They No Longer Have Room for This...

The Toronto Raptors no longer have any room for this, have no more room for mistakes as the moment we've all been waiting for is happening tonight with the return of Kawhi Leonard and players on the team are already feeling the pressure to improve, the pressure to step up and the pressure to hold themselves to a specific standard that is going to be required, is going to be needed if the Toronto Raptors have championship expectations. So we're going to break down. the return of Kawhi Leonard tonight, but more importantly, how it's affecting the rest of the roster in a multitude of different ways and how this Raptors team is now getting held to a much higher standard because as we see it, as it's been declared, it's been made official. Kawhi Leonard is available for tonight's game against the New York Knicks. It's been confirmed, folks. Darko Rajaković confirmed it. Yes, he went through practice today. he is feeling great so Kawhi Leonard it's been known it's been stated it's been reported by a multitude of reporters and confirmed here by Darko Rajaković we are going to get the debut obviously we saw him in his Raptors threads out there in media day with the headband looking like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander but now we actually get to see him on the basketball court suiting up for this Toronto Raptors team for the first time or since he won an NBA championship and the teammates are excited basically it's going to be cool to see him uh see him out there with that first group Kawhi Leonard he's excited as well you know he's a talent uh he is who he is right there's there's a lot of folks talking about how Kawhi is going to slide in and just bring a different level of production to this Toronto Raptors team and there's no doubts about why because on the basketball court the guy averaged 28 points per game 6.3 rebounds 3.6 assists last season 63 true shooting out there for this team and had one of the best seasons of his career i continue to state this i continue to show these graphics because they are just so overwhelming what he was able to do for the Los Angeles Clippers last season and what he projects to do for the Toronto Raptors this year as he's continued to level up he's continued to improve had a healthy season last year knock on would that he'll be able to do it for the Raptors this season and he gets buckets, he knocks down threes, you know, his three opponents they knock down some shots out there, you know, his defense isn't what it was back in 2019 but still one of the best defenders in the NBA, you know, executes on the pick and roll, he's really good, he's really really good and the Toronto Raptors now have three games and four nights to get to watch Kawhi of course, will he be playing all these games I extremely doubt it, but we're all excited about how this team is going but you know there's been people raising some concerns, some stuff you know regarding uh this team as uh Gabby Williams, Gabby Williams is saying that with Kawhi I believe this team will be able to compete against any team in the NBA my only concern going into this season is this group's inability to shoot threes, many may not agree but teams that do well or even go on to win it all always have multiple players that can shoot three-point shots and Gabby brings up a great point and players on this Raptors team are starting to feel it as well and this is a very good thing and I'm going to start this off because Jamal Campbell's going to be the main central focus of this theme of this video but as everyone knows I'm a Campbell head, I love Jamal Campbell, he's probably him and RJ Barrett, my two favorite Toronto Raptors we have out there on the squad, not saying they're our two best but the two guys that uh cut deepest into my soul, but Jamal Campbell's addressing the pressure and addressing the changes he needs to make to his game this season in order to be on this Raptors squad that has aspirations of winning an NBA championship and he was pretty blunt, he was pretty blunt in some of the things that he said my rim finishing has to be better from last year, point blank period and that's pretty direct that is fairly direct in terms of what Jamal Murray has to improve on and you know his efficiency out there in a lot of different areas needs to get better right he shot 57% in restricted area field goal percentage last season which is in the bottom 10% out there in the NBA and overall his efficiency was just really really bad in the bottom 3% in the NBA in terms of true shooting percentage needs to get better in all those areas we know he's an elite playmaker we know he's an elite defender but if you're going to be out there on the court for a team that you know Jamal Murray is going to be crucial for the rotation for uh the development for the literally for the Raptors to be able to get wins Jamal Shedd is a crucial piece to this Raptors squad he's going to be getting heavy minutes out there for this team he needs to be better at efficiently scoring the basketball you can play make all you want you can play defense but you need all round players out there for this team and Jamal Murray is taking it very very serious he's saying I'd rather have it be now talking about the grind of this season than be running into it for the first time seven or eight games when all of our legs are not used to it he's talking about the the back-to-back games during pre-season but this is a common theme out there in this interview that he gave talking about how he's locked in he wants to improve in all these different areas in the grind it's all already begun and the Raptors are already buying into all of this and we know how good Jamal Murray is can be at least i do because i've been spouting the propaganda for a very very long time last season six points per game 5.4 assists which is in the top 10 for a guy that only a top 10 top 7 in the NBA for a guy that only played 22 minutes per night that's ridiculous that is an elite playmaker right there you can't really talk about you know counterfact that he was plus 2.8 in terms of plus minus top 20 in the NBA again limited minutes so despite the poor shooting despite the the inefficiency in terms of putting the ball on the court he is a player that impacts winning he is a player that does things out there on the basketball court to uh level up and now if you can get more efficient if you can work things around the edges then that's what Jamal Shedd is focused on he is going to be a crucial piece and that contract is going to look like a steal that he signed out there this uh this summer i guess this fall is a few weeks a couple weeks ago last week the dates are flying by but you know he's going to be paid eight million dollars annually for the next three seasons following this