Bobby Webster Press Conference Today (First as the Boss)

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

What are you suggesting we should do instead?

If I was Darko and I was trying to win the most games possible - I’d play

Shead/8th man Martin
IQ/6th man RJ
Ingram/7th man Ohchai
Scottie/CMB
Poeltl/Mamo

Walker is on the outside looking in at 9 and Gradey behind him at 10 with room to grow if his def comes around. Walker room to grow to if he can finish at the rim and create more. If I couldn’t change the roster that’s how I’d play it.

I can't think of anything that Shead does better than RJ. Like not even defense. Shead did not have a good rookie season on both sides.

No worries, if you disagree but I see a future lead guard there. A leader. He’s just year 2 and I have him starting now more because of our roster than him currently being a bona fide starting pg. I just don’t think IQ is a true pg. I think he’s a 2 or sixth man scorer.

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

…

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

What are you suggesting we should do instead?

If I was Darko and I was trying to win the most games possible - I’d play

Shead/8th man Martin
IQ/6th man RJ
Ingram/7th man Ohchai
Scottie/CMB
Poeltl/Mamo

Walker is on the outside looking in at 9 and Gradey behind him at 10 with room to grow if his def comes around. Walker room to grow to if he can finish at the rim and create more. If I couldn’t change the roster that’s how I’d play it.

Starting Shead probably destroys our offense. Leaves us with 2 plus shooters in IQ and Ingram. We’d be one of the worst 3pt shooting teams and we’d get zero rim pressure. No amount of defensive lift that Shead might give us would be able to compensate for how bad our offense would be.

Martin has done nothing to deserve 8th man minutes. Most rookies have defensive issues and we have no idea if his shooting will translate. Martin is an 2nd round small 3+D pg. It’s 50/50 he ever becomes a real NBA player. I just can’t see him filling the 8th man role this year.

Shead shot over 30% from 3 in his first year at nba 3 pt range, I think he can improve his 3pt shooting. I already think he brings intensity and toughness motor and he can initiate the offense. IQ to me, is finisher not creator in our offense - I don’t want to have Scottie as the defacto pg (although I’d lean into using those skills a lot).


As I see Quick as a sg or 6th man - I just have martin at 8th as a back up pg - even though there would not be much minutes for him. You are right - he hasn’t shown anything.

[Raps in 4]

My 4 take aways from this.

RJ is a goner.
They 100% know that Scottie doesn’t have the ability to be a #1.
A big trade will happen this season.
A lot of pressure on Shead and Gradey to provide real nba positive minutes.

I haven't kept up with Raptors news so I'm late to the party, but this is very promising.

[PushDaRock]

We have a pretty good idea of what each starter is individually. We know the 1-3 isn’t going to give us much defense. We know the 4/5 isn’t going to give us any spacing. We don’t have a high level creator for others. Every starter is either average or below average efficiency for this position. Average efficiency across the board, no real floor raiser for others, poor shooting at 2/5 positions. It’s not unreasonable to project a middling offense.

Same with defense. Only Barnes and Poeltl are pluses. We plan to move the ball on offense. That creates turnovers which hurts our defense. It’s possible we can be better than average on this end if Barnes takes a leap to all-defense level.

Bench development will probably factor more into our successes (or disappointments) while trying to project what this team will be.

What are you suggesting we should do instead?

If I was Darko and I was trying to win the most games possible - I’d play

Shead/8th man Martin
IQ/6th man RJ
Ingram/7th man Ohchai
Scottie/CMB
Poeltl/Mamo

Walker is on the outside looking in at 9 and Gradey behind him at 10 with room to grow if his def comes around. Walker room to grow to if he can finish at the rim and create more. If I couldn’t change the roster that’s how I’d play it.

Yeah, I would say this is why you're not an NBA coach.

Playing IQ at the 2 to guard bigger players is a good idea?

Playing Shead's 50 TS% is a good idea if you're not trying to score maybe?

Martin in the rotation as a backup PG?

[VanWest82]

I’m down on Barnes but I think he still has upside.

He's going to be the 4th option. If you don't believe he can be an effective part of an offense in that role, surrounded by other good offensive players, then you're definitely on the low end of the curve for Scottie. He's going to cut out off-the-dribble 3s, make his C&S, and drive and make a play on nights when his shot isn't dropping. He's still going to be a mack truck in transition, and his effort should be more consistent on a competitive team. Yeah, we disagree on Scottie. This is coming from someone who said we'd never draft him because he was such a pretend-PG project, but he brings a lot to the table when engaged, yes even on offense, despite jump shot inconsistency.

