Raptors & 2013 draft – BC got it right

In recent years, the Raptors have drafted Bruno Caboclo, Delon Wright and Jakob Poeltl. What about the draft year prior and Bryan Colangelo’s last selection?

The Ringer, Bill Simmons’ successor site to the much lamented Grantland, has an interesting post which reflects on the progress of the 2013 draft class. More correctly, the writer, Jonathan Tjarks, deals with its lack of progress.

He doesn’t mention the Toronto Raptors selection in that draft, which was #12. Ha, ha, fooled ya – the Raptors didn’t have a pick. Then-GM Bryan Colangelo had packaged it and Gary Forbes (c’mon you know…that Gary Forbes) to the Houston Rockets in exchange for a short, chubby and argumentative point guard named Kyle Lowry. The pick was ultimately sent to OKC, who used it to select Steven Adams.

A bad crop so far

Adams does warrant a mention, as one of the few players from this class who has done anything worthy of note in the NBA. The first pick overall was Anthony Bennett, still on the hook as the worst #1 of all time. He’s getting another shot this season with the Brooklyn Nets.

Almost all of the lottery selections have been disappointments. The best players of this draft class were, as Tjarks points out, some of the later picks. Rudy Gobert has certainly made himself indispensable in Utah, despite being the #27 choice. Dennis Schroder, #17, has been anointed the starting point guard of the Atlanta Hawks. The Greek Freak, #15, just had money showered on him by the Milwaukee Bucks, and he may turn out the best of the bunch.

And what does all this gloating over a bad draft class have to do with the Raptors? Simple – the team which has enjoyed the best result from that year’s draft is ours. Kyle Lowry is a two-time All-Star wearing our colours, and one can make an easy argument that his acquisition is the best Raptors trade of all time.

Colangelo & Masai

I’m going to give BC the benefit of the doubt here, by asserting that he knew what he was doing when he made the trade with Houston. He looked over the likely lottery participants and didn’t like them enough to hang on to Toronto’s pick.

Ironically, Tim Leiweke used the lack of a draft pick as a stick with which to beat Colangelo. It worked; BC lost his job to Masai Ujiri, his former right-hand man.

One characteristic that BC and Masai share is the courage to think independently. BC knew who he didn’t like, so went out and used his asset (the lottery pick) to add someone he did like. Masai has defied conventional thinking with every first-round selection he’s made. I still remember the shock of the announcement of Bruno Caboclo (“WHO?”) in 2014 at #20.

We still don’t know what Bruno might be worth someday, if anything at all. Even if he turns out to be a flop, I’d still defend Masai’s bravery in making the pick. Was Masai thinking of BC’s successful snubbing of the 2013 draft class when he settled on out-of-the-blue Bruno? Probably not, but those decisions were alike in their gutsiness.