This has to be addressed...

This needs to be addressed, as the Toronto Raptors came out and lost another game tonight, this one against the Philadelphia 76ers. They had a big lead, they lost it once again, RJ was fantastic in this one after being bad against the Celtics, the bench was bad in this one after being good against the Celtics, and nonetheless, it's another L in the loss column. And I had a script for this, again, you guys have noticed I've had edited videos, you know, edits, the stats, everything you can imagine. No one really cares about the Toronto Raptors right now after losing a game in this. This isn't what the discourse is really about regarding this Toronto Raptors squad. Like, we can take a look and break down, you know, the analysis, the stats, the numbers, RJ 31 and 14, write a manual quickly, a decent game in this one, 26 points, 3 of 7 shooting, all that type of stuff. But that's not what's really being talked about right now is the Toronto Raptors are two games below 500 and... You know, they're losing ground out there in an Eastern Conference, which is a bloodbath. And I'm not blaming anyone for coming out here and being frustrated about this team. This is not me going on a tirade against the fan base and trying to spew my positivity or whatever the heck, you know, my homerisms, my biases and all that out there on this video. But I want to make something clear. I think it's better in a long winded rant and something that's scripted and cut up and And all that type of stuff, because the Toronto Raptors. made a decision this offseason. They looked at the roster that they had last year, and there's a ton of young talent out there on the squad. Bobby Webster has talked about it this entire summer. Guys like Jamal Shead stepping up, Jamison Battle being effective in the playoffs, Jacoby Walter looking like he's elevated this game. Are these guys all-stars? No. Are these guys even reliable starters just yet on a really competitive team? Probably not. Jacoby Walter, if he's going to be a multi-level scorer, he needs to get better finishing at the rim, finishing off the dribble, and not just being a really good on-ball defender and three-point shooter. He wants to be that starting level guy. There's areas of his game he has to improve and has to be more consistent with. Jamal Shead is one of the best playmakers I've ever seen in a Toronto Raptors uniform. I'm standing on that, and that's a skill you want to invest in. And that's why Bobby Webster did it in this offseason, giving him a contract, which I think was very Very reasonable, $8 million per year for a guy. That's going to be a consistent rotation player at the minimum. That is huge. But Shed can't shoot the basketball. We saw it, especially in that game the other day. And like, again, you can take a look at the stats out there in this one. He has some nights where it's solid, where it's not too bad, but he can't be relied upon as one of these top tier scorers or anything like that. Like one of seven, one of four from the three point line in this game. Still five assists, still lots of defense, but people are getting frustrated with Jacoby, with Shed. With all these different dudes, and RJ of course had a good game in this one, which is great, which is fantastic, but then I see people talking about trading RJ as soon as you know he has a game like he did against the Boston Celtics, where I don't even think he was that horrible in that one either, but he's also on the defensive, like, I don't even want to talk about this game, but the Raptors made a decision in the offseason, they said, hey, the role players out there on this team, we believe in them enough to invest in this squad, To trade future draft picks. And make a decision to take a risk. And the Toronto Raptors knew what they were doing with the risk that they took. As they acquired Kawhi Leonard in the offseason. This was expected. Kawhi Leonard is not going to be able to play every single night. Kawhi Leonard probably at best is playing 55-60 games this year, and that is at best. That is without a structural injury that you know he avoided out there with his current knee issue. That is without anything dramatic. That is the game plan. This is what the Toronto Raptors signed up for. The Toronto Raptors have faced off against the Boston Celtics yesterday. Yes, it's an aggravating loss. They should have won that game. They were up super big, but they played really good defense against the Boston Celtics, better than they did tonight, and came out and were up big and kept the Celtics under 100 points. I felt positive after that game, and I saw the comment section disagreeing with me a lot, and that's fine. I'm not calling out anyone that's disagreeing with my takes. That's all well and good, but I gotta say what I believe is the truth of this team. The Raptors were a squad that last season, the reality is, last season, anyone that watched this team, anyone that looked at this team knew exactly what the problem with the Toronto Raptors was last year. They could beat up on any bad team in the league. Do you know why? Because they play with a lot of fight, they play with a lot of tenacity, and that's what Darko Rajković instilled in this Raptors group. That's what they do. That's why they had such a good record against bad teams. Talent wise and especially closing against the better teams out there in the league and not even closing what it takes to beat a good team because the Raptors have good players, but the difference between a good team, you know, that beats up on bad teams and a great team that can beat up on teams that are good is. Great teams end up going on these runs. Yesterday, you saw it with the Boston Celtics. They were having a bad night. The Raptors were playing really good defense. But even though the Raptors went on a run, they answered. And I was impressed. The Toronto Raptors answered back. You know, bad teams just kind of collapse