This is a continuation of Raptors Republic’s draft look-back series.
Two words that just about every sports fan has said at one point or another: what if.
Questions starting with “what if” are often the most thought-provoking because they’re typically asked with the power of hindsight in mind. Pondering over alternate outcomes after having lived out one of a seemingly infinite number of scenarios.
And for fans of the Toronto Raptors, who’ve experienced plenty of ups and downs in the franchise’s 30-year history, playing that “what if” game could go on for days.
What if Vince Carter’s Game 7 shot against the Philadelphia 76ers went in? What if the Raptors drafted LaMarcus Aldridge instead of Andrea Bargnani first overall? Or, what if Kevin Durant never got injured in the 2018-19 NBA Finals?
Which is why Raptors fans had plenty to say when Basketball content creator Kenny Beecham asked folks on X: what if your favourite team could have one transaction redo from the last 10 years, what would you want them to do?
Some of the more common responses included wanting a redo on:
- Not re-signing Pascal Siakam or trading him sooner
- Acquiring Jakob Poeltl for a 2024 first-round pick (No. 8 – Rob Dillingham)
- Trading Norman Powell for Gary Trent Jr.
- Acquiring Thad Young for a 2022 first-round pick (No. 22 – Walker Kessler)
- Acquiring Ochai Agbaji and Kelly Olynyk for a first-round pick (No. 29 – Isaiah Collier)
The post-2020 Raptors really like trading away first-round picks…
But arguably the most popular response was in reference to the 2020 draft, when the Raptors opted to select Malachi Flynn just one pick before Desmond Bane.
And five years later, it’s not difficult to see why fans would like a do-over. Flynn has since been traded twice and has suited up for a total of four different NBA franchises while struggling to find a permanent landing spot. The now 27-year-old has logged a total of 217 career NBA games, averaging 5.5 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists on 38.7/33.3/74.7 per cent shooting splits. Flynn’s tenure as a Raptor wasn’t much different — his averages were nearly identical through 175 appearances and 21 starts.
The six-foot-one guard struggled with the size and speed of the NBA, never developed enough of a three-point shot to circumvent those woes, and wasn’t enough of a pest on the defensive end either.
His best season with Toronto came as a rookie during the moribund “Tampa Tank” year when Flynn averaged 7.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists on a career-best 19.7 minutes per game. His next two years with the franchise were defined by dwindling production and opportunity — the guard was routinely shelved by then-Raptors head coach Nick Nurse — to the point that his father Eric Flynn even voiced his displeasure with the situation.
For what it’s worth, when Darko Rajakovic took over as Toronto’s bench boss in 2023, he tried to give Flynn a real opportunity to prove himself, but the results were largely similar. In 31 games before being dealt to the New York Knicks as part of the Immanuel Quickley-RJ Barrett for OG Anunoby trade, Flynn averaged 15.3 minutes per game — his most since being a rookie. In that span, however, he averaged 5.1 points, 2.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.1 turnovers on 40.9/35.0/77.3 per cent shooting splits.
Flynn bounced from New York to the Detroit Pistons — where he put up one of the most surprising 50-point games in NBA history — within the same 2023-24 season and has since spent time in the G League, getting a pair of 10-day contracts from the San Antonio Spurs and Charlotte Hornets. In July, he was signed by Bahçeşehir Koleji S.K. of Turkey’s Basketball Super League (BSL).
As for Bane, who the Raptors could’ve taken, he’s gone on to have far more success in the NBA. He made the 2020-21 All-Rookie team with averages of 9.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists on 46.9/43.2/81.6 per cent shooting splits, and then took a massive step forward as a sophomore, doubling his scoring production on just eight more minutes per game.
In 313 games (261 starts) for the Memphis Grizzlies, Bane averaged 17.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists on 47.2/41.0/88.3 splits as he’s now known as one of the most impactful two-way talents at his position. Which is why it’s not hard to see why he’d make plenty of sense as a 3-and-D presence on the current version of the Raptors. Bane would provide plenty of catch-and-shoot production, spacing and secondary play-making on offence, while starring on the perimeter as part of Toronto’s ball-pressure defensive style.
