Reflections on the Raptors Marc Gasol or Jonas Valanciunas
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00:00All right, I'm here now with Aaron Rose of Sports Illustrated, it's all Raptors.
00:05Aaron, what's going on, man?
00:07Things are good in Toronto,
00:08just looking forward to the season returning for the Raptors next month.
00:13Yeah, it's a good look.
00:14You guys have a former Grizzly, one of the all time great Grizzlies,
00:18a guy that was definitely loved and endeared here for many years, Marc Gasol.
00:23We traded him to you guys last year.
00:25I don't wanna say it was around trade deadline, so February.
00:28You guys won an NBA championship last year as well.
00:31And in that trade, we got a bunch of guys back, but
00:33the only guy that we really hung on to was Jonas Valanciunas.
00:36I just wanted to take this time to talk to you to kind of catch our fans up,
00:39our respective fans up, on the guys, how they're doing in their respective cities.
00:45And just what the fans think about the guys that we got in those trades,
00:49just kind of catching fans up.
00:50I'll let you go first.
00:51What is the general feeling about Marc there in Toronto?
00:56I think Raptors fans are obsessed or love Marc Gasol.
01:00Not only is he good looking, but I think he's raised the IQ of the fan base.
01:07As I'm sure you know, his post defense is phenomenal.
01:11And I'm not sure the Raptors would have won the championship last year
01:14without that defense, especially against Joel Embiid.
01:17He locked down Joel Embiid in that big Eastern Conference semifinal series
01:22against the 76ers.
01:23His passing is phenomenal.
01:25That's something I'm sure you saw in Memphis for many years.
01:28And what he's really taken his game to another level with the Raptors,
01:31although his points have gone down a little bit since coming over,
01:35his three-point shooting has gone up.
01:37And that allows the Raptors to play four guys, or sorry,
01:41five guys who shoot the ball really well and space the floor well.
01:44And having him outside of the perimeter, usually at the top of the key,
01:48the Raptors can penetrate more because they don't have a guy like,
01:51they don't have a guy down low clogging up the paint.
01:53So he's been able to play defense really well, while also spacing the floor.
01:57And he's a guy that doesn't necessarily move so well,
01:59but his ability to nail an open three at the top of the key
02:02has been really helpful for the Raptors.
02:03So I think the Raptors are certainly happy with the way Marcus
02:08has played for the past year and a half.
02:09Do you think that the Raptors plan on bringing them back this summer?
02:13I know Marcus is a free agent this year.
02:14Do you think they have plans for bringing them back this year?
02:17So the Raptors have three key free agents coming up,
02:22I guess this fall now with Marcus, all Serge Ibaka and Fred Van Vliet,
02:27all heading toward free agency.
02:29And they're probably not going to have room for both Ibaka and Gasol.
02:34So the question is going to be which one of those two.
02:36And the question is which, if they can bring back Fred Van Vliet.
02:39Raptors fans know that the Raptors have made no secrets
02:43about their interest in Giannis Antetokounmpo for 2021.
02:47So the question is, can they keep those guys on short-term contracts?
02:51So they expire in 2021 to free up the cap,
02:54or can they keep them with such a little cap hit
02:57that it doesn't interfere with their potential
02:59to bring in Giannis on a max deal.
03:01So I would expect them to try and bring back one of the bigs.
03:05I can't say who, either Gasol or Ibaka.
03:07And then we'll have to see about Fred Van Vliet
03:09if the Raptors can get a deal done there.
03:12Sounds good.
03:13Good to hear that you guys have those, a good feeling about Mark.
03:16We love JV here as well.
03:18JV is just a super fun guy.
03:19I was hosting a radio show here in Memphis,
03:21and we talked about how much, how good he is in the locker room.
03:25He's a great interview.
03:26He's a real silly guy.
03:27It's like he's always preparing himself to crack a joke.
03:29And we just know JV is going to say something wild
03:32when he's in the locker room.
03:34On the court, just a phenomenal guy.
03:36He can give you buckets in the paint.
03:37He can get you rebounds.
03:39It's kind of the opposite of Mark.
03:40If you kind of want to take a look at it,
03:41they're almost polar opposites where JV likes to operate in the middle.
03:45He likes to rebound.
03:45He's not that good of a post defender like Mark is.
03:48He holds his own, but he's not as solid across the board defensively as Mark is.
03:54But we like JV here.
03:55We just signed him to a pretty long-term deal.
03:57I think he's got a couple more years left on that.
03:59And it's a very tradable contract as well.
04:01If the Grizzlies did want to go in another direction,
04:04his money fits into many trade scenarios.
04:07Well, I'm glad that both sides of the trade seem to be happy with the players
04:10they've received.
04:12Looking forward to seeing you guys in the seeding games.
04:14I think we play you guys, I think, game five or something like that.
04:17And I wish you guys the best.
04:18We both have that Canada connection.
04:21Memphis is a long way from Canada now, but we both have that Canada connection,
04:24being expansion teams back in the day.
04:26And we're both for teams that kind of overachieved this year.
04:28You guys, of course, won a championship.
04:30A lot of guys counted you out when Kawhi Leonard went elsewhere.
04:33But you guys have been a phenomenal team out in the east.
04:35And the Grizzlies have been a team that has definitely exceeded expectations as
04:40well, being a team doing this clearly in a rebuild.
04:43Well, Aaron, we appreciate you jumping on with us today, bro, and
04:45catching us up on Marcus Hall here in Memphis.
04:49For sure, I know Raptors fans are excited to watch the Grizzlies in the playoffs.
04:52Hopefully they make it there and can go surprise a few teams and
04:55hopefully go a little bit far.
04:56because Raptors fans are certainly Grizzlies fans as well.