Raptors make Jonathan Mogbo their second pick of the 2024 NBA Draft

The Toronto Raptors have added another player to the organization.

The franchise added 6-foot-8 power forward Jonathan Mogbo with the 31st overall pick, a selection that originally belonged to the Detroit Pistons, as per The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Mogbo, who grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida and is a longtime friend of Toronto franchise cornerstone Scottie Barnes, played for four college teams in four years: the Independence CC Pirates, the Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Golden Norsemen, the Missouri State Bears, and the San Francisco Dons.

Barnes himself was actually at Mogbo’s draft party on the day.

Scottie Barnes is already very close with Jonathan Mogbo. Barnes just uploaded that he was at his draft party when Mogbo was taken by the #Raptors pic.twitter.com/1W0Y49tbS9

— Adam Laskaris (@adam_la2karis) June 27, 2024

In his final year of college, he averaged 14.2 points and a conference-high 10.1 rebounds per game while with San Francisco.

Toronto passed up on the opportunity to draft LeBron “Bronny” James Jr., who put his name into the draft process after one season at USC.

The Raptors aren’t done for the day yet, though, having also reportedly made a trade earlier with a Western Conference opponent.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Raptors are in agreement with the Sacramento Kings on a deal, sending Jalen McDaniels to the Western Conference in exchange for the 45th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, Portland’s 2025 second-round pick, Davion Mitchell, and Alexander “Sasha” Vezenkov.

On Wednesday night, the Raptors made their pick at 19th overall, selecting Ja’Kobe Walter from Baylor, the same school as Mitchell.

As it stands, the Raptors will be adding three new young players prior to next season. The team finished 12th in the Eastern Conference this past season with a 27-45 record, finishing out of the playoffs for the third time in the past four years.

“I think rather than complain about this generation, I think we have to figure out ways to be better at relating to them,” Raptors president Ujiri said in response to a question asked by Daily Hive at his end-of-season media availability. “We have to be innovating and seeing where the world is going with social media, our phones, all of the things that we feel affect this life now, so is it easier [than when I started in the NBA]? I think there are challenges to it.”

Up next after the draft is free agency, which officially opens on July 6, though teams can begin negotiating deals with their players on June 30.

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