How does each Toronto Raptor stack-up against their teammates? After a busy off-season, here’s a ranking of all the Raptors players heading into the 2018-2019 season.
Each year national publications release ranks of the top players in the NBA. It’s far from a perfect process. However, it does provide a valuable snapshot of the league’s best talent at a certain point in time.
Comparing players against the rest of the league is important. But perhaps just as important is judging players against their contemporaries. Players on their own team. With that in mind, we take a look at every (guaranteed) Raptor on the training camp roster and rank them from 13 to one.
Malachi Richardson hasn’t been a Raptor for very long. He was traded from Sacramento in February for the Brazilian fan-favourite Bruno Caboclo.
Richardson went back and forth between the Raptors’ bench and the G-League this past season, and never got any significant playing time during the regular season or the playoffs.
This season will be his third in the league, which is typically when teams become less forgiving of young players and start to expect results.
Richardson will have to make the most of any minutes he is given, and getting any minutes at all will be a struggle on this Raptors team that is loaded on the wings.
Richardson will need to impress head-coach Nick Nurse at the Raptors’ training camp, and he is certainly capable of doing so. At 6’6, 205 lbs, he has the size needed to be an effective swing-man in the NBA.
During his time at Syracuse, he showed that he can score the ball in a variety of ways. Though his percentages don’t reflect it (simply because of the low-volume of shots he’s put up in his young career), he’s a good outside shooter and a capable defender.
Richardson won’t play a significant role with the Raptors this year, but he certainly adds depth to the team, and will likely be called upon at some point.