With the 19th Pick, the Raptors select Ja'Kobe Walter!

[TGM]

firstly, the kid could be good so i wont knock him, but he still an undersized wing. second, raps didnt even work him out cause they thought hed be gone so they got really lucky, third, masai and his coffee getter bobby needs to be fired, reasons are, look at yesterday with that bridges trade, they got a haul of solid picks for him and masai got peanuts for pascal, pascal is better player than bridges hands down, fourth, that jakob trade just continues to kill us, im telling you guys, zach edey will be a top 3 best player in this draft and the raps missed out big time on him. im sick to my stomach.

Dude you got to lay off on the good stuff. Thinking Pascal is worth more than Bridges is where you absolutely lost me. Pascal has put up nice paper stats past few years but has not done much in terms of winning or coming through in the clutch. His stats are deceiving cause of the high assist numbers mainly due to us not having a good point guard. Once Kawhi left it’s been stat padding and not a lot of winning. Pascal was due for a max deal and was an expiring and turning 30. Bridges is 26 on an insanely friendly contract for another two years plays defence like an all defensive team and has a strong offensive game as well. The Nets have been so depleted of talent is why they aren’t winning with Bridges. Signing Pascal to a max will bite Indiana in a few years just watch.

[OakleyDokely]

A tale of two seasons for him.

Games 1-18: 15.2 PPG, .421 FG, .369 3PT, .846 FT, .573 TS
Games 19-35: 13.8 PPG, .326 FG, .316 3PT, .752 FT, .507 TS


If his season ended after 18 games, he probably goes top 5 in this draft.

This is basically it right here.

The weird part is that FT drop as well. Makes me think something wasn't right. The knee issue as they mentioned

Could be fatigue as well as he was relied upon a lot for offense.

[Shakril]

Masai showed tremendous self-restraint by not drafting Missi.

Dude can't shoot. That's a problem.

Every scout from top to bottom has him classified as shooter/defender. But at RealGm, there are the real Pros that already know what a 19 year old cant do and will never change.

[ArthurVandelay]

Just reading a lot of these comments and shaking my head.

There is no question he dropped. For anyone who ever spoke of BPA, this was the pick and he does have pedigree.

With regards to no workout, he wasn’t expected to fall to 19 so can’t really fault his agent for not getting him a passport and all that hassle. But Raptors scouted him since high school, raptor employee spent a week at Baylor this year, Bobby visited at Baylor, they interviewed at combine. I’m not too hung up on no workout because he was never supposed to reach 19.

With regards to finishing and playing through contact, I’m not sure people recognize how physical the college game is, especially Big 12. Smaller court, less spacing. His game should translate to pros. Get him on the Dick mid season training plan now!

His 3pt percentage was low. However his shot is tight and compact. He hits 80% ft (except when it mattered most lol) so I have no doubt he’ll be a better shooter in NBA. For perspective Maxey shot 29% from 3 at Kentucky. Ja’Kobe stroke and mechanics are there. All about reps now.

With all that said, I’m still a bit underwhelmed in the draft and the pick. It really was/is a ho hum draft but they got a good prospect relatively speaking, I just can’t get hyped for it.

My biggest concern is the 42% 2pt fg. I like to see college players flirting with 50 or above.

[Shakril]

Somehow one of the best shooters in the draft.

Shot 38% from the field.

Is there some context that I'm missing here?

Its always about potential. You can develop a player into a good shooter as long as the foundations are there. Scouts say, the foundation is there.

In the end he is the 19th pick in a weak draft. Even if he pans out to be a good player in the future, it will take him 2 - 4 years to actually be useful. Thats called player development. It takes time.

[Shakril]

Anyone complaining about a 19th pick is just not getting what the late ends of the first round are lol. There is no "great pick" at this point, it's pretty much a mishmash of maybes, just gonna have to trust in the FOs one clear strength, drafting.

I'll be honest, I just didn't want to draft Bronny cause that's a meme.

