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

[mademan]

Impressed by the ball handling watching him snake a pnr and secondary playmaking. The shooting will come, but i love the activity and ancillary skillset.

Masai did it again guys

[Indeed]

He looks 6’5 on a good day. 6’4 n half is probably his height.

RJ is 6’7 and he looks much taller than Jakobe.

Pretty sure they have the same standing reach, so they may as well be the same height.

Yes, all three Barrett, Agbaji and Walter have similar standing reach, maybe just 0.5' apart.
This is the interesting part with that Agbaji-Barrett-Walter lineup.

[raincityraptors]

For those who watched Walter in college, anyone else notice that he looks bigger?

I still think he is a couple of years away but if he keeps taking strides on his body, I may be wrong about that.

I am really excited to see what he does. The whole time he was at Baylor I thought "this guy is going to be so much better in the NBA game - especially once he has some weight on him."

As much as I love Shead and hoped we would draft him, Walter is the rookie I am most excited to see.

I knew what Shead would be in the NBA and he has not disappointed. He has such a high floor. (He needs to keep working on his shot and limit turnovers)

Walter has such a broad range. He could be a star.

The upside is enticing - a lot like Dick.

After seeing him back in the line up, I can confirm that he looks a lot stronger. He was not getting moved off of his spots as easily as he was in Summer League.

Maybe the time off has really helped him put in the work on his lower body. It was surprising to see him contain well.

For his first start he exceeded all of my expectations. He won his minutes and is doing all of the glue guy things.

I loved seeing him dive on the floor to grab a loose ball and fling it ahead from the ground to start the break.

He is buying in to the system and I am glad to see him get rewarded with minutes.

I expect there to be a lot of inconsistency with his shot - especially as he gets his shoulder right again.

The defense, rebounding and ability to draw fouls (he is ahead of most rookies in that area) should be there.

I am happy to see him move the ball along well and pass too.

He is quite a different player than Dick but it's nice to see he can make a positive impact even when the 3 isn't falling.

We have got a nice mix of guards and wings here.

[Tripod]

Impressed by the ball handling watching him snake a pnr and secondary playmaking. The shooting will come, but i love the activity and ancillary skillset.

Masai did it again guys

Interesting, I was thinking of same thing. He reminded me of RJ keeping his dribble alive thru traffic on the paint.

[Basketball_Jones]

When Gradey comes back who goes to the bench? Certainly not JaKobe!

[RoteSchroder]

When Gradey comes back who goes to the bench? Certainly not JaKobe!

If Ja'Kobe can keep up the defense and contribute offensively, then bench Gradey and use him as a 6th man.

[HangTime]

When Gradey comes back who goes to the bench? Certainly not JaKobe!

If Ja'Kobe can keep up the defense and contribute offensively, then bench Gradey and use him as a 6th man.

I would start both.

Go crazy small, 5 out offence.
IQ/ja'kobe/Gradey/Ochai/Scottie

[C_Money]

When Gradey comes back who goes to the bench? Certainly not JaKobe!

If Ja'Kobe can keep up the defense and contribute offensively, then bench Gradey and use him as a 6th man.

We badly need Gradey’s shooting in the starting lineup.

[ItsDanger]

Getting invaluable experience in these games as a starter. Don't think he reaches his upside until he gets stronger though.

[Psubs]

When Gradey comes back who goes to the bench? Certainly not JaKobe!

If Ja'Kobe can keep up the defense and contribute offensively, then bench Gradey and use him as a 6th man.

I would start both.

Go crazy small, 5 out offence.
IQ/ja'kobe/Gradey/Ochai/Scottie

OKC is doing this with SGA, Dort, Cason Wallace, Jalen Williams and Hartenstein.

[S.W.A.N]

If Ja'Kobe can keep up the defense and contribute offensively, then bench Gradey and use him as a 6th man.

I would start both.

Go crazy small, 5 out offence.
IQ/ja'kobe/Gradey/Ochai/Scottie

OKC is doing this with SGA, Dort, Cason Wallace, Jalen Williams and Hartenstein.

OKC lineup is more like IQ, Jakobe, Ochai, Bruce Brown and Yak. I'd run that as a bench unit.

[ArthurVandelay]

Was indifferent on this pick

Really starting to appreciate Ja’Kobe

[MEDIC]

Was indifferent on this pick

Really starting to appreciate Ja’Kobe

Same here. I didn't see much in his Baylor film that excited me.

Now I am seeing a guy who has a decent handle, is super aggressive & physical, is pretty fast/ athletic, has pretty fast feet and active hands on defense & looks very confident when he is on the floor. Pretty impressive for a rookie who has barely played. He is miles ahead of where Gradey was last season.

