RealGM

Starts at 59:08 mark https://youtu.be/I9yiAQWGvqU?si=RSuK_qbtRdmXTGTE&t=3545

I'm excited for the season, these guys will show up

Zach's pretty even-handed. He likes all of our starting five individually, but has doubts about their ability to function together. In particular, BI, RJ and IQ do not have a history of playing in ball-sharing-heavy offences... or a long track record of making teams/teammates better. That's the offence.

On defence, he does think they will do well, but calls out those who trumpet how the team finished last year, given that many of the key starters were not the primary contributors and the soft schedule to end the season.

What could turn his opinion around? Scotty takes an All-NBA level leap and/or IQ plays the way he's being paid to play. He does like the bench, but also does not yet see a next-gen star on our current bench. Acknowledges that the team has all of its picks and a good deal of flexibility going forward. Thinks Jak got paid what he's worth.

I would say his primary concern is the team's ability to shoot 3s at a clip that can keep them competitive in today's NBA... and how BI and RJ are going to function together.

I wills ay Zach Lowe is slipping. He called Jakobe Walter - Jabari Walker at one point. For a guy who prides himself on knowing the lesser known guys, that was a flub.

This stuff is all for engagement hits and they definitely got it from Toronto fans who he refers to as Spooky Mulder conspiracy types very accurately.

pharring wrote:Zach's pretty even-handed. He likes all of our starting five individually, but has doubts about their ability to function together. In particular, BI, RJ and IQ do not have a history of playing in ball-sharing-heavy offences... or a long track record of making teams/teammates better. That's the offence.

On defence, he does think they will do well, but calls out those who trumpet how the team finished last year, given that many of the key starters were not the primary contributors and the soft schedule to end the season.

What could turn his opinion around? Scotty takes an All-NBA level leap and/or IQ plays the way he's being paid to play. He does like the bench, but also does not yet see a next-gen star on our current bench. Acknowledges that the team has all of its picks and a good deal of flexibility going forward. Thinks Jak got paid what he's worth.

I would say his primary concern is the team's ability to shoot 3s at a clip that can keep them competitive in today's NBA... and how BI and RJ are going to function together.

Good summary.

I don't think he mentioned liking RJ but yes he and the co-host doesn't know how the pieces fit together. I don't disagree. When Masai made the moves, I didn't question it because, I have faith in Masai, he obviously knows better than I do. There was quiet questions which I quashed.

The team is close to the cap. It's a lot of salaries. And my biggest problem for this roster is, the coach who's supposed to bring this all together and work the magic. He's not that guy. I haven't seen the capability from him in the 1st year when he had a potential Finals MVP and all the pieces on other teams people are raving about and made them look WORSE than Nurse - on offense which is supposedly his specialty, and on DEFENSE which was a top half or top 3rd defensive team in the year prior.

And I have ZERO FAITH in Ed Rogers to manage this team. Sure he can make money in a monopoly. But in a competitive situation? He's NEVER MANAGED in a competitive market like the NBA!!!

The take is a little out there, no one can shoot? Quick and Ingram are obvious shooters, you replace RJ with a shooter (Dick, Jakobe, Ochai) and it is balanced enough... Not may teams around the league with 5 shooters

___Rand___ wrote:

pharring wrote:Zach's pretty even-handed. He likes all of our starting five individually, but has doubts about their ability to function together. In particular, BI, RJ and IQ do not have a history of playing in ball-sharing-heavy offences... or a long track record of making teams/teammates better. That's the offence.

On defence, he does think they will do well, but calls out those who trumpet how the team finished last year, given that many of the key starters were not the primary contributors and the soft schedule to end the season.

What could turn his opinion around? Scotty takes an All-NBA level leap and/or IQ plays the way he's being paid to play. He does like the bench, but also does not yet see a next-gen star on our current bench. Acknowledges that the team has all of its picks and a good deal of flexibility going forward. Thinks Jak got paid what he's worth.

I would say his primary concern is the team's ability to shoot 3s at a clip that can keep them competitive in today's NBA... and how BI and RJ are going to function together.

Good summary.

