I continue to be baffled by this...

I continue to be baffled by this as once again, a story that has been told for years now at this point with this Toronto Raptors team has been told once again out there on the basketball court and it involves RJ Barrett and what he continues to provide for this team and how he's kind of reflected out there and, you know, taken in by the fan base. So we'll dive into all that, including Emmanuel quickly stepping up, Colin Murray-Boyles. Interesting developments happening in the front court right now, particularly with Colin Murray-Boyles and Jakobe Pollard and just a lot of positive signs out there from game two of this year's preseason of course wins and losses don't really matter but it always feels a little bit sweeter when you get a win but there are a lot of stories there are a lot of things that we do have to bring up in this one so without further ado we just have to talk straight about it and RJ Barrett continues to deliver for the Toronto Raptors as this team as I stated right from the jump RJ Barrett you know he led the way he was out there the main dog for this group but uh the Raptors got a win 114 to 106 and when the starters were in when the starters I'm picking up the wrong starting units up there so I'll get that fixed but basically when the starters were in for the Toronto Raptors they were dominant they absolutely smoked the LA Clippers team which is great to see and a huge part of that was because of what RJ Barrett was able to do out there for this squad out there for this team in this one he had 20 points five rebounds and five assists and just 23 minutes of action shot 7-11 from the field and three of five from the three-point line and he took a lot of shots he got a lot of buckets out there from those above the break threes which is a point of emphasis for the Toronto Raptors over the course of this preseason it's been talked about a bunch they want to hoist up they want to put up more three-point shots which is a thing regarding RJ Barrett who is most effective like the most the biggest thing about his game is his ability to drive to the rim drive to the basket and all that type of stuff but i just have to say this i just have you know i'm holding the microphone here right now and i get that it's preseason i get that there are always you know overreactions underreactions to single games especially in the preseason but we don't even have Kawhi Leonard on the court Scottie Barnes played solid in this one it is what it is but continuously i hear dialogue i hear discourse I made a whole video on it yesterday about R.J. Barrett. Should he be starting? Should he not be starting? Jacoby Walter coming in and all this type of stuff. RJ Barrett continues to be the most underrated Toronto Raptor And I get it. I'm biased. I talk about not moving this guy. It feels like on every video. But continuously, consistently, R.J. Barrett shows up and he delivers. And once the Toronto Raptors have their contingent of Kawhi Leonard, of Scottie Barnes out there on this team, all of the focus all of the load is going to be on those two guys the floor is going to open up for RJ Barrett and he's showing at least today he's able to knock down the the above the break threes all that i don't get why everyone is obsessed with trading this guy getting him off this team not extending him all that type of stuff i get the Raptors have a lot of money tied up long term and that's going to make things difficult and RJ Barrett has a very tradable salary but i mean Poeltl got about 20 million dollars per year that's roughly i would assume like that's the rate that we've seen out there for these types of guys i mean 20 million dollars for RJ Barrett for a starting caliber player a guy that can get you 20 points a game on we'll see how efficient it is now with Kawhi Leonard this season I don't know I don't know the obsession with trying to get off of him and you know we do have a guy in Jacoby Walter who is very good at basketball I think is going to be a very exciting player for the Toronto Raptors going forward do not get me wrong and tonight 19 minutes wasn't like earth he plays solid defense he's very aggressive on the defensive end you know we didn't have a bad game even though the box score isn't going to show uh you know on the that he's elite or next level or anything like that but people talking about like Jacoby Walter in a season where we have those championship winning expectations and maybe I'm proven wrong and Jacoby is better defensive tonight is one of those games but like I don't know last year people underrate like the value i get high usage rate players oh it's like in the modern nba these guys aren't valid RJ Barrett still put up 19 points per game five rebounds three assists on fairly efficient shooting right 58 true shooting is nothing to scoff at it's middle of the pack out there in the nba at a 20 point per game score he saw it on defense he facilitates really well he's not a bad three-point shooter