Toronto Raptors: How Bad is ESPN’s New Mock Draft?

Toronto Raptors: How Bad is ESPN’s New Mock Draft?

hello Raptors fans and welcome back to Raptors Report today we are going to be discussing a couple of things uh the first that we’ll be discussing are what you’re looking at right now we’re going to be taking a look at the mock drafts that have come out recently so there’s a new ESPN mock draft there is a new CBS mock draft we’re going to be looking at those two and the implications regarding the Raptors we are also going to be discussing some of the trade rumors that the Raptors have been involved in over the past couple of weeks there are some quote big fish that they have been trying to get in on and there’s actually a new development that has happened regarding one of those big fish so we’ll get into that and discuss what the news is there but before we do that we are going to jump into the mockdrafts and take a look at what those entail so let’s get started so first off we will be taking a look at this mockdraft which is the ESPN mockdraft with Jonathan Gavone and Jeremy Woo they do a very good job uh picking the prospects evaluating them and they can read the tea leaves both in terms of what teams need what they’re reported to be interested in but they also do a lot of scouting and they talk about the strengths and weaknesses of players i think they’ve been very accurate in the past so we’re going to be taking a look at their list and they’ve got a very interesting pick for the Toronto Raptors uh when we get down to it so we’ll start off um obviously I mean number one overall we might as well just kind of skip over it cooper Flag very obviously the first overall pick he is one of the best prospects I’ve seen in a very long time uh so he is no doubt going number one overall to the Dallas Mavericks number two this is the first surprise so Jonathan Gavone has their biggest need as a shooter uh who plays at the offball spot and he says that the pick that fills the biggest need is Keniple and I’m a fan of Kon Canipple i think he’s a pretty good player but I think this is pretty crazy so let’s see his justification here um surrounding Victor Wanyama Steph Stfan Castle and De’arren Fox with a high field dynamic perimeter shooter is a major priority for the front office this off seasonason and no player in this draft fits that bit better than Canipple he’s the draft’s best shooter capable of shooting off movement coming off of screens but also is a solid defender and playmaker who plays a selfless highly competitive style he was happy to play second fiddle to flag his teammate and rising superstar this season making him an ideal fit to pair with a future MVP contender such as Webyama that may all be true but uh I think that uh the pick for the best value is something that they will be uh doing i think that they are going to be drafting Dylan Harper dylan Harper in my opinion would would go over would be the number one overall pick in most drafts he won’t be in this one just because of Cooper Flag but he is a very very good prospect very good on ball creator and obviously the Spurs have a couple of those guys stefon Castle I don’t know if he’s like a number one overall uh option just yet but they do have Dearren Fox and he is that kind of guy so I understand that they have a need that maybe Dylan Harper won’t fill but I think that instead of drafting a guy who would be a huge reach in my opinion at number two they would probably just trade the pick trade either down in the draft if they wanted Keniple or they just trade out of the draft and get another kind of veteran or younger player to pair alongside of Victor Webbyama Stefan Castle and Dearan Fox and with the number two overall pick Dylan Harper is like a really good player a lot of teams would be very interested in trading for him so yeah that’s just kind of what I see i I I don’t even think it’s a good idea to mention Coniple as the number two overall pick i I’m not exactly sure why he would do that um so let’s just uh keep going here um so now the Philadelphia 76ers and very rightly this is the first drop in kind of tier i mean there is a drop in tier between uh Cooper Flag and Dylan Harper but in my opinion the the third tier here uh is a little bit more wide open there’s a more there are a couple of picks that you can make here that I think would be defensible so Gavone mentioned that Ace Bailey is the guy that would fit the Philadelphia 76ers roster the best so let’s take a look at his justification uh Bailey looks as if he’d be a seamless fit for the 76ers roster able to slide between the shooting guard and power forward positions in a variety of lineup configurations alongside the likes of Tyrese Maxi Jared McCain Quinton Grimes Paul George and Kelly Ubé Jr the Sixers need a star level wing to emerge and eventually surpass George and his goddy contract which looks increasingly unlikely to age well over the next three years baileyy’s size shotmaking prowess and intensity give him significant upside to grow into at 18 years old totally agree with that analysis um I’m not as huge a fan of Ace Bailey as some other player play players in this draft uh however I think that in terms of fit I think that there’s a huge um uh difference in terms of fit between who is available at this pick and what the uh 76ers need and I think that the 76ers really need a large wing that is kind of what they need even if Embiid comes back or even if he doesn’t if they’re going to go in sort of a different direction they need a guy who can play