2023 Draft Discussion Part III

[OakleyDokely]

Some of the Raps best picks were because they didn't go with consensus and they weren't afraid of the backlash. There is risk in that.

Barnes wasn't a consensus pick. Suggs would be a Raptor right now if they went with consensus. They took Siakam over consensus guys like Davis and Skal as well.

The Raps are pretty unpredictable when it comes to the draft, other than they're going to draft a high character guy.

Barnes was a great pick. But picking Siakam with the third last pick in the 1st round isn’t a risk.

At that range you take who you like. You’re paying the guy a million or two a year and you don’t extend him after a couple years of developing if it doesn’t work out.

You said the raps are risk averse. Risk averse teams typically just go with consensus.

The Raps don't do that.

[720]

Some of the Raps best picks were because they didn't go with consensus and they weren't afraid of the backlash. There is risk in that.

Barnes wasn't a consensus pick. Suggs would be a Raptor right now if they went with consensus. They took Siakam over consensus guys like Davis and Skal as well.

The Raps are pretty unpredictable when it comes to the draft, other than they're going to draft a high character guy.

Barnes was a great pick. But picking Siakam with the third last pick in the 1st round isn’t a risk.

At that range you take who you like. You’re paying the guy a million or two a year and you don’t extend him after a couple years of developing if it doesn’t work out.

You said the raps are risk averse. Risk averse teams typically just go with consensus.

The Raps don't do that.

Dude picking who you like at bottom of the 1st round isn’t a risk…

[OakleyDokely]

Barnes was a great pick. But picking Siakam with the third last pick in the 1st round isn’t a risk.

At that range you take who you like. You’re paying the guy a million or two a year and you don’t extend him after a couple years of developing if it doesn’t work out.

You said the raps are risk averse. Risk averse teams typically just go with consensus.

The Raps don't do that.

Dude picking who you like at bottom of the 1st round isn’t a risk…

More risk in picking Siakam than some 4 year old college player from a big school that everyone knows.

[720]

You said the raps are risk averse. Risk averse teams typically just go with consensus.

The Raps don't do that.

Dude picking who you like at bottom of the 1st round isn’t a risk…

More risk in picking Siakam than some 4 year old college guy from a big school that everyone knows.

It’s not a risk…you’re literally talking about the 27th pick lol. It’s a low level pick. At that range you take who you like.

[OakleyDokely]

Dude picking who you like at bottom of the 1st round isn’t a risk…

More risk in picking Siakam than some 4 year old college guy from a big school that everyone knows.

It’s not a risk…you’re literally talking about the 27th pick lol. It’s a low level pick. At that range you take who you like.

Then there's no risk at all for anyone in the draft. Just pick who you like.

[ItsDanger]

The bias towards Raps management is kind of gross. Picking someone at #27 can't be used to substantiate the front office takes risks. LOL

[OakleyDokely]

What's gross is your trolling. Easier to do that than actually debate.

[Dalek]

Read on Twitter

I was mildly shocked but also excited to see my man Kao declare for the draft. Shocking because he only averaged 3 points for Memphis after playing at UT Arlington for a couple years, but he is about 23 so the time is now. He literally went from Home Depot to Div 1, and now possibly the NBA.

In Memphis, he did average 70% from the field and is a top college shotblocker and honestly is a top 5% athlete in the NBA. Last year, I was posting his "freaky" highlights dunking through the legs and touching the backboard:

Watch on YouTube

Social media people like to see the Giannis reference because he is from Nigeria and kind of looks and sounds like him, but watching his college film he reminds me more of Nic Claxton. I say give this guy a partial guarantee next year and develop him. He has nice touch just needs more in-game reps in the G-League. I look at his frame and it looks like he can add muscle.

Watch on YouTube

[ItsDanger]

Siakam was player of the year in WAC that season. But it was a "risk"? He was projected maybe 10 spots later. Wow, that was a massive reach by Masai! And I'm trolling? Take a look in the mirror for once.

[BoyzNTheHood]

If there aren’t any prospects that blow us away I wouldn’t mind trading back and picking up a second rounder or something to add a nice G-League piece.

Maybe the Pacers would be willing to deal 25/29 + 32/55 for our 14. Most likely would be 25+55 and we could go with Miller/Sasser/Whitehead + N’Diaye/Vukcevic/Norchad

[ATLTimekeeper]

If there aren’t any prospects that blow us away I wouldn’t mind trading back and picking up a second rounder or something to add a nice G-League piece.

Maybe the Pacers would be willing to deal 25/29 + 32/55 for our 14. Most likely would be 25+55 and we could go with Miller/Sasser/Whitehead + N’Diaye/Vukcevic/Norchad

2nd rounders just cost cash. I hate this strategy because you risk losing who you might take. Better to reach and just get the sure thing in the bag. I'd much rather move up than down.

[OakleyDokely]

Siakam was player of the year in WAC that season. But it was a "risk"? He was projected maybe 10 spots later. Wow, that was a massive reach by Masai! And I'm trolling? Take a look in the mirror for once.

I said he wasn't a consensus pick at the spot and he wasn't.

