Raptors draft undersized, high-flying defensive standout in second round
Martin has lots of big-game experience and has mostly fared well in those games.
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The Toronto Raptors certainly have a type. Small, extremely athletic and a give-no-quarter, lock-you-down defender? Come on down.
The latest example came in Thursday’s second round of the 2025 NBA draft.
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Raptors draft undersized, high-flying defensive standout in second round Back to video
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The Raptors went for explosive athleticism with the 39th pick, opting for Alijah Martin, a five-year guard out of Florida. Martin spent his first four NCAA seasons with Florida Atlantic.
Martin is a high-flying but undersized guard who stands out as an excellent defender, one of the best perimeter defenders in the SEC. Martin has extensive big-game experience, having reached the NCAA Tournament semifinal in 2023 (he scored 26 points in a one-point loss to San Diego State), before winning it all for Florida this past season in the thrilling Gators win over Houston.
“You have to lay your body on the line, that’s how you win games,” Martin said in his first meeting with the Toronto media after describing himself as an “ultimate competitor.”
Toronto also opted for a defence-first, hard-nosed SEC player a day earlier, taking South Carolina’s Collin Murray-Boyles ninth in the first round of the draft. The two played in a January game, with Florida winning by a point.
“He really, really impressed me, he was hard to deal with,” Martin said of his new teammate who had a big game that night.
Team executives had said this week they looked closely at the NBA playoffs this year and how hard players on the last teams standing played and how they mostly excelled defensively. The question that kept coming up was could the guys the Raptors liked fit in one day in similar situations. They felt Murray-Boyles definitely could and while Martin is more of a role of the dice as players taken toward the middle of the second round often don’t even make the NBA, he never takes a second off when he’s on the court — similar to Jamal Shead, Toronto’s pick at 45 last year.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all,” said Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman Thursday of the picks. “I think we see guys that when the game gets tough and winning time happens, these are guys, they won’t back away from that fight, they’ll run to it and they’ll do all the little things and hopefully the skill development comes with just working our development program from there.”
Tolzman said Martin is a proven winner and said the organization doesn’t believe he’s a finished player despite his five years in school.
“He’s got a lot of room for growth still. One of those guys, get him in our program and see what he can do. He’s going to fight for everything he can get,” Tolzman said.
Draft expert Sam Vecenie of The Athletic described Martin as “small by NBA standards, but makes up for it with power and athleticism. There may not be a better pound-for-pound athlete in the 2025 draft.”
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Martin shot the ball decently during his NCAA career, but isn’t seen as a point guard, meaning he’ll be a small shooting guard on offence, though he’s consistently guarded point and shooting guards, small forwards and even some power forwards.
The Raptors roster now includes projected starters Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Brandon Ingram, Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl, plus Ja’Kobe Walter, Jamal Shead, Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji and Jonathan Mogbo on guaranteed deals. Murray-Boyles will bring that list to 11 before Summer League in Las Vegas next month.
Jamison Battle is not on a guaranteed deal, but most likely it will end up guaranteed. Ulrich Chomche and Jared Rhoden are on two-way deals, plus the team has A.J. Lawson and Colin Castleton on their own non-guaranteed deals. Toronto technically could add another two-way player, be it Martin or someone else, and as many as two others on standard deals, though they could also roster as few as 14 next season because a full roster could take them into first-apron luxury tax territory. As is, they’d be in the least punitive part of the luxury tax, though they’d have all season to get back under via trades.
The Raptors had the 39th pick from last summer’s deal with Sacramento that eventually brought Shead and Davion Mitchell to Toronto.
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