next to their star guards uh they have Jared McCain Tyrese Maxi uh Quinton Grimes is kind of a swing he’s a bit of a wing bit of a guard um and Kelly Ubra I don’t even think he should be figured into the math here but with those guys they need a taller player who can play off of the ball and make shots and that sounds like Ace Bailey uh with that said I don’t think that he is my favorite uh guy at number three if you were just in a vacuum picking I think that I like uh Jeremy Woos uh pick your uh best value i completely agree uh VJ Edgecom really like him let’s hear what he has to say about him uh Edgecom has made a strong case as the third best prospect in this draft uh teams love his combination of overall athleticism and downhill slashing ability and see major upside as he grows more comfortable making plays with the ball in his hands i’d also make the argument that he offers the best mix of upside and floor at this spot in the draft his proponents around the league see start potential while Edgecom may not be the cleanest fit on paper considering Philadelphia’s backcourt situation there’s no one player expected to be available at number three who would significantly who significantly alters the Sixers outlook for next season i view him as the best bet here through a long-term lens i agree with that and I also agree with what Gavon says here regarding Ace Bailey so that should be an interesting pick to watch and now here’s where things get kind of interesting because uh Jonathan Gavone mentions Ace Bailey going to the Philadelphia 76ers but he also said that Conanipple would go number two overall so we have like a really absurd thing which is uh Dylan Harper dropping all the way down to number four so there are two kind of competing um draft like this is a confusing uh format for this which would be a mock draft so they’re doing two different types of mock drafts one which is done by Gavon where he mentions the biggest need he does a draft based on that and uh obvious Jeremy Woo is doing kind of a big board scenario just in a vacuum who is the best player available and um it is a little confusing to read but at number four because Caniple went second and uh uh Ace Bailey went third um Jonathan Devon mentions that uh Dylan Harper is going number four overall and uh let’s just hear what he has to say i mean I know about him you can read what I have said about all of these different prospects i’ll leave a link in the description to all of the different players and I have a detailed in-depth breakdown on all of them but this is what uh he says about Dylan Harper so Harper slides to number four in the scenario as both the Spurs and Sixers have no major needs in the back court and would perhaps look to other positions if fielding a roster from that lens were the only concern so I think this is a weird way to uh put things i I very strange uh the Hornets would surely love to add Harper’s downhill driving foul drawing and strong interior finishing prowess to a big backcourt with 6’7 LaMelo Ball who is highly capable of playing alongside another shot creator okay so he has Dylan Harper going number four even though they have LaMelo Ball which is kind of bizarre considering that uh the reason that he didn’t have him going to the Spurs or the 76ers is that they have a crowded backcourt but I mean LaMelo Ball is also a very like really good player and they both need the ball in their hands so listen I I’m not exactly sure what the math was here but he has him draft drafted number four and I mean that’s his absolute floor i think his floor is number two but there you go okay so uh Jeremy Woo this is kind of his big board analysis and he has Canipple going uh number four overall which is a little bit of a surprise in my opinion i like Coniple i think he’s uh going to be a solid pro i think this is pretty high for him um I don’t quite see the star level upside so let’s hear what uh Jeremy Woo h says uh in regards to Keniple and why he has him as the fourth best prospect in this draft okay caniple has a real chance of hearing his name called among the top five on draft night with teams considering his immediate on-court utility and the long-term room to flesh out his offensive game Canipple’s excellent perimeter shooting and measured style as a playmaker would be a strong addition for the Hornets with his presence likely helpful to take pressure off Ball and Brandon Miller while there’s a case for Bailey’s upside being difficult to pass up here Canipple arguably has a better chance to reach his full potential with the Hornets and represents the value play if both are on the board this is a good illustration of how the variable of team fit could can and should factor into the matter of situational value this is a like really bizarre framing okay so I would think that you know Gavon is doing the fit woo should be doing the big board he should be saying who is the best player at this uh draft slot why is he taking into account who the Hornets need and what their trajectory is that doesn’t make any sense um weird and like Ace Bailey uh I think you know I I get there are flaws in his game but the star level upside you know it’s difficult to pass up on i think at four maybe Canipola just turns out to be a better player i think that um out of the top prospects I think Ace has some of the biggest bust potential i think he is a boomer bust prospect i think that if he figures it out from a basketball perspective that his tools are just going to blow the other players away especially like his athleticism