Toronto Raptors draft: 5 best international prospects to look at

The Toronto Raptors draft plans are much more interesting this season. With multiple second-round picks, taking a swing on high-upside players is a useful tactic.

Overseas players often boast the kind of skills and unique quirks that turn out insane talents, like Nikola Jokic and Marc Gasol, but they also pose a greater risk of busting. For every steal like Jokic, there are twenty Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Darko Milicic, and Fred Weis types, but that one in a million chance is still worth taking a swing on.

The Raptors already have an impressive core, but they are still searching for that one superstar to take them back to contention.  It’s the hardest thing to find in the league, but it’s why gambling on slightly riskier second-round talents is worth it.

Here are 5 of some of the biggest draft prospects from overseas. Players you may not have heard of, but will be even more intriguing come draft night. If their talents are developed well enough, they could become a part of the core long-term.

These 5 international players could become Toronto Raptors draft picks.

1. Josh Giddey (Australia)

Player Comp: Tyrese Haliburton

A 6’8 playmaking point guard putting up big numbers in Australia.  Sound familiar?

Giddey might be the prettiest prospect in the 2021 NBA Draft but that doesn’t mean he’s soft. Playing with grown men is always a plus when considering experience, especially when looking over an 18-year-old draft prospect. We’ve seen the benefits of stiffer competition already with more and more college-age players electing instead to play in professional leagues overseas.

Though unlike LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton, Giddey was born and raised in Australia. He isn’t some highly scouted American coming over and stealing the show from the best down under.

Giddey grew up in Australia, which means he not only rose to the highest level of the game without the help of the media, but also had to earn the respect of his peers the old-fashioned way.

On the court, he’s not a super athlete by any means, not that strong, decently fast end-to-end, but nothing to write home about. Mostly, his gifts lie in his skill at 6-8. He has a really high basketball IQ and prefers to be a distributor rather than a scorer.

The key with so many of these guys is the jump shot.  Giddey only shot 31% from 3-point range last year playing for Adelaide, but expect that percentage to be higher during his rookie year in the NBA.

Because he had so much responsibility handling the ball for his team, most of Giddey’s 3-point opportunities came off the dribble.  In the NBA where he won’t be asked to be the primary offensive initiator right away, expect to see easier catch-and-shoot threes come his way.

The Toronto Raptors could draft Josh Giddey in the first round.

He has a lot of growing up to do physically and in terms of form, but the intelligence at his age is Giddey’s selling point in the draft.

For the Raptors, Giddey would be another initiator that could run alongside Fred VanVleet and Toronto’s other smaller guards. The Raptors don’t really have another player like him, and it would allow Nick Nurse more flexibility off the bench, having a playmaker that is able to defend wings and forwards.

Giddey could be a guy to come in and be in the rotation right away. He’s in the Raptors draft range and if the team is about to lose a certain all-star point guard in free agency, it may be smart to be proactive in acquiring our playmaker of the future.

2. Vrenz Bleijenbergh (Belgium)

Player Comp: Aleksej Pokusevski

The history of these foreign unicorns is spotty for sure. You could get Giannis, Porzingis, Gasol, Gasol, or Jokic. Or you could get Darko Milicic. So, if the Raptors are in the mood for a high-risk, high reward prospect, look no further.

Bleijenbergh (and I’ll give you $5 if you can pronounce that) on paper looks like a Durant-Esque offensive player. Long and lean at 6’10, real shooting range, point guard skills, and the potential to be a real offensive virtuoso.

Compare and contrast his game to Thunder star Aleksej Pokusevski. They have very similar positives and negatives.  A giant with an outside game and point skills. Athletically, weight is his biggest concern.  He leans toward the lighter side, but he’s not as rail-thin as Poku is.

Vrenz doesn’t have quite the flair and wow factor Poku does offensively, but he has better fundamentals and a higher floor entering the league. With quicker feet defensively, already more muscle mass, and a deceptively fast first step. Vrenz might be less entertaining than Poku, but he is already more polished. His game isn’t as weird, but that’s actually a good thing.

https://twitter.com/RowanNBA/status/1387530605882011649

Now, he’s still a project, but it’s his deceptive speed that will keep him alive in the league next year. It will allow him to play small forward where his weight discrepancies won’t be as exposed.

Imagine a jumbo line-up of Bleijenbergh, Yuta Watanabe, Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, and Khem Birch.

Or a scoring lineup of five true creators in VanVleet, Malachi Flynn, Anunoby, Siakam, and Bleijenbergh. Having a player as unique as Vrenz allows  Nurse to fully flex his imagination.

He’s risky for sure, but if Bleijenbergh pans out he could be a top-level talent.  He may not be the safest pick for a Raptors team trying to get back on the playoff horse, but if the front office wants a guy with star potential they can’t do any better than this. If Masai Ujiri can snag him in the second round, he’d be getting a player with a sky-high ceiling at very little cost.

