Malachi ain't it...

[Scase]

Malachi Flynn is currently 4th overall for the Raptors in BPM (Minimum 100 Mins Played)

Barnes 7.9
Schroeder 3.9
Anunoby 3.0
Flynn 0.6
Poetle -0.5
Siakam -1.2
Trent Jr -5.1
Dick -9.2

Probably because he plays like 95% of his minutes with Scottie lol.

[Kevin Willis]

This is the player I expected when coming out of college. They say centers and pgs take a little longer to adjust to the game and hopefully this is what happened (along with a coaching issue). He was a DPOY in college so he's playing to his potential on that end. I think he has more potential on the offensive end as a scorer now that he's getting to the rim. If he could expand his game on offense and continue this defense he could potentially come out with a Patty Mills like career.

Dick's limp performance so far should give him more offensive opportunities. Him and Porter of course. Playing with a player like Porter could also improve his game.

[Gavin_TDThree]

This is the player I expected when coming out of college. They say centers and pgs take a little longer to adjust to the game and hopefully this is what happened (along with a coaching issue). He was a DPOY in college so he's playing to his potential on that end. I think he has more potential on the offensive end as a scorer now that he's getting to the rim. If he could expand his game on offense and continue this defense he could potentially come out with a Patty Mills like career.

Dick's limp performance so far should give him more offensive opportunities. Him and Porter of course. Playing with a player like Porter could also improve his game.

Completely agree reference Flynn. At times I think it's easy to discount the importance of self confidence when playing. This is the first time in Flynn's career that he's had a coach who is giving him consistent minutes and letting him learn along the way. In previous years he was too scared to shoot or make a bad pass due to the fear of not seeing the court for 10+ games.

Limp Dickscuit is a rookie after all but has shown a lot of good things. He's got good long term potential.

[AkelaLoneWolf]

Am I the only one that thinks we've seen this before? His effectiveness is largely predicated on his shooting. He'll have stretches where he looks like he can contribute as
a floor spacer that can handle the ball a bit but then when his shot stops falling, it drastically decreases his value on the floor and his minutes decrease. Unless he can maintain at least 38% from 3pt, I still expect the same cycle to repeat

I don't feel like this is completely correct. The bonus to me is the shooting which definitely has moments where you feel it can swing the game.

The non-negotiable elements are defense and playmaking. He really couldn't defend previously because he was not as strong or experienced or confident enough. It seems like he has bulked up enough to the point he can play really impactful defense. I mentioned it before, but he is either the leader or close to being the team leader in deflections per 36 mins.

He is also a quick decision maker off pick and roll. Under Nurse he rarely ran it and was often in a position where he had to create amongst the chaos. Things seem more organized under Darko and it gives Malachi the structure he needs. Not sure if he will end up a long-term solution but right now the bench keeps playing better each game.

You can disagree but I think it's pretty disingenuous to call his shooting a bonus. It's clearly a big part (if not the biggest) of his value to the team, especially this particular roster.

His defense is okay, I haven't really noticed this new bulk and strength but even with that, he is still limited physically which is the root of his problems defensively, as it certainly wasn't due to a lack of effort. The deflections are nice but he's never going to be a plus defender due to his lack of size and athleticism.

His playmaking is still unimpressive. He clearly doesn't look like a play initiator and can only act as a relief ball handler or secondary playmaker after someone else creates an advantage. His main threat is to shoot, and if the defense is playing up on his shot then he has more options like attacking the closeout (which is what happened last night on the play where he got fouled)

Not trying to hate, like I said if he can maintain 38% from 3 he'll be serviceable to this team. We've desperately needed a second guard that can shoot and dribble for years now since Kyle left and Flynn has been the closest thing. But the same limitations are still there and not enough talent to overcome them so I'm not really convinced by a hot shooting streak, but would be happy to be proven wrong

We shouldn’t expect perfection but all the bench needs to do is tread water until the starters get back in the game. If Flynn can do that for us then all the better.

[Truthrising]

Malachi Flynn is currently 4th overall for the Raptors in BPM (Minimum 100 Mins Played)

Barnes 7.9
Schroeder 3.9
Anunoby 3.0
Flynn 0.6
Poetle -0.5
Siakam -1.2
Trent Jr -5.1
Dick -9.2

Probably because he plays like 95% of his minutes with Scottie lol.

Dick probably plays mostly with Barnes, it hasn’t helped him lol

[TorontoBarneys]

Hope to see Flynn keep improving. Him turning out into a successful back-up will solve a lot of our issues.

If all 3 of Flynn/Dick/Koloko pan out soon-ish then it's very big for this squad. Shores up a lot of holes.

[pingpongrac]

It's really hard to evaluate given this is the first time he has gotten meaningful minutes with any regularity. As others have said, I think that his ultimate value is really going to depend on whether he make open 3s at a high percentage. He looks best when he's on the floor with Scottie and OG. At $4M he's perfectly adequate right now.

TBH, I think his dad's stupid tweets when he wasn't getting minutes as a rookie doomed him as far as Nurse was concerned. He's getting a fresh start with Darko.

