00:00I'm going to have to change that a little bit.
00:14It's not the Toronto Raptor podcast anymore, it's just the Toronto Raptor segments here
00:18on Couch Potato Diary.
00:19But, um, looking at player totals today.
00:22We have gone through potential breakouts, potential x-factors, normally we do potential
00:27fall-offs, but no one played well enough last year that they're going to fall off this year.
00:31So, we've gone through a few different things.
00:32Now it is time to look at a couple of stat projections, I guess, that the Toronto Raptors
00:38may hit this season.
00:40And so these are provided in kind of season-long point total things, like we did with the wins
00:46yesterday.
00:47And so once again, for the fine overlords at Twitch, none of this is actual gambling
00:52advice.
00:53This is just a, hey, I think that a, these point thresholds that they give us are an
00:57interesting talking point, and b, this is just a, what I would consider, not necessarily
01:01what I think you should do.
01:03So, with that all in mind, let's take a look at a few of them here.
01:06First is, um, RJ Barrett and Emmanuel Quickly, 20 plus points per game each, at plus 200.
01:14I feel like I can't really say I think Emmanuel Quickly is actually going to be a breakout
01:18player in the whole NBA this year, not just with the Toronto Raptors, and then think he's
01:23going to get under 20 points per game.
01:25With the Raptors last year, he was around 18.5, I think it was 18.7, so he was right
01:30in kind of that area.
01:32And so, I think that there is a real opportunity given, again, him being more of a focal point
01:38in this offense, and him seemingly having a, what should be stylistically, a pretty
01:43good rapport with Scottie Barnes.
01:45I think that should be something that helps get him to that 20 point threshold.
01:49With RJ Barrett, there is a bit of an injury concern right now, but I do also think that
01:54he averaged, I think it was 23 points a game, or 22, 23 points a game, last season.
02:00I should actually kind of look this up because he's coming up again here in a second, but
02:03um, he, I think that A, he played really well with the Raptors, um, sorry, he was at 21.8
02:10points a game with the Raps last season, he was at 18.2 with the Knicks, but again, there's
02:15going to be more opportunities for him to score the basketball, and coming off of an
02:18Olympics where he looked phenomenal, I do think that there might be a little bit of
02:22a boost for RJ Barrett.
02:24And so I think the only thing that can hold you back in this is an RJ Barrett injury,
02:29and I didn't look, to be perfectly honest, to see if there was a, he has to play X amount
02:33of games, and so if he plays 5 and averages 30, then blows his leg up, uh, look at that,
02:39we hit.
02:40Hopefully that doesn't happen.
02:41But, you know what I mean.
02:42So, I think that that is one, and it's sitting at plus 200 right now, where I found this.
02:47So that, I think, is a pretty good one to look at.
02:49I would be taking that if, um, if you were into that sort of a thing.
02:54Another one is RJ Barrett specific.
02:56He is, again, averaged 21 and a bit points per game with the Raptors.
03:01This one is saying RJ Barrett to get 23 plus points per game, and 6 plus rebounds per game.
03:07He had 6.7 rebounds a game last year with the Raptors, and again, averaged 21 point
03:11whatever it was, points per game with the Raps.
03:14Just over 21 points per game.
03:15And so, again, I think now there is an opportunity for him to step up into that role.
03:21Also, the one thing that concerns me about the rebounding thing is that, while the Knicks
03:26had Mitchell Robinson and stuff like that, they didn't necessarily, and I guess Hartenstein
03:29as well, so they did have a couple of rebounders there.
03:31But, um, with Portal and Barnes, those guys tend to gobble up quite a few of those boards,
03:36and so I do worry that maybe they won't all be there for RJ Barrett this season, depending
03:41on how the Raptors maybe utilize him on the offensive side of things or whatever, but
03:45I still think that, to assume he sticks around at the same rebounding total he did a year
03:48ago, and maybe a slight tick up in the points, given where he is at in this Raptors offense,
03:54and a level of comfort now, having a full, I guess not a full training camp because he
03:58was injured, but at least having that full offseason, and again, the boost coming from
04:02the Olympics, I just think all of that together leads to what should be a positive year for
04:07RJ Barrett.
04:08And so I also like to take this one again, over on 23 points per game and over on 6 rebounds
04:12per game, getting you at plus 250.
04:14And the last one is Scottie Barnes, 5 plus triple doubles this season.
04:19The, if he gets 5, we get this one, it's at plus 150, and for Scottie Barnes, he had 5
04:25last year.
04:26And now again, we are assuming a touch of development in his game, um, I, I don't know
04:32how well the team is going to do, but that could lead to extra rebound opportunities,
04:38at least.
04:39But I, I'm interested to see what kind of distribution they use in terms of who is,
04:44who the offense is running through.
04:46And so if it is definitely a little bit more quickly heavy with the, the basketball, then
04:50all of a sudden there might be a bit of an issue with us getting to that number in the
04:53assist category.
04:54But I think he is so clearly the number one scoring option on this team, and has shown
04:58to be a very good rebounder, I think there are going to be enough nights that the assists
05:02are there that this is a, a pretty wise play at plus 150.
05:07For more NBA on the YouTube channel right now, um, just search Couch Potato Diary, there
05:12is the mega preview that's going to come out in podcast form as soon as this episode
05:17here on Twitch is done.
05:19So check out the, the, the mega preview, which is a combination of all of the preview segments
05:24we did all thrown into one and put out there on the YouTubes and it'll be available in
05:29podcast form as well.
05:30And we'll do the same thing with the Raptors stuff, um, early tomorrow, certainly not going
05:37to be the, I think this one ended up clocking in at a couple of hours for the mega NBA preview.
05:41It's certainly not going to be that.
05:42It might not even make it to half an hour, but it'll be a nice little combination of
05:45everything that is going on.
05:47And the interesting part about the NBA mega preview, if I may, is there in the, you can
05:51kind of tell like the, the Randall trade happens in the middle of it, or the cat trade happens
05:55in the middle of it.
05:56And so you can kind of hear where some of the predictive, like, okay, well, maybe this
06:00could happen and this would shift this and then the reaction to it as well.
06:04And how we kind of had to pivot on that.
06:06So I think there's some interesting stuff in there.
06:09You think Scotty Barnes is a bonafide number one option in this league?
06:13I think he's a bonafide number one option on the Raptors.
06:16Um, I, I think in a perfect world for a Scotty Barnes, he would probably be from an offensive
06:24standpoint a number two or maybe even number three.
06:29I mean, obviously a perfect world, he's like a number 10 option and you're on a super team,
06:32but for realistic purposes, I think if he was a two as an offensive option, I think
06:38you'd be okay.
06:39Um, and I think a three, it would kind of be perfect, but I think where he really shines
06:43is his ability to play all over the floor, right?
06:46Like he can defend multiple positions and I think the defensive aspect of it is what
06:50really does kind of help you with him and make you feel like that this is someone who
06:55can be, was deserving of being an all-star and can be a number one guy on a team because
07:00of what he can do at the defensive end of the floor.
07:03And then the offensive side has improved to the point where he at least can be a number
07:07one and it's not laughable, although maybe a few less isos for him at the end of basketball
07:13games might be beneficial to this team's long-term success.
07:17But so from a scoring standpoint, I don't think he's a bonafide number one, but from
07:22a overall team constructing standpoint, I think you can build around this guy and have
07:26a pretty successful team.
07:28I do.
Comments