The Raptors should give Malachi Flynn, Khem Birch rotation minutes

Amit Mann and Louis Zatzman discuss why they believe Malachi Flynn and Khem Birch should get stable minutes for the foreseeable future as the Raptors aim to find their identity again. Full episode gauging their confidence on Fred's shooting, team defence, front office tweaking the roster and more is on the "Raptors Over Everything" podcast feed.

Video Transcript

LOUIS ZATZMAN: Koloko didn't play.

AMIT MANN: No, he didn't. Khem Birch took his minutes. And I think he should have.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: Which is also-- like, if Koloko's not playing, why is Scottie Barnes not getting more pick and roll touches before overtime?

AMIT MANN: I don't know. I don't know.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: It's-- yeah.

AMIT MANN: I don't know.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: Which, I mean, the Koloko thing's another conversation. I completely agree with you, by the way. I was really impressed with Khem's defense.

AMIT MANN: He should have been playing the past three weeks.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: But about the Scottie Barnes--

AMIT MANN: Khem should've been playing for the past three weeks. Like, Khem should be playing right now. I don't get why they're not.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: He looks good when he plays. He's bouncy on defense. You know, he's boxing out. I think he looks really strong on defense in a way that his knee didn't really allow him to last season.

AMIT MANN: And it seems like everyone forgot that. I understand you want to develop Koloko. And I was like-- coming into the season, I was in the camp that, hey, maybe Koloko can be serviceable for 10, 15 minutes. But now, we're seeing the process.

And defensively, he's doing what the Raptors were looking for from him for the most part, in terms of just being, like, that anchor big. But offensively, not being able to dunk the ball, I didn't anticipate that would be as big of an issue as it is.

But Khem, I mean, even last night, there was a play where-- it was a bit of a broken play. And Fred just, like, pitched it to Khem along the baseline. And he just, like, moved his body to create a screen. And it was just like a little chip shot to Fred in the corner. And Fred hit one of his two 3's.

Little stuff like that, that's like that veteran presence. And he's a safe option for-- I think he's going to play a lot coming up here because there's a lot of big centers on the way to Toronto down the stretch of December here. But I think there's a role for Khem.

And then maybe they do just make the pivot, saying Khem Birch is going to get those 10 minutes or so. I think it'd be good for their defense.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: Right now, they need to prioritize-- like, they need to play safer basketball.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: You know, I think the story of last night, if you had to encapsulate it in one play, was the double lob. OG Anunoby and Scottie Barnes are in transition. OG throws up, like, a two-handed, underhand lob that-- I mean, I guess it outpaces Barnes. He's not able to jump and finish. But he could just catch it and go up. Instead, he throws a little back-tap lob back to Anunoby.

They need to be solid.

AMIT MANN: Mm-hmm.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: That was not solid basketball. You're on a six-game losing streak. And Khem is solid. So I agree with you.

Khem is giving-- offensively, he's taking away a lot. So, too, is Koloko, by the way.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: And so it's not like you're losing anything there. Solidity is what you need on defense. And that's what Khem gives you.

AMIT MANN: Malachi Flynn-- will he continue to get rotation minutes as the Raptors get healthy? He's had a few good games here. I thought-- similar to Khem, I thought he should have been getting playing time.

A few games ago, that Sacramento game comes to mind where he probably could have helped. And Nick Nurse, I think he was after-- or before the Brooklyn game, he was like, yeah, I'm disappointed I didn't put him in for the past three games. I'm like, why didn't you? He shot 7 of 17 from 3 over the past three games. A couple of looks probably makeable, but it is what it is. How have you thought he's fared so far this season? And what's his outlook for the rest of the year?

LOUIS ZATZMAN: That was such a "we're trying to find the guy who did this" meme moment with the hot dog costume. And Nurse said he was frustrated that Malachi wasn't playing. At whom are you frust-- anyway.

I would say seven. I stopped giving you numbers in my confidence levels. I'm returning to the numbers-- seven. I'm confident he's going to keep playing.

Now, there's-- I'm sort of copping out because a lot of that is, I'm worried about Gary Trent, Jr.'s, injury. The way Nurse described it, he said there's hamstring stuff in both legs-- hamstring, he said, I think-- hamstring in both legs.

AMIT MANN: Bi, quad, yeah, yeah.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: Yeah, and we don't know what it is. We're trying to get more information. That's very concerning and makes it seem like I don't think we can expect Trent back anytime soon.

As long as Trent's out, I think you can expect Malachi to be playing. He's that sort of third shooter that you need.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: And I think he's been mostly quite good. He shot well. Even though he didn't shoot well against Philly-- I thought he had one of his lesser games-- he still mixed in a nice drive, a little floater off glass.

AMIT MANN: Sure.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: He got called for a foul on a drive that I thought was actually a push-off, not a foul on Malachi.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

LOUIS ZATZMAN: You know, he's a-- among defenders, he is maybe Toronto's best outside of OG at just keeping a guy in front of him. Now, people can usually just score on top of him because he's unfortunately quite slight. But he really doesn't give up blow-bys which the Raptors need. He gives value. He gives a lot of value. There's a lot of meat left on the bone.

If he's not running pick and rolls and he's not hitting 3's, I'm not certain he's really chipping in on offense. His passing is only unlocked if he puts, like, seven dribbles before he actually throws the pass, which is really not helpful. So there's stuff that isn't great.

But he does things that no one else does as long as-- or no-- no non-star does as long as Trent is injured. And the Raptors need him. And for that alone, I think he will be playing.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, I think there's something to it. The Gary thing is a sound point. We don't know where that's going to be going. And the Raptors being unsure about it too is a little bit scary.

But for Malachi, the upside of giving him playing time is that you could potentially get to a point where Fred's sitting and Malachi is playing. And we're looking for avenues where Fred can get some rest, OG-- really all the starters, right?

And you still want Scottie and Pascal probably doing some of the on ball opportunities and handling that responsibility. But if you have a capable catch-and-shoot player along the wing, obviously very valuable.

Defensively, I have been pretty happy with how things have gone. He's only going to get better. In transition, a bit spotty at times.

But I think the Raptors as a whole last night weren't very good at all in transition, especially that stretch where-- I think Philly went on, like, a 21-4 run or whatever. Like, their transition defense was awful, but again, because of their halfcourt offense was terrible.

But in the end, instincts, being responsible, knowing where to be, and again, being able to keep guys in front of him, valuable skill. It's not even something that Gary Trent, Jr., who I think the Raptors are missing because of his shooting ability, isn't necessarily the best at. So I think he's here to stay.

Obviously, they still want to make Dalano-- they're going to prioritize Dalano's development. They've shown that time and time again, that they think that he has higher upside, which he does. But when it comes to just getting wins, which I think the Raptors are in that phase now, play Khem. Play Malachi. They're your better options.

I think Malachi will probably stay from that standpoint. However, though, you could argue that maybe the Raptors could just make a trade because the flaw--