Raptors executive talks this week's NBA draft, Brandon Ingram trade and more

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The wildest thing about seven-game NBA Finals series is that nobody has time to take a breath before the pages turn, flipping one season to another.

Just two days after league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the victorious Oklahoma City Thunder lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy, some of the potential new faces of the NBA gather in New York for media availabilities, followed by the draft on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Toronto Raptors have been hard at work prepping for the draft for some time (they first laid eyes on some of the prospects when they were early in their high-school careers) and assistant general manager Dan Tolzman answered media questions about the crop on Monday afternoon at the team’s practice facility.

Toronto is slated to pick ninth and 39th. Dallas is expected to take Duke phenom Cooper Flagg first, Rutgers guard Dylan Harper should go second to San Antonio, but after that, it’s wide open.

Here’s a sampling of what was covered by Tolzman:

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ON THIS YEAR’S CROP BEING BETTER THAN LAST?

“Not necessarily. We liked last year’s draft, too. It’s such an eye-of-the-beholder thing,” Tolzman said on Monday afternoon.

“I think this is a very strong draft. I think it’s maybe a little deeper just in terms of guys who can come in and impact right away. But I just think drafts are like this every year. You convince yourself that there’s either a ton of talent up top and and not much elsewhere. This year I feel like we like where we’re at and we’re kind of focusing on that more so than what a normal draft look like or previous drafts look like.”

Tolzman said there has been a lot of interest in teams trying to trade for their lottery pick, but didn’t indicate any move is close. He also said it’s possible Toronto trades for another mid-round pick if a guy they’ve ranked highly is still on the board.

He added they were thrilled to land Ja’Kobe Walter, who they expected to go far higher, at 19 last year.

ON IF THEY’D TAKE A PROSPECT THEY DIDN’T WORK OUT?

Tolzman said this year was no different in that plenty of players they wanted to see up close, didn’t want to come in for a visit.

It could be prospects who think they won’t last until nine skipping, or others thinking they will be taken a lot later that didn’t want to waste a valuable visit on an unlikely landing spot, but it happens every year.

He said workouts aren’t the be-all. end-all (Walter didn’t come in for either a workout or have a meeting with the Raptors at the draft combine) as long as they have good intel on the player like they did with Walter.

“We scout these guys so much during the season that what a workout does, doesn’t really sway you that much,” Tolzman said.

“There’s a lot of guys who don’t think they’ll be on the board at nine. And if they happen to be, we’re gonna consider them just like we would have had they been here (for a workout).”

ON WHY ARE TEAMS CALLING ABOUT THE PICK?

“It doesn’t seem like there’s many options out there, at least to move up. I think there’s a lot of people that have the same feeling as we do that the top 10, the lottery, whatever, is a pretty good place to be,” said Tolzman, who has been with the Raptors since 2013.

“It’s an interesting group of players around there. I wouldn’t say (there’s an) any-percentage chance that we do one or the other, but there (are) definitely conversations being had of teams trying to get into the top 10 for the same reason as why we like being here right now.”

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IS THERE AN URGENCY TO DRAFT READY PLAYERS?

With the Eastern Conference not as strong as the West, the question was posed if Toronto would favour more ready players.

“I wouldn’t say an urgency (to compete immediately) as much as this was a big part of why we did the Brandon Ingram trade,” he said.

“We see him as a big addition to our team next year, regardless of what he brought this past year (he didn’t play at all for the Raptors).

“So I wouldn’t say that East is any more open. I think it’s still going to be very difficult because I’m sure now there’s a lot of these teams that are kind of in the midfield that are they’re going to be trying to make that jump up to contention too,” Tolzman said.

“We definitely feel like we’re just trying to get the pieces in place that when we’re healthy, when we’re ready to actually make a run as a group and on the same page in chemistry, is where we think it can get to, that we’re ready to to be in a point of actually competing with some of those teams that have been ahead of us. It’s just being ready for when that opportunity comes,” he said.

“I think (Ingram) is going to be a big part of that group. And then from there, what we can kind of put in around the edges to keep pushing that forward is important, but at the same time, we’re not looking to sacrifice any of our long term, we still have a really young group of players, so we want to keep developing while maybe getting more competitive in the process.”

ON THE MOCK DRAFTS AND TEAM RANKINGS?

“I think we definitely have a bit of a feeling of who could go ahead. I think there’s always a chance of one, maybe two guys, kind of sneaking in there that change things up a little bit,” he said.

“It does seem like, at least, if I’m reading all the stuff online and the public stuff and the sources, if you will, that it seems like there’s eight players that are being named to go ahead of us. If it goes that way, like I’d actually be really surprised. It doesn’t seem like any draft ever goes the way that it’s says it does to begin,” he said.

“And honestly, like our eight is probably different than every other team’s eight above us, and so where the lines are made of who goes ahead of us, to the next six guys after us, seven guys after us, whatever. It’s kind of blurry. And ours is going to be different than everybody else’s,” Tolzman said.

“It’s definitely going to be different than what you’re reading online.”