And yes, you can't go one post without claiming people have a Masai bias.

[BoyzNTheHood]

If there aren’t any prospects that blow us away I wouldn’t mind trading back and picking up a second rounder or something to add a nice G-League piece.

Maybe the Pacers would be willing to deal 25/29 + 32/55 for our 14. Most likely would be 25+55 and we could go with Miller/Sasser/Whitehead + N’Diaye/Vukcevic/Norchad

2nd rounders just cost cash. I hate this strategy because you risk losing who you might take. Better to reach and just get the sure thing in the bag. I'd much rather move up than down.

That’s true. It’s just a thought. Say you get to 14 and your intel says that your guy will be there at 25, or if you have multiple options still available that you’d like at 25.

Moving up is always the dream but our history doesn’t lean towards that.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Regardless of what you think about the Raptors risk-level in the draft, they've had bad misses 2X. One was Jokic, when they took Bruno. And the other was Bane when they took Flynn. In both cases, they weren't passing on a higher risk player.

[ItsDanger]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2643426-2016-nba-mock-draft-predicting-every-pick-in-early-june

Siakam #28. LOL

[Yallbecrazy]

Siakam was player of the year in WAC that season. But it was a "risk"? He was projected maybe 10 spots later. Wow, that was a massive reach by Masai! And I'm trolling? Take a look in the mirror for once.

He was against the grain because he wasn't listed by draft express or whatever. We can now filter players stats and see where these sites fail and what other NBA scouting departments are looking at.
I would think a good chunk of NBA scouts have Podziemski in their top 20 and Nick Smith outside of it, but a bunch still go by the same ESPN/Draft Express stuff so Smith will go top 15 probably. Also there's probably 10-20 teams who wouldn't draft the Thompson twins in the top either, but they will go top 10 since there's probably 10-20 teams that have them top 10.

[BoyzNTheHood]

Regardless of what you think about the Raptors risk-level in the draft, they've had bad misses 2X. One was Jokic, when they took Bruno. And the other was Bane when they took Flynn. In both cases, they weren't passing on a higher risk player.

The Bane miss is one I cannot make an excuse for, but Jokic was missed by damn near everyone. Even Denver took Nurkic in the first before him. He should’ve been a top 2 pick.

[ATLTimekeeper]

If there aren’t any prospects that blow us away I wouldn’t mind trading back and picking up a second rounder or something to add a nice G-League piece.

Maybe the Pacers would be willing to deal 25/29 + 32/55 for our 14. Most likely would be 25+55 and we could go with Miller/Sasser/Whitehead + N’Diaye/Vukcevic/Norchad

2nd rounders just cost cash. I hate this strategy because you risk losing who you might take. Better to reach and just get the sure thing in the bag. I'd much rather move up than down.

That’s true. It’s just a thought. Say you get to 14 and your intel says that your guy will be there at 25, or if you have multiple options still available that you’d like at 25.

Moving up is always the dream but our history doesn’t lean towards that.

Personally I don't think it pays to be too cute like that. Maybe if a player was involved that you could use, but the draft assets you're taking back then have to be converted into useful players, too. Just take the player and don't worry about missing out on extra goodies.

[YogurtProducer]

Siakam was player of the year in WAC that season. But it was a "risk"? He was projected maybe 10 spots later. Wow, that was a massive reach by Masai! And I'm trolling? Take a look in the mirror for once.

Ah yes, joining other NBA stars from the WAC who won POTY such as Martex Harrison, Daniel Mullings, Kyle Barone, Deonte Burton... need I continue?

[YogurtProducer]

Drafting anyone down at the bottom of the 1st round isn’t risky imo. Especially the OG pick (he was a projected lotto pick most of the year).

The Kawhi trade is no risk at all. Demar was clearly flawed, it was obvious a core with him as the top guy wasn’t going to get it done. We trade him and only one of our prospects in Poeltl (at the time people were speculating one of Siakam or OG was going to have to get moved but we didn’t even have to do that). If the trade works then great, if it doesn’t then we’re off Demar’s contract and move on to the next phase of the retool.

It is still a pretty big risk for a guy to make a trade for a dude, give up multiple assets, and actually have no guarantee the guy was even going to report which was a legitimate concern at the time as far as I remember. To say that is not risky is not true.

Either way, I don't think it necessarily accurate to say we are risk averse.

It really wasn’t at all. Lol

We gave away a top 30 player (who routinely choked and embarrassed himself and this franchise in the playoffs) and a role player level prospect (not multiple picks, not a blue chip prospect like OG or Siakam) for Kawhi freaking Leonard (top 3/5 player in the league).

All 29 other teams would have done that deal.

You take the shot, if it works you come out of it with a championship. If it doesn’t work you get to move on from a big contract and a flawed player in Demar.

You are like so, so, so, so close.

We gave away a top 30 player, a "role player level prospect" (little bit underplaying a 2nd year, top 10 pick, but OK), and a first... the risk was that Kawhi would never play a game for our franchise and we gave away 3 positive assets for literally nothing.

All 29 other teams would have done the deal? Where were the other 29 teams then? Why did no one outbid our "no-risk" offe?