished second. I'm fairly confident in that. Okay. Second. Second in the East to who? I think the New York Nicks, like you have to give you have to give them that that level of respect. I think the raptors will be a team that has the potential to win the upper 50s and will probably not be the top seed just simply because they're going to load managed quiet. But I think the level of defense that this team is going to be able to play, they should be the

44:22best defense in the East potentially in the NBA that they're going to be able to bludge in teams. But the level of effort and young guys that they have and how aggressive they play, they have the perfect recipe to be a very good regular season team. Yeah. The raptors, they don't do yet one thing that helps a lot of really good regular season teams, which is just smash the hell out of that three point button. They don't have that. But what they do have is they play in transition a lot. And as I mentioned earlier in the pod, that should improve measurably with Kauai and they don't let other teams play in transition very much. And they win the turnover battle in terms of just stacking advantages to win games throughout the season, repeatable, dependable things your team does well. The raptors should put themselves in a really strong spot. Third seed, second seed, I think I'll stay with Tray on that one. I think they could be really good. Yeah. I mean, I agree and vouch for all of that. I

45:23am very fascinated to watch this team, man. I mean, as you guys know, this is going to be a wild season for the Toronto Raptors. It'll be a wild season in the Eastern Conference. There's there are going to be more than five disappointed teams this year, teams that genuinely thought they were either going to make the playoffs or get far in the playoffs or potentially even win a championship and will leave this season disappointed. That's why this is it's going to be very entertaining. And to follow, sorry, Samson, I love raptors to piston seven. Let's go get, let's go get the food out in Detroit, man. It's wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Detroit style pizza. Incredible. Incredible. Jets. Was it Jets? No buddies. Bodies. Sorry. That's what it was. I was more so about talking in the arena, you know, like the, yeah, the book, the day before the

46:25game man. Oh, man. Oh, man, the, the, the best, the best Samson folk and Travon Heath from the pull up pull up tray podcast. Thank you guys so much for tapping in with the athletic NBA daily. Thank you for talking about the Toronto Raptors. You guys do it very, very well. And absolutely, if you guys are interested in the Raptors, go make sure and listen to their podcast. They, they do it very frequently over at Raptors public. Thank you to everybody else for listening to the athletic NBA daily. We appreciate you guys as always. And thank you for waking up with us. Take care. Thanks for listening. Make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed it, drop a like, leave a rating, or let us know in the comments. Thank you guys for waking up with us.

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