With the 57th pick, the Raptors select Ulrich Chomche

[gerrit4]

I'd love to hear what their plan is for him. To me, Chomche is one of those guys you stash overseas for a couple years and then (if all goes well), you suddenly feel really fortunate to have his NBA rights. If my math is right, in four years he'll be the same age as Koloko when we drafted him.

[mihaic]

I'd love to hear what their plan is for him. To me, Chomche is one of those guys you stash overseas for a couple years and then (if all goes well), you suddenly feel really fortunate to have his NBA rights. If my math is right, in four years he'll be the same age as Koloko when we drafted him.

I agree. Using him in gleague will just "consume" our rights to him. Let him get better and if he does sign him to a deal of 3 yr or more that gives bird rights, like we did to koloko.

[Tor_Raps]

Has there been anyone outside of the Raptors brass/fanbase that has commented on this draft selection?

Trying to understand if this guy has a real chance or Masai is doing favours for basketball Africa.

[Jerry Lucas]

In the last 10 drafts 16 international players have gone in the bottom 5 picks, only two got contracts. One is currently a Raptor and wants out.

I mean, international or not, there are like 5-6 guys total that have contracts.

2-way deals included or just NBA deals? I would guess Chomche at least gets a 2-way deal.

[raptorforlife88]

Lateral agility/footspeed really is the key for bigs in terms of their ability to be complete defenders that won't get exploited by a good guard.

That's one thing basically every scouting report has mentioned, he moves incredibly quickly side to side, and it allows him to recover (especially with how raw he is and how many mistakes he makes as a result). You can't really teach that kind of agility. It makes him much easier to fit into defenses that are switching all the time as offenses search for a good matchup.

He has the tools, it'll be a real test of the Raptors current development program to see if they're capable of at least getting the defensive fundamentals in place.

For a raw project big drafted at the end of the second round, I think any offensive jumps he takes are a bonus.

[raptorforlife88]

Has there been anyone outside of the Raptors brass/fanbase that has commented on this draft selection?

Trying to understand if this guy has a real chance or Masai is doing favours for basketball Africa.

It's not that hard to google draft rankings for 2024 and see for yourself.

The Ringer had him 60th on their big board, CBSsports had himat 63rd, NBADRAFT had him 43rd.

If you look at this website: https://www.rookiescale.com/2024-consensus-board/

That compiles the various big boards and it has Chomche at 58th. We took him with the 57th pick. What does that tell you?

[douggood]

Has there been anyone outside of the Raptors brass/fanbase that has commented on this draft selection?

Trying to understand if this guy has a real chance or Masai is doing favours for basketball Africa.

was invited to nike hoops summit
one of 78 players invited to nba draft combine
early in the mock draft process, after the gleague showcase his stock was relatively high during that period

jonathan wasserman had him mocked 14
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10105222-2024-nba-mock-draft-latest-2-round-predictions-plus-pro-comparisons

kristen peek had him 23
https://sports.yahoo.com/2024-nba-mock-draft-50-will-another-french-prospect-be-no-1-overall-pick-162452070.html

sam veceine had him 26th
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5268787/2024/02/20/nba-mock-draft-updates-rankings-teams/



basically he was mocked in the 1st round early in the process and nearer the draft his mock fell to 40-50-60s

https://www.nbamockdraftdatabase.com/players/2024/ulrich-chomche

[ATLTimekeeper]

In the last 10 drafts 16 international players have gone in the bottom 5 picks, only two got contracts. One is currently a Raptor and wants out.

I mean, international or not, there are like 5-6 guys total that have contracts.

I don't mean currently have contracts, I mean were offered a contract at all. There's way more NCAA products drafted in that range that ended up playing a few minutes here or there.

[nivisi9]

Lateral agility/footspeed really is the key for bigs in terms of their ability to be complete defenders that won't get exploited by a good guard.

That's one thing basically every scouting report has mentioned, he moves incredibly quickly side to side, and it allows him to recover (especially with how raw he is and how many mistakes he makes as a result). You can't really teach that kind of agility. It makes him much easier to fit into defenses that are switching all the time as offenses search for a good matchup.

He has the tools, it'll be a real test of the Raptors current development program to see if they're capable of at least getting the defensive fundamentals in place.

For a raw project big drafted at the end of the second round, I think any offensive jumps he takes are a bonus.

This video really highlights and points out his elite / rare tools pertaining to this...

Watch on YouTube

[Duffman100]

In the last 10 drafts 16 international players have gone in the bottom 5 picks, only two got contracts. One is currently a Raptor and wants out.

I mean, international or not, there are like 5-6 guys total that have contracts.

I don't mean currently have contracts, I mean were offered a contract at all. There's way more NCAA products drafted in that range that ended up playing a few minutes here or there.

Is there? I looked and found like 4-5.

[ATLTimekeeper]

I mean, international or not, there are like 5-6 guys total that have contracts.

I don't mean currently have contracts, I mean were offered a contract at all. There's way more NCAA products drafted in that range that ended up playing a few minutes here or there.

Is there? I looked and found like 4-5.

There's 32 by my count.

[OakleyDokely]

I'd be surprised if they didn't offer him a deal. They intentionally bought a pick for him. It wasn't like they had the 57th pick already and they had to pick someone.

[douggood]

I'd be surprised if they didn't offer him a deal. They intentionally bought a pick for him. It wasn't like they had the 57th pick already and they had to pick someone.

for me its the opposite, they bought the pick cause they didn't want to offer him a deal. draft and stash.
if they wanted to offer him a deal they could do that as a udfa.