3. Roko Prkacin (Croatia)

Player Comp: Jabari Parker

Take a wide barrel of a body, give him a 7’1 wingspan, and a smooth handle at the power forward position, what do you get? This year’s Croatian sensation Roko Prkacin, for those alliterative readers out there.

He’s a deceptively good athlete. He likes to drive and dun the ball, which made him a fan favourite in Europe. He knows how to use his long arms to finish layups above defenders rather than trying to avoid the contact and go around them.

His end-to-end speed won’t turn heads, but for someone who will be playing power forward in the NBA, he’s got all the tools he needs to match up well physically.

The skills are where things get more interesting. The passing instincts are there. Probably not enough that he’ll be much of a point-forward, but being able to find cutters and operate from he high post and off drive-and-kick actions will make him easy to acclimate to an NBA offence.

The key to his game will be the jump shot. He’s got a bit of an awkward form, slow and unreliable at this point. He hits his free throws at a decent rate though so the potential for range is there. Mostly, he loves to score around the hoop off of powerful, straight-line drives.

For the Raptors, Prkacin would bring playmaking flexibility at the forward position. Someone who has some similarities to Pascal Siakam, though stockier and with more years of development ahead of him.

Prkacin like the rest has a lot of interesting strengths and weaknesses.  The experience of playing in Croatia (one of the top leagues outside of the NBA) will undoubtedly be useful while trying make a name for himself next year.  If he falls to the second round he could be a really nice pickup.

4. Juhann Begarin (France)

Player Comp: Lonnie Walker lV

A violently athletic combo guard, with an ideal NBA body. Begarin is still very raw and unrefined, but has a lot of pure talent going for him.  In the Raptor’s system, that could really help him over time, but for now he’s a bit of a project.

Still working on learning the game, the footage of Begarin is breathtaking. Watching him play overseas is like getting the ‘star’ power-up in Super Mario. He just runs faster, hits harder, and jumps higher than everyone else around him.

Now, sometimes that works to his detriment. Like many young, uber-athletic guards, it sometimes looks like Begarin’s feet are going faster than his brain can keep up with, but if you’re an NBA team looking for a spark plug rookie, look no further.

He loves to rush on the break, which fits the Raptors offensive schemes. He has the ideal frame for NBA defence, although often erratic on that end. Basically, he’s a project, but one that can pay off big if things fall into place.

For the Raptors, he would fill the slot left by Terence Davis. An energy guard off the bench that can come in, run wild for 15 minutes, and sit back down before he blows a fuse. The backcourt going forward is still something of an unknown, but with VanVleet there we know we’ll have some difficulty guarding larger point guards.

Westbrook, Wall, Harden, these guys are simply too powerful for Freddy-V to handle alone, that’s where the Raptors could use Begarin. Even if he makes some mistakes on that end, he will beat his opponents down both physically and mentally.

A cheap second-round prospect with the natural gifts of Begarin is never a bad idea. Whether he can make good on his powers is still unknown, but he has them, let’s see how they pan out.

5. Ariel Hukporti (Germany)

Player Comp: Deandre Ayton-lite

The Raptors still need a future at center. Khem Birch has panned out nicely, but he can’t be expected to carry Toronto to the promised land. There is still a hole left at the 5-man position, and this guy could fill it.

Say hello to Ariel Hukporti. 19 years old out of Germany, the most striking thing watching this guy play is his mobility at 6’11 and 250 pounds. He runs like the wind, jumps, and all while carrying around that weight and power.

Athletically he’s ideal, but he’s more than just a big body. Hukporti’s greatest skill is his fluidity at that size. Not just his power movements, but his comfort handling the ball as a center. He uses push-crosses and hop steps to get into the lane, and has no problem grabbing a rebound off the board and taking it coast-to-coast.

His ball skills are what will make him such a fun prospect coming in. Any time a center with on-ball potential comes strolling by everyone immediately gets out their photos of Giannis/Bam/Embiid, but Hukporti is really a different kind of player.

His offensive awareness is lacking some. He has nice instincts for shot blocks and intercepting passing lanes, but on the other end, he can get tunnel vision on his way to the rim.

In the post, he’s most effective facing up, but his footwork is nice and he has the baseline for an effective post game.  He’s been working to develop a 3-point shot and has shown some ability to pull up off the dribble from mid, but he’s inconsistent shooting.

His selling point early on in his career will be on the defensive end.  He’s already proven himself to be a shot-blocking center with enough foot speed to stay in front of wings.

Mostly, the Raptors would be drafting him for his body, and then be working him through their training system to get the most out of his finesse skills. It’s unclear how much of his shooting and creation is a product of the slow bigs he’s playing around right now in Europe and how much is his own ability, but it’s the kind of talent that’s rare to find in the second round.