2025 NBA Draft Discussion Part 5

[Syd-TK3]

Im feel like Khaman has a promise from the Raptors as high as 3 (after Flagg and Harper) or a trade will happen to drop down a bit for Khaman. With the Sudan visa situation, it will probably scare off a lot of teams. At least Khaman can practice and play home games in Toronto for the time being until it gets sorted out.

If we jump up to 3 just to take Maluach Idk what I'll do

[BoyzNTheHood]

Im feel like Khaman has a promise from the Raptors as high as 3 (after Flagg and Harper) or a trade will happen to drop down a bit for Khaman. With the Sudan visa situation, it will probably scare off a lot of teams. At least Khaman can practice and play home games in Toronto for the time being until it gets sorted out.

If we jump up to 3 just to take Maluach Idk what I'll do

We won’t. Masai isn’t that stupid. He won’t even take him if we fall to 10.

[Thaddy]

It would be great if we put together a smokescreen and let a team ahead of us grab Maluach thinking they can trade him down to us for additional assets.

Maluach doesn't have superstar potential. He is a lot further away from becoming a star compared to any other prospect mocked in the top 10. We have a logjam of rotation level prospects. I would take another wing if it means there's a semblance of all star potential.

Fears, Queen, Johnson, or the top 4. Otherwise I would pick a high floor like Jakucionis or Knueppel.

[Pointgod]

Im feel like Khaman has a promise from the Raptors as high as 3 (after Flagg and Harper) or a trade will happen to drop down a bit for Khaman. With the Sudan visa situation, it will probably scare off a lot of teams. At least Khaman can practice and play home games in Toronto for the time being until it gets sorted out.

If we jump up to 3 just to take Maluach Idk what I'll do

Yeah it would be legitimately insane when we could just trade for him if he starts to drop because of the Visa situation.

[GOLDFINCH]

If you look at the history of the draft lottery for the past ten years as reference for the 7th overall odds it’s an 50% odds for improving your draft pick.

Results:
1st overall once
2nd once
4th overall three times

7th twice
8th twice
9th once.

[PhilBlackson]

Im feel like Khaman has a promise from the Raptors as high as 3 (after Flagg and Harper) or a trade will happen to drop down a bit for Khaman. With the Sudan visa situation, it will probably scare off a lot of teams. At least Khaman can practice and play home games in Toronto for the time being until it gets sorted out.

If we jump up to 3 just to take Maluach Idk what I'll do

We won’t. Masai isn’t that stupid. He won’t even take him if we fall to 10.

I agree that he wouldn't take him top 3 (I think he would still take Ace in that scenario, just too much potential to pass on and will continue to fit next to Scottie no matter what decision BI might make in a few years time) buuut I don't agree that he wouldn't take him if we fell to 10, I really don't know but there's no way I rule it out.

I understand that we all have our preferences and players we don't want but we literally just brought in Chomche who wasn't anywhere remotely near as "highly touted" as Khaman. Chomche didn't even play in a respectable league before entering the league and is on another level of rawness even from Khaman. So I don't rule out that Masai takes a kid that got recruited to the top program in college to be their starter and did a solid job at it with plenty of physical tools. Again I get it if you don't like him personally, that's fine & fair, we don't have to all love the same prospects but I just doubt that Masai has completely ruled him out especially when we know how much it means to him personally to see African born players make it (and I'm not saying that to be critical of him, it's just true).

[BoyzNTheHood]

If we jump up to 3 just to take Maluach Idk what I'll do

We won’t. Masai isn’t that stupid. He won’t even take him if we fall to 10.

I agree that he wouldn't take him top 3 (I think he would still take Ace in that scenario, just too much potential to pass on and will continue to fit next to Scottie no matter what decision BI might make in a few years time) buuut I don't agree that he wouldn't take him if we fell to 10, I really don't know but there's no way I rule it out.

I understand that we all have our preferences and players we don't want but we literally just brought in Chomche who wasn't anywhere remotely near as "highly touted" as Khaman. Chomche didn't even play in a respectable league before entering the league and is on another level of rawness even from Khaman. So I don't rule out that Masai takes a kid that got recruited to the top program in college to be their starter and did a solid job at it with plenty of physical tools. Again I get it if you don't like him personally, that's fine & fair, we don't have to all love the same prospects but I just doubt that Masai has completely ruled him out especially when we know how much it means to him personally to see African born players make it (and I'm not saying that to be critical of him, it's just true).

The thing is, I bet Chomche can be as impactful as Maluach is at the NBA level, and also he was picked at the end of the 2nd round so he was much lower risk than a raw kid in the top 10.

[Tripod]

I just don't like the idea of having 2 "projects" at C.

