I know we're talking about RJ here but I feel it has to be said after watching some of these clips that I think Jakob Poeltl is really underrated in terms of his impact on the floor. His box score numbers don't pop off (averaging 16pts & 12reb this year) but the way he reads the game, always knows where to be, and screens in ways that allow for the offence to flow are super underrated qualities that you can't appreciate unless you actually watch this team play.
He glues everything together for sure. He's so important to how the raps play as they like to run alot of the offense through him aswell. To top it off he's such an elite screen setter which is key to all the good stuff RJ especially does.
As a rockets fan RJ looks like a different player from when he with the Knicks. With the Knicks he was mostly shooting 3s and was a midrange shooter. But with the Raptors with how they are using him they are letting him be a driver when he has great spacing and he shooting the ball well for three. He a perfect compliment to Scottie and if they get Quickley back the Raptors have three nice core pieces and depending how the rest of the season goes they going to get a high draft pick
You can't play with 3 left handed ball dominant players like the Knicks did with RJ, Brunson and Jules as there's no spacing. It's exactly as you said, he has spacing now and it's unlocked his game.
As a long time Knick fan I'm not surprised by RJ's improvement. Even during his time with the Knicks where he was up and down at times, you could see he was improving in different areas. Very few teens come into the NBA ready to compete. The guys that do, Luka, LeBron, magic for example, those are the exceptions not the rule.
The raptors have created this roster perfectly, they have so many expiring moveable contracts to make win now moves but on the other hand they only have 1 true center in Poetl . So all they have to do is trade or sit Poetl if they wanna tank for 3 months after December and get a top 4 pick to create a decade of cinema in raptors land
top 5 worst teams have around 50% chance for top 4. Raptors have a brutal 11 games in front of them. Masai will make the right move to ethical tank for 3 months in the new year to create a decade of title contention and winning and devolping .
@@miVulgar yak was never gotten for scottie of for any other "guys". he was gotten for fred and siakiam era but all those guys are gone and u have a horrible fit with a non shooting big thats supposed to play with scottie??? that will never help scottie reach his maximum potential. yak is NOT the long term solution i guarantee masai and bobby know that completely and are just waiting for the right time to trade him. becasue what they truly need is a true yougn stretch big to devlop that can rim protect
Love to hear outsiders opinions on my raptors especially because many times they just be hating and undermine anything we got going on. For what its worth we tried to tell yall we have a good young core brewing. I could rave about barnes but at this point i think yall can agree he is a legit allstar with real potential to be a superstar- the 6’9 point guard. Rj, do i have to explain. We’re missing IQ but lets not forget gradey who has been playing like the most improved player averaging over 18ppg now and is also showing great potential as a starter maybe even allstar. Every rookie has impressed. Mogbo is like a draymond green and potentially can do many things barnes can do. Hes such a smart player. Shead as a rookie at times looks like he should be getting minutes over davion and mitch himself has been good relative to his role. Jakobe who has been hurt our first pick of the rookies has also impressed. I can rave about anyone on the team which is scary and going forward will be interesting how this team will look and who we keep if we can keep everyone together. Guys like Bruce, kelly olynk havent even played yet. Only thing missing is a serviceable back up big as we are highly dependent on our center jakob who he himself is having a career year on the offensive end. W.e we do this season, if we somehow get another lottery pick on this team, were legitimately The OkC of the east, heck even without a lottery pick we might already be. The team is good and is way better then what their record shows. Ps even jamison battle the undrafted rookie from out of no where. He no matter what if he gets in the game he’s gonna splash a 3. Went from doing that im the summer league off the bench to recently splashing 6 3’s on the pelicans head top. I even almost forgot agbaji- yall like what you see with OG in New York, well it looks like he can be OG 2.0 being an elite defender even at 6’5 beable to even gaurd the paint alittle as a rim protector. Im sure every fan base can rave about their players but if yall pay attention to whats happening here you’ll be shocked. We just have a tonne of underrated prospects with great long term potential
As a raps fan we're going back to our core of: drafting, developing and making the most of our draft capital.. adding 4 rotation players as rookies in mogbo, shead, walter and battle and potentially a 5th in chomche one day
This is going to be the last chance in 10+ years to tank for a top 4 pick. Hopefully Masai sees there’s 3 months left of the season after December and decides to go for high in the draft and finish the rebuild completely
@@Jayse I disagree completely. This team doesn't need a top 4 pick or another ball dominant shot creator. They need role players and spacing. Let this team learn how to win and add pieces around them. Tanking doesn't do this young core any favours, we are in year 4 of scottie, year 5 of IQ and year 6 of RJ - they need to start figuring out what it takes to win games
Barkley said last night ," scottie barnes is in top 15 players", im not sure if he meant under 25 yrs old or in the league. He is starting to get love from the guys who actually watch games, Legs, Lowe have talked about him in the past.
