Drafting virtually in the dark might give Raptors an edge
Club has a knack for finding gems, and did legwork before pandemic
This is the strangest NBA draft process ever, and that might fit right into the Raptors’ wheelhouse.
A franchise that has proven it can make astute picks anywhere in the draft — first round, second round, adding undrafted gems a day or two after it unfolds — would seem to be uniquely able to deal with this year’s bizarre process.
To say the preparation for the Nov. 18 draft — the Raptors have the 29th pick — has been unusual is an understatement. There was no one-stop NBA combine for prospects, individual workouts have been curtailed by league edict because of the raging pandemic, and it’s been difficult for teams to track potential picks for the past seven or eight months.
But there’s something about the Raptors — who got Pascal Siakam with the 27th pick, Norm Powell with the 46th, OG Anunoby with the 23rd and Fred VanVleet after the draft was complete — that may stand them in good stead.
“I think that we’re a front office that spends a lot of time digging in on guys throughout the entire season, not just during the pre-draft,” said Dan Tolzman, Toronto’s assistant general manager and vicepresident of player personnel. “So a lot of the work we’ve done, it happened earlier in the year while the games were still going on. So we feel pretty comfortable with where things were at when everything got changed. I think it’s going to come down to trusting in our gut feeling in some of these players.”
Trusting your gut is going to be the order of the day around the league in many instances. Teams have not had the upclose-and-personal contact with prospects that they had in previous years, and that can’t be discounted. Seeing players shooting, dribbling, passing and defending in workouts and three-on-three sessions is vital, but so too is getting to know them away from the court.
The dinners after workouts, the interviews at the draft combine and the chance to get a feel for how someone might fit are gone for the most part this year.
“We’re still getting some one-on-one time — we’re doing a lot of Zoom interviews —(but) of course, it doesn’t recreate the interpersonal discussions,” Tolzman said. “We’re doing our best to at least get to know them through those sorts of interviews, but then also reaching out and talking to people within their circles to just kind of learn as much as we can.”
The process certainly is different than it’s ever been and that opens up a raft of possibilities for every team, not just the Raptors. It has deepened the pool considerably.
“We feel pretty confident that we could be looking at 50 different players maybe just for that one (No. 29) pick, because we have really no idea who could go at the 20 picks in front of that pick, or the 20 picks after, and it’ll be anywhere in between,” Tolzman said. “We have interest in guys in that whole range, because there’s a lot of uncertainty just because of the typical draft process not being the same.”
Maybe the best thing going for the Raptors is that they have a variety of roster areas that could be addressed through the draft.
They would seem to need immediate help in the frontcourt, where Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol are no longer under contract and Chris Boucher is a restricted free agent.
But they also have only one point guard under contract —
Kyle Lowry — and could use some insurance against VanVleet leaving as a free agent, or a young player to groom for a couple of years down the road.
It will allow them to do what they’ve historically done: Take who they feel is the best player available, rather than attacking the draft with the intention of filling one specific position.
“We try to never base our draft decisions on what may or may not happen in free agency any year, so just the fact that this is happening in November — let alone June and July as usual — that doesn’t really change anything,” Tolzman said. “But I think everyone’s pretty well aware we have a larger than usual free agency class, and it is something that we’ll address when free agency comes. So we’re going to tackle the draft like we always do, and take it from there.”