Unless the plan is to have Maluach as the #3C and spend lots of time in the 905, I don't see us grabbing him. We simply can't draft him and have him as the backup getting 15-20 mins a game AND expect to.win games.

And God forbid Yak gets hurt....ans he will miss some games. It's just WAY too much of a risk to put the whole season on, and certainly not fair to everyone else.

Assume we don't get Flagg, everyone else we draft we have playable replacements for in case they struggle...except at C. We need to turn that eliminate that weakness this offseason.

[PhilBlackson]

We won’t. Masai isn’t that stupid. He won’t even take him if we fall to 10.

I agree that he wouldn't take him top 3 (I think he would still take Ace in that scenario, just too much potential to pass on and will continue to fit next to Scottie no matter what decision BI might make in a few years time) buuut I don't agree that he wouldn't take him if we fell to 10, I really don't know but there's no way I rule it out.

I understand that we all have our preferences and players we don't want but we literally just brought in Chomche who wasn't anywhere remotely near as "highly touted" as Khaman. Chomche didn't even play in a respectable league before entering the league and is on another level of rawness even from Khaman. So I don't rule out that Masai takes a kid that got recruited to the top program in college to be their starter and did a solid job at it with plenty of physical tools. Again I get it if you don't like him personally, that's fine & fair, we don't have to all love the same prospects but I just doubt that Masai has completely ruled him out especially when we know how much it means to him personally to see African born players make it (and I'm not saying that to be critical of him, it's just true).

The thing is, I bet Chomche can be as impactful as Maluach is at the NBA level, and also he was picked at the end of the 2nd round so he was much lower risk than a raw kid in the top 10.

No doubt a lower risk but I just don’t agree on them being as impactful at the heights of their potential. I think Khaman has much more touch in the paint and in his jumper as a whole since he has much better mechanics/release point and won’t need to alter his shot like Ulrich who shoots the ball low and in front of his face. Chomche doesn’t even really understand how to navigate a PnR to be a constant lob threat as yet etc but his overall development and feel is still well behind despite both being raw.

I’m not even advocating for taking Maluach because right now I’d prefer Queen or Fears. But I do think people are writing him off a bit too much and either downplaying or maybe haven’t watched as closely some of things he does do well or at least has the potential to. But he is a better prospect than Chomche as it stands now in this moment and I just can’t rule out Masai seeing some of the same potential in him that made a program like Duke go out of their way to recruit or why he’s a prospect that multiple scouts and analysts put a top 10 grade on since they’ve put eyes on him. Surely there’s “something” people see in him and I’m just not ready to believe that a guy like Masai that takes very personal interest in seeing African prospects succeed, write off the top prospect since the last big one they had (although he’s obv not the same level).

I'd also add that Khaman's overall court awareness is far ahead of Chomche's. I already pointed out how he doesn't even understand when to roll or how to navigate through traffic for screens but you also see it on the defensive end. Ulrich's lone "strength" at this point is specifically his on-ball/man defence (pause), he has the size & lateral speed to literally guard 1-5 and if he can almost lockdown if he iso'd on but the second you add a PnR, he's lost and taking it further he's the back line of the defence that should be calling out picks and understanding where guys are cutting to/from and he doesn't have the slightest clue schematically what's happening. Khaman still obv needs to continue to get better but he's way ahead in that regard. I've actually seen him try to point out or even nudge guys where to be. Again he's not perfect at that, doesn't always read it right but still miles ahead there. So while both raw, Khaman still is starting with a greater overall skillset & understanding of the game.

[tecumseh18]

I've always liked Maluach, because Raptors surely don't need another skinny guard - especially one still learning to shoot - and the draft doesn't have the OG-style 3 and D power SF that this team could really use. And ... as good as Poeltl can be, I don't think he's long or physical enough to compete against Wemby - i.e. the future of the league. We need to be grooming his replacement.

I know, I know BPA. But this was a tough year to endure just to end up with an upper middle class man's Rodney Hood (Ace) or whatever VJ ends up being. I also could handle drafting Queen at 7 or 8. If Masai and Dan like him, then that's the guy.

[Childs]

If you look at the history of the draft lottery for the past ten years as reference for the 7th overall odds it’s an 50% odds for improving your draft pick.

Results:
1st overall once
2nd once
4th overall three times

7th twice
8th twice
9th once.

Problem is, that is a small sample size.

[REJECTEDBYCLARK]

Im feel like Khaman has a promise from the Raptors as high as 3 (after Flagg and Harper) or a trade will happen to drop down a bit for Khaman. With the Sudan visa situation, it will probably scare off a lot of teams. At least Khaman can practice and play home games in Toronto for the time being until it gets sorted out.

If we jump up to 3 just to take Maluach Idk what I'll do

We won’t. Masai isn’t that stupid. He won’t even take him if we fall to 10.