[ConSarnit]

If I was Darko and I was trying to win the most games possible - I’d play

Shead/8th man Martin
IQ/6th man RJ
Ingram/7th man Ohchai
Scottie/CMB
Poeltl/Mamo

Walker is on the outside looking in at 9 and Gradey behind him at 10 with room to grow if his def comes around. Walker room to grow to if he can finish at the rim and create more. If I couldn’t change the roster that’s how I’d play it.

Starting Shead probably destroys our offense. Leaves us with 2 plus shooters in IQ and Ingram. We’d be one of the worst 3pt shooting teams and we’d get zero rim pressure. No amount of defensive lift that Shead might give us would be able to compensate for how bad our offense would be.

Martin has done nothing to deserve 8th man minutes. Most rookies have defensive issues and we have no idea if his shooting will translate. Martin is an 2nd round small 3+D pg. It’s 50/50 he ever becomes a real NBA player. I just can’t see him filling the 8th man role this year.

Shead shot over 30% from 3 in his first year at nba 3 pt range, I think he can improve his 3pt shooting. I already think he brings intensity and toughness motor and he can initiate the offense. IQ to me, is finisher not creator in our offense - I don’t want to have Scottie as the defacto pg (although I’d lean into using those skills a lot).


As I see Quick as a sg or 6th man - I just have martin at 8th as a back up pg - even though there would not be much minutes for him. You are right - he hasn’t shown anything.

Shead is a poor shooter. 32% is terrible for a point guard. He was a terrible shooter in college too. He hasn’t shown he can be trusted to initiate the offense.

8th men are generally getting 20mpg+. Even if they are flawed Walter and Dick have shown way more than Martin as far as deserving minutes. On a whole there are maybe 1-2 2nd round rookies per year who are neutral impact players. The odds of Martin being a capable rotation player this year are almost zero.

I think your rotation choices would severely compromise this team.

[ConSarnit]

I’m down on Barnes but I think he still has upside.

He's going to be the 4th option. If you don't believe he can be an effective part of an offense in that role, surrounded by other good offensive players, then you're definitely on the low end of the curve for Scottie. He's going to cut out off-the-dribble 3s, make his C&S, and drive and make a play on nights when his shot isn't dropping. He's still going to be a mack truck in transition, and his effort should be more consistent on a competitive team. Yeah, we disagree on Scottie. This is coming from someone who said we'd never draft him because he was such a pretend-PG project, but he brings a lot to the table when engaged, yes even on offense, despite jump shot inconsistency.

Remove the first 2.5 months of the ‘23/24 season and care to guess what Barnes shoots on C&S for his career?

30%

Outside of a 25 game hot streak he’s been terrible as a C&S player.

Here are his transition stats by year:

‘23/24: 29th percentile
‘24/25: 25th percentile

He’s not good in transition.

Driving: Barnes shoots 46% on drives for his career. That is not a good number. League average is around 49%. He’s bad at scoring off of drives.

The things you think he’s going to do to improve his offense are things he’s also not good at. It’s not as bad as his 3pt shooting but it’s still below average almost across the board.

The risk is this: the less he has the ball the fewer passing opportunities he has. If he’s not passing he’s not making up for it by scoring efficiently from really anywhere. His best offensive skill is passing. As that gets marginalized he becomes even less valuable on offense. He hasn’t shown he can do the off-ball things that help a team.

[VanWest82]

I’m down on Barnes but I think he still has upside.

He's going to be the 4th option. If you don't believe he can be an effective part of an offense in that role, surrounded by other good offensive players, then you're definitely on the low end of the curve for Scottie. He's going to cut out off-the-dribble 3s, make his C&S, and drive and make a play on nights when his shot isn't dropping. He's still going to be a mack truck in transition, and his effort should be more consistent on a competitive team. Yeah, we disagree on Scottie. This is coming from someone who said we'd never draft him because he was such a pretend-PG project, but he brings a lot to the table when engaged, yes even on offense, despite jump shot inconsistency.

Remove the first 2.5 months of the ‘23/24 season and care to guess what Barnes shoots on C&S for his career?

30%

Outside of a 25 game hot streak he’s been terrible as a C&S player.

Here are his transition stats by year:

‘23/24: 29th percentile
‘24/25: 25th percentile

He’s not good in transition.

Driving: Barnes shoots 46% on drives for his career. That is not a good number. League average is around 49%. He’s bad at scoring off of drives.

