Darko's Rotations & Mentoring Leaders with Garrett Temple | Raptors Show Clips

Garrett welcome back to uh the Raptor show uh we were actually just talking about we saw the line for tonight's game and you know whatever that's a separate conversation but we also saw that Garett Temple or not gett Temple we saw that Gary Tren Jr is a little questionable you got a little back stiffness are are you ready to play tonight is is the question man I'm ready I've been ready the entire season um okay yeah I'm very ready to play always ready to play uh this is what they you know pay to

paid get paid to play basketball so I'm I'm definitely ready man do you get a sense from Darko and the staff if it's going to be a night where you're going to get used like like tonight you guys might only have nine or 10 players um you know it was the same thing kind of against Cleveland the other or uh against um Sacramento the other night but you didn't get used in that one what are those conversations like they give you a heads up hey Garrick be ready you're probably going to go in tonight

or you finding out on the fly yeah um the game that I did play that I was actually in the rotation for a little bit it was in the first half in the in laa against the Clippers my coach who was James uh coko at the time he told me prior to the game that there's a chance I might play and um you know and before the games coaches will let you know before definitely that if there's a chance that you may get in you know Darko was one of the guys that the first coach I've ever had that told me that tol

d guys you know during shoot around this is the 10 guys we're going to play tonight these are the nine guys or the eight guys going to play tonight in the first half that may change in the second half or it may change because of foul trouble but that was the first coach that was very definitive on what the rotation would be like to start and I really appreciate that wait why don't other coaches do that that's a great question I don't know a lot of coaches have a mindset of okay you know everybod

y needs to be ready regardless and uh but I think it really puts people in the right FR mindset that you know I know when I'm coming in I know when I'm going out I know I'm going to play tonight or I know I'm not in rotation if we're down by 20 in you know in the first half he may change it up so I really I really appreciate him for for how he does that so in a game like the the one against Sacramento where you guys got down I think you were down 38 at one point um so you know you haven't been t

old hey you're going to be in the rotation for that game what is that process like for you like how are you staying ready once it hits a spot where hey the rotation plans might change I might get called here no question so again when he tells us that he's reiterated that it's only for the first half uh when it gets to a you know blowout situation I'm always getting my body ready um you know whether he wants to put me in or whether he wants to just go with the young guys and just let them hoop um

mentally I'm like okay if we're up by 30 down by 30 there's a chance I might play and I may get some cold some some hot packs and get these uh get my my muscles ready luckily at home we have seats that heat up on our Raptor's bench so we don't have to I don't have to use the high packs as much but uh it is a little cooler a little colder in our gym so um maybe for my hands I might get the hot packs but dentally you know it's Common Sense we're down 30 the starters are going to come out um you k

now with with a decimated team like we have I probably will play if it's a blowout um you know one way or the other uh in most situations so uh I just have a mindset of be ready so what do you what do you tell the the guys um in a difficult game like that like against the Kings right like obviously it was kind of one-sided the whole time and you know but we always see you up and talking to people what do you what do you say to the younger guys in those moments yeah and I would disagree with you

it was one-sided like at the end of the second quarter like yeah you guys you guys the a little bit that was true yeah we just just you let go of the rope and with a team that's that you know potent offensively when you let go of the rope with the the the um lack of margin of error that we have because of who we you know who we have on our team right now is very difficult so um throughout the game just telling the guys continue to play continue to do our thing you know stick to the game plan and

once you know the game got to got out of hand to 20 20 30 you talk about why it got out of hand you know um we can't turn the ball over and not run back that looks bad on everybody um and and a lot of the guys that are playing now are playing for contracts uh playing to stay in the NBA um whether be playing for a contract next season or playing to stay in the NBA next season everything shows up people watch everything so there's never a situation where we should not ever turn the ball over or o

ne of our teammates turns it over and we don't Sprint back on defense first and foremost that makes us look bad it makes the team look bad it makes the product look bad and especially the fans that we have this is something that we definitely should focus on and it's all pure effort it has nothing to do with skill nothing to do with you know the talent level that we have it's all about giving effort and that's something that we can't have so Gary in terms of those guys who are playing for their

next contracts or their you know their spot in the NBA you I I know you're a leader who's available to everyone on that team but when you have guys who are coming in off of 10 days like jamas a couple of guys before that you turned a handful of 10 days into a very long NBA career at one point how much are you trying to talk to those guys and help those guys through that because I imagine it's a tough balance for a guy like jamas for example of you got to come in and you have to fit the role the

