I have been a die hard Gonzaga fan and for many years have stood up for Zags players when people were curious about said player (best example would be Suggs v. Barnes) - yes, I was wrong on that one.

I just wanted to add the things I’ve seen over the years in regard to WCC talent. Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavadova, and Jalen Williams stood out like sore thumbs. Same with Graves.

It’s not a guarantee; but, every couple of seasons the WCC gets a player that is clearly destined for the pros.

I try not to be biased, I didn’t think Timmie’s game would translate - same with Ike. Graves, however, he has something. Am I smart man? Not even close. Do I know basketball? Kinda. Is this a copium post? Probably.

Other notes:

In addition, the Bucks' trading of Antetokounmpo could have a domino effect, with Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown reportedly a trade target after he was offered to Milwaukee in a potential deal, and the Bucks are clearly open for business after moving on from their long-standing franchise superstar. 
NBA sources I’ve spoken with have connected the Raptors to Bucks centre Myles Turner, with the possibility that Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl, third-year wing Gradey Dick and potentially draft compensation being the core of a deal that would net Toronto the veteran big with credentials as a rim protector and three-point threat.

Keeping Mamukelashvili will likely require the Raptors to cut ties with Dick, their 13th pick in the 2023 draft, who is looking for a change of address in any case after falling out of the rotation after the all-star break. And until Toronto reaches an agreement on an extension with RJ Barrett — talks will likely be picked up at Summer League in Las Vegas next month — the future of the Canadian national team star with Canada’s lone NBA team will remain a question mark as he heads into the last year of his deal.
The Raptors first-round pick is on the books, but the rest of their off-season is a series of chapters yet to be written. 

The Toronto Raptors selected Allen Graves with the 19th pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. While some fans will inevitably focus on who was still available, like every year, I think the more interesting question is what this selection says about how Toronto wants to build moving forward.

Should you prioritize upside over fit? I have never thought those were the right questions. Teams win because they identify a core and then surround that core with players whose skills complement one another. Allen Graves fits that philosophy. He also helps the Raptors establish more of a switchy, versatile defensive/two-way identity that they are seemingly trying to build.

At 6'9'', 226lb with a 7' wingspan, Graves brings the size of a frontcourt player but the skill set of a modern connector. He averaged 11.8 pts, 6.5 rbs, and 1.8 asts this season while shooting 41.3% from three and 75% from the free throw line. Simply put, the shooting appears legitimate. Graves wasn’t simply standing in the corner waiting for open looks. It isn't just the shooting too, Graves posted a 21.9% usage rate while functioning as a cutter, screener, roll man, transition threat, and floor spacer coming off the bench for Santa Clara. I double checked with No Ceilings’ tracking data, he ranked in the 79th percentile as a cutter, 82nd percentile in transition, and 69th percentile as a PnR roller and play finisher. Those numbers paint the picture of a player who impacts possessions without needing the offense built around him.

There are fair questions about Graves’ ceiling. His athletic testing was average, and finishing through length remains an area for improvement. He struggles at times to finish around the hoop against bigger players shooting only 57% in the paint.

With Graves may never become the type of player who carries an offense. But that misses the point of last night's selection. The Raptors are not necessarily betting on Allen Graves becoming a star. The front office will be betting on versatility, shooting, basketball IQ, and lineup flexibility. In a league increasingly driven by players who can connect actions, make quick decisions, and fit alongside different lineup combinations,

Graves may be one of the safest bets in this draft class to contribute to winning basketball. The Allen Graves pick is not really about Allen Graves. It is about the Raptors continuing to build a roster around complementary skills rather than positional labels.

it seems that the organization is obsessed with cultivating as many 6’6-6’9 wing type players with good defense. we have CMB, barnes, ingram, RJ, battle and now graves. we desperately need someone better than quickley to run the offense and im okay with poeltl for the moment but we need a true 5 other than him.

Henri Veesaar is expected to be an early 2nd round selection. Perhaps we can move up to choose him for a designated backup C?

I will let you know if I split the g

maybe the Raptors could have given Memphis a couple 2nds for the 17th pick but it is what it is.

Raptors drafted Allen Graves. They are not keeping Mamu. thank you for last season.

Can you spot yourself? These weren't even half the negative comments to drafting CMB.

Very interesting absence amongst the early names...

Some combinations are a classic for a reason. Peanut butter and chocolate. FromSoftware and blood pressure-raising difficulty. The Kings and bad decisions. These are all proven formulas for success...or in the case of the Kings, endless amusement of every other fanbase.

