Breaks breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines.
So the Heat Check.
The Heat Check with Sista Crazy, the best podcast covering all the drama around the association. We move on, though, to the worst team in the Atlantic. Just an abysmal, bysmal team. How the culture has changed for the Toronto Raptors since twenty nineteen. They were forty one and forty one last year.
Ninth place.
They end up drafting a guy that I love, Grady Dick. They end up acquiring Dennis Shooter through free agency. They get Darko Radjokovic, who's currently the guy that's being sued and by the New York Knicks.
Great hire. They lose. They lose Nick Nurse, they lose Fred van Fleet.
But there's some other guys that are kind of like in flux, you know, like they're in the we'll call it they're in roster purgatory.
That's Ogiidanobi. That is Ascal Siakam. I think there's some other ones, but those are the main two.
They were very disappointing last season, extremely disappointing five hundred team. They get bounced in the playoff play in they fire their coach right away.
Nick Nurse won the only title.
In franchise history, did not see eye to eye with Massai Eugerie. He got shown the door. It was shocking to some Our guy, Jake Fisher, friend the show was calling for that pretty much in the preseason last year, said that he was going to be on the hot seat because of some cultural issues between those two in terms of their philosophy for the how the squad's going to play. Also, the roster construction very strange and that leads to underperformance as well. They were in constant trade
rumors over and over and over again. They did absolutely nothing at the deadline. Shocker again, roster purgatory players that we didn't know if they were going to go or if they were going to stay. Masai Ujeri greatest cock t's in the NBA or spinning fire to night him midnight. The Raptors then lose Fred Van Fleet for nothing again because he was in the trade rumors that they didn't do it.
He was supposed to be the heart and soul.
Of the team aka the Kyle Lowry of the team, who they again lost for nothing. They add Dennis Shooter, who I love actually feba god. He was a part of the World Cup run where I don't think Germany lost even one game. One of the most underrated players in the league. Right now, they get Grady Dick, who people are just calling Dick now, which I love. Very wild card Dick is. You know, you know, you know how Dick b is. Just never know what Dick's up to.
You know, one second he's here, one second he's not. Could be really good, could be a real mess, just like any Dick anyway. The biggest change is dark Over Jakovich, who comes over from Memphis.
He's a very unknown commodity.
He dropped into this team like a vampire, and he seems like already kind of causing a ruckus given the fact that I think the New York Knicks are accusing him of stealing some proprietary information from their team. He is now tasked with coaching a team that has a bunch of veteran presence, a lot of defensive ability, a lot of length, a lot of athleticism, but not a lot of true bucket ketters, not a lot of guys who can shoot from beyond the art consistently.
Besides, of course, the wildcard Dick.
He will preside over players like Pascal Suakam, who is either going to sign an extension or is going to dipset og Nanobi, who has been unhappy with his role since twenty nineteen twenty twenty. It's been a while not happy in Toronto. I'm probably gonna walk in free agency if he doesn't get sent out by the deadline.
But let's be honest, it's MASSI, so he'll probably keep him.
Scottie Barnes, who was a big time sophomore slump last year, but I like a lot MASI wants to build the entire team around him.
But the question really is, what is this team? What is this What are they doing?
I know they're probably good enough to be a five hundred team again, but like, could it be better than that?
I don't think so.
I don't have really any real idea. I suspect this is a loser team. Honestly, I suspect this is not a good team. I do think they're gonna play freer. I do think they're gonna play looser with more joy. The Nick Nurse experiment, the Nick Nurse train is a little Thibodeaux esque. He's not afraid to bury you in the media. We'll see what Darko does. I don't know how that's gonna be. They're probably gonna ditch this whole. Like we play five to seven guys forty two to
forty eight minutes a night. Thing the bench is not an existing thing. We don't even really even travel with the bench because we're not gonna use them. It's like Nick Tom Thibodeau nurse, you know, kind of that kind of a vibe. Where will the Raptors end up? I have zero confidence in this team. I'm not gonna lie to you. In my notes it says they could be a six seed, but if I actually said that with any conviction, I'd be lying to you.
I'm not gonna do that.
This is a very schizophrenic, defensive oriented a lot of ninety eight to ninety six wins if they're gonna get them, and in a league where Jannis and Dame are gonna probably put up one fifty a night, it's gonna be tough sledding. They are very we'll call it a wild card. We'll see what they get at the deadline, if they get anything at all. But onto the team that everyone thinks is going to be the real contender, the Boston Celtics, who's Colie taken.