team's asking you to play but you also want to show out a little bit and show what you can do because you might only get into two or three games uh what's that like have you been at year for those guys definitely I mean I think I think I'm I'm in a unique position to be able to tell them this is is exactly what I've been through I've been exactly in your position what's up to that's my son um I've been in your position brother like there are not many people that can look at you in the eye and sa

y I know exactly what you're going through so for me to be able to have the opportunity to talk to guys like jamas and DJ when he came on before he got the two-way contract and tell him it's not about you shooting the ball you know jamas was upset he's not making as many shots I'm like bro it's not about that you're affecting the game in a way where everybody can see it with your defensive tenacity your ability on that end of the Court the shots are going to fall um and just having that mindset

of not doing too much don't don't be somebody that you're not you're not expected to be here and average 20 points a game you're expected to be here cause Havoc defensively and run back when a turnover happens um be in the right position defensively uh you know do whatever coach asks of you and they're they're not going to ask anything that you cannot do so I've definitely been in his ear uh a guy like Javon I've been you know I've been in a situation where I'm guaranteed for the rest of the sea

son but who knows what happens next um obvious like jonte so I'm definitely in those guys ears to remind them that it's not about having 15 points it's not about having you know um non assist it's about doing the things that you're supposed to do at a high level and that will show team teams that you are very coachable and you can be a rotation player in this league C can guys hear that the element of that of trusting that the shots are going to drop like obviously we know you know if you get 20

even if you get 20 threes up over two 10 days like that's a tiny sample right like that's not enough for you to show hey this is what I can do as a three-point shooter obviously we have the g-league stats we know jama's you know shooting 40% down there but you had some of that when you were on your 10 days as well like the the three-point shots didn't drop or whatever how hard is it for those guys to to hear that and do you think are hearing it right it's very hard you know um as you stated whe

n I was coming in I shot 39% in the G League I think and then got here got to the I think I should like 15% when I got when I got my call-ups and um it's tough because you it's 10 days you have 10 days to make you know to make an impact and to make an impression and um it's it's difficult to hear but that's why you continue to continue to tell them you know if if you weren't doing your job they would not continue to play you they would not continue to put you on the Malik monks the dear foxes um

they would find you know they don't need much of a reason not to play you you're on a 10day so at the end of at the end of the day you must be doing something right and just you know I was so happy H that three at the top of the key um last game in the second half J I'm talking about just getting a feel getting a comfortability uh to be able to be yourself on the offensive end that's probably the most difficult part of being on the 10day not to mention you don't know many plays and then if you

have to play point guard that's a whole another thing being able to get people in their spots so um I'm happy with how he's been able to play on the defensive end and I think offensively it's going to be it's going to be easier and easier for him as as the game's go on Hey Garrett um earlier this week um the Raptors held their uh annual open coaches practice right you got to get coaches in and some media got to go as well and so I I got to watch you guys actually work and what you guys do behind

closed doors and and one thing I mean you guys worked on a ton of things as always but uh one thing you guys worked on a lot that I thought was interesting was you guys worked a lot on fundamentals things like boxing out closing out pressuring the ball uh you know you go down the line um how unique of a situation is that is that because like you know the team is Young like you've been in a lot of different places like how often are coaches devoting uh practice time towards these type of things

um I I think it's a lot of it has to do with the the Youth of our team um you know every team is different um and a lot of times you know darkhole this is his first year as a head coach so he has to get a sense of the players not to mention we've had a different team every single you know every quarter of the season it's basically been a different team so you have to get a feel for your team and a feel for your players and understand where they're at um you know talent wise skill level IQ wise u

m so with a young team you know a lot of times the the fundamentals you know you can't take them for granted nowadays because the league is so young um you know boxing out the right way not boxing out with your the old school back to the basket Bo out box out that's nothing boy now people are too athletic too quick jump too high it's a whole different way that you have to box out nowadays and um you know pressuring the ball understanding when to pick up the ball where to pick up the ball all of

these things is something that has to be taught at a professional level um it's very different in college it's very different in high school uh so I think it's just and every team is different so I think just having a coach that's very um you know detail oriented is great uh especially for a young team and uh it's you know we have guys that that are sponges and soak it all in and that allow that will allow Darko to put the product on the floor that he wants to to have on the floor yeah I that th