I don't think he mentioned liking RJ but yes he and the co-host doesn't know how the pieces fit together. I don't disagree. When Masai made the moves, I didn't question it because, I have faith in Masai, he obviously knows better than I do. There was quiet questions which I quashed.

The team is close to the cap. It's a lot of salaries. And my biggest problem for this roster is, the coach who's supposed to bring this all together and work the magic. He's not that guy. I haven't seen the capability from him in the 1st year when he had a potential Finals MVP and all the pieces on other teams people are raving about and made them look WORSE than Nurse - on offense which is supposedly his specialty, and on DEFENSE which was a top half or top 3rd defensive team in the year prior.

And I have ZERO FAITH in Ed Rogers to manage this team. Sure he can make money in a monopoly. But in a competitive situation? He's NEVER MANAGED in a competitive market like the NBA!!!

If two coaches failed to create an efficient offence around Pascal, maybe the problem is Pascal. He's simply not effective as a first option on offence.

I don't think our current roster is set up for success either. The spacing is going to be poor and we still don't have a real first option, unelss Scottie magically makes a leap. BI is just another Pascal on offence but without the defence and durability.

Pretty fair take.

We haven't seen our starting 5 at all. Our starting 4 (Minus BI) Barely played together and when they did it wasn't wow.

I think we're better than people say, and are a single good trade away from having a really balanced roster. But we are absolutely a question mark this year.

We have a lot of young guys that have potential but going from getting free minutes on a tanking team to earning minutes no a team fighting for the playoffs is a different story

Buff wrote:The take is a little out there, no one can shoot? Quick and Ingram are obvious shooters, you replace RJ with a shooter (Dick, Jakobe, Ochai) and it is balanced enough... Not may teams around the league with 5 shooters

Dick and Jakobe are definitely not shooters...Ingram and Quickley can be shooters. The only true shooters on this team is Ochaji and Battle. Shooters are guys that are hitting 37%+ from the 3point line. Thats 4. Problem is you cant play these 4 players at the same time. Or Poetl will foul out in 20minutes..

TheProfessor wrote:Dick and Jakobe are definitely not shooters...

Dick shot 36.5%, Jakobe got better as the season went on and was at 35%, I would definitively not say definitively.

TheProfessor wrote:Ingram and Quickley can be shooters. The only true shooters on this team is Ochaji and Battle. Shooters are guys that are hitting 37%+ from the 3point line. Thats 4. Problem is you cant play these 4 players at the same time. Or Poetl will foul out in 20minutes..

Like I said, replace RJ for Ochai, now you have 3 shooters and the lineup is balanced... hardly worthy of the sky is falling take.

The decision to fast track the rebuild now looks like the right call with Tatum, Dame, and Haliburton all going down. We can beat some of the East teams in a series (in theory).

Also, yes the $$ sucks, but why did Masai/Bobby trade and extend Ingram at all without seeing it? Pretty safe to say those guys were/are extremely confident Ingram is going to fit as much as media wants to discount/doubt it. Bet media is wrong in this case.

TheProfessor wrote:

Buff wrote:The take is a little out there, no one can shoot? Quick and Ingram are obvious shooters, you replace RJ with a shooter (Dick, Jakobe, Ochai) and it is balanced enough... Not may teams around the league with 5 shooters

Dick and Jakobe are definitely not shooters...Ingram and Quickley can be shooters. The only true shooters on this team is Ochaji and Battle. Shooters are guys that are hitting 37%+ from the 3point line. Thats 4. Problem is you cant play these 4 players at the same time. Or Poetl will foul out in 20minutes..

Devon Booker is not a shooter that is going to make over $70 million next year. Booker shot 33.2% from deep and his career average is only 35.4%. He's a high volume chucker that will not help you win but people would consider him a shooter.

Dick and Jakobe are developing shooters. Just need to physically develop. I'm guessing Jakobe post-allstar break was a shooter and who I think he'll be going into this season.

Ah, every month his 3pt% was higher. If you just take out the 3 for 18 November to start the season, he shot 36.9% on the year.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/walteja01/splits/2025

pharring wrote:Zach's pretty even-handed. He likes all of our starting five individually, but has doubts about their ability to function together. In particular, BI, RJ and IQ do not have a history of playing in ball-sharing-heavy offences... or a long track record of making teams/teammates better. That's the offence.