It's not just a 19th pick, it's the 19th pick in a meh draft.

Heck our pick conveyed to the Spurs and they were like...."Naah"

Yep. Thats why it was good to convey the pick.

[ATLTimekeeper]

After sleeping on it I'm less enthusiastic. We didn't work him out, and the Raptors have made great decisions based on workouts (Norm when they were looking at Rashad Vaughan, Pascal when they were looking at Skal), and I didn't get the sense they even interviewed him at the combine.

FO never thought he would fall that far, probably same for Walter's camp

The workout is understandable. Interviewing way out of range is pretty common at the combine. Moreso I'm pointing out that the Raptors have benefitted significantly from the workout stage to rule out players they previously had interest in and find players that were on the edge of their radar at the time.

I'm not upset at the pick or anything. It's 19. There's no material downside to whiffing. Plus he's a Raptor and I'm gonna support him and hope for the best.

I just think when the Raptors justify their previous misses, they've blamed the lack of access in the pre-draft cycle (Flynn) and that they took someone really young that they hadn't seen that much (Bruno).

[Shakril]

We also got C+/D when we drafted Barnes

We got an A for Poeltl too.

I hope by next season, the baseless Poeltl hating will stop after the pick we gave up is finally done and we can move on.

[Jerry Lucas]

I like this pick. Was really high on Ja'Kobe early on, cooled off on him a bit after his 2nd half, but not enough where I stopped liking him as a prospect in general. He just fell out of where I originally had him on my big board early in the season (I don't want to say how high lol but it's a single digit number).

I was going to include him in my updated big board for pick 31, but since there's 3 guys in my top 15 that still haven't been picked yet (Filipowski, KJ and Mogbo), I won't even update it. I want 1 of those 3 with pick 31 if they keep it.

[OakleyDokely]

Given the current salaries of Barnes, VV, OG, Siakam, Powell, Poeltl -- every draft pick should be ecstatic to be drafted by the Raptors

[HumbleRen]

I like the pick. If he develops right, I think he can be Norm for us but with more dynamic on ball creation.

Hope he is ready to work hard and put in time in the G League.

He won't see GL

I think he will. Would be surprised if he didn’t.

[dTox]

Read on Twitter

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Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using RealGM mobile app

[bon]

Not too worried about the efficiency considering he'll be joining a ball movement heavy system with plenty of willing passers. Walter himself has a bit of playmaking upside that I think Darko can unlock too (like RJ). This is a great spot for him to maximise his potential

[maternal85]

firstly, the kid could be good so i wont knock him, but he still an undersized wing. second, raps didnt even work him out cause they thought hed be gone so they got really lucky, third, masai and his coffee getter bobby needs to be fired, reasons are, look at yesterday with that bridges trade, they got a haul of solid picks for him and masai got peanuts for pascal, pascal is better player than bridges hands down, fourth, that jakob trade just continues to kill us, im telling you guys, zach edey will be a top 3 best player in this draft and the raps missed out big time on him. im sick to my stomach.

Bridges had years left on his contract, Pascal didn't. Not too hard to understand.

[disoblige]

I like the pick. They picked a 5 star freshman who averaged 15ppg though average efficiency. At pick 19, you have to roll the dice. Some mocks have him in top 10.

[Gagan15]

Didnt know much about him. Reminds me of Norman Powell. He will have some growing pains just like Powell did but if he can become as good as Powell became, thats a steal from this draft.

[wow09]

Some of you guys will never be happy.

We got a guy that has good length for the position and by all accounts can shoot. His shooting mechanics visually look solid too

[WuTang_CMB]

Build out our depth. This is a start

[billy_hoyle]

hate the pick

Where is my $100?

Walter was one of your lottery picks we needed to trade up for, remember?

[traps#10]

For some reason he reminds me of a poor man’s Bradley Beal, the way he can catch and shoot and create a jump shot for himself.