at makes it makes a lot of sense really because you gotta standardize a lot of it right when you go from Team to team even understanding you know um different terminology on defense things like that for for newo guys to join different programs I am I am curious in terms of obviously you've been in darkos practices all season with the team do you get a sense that he spends more time working on offense versus like working on defense I'm sure he you guys spend lots of time on both but that kind of

leans one way or the other what would you say um n um I would I would I would venture to I would say probably more defense um if we have shorter practices it probably would be like a 15 minute segment on defense and maybe a 10-minute segment offensively um because at the end of the day defense is going to win defense is what you know our team especially when we're healthy from the beginning of the season to now you know transition offense is the best way to score in the league I don't care what

team you're on yeah you know you look at all the analytics and just the eye test people are going to score more in transition period Point Blank so how do you get in transition you defend rebound the ball and you push it or you defend get Steals and push it uh create turnovers and push it and so you know from his standpoint defense is the key to allowing us to get in best offensive sets which is transition um and on the flip side we need to keep them out of transition offense so we can you know

that's what we harp on about the way the reason the Kings went on that run is we never got back on defense with the turnovers and the bad shots we take so you you you get back so you can set a defense so you can then in turn defend rebound and get in transition to to try to score yourself it's it's pretty simple when you think of it that way but it's a it's a mindset that you have to obviously get guys to understand to try to go go go that way and and have that mindset when we're on the court so

I wasn't at this open practice but one of the things that will filled me in on from that was it seemed like Scotty was pretty involved even though obviously physically he can't be super involved right now he's still got the sleeve on his hand have you noticed since Scotty's been on the sideline a little bit any sort of changes or development in terms of what he's contributing from a a leadership and team perspective since he can't be on the floor that's a that's a great question man um I have n

oticed a lot you know he's I got to get on him he needs to get out there right when a tip off happens he comes a little later but um but no he's talked we've been talking a lot you know we sit right next to each other now we did when after the G you know during the games when he was playing as well but he's definitely being a little more vocal um for example you know we talk on the bench about you know we got to get on the guys because we let go the Rope uh Le going in the halftime and it's a si

tuation like okay yeah you know Scotty we get on him then you talk about what you saw you know talk to him about what they they should have done um and I definitely have seen him become more vocal have a mindset of more of a leadership mindset vocal leadership uh because he can't go out and show them how to push the pace how to be in a shift defensively how to use your length defensively um you know when when you're playing it's easy to say I don't have to tell them I'm just going to show them b

ut when you're not playing then you have to use your voice more and Scotty has always been a person that showed he's never been a a talker and not a shower he's always been a shower so this is going to help him I think it's going to help his growth leadership Wise by being able to be vocal and and uh and talk to guys about what he sees and not that he's ever Shi away from that but I think this will even enhance it more do you feel like there's been a change in him too especially because of all t

he traits that have happened pretty much everybody who has been on the team longer than him is gone right has he taken more ownership of the team and and sense that there needs to be somebody who take more ownership of the team since those traits were made yeah yeah I think that goes with it I think that goes with I was saying um for sure he uh you know he set up a dinner for us when we were in Phoenix um you know he he's he's taking on that that okay the Toronto Raptors you know you know what w

hat that means to be the leader what that means to be the you know it's crazy this I'm about to say this the Elder Statesman in terms of years here obviously Chris bu is the has been here the longest but um wow besides that like it is Scotty and that's that's amazing to say so I think Gary hasn't beat by a few months defitely Okay g Trent okay they were here together G Trent got here before the draft okay got you so n he he's definitely taking onus of that and um I'm I'm excited to see his growt

h in that you know for the rest of the season and then obviously beyond all right um I I wanted to Pivot too because I was thinking back on the interview you did last week and you mentioned that you roomed with kyar in high school and you guys have pretty much been friends ever since then um first off I mean like why were you guys rooming together in high school like what what brought you guys together and and what was he like at that time it was a um and Adidas All-American Game uh in Tennessee

so our senior year in in Knoxville Tennessee because we we were playing at University of Tennessee and they had a woman's game a girls game and a boy's game and I had even I had never known about it you know I knew about the McDonald's game I knew about Jordan brand but I never knew about this and um maybe it was the first year they did it it was like a like a 2K I think it was sponsored by 2K maybe um and I was invited Kyle obviously um Dwight Howard Josh Smith a bunch of big names um played i