This is also a guy who has a reputation of being a shooter & we haven't even seen that part of his game develop yet.

The youth depth that we have is pretty insane. Either one or two of them steps up as an allstar level player, or if a few of them look like high end role players, we can package them for a legit allstar down the road. It's a great position to be in.

I am hoping this group simply steps up & the growth comes organically. Its going to be fun to watch.

[mtcan]

I was expecting a Gary Trent Jr clone when Ja'kobe was drafted but the movement and passing has changed my mind.

[AkelaLoneWolf]

Was indifferent on this pick

Really starting to appreciate Ja’Kobe

Same here. I didn't see much in his Baylor film that excited me.

Now I am seeing a guy who has a decent handle, is super aggressive & physical, is pretty fast/ athletic, has pretty fast feet and active hands on defense & looks very confident when he is on the floor. Pretty impressive for a rookie who has barely played. He is miles ahead of where Gradey was last season.

This is also a guy who has a reputation of being a shooter & we haven't even seen that part of his game develop yet.

The youth depth that we have is pretty insane. Either one or two of them steps up as an allstar level player, or if a few of them look like high end role players, we can package them for a legit allstar down the road. It's a great position to be in.

I am hoping this group simply steps up & the growth comes organically. Its going to be fun to watch.

It’s crazy that Masai has hit on all of his draft picks and signees. He has probably accelerated the rebuild by a couple of year. Hopefully Shead mogbo Walter dick agbagi battle are here for years to come. I’m exited to see what chomche can contribute also

[HumbleRen]

Hopefully his shooting shows up. He would easily be averaging above 10 ppg rn if he made like 38% of his 3’s.

[aminiaturebuddha]

Hopefully his shooting shows up. He would easily be averaging above 10 ppg rn if he made like 38% of his 3’s.

In his game recap Youtube thing that he does for Raptors Republic, Esfandiar Baraheni noted that he's not concerned about Ja'Kobe's shooting because he's seen him go shot for shot in practice with Gradey a few times.

And later in the comments he specified that they'll do around the horn drills shooting from every spot beyond the arc, and they're both usually over 80% (which is kind of what you want from very good shooters in practice).

I think he just needs to add a bit of strength, and get used to the speed of the NBA game and the slightly farther line and he'll be fine.

[Ell Curry]

Was indifferent on this pick

Really starting to appreciate Ja’Kobe

Same here. I didn't see much in his Baylor film that excited me.

Now I am seeing a guy who has a decent handle, is super aggressive & physical, is pretty fast/ athletic, has pretty fast feet and active hands on defense & looks very confident when he is on the floor. Pretty impressive for a rookie who has barely played. He is miles ahead of where Gradey was last season.

This is also a guy who has a reputation of being a shooter & we haven't even seen that part of his game develop yet.

The youth depth that we have is pretty insane. Either one or two of them steps up as an allstar level player, or if a few of them look like high end role players, we can package them for a legit allstar down the road. It's a great position to be in.

I am hoping this group simply steps up & the growth comes organically. Its going to be fun to watch.

I was kinda thinking Malik Beasley with average defence, which is a solid 7th or 8th man.

My guess is that the front office had him really high coming into the season (he was 9th on 247, so maybe they had him as high as top 5) and went with that evaluation rather than say hoping Ryan Dunn could develop a jumper or Holmes or Filipowski could survive as a smallball 5 backup kinda Mo Wagner type to replace Olynyk long-term as the shooting 5 off the bench that would go nicely with Scottie (and it turns out Mogbo, though obviously they probably weren't locked into picking him yet or he could have gone).

[MEDIC]

It’s crazy that Masai has hit on all of his draft picks and signees. He has probably accelerated the rebuild by a couple of year. Hopefully Shead mogbo Walter dick agbagi battle are here for years to come. I’m exited to see what chomche can contribute also

Yup. And to tell you the truth, I have no idea what the ceiling is for most of these young guys. I see a pretty good floor, but honestly I couldn't tell you what Mogbo, Walter or Chomche's game is going to look like in 3-4 years. If someone suggested that any one of them would be allstar level, I couldn't refute that. I think they all have that potential.

I think we see where Gradey's game is going. It's just a matter of how elite he will become at the skills that he has. . He could be an allstar level player.

Even Shead could become a starting level PG. His 3 point shooting already looks like it is improving.

Scottie, IQ & RJ will continue to.master their craft as well.

This doesn't even include future draft picks. The cupboard went from very bare to very full quicky.

[MEDIC]

Walter looks like what we hoped GTJ would develop into.

Rich man's GTJ in his rookie year? I'll take that.