WBC Outlook with Shi Davidi + Raptors' Continued Struggles

game against Cuba, the World Baseball Classic game you can watch on sports set, of course, beat

the host Puerto Ricans yesterday in a game of some import, but not as much import as today.

The IDVD is in Puerto Rico right now where I assume it's raining. It rains seemingly

every two hours shy. Like, what's going on there?

Honestly, I described it yesterday as sort of like drunk Florida weather where you get

like, you get six different forecasts in a single day. It's like it's raining, it's

cold, it's windy, it's sunny, it's partly cloudy, and then back again, just sort of this

endless loop. So it's sunny right now, but who knows what it's going to be 30 minutes

for now, because it's going to change and it's going to change like 30 minutes after

that.

We're not getting rain outs, right? We're just getting rain delays and it's like it

lasts 20 minutes and they get back to playing. It's annoying though. It's very annoying, especially

when you're playing evening games and like, I don't know, say you have to do a radio show

at six in the morning the next day, three o'clock in the afternoon. It's more fine, I suppose.

I would prefer for the game to be played in its entirety without interruption, but this

is the game that matters, right? And this is on everybody's radar now and listening to

the broadcast yesterday, Ryan Roland Smith and I forget the guys doing the play by player

talking about.

It's pretty crazy. Canada's never been to the second round of this event. I've been

through it a couple of different times of the countries with players in Major League

baseball. Canada has produced the six most active and they're the only team in the top

seven that have not gotten through to the second round of this event that on its face

should sound like there's a lot of pressure on this team to win this game today. Do you

feel that?

Sure, but not for those reasons, right? But this is a group that believed it was, if

not the best group of the best team in this pool, the second best team in this pool,

then determined that to advance and thinking that they should advance and anything less

than advancing would be a disappointment because of the level of talent that they've had.

But, you know, Canada's history at this tournament is weird because they've won a lot of big

games. They've had a lot of great moments and then they have a history of not winning the

right game. And if you were going to follow that script, then you can definitely look at

last night, you win the, you win, you beat the hosts, you keep them from going for no, you

keep alive the possibility of winning the pool and making use, you still don't advance.

If you happen to have one bad day against Cuba, who's throwing a pretty good lefty against

them in a lineup that is very left leaning. So there's this bit of history that can go

up there. And ultimately, you know, again, this isn't about the number, or not always

about the number of wins you get, but which games you win. And you just think about like

how crazy it is, like you look at over in the pool with the American team, right? If Mexico

beats Italy, you're looking at a tie break scenario in the Americans, even though they could

have a three and one record, could end up not advancing all because they didn't necessarily

win the right game. And that's the scenario that the Canadians are facing. And that's part

of the, I guess, the beauty, the chaos, the excitement of his tournament.

Yeah, look, I mean, you know, one game winner-take-alls, we're not, I mean, we don't get them anymore.

I mean, you get like a game seven in a series or a game five, but like we no longer have

the like, you know, the one-off wildcard or the, you know, the one game tiebreaker for game

163. Like it is just so antithetical to baseball, right? The idea of like these short tournaments,

a quick turnaround, like, or I shouldn't say a quick turnaround, but the idea of the,

the, you know, one game having such import, you know, we do it all the time in the regular season,

where it's like, yeah, it's one of 162. This is one of four. It's just, it's such a different

animal for, for baseball. How do you think like what is Canada's recipe to success in this game?

Like we've seen so much of it be patients at the plate. They walked home two runs yesterday.

Like if Canada wins this game, why do you think that, that happened? Like what's the recipe for

success for Canada? It's the same as it was last night, right? Where you're, you're clean in the

field. You pitch well and you just get just enough time they often. And I would say coming into

this, one of the things that Canadian team was thinking is that they would score a lot of runs,

and you know, they did have a really one-sided win against Colombia, but they haven't,

they couldn't open up against Panama and ended up losing that game, didn't open it up

yesterday in Puerto Rico, which has, you know, pretty good catching, and they end up just having

to squeak that one out. And then Cuba today is a bit of a different beast. And you know, Manelo,

the the starter who's going today, very good stuff, and come out for very good season in Japan,

been in Japan for, in the Japanese league for a long time. He's going to be tough on them.

Cubans will probably have a couple of innings of Yeriel Rodriguez coming at them. And you know,

he's been 95-96 in his two outing so far and hasn't allowed a run yet. So the offense is

at least on paper. Looks like it's going to have a chance to be a premium in this game. So the

Canadians are going to need to pitch and they're going to need to field. And you know, it's sort of

easy to get lost. You could go, it's just a defensive play in the first inning, but you know,

Denzel Clark might have changed that game yesterday. When he picked up the Nolan Aronato single,

throws out Ramos trying to stretch it third. And all of a sudden, you know, the momentum shifted,

the set of a beginning to quarter weekends are looking at, you know, we're looking at multiple

runs and now they just have one and things are out of it. And they get a different game. And so

little moments like that will probably be important today. And making sure that the

Canadians are on the right side of it is what they need to do in order to advance.