On defence, he does think they will do well, but calls out those who trumpet how the team finished last year, given that many of the key starters were not the primary contributors and the soft schedule to end the season.

What could turn his opinion around? Scotty takes an All-NBA level leap and/or IQ plays the way he's being paid to play. He does like the bench, but also does not yet see a next-gen star on our current bench. Acknowledges that the team has all of its picks and a good deal of flexibility going forward. Thinks Jak got paid what he's worth.

I would say his primary concern is the team's ability to shoot 3s at a clip that can keep them competitive in today's NBA... and how BI and RJ are going to function together.

IQ RJ BI all hover at 5ast a game, as soon as Darko got hired we started sharing the ball again. The offense isn't going to be something I am concerned about, these guys say the pieces don't fit together because everyone approaches team building like a 2K simulation during the summer time.

When the Raps win 45 games next year, media will still question what they are doing.

VanWest82 wrote:The decision to fast track the rebuild now looks like the right call with Tatum, Dame, and Haliburton all going down. We can beat some of the East teams in a series (in theory).

Also, yes the $$ sucks, but why did Masai/Bobby trade and extend Ingram at all without seeing it? Pretty safe to say those guys were/are extremely confident Ingram is going to fit as much as media wants to discount/doubt it. Bet media is wrong in this case.

It's no different than signing UFA'S or making other trades...you don't see them with your lineup beforehand. But for some reason BI is being singled out. It's very odd.

Tripod wrote:

VanWest82 wrote:The decision to fast track the rebuild now looks like the right call with Tatum, Dame, and Haliburton all going down. We can beat some of the East teams in a series (in theory).

Also, yes the $$ sucks, but why did Masai/Bobby trade and extend Ingram at all without seeing it? Pretty safe to say those guys were/are extremely confident Ingram is going to fit as much as media wants to discount/doubt it. Bet media is wrong in this case.

It's no different than signing UFA'S or making other trades...you don't see them with your lineup beforehand. But for some reason BI is being singled out. It's very odd.

They could've waited in this case, and for all we know maybe they did and were practicing with him and not telling anyone. Either way, it's just interesting how many people out there think they know better than the guys running the team how the actual on court basketball will go.

Do people really have hard time envisioning the type of basketball we can play with this roster? A futuristic style.

I can see it, CMB and Jakob (non-shooting, big duo) can work well. It just leans more to the defence.

We can be a "low scoring" team (avg 105 on a bad night) that just keeps our opponents to 90-100, with relentless defence.

More demoralizing for our opponents that on other nights average 110.


Is everyone just stuck on the current style of play?

___Rand___ wrote:

pharring wrote:Zach's pretty even-handed. He likes all of our starting five individually, but has doubts about their ability to function together. In particular, BI, RJ and IQ do not have a history of playing in ball-sharing-heavy offences... or a long track record of making teams/teammates better. That's the offence.

On defence, he does think they will do well, but calls out those who trumpet how the team finished last year, given that many of the key starters were not the primary contributors and the soft schedule to end the season.

What could turn his opinion around? Scotty takes an All-NBA level leap and/or IQ plays the way he's being paid to play. He does like the bench, but also does not yet see a next-gen star on our current bench. Acknowledges that the team has all of its picks and a good deal of flexibility going forward. Thinks Jak got paid what he's worth.

I would say his primary concern is the team's ability to shoot 3s at a clip that can keep them competitive in today's NBA... and how BI and RJ are going to function together.

Good summary.

I don't think he mentioned liking RJ but yes he and the co-host doesn't know how the pieces fit together. I don't disagree. When Masai made the moves, I didn't question it because, I have faith in Masai, he obviously knows better than I do. There was quiet questions which I quashed.

The team is close to the cap. It's a lot of salaries. And my biggest problem for this roster is, the coach who's supposed to bring this all together and work the magic. He's not that guy. I haven't seen the capability from him in the 1st year when he had a potential Finals MVP and all the pieces on other teams people are raving about and made them look WORSE than Nurse - on offense which is supposedly his specialty, and on DEFENSE which was a top half or top 3rd defensive team in the year prior.

