The Toronto Raptors are coming off the best regular season in franchise history, but they head into the offseason in a strange position. Not only are they heading into this weekend’s draft with a new head coach for the first time since 2011, but they’re also looking to shake things up on the roster.
The Raptors don’t own a first round pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, as they sent it to the Brooklyn Nets in the DeMarre Carroll trade last summer, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t planning on making some noise during the opening round. According to New York Times’ Marc Stein, the Raptors are exploring the possible trade options in hopes of packaging something together to land Kentucky point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The 19-year-old was born in Toronto and played high school basketball in Hamilton and most NBA mock drafts have him going anywhere between the 10th and the 14th pick. However, if they think they can get him earlier than where he’s expected to go then they just might make the jump.
If the Raptors do plan on making some sort of deal to move up in the draft, you can probably expect to see part of the ‘Bench Mob’ get broken up to make it possible, but Stein also reported that no one is off limits on the roster.
The 59 regular season wins is nice, but they really don’t mean anything if you fall short against the same team in the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. While last year’s team was dubbed the greatest Raptors team of all-time numerous times throughout the season, don’t expect next year’s team to look very similar.
(H/T Twitter/TheSteinLine)
