Opposing Perspective: Toronto vs. Brooklyn
Samson Folk is joined by Brooklyn Nets beat reporter, Lucas Kaplan to discuss the Raptors & the Nets.
Folk: I know you like to dive a little deeper on the analysis side of things than most beat reporters, so: what do you make of the Raptors playstyle and how it maximized their personnel so far in the Darko era?
Kaplan: The Raptors are really like a mysterious cousin to me, they have some job I don’t fully understand very far away from the rest of our family and they only occasionally show up to holidays with a vibe I can’t put my whole finger on. But a lot of that is the roster construction I think. I always appreciate that the Raptors seem like they know where their bread is buttered, you have to be ready to be in gaps and defend the rim or else they’re gonna have 50 points in the paint. I think they’re doing a good job of maximizing Scottie (who is in turn maximizing himself), feels from the outside like they’ve supported his growth by letting him operate in a lot of different ways. Running PnR, posting smalls, driving bigs, shooting enough, etc. I think the Raptors are frustrating to play against, but probably frustrating to watch sometimes as well.
Folk: You mentioned Scottie maximizing himself – where do you rank between Scottie optimists or pessimists and why?
Kaplan: On a 0 – 10 scale, I’m probably a 7, so pretty squarely leaning optimism. A lot of that is smart people like you doing good work and then I learn about his game, but whether it’s that or me watching — I’m always high on size/hand-eye/processing players and that’s what he is to me. Feels like that gives you avenues to contributing in pretty much every situation on the court. So, while I think he probably won’t be primary high-level offensive engine guy, he’s gonna be constantly making positive impact plays.
Folk: To swing it to the other side of things: I think the Nets are now the team I am most unfamiliar with in the league. They have updated and improved the war chest after, my god, a volatile handful of years. However, the roster flat out looks bottom 3 in the NBA. Am I missing something here? And also, what is the mission operative for these Brooklyn Nets?
Kaplan: They’re not gonna be soooo terrible to start the season, I think, just because they have a decent amount of useful NBA players (thrilling, I know). However, they’ll trade guys like Cam Johnson/Dorian Finney-Smith, maybe more, and start really tanking around the All-Star Break. Cause that’s the mission, man. They went way out of their way to regain control of their next two drafts and traded perhaps their best player this off-season. Says it all.
Folk: Useful NBA players sometimes punch above their weight when usage falls to them. Is there a frisky candidate to take advantage of that on the roster? Cam Thomas hive? Ben Simmons back? Keon Johnson? TRENDON?
Kaplan: Nic Claxton remains underrated, but he’s built to elevate a great team, not to eat up stats on a bad team. Trendon’s a good shout, because if there were ever a year and situation for him to shine…this is it. Hopefully he utilizes his ability to get downhill to make plays for others instead of forcing too many long floaters. Dennis Schröder will be good in spots, and low-key, Shake Milton (remember him?) is gonna have a couple game-swinging quarters by scoring ten points or something. I just feel it.
Folk: 15 point first quarter from Shake, that’s special. And brother, if you only knew how highly Toronto rates Claxton – he is beloved. The point about Schroder will be less popular, though. If we’re putting on the scout glasses and trying to foresee players taking leaps or improving – any players on the Raptors who interest you?
Kaplan: Gradey Dick is an easy one, though the dude is a first-round sophomore. This is gonna be the year for Immanuel Quickley, and that’s a player I really want to see. Second year — first full one — under Darko and this system, whole lot of opportunity I’d imagine. My perception of him is that he’s slightly lacking in a lot of the on-ball creation stuff… but you have to go over on all his screens, a legit above-the-break 3-point guy. So I want to see him with more opportunity.
Folk: Okay, last question: on our pod Es had mentioned the idea that Gradey was going to be the 2nd best player on the Raptors within 3 years. Do you think that will be the case, and if not, who and why?
Kaplan: Really think Gradey is gonna be good, but I can’t get there with a player who is probably gonna need advantages created for him. I understand he creates advantages by moving off the ball, savvy screen-usage, etc., and I do value that greatly, but you get what I’m saying. I’d assume IQ is gonna be better, to be honest. Also, if RJ plays as well as he did with TOR last year and continues to make some mini-leaps in certain categories, well.
Folk: There’s a lot of ways this Raptors core can go. You could pop in from the future and tell me it was either an early breakup or a real era for the team and I’d believe either. Thanks for answering the Q’s mate – the readers always like hearing the outside perspective.
Have a blessed day.
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