Did you see where I pointed out the incredible parallel between possession breakdown of Jarrett Allen and Khaman? They are incredibly similar archetypes of player (w/ Khaman having even higher ceiling due to shooting which is nuts). The only thing Allen does which is questionable in Khaman is the defensive rebounding which ties into an assertion I will make in that the only thing that will stop Khaman is if he genuinely has some kind of high hip weird center of gravity functional strength issue long term. Absolutely everything else with Khaman checks out 100% and it's not uncommon for young centers to improve DRB% over time.

Khaman looks legit to me in the same way the Thompsons did when this board hated them. He's a confusing eval for a few reasons but what he does on the court impacts winning and the things he's good at he has the potential to be elite at in NBA.

[DreamTeam09]

If you look at the history of the draft lottery for the past ten years as reference for the 7th overall odds it’s an 50% odds for improving your draft pick.

Results:
1st overall once
2nd once
4th overall three times

7th twice
8th twice
9th once.

Problem is, that is a small sample size.

The odds have only been flattened for like the last 8yrs tho

[Clutch0z24]

If we can somehow get a 2nd pick to add Rasheer Fleming as well that would be a good move.....Would not pick him 7/8th but would like to add him to our bench.

[PushDaRock]

Maluach seems like he would be the most entertaining outcome on here, so I'm warming up to him.

[Syd-TK3]

Honestly I like Sorber more then Maluach

[REJECTEDBYCLARK]

I just don't like the idea of having 2 "projects" at C.

Unless the plan is to have Maluach as the #3C and spend lots of time in the 905, I don't see us grabbing him. We simply can't draft him and have him as the backup getting 15-20 mins a game AND expect to.win games.

And God forbid Yak gets hurt....ans he will miss some games. It's just WAY too much of a risk to put the whole season on, and certainly not fair to everyone else.

Assume we don't get Flagg, everyone else we draft we have playable replacements for in case they struggle...except at C. We need to turn that eliminate that weakness this offseason.

for the record if maluach scales up to nba and the shot comes along we are talking about a kid who should be ~2 pts/100 better than poeltl which is quite significant

[REJECTEDBYCLARK]

If we jump up to 3 just to take Maluach Idk what I'll do

We won’t. Masai isn’t that stupid. He won’t even take him if we fall to 10.

I agree that he wouldn't take him top 3 (I think he would still take Ace in that scenario, just too much potential to pass on and will continue to fit next to Scottie no matter what decision BI might make in a few years time) buuut I don't agree that he wouldn't take him if we fell to 10, I really don't know but there's no way I rule it out.

I understand that we all have our preferences and players we don't want but we literally just brought in Chomche who wasn't anywhere remotely near as "highly touted" as Khaman. Chomche didn't even play in a respectable league before entering the league and is on another level of rawness even from Khaman. So I don't rule out that Masai takes a kid that got recruited to the top program in college to be their starter and did a solid job at it with plenty of physical tools. Again I get it if you don't like him personally, that's fine & fair, we don't have to all love the same prospects but I just doubt that Masai has completely ruled him out especially when we know how much it means to him personally to see African born players make it (and I'm not saying that to be critical of him, it's just true).

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/34506331/toronto-raptors-boss-masai-ujiri-bal-produce-nba-level-talent-need-grow

"Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri told ESPN that the Basketball Africa League (BAL) will grow into a league capable of producing players that can play in the NBA regular season, but urged patience with its development efforts."

[BoyzNTheHood]

We won’t. Masai isn’t that stupid. He won’t even take him if we fall to 10.

I agree that he wouldn't take him top 3 (I think he would still take Ace in that scenario, just too much potential to pass on and will continue to fit next to Scottie no matter what decision BI might make in a few years time) buuut I don't agree that he wouldn't take him if we fell to 10, I really don't know but there's no way I rule it out.

I understand that we all have our preferences and players we don't want but we literally just brought in Chomche who wasn't anywhere remotely near as "highly touted" as Khaman. Chomche didn't even play in a respectable league before entering the league and is on another level of rawness even from Khaman. So I don't rule out that Masai takes a kid that got recruited to the top program in college to be their starter and did a solid job at it with plenty of physical tools. Again I get it if you don't like him personally, that's fine & fair, we don't have to all love the same prospects but I just doubt that Masai has completely ruled him out especially when we know how much it means to him personally to see African born players make it (and I'm not saying that to be critical of him, it's just true).

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/34506331/toronto-raptors-boss-masai-ujiri-bal-produce-nba-level-talent-need-grow

"Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri told ESPN that the Basketball Africa League (BAL) will grow into a league capable of producing players that can play in the NBA regular season, but urged patience with its development efforts."

“Urged patience”

[Duffman100]

Honestly I like Sorber more then Maluach

I'm starting to think the same way.