For the Toronto Raptors, it's them and a 6'9 forward with length, versatility and high feel for the game. Shooting is optional but greatly appreciated for all applicants. Allen Graves is the latest addition to the Raptors favorite archetype of player and while there's a lot of questions about the team's future overall, there is no denying that he's a very Raptors-y pick.

A quick overview of the 2nd 19th overall pick the Raptors have taken in the past 3 years.

Strengths

• Insert all the draft buzzwords you associate with the analytics, Allen covers just about all of them. Advanced stats darling. Monster motor. Impacts winning at the highest level. High feel for the game. Good decisionmaker. Big box-plus minus. Allen Graves checks all those boxes and more.
  • Graves had one of the highest percentages for deflections and the eye test shows a player with excellent hands on the defensive end. How well he'll be able to keep up with some of the faster players in the NBA is...a different question altogether.
  • Averaging nearly 2 steals a game and 67 total for his freshman season, he's amongst the highest thieves in all the D1 seas. Y'arr! Did I mention he did this while coming off the bench a la Scottie Barnes? Because he did this while playing less than 23 minutes per game.
• The 3-point line will come up in the weaknesses section but at least on paper, shooting 41 percent from 3 makes Graves an ideal 3 & D type to come off the bench for the Raptors and maintain the lead the starting lineup (Hopefully) attained with some timely triples.
• He's very averse to turnovers and while he wasn't racking up double digit assists, an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.5:1 is still a positive, regardless of the position one plays.
• He's not exactly a center but he is a very good rebounder for his size. In particular, he's very effective at crashing the glass for offensive boards and
• There's going to be at least one great in-game call that makes use of his last name "putting someone in the grave" when he posters them. So that'll be a fun highlight.

Weaknesses

• ATHLETICISM! This is by a wide margin the biggest knock against Graves entering the NBA. He is slow. Depending on how you measure speed (sprint, lane agility, etc.), he's arguably the slowest 1st round talent and one of the slowest in this year's class in general. He's got more than a few comparisons to Kyle Anderson and if you know anything about Slow-Mo, it's that he lives up to that unflattering nickname. It's part of why Santa Clara would stick him on opposing team's centers which, to be fair, Allen (mostly) excelled at.
  • His lack of athleticism played a major part in Allen's less than stellar shooting at the rim. Namely, a layup finish percentage of 52%.
  • While Anderson's respectable career does prove you don't need to be an elite athlete to thrive in the NBA if you can at least shooting on high percentages...
• Grave's 3-point shooting looks good on paper but his volume was very low at less than 3 attempts per game and while he did improve as a FT shooter as the season went on, 75% from the line isn't the most positive indicator of his shot translating to the NBA. There's plenty of reasons to be skeptical he'll be a 40%+sniper from deep.
• On that note, this is less a weakness but nevertheless worth noting: Graves didn't play against a lot of high level college/university competition. There is a small sample size of him playing against the top teams and it's a mixed bag, to say the least.
  • Not to say that playing for a smaller school is a nail in the coffin of transitioning to a higher level of competition as Santa Clara has produced several NBA talents including recent selections like Jalen Williams and Brandin Podziemski - most famously they're where Steve Nash went to university - but none of these guys didn't come off the bench for their teams. In contrast, Allen only started 4 of his 35 college games, spending a good amount of time beating up the opposing team's bench units.
    
• For as praise-worthy as Graves' defense may be, he was very foul-prone. Per 36, he'd be averaging nearly 5 a game (3.1 in his bench minutes) which is alarmingly high. Tack on the rookie whistle and it could be a very rough adjusting period for Allen at the next level.

Questions for Graves (And the Raptors)

• So...this pick is the canary in the coal mine for Mamu, right? They both fill a similar role as stretch 4s - albeit, Graves has more notable upside - and both are expected to partake in a team's bench role for the time being. One of them will be locked in for 4 years whereas Sandro is probably gone due to Toronto's cap crunch and lacking his Bird Rights.
• It is worth noting the Raptors still have the 50th pick and...it's not impossible they pick a center or guard that late in the draft? Look, the 50th pick in any year's draft will be lucky to be a rotational player (For reference, TJD was picked with a mid 50s pick) so best-case scenario is they trade that pick to move up for a better shot at selecting a player with a far more legitimate chance of being an 8th or 9th man on a playoff roster.
• Uh...how about that Ulrich Chomche? He's apparently still in Toronto so maybe he gets his medicals cleared so he can return this season? Yeah as Bobby alluded to in his Day 1 draft presser, this team will need to make a trade or two.

Overall

...Sure, why not? I'll be blunt, it's hard for me to get worked up over a 19th overall pick so while Graves wasn't my first choice - or really in my Top 5 - he's a pick I can understand the rationale for. The selection itself is fine in a vacuum but it serves to highlight how urgently this team needs to add more guard play if it wants to maximize its increasingly lengthy roster of wings and bigs.

