Raps V. Nuggets - Preseason - Mon, Oct 6th, 2025 - 10PM EST

[whitehops]

Watching Scottie on offense leaves me constantly shaking my head and questioning how in the hell anyone ever thought he could be a franchise player.

i spent way too much energy arguing this during scottie's ROY season so i've dropped it since, but yeah like the most fundamental things like having a spot to get a shot off and then having the dribbling ability, craft and physicality to get there consistently is something scottie struggled with and still struggles with. that's the kind of thing franchise players do in their sleep and scottie has always been so far away from that level.

to be fair to him i think the organization really pooched his development. they kept changing his role which is hard for a developing player to train for, and they added franchise player expectations on him at the same time.

[JB7]

Good to see the boys back in action tonight. Here are some of my unwarranted takeaways...

1. Scottie...Rough start. Defensively, he made some plays, but I was really hoping to see more offensively. Hopefully, it's just the first game jitters mixed in with learning the new pecking order.
2. Brandon Ingram is a walking bucket. He's everything as advertised, and it was extremely refreshing to see him create looks for himself and others.
3. I wanted IQ to be more aggressive. His three point shooting is too good for him to not jack up more threes. Now, I get it... IQ is most likely asked to keep the ball moving, while trying to keep the offense flowing. I just want IQ to not shy away from his offense too much. Be aggressive and find the balance.
4. RJ is in mid season form. He can score so easily and make plays. He definitely has a spot on this team regardless of what the arm chair GMs say. If he can be better about delivering on his defensive assignments this season, don't be surprised if the person being traded this year isn't him.
5.CMB - WELCOME TO THE LEAGUE. Glad he got a lot of burn tonight. He'll play better from here on out.
6. Gradey was really unimpressive. He struggled offensively, and he struggled defensively. There was a sequence where he just made bad play after bad play after bad play. In my opinion, he NEEDS to take a leap this year.
7. Sandro is carrying his hot play during this summer right into the season. Loved what he provided. He was a sneaky pick up, but a good one.

Overall, not a bad showing against a team looking to contend this year. Raptors now have tape to review and learn from. This is the year of expectations, and I hope they deliver on them.

Where exactly do you want the shots for IQ and Scottie to come from?

We brought in Ingram as first option. If we’re going to give RJ his usage, there won’t be shots for IQ and Scottie.

Thank God I'm not the coach lol. I think there is a balance that they'll figure out. I'm sure they'll use the pre-season to try things and see what makes sense. For the sake of playing devil's advocate, how successful do you think this team can be if Scottie and IQ are taking 12 shots combined in 20 minutes? I hope my question doesn't come across facetious, just curious and want to start a conversation.

The talk so far has been about a starting unit (with the standard 5), and a bench unit with Mamu, CMB, Dick, Ochai & Shead, and doing the hockey shifts kind of thing.

I think what they will come to realize is their starters won’t be able to play heavy minutes together, because as a unit they don’t maximize each other’s play.

So I expect to see more mixing of lineups eventually, with starters mixed with bench players, where the bench players skill sets compliment the starters in the game.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Pre-season doesn't matter to anyone that's core. They're just getting conditioning reps. I never judge good or bad.

I think Poeltl wussing out of the Jokic match-up just made it impossible to defend their starting line-up, and obviously Mogbo can't set a screen, can't roll, and can't shoot or post up, so there's almost no utility on offense. It was kind of comical to see us go super small against one of the biggest teams in the league.

But, I did like that our bench was better than their bench. Mamu and Shead were really good. CMB had some moments.

For the guys on the bubble fighting for minutes, obviously Gradey was pretty flat out there. He wasn't nearly physical enough under the basket. JaKobe had some nice plays but was a little sloppy overall. I think towards the 4th they pretty much gave him a line-up meant for him to cook and he didn't take it. Ochai had some nice finds. I think he was the most impressive of the wings/guards.

For the deep bench, Battle is way too slow end to end. It's going to be tough for him to play in the NBA. Lawson seems like a better fit for the team right now. Hepburn and Martin are just practice fodder for now. I thought they both really provided that tenacity that the team wants. I didn't mind Sarr. I would like to see more of him in the pre-season, maybe playing with some better players.