Barnes is a low impact stat stuffer. He isnt a winning player, and he will never be a #1 on a deep playoff team. Hes probably a #3 on a real contender.
Reasonable take but with teh disastrous schedule in December and still the numerous amounts of injuries. Masai should see the path forward pretty easily which is so ethical rank while developing for the rest of the season (3 months) to get a top 4 pick. And that pick in itself is an asset. What if because of this decision u land top 4 and are able to get Lauri from jazz? That’s makes u contenders for the next decade.
Barret, Barnes, Poetl, Dick and Quick! This is going to be scarey if they ever get to play together... they are running out 4 rooks every night aswell.
@ there’s no such thing as objectivity. The stats are out of context… RJ was over extended without quickly and scottie, he had the highest usage in the league. With scottie back his percentages are rising.
@@N0body999 Of course there is when we're just talking about descriptive stats. He might have been overextended but it doesn't mean he wasn't great last year for Toronto.
@elblouses128 I'm sorry to burst your bubble but no objective reality exists, especially not in statistics as they are inherently embedded in a specific context. The statistics are meaningless by themselves and conclusions can only be drawn by examining the context in which they exist. But arguing with you is a waste of time so believe whatever you want.
Toronto cut out all the bad RJ. He finishes in transition, takes catch and shoot open 3's and attacks the basket.. that's almost his entire shot diet (he strayed away from this a little this year and it tanked his efficiency with all the injuries and Scottie being out) + he has passed it really well in TO good call on him finishing better with his right hand. noticed that 100%
We can still contend on a nightly basis but it's the first year official year of a rebuild, so patience is needed. Our coach is great at developing players and has done a great job, we are already ahead of schedule and everyone is playing for each other and want the best for each other; no egos. When you say 'bad coaching' is one of the reasons, you have no idea what you're talking about here.
@@rickd438 Darko's lack of feel early on. Taking out hot hands, refusing to put them back in, instead relying on finishing with the starters regardless the lack of efficiency. Some bad play-calling and certainly a lack of calming a young team down late in games. Raps have the most losses by less than 5 points in the NBA and Darko has to take some of the responsibility there. This team could EASILY have 4-5 more W's.
Raps are way better than record. They have been decimated by injuries. They are missing Quikley and others still. Barnes was out like over half their games.
23 - 28 wins MAX for this team. There is no such thing as ethical tanking - they stink. they have a couple of recently unrepressed younger players, some absolute defenceless pylons and offenceless brick walls and overall inconsistent play plagued by celebratory buffoonery and playing to the crowd to toddler all rush the ball defensive actions, with a little inopportune "lost in place" moments. But - RAH, RAH, they may have an allstar!
Nice to hear people outside Raptorland recognize this team is better than their record.
I know we're talking about RJ here but I feel it has to be said after watching some of these clips that I think Jakob Poeltl is really underrated in terms of his impact on the floor. His box score numbers don't pop off (averaging 16pts & 12reb this year) but the way he reads the game, always knows where to be, and screens in ways that allow for the offence to flow are super underrated qualities that you can't appreciate unless you actually watch this team play.
He glues everything together for sure. He's so important to how the raps play as they like to run alot of the offense through him aswell. To top it off he's such an elite screen setter which is key to all the good stuff RJ especially does.
As a rockets fan RJ looks like a different player from when he with the Knicks. With the Knicks he was mostly shooting 3s and was a midrange shooter.
But with the Raptors with how they are using him they are letting him be a driver when he has great spacing and he shooting the ball well for three.
He a perfect compliment to Scottie and if they get Quickley back the Raptors have three nice core pieces and depending how the rest of the season goes they going to get a high draft pick
You can't play with 3 left handed ball dominant players like the Knicks did with RJ, Brunson and Jules as there's no spacing. It's exactly as you said, he has spacing now and it's unlocked his game.
I knew RJ would have a great year...I took him in all 4 of my Fantasy teams.
