Raptors do without live visits from potential recruits as NBA draft approaches

Any other season would have the Toronto Raptors’ getting to know potential draft picks over intimate dinners in Toronto. They’d be showing them around the city. They’d be seeing how they take direction in on-court drills at OVO Athletic Centre.

But on the heels of a season unlike any other in history, next month’s NBA draft presents unique challenges for the Raptors. With the travel restrictions around COVID-19, the Raptors haven’t had the opportunity to bring players into their training facility in Toronto.

“It’s very different than what we’re used to, I can tell you that,” Dan Tolzman, the team’s assistant GM and vice-president of player development, said Wednesday.

The Raptors have the No. 29 and 59 picks in a Nov. 18 draft that Tolzman called “very balanced.”

And with the global shift to virtual meetings amid the pandemic, most of their pre-draft work is happening online through extensive film work, discussions as a staff and background digging, Tolzman said.

“We are doing what we can within the guidelines that the league has given us, and we’re making the best of it,”

Tolzman said. “It seems like forever since we’ve seen these players.”

While March Madness was cancelled, the Raptors had been closely studying draft prospects before that.

“So we feel pretty comfortable with where things were at when everything got changed,” he said. “I think it’s going to come down to trusting in our gut feeling in some of these players.”

The one-on-one interaction is a loss. “We value the visits that the players usually come up to Toronto and get to know them in person. And honestly, it’s a really good opportunity to sell the city, too, to a lot of these guys who have never been out of the country or especially to Toronto.”