Raptors 905 made a bit of a strange roster move Tuesday, reversing course on a decision made before last week’s season opener.
Two games into the season, they’ve opted to bring back Ashton Smith, re-acquiring The Last of the Great Romantics on Tuesday, the team announced. Smith was waived Saturday to make room for the acquisitions of Ronald Roberts and Nick Wiggins, as the 905 had one too many on the roster at that point.
Smith returning to the team makes for a good story and adds another Canadian to the mix ahead of Thursday’s home opener in Mississauga. The Scarborough native attended open tryouts for the 905, playing well enough to earn an invite to training camp. Despite modest statistical production – he averaged 5.3 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 4.3 assists in three exhibition games – Smith impressed again, breaking camp with the team and standing as the third point guard in the rotation. Perhaps feeling they didn’t need a third lead guard when only 10 non-NBA players can be active each game, the hammer came down on Smith when it was time to cut someone.
The 26-year-old spent four seasons at IUP, averaging 18.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists as a senior, and the last two years in the Canadian NBL, putting up middling numbers. To say his run from open tryouts to camp to the actual roster is a good story would be an understatement, and so long as he’s on the roster, his success will be worth rooting for.
But even more interesting than Smith’s return is that the 905 waived Mike Anderson to make room for him.
The 905 were high enough on Anderson ahead of the D-League draft that they eschewed picking a potentially more highly regarded player, trading down from No. 11 to No. 19 in the first round to make Anderson the team’s first ever draft pick. In doing so, they were able to get a higher second-round pick, with which they selected Jay Harris. Nabbing Anderson and Harris was the team’s hope all along.
“Either we did something wrong with our scouting or we were extremely lucky,” general manager Dan Tolzman said in a conference call after the draft (quote courtesy Chris O’Leary of The Star). “We were able to snag both of them. It was pretty surprising, to be honest with you, but we’re extremely happy with it.”
So the franchise’s first ever draft pick lasted all of two games, appearing in one and grabbing two rebounds with one assist in five minutes.
As high as the team may have been on the 24-year-old originally, he quickly fell to the fringes of the wing rotation. A 6-foot-4 shooting guard, Anderson was behind shot-creator Scott Suggs, pace-pusher Melvin Johnson, the newly acquired Wiggins, Raptors assignee Bruno Caboclo, and French import Axel Toupane on the depth chart. Not capable of manning the point for long stretches – he averaged 8.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in his senior year at Washington in 2014-15 – Anderson’s primary asset was his outside shooting, but it wasn’t valued (or proven) enough to keep him on the roster.
Head coach Jesse Murmuys’ very fluid rotation probably looks something like this now for Thursday’s home opener:
PG – Shannon Scott, Jay Harris, Ashton Smith
SG – Scott Suggs, Melvin Johnson, Nick Wiggins
SF – Bruno Caboclo, Axel Toupane
PF – Ronald Roberts, Michael Kyser, Walter Pitchford
C – Lucas Nogueira, Sim Bhullar, Keanau Post
