TORONTO – On June 22, the trajectory of the Toronto Raptors appeared to take a greater leap forward.
The franchise came away with a major win after a dismal 2020-21 regular season that saw it miss the post-season for the first time since 2013 by moving up from the seventh best odds to win the NBA Draft Lottery and earn the No. 4 overall pick in the 2021 draft.
A spot that’s projected to have a player with future all-star talent, the Raptors look to be in a great position.
However, just because the Raptors have a high draft pick for the first time in quite a while – the No. 4 pick represents the highest selection the Raptors have had since they took Jakob Poeltl No. 9 overall in 2016 – it doesn’t change their draft process by much.
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“Not a ton because we do so much work beforehand, before the lottery comes,” said Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman after the Raptors held some pre-draft workouts with some prospects projected for the second round on Wednesday. “I think there’s definitely as the direction of the season goes, you kind of know where you’re generally going to land and so you begin to prepare for that area of the draft already. And so we kind of knew we were going to be a worst-case scenario of a mid-lottery team so we did a lot of work in preparation of that of who we were seeing and able to get out on the road and really get to know.
“And then to be able to move up to four, if anything, made our job a little bit, I hate to say easier, but at least it narrowed down the number of people we’re really going to be drilling in on at that point. But it definitely, from a workout standpoint, from the weeks leading up to the draft standpoint, nothing really changes. It’s just, maybe if anything, a little extra added pressure of just making sure we leave no stone unturned and make sure that we know everything we’re doing with that pick.”
Expanding on this, Tolzman mentioned that being able to narrow in on a specific range – like the top-five range that the Raptors are picking in – allows for more spirited discussion among the team’s front office on which direction to go. As he alluded to before, there’s been a ton of preparation and homework done already on these prospects beforehand and now the team is more likely to be in the “reviewing notes” phase of things.
“Even if we’re going down a certain direction on a player, you still want to have someone in the group play devil’s advocate from time to time. Just for no other reason than to think of what ifs, or worst-case scenarios, or best-case scenarios,” said Tolzman. “Even if it isn’t what a group of people or a certain person on our staff, if it’s not what they actually think, it’s always good to still talk it through and still have those discussions – and we’ve done exercises where you have a debate back and forth.
“So you put them on the opposite side of that feeling and make them debate the counterpoints. That way when you’re watching film and getting to know players you’re kind of seeing both sides of it, of the perspective and just making sure that it’s a thorough understanding of who these players are from top to bottom.”
And to this point, unlike public reports of big boards and mock drafts that will really begin to ramp up as the July 29 draft date approaches, the Raptors have a much more fluid board. As Tolzman described it, they may have narrowed in on a range that they believe some prospects will be available at, but aren’t locked into a definitive list as of yet.
“You never know what’s gonna come up and you always have to kind of have a stacking order that you feel comfortable with, regardless if you end up at four or elsewhere to just be ready for,” Tolzman said. “So I think it’s definitely not a finished process in terms of the number of guys we’re taking a look at, but there is a sense of, ‘OK, we know who we’re kind of considering and then now, within that group, let’s really spend the next two, three weeks of trying to sort out who we consider to be the best among that group.’”
Part of the work the Raptors will need to do now is to go through the workout process, something that the team didn’t really get to do much of last year because of the pandemic, and even though the team still isn’t back home in Toronto at OVO Athletic Centre, the club’s temporary Tampa facility is still better than the alternative.
“I’ll tell you what, walking into the first draft workout the other day it felt really refreshing,” Tolzman said. “It was an experience that we really value every year as a part of the draft process and to not be able to do it last year it was tough and so to get back at it this year and kind of, you forget how intense they are and how much the players really bring to it to try and earn a spot.”
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The prospects the Raptors had in on Wednesday were guards Jalen Crutcher, Marcus Zegarowski, Geo Baker and Joe Wieskamp, forward Scottie Lewis and centre Balsa Koprivica.
These are players who are projected to be second-rounders at best, but given the fact the Raptors have two second-round picks – Nos. 46 and 47 – the due diligence is still required from the team, even with all attention on what the club might do with that No. 4 overall pick.
“There’s definitely an element of trying to get as much of a snapshot of these guys as a player that we can,” Tolzman said of the benefits of seeing guys work out in person. “There’s even like, everything from when they’re playing competitively and it’s three-on-three settings so it’s not a full game recreation, but in that setting you’re doing some quick explanation of what we’re looking for and how they can, essentially, take that quick coaching and turn it into actions on the floor. It’s not the same as a game, but there is some read and react and basketball IQ sorts of things that we can try and learn from this setting.”
Tolzman and the Raptors have done a lot of homework and there’s still more to be done before the draft at the end of the month.
One thing for certain, though, as Tolzman said, this is a team that won’t leave any stone unturned leading up to the draft and will, at least in the organization’s mind, always look to take the best available player regardless of the team’s circumstances.
“Honestly, we’ve always been a group that takes talent first. The best available players are usually who we go with,” said Tolzman when asked if Kyle Lowry’s uncertain free-agent status impacts the club’s draft process. “We’ve never really made draft selections based on the current roster because there’s so many uncertainties with we could have our whole core lined up to draft for someone to plug in and then a blockbuster trade comes and all of a sudden we’ve got holes all over the floor.
“So it’s never something that, at least, we try to factor in when we’re gonna select anybody.”
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