The things you think he’s going to do to improve his offense are things he’s also not good at. It’s not as bad as his 3pt shooting but it’s still below average almost across the board.

The risk is this: the less he has the ball the fewer passing opportunities he has. If he’s not passing he’s not making up for it by scoring efficiently from really anywhere. His best offensive skill is passing. As that gets marginalized he becomes even less valuable on offense. He hasn’t shown he can do the off-ball things that help a team.

As even Poeltl has shown, one can still be a good passer and impact the offense without being the primary initiator, and it's not like Scottie won't get some creation chances. But teams don't make guys who struggle in shot creation their lead ball handlers / initiators. That's the least likely outcome here.

You're on record that Scottie basically sucks offensively outside of passing as you've now explained at length in great detail. I'm on record that he's going to play better on a team with more good options. I guess we'll see who's right.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Not all of these players are new to the league- we have a good idea what they do and don’t do. Why do we need to prove an ingredient doesn’t work in a recipe - you don’t need to put a bunch of poor shooter to space the floor and see how it pans out.

I’d love to be more excited for this year than I am. I’m not in panic - but this isn’t a roster that meshes with the expectations they’re selling. It’s like shrug, oh well. I mean if we falter can you blame Darko - or was he not given the pieces to play how he wants to play? Because as much as I don’t think Darko is a great coach, he’d be correct to say the roster had holes at pg, 3pt shooting and defense- which I would say are currently the most important for winning. And I just don’t know why? Why can’t we move players to make a better fit. If we can’t find takers for their contracts, why do we start them? Why doesn’t a team that had Fred and Kyle understand the value of the point guard? What about IQ says he’s that kind of player and leader and not just a mist-cast Shooting Guard? I’m annoyed because there are pieces, but leadership not enough deliberate action takes place. I like Walker, CMB Shead - from what I see of Gradey he doesn’t shoot well enough to make up for his defensive shortcomings. It’s hard work, but we used to have like the top paid gm to make that happen. When he didn’t I didn’t mind criticizing him. I’ll do the same with Bobby, even if he’s not a top paid gm. I suspect he knows if he’s got a roster and payroll that matches where we are trying to go and I don’t believe we do. We have a ascending roster and a descending cap sheet. We need to cut money by the end of the year - does that sound like a team that looking to sneak in to the playoffs and build? It sounds like it knows it ain’t - so I think he should fix it. Whether it’s moving RJ, IQ, Scottie - there should be no untouchables. My fear is we have unmoveables, which I complained about at the time.

If there are no untouchables on the roster, why would we be optimizing for fit?

It's actually a good place to be, because if it flops they can open it up without Masai's influence and make bigger decisions. If it succeeds, they really only have to make one small cap move.

[ConSarnit]

He's going to be the 4th option. If you don't believe he can be an effective part of an offense in that role, surrounded by other good offensive players, then you're definitely on the low end of the curve for Scottie. He's going to cut out off-the-dribble 3s, make his C&S, and drive and make a play on nights when his shot isn't dropping. He's still going to be a mack truck in transition, and his effort should be more consistent on a competitive team. Yeah, we disagree on Scottie. This is coming from someone who said we'd never draft him because he was such a pretend-PG project, but he brings a lot to the table when engaged, yes even on offense, despite jump shot inconsistency.

Remove the first 2.5 months of the ‘23/24 season and care to guess what Barnes shoots on C&S for his career?

30%

Outside of a 25 game hot streak he’s been terrible as a C&S player.

Here are his transition stats by year:

‘23/24: 29th percentile
‘24/25: 25th percentile

He’s not good in transition.

Driving: Barnes shoots 46% on drives for his career. That is not a good number. League average is around 49%. He’s bad at scoring off of drives.

The things you think he’s going to do to improve his offense are things he’s also not good at. It’s not as bad as his 3pt shooting but it’s still below average almost across the board.

The risk is this: the less he has the ball the fewer passing opportunities he has. If he’s not passing he’s not making up for it by scoring efficiently from really anywhere. His best offensive skill is passing. As that gets marginalized he becomes even less valuable on offense. He hasn’t shown he can do the off-ball things that help a team.

As even Poeltl has shown, one can still be a good passer and impact the offense without being the primary initiator, and it's not like Scottie won't get some creation chances. But teams don't make guys who struggle in shot creation their lead ball handlers / initiators. That's the least likely outcome here.

You're on record that Scottie basically sucks offensively outside of passing as you've now explained at length in great detail. I'm on record that he's going to play better on a team with more good options. I guess we'll see who's right.