As a long time Knick fan I'm not surprised by RJ's improvement. Even during his time with the Knicks where he was up and down at times, you could see he was improving in different areas. Very few teens come into the NBA ready to compete. The guys that do, Luka, LeBron, magic for example, those are the exceptions not the rule.
Thank you for the great content.
The raptors have created this roster perfectly, they have so many expiring moveable contracts to make win now moves but on the other hand they only have 1 true center in Poetl . So all they have to do is trade or sit Poetl if they wanna tank for 3 months after December and get a top 4 pick to create a decade of cinema in raptors land
I know math is hard but this simply isn't true. Look into how the NBA draft lottery works.
top 5 worst teams have around 50% chance for top 4. Raptors have a brutal 11 games in front of them. Masai will make the right move to ethical tank for 3 months in the new year to create a decade of title contention and winning and devolping .
They're not going to trade or "sit" Yak, or do anything else that impacts the development of the guys they've bet on (Scottie, RJ, IQ, Gradey etc.).
@@miVulgar yak was never gotten for scottie of for any other "guys". he was gotten for fred and siakiam era but all those guys are gone and u have a horrible fit with a non shooting big thats supposed to play with scottie??? that will never help scottie reach his maximum potential. yak is NOT the long term solution i guarantee masai and bobby know that completely and are just waiting for the right time to trade him. becasue what they truly need is a true yougn stretch big to devlop that can rim protect
Love to hear outsiders opinions on my raptors especially because many times they just be hating and undermine anything we got going on. For what its worth we tried to tell yall we have a good young core brewing. I could rave about barnes but at this point i think yall can agree he is a legit allstar with real potential to be a superstar- the 6’9 point guard. Rj, do i have to explain. We’re missing IQ but lets not forget gradey who has been playing like the most improved player averaging over 18ppg now and is also showing great potential as a starter maybe even allstar. Every rookie has impressed. Mogbo is like a draymond green and potentially can do many things barnes can do. Hes such a smart player. Shead as a rookie at times looks like he should be getting minutes over davion and mitch himself has been good relative to his role. Jakobe who has been hurt our first pick of the rookies has also impressed. I can rave about anyone on the team which is scary and going forward will be interesting how this team will look and who we keep if we can keep everyone together. Guys like Bruce, kelly olynk havent even played yet. Only thing missing is a serviceable back up big as we are highly dependent on our center jakob who he himself is having a career year on the offensive end. W.e we do this season, if we somehow get another lottery pick on this team, were legitimately The OkC of the east, heck even without a lottery pick we might already be. The team is good and is way better then what their record shows. Ps even jamison battle the undrafted rookie from out of no where. He no matter what if he gets in the game he’s gonna splash a 3. Went from doing that im the summer league off the bench to recently splashing 6 3’s on the pelicans head top. I even almost forgot agbaji- yall like what you see with OG in New York, well it looks like he can be OG 2.0 being an elite defender even at 6’5 beable to even gaurd the paint alittle as a rim protector. Im sure every fan base can rave about their players but if yall pay attention to whats happening here you’ll be shocked. We just have a tonne of underrated prospects with great long term potential
RJ, was kind of frozen out in NY. RJ is right handed, but goes left, but also did higher usage left handed players J Randle & J Brunson.
I've been saying the same thing for years, he was a good playmaker in college
Great breakdown Sam
Toronto played undermanned the first 15 games of the season. Healthy lineup and they will give many teams a lot of trouble and win too.
Toronto is still undermanned - IQ, KO, and BB are all out and 2 of the 3 haven’t played at all this season.
RJ Buckets ✨⭐️🌟
As a raps fan we're going back to our core of: drafting, developing and making the most of our draft capital.. adding 4 rotation players as rookies in mogbo, shead, walter and battle and potentially a 5th in chomche one day
Great work Sam! Subbed.
Nice breakdown GT
Honestly I don't think 3.4 turnover per game is all that bad considering he basically played pg for a month with Scottie and Quickley out.
Gradey Dick is the guy I miss. Most especially his baseline 10 footers.
He might be back tomorrow or next game
Enjoyed that.
The league is sleeping on Scottie Barnes. RJ is definitely having an All-star season but Barnes has been Toronto's best player by far.
