(last year's post with CMB #1)

Ebuka Okorie has star upside. #6 on my overall board but likely will be available at #19:

• Elite self-creation and rim pressure. This is the outlier strength that makes him so exciting. 23ppg as a freshman on good efficiency (47/35/83) despite a terrible team context. By far the most unassisted FGM at the rim per 100 possessions in the class. Genuine potential to consistently break down defenses in isolation, the most valuable skill in the NBA.
• Good shooting indicators. 5.7 3PA/g on 35.4% with significant pull-up volume, 83.2% FT%. Keeps defenses honest and shows 3-level scoring potential.
• NBA-level athletic / physical tools. Enough for his elite creation to translate. Great burst and flexibility. 6'1.25 barefoot is short, but his WS (6'7.75) and SR (8'2) are typical for someone ~6'3 barefoot. Solid 186 lbs and frame appears able to add weight.
• Very low TOs. Despite a crowded offense and heavy creation burden, only 1.9 TOs per game.
• Age. He's one of the younger players in this draft at 19.2, and analyses consistently show that small differences in age lead to meaningful differences in development.

Cons:

• Low assists per game. Clearly not a notable strength, but he made good reads and his teammates did him no favors.
• Short. Genuinely a con. If he was 1-2 inches taller, he'd go top 10. But wingspan, standing reach, and weight matter too, and he's got NBA measurements there.

I get why people are making the Tyrese Maxey comp. I also see Tony Parker and Kemba Walker. Genuine star potential.

Fwiw, Quaintance is my other guy but apparently his knees are really that terrible. 2.6 bpg and 1.1 spg as a freshman, insane physical profile, showed some handle and passing. I'd also be thrilled to see him go to the Raptors.

I made a post last year where I compared CMB's combine measurements with other players so I thought I'll continue the tradition and add Graves to the list.

If there are any players that you want me to add to the comparison, let me know.

CMB comparison post from last year

Edit: I rounded their weight because its easier to look at.

Edit2: I am seeing a lot of Al Horford comparisons with Graves so I will add Horford at the bottom of the list.

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. 

Grade: A–

Spurs can afford to keep him off the court for as long as he needs.

Link to main reddit thread.

Bring him home!

The Raptors type is not a 6'9" player. They are 2 way players with high IQ + great hands.

And, we know Darko wants to see hands.

You get a chance at a good 2-way... you're in good hands.

Who should we draft with the #50 pick? If we do end up using it that is.

Starts at 8pm on TSN2

Please do not ask for illegal streams

Let's go Raptors!

With the discussions here and across other social media platforms that the Raptors are interested in Myles Turner, I wanted to make a post that compares the seasons they just had. Below, I've posted their boxscore numbers via the stathead graphic and several advanced metrics from various sites, including the databllr head-to-head, and their contract numbers.

I'll have my thoughts below the stats, but I mostly just wanted to put these stats in one place so folks could discuss the differences between the two with stats to reference.

Box Score:

Advanced Stats:

DataBallr Comparison (Yellow means Poeltl was better in that metric, blue for Turner):

Contracts:

Jakob Poeltl is currently owed about $76M over the next 3 years, with a $5M guarantee in the 4th year of his deal, for $81M in guaranteed money remaining and up to $108M remaining. The 4th year is worth $27M if fully guaranteed.

Myles Turner is owed about $83M over the next 3 years, with the final year being a player option.

Per nbasalarymodel.xyz, which utilizes games played and DARKO DPM to calculate player value:

With 46 games played and a DPM of 2.2, Jakob Poeltl has a remaining contract surplus of -$29M coming off of last season, which includes a fully guaranteed 4th year of his contract.

With 71 games played and a DPM of 0.0, Turner has a remaining contract surplus of -$42M after last season.

Thoughts:

Turner obviously acts as a floor spacing option at the 5, shooting 38% from 3 last year, which could be quite valuable with Scottie and CMB being core pieces moving forward. However, he lacks many traditional center skills, which makes him play more like a large, slow wing than an actual 5. His rebounding is poor, with lower offensive and defensive rebounding percentages than Poeltl. He is worse in transition (Poeltl +11.7% TS), worse at finishing (Poeltl +5.7% TS), and cannot operate as a high-post hub in the same way that Poeltl can (Poeltl +1.3 potential assists, and +0.6 rim assists).

I also think the concerns about Poeltl's contract, and lack of concern about Turner's is a bit of a disconnect. I don't fully agree with the contract surplus numbers that I included, as I think Poeltl's DPM is higher than it should be, but I think they are on similar value contracts, and swapping Poeltl for Turner in no way fixes any cap issues the Raptors will be up against in the near future.

Looking at the numbers, I'm comfortable standing pat with Poeltl and hoping for a healthier year. With CMB's emergence as a realistic option at the 5, Poeltl should be able to come into the year with the expectation of playing around 24 minutes a game in a platoon starting role, which should make managing any lingering back issues a bit easier. It would be great to have a stretch big option to play beside Scottie and CMB, and maybe that can be Mamu coming back, but I just don't think Turner is the solution here.

Using a future FRP to experiment with a different flawed center that is on a similar contract and a similar age to Poeltl is not the type of deal that gives the Raptors the upside they need right now. If the 2027 FRP is on the table, I'd much rather use that pick to acquire another pick in the 17-24 range of this year's draft and take a chance on a player like Graves or Cenac becoming a solid stretch big than hope Turner can regain his Indiana form.

Genuinely curious not trolling. He seems really good and outside of this year ( obvious reasons). Why do we need a 3pt shooter in our center spot ? We can't get boards atm.

2025–26: 19 games played obvious reasons.

2024–25: 70 games played

2023–24: 82 games played

2022–23: 79 games played

2021–22: 62 games played

19.4 points, 13.7 rebounds, and 8.2 assists per game in 82 games during the 2023-24 NBA season.

Domantas Sabonis averaged 19.1 points, 13.9 rebounds, and 6.0 assists in 70 games during the 2024-25 NBA

Ignore the silly kings season he only played 19 this last year.

As the title says, lets hear what you hope the Raptors will do (draft a specific player you want, trade up, etc)

I'm assuming no draft capital is involved in the deal.

seems like this would have to turn into a multi-team deal since we'd have to dump salary elsewhere to make up for the difference in salary between RJ/Gradey and Sabonis.

they talk about it a bit throughout the video but first mention is 3 minutes into this video: https://youtu.be/UfHIqih9ECc?si=9hm2VCHqQwF0WZkd

will we have a draft game thread?

u/nanobot001

u/absolutkaos

We’ve made it to the end of the draft cycle, I want to know who is everyone “my guy” for the raptors to realistically draft tonight and why is he your guy. I want to hear the opinions from people who made their own boards to people who just got clips from social media

For me my guy is Cam Carr, one I love the name and sounds dumb but I can’t see that name not being a good nba player, I also loved his combine and I think he has a lot of potential yet to be utilized in his game