Raptors expecting plenty of trade offers at NBA Draft

The Toronto Raptors are gearing up for a busy few days.

Tonight, the team — along with 29 other NBA franchises — is getting set for a new two-day format of the NBA Draft, beginning this evening at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

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.

Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman met with the media on Tuesday and spoke of the uncertainty expected at this year’s event, particularly around the team’s second-round pick.

“We’re preparing for the phones being busy leading into that pick, because as we all know, there’s there’s always players that unexpectedly fall to the second round,” Tolzman said of the team’s second-round selection.

One Toronto player who has found his name in frequent trade rumours is Bruce Brown, who came to Toronto via Indiana as part of the Siakam trade.

Brown averaged 9.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 34 games for Toronto, while averaging 26 minutes a night, and has a team option for next season worth $23 million.

With Brown being a key rotation player for the Denver Nuggets on their 2023 title-winning roster, the 27-year-old has shown the ability to rise when it matters most, though he admittedly struggled during his stint in Toronto.

But despite whatever offers may come through for Brown, their picks, or otherwise, Tolzman admitted it’s probably best-case-scenario if Toronto ends up taking a young player with the 31st pick.

“I think we’re leaning towards, of course, keeping the pick. Unless something comes up. We’re preparing, we’re approaching it as if we plan to take that pick,” Tolzman added. “We’ll see what the board looks like. And we can sleep on it and really have meetings the whole morning and rethink the group of players that we’re looking at, as if we’re kind of restarting the draft process.”

The 2024 NBA Draft begins tonight at 8 pm ET, with TSN4 broadcasting the action in Canada.

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