Yeah, Josh Naylor not catching a ball against Panama. Looming large, I would say at this point,

but that could be erased with a victory today over the Cuban. So Owen Casey's been a name that

we've known, right? Like one of the top prospects in the Cubs organization makes his major league debut

against the Blue Jays and David Schneider robbing him as first ever base hit and is is for a his

first for a individual baseball hasn't gone necessarily great, but yeah, it gets traded to the Marlins

and he'll have lots of runway to do establish himself as a major leager. And it's only what single

digit games here, but this this feels like a breakout. He's been unbelievable and moving up to

to six yesterday. Where do you expect Ernie Whit to put him in the lineup today? And and and I know

it's it's again, it's it's world baseball classic against not necessarily major leaguers, but he

he is putting himself on the radar of some people who maybe aren't as in depth into watching the the

baseball prospect lists. Yeah, and he had a nice world baseball classic last time around too. He

ended up hitting a home run in the last classic as well, when he was still I believe just touching

triple A at that point. So yeah, you're right. Not a surprise for for, you know, people who

are prospect watchers or maybe follow the Cubs in other Marlins, but it's interesting, right? Because

I think the comedians part of the discussion around him has been, you know, what is putting too much

on him too fast versus, you know, this guy's really good. Let's write it. And he so he started

off hitting eight, and then he's up to six. And then you look at it, you're like, yeah, this

guy should probably be hitting behind Tyler O'Neill, right? And taking advantage of, you know,

Nailer and O'Neill getting on base and doing some stuff there. I wonder who we might see a bit

of a different permutation in the lineup today with Manello, the lefty going and, you know,

you know, the can has been Edward Julianna lead off and, you know, back to back the lefties,

with Josh Nailer or two. And are they going to look to maybe change that to someone like

Otto Lopez or Abraham Toro has been really good to base slot up into the lead off spot.

I think that they're going to be debating a few different approaches. And then what it looks like

if they have to, when they have to lie, lie, lie change once, once Manello's out of the game. So

I think we're owing pasties fits within that. And how do you want to attack the different

stages of the game? Are you going to be pretty interesting? And I think they're part of some,

you know, pretty passionate debates within baseball games circles right now.

Yeah, certainly. Look, forever baseball Canada is that great name. So, you know,

stubby clap is the first one that comes to mind. We now have a tugboat and a big doctor on this

team. Did did anybody or do you think the Canada air did all, you know, they were talking about

this on the broadcast last night. It's like, obviously, once he gets above the 30 pitch threshold,

you can't bring him back today. You know, that game had little consequence compared to the one

that Canada will play today. Do you think they they aired it all and keep him big doctor in the

game to the point where he's unavailable today and what is an absolute must win? No, it was

Friday after the game, I said to Ernie Witt, like, where was your plan to get, you know,

three, three and three from, uh, from, from Balazovic, uh, Logan Allen and Dykesharn. And what he said

was that that was actually plan A. And that was one of the few times plan A actually plays out.

And, uh, that leaves them basically everybody else available today for Cuba. And that was their

hope to just minimize the, the pitcher usage, uh, in that game, uh, which they did. And,

you know, full credit to Dykesharn for those final three innings. I mean, this is a guy who

wasn't on team, you know, three weeks ago. He was a, uh, a very late, uh, replacement when

Parallelman, uh, did not get insurance and was rejected by the insurers. And he came on and

what he told the team was like, guys, whatever you need, uh, I'm here. Even if I don't pitch,

I'm just happy to be here supporting the boys. And instead he comes in and goes nine up, nine down,

and boom, locks down the victory. So, uh, a great moment for him, uh, and, uh, really important, uh,

innings for team Canada and fight all because he kept other dudes from being needed in the bullpen.

Yeah, he was awesome. Um, they did preserve James Paxton for this game. Cal Quantral is going to start.

James Paxton was removed mid at bat in that Panama game. And I thought he was awesome. I gave

his on the mound for that, uh, ill-fated. What was it? The sixth inning where Josh and

Ailer commits the error, but uh, he was dinked and donked all over the place. He was throwing 95.

He's retired and has been for what two years. Uh, if I were him, I might be reconsidering

that the way the fastball is coming out of his hand, but how do you figure he'll be used today?

