While all of the focus is quite rightly going toward the Toronto Raptors’ first-round playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks, the Raptors got a small bit of clarity on their longer-term future on Wednesday. With the NBA regular season now concluded (thanks, finally, Clippers), the Raptors have some idea where they’ll be picking in the 2017 NBA Draft on June 22.
Here’s a look at how the top of the league-wide standings finished:
- 1-4 – GS (67-15), SA (61-21), Hou (55-27), Bos (53-29)
- 5-8 – Cle, Tor, Uta, LAC (51-31)
- 9 – Was (49-33)
So the Raptors in a four-way tie at 51-31, which means they should pick somewhere between 23 and 26 depending on how tiebreakers work out.
Where the Raptors pick wasn’t as simple as where they finished in the standings, though. Two years ago, the Raptors dealt Greivis Vasquez to the Milwaukee Bucks for the second-round pick that would become Norman Powell and a future first-round pick from the Los Angeles Clippers. A week before the trade deadline this year, the Raptors packaged a first-round pick with Terrence Ross to acquire Serge Ibaka from the Orlando Magic. But the Raptors didn’t package a specific pick – they’re sending the less favorable of their two first-round picks (their own or L.A.’s) to the Magic.
That means that the Raptors are insulated from ending up at the back end of the four-way tiebreaker. Because Toronto would just pick the other pick if one landed at 26, the Raptors can’t pick lower than 25th. Their pick, then, could be as high as 23 or as low as 25, with 23rd their most likely landing spot.
The NBA won’t decide the tiebreakers for a few days, which they’ll do by random draw.
Here are the names currently being mocked in the 20-30 range by DraftExpress: Ivan Rabb, Isaiah Hartenstein, Rodions Kurucs, T.J. Leaf, Tyler Lydon, Harry Giles, Luke Kennard, Jawun Evans, Semi Ojeleye, Caleb Swanigan, Anzejs Pasecniks. It’s a little early to be looking at the mocks, without the benefit of the Portsmouth, the Combine, or the pre-draft workout process and with the focus on the playoffs, but hey, people love this stuff. Dream away.
(I realize this post isn’t particularly useful as of yet without the tiebreaker, but I had it prepped and the games just happened to turn out where we had way less clarity than we potentially could have. Shrug.)