out there at that point. But the Raptors answered back, which was good. But realistically, when those other teams go on a hot stretch, and you could be playing at the NBA level, the grade school level, anyone that's played basketball knows how much mental basketball is, right? Hit a couple of shots. I played a men's league game. That's why I've been streaming all these Raptors games at the same time as my men's league game. We were down, me, Nick, Gus, all the Digest Media folks, down by 27. And then we came back because we went on a run. The other team went on a run. This team went on a run. Obviously, we're not that great, but that is what it is. But basketball is a game of runs. And what the best players in the league do, because honestly, you look at a guy like Brandon Ingram, who was on this roster last year. Brandon Ingram is an extremely talented basketball player. No one calls him a superstar. No one calls him that tier of Kawhi Leonard that's even at Kawhi's age right now. And why the heck was that? Why was Kyle Lowry, who in a lot of people's eyes, wasn't that talented? You know, he wasn't that shifty, you know, the bag is incredible, all that type of stuff. What do the best players, what do those guys that have that next different gear about them, what do they do for your squad? It's when the other team's going on a run. When the momentum, when everyone's feeling good, when everything is rocking, when everything is going great, superstars, the top level players at top level talent is able to halt that run for the other team, whether it's the clutch, whether it's the first quarter, whether it's the third quarter, whatever it is, that's what the best players in the NBA do. The Toronto Raptors took a risk. They made a decision this summer because there wasn't a lot of options out there on the market. And if Bobby Webster sat there on his hands and didn't make a move, and didn't make a trade, and wasn't able to acquire one of these big names, one of these big players, right? Everyone would be way more infuriated. Like that's just the reality. So Bobby Webster went out and got the best player on the market. I know Jalen Brown was another guy that they probably could have got to look at the price, but honestly, I don't think the Boston Celtics would have wanted Brandon Ingram back. I think they were happier with Paul George. They had those draft picks and stuff, but nonetheless, I'm not speculating about what the Raptors offer was compared to the Sixers offer. That's not there, and personally, I'm not that enthused by giving Jalen Brown an extension of that caliber. I think Kawhi is a much better player than Jalen Brown. No disrespect to Jalen Brown. I digress. The Raptors went out and got the best player. Are there warts to Kawhi Leonard? Yes. He's injury prone. He sits out. You have moments like this where you don't know what the heck is going on regarding his injury. That is the price that comes with this top 10 level talent. That is the price you've paid to have a guy out there on your roster that is able to change the game in the ways that we've needed in order to beat those upper echelon teams. So coming out right now. And the Raptors, it's unfortunate. They got killed by the schedule to start off this season. Like, we can pull it up here. Like, we can take a direct look at this. The time of year for Kawhi Leonard to be out right now is just brutal, right? You face off against the Lakers, one of the best teams in the NBA. You face off against the Nuggets, who have Nikola Jokic, bad matchup with the Raptors. You face up against the Grizzlies, who have been really hot to start off the season. Then you face off against probably the three best teams in the Eastern Conference right now, especially when your team isn't healthy. The four best teams. You have the Wizards in there as a mix, but you face the Celtics, you face the Sixers, you face the Knicks twice, and I'm going to be at that game on Sunday, and you face the Pistons. You face all of these different teams out there while you're missing your top two guys. The Raptors were a team last year that were unable to beat the best teams in the league when they had Brandon Ingram, and even when they had Scottie Barnes. They just weren't very good at beating the upper echelon squads. How they fixed that in the offseason was trading for Kawhi Leonard, and being aware he's not going to play a bunch of these games. It's the expectation that the Toronto Raptors are going to come out and run, not just, you know, the team without Kawhi, but without Scottie Barnes as well, without a bunch of players out there in some of these lineups. The expectation and the thought process that this team is a failure, fire Darko Rajaković, fire Bobby Webster, this team is scrubs, this, by losing some of these games out there in November is just evaluating and judging this roster the wrong way. In my opinion, the Raptors are going to be tested. The time when at least I, I'm not blaming anyone, it's sports. I care about the things you care about. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not coming out here and roasting us. I respect people that are disgusted by Kawhi Leonard and the load managing and people that want to, you know, you got to play through every game. You're going to pay that much money. You fight through it. You figure it out. I respect those types of people. Like, this is not me trashing on those types of people. Do I agree? No, because I want the Raptors to win championships. And I think resting a guy out there in November makes sense, even if it puts you in a little bit of a hole to start off the year. But I'm not saying those people that disagree are wrong. We are going to evaluate what the Toronto Raptors did, the decision that they made in the offseason. We have to judge how this team plays. Forget even, like, Scottie Barnes, because Scottie Barnes being out in this one just really crushes the Raptors' hopes of