Balls don’t fall Raptors’ way at NBA draft lottery
On the five-year anniversary of the biggest shot in franchise history, the Raptors failed to get the right bounces at the 2024 NBA draft lottery.
Toronto lost a golden chance to add another top prospect on Sunday when the annual ping pong ball draws did not go the team’s way.
Toronto came in with the sixth-best odds of winning the lottery and needed to remain in the top six for June’s draft in order to retain its pick, but ended up falling down to eight, meaning San Antonio gets the pick thanks to the Jakob Poeltl trade 15 months ago. Despite a poor 25-48 record, Toronto had just a 45.8 per cent chance of keeping the pick since all it took was one team behind them to make a leap. Atlanta, with just 3 per cent odds, leapt to first from 10th, while Brooklyn, with 5.2 per cent odds of jumping, also rose, from ninth to third (that pick goes to Houston thanks to the Ben Simmons for James Harden trade).
Since the NBA changed its lottery format in 2019, at least one team has moved up four out of five times, including Toronto in 2021 to land Scottie Barnes, who represented the club on stage on Sunday.
When the season ended, Raptors president Masai Ujiri said the team would be fine with whatever scenario played out on Sunday.
“Any way it goes, we will be grateful, we’ll be happy. If we’re not in the top six, we have our pick next year; if we are in the top six, you go out and find the best guy or find whatever transaction there is to make the best use out of it,” Ujiri said.
“I don’t go into any situation in the NBA draft or free agency thinking negative … about it. You do the best, try to win it, whether it’s a pick, whether it’s a transaction, anything you do you are trying to do the best. That’s what we do here in Toronto to get back on track.”
Ujiri could be right. It’s not the worst news, as losing the selection actually opens up a number of possibilities for the front office. For one, stinking next season is a viable option, since the pick has been conveyed. Also, 2025 is seen as a far better draft class, led by Duke’s Cooper Flagg. That wouldn’t have been the case if the Spurs were still owed a top-six protected pick. Toronto won’t have to worry about losing out on a better prospect than what might have been possible this season and won’t have to panic if injuries pile up again as they did in 2023-24. The pick will be theirs next summer no matter what. Plus the club didn’t really want to add two more first-rounders, along with whoever is taken at 31, to an already young group. Some pundits don’t see much of a difference between the sixthbest prospect in this group and the 19th (where Toronto will select via the Pascal Siakam trade with Indiana).
The team also will have about $6 million more in flexibility this off-season by not having to pay a No. 6 selection (let alone the $8-10 million it would have owed a top-three pick).
With decisions to be made on the likes of Gary Trent Jr. and Bruce Brown, that could come into play.
Poeltl was selected No. 9 in the 2016 draft by the Raptors and was a key part of the Kawhi Leonard deal before being reacquired.