Raptors trust their draft process
Team mocks convention by focusing on finding prospects with skills it can develop
Adam Silver will approach a virtual podium on Wednesday night, stare into the camera and could very well say: “With the 29th pick in the 2020 NBA draft, the Toronto Raptors select someone you least expected.”
And eventually, the seemingly out-ofnowhere pick will likely work out well for the franchise whose success has been mainly the result of astute, if sometimes unconventional, drafting.
Trying to handicap this year’s draft — at least at the end of the first round, when the Raptors have the 29th pick, and the end of the second, when they have the 59th — is a mug’s game. Dan
Tolzman, the team’s assistant general manager and vice-president of player personnel, said early in the process that he could see a group of 50 possibilities for the first-round pick alone.
That list has undoubtedly been narrowed to a more manageable number, but there will still be a vast array of players available.
It’s easy to say the Raptors should look for a big man to develop — there is a chance all three of last year’s centres (Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka and Chris Boucher) could leave as a free agents — but it’s not like Tolzman, president Masai Ujiri and GM Bobby Webster ever do the conventional.
So there is every reason to expect the two immediate reactions to their selections Wednesday night will be “who?” and “why?” Look at their last five drafts:
> Dewan Hernandez, who hadn’t played the entire season before being taken 59th.
> OG Anunoby, who was recovering from reconstructive ACL surgery when the Raptors selected him.
> Austrian big man Jakob Poeltl, whose skills were still in the raw stage.
> Unproven Cameroonian forward Pascal Siakam out of slightly regarded New Mexico State, who turned into an NBA all-star in just four seasons.
> Four-year collegian Delon Wright, who was good enough to be included in the trade package that yielded Gasol as the final piece of a championship team.
You could comb through every mock draft ever published worldwide for those years and never come up with that parlay.
Empirical data is taken into consideration — size, speed, quantifiable athletic skills — but the Raptors tend to find the right people, not just the right players.
“I think you’re trying to look for some unique characteristics of what they’re bringing to the table,” said Jama Mahlalela, head coach of the G League Raptors 905 and the team’s skills development guru.
“I think we all know the NBA season is
a really long season and it’s a grind more than it is a race. And I think finding people who can work their way through the grind and find a way to persevere through some adversity are things you’re starting to look at, and qualities that you want to have in your system — players that can find a way to succeed.”
That’s the trick to the Raptors’ drafting process, it seems. They don’t pay any attention to form charts or other rankings. They identify players who have skills they can develop. They look for intelligent young men willing to work. They trust their own process. It seems to have worked. “I think in the last few years it has been a little easier when you are looking talent vs. talent and … (when two prospects) are really, really talented, you can kind of rely on fit a little more than you have in the past,” said Patrick Engelbrecht, the Raptors’ director of global scouting. “Because you know what style of basketball we are going to play, what brand of basketball we are going to play, and sort of how Nick (Nurse, head coach) can manipulate a guy’s skills to get the most out of him. So I think with that, that has been a little bit of a competitive advantage.”
The process this year has been odd, to say the least.
The draft is taking place about five months later than it normally would, and no one has seen a five-on-five game involving prospects since the pandemic-induced shutdown of college basketball in March. It’s a conundrum that might be dangerous: Teams have to guard against paralysis by analysis, and not be either talked out of something because of all the extra time they’ve had or talked into something for the same reason.
The entire Raptors braintrust will have seen all the prospects over the seasons with databases; they will have had a chance to do all the due diligence into backgrounds that they could possibly want or need.
Now it’s time to trust their work.
“I will say because we’ve had more time than we’ve ever had for any other draft, like we’ve been at this for a long time … some of these guys, they’ve been on our boards for a very long time,” Mahlalela said.
“I think because of that, you get to know every little detail about them as much as you can virtually and in other ways. So I think we understand them a little more, but I’m not sure that makes the choice any easier.”