Disaster Strikes For The Raptors At The NBA Draft Lottery

Disaster Strikes For The Raptors At The NBA Draft Lottery

The 2025 NBA draft lottery is in the books, and even people who weren’t holding out high hopes for the Raptors were still left disappointed. So, what’s next for the Raptors after securing the ninth pick for 2025? Let’s get into it. Welcome back everybody. This is Amateur Sports, the YouTube channel completely dedicated to Toronto Raptors content. And we’re in the wake of the 2025 NBA draft lottery where yes, the Raptors move down to ninth overall in the draft. It was an unlikely turn of events that saw the Raptors bumped two spots into that ninth position rather than potentially moving up or staying relatively similar. Going into the draft lottery, the Raptors had these odds associated with their selection. There was only a 12.9% chance of them falling to that ninth overall spot. All in all, they only had about a 14% chance of not getting a top eight pick. But thus, the probability was there. The possibility of that happening was there. And for the people who were holding out hopes for a first pick or a second pick, I mean, it was only about a 15% chance of the Raptors actually getting a top two pick. So, it was all within the realms of possibilities. And at the end of the day, the Raptors got unlucky. And the teams that did get lucky, I think, kind of soured the occasion a little bit more. The Philadelphia 76ers jumped up to the third overall position. It’s like as if they need more help with the roster. The San Antonio Spurs, who already got the first overall pick, and Victor Rambanyama two years ago, now have the second overall pick. And perhaps I mean maybe not perhaps but what is likely the least deserving front office in the entire National Basketball Association. The front office led by general manager Nico Harrison who made possibly the worst trade in NBA history when they traded away Luca Donuch. The idea behind that trade was to make them a better team for this season to win a championship this season. They missed the playoffs and their reward is the first overall pick and ultimately Cooper flag. So again, that soured the occasion a little bit more for the Raptors, but we’re focused in on what happened to the Raptors. The reality is when it comes to tanking, it was still the right decision by the Raptors. The ninth pick is still a decent position to be in. It’s just disappointing considering what could have happened. And the expectation was the Raptors would stay at the seventh position or maybe maybe even move just the one spot. The likeliest scenario was the Raptors would move down one spot to the eighth overall pick. That’s why it’s a little bit disappointing. You hold out a whole lot of hope and ultimately you fall more than you were expecting on this occasion for the Raptors. So, let’s take a look at what this means for the team. What’s next for the Raptors after moving into this position? Well, there are a few courses of action. the Raptors can take on based on what we see here. We’ll discuss the possibility of trading it. We’ll discuss the possibility of keeping it and we’ll discuss as well how seems rather unlikely for those three teams to move up so much in the draft. We’ll save that to the end of the video. But the Raptors right after the draft lottery took place, many Raptors fans took to social media to discuss now the possibility of trading the pick, citing that ninth pick useless for the team at this point. They want to be a playoff team for next season. What is the ninth overall pick going to do for us? Let’s either trade it to trade up in the draft or trade to get some additional talent to help the playoff push for next season. So, when people talk about trades like this, they often talk about the types of players the Raptors could acquire by doing this. But most of the time, those players are kind of out of reach. Most of the time, especially in a draft class like this, which is, you know, pretty stacked up with talent, enough talent as well to trickle down to the ninth overall spot, typically with a like a draft like this, you’re just better off keeping that pick. The reality is you’re not going to get the value out of the trade than you would get out of the ninth overall selection, actually making that selection. And that reigns especially true for the Toronto Raptors who like the best thing they do, I’ve said it so many times this channel, the best thing the Raptors do, this front office does is scout talent, draft talent, develop talent. That’s their bread and butter. That is the meat and potatoes of the Toronto Raptors. That was like I know they had Kawhi Leonard, but that was the source of building up an NBA champion and a contender on a year-to-year basis. It was finding players like Pascal Seakum, like Fred Vanley, who went undrafted, like OG and Anobi, like even going back to Demar D Rozan. It was finding the talent in these positions. It was developing this talent. That’s what the Raptors do best. They’re not a market that attracts large free agents. And sure, they’re pretty good at trading as well, but the best thing they do is draft talent. So, why not use this opportunity to find that talent? And hey, this is just coincidence. Maybe it doesn’t mean much, but Demard Rosen was the ninth overall pick by the Raptors, as was Tracy McGrady, as was Yaka Purle. So, there is still an opportunity to find talent in these positions. It’s just you’re more likely to find better talent the further up you go in the draft. And that’s just kind of the thing about tanking as well. Tanking was still the right course of action for the team. As I said, it’s not about getting the first overall pick all the time. The way the lottery is constructed right now. And look, maybe it is rewarding some teams who maybe shouldn’t be getting rewarded, but that’s why it’s called a lottery. It is literally called a lottery. It is all luck associated with this. even small percentages can give the team that first overall pick like we saw with the Dallas Mavericks. The idea behind tanking is that it just heightens your floor. So for the Utah Jazz, who had the worst case scenario, a 48% chance of falling to the fifth overall spot, the Utah Jazz were the worst team in the NBA. Therefore, that was the lowest that they could go. I mean, you have the Washington Wizards who bounced even further. They went from second, but they’re now the sixth overall pick. They weren’t the worst team in the NBA. Therefore, their floor for the draft was lower than what it could have been had they tanked even more. But the idea behind the lottery as it stands is that it decentizes tanking. And you could say, well, how do these teams bounce back? How do these teams get better because they actually need help and now they can’t get it as much from the NBA draft? you know, the teams like the Jazz, like the Wizards were