Tuesday the Raptors brought in another group of prospects for scouting prior to the draft and summer league. This group includes 4 players ranked in the Draft Express top-100, but none of them ranked above Sindarius Thornwell at 57th. Most of this group likely falls into players the team is looking at for possible undrafted prospects for summer league and training camp invitations, but there is definitely some interesting talent here.
The Raptors have done very well developing talent with the 905 and identifying solid prospects during the summer league, with Fred Van Vleet contributing to the team down the stretch run of the season this past year, and they’ll likely be trying to identify similar players again during the process.
PLAYER NOTES
Here’s the full list of players who attended the workout:
| Name | Position | Height | College |
| Sindarius Thornwell | Guard | 6-5 | South Carolina |
| Seth Allen | Guard | 6-1 | Virginia Tech |
| Naz Mitrou-Long | Guard | 6-4 | Iowa State |
| Dwayne Bacon | Forward | 6-5 | Florida State |
| Chance Comanche | Forward | 6-10 | Arizona |
| Isaac Humphries | Center | 7-0 | Kentucky |
Sindarius Thornwell
Draft Express Ranking: 57th
Thornwell is an intriguing prospect, with a deadly shooting stroke, having hit 39.2% of his three point shots as a senior at South Carolina. He’s a little small for a shooting guard at just 6’3″, but he makes up for that with a 6’10” wingspan. A player who worked hard throughout his college career, and has helped make up for the fact that he isn’t an explosive athlete. With spot-up skills and an impressive ability to get to the free-throw line, he’s a versatile offensive option who could certainly be an attractive prospect late in the draft. He also is an extremely capable rebounding guard, which helped in college as he was at times used as a small-ball forward to space the floor.
With his height and wingspan, there might be an urge from some to compare him to Norman Powell, but the two players have significant differences. Powell was not an exceptional shooter in college, and his game was predicated on his athleticism. On the other hand, Thornwell comes into the draft as an outstanding shooter who doesn’t possess the same athletic abilities. On the other hand, they are both players who can be depended on to work hard at both ends of the floor.
Seth Allen
Draft Express Ranking: unranked
Allen is another guard who showcased a sweet stroke in college, and might be able to interest a NBA team through that skill. Shooting 44.1% from downtown as a senior in college, Allen also hit several massive shots including a game-winner with 3.8 seconds remaining to give the Hokies a big win over Clemson. He possesses solid athleticism and an ability to create his own shot off the bounce, but as a player who is definitely more a shooting guard than a point guard, his size at just 6’1″ is a liability for him moving to the professional game.
Naz Mitrou-Long
Draft Express Ranking: unranked
The Canadian guard Mitrou-Long will definitely bring some interest north of the border given his roots in Mississauga. He’s an older prospect at 23 years old already, and there are concerns about injuries he’s had as a college player, but while healthy, he’s shown considerable skills at both guard positions with both solid passing and shooting abilities. He did struggle sometimes streakiness in his shooting, and could be seen to lapse defensively at times, but his shooting stroke definitely could be interesting moving into the summer.
Dwayne Bacon
Draft Express Ranking: 74th
Bacon profiles as a scoring guard, and showcased that in college. He scored with ease in transition given his size and a 6’10” wingspan, and managed 17.2 points per game in college despite shooting just 33.3% from long range. He was, however, a solid free-throw shooter, which bodes well that he may yet be able to develop a long distance stroke as a professional, and showed skill getting to the free throw line and attacking off the dribble, also scoring well as the ball handler in the pick and roll. While Bacon recently completed just his Sophomore season at Florida State, he is an older prospect at 21-years old.
There are definite concerns with him going forward, as he struggled as a playmaker at the collegiate level and could be inconsistent on the defensive end, but given his physical strength and frame, Bacon is definitely worth a look as a prospect.
Chance Comanche
Draft Express Ranking: 90
Comanche has a frame that makes him look immediately like a NBA player, standing at 6’10” with a 7’2″ wingspan, he also has great footspeed for his size and is a good athlete for his size. The biggest concern with him going into the draft and forward past that is that he hasn’t yet filled out his frame and at 21 years old, it remains to be seen whether he can put on enough bulk to be effective as a professional player. He has good defensive instincts and with his athleticism can definitely be an impact player on that end, and had a great game as a freshman against current Raptor Jakob Poeltl, which included two big second-half blocks against Poeltl in that game.
Isaac Humphries
Draft Express Ranking: 91th
Humphries didn’t see much court time at Kentucky, getting lost in the big man rotation, so it’s hard to glean much from his two years there. He’s probably the least interesting prospect in this group for me, as a slow-footed big man who doesn’t possess great athleticism. He did shine as a rebounder whe
ASSORTED
- As a reminder, the draft takes place on June 22. We’ve got a long way to go.
- The adidas Eurocamp also goes down June 9-11, if you’re looking ahead to future drafts.
- You can keep up with any workout notes you may have missed here.
- The Raptors will be holding pre-draft workouts over the next two days.
*A NOTE ON THIS PROCESS: We’re going to hear a lot of names rumored or reported to be coming in/meeting/working out/etc. I’m not always going to pass them on, especially this early in the process. A lot of it is due diligence and doesn’t mean a ton, and they’re also just low-value posts (“Rumor: Player X to work out”). Sometimes there will be (good) reasons the team doesn’t want the names public or a player can’t come in (Visa or scheduling issues). If anyone does visit and there’s media availability, we’ll have you covered. Obviously, feel free to comment and discuss those rumors (Hoops Hype is a good source for rumor aggregation) in the comments/forums, I just may not always throw a post up. Closer to the draft, as we get into second workouts or if someone outside of Toronto’s range visits, that information becomes a little more important.
