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5 worst draft mistakes in Toronto Raptors franchise history

By Avishai Sol

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 20: Andrea Bargnani #7 of the Toronto Raptors looks on during warm ups against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 20, 2012 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Chris Chambers/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 20: Andrea Bargnani #7 of the Toronto Raptors looks on during warm ups against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 20, 2012 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Chris Chambers/Getty Images) /
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Jakob Poeltl, Toronto Raptors
TORONTO, ON – MARCH 23: Jakob Poeltl #42 of the Toronto Raptors (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images) /

2016 NBA Draft:  Jakob Poeltl (9th Pick)

This is one of the few draft flops Masai has under his belt.

Poeltl isn’t an awful NBA player. He’s a decent eight points/eight rebounds per game guy with solid defense, but there were far better options than him in what turned out to be a loaded NBA draft.  The other bigs that went in 2016 were as follows; Thon Maker (10th), Domantas Sabonis (11th), Ante Zizic (23rd), and Ivica Zubac (32nd).

Poeltl isn’t the worst guy on that list, but he isn’t the best.

There are two big takeaways when looking at this.  The obvious one is the fact that the Raptors could have (and probably should have) taken Sabonis.

He was a force averaging 18 points and 12 boards per game playing for one of the best schools in the country in Gonzaga, he was just the better player.

Domantas Sabonis would’ve been better than Jakob Poeltl.

Masai was probably thinking about the best option to pair behind Jonas Valanciunas.  A shot-blocking, defensive-minded five to pair with the post-scorer skills Jonas brought to the table. It’s true that his and Sabonis’ skills overlapped somewhat, but sometimes you just have to take the best player available.

The second interesting wrinkle is that whoever was taken here was probably getting moved in the Kawhi trade regardless. Poeltl, Sabonis, Thon Maker, whoever. After they decided on DeRozan for Kawhi, the rest wasn’t going to affect the decision-making much.

Maybe Sabonis would have made the trade seem a bit more expensive in retrospect, but it doesn’t matter.  It resulted in a title, and that’s what matters.

Next. Top 5 most disappointing Raptors seasons. dark