n it and uh you know we all knew each other from summer basketball and I never knew Kyle like that though we had never really you know run across each other so I'm roing with this short stubby guy uh from Philly and we got we got we got to know each other really well uh we got tight got really cool and um my there's always a story about my I was supposed to leave at like 4:00 or 5 a.m. and um I didn't I wasn't in the in the room you know my parents came to the room my dad came to the room knocke

d on the door I wasn't in the room it was at the night after the game or something and uh Kyle always talks about my dad coming to the door my dad was you know 68 my dad 68 about 280 um and was like where's Garrett and he was like sir I don't know I don't know it's 4 4 4:15 in the morning and uh still to this day he talks about how scar he how scared he is of my father because of because of that encounter um yeah so yeah we've been close ever since I think he had just turned 18 because it was in

March and I was about to turn 18 a couple of months later but uh you know we played together obviously in Houston my first couple of 10 days we were in training camp together my rookie year um and uh we've been been tight ever since tight ever since uh throwing caution to the win where was Garrett at 400 am. I was at a friends I was in a friends room got you got you all right got you uh by the way uh okay we'll leave that as it is um I found the rosters for this event by the way as you were ans

wering there um so do you remember so this is like think of is 2004 Adidas so do you there was two there were two superstars there was like a team this guy and a team that guy do you remember who the teams were who I know it was Dwight I would imagine Dwight no sorry that they were like the teams were named after um after NBA guys at the time players yeah okay wow dang that really um for some reason T-Mac is popping yeah you were on team T-Mac you Horford y Noah is a loaded roster really gooder

Smith yeah and L I I don't have the results I only have the press release of like like some local newspaper of like here's what's going on yeah the other team was like Dwight Howard um Sebastian telare was on that one that was team kg was the other side of it kg okay okaye it was it was it was a stacked stacked stacked game for sure for sure for sure the girls game had bunch of McDonald's McDonald's all Americans as well yeah yeah going back to Kyle actually so I want you obviously played with K

yle as you mentioned in Houston um but you guys most notably played against each other a lot 2015 2018 two playoff series um actually I guess 2020 as well the Brooklyn series Kyle was for there for that one in the bubble right yeah the run the run a back yeah uh what was the scouting report on Kyle Larry at that time because I'm sure that was a big fight him was you know Kyle how you guys supposed to cover Kyle what was the coverage against Kyle he's G he's gonna run into you and flop and just t

hrow body not try to score and just throw throw the ball up uh to get foul first and foremost um uh don't go under the screen because he wants to shoot threes if you go under he likes to shoot off the dribble um and hands quick hands defensively you know and then he's the biggest charge taker in NBA watch out he's gon no matter where he is he's gonna he's like the guy off Mr de he's gonna find himself in front of the person driving the ball he could very sneaky he could have fell down with a lay

up which he does shooting the layup on the other end we get it out take it somebody can be driving and he's gonna be there to take a charge like what how how do you get there even so he has more charges this year Garrett than four entire teams no question yeah no question he's amazing with it he already Le just he already leads the Sixers in uh in charges too even though he's only been there for like less than a month uh and that's incredible that's crazy well now I need to know the scouting rep

ort on kyar on the golf course too because I'm sure you guys did a lot of golfing in your time we we did we did do a lot of golfing um he hits a well now he said he's changed but he hits a he hits a little power fade uh goes about 275 280 now he's saying that he's in 300 with the new Tailor Made Driver so I gotta got check him out this summer on that yeah we'll see we'll see but uh um pretty decent as an as an approach you know he feels I think he thinks his short game is his best attribute so I

think he's about a seven handicap right now maybe a eight that's pretty good so we'll see if we look at like the list of NBA players who at least like post a lot about golfing or talk a lot about golfing it seems to be like like guys who really shoot the three well are good at golf like Ray Allen's a big golfer Steph's a big golfer J.R Smith's a big golfer do you like obviously there is something to the hand eye coordination having good touch is that all it is is there something else that makes

three-point Shooters good golfers man that's you the I've been mentioning that the longest it's something about the touch I don't know what it is Doug mcder great golfer um Matt Thomas mat th great golfer um Mike pin bery that's a name that y may not deep cut that's a deep cut right there all right Mike pin birthy from the Lakers old school Lakers okay number 12 one the champ one of the championship teams with Kobe and Shaq he's a plus two plus three um no this is just Alex Caruso before he wen