It’s also why the Grizzlies gave Bane a five-year, $207 million max extension in 2023 and why — after averaging 19.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.2 steals last season — the Orlando Magic gave up a haul of four first-round picks and a first-round pick swap, along with Cole Anthony and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, to acquire the 27-year-old this summer.
So, yeah, if given the chance at a redo (with hindsight in mind), the Raptors would’ve undoubtedly gone for Bane instead of Flynn.
It is worth mentioning, however, that the 2020 draft was conducted during extremely unique circumstances — in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. To the point that it had to be held at ESPN’s compound in Bristol, Conn. via video conferencing.
The draft has always been a highly unpredictable and volatile exercise, but with limited access for talent evaluators to really understand the class of prospects, things were that much more difficult. Evidenced by examples all over, when looking at how the festivities unfolded that night.
- James Wiseman went No. 2 right before LaMelo Ball
- Patrick Williams and Killian Hayes were taken in the top 10, while Tyrese Haliburton was 12th
- Kira Lewis Jr. went eight picks before Tyrese Maxey and 12 spots before Immanuel Quickley
And with picks No. 29 and No. 59 at their disposal, the odds of the Raptors getting a franchise-impacting player were never high to begin with.
But still, the sting of seeing what Bane has gone on the accomplish (and where Flynn has ended up) isn’t any softer, even with that key bit of context in mind.
The “what if” of it all remains. The post-championship Raptors failed to find any sense of stability, and that’s exactly what Bane has been in the NBA. A steadying (ascending) presence that, along with Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., helped the Grizzlies carve out back-to-back 50-plus win seasons in Bane’s second and third years as a pro.
As for Jalen Harris, since we might as well revisit the 2020 draft as a whole, his situation was different but equally disappointing. His tenure with Toronto lasted all of 13 NBA games, as he spent most of his rookie year in the G League as a two-way player.
The six-foot-five guard showed some promise — averaging 7.4 points on 50.0/47.2/77.8 per cent shooting through 13.2 minutes per game — but it all came to a screeching halt when he was dismissed by the NBA in July 2021 for violating the league’s anti-drug program. Although Harris was reinstated a year later, he wasn’t able to secure many opportunities beyond the G League and an Exhibit-10 deal with the Knicks.
For a bit of a silver lining, however, while his time with the Raptors wasn’t quite what anyone hoped, the Louisiana Tech product still found success north of the border. Harris has played four seasons (51 games) in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL), even leading the Scarborough Shooting Stars to the title game in 2022. Of the 10 players to score over 1,000 points in league history, Harris has done it in the fewest games and sits ninth all-time (1,035) in scoring. He also holds the CEBL’s single-game record with a 45-point performance in June 2024.
So, for Harris, it came down to: what if he never got suspended?
It’s unclear what his NBA outlook would have been, as Harris has primarily been a one-way threat that scores plenty, but needs high volume to do so. Still, his tools and general athleticism on the offensive end are, at the very least, worth pondering over.
As for who the Raptors could’ve taken instead, there weren’t many obvious candidates, even with the power of hindsight.
Sam Merrill was taken after Harris with the final selection in 2020 and, to his credit, has recently found his footing with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The career 38.6 per cent three-point shooter has averaged 18.5 minutes per game through 132 appearances with the Cavs over the past two seasons. After that, the bargain bin that is the undrafted player pool didn’t uncover many diamonds in the rough aside from Naji Marshall, who’s been a steady riser during his five-year NBA career.
What any of the alternate scenarios coming out of the 2020 draft would’ve meant for Toronto remains up for debate. One way or another, the series of choices made by the organization led them to the promising, albeit murky path, its own now with a Rookie of the Year turned franchise star in Scottie Barnes — taken after Flynn’s rookie season when the Raptors won just 27 games — and a former All-Star in Brandon Ingram. Would that have happened if Bane had been taken instead of Flynn, or would the last five years have unfolded in a completely different way?
The beauty of such thought experiments is that we’ll never know the answer. And yet, that won’t (and shouldn’t) stop folks from asking anyway.
Ultimately, there’s no doubt the Raptors’ 2020 draft class will go down as a big “what if.”
