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NBA Draft prospects: Taking a second look at the Raptors’ options at No. 4 – The Athletic
Jalen Suggs, Gonzaga (freshman), 6-foot-4, 205 lbs., 6-foot-6 wingspan, 20 years old
Vecenie board: 2, Vecenie mock: 4, Composite board: 3Strengths: Checks a lot of less tangible boxes like toughness, leadership and physicality, excellent rebounder for a guard with strong transition decision-making and high-end open-court speed, finds gaps and opportunities with and without the ball, above-the-rim finisher with major explosiveness, interceptor on defence.
Concerns: Didn’t shoot the 3 well with a middling free-throw percentage, NBA range should come based on shot-making versatility but it’s a question mark for now, prone to charges as he favours power over finesse faced with contact, stats might overrate him a bit coming from an elite offensive environment, high turnover rate.
Raptors fit: Have flip-flopped Suggs and Green on my board because Suggs feels like such a Raptor from a personality and grit perspective; Fairly natural fit with the existing core, either as Lowry fill-in at the two or co-bench guard with Malachi Flynn.
Likelihood at No. 4: Most industry mocks have Suggs landing with the Raptors. This is smokescreen and leverage season, so who knows how accurate that would be? Right now, Suggs feels the likeliest of the four to be Toronto-bound.
Do you like football analogies? We know Nick Nurse does. Maybe he’s a fan of Suggs, then, who was a quarterback in high school and reads the floor like one, threading passes through defenders or sending a teammate streaking out on the break. He also has an interception style of stealing the ball on defence, jumping passing lanes and post-entries more than he digs down or rips one free on the ball. Suggs is, uh, a basketball player, though, and while those translatable skills are great, Suggs feels the game like he’s never played — or breathed — anything but basketball before.
That’s where the big draw is here. That’s not to say there isn’t a ton of skill at play, because there is. But Suggs wins hearts with a lot of the aspects of the game the Raptors’ culture has been built upon. Diving for loose balls, making an extra effort defensively, picking up teammates, fighting from underneath and so on. A lot of what the Raptors liked in Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and Flynn is present in Suggs, just with a much higher draft pedigree and, they’d hope, an even higher upside as a result.
The biggest reason for optimism around Suggs’ ceiling is his diverse mix of shot-creation. He can score in several different ways, particularly if you think his shaky 3-point shot will translate with more time and reps. That’s a reasonable belief, and he probably only needs to be decent, not great, for the whole package to come together. That would allow him to better work off the ball as a co-creator, where his cutting and opportunistic rebounding can thrive, rather than as a pure lead handler, where his pick-and-roll game still needs time to develop. Inside the arc, Suggs can finish through or over traffic in either direction and drives downhill well, though he engages contact at high speed in part because he doesn’t yet show a lot of ability to avoid contact with shiftiness or finesse in the floater range. In short, Suggs has a lot of ways to score but maybe not a lot of ways to score easily.
Some see the 3-point shot and some translation concerns as giving Suggs a good floor but lower ceiling than the others in this range. John Hollinger is the lowest on Suggs, ranking him way down at No. 6 in favour of Scottie Barnes and Alperen Sengun. Nobody has him lower than No. 6, though, because the floor with his motor, feel, at least secondary playmaking skills is so high. Add in a high-effort defensive approach that could be even better when he’s not guarding the opposition’s best scorer — increasing his ability to gamble in passing lanes while possibly cutting his high foul rate — and Suggs should be a starting-calibre guard out of the gate, with significant room for growth
Draft Watch: Thinking outside the box with Barnes and Kuminga for the Toronto Raptors – Raptors HQ
Why Scottie?
A tall point-forward defensive monster who can already do more than what Ben Simmons does offensively with the ball in his hands? Oh, and he comes at a fraction of Simmons’ salary? Sign me up!Defensively, Scottie Barnes is a nightmare matchup, especially on the perimeter. He likes to guard the point of attack, and he’s a problem for smaller point guards. The Seminoles tinkered with defensive sets that showed off Barnes’ strengths on that end. He looks capable of switching between all five positions and not be disadvantaged defensively, which is obviously an excellent base to have as a prospect.