Not Joe's. That's really the main question mark.
There is Joe Key edition, Chris DAPs porzingis in free agency, and Drew Holliday via trade. They lose Marks Smart, Grant Williams, Rob Williams, Malcolm Brogden. If you think that's a lot, well that is. Uh that's three starting players and six Man of.
The Year Malcolm Brogden. So they made a lot of money moves.
Brad Stevens is under the gun. I'm sure ownership is crawling up his ass to get a championship in while the J's are still in their prime.
They're only nineteen.
By the way, did you know Jason Tatum only nineteen? For like the seventh straight year tradered Brad has pushed all of his chips into the middle of this summer and now the Celtics are the odds on favorite to win the title.
So how did this happen?
Well, they made the big trade earlier in the summer when they shipped out Marcus Smart, which we predicted should have been traded probably two years ago. Everyone murdered me in Boston for that. For that, I say, thank you, guy was right. Then they end up doing this deal with Memphis in a three way trade that landed them kristavs Porzingis in Kelly Green.
They then signed them to an immediate.
Extension, which I don't know, baby, I don't know about that huge move brings an all star big man. I like the prospect of Chris DAFs porzingis a lot. I think him playing five is very interesting. If he's healthy. He can stretch the floor. He can shoot threes, he can dribble, he can literally bring the ball up and pull up from thirty feet right in your dome face. He can also get lobs. He can rebound. Not the greatest perimeter defender, pretty good at defending the rim. I
think this is going to take the team forward. It's certainly going to make them more unique, a little more athletic, a little bit more versatile. But they were not done. In the aftermath of the Dame Lollard trade, of course, Brad Stevens put his big balls on the table and when now he got Drew Holliday, one of the best perimeter defenders, if not the best perimeter defender on planet Earth, in exchange for time Lord Rob Williams and six Man of the Year Malcolm Brockton.
You lose Grant.
Williams to free agency, he goes off to Dallas. That is a good portion of the defense, folks, that is now gone. Holiday presumably helps set immensely. Now this team is a serious problem.
This team is.
A when healthy, a massive problem. You have Derek my name is Kodak black, but when you see me, I'm white and I like him a lot. We don't even mention him because he's a key piece of this rotation. Swapping out Holiday for Smart, I think is a big improvement, really, especially since Holiday is a forty percent three point shooter, and we know that Marcus Smart little on the iffy side from three, can be good, can be very ice cold.
They are not gonna have to worry about who's going to handle the rock down and the crunch time and clutch time.
It's not gonna be Jaylen Brown anymore. It's not gonna be Jason Tatum anymore.
You now have a floor general who can also walk up on defense but also make the right decisions.
You don't want Marcus Smart taking the last shot of a crucial game seven. I'd be fine with Jew Holiday taking the last shot in a crucial Game seven. But the issues on this team are are threefold. One, can Christas Porzingis stay healthy. That's key. If he can, this team's gonna be insane.
History shows, though, let's be real, Chris Porzingis has difficulty playing a full season. If he is out for any extended period of time, they have really nothing to back him up.
I'm not even sure who their backup center is. I really don't know. I would have to google it right this second. Not anyone good.
They don't have time Lord there to back him up now, which was kind of a key piece. The second point, are they gonna have enough defense in the interior, specifically to stop Joel Embiid?
And you're honest, I don't know. I don't think about that. I don't know.
Not to mention those other teams out West, like Jokic and Jamal Murray and a plethora of other teams that are gonna be coming for that ass Drew's lockdown defender Jason Tatum can play defense.
Jaylen Brown can play defense, but I don't know.
I'm suss on this also, of course, the third more obvious glaring question mark is Joe Miszoula. He did not have a stellar coaching performance in the playoffs. He does not have particularly great called bedside manner with the media.
He doesn't really.
Have great in game adjustments. But he has surrounded himself with more veteran assistant coaches. He gets another year of experience. Hopefully he's not watching the town anymore. That did not work out. The question really, will he be able to more consistently manage rotations and the clock in the playoffs and not just be like, well, their jobs to figure it out, and my job is to watch.
I'm watching just like y'all.
That's not an acceptable answer, Joe. So the Celtics are going to be a very, very fun team to watch this year. Whether it ends up with them hoist see Larry O'Brien, we will see