Raptors open to taking older prospects in NBA Draft
The Toronto Raptors aren’t afraid to bet on a bit of experience in this month’s NBA Draft.
In each of their past three drafts, the top player taken by Toronto has been one who exited college before four years. In 2021 and 2023, Toronto took one-and-done freshmen, Scottie Barnes and Gradey Dick, while they took junior Christian Koloko at 33rd overall in 2022.
Toronto will pick 19th overall with a pick obtained from the Pascal Siakam trade with the Indiana Pacers earlier this season, as well as a second-round pick that originally belonged to the Detroit Pistons and is slated to be 31st overall.
But according to Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman, the organization is quite open to potentially taking a four-year college prospect rather than an underclassman.
“There’s just so many players globally that are coming to the game late,” Tolzman said. “They’re picking it up and making these drastic improvements and it’s maybe not as huge of a thing as what it had been maybe 15 years ago. [With older players], it’s just going to become more common on the draft nowadays with so many players deciding to go back to school for a year or two longer. The argument that players are too old to be first-round picks, I kind of feel like that’s going out the window nowadays.”
For some numbers to back up Tolzman’s thoughts, 15 of the 58 projected picks in this year’s draft from ESPN’s recent mock draft are either 22 or 23 years old.
One recent example of a four-year college player who stepped into the NBA as a mid-round pick was Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr., who spent four years at UCLA before being taken 18th overall last season.
While the four other players on the NBA’s All-Rookie team spent two years or less in college (Victor Wembanyama played professionally in France), Jaquez Jr. opted to stay for four years in the NCAA.
On Tuesday, the Raptors hosted a six-player pre-draft workout at OVO Athletic Centre, headlined by Toronto native and two-time NCAA Player of the Year Zach Edey, who spent four years at Purdue.
“He seems to be playing with a lot more confidence,” Tolzman said of Edey. “And I think that’s from years of success and college and I mean, having one of the greatest careers in college history like it’s hard to not step on the floor with confidence nowadays… Skill-wise, game-wise, it’s kind of been the progression of him as a player, as I would say, somewhat as expected, just with the amount of work that he’s put into it.”
The NBA Draft is set for June 26 and 27 in Brooklyn, New York.
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