right 34 like are we sure jacoby walter are we sure the random replacement everyone has in these hypothetical trades is going to be able to pick up the load to be able to score at that rate that RJ Barrett's able to do and then also on top of it in the biggest moments in the moments where it all shined the post I know Jacoby Walter stepped up this is not me bagging on Jacoby Walter I think he's due for a breakout season but RJ averaged 24 7 and 4 out there during the playoffs and shot 39 percent from the three-point line why on earth does everyone want this guy off our team it makes no sense it makes zero sense i get the you know argue like i get the stance of where the discussion comes from but the amount of people that just pushed aside because of you know certain you know analytics and metrics and all that but like the true shooting's fine he has a high usage rate for the Toronto Raptors and is as efficient at a high usage rate you can't always project that for these other players like people just kind of write off RJ Barrett because the style of basketball is more mid-2000s or something like that it doesn't make any sense you watch the games RJ Barrett is he has his fingers in pretty well anything the Toronto Raptors do well sure he has some moments where it's a little bit ugly the game gets a little bit messy or whatever but I don't know I'm overreacting too much RJ Barrett's that guy and i'll continue to stand on that i will continue to stand on that day by day but let's talk about another good development out there from the city and it's Emmanuel Quickly who i feel like has had opportunities who has had moments where he could just take the hearts of Toronto Raptors because he's a guy you know he's a fun loving guy he's a good personality you know his teammates like him and all that but it feels like in every high leverage moment you know especially the playoffs last year he's injured he's out you know he's not playing and stuff and i feel like the jury's still out on what Emmanuel Quickly is how he is on a really good team you know it's it's just a weird case of I know he's been on this team for two years it feels like it or two years and then do we know what Emmanuel Quickley is because if we get the guy that showed up tonight over the course of this regular season and again you're not going to get five or six shooting every single game but 18, 4 and 4, 6, 8 from the field 5 and 6 from the three-point line right if we get a guy that could do that type of stuff in 19 minutes of action because we talked about how Kawhi is gonna to of course get the brunt of the defense load Scottie Barnes we know how much you know defense is focused on him with his playmaking creation all that RJ Barrett on top of it is the third option we have Emmanuel Quickley able to knock down spot up shots consistently take those at a high rate at a high volume be that floor spacer for this team we could be in for a breakout season for Emmanuel quickly and it's exactly what the Toronto Raptors need they need a guy a point guard that can space the floor it doesn't need the ball in his hands too much can execute in the pick and roll you know open up some things for his teammates and all that but can play off of Scottie Kawhi RJ and knock down open shots right a lot of above the break threes again for Emmanuel Quickley like the vision of Emmanuel Quickley is exactly what this team needs but we need him healthy and crucial moments we need him stepping up in these areas and you know not to take those frustrating like floaters and transition like Emmanuel Quickley make some annoying decisions at times which I haven't noticed over the course of preseason so far which has been been very very good so I'm very I want to be on the Emmanuel Quickley hype train I'm not there yet but I want to be there so uh you know Josh Lumbergh said this first and foremost the Raptors need Quickley to stay healthy from there Kawhi's presence should open up great looks with the roster construction they need him to take them and make them and tonight again we just took a look at the stats so i'm not the only one saying it you know the Toronto Raptors do need some shooting and from the comment section i got this new feature that we're going to be integrating in these vids but from Cots Zero it's uh the Raptors are better than uh they were before the trade but they still are missing shooting. They need an upgrade at point guard and center positions if they want to be a real contender. This current team can't compete with the 2019 Raptors. Kawhi is also eight years older in time. So this is the argument. And this is a lot of the discourse that I'm hearing as well in terms of where the Raptors need upgrades. And again, if we can't rely on Manuel quickly to stay healthy, to be out there on the basketball court in these games, completely agree. Of course, if Jaquel Purtel cannot stay healthy, I still think we need a bit more depth in the center position completely agree but if we get this version