I think he's going to be available and they'll have different scenarios for how the game plays out,

and they'll be able to mix and match. I think one of the challenges at this tournament, right,

with the pitching or state restrictions, obviously, is it's not just sort of matching up guys,

but you need everybody who comes in to be nails, right? Because you're going to use five or six

different pitchers. It only takes one hiccup, right? And that can cost you the entire game. And so

you're not only hoping that you have the right matchup and pair them against hitters who

are going to have a tough time with the stuff that the pitcher is featuring, but it's also

are you efficient to keep your pitch count relatively stable? And then can you perform

in the spring training setting where your consistency might not necessarily be there? So

I think all those things are at play and the, you know, I think Paxton will factor in at some

point, but I think a lot of guys are going to factor in and I think the leash will be relatively

short in this game, which is something Canada can do because they'll have time to reset

before the next game if they advance. And this is really the game where, you know, you've got

to lay it all out there. Yeah, it is because the situation is very clear. There's no tie-breaker

scenario. Win, you're in, lose, you're out where the situation was less clear for the Americans

yesterday. And now it's clear because they're done that if if Mexico wins and they score fewer

than five runs, then they're out. That's bad for them. And it's bad for broadcasters of this event.

Not necessarily here because we're all into Canada winning. And so the Americans being out of it

do, who cares? What do you make of the format of this thing? I know it's the best we got and the

timing isn't perfect, but I mean, hard to imagine this tournament ever being in the middle of the

season. Bay, you mentioned it. Canada's won some big games. It's just not the right ones and the

tie-breaker being some formula of runs allowed with the outs recorded or whatever. Like, is this

the, is this the best way to do this thing? I think it's the best version that they've had. And

this is the second time, like 20, 23 was under this format too. And I think this is better than

the other formats. Like the worst format was the 2009 one where they had the double elimination

and you could be outing as well as two games, where as soon as you have two losses, you're out in

the first round. And I don't think that made sense because you didn't even get to, you weren't

even guaranteed that you'd play everybody in your own pool. And there were three team structures

that were a little bit more, excuse me, 14 pools structures that were a little bit more chaotic.

And this, I feel like you get four games. It's a good sample. And you have to have tie-breakers

in some way, shape, performed. And I think the reason that you keep the, you don't have to divide

the runs by the defensive outs is because if you mercy somebody, you could end up getting penalized

at that and you shouldn't have to do that. So I think like within this scope, it's great and it works

and it's as fair as you can get with it, all the different dynamics of play. But I do think it's

worth taking a step back. And I know there are a lot of criticisms of the pool, but I just think that

the complaints about it are just in the sense of real misguided because we're in spring training

right now. And we have meaningful entertaining fun baseball. And yeah, it's not perfect. But would

you be rather watching grapefruit or cactus league every day and nothing else? Like what's,

this is great. This is fun. This is like a bonus event that is super enjoyable. And I've never

gotten the criticism of it. You can always have a desire to want to make things better, sure.

But I just don't see why you would complain about having this product at this time of the year.

No, I agree. It's like, I think you can, like, hey, you can always try to make things better,

but complain out loud. No, I mean, this has been, this has been awesome. Like I'm going to have a

do or die baseball game at three o'clock in the afternoon. And there's going to be an ice storm

in Toronto. So it seems a way we're trending here. So yeah, complain never. I think one of the

coolest things about this has been the different locales. And obviously, you know, you're,

you're covering it in Puerto Rico, but I'm sure you've seen some of the games elsewhere. I love

that we're kind of getting the different feels of baseball culture kind of around the world. If

you're not going to just do a thing where it's like, hey, it's in this city and it's in one

place and that's that. I think this is kind of the best way to do it. The idea of like, yes,

the games in Puerto Rico feel different than the games at the Tokyo dome feel different than the

games in Houston, even compared to the games in Miami that, you know, they will see. And I just

think that that's one of the best things about this tournament is that it kind of highlights.

Yeah, it's like there are awesome baseball being played all over the globe. And it feels kind of

different, you know, I feel like, especially in North American sports. It's like the, you know,

baseball parks obviously feel so much more different than basketball arenas or hockey arenas,

but it does feel like it's one of the best things I like about this tournament is that you kind of

get a different feel for the cultures of the game kind of, you know, how different they are

different parts of the globe. Yeah, 100%. And I would tell you this at the other night as I was

walking from the press box to to the media interview room after the after Puerto Rico,

when it's an instance, border file spot against Cuba, how you have to walk through the crowd here

and the it is absolutely an incredible vibe here. Like the way that the fans react and, you know,

the four-week in-players after the game, they go out after the win, they go out to the mound,

they do a little prayer, they come back, they celebrate with the fans, everybody in the stadium is

sitting in Preciosa by Mark Anthony as it's blaring and nobody is leaving. There's all

celebrating and the energy, the culture around that, just it's just really incredible. And

that's part of what this is about. Like we obviously know the way baseball is in North America,

that's our experience, that's our connection. And that's great, but people do it differently

elsewhere in the world. And if baseball is going to become a global game, you need to celebrate the

way that it is elsewhere. You need to give other places the stage too. And that's part of what

Major League Baseball is doing. And, you know, it's talking to an official baseball official yesterday

that when the next one was going to be, you know, like, you know, it's probably 2030, but a lot of

things that have to get settled, there's a CBA coming up. But this is one of the things that,

you know, baseball has really gotten right in partnership with the Players Association and