his defensive ability um his ability to create off of the dribble i think it’s all just way better than Kon Caniple i think Keniple has him beat from a playmaking standpoint from a ball handling standpoint um I think that he is has a higher floor i think there’s less potential for him to bust but yeah I don’t know about this one okay so let’s take a look at the Utah Jazz um uh Gavon says that Edgecomb is the pick here kind of agree with that i think Edgecomb is a really good player um I think that he will you know contribute on both sides of the ball i think that the the Jazz definitely need some star potential at the guard slot so that would make sense i mean Colin Sexton Jordan Clarkson and Keonte George um those guys should not be considered when you’re thinking about who to draft as Isaiah call your ditto you need to make the best pick here um and he says fills the biggest need uh VJ Edgecom so okay um you know those other guards kind of expendable they they could be bench guards they could be trade pieces they could be guys that play alongside uh Edgecomb we’ll see but I I really like Edgecomb and you know five if the Utah Jazz were able to get them at five be a huge steal for them uh Ditto with uh Jeremy Woo okay so Ace Bailey um and so this is where he says this is the value play and yeah I mean it is a value play here i think that this is kind of his floor is the top five um and Utah would get to get a player with really good upside um and you know he’s raw but it doesn’t look like they’re trying to compete over the next couple of years they could invest a lot of time into getting him to where he needs to go so yeah makes sense to me next up okay so this is the first time that both player uh both Woo and uh Gavone agree with one another after Cooper Flag obviously Cooper Flag was number one on both of their uh lists so the Washington Wizards pick uh common malawatch so this one I don’t know from a fit perspective and I actually spoke about this when I talked about the mock draft and I talked about who I saw going where i don’t think that common malawatch is the best fit for the uh Washington Wizards so let’s see what Jonathan Gavon has to say about this uh pick here so Alex Sar has long fancied himself more of a power forward than a center shooting more than five three-pointers per game last season while continuing to post pedestrian defensive rebounding numbers as he has for much of his career he’s a rookie uh enter Malawatch a true center at 7-2 who projects as a defensive anchor in the paint giving the Wizards another long-armed big man to play behind or with SAR in the type of Twin Tower lineups that are becoming increasingly invogue in the NBA think Cleveland Cavaliers i don’t agree with this um if you’re talking about a fit uh I see Sar as a five i think that that is where his highest upside is i think that he is a basket protector um and there are guys that have been kind of you know three-point shooters skilled players that eventually develop into traditional centers and I that’s what I see um Alex Sar doing uh he shoots threes but so do a lot of centers uh a guy that you could look to Brook Lopez um he was kind of similar uh in his first couple of years he wasn’t the greatest defender he wasn’t a very good rebounder um but as he bulked up got bigger learned the position and learned his value as a player he became a center and I see Alex Sar becoming a center i don’t think he’s a power forward i don’t get it why he would say that he doesn’t that’s not what I see and so drafting common Malawatch for fit with Alex Sar that doesn’t make any sense to me um I think that there are other and the draft is pretty flat here so even from a value perspective I’m not really getting it uh I like common malaw watch quite a bit but you need to kind of have a need for him i think that playing him alongside Alexar and yeah double big lineups are coming back into style i just don’t think that it’s a great fit i think that you do it out of necessity and you try and make it work but I don’t think that you know two C’s is the wave of the future regardless of whether uh um Jonathan Gavon thinks so or not so uh Jeremy Woo he’s doing kind of the big board let’s He also agrees Malawatch is the best prospect here uh as the consensus top defensive big man in the class Malawatch would be a strong addition most anywhere although teams with young centers in place might see more value in going in a different direction i agree the Wizards working with the benefit of time as they rebuild might consider the benefits of a superersized defensive front line pairing Malawatch with the more agile SAR at the four okay so he’s not really evaluating it i mean they are he is kind of evaluating from a fit standpoint which I don’t understand i don’t get what they’re doing here um okay so next up New Orleans Pelicans uh Jonathan Gavone’s pick that fills the biggest need uh so Trey Johnson trey Johnson has been mocked as high as three I’ve seen uh and at seven this would be a pretty good value pick although uh Jeremy Woo disagrees so let’s see what Jonathan Gavone has to say okay so with CJ McCollum 34 entering the final year of his contract makes sense to start thinking about his successor i mean I am no CJ McCollum fan you don’t even have to think about him uh the Pelicans were one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA last season and they offloaded one of their primary shot creators in Brandon Ingram Brandon Ingram at the February trade deadline creating a definite void on the wing enter