Everything 2024 Draft

[TrueTorontoFan]

I mean Gradey is a "role" player too. Teams would be lucky to draft a role player that sticks in the NBA. If you want to draft an all-star caliber player that's usually the pipe dream. It doesn't always pan out. But we were able to turn guys into all-stars that didn't show that potential when they got here. Like Pascal and Fred for example. Norm wasn't an all-star but was basically a 6MOY type. OG is role player, but all-defense.

Flynn was a bust. I recognized that he didn't pan out and was a failure. But every other player (besides Bruno who was a huge reach) was a success. We should believe in our front office when it comes to drafting. I know most are disappointed in them, but they've still been great at drafting. Scottie, Christian and Gradey have all shown that.

I don't know why people are overlooking how good our front office is with the draft. They have a stellar record. I bet they find someone great, even in a so called weak draft. And they get potentially 3 kicks at the can too this summer.

gradey has much higher upside than a role player though. You can see he has already flashed 3 level scoring potential and as long as he defends at an above averaege rate there is a lot of things he can do.



In terms of our front office and drafting. I am neutral. There are some bad ones and good ones. I think developmentally we have tried to get too many high ceiling low floor players who are out right... raw. I dont want raw players. Gradey is the highest skill floored prospect we have ever drafted.. how sad is that. That isn't shade against Gradey either ... instead its what we have focused on.. we thought we could teach anyone how to play but when the developmental run way has so long to go to get to a functional level you waste two years. Ryan dunn is a good example. He could be something great but he needs the right developmental situation to get it out of him because his offense is pretty subpar.





OG is an elite role player but realistically came in during a different era where the overall team was better giving you more runway to give guys shots...


we have drafted guys who don't have a ton of skill barnes included.

[Primer]

What's a "solid" nba player? And you don't think Masai/Tolzman will find one? And why not?

If we get guys who stick in the league for 5+ years at every pick I'll be pleasantly surprised. If we get more than 1 starting caliber player I will be pleasantly surprised. If we don't keep our top 6 pick I don't think we'll get a starting caliber player out of this draft.

[Primer]

Smart move on his part.

For real. Weak draft where you could make a case he goes number 1. Way better than waiting until next year and fighting for a lotto spot.

[3inthekeon]

gradey has much higher upside than a role player though. You can see he has already flashed 3 level scoring potential and as long as he defends at an above averaege rate there is a lot of things he can do.



In terms of our front office and drafting. I am neutral. There are some bad ones and good ones. I think developmentally we have tried to get too many high ceiling low floor players who are out right... raw. I dont want raw players. Gradey is the highest skill floored prospect we have ever drafted.. how sad is that. That isn't shade against Gradey either ... instead its what we have focused on.. we thought we could teach anyone how to play but when the developmental run way has so long to go to get to a functional level you waste two years. Ryan dunn is a good example. He could be something great but he needs the right developmental situation to get it out of him because his offense is pretty subpar.





OG is an elite role player but realistically came in during a different era where the overall team was better giving you more runway to give guys shots...


we have drafted guys who don't have a ton of skill barnes included.

Nope. Other than Barnes, we've only drafted top 10 once and took the highest floor player on the board. Delon was a high floor player, and he went 20th, which outside Scottie, Yak and Gradey is the highest the Raps have drafted in 10 years. Don't know how much skill floor you expect drafting 20th and beyond.

[golden]

lol. I'm 100% convinced you just made this up to make yourself seem like the smartest guy in the room in order to win your argument with Primer.

lol. Sorry to disappoint, but I've lived the life and have battle scars to prove it. I'm a serial entrepreneur/founder who finally learned how to get out of his own way and hire people who actually know how to scale companies through the growth phase. What I conveniently did not mention was that we made a lot of hiring mistakes, so I've had to fire a bunch of people too. Firing CEOs and removing board members is especially unpleasant business.

[planetmars]

If we get guys who stick in the league for 5+ years at every pick I'll be pleasantly surprised. If we get more than 1 starting caliber player I will be pleasantly surprised. If we don't keep our top 6 pick I don't think we'll get a starting caliber player out of this draft.

I'm glad you didn't say all-star or super star. I think we could easily draft a guy like Gary or Ochai in the 15-30 range in this draft. And those two are starting caliber players.

[golden]

Great article on young Boban (2018) and why he can't get more minutes, despite being the most efficient scorer in the NBA. Sounds a lot like the Edey draft discussions, that are hot & heavy right now.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-on-the-bench/

DETROIT — What if I told you that in today’s stats-obsessed league — where everything, including the arc of a shooter’s jump shot and the length of a player’s stride, can be spliced and measured — perhaps the most efficient scorer in modern NBA history couldn’t get off the bench most nights?

That’s the reality for 7-foot-3 Pistons center Boban Marjanovic, who scores with unprecedented efficiency when he is on the court.1 Among players who’ve averaged 30 points per 100 possessions and played in at least 100 regular-season games, no player has been able to match Marjanovic in points per shot attempt, and those who have come closest are either already in the Hall of Fame or likely will be one day. He also currently leads the NBA2 by a wide margin in points per touch, according to data from Second Spectrum

Still, even with that sort of offensive firepower, the Heat — who drilled 17 threes, tied for the most Detroit’s allowed all season — were able to chase Boban off the floor whenever they downsized by playing Kelly Olynyk at center. In fact, Olynyk reeled off eight consecutive points to put Miami on an 8-0 run within two minutes of that shift; the run prompted Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy to call time and subsequently limit Marjanovic’s minutes to whenever Olynyk wasn’t playing at the 5.