WBFC. So, you know, I think that experiencing, you know, I've seen it from a distance on TV

in the past, but experiencing, you know, what baseball's like here in person. He's really

left an impression on me and it's something that you've had the opportunity of experience. You

definitely want to take advantage of. Yeah, totally. Kind of wish they had a roof, but yeah,

absolutely. It seems like an electric atmosphere there in Puerto Rico. I wonder so that the

Olympics in 2028 are an interesting factor in all this. Bryce Harper wants everybody to go,

right? He's been vocal about it. It feels like it'll be down the packing order of things that

they're worried about in the new CBA, but something that I guess they're going to try to get and

I can go to the Olympics if you say yes to a cap. Yeah, it seems like it's not probably not the way

that's going to go. But I wonder how much that might diminish this event, which has turned into

a real thing. Man, like hearing the Kike Hernandez quote about how this is more important to him than

the five world series he's played in is wild. And I believe it. Yeah, what do you make of the

majorly players maybe going to the Olympics in North America at the in Los Angeles in 2028 and

how that might affect this event? So the way that I would the way I'd ask that I'd say this,

the Olympics are probably going to be a one off or limited only to events that are in one of the

United States time zones, right? So I know maybe Brazil is hosting a summer Olympics again,

you do it or something around those lines if it's not in the United States. You don't think Japan,

Japan would push if the Olympic summer Olympics go to Japan, that might be something they push for

as one of the sports in one of those years. I mean, they would push for it, but would it make sense

from a broadcast perspective for American audience? And I think that's ultimately where the

jipping point is. And you know, maybe that's the other example, but that's not great for broadcasters

and it becomes a lot more logistically disruptive for Major League Baseball to send,

you know, say 150 players over in the middle of season and have them have to adjust their time

clock by 12 hours twice, right? So I think that that's why 2028's on the table. It's like it's

Los Angeles, United States, super convenient. A lot of MLB controls over it. A lot of MLB

standards in and around it. You know, you've got two MLB stadiums in Los Angeles and Adahar

and the close proximity with San Diego two hours away. Just logistically, it works for a lot of

reason. So I do think that that could be a one off or just sort of the one of those rare opportunities

where all the stars align. But I don't think this is only player driven, right? This is owner driven

a little bit too. And I think one of the things that you we take a step back about where the baseball

overall baseball business is headed, the key broadcasting models of the past, like they're dying

and will be dead soon. And you in that you're going to need people or customers all over the world

who want to buy streaming products and streaming access to your games. And how do you build global

audiences? Well, it's with events like the World Baseball Classic. It's with events like participating

in the Olympics. And so this isn't just a player, a player issue. This is an owner issue too.

And it's on the both of them to figure out how to make the logistics of it work.

Yeah. Sometimes you're going to get Edwin Diaz destroying his leg celebrating on a mound. And

that's just the price of doing business. All right. Can we ever have this thing back here again?

Because that was cool. When it was at Roger Center and the Canadians were put up a fight against

the Americans. Of course, that was what the ill-fated lost the hate. We know how it feels to lose

Italy. I was at that game. Lost at Roger Center. Is this thing ever going to come back to Roger Center?

The issue there is that there is not enough field time for five clubs. And there when it was

in Toronto in 2009, there were only four teams per pool. And so you had both the teams playing

on a given day and there was enough access to the field for everybody. But in this scenario,

there's going to be one team that needs a place to work out every day. And the main field,

there's not enough batting cage time. There's not enough pitching rounds on, not enough

diving time for everybody to work out. And there's obviously no alternative facility where they can

go to that sufficient quality for major leaders to work out. So that's the one of the primary

problems in the World Baseball Classic with turning to Toronto. Oh, it sounds like somebody needs to

get on like Christie Pitts. I was just thinking they need a dome at Christie Pitts, baby.

Somebody on that? I mean, I mean, you guys can pay for it.

No, I'm good. Listen, I got a really good beautiful park behind my home. It's only like 40 minutes

away from Roger Center. So I like that anyone's interested in, you know, maybe upgrading that too.

Anyway, it's in February. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Shy. Appreciate it.

Did you got a false of good day? You too. I guess it's March now. It is March. In fact, it's March 11th.

Yeah, we're approaching St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, when the, the only actually the only reason I

knew that I should know it because of my wife's birthday falls very close to that. But really,

the only reason I actually did know it was close to St. Patrick's Day is because I saw the Leafs

breaking in their St. Patrick's gear. That's the only time marker that I have for that.

March 11th does have significance for me, though. Do March 11th doesn't, nothing for you?

