The Toronto Raptors haven't been around as long as the Boston Celtics or New York Knicks, but they certainly have taken part in their fair share of drafts. In fact, they have been on of the most shrewd teams when it comes to finding talent in the draft; nearly every star in franchise history has been homegrown, from Vince Carter and Chris Bosh to DeMar DeRozan, Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes.
That doesn't mean they always get it right, however. The Toronto Raptors have their share of draft misses, some of them just off the mark and others not even grazing the target. Occasionally, those misses are compounded by the player taken one spot before or after their selection. It is extremely painful to miss out on a star by such a fine margin.
Looking at the entirety of Raptors team history, when have they missed on a star with a single pick? For the purposes of our exercise we are not including stars who went one pick before or after a star selection the Raptors made themselves; it wasn't much of a miss to take Chris Bosh one pick before Dwyane Wade. We are also being flexible with our definition of "star" to highlight the talent that the Raptors missed out on.
First, however, which stars were a mere two picks away?
Honorable Mentions: Two Picks Away
In 2012, the Toronto Raptors owned the 37th pick in the draft, which they used on Baylor forward Quincy Acy. He had a ho-hum journeyman career, lasting just 36 games in Toronto before hanging around the league for a total of seven seasons. Just two picks earlier, however, the Golden State Warriors pulled off one of the great second-round draft heists by taking future Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green with the 35th pick. What's more, just two picks after the Raptors at No. 39, the Detroit Pistons took wing Khris Middleton.
Turning the clock back to the very beginning, the Raptors took place in their first draft as a franchise in 1995. The lottery was not kind to them, slotting them in at seventh, which was their vantage point to see the Minnesota Timberwolves select Kevin Garnett. To their credit, they used the pick on Damon Stoudemire, a solid guard who would help them get off the ground as a team.
We now transition to those players the Raptors missed by a single pick, starting with the most recent occurrence and moving back in time to the 1996 NBA Draft and one of the iconic players of his generation.