of Emmanuel Quickley and then Jamal Shed be able to come off the bench and facilitate I even like what I'm seeing from James Bradley like I he scared the heck out of me out there in summer league but hasn't looked bad at all out there in you know preseason hasn't blown off uh you know turn any crazy heads or anything like that but I like our guard rotation the center spot is something I'm going to talk about here right now but interesting comment there I'm gonna make sure you comment make sure you comment you might end up in the vids you might end up in the vids so shout out uh cod zero but basically we also have this update we have this piece of news which i think is interesting because Cole Murray-Boyles and Yak uh held down the front court together for a stretch in this game to start off the second half you know it's a a lot of it summarized here but uh Cole Murray-Boyles started the second half uh instead of Jacoby Walter and chance for Darko to see CMB and Yakko Pirtle get some reps together which he talked a bunch about in practice this week and we heard it at the start of the you know during what's called training camp and stuff. They're going to get some looks with Cole Murray-Boyles in the starting unit with Pirtle. Again, that limits your shooting a little bit compared to what you see with Jacoby Walter out there, of course, being a better three-point shooter than Cole Murray-Boyles, but they look fine. The units look fine. The Raptors went on some runs. It wasn't horrible. It wasn't super clunky. 13 points, nine rebounds, three assists out there for Cole Murray-Boyles. Four of nine shooting. There were a couple moments where the paint was a little bit clogged. I saw him take at least one three in this game, and Yakko Pirtle also looked pretty good. He looked pretty good. You know, nine points, four rebounds, one assist, three of four shooting from the field, three of six from the free throw line. Yak, you've got to learn how to shoot free throws, man. That's one thing that does have to be brought up. And there are, without a doubt, without a doubt, Jakaperto is moving better than he did last season. That is one thing that I'll stand on. I'm hearing the comments and all that stuff. You watch the game. He is not nearly as old man-itis, you know, standing up there walking around doing all that type of stuff there are moments like he's not I don't know who's a good he's calling Callum Murray Boiles guarding bigs out there or guard doing closeouts and all that right like he's not going to be that guy never will be that guy probably ever again if he ever was but basically I'm fine with this version of Jakaperto he continues this level I am going to be a-okay with it I think the Raptors are in pretty good spot but Josh Bloomberg also had a little summary in terms of assuming most of the starters are done CMB and Poeltl played eight minutes together in the three quarters and the Raptors were plus seven in those minutes six and two rebounding advantage and four six from the three-point line so you know the floor spacing was good they got their boards they got all that that is something that uh we will take a look at because we didn't get a lot of it over the course of last season you know the Raptors are most effective with just Callum Murray Boiles out there on the floor you know of course these minutes are are kind of tainted by how bad Poeltl was last season but they're plus 1.4 in terms of net rating together last year but without both they're interesting enough plus three would just Callum Murray Boiles there plus 4.4 I think this is you know these numbers in terms of the on-off metrics are heavily affected by how bad Big Yak was last season just given all the injuries and how everything played out so it'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out here now at this point and uh one thing I do want to touch on Scotty Barnes played in this game you know our top dog Kawhi gave him the Scotty Barnes team and 12 points 10 rebounds was really aggressive out there on the boards a few offensive boards in this one uh three assists 4-10 shooting like Scotty Barnes felt like he was sleepwalking in this game felt like at times it still had a pretty good performance so uh not much to say on Scotty Barnes i thought he was fine took a couple of interesting dribble pull-ups and threes so being aggressive in those areas i'm more interested in watching Scotty Barnes and games that matter rather than this one but games where this stuff really matters is you know for the bench players and who's uh getting some opportunities who's getting some minutes out there in these games and Jamal Shedd of course uh you know played in this game and 13 points one rebound two assists five and nine shooting needs to knock down his three-point shots right he scored in different areas slashing the ball pretty well you know he had four turnovers in 18 minutes which might make you pull out your hair but if you watch them a lot of them I think two passes