No, yeah, just jumping out to me. No. March 11th, 2020 is when like the world did feel like it was

oh, you know what? I was actually, I was on the air the night, uh, Rudy go bear the night after

Rudy go bear touched all the mics. Yeah. And I was actually on the phone. We had, I was very excited

me and Sam McKee. We got to do our golf segment. I was just bringing in John McCarthy, uh, to talk

it from the players and then the NBA announced they were shutting down. And I'm like, do you think

we could do three more golf questions? They're like, we should probably talk about the biggest news

in the history of sports. So right. There you go. I remember that night being in my basement

and pouring myself a nice tall glass of scotch on the rocks. But could you, manly man?

I don't think so. You said that to be like, I'm so manly. Look at me drinking scotch in my

basement. I didn't. I, I didn't. You're just so manly. It just happened. No, I just did it because

I was like, Oh, yeah. No, the world we headed for for the next. I had proved to be correct. Hey,

we're on the other side of it though. Hey, I, I maintain, I would have felt very differently

about it if my life was the way it was now, but having a social calendar where the only place I

could be reached was the golf course was pretty good. Although I do remember I was actually in the

parking lot in the golf course when I found out Doug Ford took golf away from us. And I've never

been more mad in my life. It's like, if you wanted to radicalize me to your side, that was the day,

pal. Let me, let me tell you because I was like, wow, thank God I got it in because I think it was

the next day they're closing. And then we had that course in Tilsenburg, Ontario that was like

closing the golf course, get out of here. Though PP had to set up shop outside of it. Oh, hilarious.

Yeah, no, hilarious is one way to be. Yeah, no, hilarious for sure. We got to beat the wheels off

the oilers all the time in the Canadian division. Yeah, you're easily your worst take ever. But yeah,

good stuff.

Raptors doing their Raptory thing yesterday. Is there hope that the playoffs are going to go

differently than the way the regular season has gone? I guess Alvin Williams is going to try and

tell us. He joins us next. As the fan morning show continues, Ben and his brand-gunning sports

net 590, the fan. Big opinions and in-depth conversations covering the leaves,

Jays, Raptors, and the NFL. The JD Bunken podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple,

Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Fan morning show sports at 590, the fan band, it's brand-gunning, that remains true. New hit,

sweeping the nation, fraud boys. It's not as fun as when we said it then because it was like

kind of the leading edge of, hey, it's great. Like, who wouldn't want to be a fraud? Right.

I mean, there's a lot of teams that are striving for fraud them. The wizards last night.

Oh, if they could be fraudulent. Next year, they're trying to be fraud. Sure. Okay. If you say so.

This year, so you're giving up 83 points to Bam out of bio. Anyways, yeah, there are teams that

have spent years in irrelevancy that would absolutely sign up for what's going on in Toronto right

now. We know better now. Okay. We've been the frauds before. And that was fun in the early days

of fraud dumb, right? Like the 50 win Raptors with the Rosen and Lowry. That was sick. Even though

you knew how it was going to end and it was LeBron James, cramming on your head, taking a pass in

the back court that Dwayne Casey forgot he could do and going the length of the court and scoring.

And yeah, but at least that was LeBron. Like, that's the other part of this is like these. And

it's like, hey, I don't like that's maybe unfair to Jason Tatum in the Celtics and whatever

they're, you know, building and it's a miraculous comeback that he's had here. What Cade Cunningham

becomes, but it was a little different when you kept bumping up against LeBron James. Then like,

again, good player, but like, and Jalen Brunson seemed like something that just like no one can

overcome. Right. Not. Yeah. This team can't know. No, I, I didn't mean this team. There's a lot

there. There's evidently a lot of things that this team can't overcome. Yeah. The 4 and 18 record

against top 10 teams by winning percentage. It doesn't even really tell the tale because we have

them fake. Yeah. And they are over in games against the teams in their own conference that are

good. Right. Yeah. Imagine no win. Imagine they just want like the OKC game was the pistons game.

And it's like, yeah, what do we do with this? It's like, they great point. That's team in the East

though. Yeah. Yeah. One just to clarify, they did not know that we got the wheels beating off

them. They're over against the pistons. They're over against the Celtics. They're over against

the Knicks. I guess they have a win. Like the heat who are now at nipping at their heels. And

we should talk about the BAM out of bio 83 point game in more in depth now in a second. But

yeah, they beat the pistons, right? Like they, there are teams below them even in the Eastern

conference that have signature victories. They don't have a single one. That's it. You can't even

squint, right? Yeah. There's not even a thing that the most optimistic raptors fan can say,

we'll look at this. And if everything goes your way and you get the right matchup and man,

there's not going to be as much pressure on them as there will be against the Knicks against the

calves in that first round. And look, they beat them here. And like, I guess the calves would be the

one team because it's not like, OK, and I know they were banged up versions of the calves that you

saw, but you did have like Donovan Mitchell in those games. There were, it was like, yeah, you

had some semblance of what they are now, but obviously no James Harden back then, right?

But outside of that, there's not even the, the one win this year that you can point to.