being a really competitive team. And, like, if the Celtics were without Jason Tatum and Derek White, if the Sixers in this one were without Tyrese Maxey, I know LeBron's there, but, like, LeBron's their fourth best player. If they were without Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid or Jalen Brown, that team is not nearly as good. And the same thing, especially with the Raptors, they're so top-heavy. The Raptors aren't built to win these games. And if we're judging this squad on that, It's, it's not an accurate reflection of what the team is trying to build. It's not an accurate reflection on how this team is. And like, we are going to sack these games, be frustrated about a team that couldn't beat above 500 teams last year. And then the solution that they had is not playing yet. You know, this. I'm not getting worried about this right now. This is, you know, we were so excited. We were so amped up. We were pumped when we acquired Kawhi Leonard out there in the off season. And we did it because we know when Kawhi's in the lineup, even though there's going to be stretches, and there were stretches in 2019, when we had some injuries, I remember there was a specifically, I think it was in December, Kawhi was out for a few games and Kyle Lowry missed a couple as well or something. And Kyle Lowry was frustrated. There was a couple of injuries going on similar to what was happening right now. And it looked bad. And there was quotes that came out about, especially there was a time in the year, and this is definitely the time of the year, because Kyle Lowry's still mad about DeRozan. They weren't winning games. All of that stuff was happening all at once. And that 2019 team looked like a disaster behind the scenes. And they bounced back. That's why Leonard played. Once your top two guys are relatively healthy, you figure it out. And that team won an NBA championship. We lived through that. That was crazy. It was like seven years ago. It's ridiculous to just say. We lived through that. We saw that day by day. And to be here now, and all the Kawhi Leonard trades of failure, fire Bobby, fire Darko, fire all this. And we haven't seen it against a good team. And Kawhi has, you know, if Kawhi tears his ACL, knock on wood, nothing crazy dramatic happens like that. It's a risk and it ends up being a failure. Of course, I'm not going to argue with anyone. If this is a part of the plan, you're load managing Kawhi. This is what you set out to do. And people are frustrated here at now at this point. I'm just not jumping on that band. No matter how much I get roasted out there in the comment section, I'm not jumping on the bandwagon I want Kawhi to come back soon, because you can't dig yourself too much of a hole. This isn't the 2019 Raptors. They don't have Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry, Marcus Sull, Jonas Valanciunas before you had Marcus Sull. They don't have that depth of veteran talent that they had back in 2019, of course. They're more top-heavy than they were back then. This team can just continue to beat up on the bad team. Like, with Kawhi Leonard out, if this team starts losing to the, you know, looking at the schedule coming up, if we end up losing games, dropping games, to the likes of the Brooklyn Nets, to the likes of the Milwaukee Bucks, you know, these games that we have coming up here, you know, the following week, if we lose that Wizards game, that's when I'm going to be nervous, that's when I'm going to be frustrated, and that's when I'm going to be really judging Bobby Webster for not putting a team that's competent enough to beat the teams that are actively losing. That's when there's reason to be extremely fired up. The other time to be very fired up is when Kawhi Leonard's back and we face off against the other good teams. You made a decision. You made a bet with Kawhi Leonard wearing those Raptors threads. And of course, Scottie Barnes out there being in the mix. But most importantly, it's Kawhi. Most importantly, it is Kawhi. You would be not just better than the Raptors team when they had Brandon Ingram, but you would be able to have Kawhi's clutch ability, you know, the poise that Kawhi Leonard has. You don't have to explain this to any Toronto Raptors fan. He might not be able to do the production, the volume that he did back in, you know, Prime Kawhi 2019, but he still is that dominant animal, robot, whatever you want to call it, that is able to pick apart the best teams in the NBA. If you can't win with him in the lineup, then there's reason for revolt. We have not seen that tested yet, and I'm not going to be too down on this Toronto Raptors team until that's against them. Let me know if you agree. I've had a lot of videos. Back to the rant. But this one will be back for a regular scheduled program. I'm going to Toronto for this Knicks game out there on Sunday. So I got a couple pre-recorded. I got a couple of it's coming for you. You know, the trade scenarios and all that type of stuff. But I just want to reserve my, you know, unless there's specific individuals being really, really bad on the court. But I'm not that disappointed in really anyone that played in this game. Honestly, I thought it was fine. I thought the Raptors did probably as good as they could have. Ideally, you get good performances from everyone. You shock a lot of teams. But there's a reason the word shock exists. That's, you know. It's surprising. So it's not surprising what's happening right now. And this is what we signed up for. And it's something I'm happy we signed up for. I'm excited to sign up for it. Now, if we're losing to bad teams, or we have Kawhi Leonard, Scottie Barnes in the lineup, and we can't beat the good teams, that's a different score. That's a different discussion. That'll be for another week. Subscribe to the channel. I'm signing out. I have a flight at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning. I gotta go to bed. Cheers.