LY: RAPTORS NBA DRAFT PREVIEW

By: Allan Ly
RP Show Intern

The NBA Draft is on July 29, and the Toronto Raptors will have a hard decision to make, and that is to either win now or think about the future.  

If they think about winning now, the Raptors can sign Kyle Lowry to an extension and use their fourth pick in this year’s NBA Draft to trade for another star. 

However, they also could use their fourth pick to draft a new star which will start a new chapter for the Raptors. 

Two guys that could be available for the Raptors are Gonzaga’s point guard Jalen Suggs and Florida State forward Scottie Barnes. According to Kyle Irving from NBA.com, he got the Raptors taking Suggs fourth and the Orlando Magic taking Barnes with the fifth pick with his mock draft. 

With Suggs, you’re getting a dangerous scorer; while in college for his freshman season, he played 30 games and scored 14 points per game and dished out five assists per game. 

According to some experts like Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, he described Suggs’ game with the shades of “Brandon Roy, Chauncey Billups and Jamal Murray.” 

Barnes is a forward from Florida State wherein his only season, he played 24 games and scored 11 points per game and dished out four assists per game. 

For Barnes’s pro comparison, O’Connor said Barnes’ game has shades of “Draymond Green, Pascal Siakam, and a bulkier and taller version of Michael Carter-Williams.” 

Out of the two players, I would like the Raptors to select Jalen Suggs over Scottie Barnes because I think he could be a good successor for Kyle Lowry. 

If they selected Barnes, he would have to fight for minutes with already established Raptors in Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby.  

Yes, Suggs would have to do the same with Lowry; however, Lowry is older at 35 years, and Suggs would have a better chance to play than Barnes with Siakam and Anunoby, who are 27 and 24 years old. 

The Toronto Raptors have an interesting history with former draft picks where some were great while others were head-scratchers.  

2016 /17 was a good year for the Raptors, where they took Pascal Siakam with the 27 pick and Anunoby with the 23 pick in the following draft. 

Both players are crucial to the Raptors organization, and during the last season, Anunoby had a career year with 16 points per game.  

One of the Raptors picks that did not do well was in 2006 when they selected Andrea Bargnani with the first pick.  

Bargnani’s best season came in 2010-11 when he averaged 21 points per game and grabbed five rebounds per game.  

Seasons after Bargnani never cracked 20 points per game while the person who was selected after him, named LaMarcus Aldridge, had a much better career.  

Aldridge recently retired with the Brooklyn Nets and his best season came in the 2014 season, where he averaged 23 points per game and grabbed ten rebounds.  

Unlike Bargnani, who only managed to crack 20 ppg once, Aldridge did it seven times in his career, which was split between the Portland Trailblazers and the San Antonio Spurs.  

The one thing that I advise the Raptors not to do is to take another Bruno Caboclo.  

The year was 2014, and the Raptors took Caboclo with the 20th pick, and the pick became famous because of a sound bite from ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla, who described Caboclo being “two years away from being two years away.”  

Caboclo’s best year with the Raptors was when he averaged 2 points per game and his best year overall was with Memphis, where he averaged eight points per game.  

The Raptors missed out on recent MVP Nikola Jokic, who was selected in the second round with the 41st pick in the 2014 draft by the Denver Nuggets.  

The NBA Draft can not come here any sooner, and I am excited for what will happen with the Toronto Raptors.  

(Follow Allan Ly on Twitter at @AllanTheIntern)