And the biggest win, of course, was that thunder game. But you're right. Like if that was the

pistons, or if that was the Knicks, if that was the Celtics who are now even better than when

the Raptors ever played them because they do have just Tatum back. That'd be very raptors of

them to beat the Celtics. No, Tatum. So the Lester city winning the Premier League is the most

surprising thing that's ever happened in pro sports, right? I guess they go or something. If

there's something you can point me to, please do because I'm not even a soccer guy and I understand

how wild that one was. The Raptors winning around feels like on par. And Raptors against the calves,

Knicks, Celtics, pistons. It just feels like it's a no contest. You know, I know that because

it's not been a contest. Yeah, that's true. No, it would feel mind boggling. And yeah, it's like,

we are quickly getting to Darryl Sutter, waste of eight days territory with whatever one of these

teams you're going to play. It's like, you're going back to like, two five game first round

series again. Can we do that all over again? Because it feels like what wasting everybody's time.

And the most frustrating part about it is the cycle that this team or the place on their cycle

that this team is, right? This is not a bunch of 22 year olds. And yes, I know they're not 30,

okay? Brendan Ingram's like the oldest guy who matters in these 28. But look at the ages,

the guys who matter in this league, go look how old Tatum and Brown are, Kate Cunningham or,

okay, like Jalen Brunson's more of like grizzled vet type, the Knicks are kind of closer to that

team. But the teams that matter, like, and again, no one's sitting here being like, hmm,

will the Raptors be the okay C Thunder? No one thinks that. Go look at the ages of the guys

on that team. You're winning happens early in this league. And maybe it takes you a few times

to bump up against it, not for the thunder. But before you are, you know, capital W winners,

where you're like holding a trophy at the end of it. But generally speaking, the baby steps that

happen, they happen in this league to pretty young teams. And the Raptors have kind of passed that

point by. And is that all Scotty Barnes fault? No, God, no, it's not all Scotty Barnes fault.

But it does mean that the cast of characters that surround him is not enough to get over the

hump. And you've seen that time and time and time and time, total time again. Yeah, one more time.

Scotty Barnes is incredible, right? Yep. Well deserving all star and Brandon Ingram was having

great years as well. And you're a police's punch is the way that fourth overall selection went.

No duh. Yep. Obviously. But there is like a burgeoning question about, okay, Scotty Barnes is

great. And how is like the Raptors defense has been what's allowed them to even be frauds because

they're really great defensive team. The fourth quarter offense is where these games go to die,

right? I guess the good teams because they can't score. Yep. And part of that is Scotty Barnes is not

a score, right? Like there's never average 20 points a season in his entire career as scoring

average is actually slightly down this year. And part of that is deferring to Brandon Ingram who's

shouldering more of the scoring load than him. But Scotty Barnes is an incredible player on the

strength of being able to score in his way, but not a focal point of the offense all the time.

And not some prolific score, which is actually a problem, right? Like and when does that start to

become more of a discussion that it's great to like Scotty Barnes obviously, hugely impactful player,

any championship team, Scotty Barnes could be in the rotation and start it for any championship

team like no duh. But to build your team around Scotty Barnes, who is a limited score? Yep.

Like we've done the thing about squinting. I mean, we're going to have three point shot. It's not

part of the arsenal, right? Sure. Again, it's never scored average 20 points a game in his NBA

career. I got wonder how much a part of the discussion about how you build this team around

having so much of it built around a guy who's the best player and demands the most minutes,

but isn't a score. And this team's problem is scoring. No, that's honestly, it's a great point.

You go back and you look at the list of NBA champions, who was the last team that was led by a guy

who wasn't far and away their most dominant score, right? Like you look at SGA last year,

the year before. Okay, it's like Jalen Brown had the best playoffs, but you needed Tatum,

and there are two headed monster there, right? The Nuggets, well, Yoke, it just came beloved.

And he's capable of everything, but one of those things is filling it up from an offensive standpoint,

right? More offense and defense. And it's like, y'all, sometimes you get the both best of both

worlds. We're like a honest or a quiet is the guy leading you to it, but yeah, you can't have one

without the other one. I was going to say like even with even with the honest, right? It's like

that's the closest you can get to from like a comp perspective because it's like, hey, like what,

you know, it's like this is such like NBA Twitter discourse, but the idea of like, you know,

Yannis isn't like a sexy offensive player. Cool. Don't care. He still can easily fill it up on any

given night and give you all of the defensive things. Okay, it's like the Lakers with LeBron James

and their bubble title. I think LeBron James, pretty gifted score. You know, they got to

score the most points in NBA history. The Raptors, they needed it to be Kawaii Leonard. It wasn't Kyle

Lowry, Mr. Facilitator guy leading the way. It was Kawaii, Golden State, the cows with LeBron.