And then Ingram just looked like he was searching for his game. I think it was encouraging to see him hunt contact.

[LoveMyRaps]

It's hard to really gage what it is what in the preseason, but the typical suspects are the typical suspects...

Quickley still seems unimpressive.

IQ was good

[Boogie!]

IQ, RJ, Ingram were great.

Scottie was good defensively but an absolute liability on offense.

Mamu and the bench were great too.


But yes, I'm worried about Scottie. His shot looks broken. Shoutout BMac Fisher.

Mechanically his shot looks worse. No legs, flat, no lift. Idk what happened man lol.

[Axe Dragon]

We always end up with the sucky brother of a good player.

Olivier Sarr instead of Alex
Ron Harper Jr. instead of Dylan
Alex Antetekoumpo instead of Giannis
Jalen McDaniels instead of Jaden

Anthony Parker…

Axe


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You would rather have Candice?

Yep.

- 1st overall pick
- 3x Champ
- 1x finals MVP
- 7x all star
- 1x all star MVP
- 7x First Team
- 3x Second Team
- 2x All Defense
- 1x Defensive player of the year
- Rookie of the Year
- 1x assists leader
- 3x rebounds leader
- 2x blocks leader

Axe


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[Gavin_TDThree]

He can’t. He’s a below average screener.

Jokic is one of the best of all time at it.

there's no reason scottie can't be a good screener. He's got the size for it

Screening is a skill. If it was easy, Scottie would be able to do it by now.

it's 100% a skill. What I meant more so is that there's no physical reasons why Scottie can't become a good screener. Comes down to 1) Scottie willing to learn the skill and 2) the coaching staff guiding him to learn the skill.

[mtcan]

Anthony Parker…

Axe


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You would rather have Candice?

Joey Graham

Let's face it...while Joey had a longer career than Stephen...they both suck. Since they are twins...it's basically a tie.

[Saul Goodman]

I think CMB was sneaky good. While none of his spot up 3s went in, they were not complete bricks by any means and his release is pretty smooth.There definitely alot there to work with. theres no way a kid that intense wont at least become a respectable open shooter teams will have to respect which is all he will really need to be successful on offence.

[Backcountry]

My too soon, hot takeaways from only watching the first half due to being a west-coast game:

1. Our bench is going to win their minutes this season.
2. Our starters are going to lose their minutes this season.
3. The Scottie experiment is over. Trade him.
4. The Gradey experiment is over. Trade him.
5. Sandro should be a good backup for Jak.
6. CMB can replace Scottie, easily and cheaper.
7. Still not sold on IQ.
8. BI was worth the trade.
9. I miss Pascal.
10. I may have overrated our win total this season.

So, on to the next game!

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

Wtf is Mogbo doing at center?

Jak sore back

Shoulda come to me for a massage. I would've had him ready to rock n roll.

Chill Reeko Suave

[RaptorLakerJay]

Watching Scottie on offense leaves me constantly shaking my head and questioning how in the hell anyone ever thought he could be a franchise player.

I think it's because we saw him play bully ball like Giannis and how he was able to dominate. It's only we're doubting it because he's been playing away from that style. If he can consistently play that way, it's a wrap.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Watching Scottie on offense leaves me constantly shaking my head and questioning how in the hell anyone ever thought he could be a franchise player.

I think it's because we saw him play bully ball like Giannis and how he was able to dominate. It's only we're doubting it because he's been playing away from that style. If he can consistently play that way, it's a wrap.

Scottie has never dominated like Giannis. He's not nearly as tall nor as good an athlete, nor as good at handling the ball. Early on Scottie played well as a 5th option, cherry picking his match-ups. Masai saw the good and refused to see the context, and uprooted the entire culture he had fostered to enable him.

Now fans can only see the bad, but Scottie's going to have his best year this year because he is no longer being pampered or expected to be Giannis 2.0. He's in his ideal role.

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

I can nit pick guys through this roster from top to bottom, but one thing that I'm going to stand by is that I don't believe IQ is the PG of the future. Just don't like his game.