The bolded is a flat-out myth that keeps being brought up on this board for some reason.

Flynn averaged 10/3/4 on 51 TS% in 25 MPG at the end of his rookie season. He started nearly half of our games in the second half of the season too. He was given ample opportunity and ended up having one very good month (13/4/5 on 56 TS% in April), but for as well as he played in those 15 games, he was just as bad in the rest (8/3/3 on 44 TS%) despite getting similar opportunity/minutes. In his sophomore year, he had multiple stretches where he was generally given 15 minutes per night over 2-3 weeks. He averaged 5/2/1 on 43 TS% in 13 MPG from mid-November to late December then 9/3/4 on 58 TS% in 23 MPG from early February to early March. He was really bad for a while then really productive for a while before an injury derailed the end of his season. Last season, Flynn had a stretch of 15 games where he averaged 5/2/2 on 43 TS% in 20 MPG from mid-December to mid-January then a stretch of 9 games where he averaged 3/1/2 on 45 TS% in 12 MPG from late January to mid-February. He rightfully found himself back in the doghouse from that point on as we were making a playoff push.

Outside of his ROTM award in 20/21 and a 4-game stretch in February/March of 2022 where he put up 16/4/6 on 70 TS% before being sidelined by an injury for a month, Flynn has just been downright awful for the majority of his NBA career. It's wild to me that people are taking an 8-game sample size – where he is averaging 13 MPG – to start this season as evidence that Nurse never actually gave him a chance to work through his mistakes.

I'm happy for him that he's producing the last few games and he would drastically improve our bench play if he can somewhat regularly hit open shots and give us solid defence, but he needs to do this consistently or he's going to find himself out of the league after this season. The reality is Flynn was supposed to be NBA-ready coming out of his 4-year college career, but he has never consistently shown that he belongs in the league as anything more than a 3rd string PG at best; his 13/4/5 per36 numbers on 49 TS% over ~150 career NBA games is a pretty large sample size that would have most late 1sts already out of the league.

[Scase]

Malachi Flynn is currently 4th overall for the Raptors in BPM (Minimum 100 Mins Played)

Barnes 7.9
Schroeder 3.9
Anunoby 3.0
Flynn 0.6
Poetle -0.5
Siakam -1.2
Trent Jr -5.1
Dick -9.2

Probably because he plays like 95% of his minutes with Scottie lol.

Dick probably plays mostly with Barnes, it hasn’t helped him lol

55min of 113 total with Barnes, so not quite lol. Dick is just not doing well overall.
83min of 107 total with Barnes for Flynn.

[2019nbachamps]

Flynn won’t be a Raptor next season and is going to be fighting to save his NBA career. We’re just biding time until we figure out what to do at PG.

[ItsDanger]

That 25-45 range in the drafts is a sweet spot to get backup PGs. But this team has to keep draft capital and/or acquire some in trades like many other teams. Raps have been mysteriously been inactive on draft night when it comes trades. I believe the last one was 2015.

[Vampirate]

It's only been 9 games, but Flynn is no longer the main reason the bench has been so bad.

I don't know if he'll be on the Raptors next year but he has a place in the NBA as a backup, he can shoot.

Flynn's +/- are very bad but his other ORTg, DRTg, BPM, VORP paints him in a different picture (thus far)

I do wonder how much Nurse has effected the development of certain players.

It's really Gradey struggling as a rookie and Jalen McDaniels playing like the worst offensive player in existence that's been the biggest bench issue atm.


What hasn't been discussed despite his great struggles is his three point shooting has gotten better each season.

Year 1 .321
Year 2 .333
Year 3 .353

[HiJiNX]

It's only been 9 games, but Flynn is no longer the main reason the bench has been so bad.

I don't know if he'll be on the Raptors next year but he has a place in the NBA as a backup, he can shoot.

Flynn's +/- are very bad but his other ORTg, DRTg, BPM, VORP paints him in a different picture (thus far)

I do wonder how much Nurse has effected the development of certain players.

It's really Gradey struggling as a rookie and Jalen McDaniels playing like the worst offensive player in existence that's been the biggest bench issue atm.


What hasn't been discussed despite his great struggles is his three point shooting has gotten better each season.

Year 1 .321
Year 2 .333
Year 3 .353

Flynn is a convenient scapegoat but he’s been our best bench player in the last four or five games imo. Playing with the likes of Boucher, Precious, Dick, GTJ, and McDaniels hasn’t made his life easier at all. Quite the opposite in fact. He’s starting to play freely instead of thinking too much.

[Duffman100]

It's only been 9 games, but Flynn is no longer the main reason the bench has been so bad.

I don't know if he'll be on the Raptors next year but he has a place in the NBA as a backup, he can shoot.

Flynn's +/- are very bad but his other ORTg, DRTg, BPM, VORP paints him in a different picture (thus far)

I do wonder how much Nurse has effected the development of certain players.

It's really Gradey struggling as a rookie and Jalen McDaniels playing like the worst offensive player in existence that's been the biggest bench issue atm.