Offensively, Barnes is a nightmare in transition — he can quickly get down the floor as a finisher, or he can kickstart the transition play. He’s always looking ahead, and he won’t be scared to give up the ball early to assist or hit a teammate in a more advantageous position.
Based on Barnes’ freshman campaign, he’s shown good reads as an on-ball decision-maker who can sometimes make high-level passes on the move. His height advantage as the pick-and-roll initiator allows him to see through the defense to either hit an open teammate or attack the basket against smaller defenders.
I think Barnes has a tremendous combination of size, athleticism, strength, basketball IQ, and competitiveness on the court. The only thing a team like Toronto would need to do is harness his very raw offensive game. If they can do that with Barnes, we’re looking at breaking his ceiling a few floors higher.
Areas of Concern
When it comes to Barnes, the most significant risk is if he doesn’t develop a reliable offensive game. While he could be a good role player as a defender and facilitator, there are limitations there — and that may not be the type of player the Raptors want with the number four pick. Everything else for Barnes on the offensive end, like perimeter shooting, in-between game, and handles, is still a considerable work in progress. Overall, his half-court offense will have to be a big project in the next 2-3 years.Another question here is what is Barnes’ real position. There’s a big difference between a floor general and someone that can play the point guard spot in a pinch. Barnes ‘ impact could take a nosedive if he doesn’t have the ball, and he’s not at least a neutral player in the half-court. That’s the dilemma the Philadelphia 76ers have with Ben Simmons right now. Another example is Michael Carter-Williams. He’s a late lottery pick who stuffed the stat sheet every night en route to a Rookie of the Year award, but he’s now not quite a useful player in the league because of his offensive limitations.
For the Raptors, it would be a setback to their plans of maintaining competitiveness. It seems reasonable to expect them to pick a player who could become a potential no. 1 or 2 scoring option on the team. If Barnes doesn’t make that leap, that’s a bad look for the Raptors if one of Suggs/Green/Mobley turns out to be a legit scoring option — as seems to be the case now.
Raptors Fit
As is, Barnes could still be part of the Raptors’ rotation. I’d be curious to see him in the starting lineup, imagining a VanVleet-OG-Barnes-Siakam-plus centre lineup. Heck, having all three of Barnes/Siakam/Anunoby should make Chris Boucher in the middle feasible. Defensively, this lineup would terrorize most teams. They’ll have the point of attack slowed down, switchability, length, athleticism, and the ability to get into transition ASAP. These NBA Finals have shown us how devastating it is for the opposing team’s defensive ability to slow down the point of attack.Offensively, it’ll be easier for the Raptors to use Barnes as the facilitator, and with his ability to create plays, the team’s offense could be less ISO-heavy/predictable. A spread-out floor with the ball in his hands would be a nightmare to opposing teams, especially if he improves his handles and finishing moves. His drive-and-kick game is getting better too, which would be something coach Nick Nurse would like to leverage. Barnes as the ball-handler would be ideal for VanVleet, as he’s best to play off-the-ball and snipe from the perimeter rather than put his head down and go against the trees in the paint.
Drafting Barnes would mean the Raptors are banking on him being able to do a whole lot more. If he develops an above-average offensive game, especially a decent perimeter shot, he’ll be a big problem in the league. Perhaps Barnes can be the engine of Toronto’s offense as a tall point-forward. In the playoffs, we’ve seen it’s a massive advantage for a team to have unconventional lineups. Having Barnes develop as a mismatch playmaker waiting to happen should relieve Vanvleet/Siakam/Anunoby from carrying the offensive load and unlock Nurse’s more out-of-the-box approach in his lineups and play variations.
How Raptors could try to complete sign-and-trade with Pelicans for Lowry – Sportsnet
As Stein said, the Pelicans are “desperate” to help Zion Williamson and some of the team’s other young stars reach the playoffs, and, as The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported last week, with it being “unlikely” that the Pelicans match an offer sheet over the qualifying offer for starting point guard Lonzo Ball, bringing in Lowry makes a ton of sense as he instantly would become the veteran leader in the locker room New Orleans has needed for a little while now, and he’s a top-flight point guard who would be an upgrade over Ball, both as far as shooting ability and playmaking goes.