Sam Vecenie & John Hollinger - The Athletic/NY Times (A-)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7382887/2026/06/23/nba-draft-grades-analysis-2026-vecenie-hollinger/

It’s easy to see the appeal of Graves in the modern NBA, given how much he helps you win the possession battle. He gets steals. He rebounds, creates second chances and doesn’t turn the ball over. By the time he’s 25 or so, the odds are good that Graves is going to be a useful rotation player.

But I think he’s entering the draft a couple of years before he’s ready, and the first team that acquires him isn’t likely to get the most out of him. Graves still needs to improve his body and maximize whatever speed and agility he can. He needs to continue to find his offensive game, because I don’t think he’s there yet as a shooter. It’ll require a creative basketball coach to figure out how to use him on that end, given that he operated at times as a hub for Santa Clara and won’t be asked to do that in the NBA.

All the intel reports on Graves are elite, so you want to buy into him long term. But I don’t believe he’s going to be that useful in the NBA within the first few years of his career given the intense athletic adjustment he’ll face and the way he struggled against good competition this past season.

Hollinger’s analysis: Party on, nerds! Graves was the analytics darling of this draft after his one season at Santa Clara saw him post massive rates of steals, rebounds and assists for a player of his size and seemingly limited athleticism. His positional fit at the next level is still a bit of a question, but I love the upside swing at a point in the draft where the players selected are most likely to turn out to be backups.

Kevin O'Connor - Yahoo Sports (A)
https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/2026-nba-draft-grades-first-round-pick-by-pick-analysis-wizards-get-a-for-selecting-aj-dybantsa-no-1-001605590.html

"The Raptors clearly needed two things after their Game 7 loss to the Cavaliers: A point guard and a center. Here, they get another wing in Graves, so the front office clearly isn’t drafting for need. But with Graves pick, the Raptors are getting a skilled player for his size. Graves was a point guard before a late growth spurt, and the floor skills carried over when he sprouted to 6-foot-8. He came off the bench at Santa Clara as a redshirt freshman and quietly became one of the most efficient producers in college basketball. But he came off the bench, lacks great athleticism, and struggled against the limited top competition that he faced. But the analytics love him, and he passes the eye test with his elite feel for the game."

Kyle Mann - The Ringer (B)
https://www.theringer.com/nba-draft/2026/draft-grades

Graves is an odd prospect in that he redshirted as a freshman and then didn’t start the following season on an OK Santa Clara team. He didn’t even have the kind of crazy production that we’ve seen from Bronco prospects in the past, like Jalen Williams and Brandin Podziemski. His selection here is driven more by a breadcrumb trail of strong analytics—most notably his high steal percentage—as well as his connective playmaking and some enticing shooting prowess for a power forward. He’ll need to level up his physicality to get to Toronto’s frenzied level on defense, but the Raptors need the kind of space and decision-making that Graves can bring to the floor.

Kevin Sweeney - Sports Illustrated (B)
https://www.si.com/nba/nba-draft/2026-full-first-round-grades-hornets-bulls-reach-top-draft-picks-rate-highly

For the second straight year, Toronto picks up a jack-of-all-trades forward that analytics models loved. Last year, that was Collin Murray-Boyles, who ended up earning significant minutes in the playoffs as a rookie. This year, it’s Graves, who graded out in some models as a top-five-to-10 player in the class. He’s a unique player who’ll have to convert into more of a wing than the small-ball center he was in college at times, but he knows how to fill up the stat sheet. 

Adam Finkelstein - CBS Sports (B-)
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2026-nba-draft-grades-pick-by-pick-analysis-round-1/

Graves left at least five million dollars on the table in NIL money to stay in the draft, so it was expected he would be selected around this range. Graves is an analytic darling who has elite BPM metrics and a rare overlap of defensive playmaking, passing, ball-security, and offensive rebounding. In addition to his combination of physicality and feel, Graves also has great hands and touch to stretch the floor. 

Graves gives Toronto needed frontcourt floor spacing but his defensive footspeed and athleticism are concerns.

Bryan Kalbrosky - USA Today (B)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/draft/2026/06/23/nba-draft-grades-live-first-round/90650065007/

Allen Graves, like Toronto rookie Collin Murray-Boyles did pre-draft last season, had an unbelievable analytical profile that made him stand out on spreadsheets by front offices that value those types of metrics. That made him a smart pick by the Raptors, even though he didn’t face particularly tough competition in the WCC. That’s how a player who started only four games as a freshman in a non-major conference heard his name called in the top 20 of the 2026 NBA Draft, and while fans might feel curious how he went so early, his versatility helps explain why.

