Raptors open to draft-day dealing
GM may be fine with picking 20th, but admits team took step back and moves need to be made
Reading between the lines, Masai Ujiri is fine with the 20th pick but he’s certainly not married to it.
The Toronto Raptors GM and his staff finished up what is expected to be their final round of workouts with NBA prospects for the upcoming draft, although Ujiri did leave the door open for another one even as late as draft day itself on Thursday.
“This year there is good depth in the draft,” Ujiri said.
“We feel comfortable we will get a player but also we might move the pick or we might move up or down. There’s lots of flexibility this year. We are confident we will get a young player. The strategy now is to pick the best available pending what deals come to us or what deals we make.”
Moving the pick as part of a package to improve the roster appears the most likely if the Raptors choose that route. Ujiri, while confident he can get a player he can eventually move into the rotation, doesn’t sound like he feels there’s one that can help him as soon as he would like.
Asked if he felt he could get a rotation player with the 20th selection, Ujiri hesitated before answering.
“That one is hard to say quite honestly,” he said. “It also depends on our coach. Sometimes guys come in and they make an impression. Sometimes guys take a longer time. My impression of a rotation player may not translate on the court. But I think all the rookies will all take a bit of time.”
And the way Ujiri spoke of the team he has now, he feels they are already behind, having taken a step back this past year. “We didn’t do so well,” he said. “I messed up a little bit, not a little bit but a lot, maybe even with the composition of the team and how we played and the types of players we had playing around each other. We have evaluated a lot of stuff and maybe we will make a couple of changes here and there, but I think our core still remains the same and we will still give these guys an opportunity to grow.”
Whether that means a new addition via the draft or a more seasoned player coming via a trade, we’ll all find out Thursday.
As it stands now with the Raptors picking 20th, it’s unlikely 7-foot centre Dakari Johnson would be a fit with the Raptors. He is a secondround projected pick and the Raptors do not have one in the second round thanks to the Lou Williams trade.
But things could change and that’s why the Raptors brought the lesserknown Kentucky big man in two days before the draft along with Stanford’s Stefan Nastic, a 6-foot-11 centre who grew up in Thornhill, Ont., and Bowling Green power forward Richaun Holmes.