In our last post we discussed the offseason moves made so far by the Raptors and discussed how the loss of Fred VanVleet for no return continued a disturbing trend witnessed since the championship year of losing assets for no return, quite the opposite of what Masai was known for prior. Today, we’re going to take a deeper dive into the moves made and not made by Masai and the Raptor’s braintrust since the Championship in 2019. Let’s start with his draft record since the Championship.
Draft Picks
Year
2020 29 Malachi Flynn Point Guard
2020 59 Jalen Harris Shooting Guard
2021 4 Scottie Barnes Small Forward
2021 46 Dalano Banton Point Guard
2021 47 David Johnson Point Guard
2022 33 Christian Koloko Center
2023 13 Gradey Dick Shooting Forward
2020 F – Granted not much was expected with the 29th and 59th picks in the 2020 draft, but Flynn has been a complete miss and Desmond Bane was taken with the very next pick. A missed opportunity for sure. No points awarded for Jalen Harris at 59 who is now playing in the Canadian Pro league.
2021 B – A tentative ‘B’ for Scottie who won ROY in his first year but failed to impress in his second. The big news of course is that Masai did not fall into the Suggs trap at 4 and for that he must be commended. However, they’ve already given up on Banton while Johnson remains buried with the 905.
2022 No grade, too early to be sure. While Koloko did play in 58 regular season games for the Raptors this season, several other players picked after him also had extended playing time and decent stats in their rookie campaigns.Big men traditionally take more time to develop so let’s give him another year or two before we call this one.
2023 No grade too early. Sure, Dick looks good on paper but we’ll have to see whether he can put the ball through the hoop with consistency, develop any other parts of his offensive game and determine if he can defend at a high level.
So an ‘F’, a ‘B’ and 2 years with no grades. No first round pick in 2022 thanks to the acquisition of Thad Young. Very little so far from 4 years of picks. Flynn simply hasn’t caught on but whether that is because of some issue with Nick Nurse won’t be determined until this next year when he should have lots of opportunity now that Fred is gone.
Overall, very disappointing results.Let’s contrast the previous 4 years:
Year
2016 9 Jakob Pöltl Center
2016 27 Pascal Siakam Power Forward
2017 23 OG Anunoby Small Forward
2019 59 Dewan Hernandez Power Forward
2016 Poltl – Grade D. All of the following players were taken after Yak and have proven to be better assets: Domantas Sabonis, Malik Beasley, Caris LeVert, Furkan Korkmaz, Dejounte Murray, Malcolm Brogdon. I like Jakob, but I’d take Sabonis any day. For Siakam, he gets an ‘A’, a great find down deep in the first round. Too much has been asked of him, but he still beats out a ton of guys at the 27th spot.
So overall, a C+/B- for 2016 and it could be argued that Yak facilitated the Kawhi Leonard trade and therefore should be rated at least a B or an A since any of those players would have been traded for the same value Yak produced in that transaction.
2017 Anunoby – Grade A. No one came after Anunoby that has been better and many in front of him never lived up to the hype. In any draft re-do, Anunoby goes top 10.
2018 – No Pick, gave up the 29th pick to the Nets who picked a guy no one ever heard from again.
2019 Hernandez – No grade at all, too little too late in the 2nd round, Dewan didn’t stick around long in the NBA. First round pick was given up in the Kawhi trade, the 29th pick went to the Spurs.
Overall, a much more successful draft record than the last 4 years.
Stay tuned for part 3.