Sports

Raptors land 13th pick in the NBA Draft: 13 thoughts on where Toronto stands

Published

1 year ago

May 17, 2023

The lottery deities did not favour the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night. They had a one percent chance of snagging the top pick and a 4.7 percent shot at moving into the top four. Neither hit, and they are slotted 13th in the 2023 NBA Draft, which is held on June 22. The San Antonio Spurs own three future Raptors draft picks and get to take Victor Wembanyama. Not fair.

All is not lost. This is an intriguing class, with a lot of guards in play right around where the Raptors project to pick. Here are my 13 initial thoughts (OK, closer to 11) on where the Raptors stand.

1. Raptors general manager Bobby Webster and vice president of basketball operations and player development Teresa Resch did not get the job done. They were, respectively, the on-screen representatives and drawing-room representatives for the Raptors. They must be held accountable. Next time, send The Raptor.

2. We can still make jokes, right?

3. I would be very surprised if the Raptors ended up trading out of the first round. It is not that they don’t want help in the present — they do. Of course, most rookies are unlikely to produce much in terms of winning basketball. However, having given up the 2024-first-rounder (top-six protected) for Jakob Poeltl, they need some more young talent. As has been proven over the last few years, that cannot all happen with second-rounders (of which they have none until 2026 anyway) and undrafted free agents.

The Raptor. (Cole Burston/Getty Images)

4. To the same point, they have a financial incentive to keep the pick, too. Quite simply, they need to find contributors on rookie-scale contracts. Other than Scottie Barnes, none of their developmental pieces have delivered consistently over the past two years. The Raptors surely still have faith in some of those players, most notably Precious Achiuwa. In order to function in the NBA, especially as the new CBA makes it more punitive to go over the tax, you need to draft well.

5. The Raptors have picked 13th once before. They took Ed Davis, who was the night’s unexpected draft faller, despite having a glut of forwards. Boss move. (That’s for OGs.)

6. However, it is obviously possible the Raptors make a trade to move spots — up or down. On the court, either Brandon Miller or Scoot Henderson would be phenomenal fits for the Raptors. If they had real conversations with Portland for O.G. Anunoby last year, I wonder if they could be revisited, either for Anunoby or Pascal Siakam, in a bigger trade that would include the Trail Blazers’ third pick.

7. Houston is the other obvious candidate to move down or out of the first round. The Rockets are picking fourth. However, they are planning to use their cap space and don’t have many players with meaningful salaries to trade. Same deal for Orlando, who has the sixth and 11th picks.

8. I am almost always of the mindset that a team should take the best player available, and that doesn’t change for the Raptors in this position. With so many unknowns, you might as well just pick the best guy and figure out the fit later. That comes with two caveats. The first: No rim-running centres. They want to bring Poeltl back in free agency and took Christian Koloko early in the second round last year. If they feel the need to add more depth there, it is usually a position that can be addressed cheaply in free agency.

9. The second caveat: Place extra importance on shooting. Not enough to pick a player who is clearly a tier below another, but as maybe the most important attribute. The two players I’m most confident will be Raptors next year, at least from last season’s core: Poeltl and Barnes. The Raptors need all the shooting they can get.

10. With all of that in mind, let’s try to narrow down to the four most likely picks at 13, at least for now. (This is an evolving process.) I’ll defer to The Athletic’s draft guru, Sam Vecenie, and go with Kentucky combo guard Cason Wallace first. That is who Vecenie has going 13th in his post-lottery mock, and also happens to be John Hollinger’s 13th-ranked prospect. He shot just 34.6 percent from 3 in his freshman year, but shot better than 75 percent from the free-throw line, suggesting some more shooting potential. He could help defensively, too. He had a back injury in college, which is concerning. (As it turns out, I ended up taking him in The Athletic’s beat writer mock draft, too.)

11. Vecenie called Kansas’s Gradey Dick the best shooter in the class, and that’s enough for me to circle him three times. He’s 6-foot-8, he took seven 3s per 40 minutes and shot better than 40 percent on them. He doesn’t have a huge upside, but he can shoot, cut and play hard defensively, even if he’s not the quickest defender when left on an island.

12. Michigan’s Kobe Bufkin is another guard, but more of a shooting guard than a lead guard. He needs to increase his attempts, but he bumped up to 35.5 percent from 3 this past year. He will absolutely need to fill out physically, but that is true of almost every rookie. He’s also got that big wingspan that the Raptors seem to like, plus the quickness to be a solid defender.

13. Finally, if the Raptors want to go big and long, they could look to local product Leonard Miller, who spent last year with G League Ignite. He was a double-double machine in the second half of the season, a big accomplishment given he was playing older players. He also showed more of a shot than he previously flashed, although it was on very low volume. Overall, he has a lot of similarities to Barnes, but he could be an obvious upside play.

Did I mention him only because the first high school he attended was Thornlea Secondary School, my alma mater? You’ll never know. Go Thunder. (Thornlea, not Oklahoma City.)

(Top photo of Gradey Dick: Ed Zurga / Getty Images)

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Sports

Canada’s Marina Stakusic falls in Guadalajara Open quarterfinals

Published

21 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.

The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.

Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.

In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.

The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Sports

Kirk’s walk-off single in 11th inning lifts Blue Jays past Cardinals 4-3

Published

21 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.

With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.

Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.

Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.

Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.

He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.

The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.

Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.

He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.

George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.

Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.

In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.

St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.

ON DECK

Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.

The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Stampeders return to Maier at QB eyeing chance to get on track against Alouettes

Published

21 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.

It won’t be an easy assignment.

Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.

“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”

Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”

Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.

After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.

“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”

Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.

“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.

A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.

“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”

But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.

“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”

Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”

“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.

Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.

“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”

While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.

“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”

The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.

“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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