t bald that's all this photo is um Alex Caruso Great Golf yeah you know maybe not the best three-point shooter but a great golfer Dylan Windler great golfer so I think it has something to do with touch feel um I don't know I think it I think it probably does have something to do with that uh but who knows Dale Curry obviously great goer right Seth is pretty good as well too I imagine this is like primarily what you guys did in the bubble man me and Kyle played about we probably played at least s

ix rounds together five or six rounds together I played 18 total rounds wow in the bubble and I was there for like a month a month a little over a month did you guys did it get awkward when you guys were playing each other in the playoffs and you guys so we didn't we I don't know if we played played golf while we played okay while we were in the playoffs got you we y'all swept us so it was only four games um that team was really good I don't know if we played before but I I know for sure we play

ed right before because we were talking about playing each other yeah um yeah yeah yeah y'all had a great y'all had a great Squad man yeah y had a great Squad that year and we were decimated by people not coming to the bubble so sure yeah um it was it was all right though yeah there was the one game in that one where the Raptors the bench scored 100 points is the first time it ever happened play that was game four that was game four yeah I couldn't believe it but we were bringing guys like Serge

and Norm Off the Bench like come on man yeah y'all had a squad y had a squad yeah what could have been game two game two we should have won I think I had something going into the fourth and I got like two shots after that wow I turned it over at the end on like a handoff that's he it's tough but you know at the same time you know Raptors uh yeah I think back to that Squad a lot quite frankly but you know um that's more of a painful memory because I felt like we could have really done something

you know we we we took it to game seven Kyle was amazing that that whole run Kyle was amazing man so yeah it's tough it really did feel like that could have and and like on top of the element of like if Kawai stayed the Raptors are probably winning probably repeating but then even without him even without him staying to take the Celtics to seven games in the bubble in the second round and stuff it's uh it's tough uh Garrett I got one more ex teammate one for you before we let go here um you play

ed on Pelicans the last couple years these last couple weeks probably I I know Brenan Ingram had the knee injury last night hopefully that's just a shorter term thing I don't know how much you get to pay attention to to other teams like this um on the day-to-day but what have you been able to pick up from the Pelicans kind of finally finding that stride it looked like the Ingram Zion core has been looking for the last little while yeah can y'all hear me yeah you're back oh we might have lost the

m I'm frozen okay I'm I'm frozen over here fellas y'all got me okay bi um I think they're just understanding what each of them do well and they understand how to lack of a better term allow like get out of each other's way and allow them to do that and you know and I mean when I say all of them bi Zion CJ um they kind of take turns in terms of being the playmaker and defensively you know herb Jones is Elite um bi has upped his defensive uh his quality of defensive play I I I think and the they'r

e they're learning to mesh and at the end of the day they're so offensively that it's very difficult to to outscore them uh so I mean I I actually watched the game last night when they were when bi got hurt and uh it was I was a little you know sad for that obviously but just them understanding and being having enough time to play in you know all three of them play together to find their stride has been great to watch I think it's a matter of just them understanding each other's games learning w

here they want the ball where the other player needs to be when they make plays and um they mesh really well together like the buil the team was built around Zion at the end of the day uh zbi so having a guy like CJ McCullum that can spot up shoot and create a little bit when need to obviously Zion is a monster in the paint VI is shooting a little more threes you sh a lot against us any that was crazy and I told him why W I needed you to do this all the time the last two years like you have to s

hoot more threes that's what create that's what allowed Jason Tatum to go from here to here right you know four three-point attempts to eight or nine NBI has that capability of being able to shoot at a high clip he needs to shoot more of them um so I just think them knowing each other is really the the biggest reason why they've been able to um do what they've been able to do in a you know I credit Willie for um you know he's had a rough time with injuries and not having guys all together I cred

it him for keeping that together and then allowing them to mesh when they got together gotcha all right Garrett appreciate your time um hopefully hopefully we see you in the game you in a couple hours because it's uh OKC is a tough they're tough man man yeah very tough yeah sh Shay gild is my he's my MVP vote for sure o nice that was going to be segment four today but already set it up for us that's great this is this is a great addition to the show he's previewing later segments for us this is

this perfect gotcha all right thank you Garrett all right thank you