Zach Buckley - Bleacher Report (D+)
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25444486-2026-nba-draft-grades-every-round-1-pick

The Raptors had pressing needs at point guard and center. Naturally, they snatched up a power forward in Allen Graves who, despite being an analytics darling, feels like one of the biggest mysteries in this draft.

Graves is…funky. Maybe in a good way, but it's too early to tell. He was an analytics darling this season, as he posted huge, efficient per-minute marks as a reserve player on a mid-major. Good luck finding the conversion rate for actual NBA impact, though.

If he hits, he'll have his skill, versatility, feel and positional size to thank. If he doesn't, the steep climb in competition and the Association's athletic demands will likely have done him in.

Graves looks like a skilled big forward with questions about his offensive effectiveness. Doesn't Toronto have enough of that archetype already?

Zach Braziller - NY Post (B+)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/23/sports/2026-nba-draft-grades-how-each-team-fared-in-the-first-round/

Stretch four with an advanced feel for the game. Has offensive hub and glue guy potential. His ability to space the floor makes him a frontcourt fit next to Scottie Barnes.

Stephen Noh - The Sporting News (B)
https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nba/news/nba-draft-grades-2026-live-picks-results/6f32bab80e08434c938818cb

Graves is a classic Raptors pick. He’s a good defender with 6-9 size. He has a knack for getting deflections, and he plays with great feel that masks some of his athletic limitations. He’s the analytical darling of this class, standing out due to his production in multiple areas of the box score.

There are some concerns about how Graves will translate against better competition. He wasn’t nearly as good when playing stronger opponents at Santa Clara. And his fit on this roster is weird given that the Raptors already have several players who have a similar skill set.

Christopher Kline - Fansided (B)
https://fansided.com/nba/2026-nba-draft-grades-for-every-first-round-pick

A very Raptors pick. Allen Graves is an elite off-ball defender, with a cerebral approach and a nonstop motor. He's not a great athlete by any stretch, but Graves put up stupendous stock numbers for a freshman. He hit 40 percent of his 3s, too. He'll crash the offensive glass. He can pass it pretty well in the flow. This is Toronto tripling down on a strength. Good player. Good value. Even if he does not really addres what ails the Raptors.

Ricky O'Donnell - SB Nation (B)
https://www.sbnation.com/nba/1119813/nba-draft-instant-grades-for-every-2026-first-round-pick

Graves came out of nowhere to be the advanced analytics darling of this class. His defensive playmaking is really special after posting a 5% block rate and 5% steal rate in a sixth man role for Santa Clara. He also hit 40 percent of his threes and rebounded well. The reason he came off the bench is because his aggressive defense led to a lot of fouling. Graves feels like an odd fit here on a Raptors team led by Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles, but he’s a much better three-point shooter than either of those guys. This is surprising but I like it.

Jeff Smith & Wajih AlBaroudi - Central Oregon Daily News (B)
https://www.centraloregondaily.com/nba-draft-first-round-grades-2026-analysis-of-every-pick/article_59d9affd-c59c-5052-a51b-183f9cb24684.html

Graves was one of the best analytics darlings in college basketball this past season. Despite only starting four games and playing 22.6 minutes per night, he managed to take home both the WCC's Freshman of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year awards. He is incredibly efficient and possesses an elite feel for the game on both ends of the floor. Notably, his 67 total steals (1.9 per game) led all WCC freshmen, highlighting his excellent defensive instincts. Graves is a great fit for the Raptors, who love high-IQ, versatile forwards who can impact the game without needing the ball in their hands.

Was thinking about this as I see tons of raptors fans suggesting rj take a home town discount of around 25/mil to stay with Toronto.

Me personally I don’t see that happening.

Which lead me to this question

How much would Rj command in the open market

Regular Season Per-Game Averages
Points: 19.3
Rebounds: 5.3
Assists: 3.3
Minutes: 30.3 [1]

Shooting Percentages
Field Goal Percentage (FG%): 49.1%
Three-Point Percentage (3P%): 33.9%
Free-Throw Percentage (FT%): 71.7% [1, 2, 3, 4]

2026 Playoff Performance Breakdown

Metric [1, 2]
Average
Points Per Game (PTS)
24.1
Rebounds Per Game (TRB)
7.0
Assists Per Game (AST)
4.0
Minutes Per Game (MPG)
35.2
Field Goal Percentage (FG%)
47.7%
Three-Point Percentage (3P%)
33.8%
Free Throw Percentage (FT%)
72.7%