Like I can keep going down and down and down the list. It's like, yes, you get to your,

your band of Mary Men teams. Kawaii Leonard was still the finals MVP when it was the spurs and

it was like, hey, they got a little bit of everything. I'm not going to sit here and list every

championship team, but even like the limited ones that you think of, like, how did the Mavericks

win a title? It's because Dirk Novitsky would, Dirk was a super human, super natural scorer and

was limited in all the other ways, but it's way easier to paper over the defense with four or five

guys than it is to do the scoring. And that is, let me say this out loud. That's that Scotty Barnes

fault. He wasn't the number one pick in the draft. He was the fourth pick in the draft. And you

hit a homer of homers on that pick, but you need to give him something else and Brendan Ingram,

like, yes, nice score. Nobody sits here and ever says like, ah, that'll be the guy winning finals MVP

because he's averaging 30 in the finals or whatever it is. He can get you 30 in a playoff game.

That absolutely can't happen. And I don't want to diminish what he is, but as him being the lead

offensive dog, I mean, like Carmelo Anthony was that and he couldn't win a, win a title. And,

you know, I think Mellow, a little bit more of a gifted score than Brendan Ingram.

Yeah. So what do you do with that? Because like, yeah, you're not, I don't think moving

off of Scotty Barnes. No. But like, is there another year of, he is only 24, right? So like,

is there another year of, okay, well, hey, Scotty, you're amazing. And all the things that you

said about him are true. We hit a home run and like, oh, my God, it's, what are we without you?

Way worse, no doubt. Yes. But can you take another step? Like, can you become not just an all-star

and a defensive player, the year candidate and first team all defense player? Like, can you be

an MVP candidate? And the path to that is adding to your scoring arsenal and averaging, I don't know,

five more points of game, scoring more in the mid range, adding more of a legitimate

threat from, from three. Like, that's, that's the path for because outside of that, the next question

I was going to ask is, and the topic we're going to discuss is, okay, so it seems like a pretty

big task for Brad for living to take this leaves team, which is playing like the worst in the league

and turn them into, like, even a playoff team next year, seems like a pretty big task.

Sure. God forbid a contender for a Stanley Cup next year.

What's more difficult that or turning this group of frauds into a championship contender?

What's more, what's the, the more difficult task? Is it Bobby Websters, which will be like the

pressure next year, having accomplished whatever it is that they accomplish, whether it's getting

into playing round or, or ending up in a playoff series. And I think there's enough crappy teams

on the schedule going, that's the, like, the only reason I think the Raptors are going to finish in

the top six in the East is because, like, the schedule, they have more crappy teams than good teams.

They beat up on the crappy teams, okay? So that'll be good. They'll have a playoff series,

but starting next season, the task will be, all right, we did that thing.

Yeah. And despite the youth of Scotty Barnes, he's not, he's not 19 and everybody's getting paid.

Like, we got to see what the ceiling is here and it can't just be this. What's the tougher task?

Bradshaw Living's are Bobby Websters. I don't think it's even close. Dude, like, I think it's,

it's Webster has a harder job in a landslide here. One, there's no goalie in the NBA.

Like, you can't just have a guy or two have a career year and it's going to change everything.

And also, you know, six, seventh, eighth, ninth men matter, kind of, but not really. It's about the

absolute upper echelon talent that you have. We see this movie all the time in the NHL, where

some team that did, they expected to be fringy, but they have career years from a couple of

third liners. They get some saves and all of a sudden, wow, look at this team. It's in a position

you didn't expect to see them in in the NBA. Who were the surprise team teams arrive earlier

than expected? Like, you'll see that like, the pistons maybe are that team of like, or,

I mean, obviously the superhuman version. This is the thunder of like, oh my god, they're so young,

look how good they are, are all already, but they arrive earlier than expected. They don't arrive

out of absolutely nowhere. That doesn't happen in the NBA. That kind of does happen in the NHL,

where it's like, wow, this team, everything just kind of went right for them. And their power play

was was at an unbelievable clip. It's like, what's the equivalent of that? A team just shoots 50%

from three from the year in the NBA doesn't happen. So I think that it is not even like, it is not

even close how much harder the job Bobby Webster has to do than the job Brad Scherliving does.

And it's not, I don't say that to say like, Scherliving's got an easy job ahead of him,

but it's way, way harder in the NBA. Totally. Yeah. Because the Raptors,

this is crazy. Raptors have two all stars. And they feel a million miles away.

Right. They have two all stars. And they have a 30 million dollar, a year point guard who's like,

kind of sort of earning his keep as that for sure. And like RJ Barrett's contract is not underwater

anymore. And you hit on Jamal Shed who's a second round pick. And even when you're at

Compertile, isn't that going, oh, my back. He's still competent. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, okay,

Grady Dick hasn't worked out like so what? It's the one thing that's fine wrong.

Yeah. Jacobi Walter, you were hoping about at times. It's like, he's been a rotational play.

You hit on Mamu. Right. And I like the mb. Call him Murray Boyles. And I guess maybe that would

be part of the reason you'd be optimistic about next year. Another year of development.