[niQ]

I'd be surprised if they didn't offer him a deal. They intentionally bought a pick for him. It wasn't like they had the 57th pick already and they had to pick someone.

for me its the opposite, they bought the pick cause they didn't want to offer him a deal. draft and stash.
if they wanted to offer him a deal they could do that as a udfa.

Oh, so I guess we won't be seeing Chomche for at least 1-2 years?

[ForeverTFC]

I'd be surprised if they didn't offer him a deal. They intentionally bought a pick for him. It wasn't like they had the 57th pick already and they had to pick someone.

for me its the opposite, they bought the pick cause they didn't want to offer him a deal. draft and stash.
if they wanted to offer him a deal they could do that as a udfa.

Agree. I doubt they were worried he would get picked 57 or 58 (maybe they were but long shot). They have his rights now. Given they haven't said anything about him and no social media posts to even announce that they took him, all signs post to him being stashed somewhere.

[niQ]

Has there been anyone outside of the Raptors brass/fanbase that has commented on this draft selection?

Trying to understand if this guy has a real chance or Masai is doing favours for basketball Africa.

was invited to nike hoops summit
one of 78 players invited to nba draft combine
early in the mock draft process, after the gleague showcase his stock was relatively high during that period

jonathan wasserman had him mocked 14
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10105222-2024-nba-mock-draft-latest-2-round-predictions-plus-pro-comparisons

kristen peek had him 23
https://sports.yahoo.com/2024-nba-mock-draft-50-will-another-french-prospect-be-no-1-overall-pick-162452070.html

sam veceine had him 26th
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5268787/2024/02/20/nba-mock-draft-updates-rankings-teams/



basically he was mocked in the 1st round early in the process and nearer the draft his mock fell to 40-50-60s

https://www.nbamockdraftdatabase.com/players/2024/ulrich-chomche

Wow, I'm surprised he was mocked so high earlier for a prospect so raw.

[C_Money]

He’s likely getting stashed somewhere but why not at least put him on the Summer League roster? The guy needs as much playing time as he can get.

[OakleyDokely]

I'd be surprised if they didn't offer him a deal. They intentionally bought a pick for him. It wasn't like they had the 57th pick already and they had to pick someone.

for me its the opposite, they bought the pick cause they didn't want to offer him a deal. draft and stash.
if they wanted to offer him a deal they could do that as a udfa.

certainly possible, but I feel like they will want more control over his development.

if you let him go to free agency though, you'd be competing against numerous other teams

[douggood]

I'd be surprised if they didn't offer him a deal. They intentionally bought a pick for him. It wasn't like they had the 57th pick already and they had to pick someone.

for me its the opposite, they bought the pick cause they didn't want to offer him a deal. draft and stash.
if they wanted to offer him a deal they could do that as a udfa.

Agree. I doubt they were worried he would get picked 57 or 58 (maybe they were but long shot). They have his rights now. Given they haven't said anything about him and no social media posts to even announce that they took him, all signs post to him being stashed somewhere.

the trade isnt official yet, thus no socials etc

the pistons traded 53 to twolves; wendell moore and 37 for 53.
then twolves traded 53 to Memphis for 57

that wendell moore trade isnt official until july 6th, once that is official the rest of dominoes will fall. cause officially ulrich was drafted by Memphis.

[ForeverTFC]

He’s likely getting stashed somewhere but why not at least put him on the Summer League roster? The guy needs as much playing time as he can get.

Is the roster out? He might be on it.

But I'm thinking they've learned a lot from the Bruno experience and are trying to keep him very low key and expectations very low. I think the Bruno experience really left a mark on Masai. Bruno wasn't NBA ready, but he was also not ready for the profile, expectations and the money that came from the NBA. Nor did we have a plan for him to develop.

From the Ringer article (one of my favorites), Ujiri doubled down that they got the talent right but totally messed up his development. I think he's being very cautious with Chomche:

Some time in January 2014, Dole began to hear stories from an athlete at the Pinheiros athlete house in São Paulo about the presence of Raptors and Pacers personnel in the gym. They were after Bruno. Suddenly, just over a decade after Ujiri entered the scouting world, he found himself in a familiar place: jockeying for position in a race against a colleague for an exciting unknown. Except for one distinction: Philo was the star scout back then; Ujiri was the star executive VP now. Philo, the Pacers lead scout at the time, had a development plan in place: Send Caboclo to Europe for three years and revisit his NBA prospects then. The Raptors’ plan was far simpler: cut the bull, cut the buyout check, come to Toronto immediately. It was clear which path Pinheiros preferred. It was clear who was going to win the battle. (The Raptors would eventually pay the buyout fee to Rossi and Pinheiros upon drafting Caboclo—Barueri, the club that developed Bruno throughout his teens, received nothing.)

Ujiri admitted his failures with Caboclo by 2018, when the Raptors finally cut bait by trading him to Sacramento. Bruno was traded halfway through his fourth season with the team. The kid who was two years away from being two years away didn’t even get the full four years with the Raptors. “It was difficult for us, because I just thought it was time,” Ujiri told reporters then. “We tried to, we started the right process a little late, which is something we failed at but I think we’ll learn from. At some point, I think there needed to be some separation where he goes and learns something different somewhere else. On the part of talent, I think we got that part right. He is a real talented kid. But in the process we got the D-League team a couple of years later and it’s a question from me whether he should have stayed over.”

The True Story of Bruno Caboclo: The NBA Draft’s Last Mystery Man: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2024/6/27/24186882/bruno-caboclo-nba-draft-toronto-raptors-two-years-away