Unfortunately due to the results of the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery, the Toronto Raptors lost their first-round pick to the San Antonio Spurs.
After embracing a rebuild this past season, Toronto had their sights set on continuing to add young talent. With the core set with Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett, finding complementary role players is next up.
While the Raptors are out of the lottery, they still have the No. 19 pick via the Indiana Pacers and No. 31 via the Detroit Pistons.
According to Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo of ESPN, they have Toronto taking Duke’s starting center Kyle Filipowski at 19.
Filipowski is an intriguing prospect, but fits a position of need at backup center. When Jakob Poeltl went down due to injury, Toronto clearly lacked a big body and any kind of rim deterrence.
In his sophomore season with the Blue Devils, the 7’0″ averaged 16.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 30.4 minutes. In contrast to Poeltl, Filipowski can space the floor as he shot 34.8 percent from three-point range.
As the core of Barnes, Quickley and Barrett like to get downhill and apply rim pressure, having a center that can space is a great skillset.
Continuing on, Givony and Woo predicted the Raptors taking Ryan Dunn out of Virginia with their second-round pick at No. 31.
Dunn is a defensive-minded player at 6’8″, who averaged 2.3 blocks a contest. He’s also able to guard on the perimeter, getting 1.3 steals. In addition to running his lane well in transition to get downhill.
It is unfortunate to fall out of the lottery, but an opportunity exists to still add worthwhile talent. As the draft takes place on June 26 and 27, Toronto can continue to evaluate the talent pool and adjust accordingly.
Latest mock draft has Toronto taking Johnny Furphy
A skillset that the Raptors need for their core is surrounding them with shooting. On the latest episode of the Game Theory Podcast, The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie and co-host Bryce Simon had the Raptors taking a shooter at No. 19.
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