I don’t think it fair to equate Poeltl’s and Barnes role in the offense. Poeltl is a great screener and roll man. He does the things you’d want a big man to do. Poeltl is by and large a finisher. Even if he wasn’t a good passer he’d still have utility as a screener/roller and good finisher. If Barnes is going to play PF we need more wing skills (shooting) then we need from Poeltl. If Barnes starts screening and rolling more that would be great. He’s shown solid results as a roll man (even in a smaller sample size). My worry is the opportunities won’t exist all that much when sharing the floor with Poeltl/Mogbo/CMB. Barnes would be much better suited playing with a spacing C (hopefully Mamu is playable). I’m sure his drive numbers would improve if Poeltl’s defender wasn’t waiting for him in the paint. His efficiency would also increase as a roll man who is a good passing threat (defenders couldn’t cheat).

And the bolded are 2 completely different arguments.

Of course he should play better surrounded by better players. He should take less difficult shots and face lesser defenders. That doesn’t necessarily mean the results will be “good”, just “better”. I hope as much as anyone the results will be good. I have some small hope given that his best stretch of play came early in his 3rd year when he had less defensive attention (playing with Siakam). My confidence is not overly high given what we’ve seen over 4 seasons.

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

We fired Masai yes - but otherwise sat out the summer as far as any major moves or decisions. I guess this is why I’m feeling uninspired by the opening of camp.

Let’s see what happens.

[ATLTimekeeper]

We fired Masai yes - but otherwise sat out the summer as far as any major moves or decisions. I guess this is why I’m feeling uninspired by the opening of camp.

Let’s see what happens.

But they added Ingram. He just hasn't played.

[PushDaRock]

We fired Masai yes - but otherwise sat out the summer as far as any major moves or decisions. I guess this is why I’m feeling uninspired by the opening of camp.

Let’s see what happens.

So basically your issue is that we added Ingram during the trade deadline rather than in the offseason.

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

I haven’t forgotten about adding Ingram, at all. I just think not doing anything much else afterwards is leaving a job half done. RJ said himself if you add a guy like BI you know the roles gonna change - so did they go about and look for guys suited to those roles?

And for the org the message to the fans is we fired the guy but we still believe in his vision and you should too?

[CPT]

Shead starting is one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard.

[ATLTimekeeper]

I haven’t forgotten about adding Ingram, at all. I just think not doing anything much else afterwards is leaving a job half done. RJ said himself if you add a guy like BI you know the roles gonna change - so did they go about and look for guys suited to those roles?

And for the org the message to the fans is we fired the guy but we still believe in his vision and you should too?

OK, well, I guess I would argue that teams are living organisms. The job is always half done until you win a title, but shouldn't they see what it looks like with Ingram first? Shouldn't they see which young players have made leaps? Your frustration seems to stem from conclusions on players that haven't been validated by what you've heard from the team. But, like, I disagree with your conclusions and I'm sure other fans do, too. Is it that far-fetched that the team might not agree with them as well?

As for the organizational message, I think that's a valid point. I think Masai was fired for a number of reasons, not necessarily his vision. So the way I view it is that Bobby has an opportunity to evaluate the team without Masai's influence. Should Bobby have disclosed more in his own presser to rally the fans, maybe? The guy was recruited by the CIA, so I think he's always just going to deliver crumbs.

[Troubadour]

If Bobby Webster or someone on the PR team ever sees this, please drop the Scottie Barnes is a father and therefore he is now more mature talking point. It insults our intelligence.

Stop getting offended by nothing.

It's a true statement, having kids will mature many men. He did not say men without kids aren't mature.

It's a bit sad that it's the only talking point he has to point to Scottie's improvement, no?

[Tripod]

If Bobby Webster or someone on the PR team ever sees this, please drop the Scottie Barnes is a father and therefore he is now more mature talking point. It insults our intelligence.

Stop getting offended by nothing.

It's a true statement, having kids will mature many men. He did not say men without kids aren't mature.

It's a bit sad that it's the only talking point he has to point to Scottie's improvement, no?

You would rather the usual BS of "this guy got better over the summer"?

The results on the court will dictate everything. This time last year half the board thought Ochai would not even get a next contract.

Everything is lip service this time of year so who case what is and isn't said. They will run with who they have and the results will dictate what they do next.

[WuTang_CMB]

https://www.tsn.ca/nba/video/2025/09/30/raptors-gm-webster-speaks-about-his-expanded-role-teams-expectations-and-more/