Masai engaged in wishful paying and it hurts not just us, but perhaps in a good way some other teams. So many players can't come to agreements on their teams on extensions because they look at Quick and say if he's worth that, what's he done? What's he accomplished? I've done more so i should be paid more. We're in a tough spot where if the guys we have starting don't produce results, we know they don't have much if any trade value or have negative trade value. How do you dig out when we just ended a rebuild and how do we retain the young players, if we do want to keep them, if we're in the tax to extend them?

[TDGlenmanor]

Perhaps more forced iso plays for our starting PG and PF, with RJ and Ingram catching the grenades as they can actually create.

Scottie in a reduced offensive role needs to be very active on D and setting screens, especially at his price tag.

[TakeYourHeart]

Watching Scottie on offense leaves me constantly shaking my head and questioning how in the hell anyone ever thought he could be a franchise player.

I think it's because we saw him play bully ball like Giannis and how he was able to dominate. It's only we're doubting it because he's been playing away from that style. If he can consistently play that way, it's a wrap.

This season will be a true test of if this team is truly about winning and sacrifice. Yea yea it's the first preseason game but these guys have been practising all summer so it's disappointing to see Scottie still look lost on offense. There's a clear optimal role for him on a winning team that Darko talked about, early post ups, dunker spot, bully ball against mismatches, screening etc. Instead we got a Scottie mostly taking jumpers, floating above the perimeter and still making 0 contact on screens. It was a very last year Scottie, it's just preseason doesn't change that. They talk a good talk about sacrifice but Scottie seems a ways away from actually embracing this lesser, but more optimal role.

[Indomitable]

We always end up with the sucky brother of a good player.

Olivier Sarr instead of Alex
Ron Harper Jr. instead of Dylan
Alex Antetekoumpo instead of Giannis
Jalen McDaniels instead of Jaden

Marc Gasol?

I think Pau had a better career. So ya...Marc Gasol instead of Pau

Marc won defense player of the year and was the better center. The other played with a loaded Laker team.

[LoveMyRaps]

IQ, RJ, Ingram were great.

Scottie was good defensively but an absolute liability on offense.

Mamu and the bench were great too.


But yes, I'm worried about Scottie. His shot looks broken. Shoutout BMac Fisher.

Mechanically his shot looks worse. No legs, flat, no lift. Idk what happened man lol.

I'll give him about 10-20 regular season games before making any conclusions but yeah man, he does not look good on offense at all.

Only positive was a somewhat better shot selection (i.e., not chucking up stupid 3s).

Defensively I thought he was great though.

[Boardbreaker]

What’s the word on Chomche’s injury? These are the games I’d love to see him playing in but instead we get Sarr who looks like straight ass.

[PhilBlackson]

My too soon, hot takeaways from only watching the first half due to being a west-coast game:

1. Our bench is going to win their minutes this season.
2. Our starters are going to lose their minutes this season.
3. The Scottie experiment is over. Trade him.
4. The Gradey experiment is over. Trade him.
5. Sandro should be a good backup for Jak.
6. CMB can replace Scottie, easily and cheaper.
7. Still not sold on IQ.
8. BI was worth the trade.
9. I miss Pascal.
10. I may have overrated our win total this season.

So, on to the next game!

I actually agree on most & I don’t say that as a hater on Scottie. I still have a ton of love for him as player, I still believe he can get back to an all-star level at some point but he’s not gonna become the superstar we already dreamt of…that’s pretty damn evident at this point. Sooo I would use him in a trade to get one while there is potentially still the perceived high value (ditto Gradey, although I think less teams are fooled about him).

I genuinely like each player but I don’t think either are gonna break out and there are more than adequate replacements (arguable upgrades in Gradey’s case) on the roster. I still think Scottie will likely remain the better player overall than CMB, but it’s not a complete certainty. If the difference is fairly negligible (which I think in time will be the case) then might as well use these guys to try and net a legit superstar or at least a clear upgrade/bonafide all-star.

Ofc easier said than done. I still think Giannis is but of an odd fit but ofc he’s monster enough that with any good roster (like we’d have) we’d be a guaranteed contender. But I’d even trade him for a “Donovan Mitchell” level player, not saying that exact type of player but use them to just upgrade the core talent since we have a legit player in BI and all the depth necessary if those guys are the core names moved.