How Mamukelashvili 'beat the odds' to find opportunity with Raptors

Sandro Mamukelashvili’s NBA career has never been a sure thing. 

The amiable 26-year-old New Yorker played four relatively unremarkable seasons at Seton Hall, was the 54th overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft and cycled through three different organizations within his first 18 months as a pro. 

He started his career in Milwaukee, joining what was then a loaded Bucks team fresh off the 2021 NBA championship on a two-way contract. His NBA existence was tenuous from the jump. 

“My main focus was [always] like, ‘just come in there and beat the odds and prove everybody that I can actually stay in this league,’” he said recently. 

It’s an attitude that has served him well. 

Five years into his career, Mamukelashvili returns to Milwaukee Thursday with Toronto as a bona fide contributor for a Raptors club that seems determined to make their presence felt in the Eastern Conference, breezing into the Fiserv Forum with a 16-11 record and standing third in the Eastern Conference. 

It's a position Mamukelashvili has helped the Raptors achieve with his steady play off the bench, a status that didn’t always seem possible when the number of games he was inactive for or didn’t play barely exceeded the number games he did get on the floor, however briefly, while with the Bucks and then the San Antonio Spurs. 

After his third season (2023-24) when he either didn’t play or was inactive for 36 games on a tanking Spurs team that went 22-60, he gave thought to giving up his NBA dream and taking advantage of his roots as a citizen of the Republic of Georgia and catching on with a EuroLeague club. 

Would starring for AS Monaco in the south of France be preferable to grinding it out in the G League to earn spot NBA minutes, or waving a towel while the Spurs' more preferred prospects got playing time ahead of him?

Some might think so, but not Mamukelashvili. 

“When you really want something to work out, you fight for it no matter what,” he said. “… And I feel like, till this day, that's my main motto. Like, just you gotta prove to everybody that that you are a hooper, and you belong here and just have a plan … just grind and the rest is gonna take care of itself.”

He's beaten the odds.

It’s not like Mamukelashvili is on a multi-year, nine-figure contract like some of his Raptors teammates, but the two-year deal he signed for $5.3 million is the closest thing to stability he’s had in five seasons. It’s also proven to be one of the best-value contracts in the league given that Mamukelashvili is putting up 9.8 points and 4.4 rebounds a game on 61.7 true shooting (accounting for the value of two-point field goals, three-point field goals and free throws) while playing 19.5 minutes a night as a foundational piece for what has been a generally effective bench unit for the Raptors. 

The best could be yet to come for Mamukelashvili, who has a player option on his deal for 2026-27 and would seem to be in line for decent raise if his current form holds. 

It’s an example of the potential rewards that await fringe prospects providing they can continue to improve and are able to stay encouraged, stay professional and remain positive even if the external validation that comes with playing time and on-court success can be fleeting. 

Mamukelashvili never lost sight of that part of the job also. When the Raptors played in San Antonio the Spurs surprised him with a tribute video, not a typical gesture for a bench player who was only with the team for two-plus seasons. 

“The most important part I learned over the years is to stay professional,” he said, “You know, professionals always stick. Professionals and good teammates always stick. If you work hard, you're a good teammate, you're coachable, I feel like you're going to find yourself in the league, and then your opportunity is going to come, and it might be your first year. It might be fifth year … all I have to do is be a sponge, learn and focus on my game and the opportunity is here now.”

It’s a time-worn path to carving out a respectable career as an NBA role player, but that doesn’t make it easy. Seeing it through to this stage is a point of pride for Mamukelashvili. 

“I don't think people really understand the four years I've been in the league how much I really had to, you know, the mentality changes. Of course, you got to stay resilient,” he said. “And I feel like that was my work: just stay resilient and stay ready. But at the same time, just having this kind of opportunity to play through my mistakes, I'm still trying to embrace it.”

It was an opportunity he was craving and was one of the primary reasons he elected to sign in Toronto after doing some due diligence on Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković in conversations with current Raptors two-way wing AJ Lawson — a friend from their pre-draft process when they briefly shared an agent — and Jared Rhoden, who was on a two-way with the Raptors last season and a teammate at Seton Hall. 

The reviews were good, and the lived experience has exceeded his expectations. 

“I feel like Coach Darko is an amazing guy,” Mamukelashvili said. “I had this for four years where I was getting in situations where, I was staying a little heartbroken, putting my head down, but still fighting and staying resilient. I feel like Coach Darko takes everything out of me. He just tells me to be who I am, and I really trust him and I value everything he brings to the team and the energy and passion, and I feel like I'm trying to match it on the court.”

The feeling is mutual. 

“We always had a high opinion of him,” said Rajaković, who has close ties with the Spurs and also followed Mamukelashvili with the Georgian national team. “And when we had the opportunity to sign him, we were really excited about it. 

“And we do understand that it’s going to take time for him to really understand, like ‘okay, I’m loved here. I’m accepted here. I’m going to have my true opportunity here and play night in and night out…"

“But he’s adapting really well,” added Rajaković. “He’s an everyday guy — he brings great energy every single day. He works hard, the guys like him, he’s a great communicator, he’s a fun guy to be around, so he fits our culture really, really well, and I do expect him to keep growing.”

Mamukelashvili certainly expects it of himself. He’s emerged as a capable three-point shooter (37 per cent on a career-high 4.3 attempts a game) who can credibly spread the floor and is a surprisingly adept driver and playmaker who can attack closeouts by slower bigs with some style. Defensively, he can hold up reasonably well on switches on the perimeter and his rim protection numbers are better than might be expected. It’s a skill set that allows the Raptors play him as a small-ball five but also — potentially — as a face-up four if Toronto adds another centre at the trade deadline. Rajaković even played Mamukelashvili alongside starting centre Jakob Poeltl for short stretches against the New York Knicks last week in an attempt to offset some of the Knicks' size advantage. 

Whatever the configuration, Mamukelashvili is excited for the opportunity and after waiting so long to get it, has no plans on squandering it.  

“For four years, it's been an uphill battle for me to kind of be in this position,” he said. “And I don't take it lightly. I try to make sure every minute I'm, you know, as a human being, you kind of put your head down, but it can't happen very often. I can't have lulls. I just have to make sure, I’m not too high, not too low, stay level-headed, come out and compete the same way every time.”

That was the job the Raptors hired him to do, and four years removed from his first NBA chance in Milwaukee, he’s taken full advantage of the opportunity.