egregiously tanking throughout pretty much the entire season. There’s no perfect way, I think, for the lottery to exist because like why are we rewarding these teams compared to the teams that actually do need help? But again, it’s just the idea that the lottery decentizes tanking as a whole. But for the Raptors, like I said, kind of difficult to trade that pick. Look, trading to kind of add on value to your team, difficult to do. I mean, ultimately what the Raptors would be looking for, even if they were like the third, fourth, or seventh, or eighth pick, like I don’t think they’re selecting a player that is going to be starting for them for the upcoming season. Really, the only two starters I saw for the Raptors in this draft were Cooper Flag and Dylan Harper, both out of reach as the top two picks. Like even Ace Bailey, third overall pick, potentially didn’t really see him as a guy that was going to thrust himself into the starting five for the Raptors. So, they’re looking to solidify the rotation. And I think there’s still a possibility to do that with the ninth overall pick. I’ve talked a bit about common Malawash on this channel. Unfortunately kind of think seven and eight was his range at the minimum. So don’t really see him falling down to ninth. I honestly can see him moving up with the draft combine. But hey, we’re still, you know, a little bit over a month away from the draft. The draft takes place. I think it’s in 43 days the time of recording this video. I think it’s on June 25th. So things can change, but potentially Malawash is available, but you know, another center they could look at is Derek Queen. There’s a clear void as the in the backup center spot for this Toronto Raptor team. So if they’re looking at centers, hey, still maybe two of those great players available and still other positions available for the Raptors to consider as well. But what also has dominated media, not just from Raptors media, but like NBA fan base in general, is the talk, well, hey, Dallas traded Luca Donic to the Lakers for nothing and then get rewarded with the first overall pick. San Antonio, another strong market, rewarded with the second overall pick. Philadelphia, another strong market, rewarded with the third overall pick. And all these really bad teams, Utah, Washington, Charlotte, all these teams completely bounce from the top four. Doesn’t that seem a little bit fishy? Like the NBA is not rigged. Okay. The draft lottery is not rigged. There are 14 ping pong balls numbered 1 through 14 and a little pingpong ball machine that shoots out four random ping pong balls. And that random assortment of numbers that comes out, numbers 1 through 14. They’re not associated with teams, just randomly numbered 1 through 14, which means of the four that pop out, there are 1,01 different possible combinations of numbers that the machine can spit out. The lottery ball process is observed by executives. It’s often observed by media as well. It’s not rigged. We see all of the percentages associated with the draft lottery. Anything is possible. Even things like a 1.8% chance of the Dallas Mavericks getting the first overall pick. Even a 12.9% chance of the Toronto Raptors ending up with the ninth overall pick. you know, whatever the arrangement was going to be after the lottery of the top four, the likelihood of that exact top four happening was fractional. No matter who, even if it was the top four team staying exactly in the same spots, it would have been a fractional percentage chance that that would have actually happened. It was unlikely for anything to happen. But it’s a lottery system. It’s random and it’s all luck. Dallas, who didn’t deserve it, got lucky. Luck doesn’t care about narratives. The Raptors got unlucky here. It’s a tough one to swallow. It’s a bit of a brutal one for the Raptors to take, but like what’s next for the team here? I think it’s still full steam ahead. The idea for next season is the Raptors want to be a playoff team. This doesn’t change that. They are going to look for a player at ninth overall that can supplement the core and can supplement the team and maybe develop into a starter down the road. That’s going to be the goal with the ninth pick to help the team. As for going forward down the line for the Raptors, they want to be a playoff team on a consistent basis. And their thought process right now is continue to be a team that competes for the playoffs on a year-to-year basis while holding their draft capital and positioning themselves that when they feel there is an opportunity to pivot and make that big move for a potential superstar player, they are going to do it. That’s going to be the recipe for success. Will it work? That remains to be seen. But they want to build consistent playoff performing teams with this Raptors organization and pivot when the time comes. They tried to do it with the Seakkum, the Van Vleet, the Kyle Lowry core to to a certain degree. Even when Kyle Lowry left, they were still trying to push themselves to be a playoff team on a year-to basis. Didn’t work. Hit the reset. Now they’re trying to run it back. Now they’re trying to get back into that playoff position. And when the time comes, when a player like Giannis becomes available or in the past Kevin Durant becomes available, they have the assets to make that strike if they can and vault themselves into contention. You know, like I said, that ninth overall pick, I’m not really interested in trading it, trading up, trading for the players. But hey, for a player like Giannis available now, all of a sudden, I’m a lot more open to moving that ninth pick to make that deal happen and get that ninth pick involved with the plethora of picks would need to make that trade happen. But disaster day for the lottery. As for the organization, I think they’ll be okay. Plans still remain the same. It sucks, but there’s talent there. They’re going to find it. We’ll move.

Disaster struck for the Toronto Raptors at the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery. As they saw the Dallas Mavericks leapfrog them with their 1.8% chance of landing the first overall pick, the Raptors fell to 9th despite having only a 12.9% chance to do so.

Fans were expecting to end up 7th or 8th but were holding out hope for the elusive top-4 pick but it was not to be. With this set back, what will Masai Ujiri be planning for the franchise the upcoming season? Will things change?

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0:00 – Raptors get no luck at the Draft Lottery
1:18 – Could this Top-3 have been any worse?
2:20 – What’s next for the Raptors
3:16 – Can the Raptors trade this pick?
5:34 – Was tanking the right move for the Raptors?
7:11 – What the Raptors should be looking for at 9th overall
8:37 – The NBA Draft Lottery is “Rigged”
10:42 – Future plans for the Raptors

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