Samson Folk of Yahoo! Sports and Raptors Republic joins the show for a discussion of trends currently being pioneered in the NBA through the exemplary Toronto Raptors. The two discuss how Toronto has outpaced expectations this year by embracing trends that the two speculate could become more commonplace league-wide. These include how they operate on offense without a heliocentric creator (7:32), the value of offensive and defensive rebounding and actioning off-ball shooters’ gravity (30:11), democratic rim protection (42:37), and principles based roster-construction (56:05).

Jackson Frank joins host Henry Ward as the show’s first non-SIS guest to evaluate the developments and projections of some non-all star, non-rookie rising talents who are filling crucial roles on contending teams. The two discuss the optimization of Tyrese Maxey following the James Harden trade (3:14), how Desmond Bane’s actualization as an off-ball creator has helped weaponize the Grizzlies offense (19:34), Jaren Jackson Jr.’s leap into the Defensive Player of the Year conversation (41:09), the unlocking of Robert Williams in his new defensive role (1:05:29), and Deandre Ayton’s growth as a cornerstone for the first-place Suns (1:20:20).

Host Henry Ward is joined by VP of Basketball and New Initiatives Jake Loos to cut through some common misconceptions and closely held ideas about analytics and their creation, use, and interpretation in the world of basketball decision making. They cover the often-discussed divide between analytics and qualitative analysis (1:35), the areas of decision making in which analytics are most helpful (8:26), the limitations of analytics and how they can be addressed (13:38), how bias affects both quantitative and qualitative decisions (16:48), how analytics are used in NBA front offices decision making (26:25), and why players have the most to gain from the expansion of analytics (41:13).

Our inaugural episode! Host Henry Ward brings on SIS Sr. Basketball Strategy Analyst Max Carlin to discuss what SIS Basketball has been up to (0:50), how their views on basketball evaluation have shifted over the past year (5:13), Tyrese Haliburton’s development (12:30), Domantas Sabonis’ fit with the Kings (26:06), the Celtics’ acquisition of Derrick White (33:41), the partnership of James Harden and Joel Embiid (47:58), and some general thoughts on other deadline deals (1:07:56).