What hasn't been discussed despite his great struggles is his three point shooting has gotten better each season.

Year 1 .321
Year 2 .333
Year 3 .353

Flynn is a convenient scapegoat but he’s been our best bench player in the last four or five games imo. Playing with the likes of Boucher, Precious, Dick, GTJ, and McDaniels hasn’t made his life easier at all. Quite the opposite in fact. He’s starting to play freely instead of thinking too much.

I mean, he was a convenient scapegoat up until this season because he had been terrible.

He's actually starting to play decently, so yeah..

Oddly, what I thought was our depth / strength in Boucher / Precious / McDaniels has basically given us nothing at all.

[Vampirate]

It's only been 9 games, but Flynn is no longer the main reason the bench has been so bad.

I don't know if he'll be on the Raptors next year but he has a place in the NBA as a backup, he can shoot.

Flynn's +/- are very bad but his other ORTg, DRTg, BPM, VORP paints him in a different picture (thus far)

I do wonder how much Nurse has effected the development of certain players.

It's really Gradey struggling as a rookie and Jalen McDaniels playing like the worst offensive player in existence that's been the biggest bench issue atm.


What hasn't been discussed despite his great struggles is his three point shooting has gotten better each season.

Year 1 .321
Year 2 .333
Year 3 .353

Flynn is a convenient scapegoat but he’s been our best bench player in the last four or five games imo. Playing with the likes of Boucher, Precious, Dick, GTJ, and McDaniels hasn’t made his life easier at all. Quite the opposite in fact. He’s starting to play freely instead of thinking too much.

I mean, he was a convenient scapegoat up until this season because he had been terrible.

He's actually starting to play decently, so yeah..

Oddly, what I thought was our depth / strength in Boucher / Precious / McDaniels has basically given us nothing at all.

People need to keep in mind there's actually worse than Flynn out there, even last season.

I would not trade Flynn for Killian Hayes for example, not even last season.

[Appostis]

It's only been 9 games, but Flynn is no longer the main reason the bench has been so bad.

I don't know if he'll be on the Raptors next year but he has a place in the NBA as a backup, he can shoot.

Flynn's +/- are very bad but his other ORTg, DRTg, BPM, VORP paints him in a different picture (thus far)

I do wonder how much Nurse has effected the development of certain players.

It's really Gradey struggling as a rookie and Jalen McDaniels playing like the worst offensive player in existence that's been the biggest bench issue atm.


What hasn't been discussed despite his great struggles is his three point shooting has gotten better each season.

Year 1 .321
Year 2 .333
Year 3 .353

Flynn is a convenient scapegoat but he’s been our best bench player in the last four or five games imo. Playing with the likes of Boucher, Precious, Dick, GTJ, and McDaniels hasn’t made his life easier at all. Quite the opposite in fact. He’s starting to play freely instead of thinking too much.

I mean, he was a convenient scapegoat up until this season because he had been terrible.

He's actually starting to play decently, so yeah..

Oddly, what I thought was our depth / strength in Boucher / Precious / McDaniels has basically given us nothing at all.

Precious early injuries kinda dampened his early impact. Still have faith.
McDaniels I had hope in.. hopefully he'll develop thoughout the season.

CB been solid.

[Scase]

It's only been 9 games, but Flynn is no longer the main reason the bench has been so bad.

I don't know if he'll be on the Raptors next year but he has a place in the NBA as a backup, he can shoot.

Flynn's +/- are very bad but his other ORTg, DRTg, BPM, VORP paints him in a different picture (thus far)

I do wonder how much Nurse has effected the development of certain players.

It's really Gradey struggling as a rookie and Jalen McDaniels playing like the worst offensive player in existence that's been the biggest bench issue atm.


What hasn't been discussed despite his great struggles is his three point shooting has gotten better each season.

Year 1 .321
Year 2 .333
Year 3 .353

Flynn is a convenient scapegoat but he’s been our best bench player in the last four or five games imo. Playing with the likes of Boucher, Precious, Dick, GTJ, and McDaniels hasn’t made his life easier at all. Quite the opposite in fact. He’s starting to play freely instead of thinking too much.

I mean, he was a convenient scapegoat up until this season because he had been terrible.

He's actually starting to play decently, so yeah..

Oddly, what I thought was our depth / strength in Boucher / Precious / McDaniels has basically given us nothing at all.

I think this part confuses me, Boucher I get, he's usually been solid. But McDaniels is a career nothing who almost went undrafted, and Precious has shown nothing outside of like maybe 10 or so games a season.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely didn't have "Malachi being the best of the 4" on my bingo card, but Precious and McDaniels being hot garbage wasn't exactly a hot take.

[F22_Raptor]

Tonight so far, every Raptor ain't it...

[agkagk]

Um, how about malachai’s d for the win.

He got under kyries skin and just ate jordan poole up on d tonight.

Apologies haters.

[kalel123]

We need one of these for Precious Achiuwa.

[Duffman100]

We need one of these for Precious Achiuwa.

Not sure I have it in me...but I can probably make it work.