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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofZxGudwA94
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev6Y8Gp819U
What a great hire for the @raptors
Give it a watch and get excited y’all! pic.twitter.com/CIjrBKDtvO
— tajin (@rafftakes) July 26, 2021
Raptors Draft Board: Ranking the 2021 class through a Toronto lens – The Athletic
Raptors Draft Tier 1
Cade Cunningham
Evan Mobley
Jalen Green
Jalen Suggs
Scottie Barnes
Jonathan KumingaWe’re expanding this top tier for a few reasons. The first is that we can’t be sure the Raptors see the tiering of the draft the same way the public does. It’s entirely possible they disagree it’s shrunk from a five-player draft to a four-player draft, or that it hasn’t shrunk to a three-player draft entirely. I waver on a preference between the Jalens. I think Green has a higher ultimate upside but Suggs has a clearer path to driving winning in the existing core’s timeline. The ideal would be Mobley, who I’d rank closer to No. 1 than No. 3. As for Barnes and Kuminga, I’ve been pretty consistent that if you like one of those guys or are impartial between one and Suggs, it’s a prime trade-down scenario. While most people won’t want to see a trade down, it’s preferable to a reach when you sit in the highest-leverage seat on the board.
Alperen Sengun, Turkey, 6-foot-9, 240 pounds, N/A wingspan, 19 years old
Vecenie board: 8, Vecenie mock: 12, Composite board: 13Sengun is very much in the in-between tier, where he’d be a pretty big reach at No. 4 (unless you’re John Hollinger) and there’s no real conceivable path to an extra high-to-middle lottery pick. I suppose if Orlando came around on a Nos. 5 and 8 package, it’s possible, but that seems unlikely.
Even then, Sengun is kind of anti-Raptors in that he’s an offensive monster with real defensive questions. I’m of two minds with that player type. One is that he doesn’t really fit the identity of the existing core and that identity may need to shift to accommodate him, something you only do for top talents. The other is that one of the reasons to build out a defense-heavy roster is that you can take a bit of a gamble at times to protect an offense-oriented fulcrum. That would require Sengun to develop into a top-scoring option, which is something both Hollinger and Vecenie think he can be.
Sengun just turned 19 on the weekend and already has a Turkish League MVP and senior national team experience under his belt. Sadly, we never got Turkey-Canada in the Olympic qualifiers; Sengun averaged 11.3 points on 52.6 percent shooting in the tournament, adding six rebounds and two assists per game with a +22 mark overall. For the amount of time he can stay on the floor, his versatile interior scoring, projectable 3-point range, playmaking and rebounding should all translate. Maybe he ends up more of an elite fantasy player than contributor to winning close-and-late games, but the offense is very real.
Josh Lewenberg: Toronto Raptors’ decision with fourth-overall pick isn’t cut and dry – TSN.ca
Still, the risk-taking draft philosophy that is so often associated with Toronto’s front office has become a bit overstated. Although Caboclo and Siakam were considered surprising picks at the time, they both came late enough in the first round that they actually weren’t much of a gamble. The only risk tied to the Anunoby pick was his health, coming off knee surgery, and even that was a tolerable risk at 23rd overall.
Nearly as often as they’ve gone off the board, so to speak, this Raptors’ front office has played it relatively safe with older, high-floor prospects like Delon Wright (20th overall in 2015), Malachi Flynn (29th in 2020) or most notably their only lottery pick, Jakob Poeltl (9th in 2016).
In this case, the opportunity cost of passing on the remaining top-four prospect may be too high.
Barring a shocking turn of events, Detroit will make Cunningham the top pick. From there, Green has widely been linked to Houston, who owns the second pick, and Mobley is expected to go third to Cleveland. That isn’t set in stone, but considering how much teams covet athletic wings like Green or modern two-way bigs like Mobley, it would be a surprise to see either fall to Toronto.
That leaves Suggs. There’s a time to go off the board, but sometimes the expected pick is the best pick, and this could be one of those instances.
He’s not a long and lanky combo forward, he won’t be the next Antetokounmpo or Siakam or Anunoby, but the 20-year-old point guard possesses many qualities that the Raptors are known to value.
He’s a tough competitor who plays hard and impacts the game at both ends of the floor. He’s a leader who’s mature beyond his years. And he’s a winner who has experienced team and individual success at every level in two different sports. He’s also not lacking for confidence.
“As far as where I go, that’s not something that I’m really too worried about,” Suggs said during his pre-draft media availability over Zoom on Tuesday. “I know I’ll thrive in whatever system, whatever city I end up in. But I will say, the [teams] that do pass up on me to take another prospect, it’ll come back and it’ll be to their detriment, honestly.”
Outside of Cunningham, Suggs might be the safest pick in this draft. He’s got an NBA-ready body, skill set and mind for the game. And just because he’s got a high floor doesn’t mean he has a low ceiling, as he rightly pointed out himself.
Raptors face three different paths as important off-season looms – Sportsnet
The third possibility — and maybe the most likely one — is the Raptors try to thread the needle between winning now and building for a distant future.
That’s why there’s buzz around the Raptors getting on Sixers star Ben Simmons being available. In an ideal world, Toronto can get something done involving Lowry and a sign-and-trade, but as much as adding a 24-year-old All-NBA player, the Raptors aren’t about to sell off their young core to do it.
Again, Lowry is still likely to move on — signing a 35-year-old point guard for $30 million on a two-year deal, let alone one that has a third year guaranteed, doesn’t make a load of sense if the goal is to give your existing young core room to grow. It was hard enough to find minutes for Malachi Flynn last season, so drafting Suggs while paying Lowry and Fred VanVleet makes little sense.
But the Raptors would have the cap space to sign a big man in free agency, with Richaun Holmes of Sacramento, Kelly Olynyk — who impressed finishing the season well in Houston — and maybe even Cavaliers restricted free agent Jarrett Allen — just 23 and as he heads into his fifth season — as possible targets. Depending on the price there might even be room to also sign Khem Birch, who the Raptors have generally looked at as a capable backup.
But barring adding Simmons, would their existing core (minus Lowry), the addition of the fourth pick and getting some help at centre in free agency be enough to vault the Raptors back into contender status?
Contending might be a stretch, but being young, flexible, and respectable is right there, and from that point taking the leap to contender doesn’t seem so far-fetched, especially if who they draft at No. 4 ends up having star potential.
Which direction the Raptors end up heading will make for great theatre, and the curtain is about to rise.