And I have ZERO FAITH in Ed Rogers to manage this team. Sure he can make money in a monopoly. But in a competitive situation? He's NEVER MANAGED in a competitive market like the NBA!!!

there are lots of good questions, and it's a fair take

Psubs wrote:

TheProfessor wrote:

Buff wrote:The take is a little out there, no one can shoot? Quick and Ingram are obvious shooters, you replace RJ with a shooter (Dick, Jakobe, Ochai) and it is balanced enough... Not may teams around the league with 5 shooters

Dick and Jakobe are definitely not shooters...Ingram and Quickley can be shooters. The only true shooters on this team is Ochaji and Battle. Shooters are guys that are hitting 37%+ from the 3point line. Thats 4. Problem is you cant play these 4 players at the same time. Or Poetl will foul out in 20minutes..

Devon Booker is not a shooter that is going to make over $70 million next year.

Dick and Jakobe are developing shooters. Just need to physically develop. I'm guessing Jakobe post-allstar break was a shooter and who I think he'll be going into this season.

Ah, every month his 3pt% was higher. If you just take out the 3 for 18 November to start the season, he shot 36.9% on the year.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/walteja01/splits/2025

Devon Booker is making 53m this year...true he is not a shooter never really has been. But is also a 1st option averaging about 60% TS for the last 3 seasons, which none of our overpaid "talent" (BBIQ) has ever done. Ohh and he elevates his play in the playoffs. Also with him making "70m" would still be more valuable than every single current raptor combined in value.

Big fan of Ja'kobe, actually one of the few young players I see with true potential. But until I see it for a season, its still potential. Dick I have zero faith ever being a positive contributor. Just to limited defensively.

Raps in 4 wrote:

___Rand___ wrote:

pharring wrote:Zach's pretty even-handed. He likes all of our starting five individually, but has doubts about their ability to function together. In particular, BI, RJ and IQ do not have a history of playing in ball-sharing-heavy offences... or a long track record of making teams/teammates better. That's the offence.

On defence, he does think they will do well, but calls out those who trumpet how the team finished last year, given that many of the key starters were not the primary contributors and the soft schedule to end the season.

What could turn his opinion around? Scotty takes an All-NBA level leap and/or IQ plays the way he's being paid to play. He does like the bench, but also does not yet see a next-gen star on our current bench. Acknowledges that the team has all of its picks and a good deal of flexibility going forward. Thinks Jak got paid what he's worth.

I would say his primary concern is the team's ability to shoot 3s at a clip that can keep them competitive in today's NBA... and how BI and RJ are going to function together.

Good summary.

I don't think he mentioned liking RJ but yes he and the co-host doesn't know how the pieces fit together. I don't disagree. When Masai made the moves, I didn't question it because, I have faith in Masai, he obviously knows better than I do. There was quiet questions which I quashed.

The team is close to the cap. It's a lot of salaries. And my biggest problem for this roster is, the coach who's supposed to bring this all together and work the magic. He's not that guy. I haven't seen the capability from him in the 1st year when he had a potential Finals MVP and all the pieces on other teams people are raving about and made them look WORSE than Nurse - on offense which is supposedly his specialty, and on DEFENSE which was a top half or top 3rd defensive team in the year prior.

And I have ZERO FAITH in Ed Rogers to manage this team. Sure he can make money in a monopoly. But in a competitive situation? He's NEVER MANAGED in a competitive market like the NBA!!!

If two coaches failed to create an efficient offence around Pascal, maybe the problem is Pascal. He's simply not effective as a first option on offence.

I don't think our current roster is set up for success either. The spacing is going to be poor and we still don't have a real first option, unelss Scottie magically makes a leap. BI is just another Pascal on offence but without the defence and durability.

I don't think it's a question of "Pascal". Pascal was effectively the Finals MVP candidate for Pacers, a team who were 1 game away from winning it all. It's our roster construction. And this coach isn't as capable on either end of the floor as Nurse. I am not sure we got the personnel to run his offense.