Ahead of the first round of the draft, assistant general manager Dan Tolzman said Monday there are cases to be made for both keeping and trading the ninth overall pick.
“There’s definitely interest in people trying to get our pick. It’s an interesting group of players around there and so I wouldn’t say it’s any percentage chance we do one or the other, but there’s definitely conversations being had of teams trying to get into the top 10 for the same reason as we like being here right now,” Tolzman told media at the OVO Athletic Centre in Toronto.
For the second straight year, the NBA Draft will be split into two days, with the first round going Wednesday and the second round Thursday from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Live coverage of the first round will be available at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
After a 30-52 season, the Raptors entered May’s draft lottery with the seventh-best odds of landing the No. 1 pick. But they fell two spots to No. 9 as the Dallas Mavericks earned the top choice despite just a 1.8 per cent chance.
And so instead of the right to make the surefire top selection in Duke’s Cooper Flagg, the Raptors — whose mid-season trade for Brandon Ingram indicated an appetite to end their rebuild — are faced with options.
Tolzman said he likes the players who could be available to the Raptors.
“I think this is a very strong draft. I think it’s maybe a little deeper just in terms of guys who can come in and impact right away,” he said.
If the Raptors do keep their pick, the player would join a core including all-star Scottie Barnes, Ingram, point guard Immanuel Quickley and centre Jakob Poeltl, who Sportsnet’s Michael Grange said the team was unwilling to include in a potential Kevin Durant deal.
Toronto also boasts a pair of recent first-round picks from 2023 (Gradey Dick, No. 13) and 2024 (Ja’Kobe Walter, No. 19).
“I would say it’s a range that we like a lot and we felt pretty good about last year and I felt we got a pretty good one in Ja’Kobe in a similar range,” Tolzman said.
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