It was Canada Day down at the Toronto Raptors practice facility Wednesday as three recent university graduates who hail from across the country were being scrutinized by the team’s braintrust.
Two of the players have been touring NBA cities across the continent and a third made a surprise appearance because of an injury.
When Montreal native Kris Joseph (Syracuse) was unable to participate in contact drills on Wednesday morning, a call was placed to Pickering’s Harouna Mutombo, who hustled down to the Air Canada Centre in time to participate in two-third’s of the workout.
"(Mutombo) came in and he did a fine job and he competed well," Raptors executive vice-president of basketball operations Ed Stefanski said.
Robert Sacre of Vancouver, who just finished matriculating at Gonzaga, also participated in the workouts along with four other American draft hopefuls.
While Wednesday’s workout didn’t have quite the same level of talent as Tuesday’s, many of these players are expected to be drafted in the second round and will likely have to pay more visits to teams since their positions in the draft are a little more unclear.
Sacre and Joseph are smack dab in the middle of visiting more than a dozen teams and it has to be a tough experience, as they are simply working out in front of a secretive group of NBA front-office types and coaches who will try and be encouraging but are unable tip their hand too much.
When asked if he received any feedback on how he has looked, Sacre said, "not from the coaches.
"The only feedback you’ll get is on draft day," he continued. "So you have to play hard and do what you love which is just play basketball."
On Tuesday, the top two point guard prospects, Damian Lillard and Kendall Marshall, visited Toronto and there were a couple of more on the second day of pre-draft workouts.
Jordan Taylor, who played at Wisconsin, and Tyshawn Taylor, who starred at Kansas, may share a last name but they are unrelated and have very different games.
While both can fill the basket, Jordan is more of a driver while Tyshawn is bigger and a stronger shooter.
Tyshawn is expected to go near the end of the first round or early in the second. The former Jayhawk likely would have been a higher draft pick if he were a little less turnover prone.
With all of these bodies going through Hogtown this week the Raptors have a serious dilemma to solve other than just ranking players. With three picks in the draft and last year’s top pick, Jonas Valanciunas, on his way, do they really want to add that many rookies to their roster?
"No coach wants four rookies on there team so that’s an issue that we know we have to look at," Stefanski said. "There are various ways that we could look at — if you move or make trades — that we could reduce that number."
And if they do make a trade or two. Which pick(s) will they move?
Not surprisingly, the Raptors will not be holding a workout on Saturday but prospects will visit on Thursday and Friday. Thursday’s workout is expected to be filled with some high-profile wing players.
Tyshawn Taylor, Point Guard, Kansas, 6-2, 192 lbs. Expected draft position: Late first round-early second round Stefanski’s take: “I thought he did a nice job for Kansas but I thought the one issue he had was turnovers. He would have to cut down those turnovers at this level.”
Kris Joseph, Small Forward, Syracuse, 6-7, 215 lbs. Expected draft position: Second round/undrafted Stefanski’s take: “We know what he can do. We saw him over his whole career at Syracuse. Obviously he’s a very good shooter. It was a little disappointing that he couldn’t go.”
Jordan Taylor, Point Guard, Wisconsin, 6-2, 192 lbs. Expected draft position: Second round/undrafted Stefanski’s take: “Jordan as we know can really run the show. Did that at Wisconsin. He’s a scoring type of guard.”
Robert Sacre, Centre, Gonzaga, 7-0, 260 lbs. Expected draft position: Second round/undrafted Stefanski’s take: “He’s a big physical strong kid. Drillwork is not as good for him as five-on-five is where he can show that he can rebound the ball and be physical.”
Justin Hamilton, Centre, LSU, 7-0, 260 lbs. Expected draft position: Second round/undrafted Stefanski’s take: “Showed he could shoot the ball. (Sacre and Hamilton) will get second-round consideration.”
Kenny Gabriel, Forward, Auburn, 6-8, 260 lbs. Expected draft position: Second round/undrafted Stefanski’s take: “Can really shoot the ball. Not as good at putting the basketball on the floor but he can really shoot the basketball.”
Harouna Mutombo, Guard, Western Carolina, 6-4, 200 lbs. Expected draft position: Undrafted Stefanski’s take: “Mutombo did a fine job and he competed well.”