[planetmars]

gradey has much higher upside than a role player though. You can see he has already flashed 3 level scoring potential and as long as he defends at an above averaege rate there is a lot of things he can do.



In terms of our front office and drafting. I am neutral. There are some bad ones and good ones. I think developmentally we have tried to get too many high ceiling low floor players who are out right... raw. I dont want raw players. Gradey is the highest skill floored prospect we have ever drafted.. how sad is that. That isn't shade against Gradey either ... instead its what we have focused on.. we thought we could teach anyone how to play but when the developmental run way has so long to go to get to a functional level you waste two years. Ryan dunn is a good example. He could be something great but he needs the right developmental situation to get it out of him because his offense is pretty subpar.





OG is an elite role player but realistically came in during a different era where the overall team was better giving you more runway to give guys shots...


we have drafted guys who don't have a ton of skill barnes included.

Masai has only had two top 10 picks. Either way if you did a redraft of every draft Masai was apart of as a Raptor, you will always find his picks were one of the top picks of that class. The only exceptions were with Flynn and Bruno. And we talked in the past about 2nd round failures. Every team misses on those, and multiple times. Any win in the 2nd round is a fluke. Yet he's had success there too with guys like Norm, Koloko and Harris. Dalano is excelling in Portland right now.

Either way why can't there be a Gradey Dick type of talent in this draft? There are guys in this draft that flash 3 level scoring.

And what do you mean by not drafting any type of skill? What skills? You have to be pretty specific here. Like shooting? Dribbling? Passing? Rebounding? I mean what do you mean by skills? It's rare to find the perfect athlete.. and when you do they usually go #1 overalll.

Ryan Dunn is an elite defensive wing in college. Is he more than that? Who knows.. but he has skills. A guy averaging 3.5 stocks a game as a wing has skills. But because of his offense being limited it means he could end up as a second rounder. And that's a decision teams will make during the draft. Teams need to figure out what skills need priority over others.. and which kids show promise so that they can learn other skills.

We asked OG to guard the best player on the other team as a rookie and he took that challenge and got better at it. That's part of development. And it doesn't matter if the team was better or not. He could have been stapled to the bench. But Dwayne had him out there guarding Lebron in the playoffs.

[Kagemusha]

Great article on young Boban (2018) and why he can't get more minutes, despite being the most efficient scorer in the NBA. Sounds a lot like the Edey draft discussions, that are hot & heavy right now.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-on-the-bench/

My fear exactly.
Edey does not even fit in Darko's system where players constantly move around.
Is he suddenly going to change that style to accommodate a slow rookie?
Not a chance.

[G______Deane]

Masai should be fired for choosing the wrong year to be bad.

He's not even good at being bad

[Primer]

I'm glad you didn't say all-star or super star. I think we could easily draft a guy like Gary or Ochai in the 15-30 range in this draft. And those two are starting caliber players.

It's certainly possible but odds are a lot lower this year than any other year.

[planetmars]

It's certainly possible but odds are a lot lower this year than any other year.

How do you know that? The top part of this draft is what's considered "weak". Not the entire draft class. I've watched some NCAA games. I've seen some draft profiles. Its the same as any other year. If you want to focus on who will be an all-star and only that, then yeah maybe be disappointed. But we're not doing that. We're talking about role players who can be starters. Lots of those in this draft.

[golden]

My fear exactly.
Edey does not even fit in Darko's system where players constantly move around.
Is he suddenly going to change that style to accommodate a slow rookie?
Not a chance.

Good thing is that Raptors already have the Edey Stopper.

[Primer]

How do you know that? The top part of this draft is what's considered "weak". Not the entire draft class. I've watched some NCAA games. I've seen some draft profiles. Its the same as any other year. If you want to focus on who will be an all-star and only that, then yeah maybe be disappointed. But we're not doing that. We're talking about role players who can be starters. Lots of those in this draft.

The whole class is weak, not just the top, top to bottom. Once again sticking your head in the sand and pretending this draft is just as good as any other. That's fine, we gotta cope with the fact we have lots of picks this year and admitting its a bad draft makes that a tough pill to swallow.

I'll be disappointed if we don't get a top 6 pick this year, but not that disappointed because I'd love to have a pick next year.

[planetmars]

The whole class is weak, not just the top, top to bottom. Once again sticking your head in the sand and pretending this draft is just as good as any other. That's fine, we gotta cope with the fact we have lots of picks this year and admitting its a bad draft makes that a tough pill to swallow.

I sure hope you're not sticking by a single anonymous quote. Because if you are that's super funny. I've actually watched some videos and seen the profiles.. and I've been doing that for years now. So I can do the comparison myself. Is this weaker than 2020? That was a really hard year to judge because of covid. But we can see all these guys play right now.

What makes it weak is that there are no sure fire #1 players. It's an interesting draft because guys are mocked all over and those mocks change constantly. But it's not really weak. Just different. And no I'm not just saying that because we have multiple picks. I'm saying that because I'm doing my homework.

There are at least 10-12 guys that I like and I have even done a deep, deep dive which I will do in May/June when we have an idea as to where we pick. There are some really good big men. Guys that can shoot. Some really good defenders. Good point guards. It's lacking in wings. And there are no big stars potentially. But the class is pretty deep. Teams in the playoffs will likely get a good player out of this draft as guys slip and fall.