were to Tyson Degenhardt who was kind of I don't want to say you know half-ass on a cut but you know I don't know if they were all Jamal Shedd's fault those turnovers but nonetheless Shedd is doing everything else really well but he needs to make three so that's going to continue to be the story out there for uh Jamal Shedd going forward you know you have uh Kyle Anderson Raptors uh debut didn't look good like from the stats and the eye test he made a couple of nice passes but uh you know I'm not too worried about the vets out there during preseason but didn't look great didn't look great in his minutes out there on that one and then uh basically you know we have uh we have this quote out there for regarding uh you know Kyle Anderson solves a lot of things the Toronto Raptors defense off-ball movement unselfish play uh if you're a guy like Alan Graves take notes and learn so uh that's a moment awesome but like i don't know he uh he wasn't very good out there in this game but that uh that is what it is you know and uh we got some we got some more quotes and hear me out if say let's say Alan Graves shows to be a stud the starting lineup with Scotty Barnes R.J. Kawhi, Alan Graves, and Jakob Purtle. Bench, Jamal Shedd, Emmanuel Cukor, Jacoby Walter, Anderson, and Colin Murray-Boyles. The battle is the 11th man and those. Yeah, that's an interesting starting lineup. You know, we took a look at the bench here this game, and, you know, some guys played pretty well, but, you know, Shedd impressed. Yeah, I got the, what's it called, the box score is wrong for the starters, so don't mind the actual starters out there, this box score. But off the bench, right, you know, Kyle Anderson didn't do too much. Burnett looks interesting. he'll be a G Leaguer but um Malachi Smith i really like how he plays, two of five from the field but again he's not going to be a mainstay in the rotation i don't expect Eugene Bradley had eight points in this one which is cool right i'll fix this uh this bug that i have in our uh our box score stuff going forward but i don't know it's uh the bench let me know if you agree out there in the comment section with uh let's see the name Dr. Rizzington you know mainstay out there in the comment section shout out to you but uh it's an interesting lineup like i mean i'd probably start Colin Murray Bowles over Allen Graves but if he is a stud if he is a stud it's an interesting uh lineup we could definitely be looking at but the final thing i do want to discuss out there for this game is Chuckie Hepburn exiting with a hamstring strain so this just sucks because i'm actually a big fan of Chuckie Hepburn i like his game do i have this animation i do do it does this work it does work the Chuckie Hepburn animation i haven't i don't know how many times i've used maybe like twice but uh it's he's so he was head to the locker room it looks like he tweaked his hamstring interesting player and a really good dude who missed a lot of last season recovering from knee surgery really hope whatever happened here was minor so it got confirmed he did have uh you know a hamstring strain so hopefully he's fine he's a guy that I just love the way that he plays so hopefully it's just something that you know it's precautionary he'll be fine they rest up the next couple days and he'll be good because preseason was where Chucky Hepburn can earn some opportunities can earn some moments and the Raptors organization liked him you know despite being a two-way and being injured and stuff, he got those, he got brought back. So that is one thing to bring up. You know, there were a few absences in tonight's game. No Kawhi, of course. No Allen Graves, no Trace Jackson-Davis, no Elijah Martin, no Nate Biddle. They remain out. So, you know, we had this starting lineup, but just what it is. And we got some insights out there on Kawhi's conditioning plan. So, you know, conditioning is his current focus, preparing to defend, sustain a full game. You know, the staff is progressing his workload step by step. So, interesting stuff. a lot of stuff happening out there for the Toronto Raptors right now you know there's a lot of you know a few more preseason games interesting you know enough so like today again Saturday the 10th Tuesday we play the Knicks Thursday we play the Knicks Friday we play the Pistons three games in four days in preseason is kind of insane but then the following Wednesday we get to the regular season the games that matter the stuff that we are going to be very very excited about so I'll end this thing off with a little poll I'll pose it to you guys do you think RJ Barrett gets enough respect you know is uh you heard his role type y if you do agree and type uh and if you do not down the comment section i messed up this graphic but that is what it is folks i appreciate every single one of you tuning into the videos make sure you guys hit that subscribe button so you don't miss a single thing happening with this Toronto Raptors team anyways i'm signing out