This is going to be the last chance in 10+ years to tank for a top 4 pick. Hopefully Masai sees there’s 3 months left of the season after December and decides to go for high in the draft and finish the rebuild completely
@@Jayse I disagree completely. This team doesn't need a top 4 pick or another ball dominant shot creator. They need role players and spacing. Let this team learn how to win and add pieces around them. Tanking doesn't do this young core any favours, we are in year 4 of scottie, year 5 of IQ and year 6 of RJ - they need to start figuring out what it takes to win games
Barkley said last night ," scottie barnes is in top 15 players", im not sure if he meant under 25 yrs old or in the league. He is starting to get love from the guys who actually watch games, Legs, Lowe have talked about him in the past.
Barnes is a low impact stat stuffer. He isnt a winning player, and he will never be a #1 on a deep playoff team.
Hes probably a #3 on a real contender.
Reasonable take but with teh disastrous schedule in December and still the numerous amounts of injuries. Masai should see the path forward pretty easily which is so ethical rank while developing for the rest of the season (3 months) to get a top 4 pick. And that pick in itself is an asset. What if because of this decision u land top 4 and are able to get Lauri from jazz? That’s makes u contenders for the next decade.
Barret, Barnes, Poetl, Dick and Quick! This is going to be scarey if they ever get to play together... they are running out 4 rooks every night aswell.
When he got traded he was labeled a negative asset
The Knicks got violated in the OG trade.
3. Knicks 6.Raptors would be a dream first round matchup
It's the best thing for RJ
Great trade by Masai but OG's been great for the Knick too. Both teams got what they wanted.
The leap for RJ's scoring was last year. His TS% was 61% and now is back to being below average (55%). The bump in assists is nice though.
No
@@N0body999 No to objective stats??
@ there’s no such thing as objectivity. The stats are out of context… RJ was over extended without quickly and scottie, he had the highest usage in the league. With scottie back his percentages are rising.
@@N0body999 Of course there is when we're just talking about descriptive stats. He might have been overextended but it doesn't mean he wasn't great last year for Toronto.
@elblouses128 I'm sorry to burst your bubble but no objective reality exists, especially not in statistics as they are inherently embedded in a specific context. The statistics are meaningless by themselves and conclusions can only be drawn by examining the context in which they exist. But arguing with you is a waste of time so believe whatever you want.
Toronto cut out all the bad RJ. He finishes in transition, takes catch and shoot open 3's and attacks the basket.. that's almost his entire shot diet (he strayed away from this a little this year and it tanked his efficiency with all the injuries and Scottie being out) + he has passed it really well in TO
good call on him finishing better with his right hand. noticed that 100%
Also that toronto court could bring a tear to me eye. Beautiful
Why RJ didn’t play like this with the Knicks 🤔
They didn't utilize him correctly.
He had to share with Brunson/Randle
Thibs was his coach
All of the above
rj reminds me of Jamal mashburn
Raps are building somthing special
Something above average...
Injuries and bad coaching early on are the only reasons this team isn't above .500 thus far. Not a contender by any means, but a decent young team.
What bad coaching?
We can still contend on a nightly basis but it's the first year official year of a rebuild, so patience is needed. Our coach is great at developing players and has done a great job, we are already ahead of schedule and everyone is playing for each other and want the best for each other; no egos. When you say 'bad coaching' is one of the reasons, you have no idea what you're talking about here.
@@rickd438 Darko's lack of feel early on. Taking out hot hands, refusing to put them back in, instead relying on finishing with the starters regardless the lack of efficiency.
Some bad play-calling and certainly a lack of calming a young team down late in games. Raps have the most losses by less than 5 points in the NBA and Darko has to take some of the responsibility there.
This team could EASILY have 4-5 more W's.
Is RJ going to have the best career out of his draft class 👀
Oh yeah since RJ came here i dnt know what happened to his free throw, he been great but at the freethrow line has been brick
Versatile jeans? I realize you are completely full of it vecenie
Raps are way better than record. They have been decimated by injuries. They are missing Quikley and others still. Barnes was out like over half their games.
23 - 28 wins MAX for this team. There is no such thing as ethical tanking - they stink. they have a couple of recently unrepressed younger players, some absolute defenceless pylons and offenceless brick walls and overall inconsistent play plagued by celebratory buffoonery and playing to the crowd to toddler all rush the ball defensive actions, with a little inopportune "lost in place" moments. But - RAH, RAH, they may have an allstar!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Why are pacers fans watching this 😂😂😂😂