Like, how high is the ceiling there? Like sure. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. 100%.

He's going to start scoring 20 points again. That all sounds amazing. Those things that I just

have. No, totally. It does just because the job to do is hard. Doesn't mean the job that's been

done so far is bad. That's crazy. That the sport that you have like being an all star in the NBA

matters. Right. Just have two of them. Yeah. No Leo Comar of all stars poking around there.

They have two of them, including a guy who could be in the running for defensive player of the year.

Yep. And you're like so far away. Does it not feel like they're so far away?

Actually, you know what I take back? It does feel that way. That's the truth.

Yeah. It's like forget my feelings on the matter. That is just the absolute full stop unbridled

truth of the matter that they are so far away. Yeah. And the best way forward is actually not

a move. The Bobby Webster can pull. There's no lever. I don't think that makes it obvious that

the Raptors go from this into a contender. It is like internal improvement. Yeah. It is.

It is either Scotty Barnes taking that leap or, yeah, Columbary Boyles being something that nobody

anticipated him being when he's already had his leap offensively. Like this is a guy who came

into the league as a 15 point per game guy. And he's up to 19 now. It's like, yes, okay. His

high watermark was 99 and he's at 19 even this year. He's already had the leap offensively. And

that doesn't, you know, I'm not putting a ceiling on him. I'm not saying it can't get better

than that. Like, okay, the three point percentage ticks up a little bit, but just the way Scotty

Barnes is wired. And I do not say this is a shot because often when we talk about the way people

are wired in this market, it is. If Scotty Barnes becomes a more dangerous three point shooter,

does that not just feel like it emboldens him more to create because guys are flying out to him,

you know, at the three point line, you have to attack him in a different way than you do now.

And then guess what? When guy, when body start flying at a player like Scotty Barnes,

yeah, he can punish you with his own terms of scoring, but he's going to want to do that as a

facilitator for others. And that's again, like that's not a knock. It's a great thing to have as

a selfless player. But, you know, I mean, we again, we have these arguments with LeBron of like,

ah, you got to be more assertive offensively. And he's the all time leading point score in the NBA.

Scotty Barnes is not that. And even with a, you know, because the three point shooting is the

most like obvious one, right? Yeah, he just becomes a more dangerous three point shooter. But I don't

think Scotty Barnes making two more threes a game, which gets him to 25 points per game is what

is holding this Raptors team back. It's a, it's a very odd position to be in. Yeah, it's very

strange. I mean, anything is possible, though, including Bam out of bio, having the second highest

scoring game and the history impossible is anything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which actually,

that has been posted. So Bam out of bio with the 83 point game on the strength of an NBA record,

43 free throw attempts. He made 36 of them passes Kobe Bryant's 81 point game. I was curious

about. So we saw last year, there were a couple of outrageous scoring. Yeah. Totally.

Right. And I was like, Oh, guys are going to feed off that like somebody sees somebody else do it.

And in a NBA regular season, just limited import at times, right? Are we going to see some

fellas motivated by seeing what somebody else did? And especially in this era of the NBA,

where it's like, yeah, the heat scored 150 and like that's on the high end of the range of outcomes.

But you see 130 routinely totally in the NBA. I wonder like that at Bam out of bio is the guy

that passed Kobe Bryant, whether we're going to see somebody else look at that target it. And

also, the, I know there's been some people discounting it or disparaging it and hating on it,

which I like. Okay. I was like, careful. I like. I like the view of this segment that you can,

that you can pick at it. But that generally speaking, he's getting this incredible praise,

even though it was a kind of icky, right? Like that. Yes. Erick Spolstra kept him in there in a

blowout that he was fouling. You get the ball back in a blowout and then he kept getting fouled.

Racked up all these points. He's still gets the plot. It's of 83 points. Whether we'll see

teams and players individually target this. And man, the idea of a hundred point game now feels

on the table. Yeah. It doesn't feel off the table. I wouldn't go as far as say it's on it. But

okay. So I just pulled up Luke as box score from the 73 point game. He had 16 free throw attempts

in the high 16. That's it. It's absurd. Also, my last point on this, it is a godsend for the

NBA that they don't have iPads on the bench like the hockey players do because Kevin Durant would

have just busted out league pass. And he's like, I'm out. I got the guys that they, and I like,

I think it's awesome that they do. They love basketball so much. They need to play it. They need

to watch it. They'll die if they don't, other than like regular season games sometimes.

And that's why they have to put the thresholds on. But if there were iPads on the bench,

Kevin Durant would have just been like, I'm done. I'm watching. Got to see this history, baby.

Yeah. Yeah. If I were awesome tweets as well. All right. We're back tomorrow.

The another edition of the fan morning show, Ben and spring,

getting sports at five nine, the fan. Good morning. We want to win this game,

even though our tickets punched at a quarterfinals.