So the rationale for wanting Lowry is sound from a Pelicans’ standpoint, but just because the Pelicans want him doesn’t mean they can get him. Lowry is sure to be in-demand, and, from a Raptors’ perspective, it’s not like Lowry wouldn’t still be valuable on this current team moving forward, either.
But let’s just say, for argument’s sake, that the Raptors and Lowry can’t come to an agreement and he is looking to move on to another team, Toronto would still probably like to get some value back in return and could do so via a sign-and-trade with another team.
The Philadelphia 76ers’ interest in Lowry is well documented, and could, perhaps, provide an attractive offer to the Raptors for Lowry in a sign-and-trade situation for Lowry in the form of Ben Simmons, but if you’re the Pelicans and you’re serious about acquiring Lowry and have to do so through a trade, do they have any pieces that might appeal to Toronto?
Obviously, Williamson and Brandon Ingram would be off the table, but a player like Steven Adams would instantly help correct the Raptors’ issue at centre and the club’s rebounding problems. As well, youngsters Jaxson Hayes and Canadian Nickeil Alexander-Walker look attractive as well, particularly because Hayes a talented-looking young big who could, again, help with that area of need for the Raptors. Alexander-Walker, as evidenced by what he did at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament with Team Canada in Victoria a few weeks back, has all the makings of becoming a dynamic, clutch-scoring combo guard that any team would like to have.
As far as an actual transaction, however, it may prove a little tricky to make work as we’re not sure what number Lowry would come in at, but odds are it won’t come in below $20 million per season as he’s just coming off a deal that saw him get paid in excess of $30 million per season, and he’s remained productive all the way through.
Packaging Adams, and the approximately $17 million he’ll make next season, and a cheaper contract – such as a Hayes or Alexander-Walker – might be able to get a deal done, but that, of course, might be too much that New Orleans is giving up in the end.
‘It’s medal or bust.’ Canadian women’s basketball team has high hopes at Tokyo Olympics | The Star
On the court, there is no equivocation about what Canada expects to do in Tokyo.
After back-to-back top eight finishes at 2012 London and 2016 Rio, the women got into Tokyo fully expecting to win a medal. It’s a cockiness and a confidence borne of their experience, the No. 4 global ranking they have achieved and a healthy respect for the difficulty of the challenge.
“Being in an Olympic situation, which at times very often is also a pretty pressure-filled situation, it helps . . . when you’ve had people who have been there and are willing to share those experiences and help the others.
“I think that kind of mixture of experience is going to be great, because there’s a lot of little intricacies of the game that you can’t learn until you’ve actually been through that, sometimes if you’re lucky enough to have really great leaders like we do on our team, they’ll be able to talk you through some of that stuff and help you out.
“I’m hoping that that makes a difference going into this Olympics as well.”
The women are in a lethal first-round pool with No. 3 Spain and No. 8 Serbia, along with 19th-ranked Korea so the challenges will come quickly. They face Serbia on Monday, a stern first test. The top two teams in each of three pools of four advance to the quarterfinals, along with the best two third-place teams, meaning Canada will likely need two wins in three games to comfortably go through.
“I remember reading an article and of the 12 teams there, I think 10 were considered medal contenders,” Thomaidis said. “It’s going to be a very deep pool, a lot of quality teams that are all capable of getting on the podium and, again, for us, it’s keeping our focus on what we can do and how we can do it to the best of our ability. And really sticking to that team identity of being relentless, being dynamic and playing together.”
Only one Canadian team — the 1936 men — has reached an Olympic basketball podium. It’s a daunting task but the women having put themselves in a legitimate position to do it speaks volumes for the growth of the program over the last 10 years.
“The growth of the game in this country, the growth of the women’s national team has been so cool to be a part of, it’s been so cool to see,” said the 37-year-old Gaucher.
“It’s medal or bust for us right and that’s so exciting to be able to say if you were around this program when I first started.”
