Goodbye, Jalen McDaniels! – A Recap, Review & Grade of the Toronto Raptors 2024 Draft Day Decisions

Goodbye, Jalen McDaniels! – A Recap, Review & Grade of the Toronto Raptors 2024 Draft Day Decisions

hey bro you just got traded to the Kings you was dead at me you did me yes you it’s it’s hello and welcome to today’s draft day recap or rather draft days because well the draft this year is two days and both days went a lot longer than they normally would which on one hand it is nice that teams had more time to work out trades but the actual watch time and the presentation the structuring was far from ideal and it doesn’t help that it had the usual quirks that the NBA does when it comes to their draft day decisions speaking only in terms of the draft overall it was awkward and I do think that the NBA is going to have to tweak this format a little bit more in order to make it make sense for all parties involved because this is a really big night for a lot of these guys and as you saw with guys like SAR and buellis it means a lot for them to hear their name called and it can be really emotionally devastating for them to have to essentially wait an entire almost 24 hours the point is it’s far from perfect what was perfect or at least close to perfect is the Toronto Raptors draft night they were incredibly active especially on the second day and they got some absolute steals in this draft let’s start with their first overall pick or 19th in this case jacobe Walter to give you a short summary because I did talk about him in a previous video jacobe Walter is a two-way wing with some serious shot making abilities his form looks great he plays with a lot of tenacity on defense and he does have a 6’10 Wings band which is always a bonus and it’s a very Raptor thing for them to draft a wing who has said length yes his efficiency in Baylor wasn’t great but he was asked to step up and be the first option for Z team asked to take a lot of difficult shots and he’s certainly capable of making it and the fact that he’s willing to take those shots those difficult moments and step up that’s a great mentality to have but I will say that he is probably going to have a more limited role on the Raptors at least for the foreseeable future and thus his efficiency should probably be a lot better than it currently is the main concerns that he has are that his handle it’s not great or at least not as good as you’d want for your two guard to be when they’re putting the ball on the floor and it did lead to a couple of careless turnovers though again him being the first option on bayor he was given a lot more attention on the defensive end the more major concern is that his finishing is well sub 50% and that’s something that he is going to need to work on so yeah there’s a reason why he did fall to 19 even though I would argue that he was the best player on the board at that point yes I like y Mei too but to be perfectly honest this is a great pick for 19th overall he’s gotten a lot of comparisons to contus cwell PO hope and for the 19th overall pick if that’s the outcome that you get you take that and run and if he becomes even better than that that’s an absolute steal and if nothing else it does make the Pascal trade seem a lot better than it currently does but I’m getting ahead of myself we’ll touch on that trade later love the pick Great Value makes a lot of sense for the team right now especially considering that we have no idea what’s going to happen with Gary Tren Jr who is presumably going to be the fifth starter question mark for now let’s talk about the other piece of the OG N anobi Trade that every seems to have forgotten about the Piston second that they received that became Jonathan mobo I also talked about him in the previous video so here’s the tldr great rebounder great defender excellent playmaker for his position and the advanced stats absolutely adore him this is a guy who is 6 foot6 without shoes and he finishes like a traditional big man at the rim and his work ethic Exquisite he made a lot of improvement compared to his previous season he is the definition of a Raptor’s pick he isn’t necessarily going to space the floor out but he’s a very Draymond like small ball five who is probably going to be playing a lot of time at one of the wing positions if not being a full-time backup four for the team because they’re kind of lacking right now for wings for the 31st pick overall that is an excellent choice if the Toronto Raptors came out of this draft with only Jonathan mogbo and jacobe Walter that’d be a perfectly fine draft day or draft days in this case but surprisingly despite them only entering into this draft with with two picks they made four selections they also got rid of jayen McDaniels and managed to make use of that $10 million exception that they got from the cakam trade which honestly very surprising the Raptors don’t have a great history when it comes to using their trade exceptions the one that they got for Bosch that was I think 19 million or so completely wasted the one that they got from the gor and drit trade completely wasted the fact that you were seemingly able to resolve the backup point guard position with this move and got another pick in this draft that is an absolute master class it is an excellent use of the team’s resources and given that this technically does tie into the Pascal cakam trade it does make it seem a lot better than it was initially like the fact that they turned Pascal cakam an all NBA player into what looked like it was going to be an absolute Dreadful return getting Davon Mitchell oai abachi Kelly oen jacobe Walter you got rid of jayen McDaniels and auto Porter Jr a 2025 Portland second and a future first from the Pacers granted it’s top four protected and they’re probably going to be pretty good unless there’s something that just goes completely a out of the Memphis Grizzlies this season still don’t know what’s going to happen with Bruce Brown it makes the trade look a lot better than it did on the day that the trade took place now granted I don’t think anybody’s going to be saying that the 45th overall pick is the difference between the Pascal seak trade being great or good but the fact that they were able to get anything out of Jen mcdel not having to give up picks to get rid of him the fact they were able to get Sasha I’m not even going to try pronouncing that last name but he’s a good shooter can play the four might just be a biop he might go back to play in Europe but we’ll see what happens the fact that you were able to make use of a very small trade exception and it is small all things considered it is nowhere near as large