End of the Bench: Assets 13-11
13. 2019 Second Round Pick
Second round picks, typically, turn out to be unimpressive assets for NBA teams. After a season of not-insignificant success for the Toronto Raptors, this will be especially true of their 2nd round pick in the 2019 NBA draft.
Based on their success this past season, Toronto will likely have their second-round pick fall between 55 and 60th overall. Historically speaking, with certain exceptions like Draymond Green and Nikola Jokic, many players drafted in even the early parts of the second round turn out to be relatively average professional players while others never even suit up in the NBA.
Given those factors, this draft pick carries little value for the team — no matter if they keep the pick themselves and especially if they trade it away to another organization. In all likelihood, if traded, this pick would be one attached to an expiring contract as a way to entice the receiving team to help unload salary. Either way, this draft pick is a very low-value asset for Toronto.
12. 2025 Second Round Pick
In much the same way as the asset described above, the Toronto Raptors’ 2025 second-round pick carries with it little value for this organization. As a trade piece particularly, this second-round pick will likely only be serviceable as an attachment to a salary dump.
This asset is being positioned as a slightly more valuable piece than the 2019 second-rounder above, only because 2025 is six years away. Therefore, depending on the future of this franchise, this pick could materialize anywhere in the second round (unlike the 2019 pick, which will be in the late portion of round two) if Toronto has an unsuccessful run in the next few years.
11. Malcolm Miller
Malcolm Miller has one year left on his current contract at $1.58 million. Miller, after going undrafted in 2015, has played in a total of 25 games for the Toronto Raptors. Truthfully, the largest (if not, only) reason he is being given this spot rather than one at the back end of these rankings is that he is technically a more concrete asset than the two that are listed above.
In other words, potential teams trading for Malcolm Miller have a better idea of what they could be getting in the deal than if they were simply trading for a second-round draft selection. Along those lines, given that Miller is an actual human player capable of making a greater immediate impact than a second-round pick in an upcoming draft, Miller is currently a more valuable asset than a draft pick.
All things considered, the undrafted Holy Cross product is an unproven NBA player who has logged just 193 total minutes with the Raptors over two seasons. Accordingly, Miller is another very low-value asset for the Toronto Raptors at the current moment.