one Jamal Shedd he is a guy that's going to be crucial and he is locked into you know buying in this new role as the team uh looks to looks to level up right like last season a lot of areas Jamal Shedd needs to level up but the playoffs he uh improved his scoring around the basket so we see a gradual development there uh it's above the break three field above the break three point field goal percentage that increased a little bit so he is moving in the right direction out there for this stuff and the small sample size was very poor his free throw shooting out there in the playoffs but i'm confident Jamal Shedd is going to take that next step take that next step he needs to improve his rim finishing we talked about learning from Jalen Brunson out there in that interview and he wants to maintain his elite passing and elite playmaking so that's all really really exciting stuff and he had some interesting comments regarding Colin Murray Boiles as uh you know talking about the shooting and addressing the comment that i made earlier but Colin's as he can shoot Colin's uh as can dribble he could do everything a guard does he just has to get used to doing it again so he's talking about how Colin Murray Boiles did it before and then came to the NBA obviously your role changes when you come to the league but it'll be interesting because of course the shooting obviously we talked about primarily at Jamal Shead needing to improve its efficiency especially scoring around the basket but the three-point shooting the floor spacing is going to be crucial as well especially where Darko Rajkov which is running these different lineups and this has been a common theme in my last few videos because it continues to be a common theme and the quotes in the actual actions from the coaching staff from the players about the decisions that we're making we're getting some more insights in terms of what uh the Raptors are doing here right now he says i think there's lots of upsides uh to playing Purtle as well as Colin Murray Boiles playing together but i think it's going to be a work in progress so this is something we're going to witness we're going to see throughout the course of this preseason and of course during the regular season and Jamal Shedd just said he has to slow it down referring to Colin Murray-Boyles playing a different role playing more on the wing versus you know staggered lineups where he's the de facto big man and Scotty Barnes talked about the different fit with these players but obviously we just got to go out and keep finding our spacing and how it's going to work so CMB last season we look at the playoffs he didn't take any three-point shots and you look the guy can't shoot he did shoot 34% from behind the three-point line this season I know whether it was the Heat game or the Clippers game he took one three-point shot that was extremely confident which I don't know if he even made it or not but just the confidence he took in taking one of those three-point shots where at times he was given the Ben Simmons treatment last season and left on an island it has me encouraged it has me encouraged about the the ability for him to improve out there as a three-point shooter and you know space the floor because it's something the Toronto Raptors are desperately going to need the team was 26th in the NBA last season in three points made you know the free throw shooting was really really bad but of course they facilitate they have turnovers and stuff but they need to be able to knock down shots and for the big man options i won't rehash this because i've been diving into this it feels like every single video but uh you know the raptors they they have some pieces now at the big man spot that they're gonna have to make some decisions especially where CMB and Jak Pertle are gonna play a bunch of minutes together we'll trace jackson davis step up will nate biddle be a reliable guy to stay healthy we have trey jemisin i need to get andre jackson jr off these graphics because we have jamarian sharp who's going to be fighting for different uh spots out there and there's a bunch of discourse there's a bunch of chatter about the lineups and everything that's going on i saw this one which i found was fairly interesting from Jak DPOI of course a legend out there in the comment section saying i know it sounds crazy but RJ Barrett being the M a Manu Ginobili of this team coming off the bench can finish games would solve a ton of creation for the bench have him and shed come in with Kawhi or Scottie around uh and you're doing a much better in these bench roles i think i touched on this in a video i wasn't sure it was you Jak DPOI but now i got the graphic we got the new new animations getting things better but uh i i'm still of the belief and you know i've i've stood on business with this i think RJ Barrett is a most underrated player i want to keep him on the roster and benching him in a contract year might be a crazy thing to do just for the personality like for the specific player especially where you haven't extended him just yet for the Toronto Raptors but I don't hate this I think regardless if you start him or not this logic does have to be applied to stagger those minutes in order to make sure we're getting that creation but that is a you know a good point there and the final thing you know I've touched on this a little bit but the Raptors do have three games of four nights which is a micro drama out there of pre season right now I brought up the schedule I brought up the tab a little bit earlier out there in the video and you see it we play the Knicks tonight we play the Knicks on Thursday and then we play the Detroit Pistons on Friday and then the regular season returns 21st next Wednesday well weird to have a bunch of games squished together out there in preseason but Darko Ryakovic did comment on this saying the schedule is the schedule and all we can do as coaches is just adjust to it uh Scotty Barnes saying uh you know we want to get better and it's going to help us better prepare for the season and Jamal Murray we touched on a quote from him earlier but so it's good to get it out of the way now and uh feel get a feel for our bodies I don't think it's as dramatic as some people are really talking about everyone's being asked about it it's preseason the star players probably are only going to play a few minutes anyways they're training and practicing every single day regardless I'm not sold on this actually mattering but uh hopefully nothing you know knock on wood that everyone stays healthy everyone's in a good spot over the course of preseason and honestly i'm just ready for the regular season to start so we can start watching this meaningful basketball but you guys the best thing is to subscribe to the channel if you guys haven't already anyways i'm signing out