as the one that the Atlanta Hawks got from the John Collins trade or rather John Collins salary dump and you got what is probably going to be one of the most valuable picks in the second round for next year’s draft which is looking like a stacked draft class and you got another pick in this draft that’s honestly pretty noteworthy and deserves to be praised though it does make you wonder what they could have done if they had actually traded Pascal cakam earlier but let’s not really tigate that like Davon Mitchell is straight up a better player than jayen McDaniels yes he plays a different position but relative to his position he’s a better Defender than jayen McDaniels is his shooting is a mixed bag he had a really hot streak to end the season he was shooting 40% from three though on low volume and whether or not he’s going to be able to replicate that same success in run remains to be seen but the fact that you were able to take a flyer on him all of that for jayen McDaniels and that trade exception from the Pascal cakam trade absolutely Sublime and the 45th pick overall in this draft Jamal shade is an intriguing player in his own right the defensive player of the year from last year and he’s barely 6 feet tall his shooting has some question marks but he’s a great finisher at the rim and if nothing else he said High character sort of player that this ront office absolutely loves to add to its roster whether or not he becomes the full-time backup point guard that remains to be seen it’s probably going to be Davon and him duing it out for that position but the fact that the Raptors are even going to have this sort of dilemma for its bench is a refreshing change of pace after the absolutely dire state that the bench was in the past few seasons you’re going from Thaddius young and auto Porter Jr who basically never played for the Raptors to a respectable ball handler and great point of attack defender in Davon Mitchell both great options and both are probably going to get a lot of minutes to start the season so yeah terrific selection at 19 great one at 31 45 could be an absolute steal but they didn’t stop there because at 57 they made a trade with the timber wolves in order to acquire orich shami who I’m probably mispronouncing because again I’m very bad at pronouncing names even when I’ve heard it multiple times anyway shami is a very interesting player although he is a bit of a project he has a lot of potential as a stretch five who can do a little bit of playmaking though he does turn the ball over more than he does dish out dimes he’s 6’1 extremely athletic and he has a 7 fo4 wingspan that makes him incredibly intriguing as a two-way stretch five although that does come with a bit of a caveat because how do I describe this you know how Gary Tren Jr is statistically speaking one of the better three-point Shooters when you consider his season by season averages but when you watch him game to game you know he can be very hard or cold yeah it’s the same thing with shami he’s not necessarily a bad shooter but he is incredibly streaky he has arguably the highest if not the second highest after Kia wear ceilings of all the center prospects in this draft there’s a lot to like about the tools that he has at his disposal but while the ceiling is incredibly High the floor is pretty low overall he’s probably going to be spending a lot of his time if not the entire season in the g-league barring injuries of course and that might carry over to the next season he is very raw the definition of a boomer bus Prospect but given the low entry literally the second last pick in the draft and the fact that you probably didn’t give up a whole lot to get him it seems like they only gave up cash to the Timberwolves that is a flyer absolutely worth taking whether or not he pans out that remains to be seen but it is absolutely a bet on the Raptor’s ability to develop their players and not just him toobe Jamal Jonathan all these players have their own respective issues their own flaws that they do need to work out if even one of these four players manages to pan out regardless of whether or not they’re a starter bench player Allstar Etc that would be a success in my book if you’re able to get multiple hits that would be an incredible outcome for a draft that many were deriding before heading into it and it would be a testament to the Raptor’s ability to develop players something that they haven’t really done in a long time yes Scotty Barnes has improved year over-year and Grady dick did start to look a lot better throughout the last season however the team direction or lack thereof was on full display now they’ve chosen a direction they’ve chosen to retool around Scotty Barnes and them building themselves up back through the draft the thing that made them such a Powerhouse to begin with during the dear and lower years that’s exciting that’s something to be optimistic about both for the next season and the seasons to come this is the first time that I’ve been truly optimistic about this team in quite some time and regardless of what happens next season I’m incredibly excited to see this new core develop and in general see this new culture build around Scotty Barnes as the face of the franchise this front office has made a lot of missteps in the past few years but the fact that they have chosen to stick to this direction to bet on their development process that’s a refreshing change of pace from the past few years despite the stumbling that it took to get to this point all of this is to say that the Raptor draft a decisions all the deserve an a excellent selections excellent trade again getting rid of Jayla McDaniels and getting assets out of that technically out of the trade exception but I digress with fre agency starting in a couple of days and with the decision needed to be made on Bruce Brown’s team option as I’m recording this it’s only a day away it’s going to be interesting to see how this team looks after the off season but until next time game on my friends

The Toronto Raptors had a busy couple of days ahead of free agency, as they were highly active during the 2024 NBA Draft. From drafting Ja’Kobe Walter 19th to grabbing Ulrich 57th via a trade to the Timberwolves, and two whole second round selections in-between? There was no shortage of moves to be made in the 2024 NBA Draft. They even managed to wrap in a trade involving forward Jalen McDaniels into a salary dump!

But just how well did the Toronto Raptors do on draft night? And how does the team look before heading in to free agency? Tune in to this week’s video to find out!

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