former Longhorn Johnson an aggressive dynamic shotmaker who puts non-stop pressure on opposing defenses with his insatiable hunger to score his serious-minded approach would fit in well on this Pelicans roster and there are enough lengthy defenders to help compensate for some of his shortcomings in that department sounds like solid analysis to me they need more shooting could easily see them making this pick um I I honestly think that they would i think that he is a great pick next to uh Zion Williamson zion Williamson obviously a non-shooter who is one of the best drivers to the basket you know in NBA history i mean he’s that good going to the basket he needs some spacing trey Johnson would be a guy who could provide that uh so Jeremy Woo uh Woos pick that gets the best value so Jeremiah Fierce uh uh I like Jeremiah Fierce too uh he is also a guy who seemed mocked very high um he is kind of in this range though but uh it seems like uh Jeremy Woo is higher on uh Jeremiah Fears than on Trey Johnson which is interesting so let’s hear what he has to say uh when swinging for upside early in the draft Fears is the type of talent I’d have a hard time letting fall too far his playmaking instincts and ability to get downhill can put major pressure on defenses and he’s so early in his development that there’s time and room for his jump shot to come around while Fierce is unlikely to be an immediate high impact addition in a winning context his skill set is worth investing in early particularly for a team such as New Orleans that could use a long-term starting point guard i get it i totally get it i’ve mentioned uh when I was doing my mock draft I had um uh Trey Johnson going higher uh a lot higher in the top five but uh fears I said that this is like a perfect fit for them so it’s interesting that uh Jeremy Woo who’s doing kind of the value uh has fears going above Trey Johnson so it appears that he thinks that he is you know a better player better long-term prospect very interesting okay uh Brooklyn Nets so they kind of flip here they reverse so fears uh Jonathan Gavone has the Nets picking him uh that makes sense um D’Angelo Russell don’t have to think about him dennis Rutder he’s gone uh Ben Simmons gone killian Hayes gone uh obviously they don’t have a point guard they have a shooting guard he dominates the ball quite a bit and that’s obviously Cam Thomas cam Thomas is kind of their ball handler shooter uh he it’s true that he’s not a point guard really but I could see this um fills the biggest need fears i I could see them playing alongside one another although neither are great defenders um yeah I could see this easily jeremy Woo has the Nets picking Trey Johnson that makes sense to me i guess he has them rated pretty closely i guess that makes a little bit of sense okay so here’s where things get kind of you know interesting and so this is a big surprise for me and they both agree which is you know I would find a little concerning so the Toronto Raptors are here and we’re going to stop the analysis after we talk about the Toronto Raptors um maybe we’ll do a couple of you know their their evaluations on some of the other prospects that I like at this pick so we’ll we’ll scan through after this but let’s see what they have to say about Derek Queen because I don’t really agree with this but we’ll see what they have to say it’s hard to see where a rookie guard so Gavon obviously talking about need uh he says it’s hard to see where a rookie guard winger forward would fit into the Raptors depth chart as currently constructed as the team has at least eight players vying for minutes at those positions the situation on the interior looks a lot more uncertain with Yaka Purle entering the final guaranteed year of his contract and possessing a player option in 2627 enter Queen the most skilled big man in this draft capable of scoring facing the basket or with his back to it with an impressive passing ability to boot his shooting will likely need to improve for him to operate effectively alongside Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram but he brings something to this roster that the Raptors don’t currently possess with upside to grow into if his conditioning improves conditioning that’s a big one uh athleticism another big one defense also a big one motor another issue I I there are a lot of concerns with uh Derek Queen and some of the things that I saw especially in the tournament were very concerning to me especially the motor especially the conditioning the rebounding boxing out all that kind of stuff there’s some big holes in his game uh Woo’s pick that gets the best value queen okay the number nine spot is where the draft starts to flatten out a bit value-wise this next group of prospects is a bit more eye of the beholder and they bring very different skill sets to the table for a team such as the Raptors where there isn’t necessarily a perfect fit on the board here this spot could be one to simply swing on talent queen is the most offensively gifted big man in the in the class and although he has several areas for improvement particularly as a defender Toronto has room to develop talent up front and could certainly justify a swing here i Yeah I’m not a huge fan of Derek Queen i think that at the center position you have to be a generational offensive player if you cannot bring the things that you need from that position the things that I am talking about are rebounding and defense uh rim protection uh the ability to stop players from scoring inside that is huge and I don’t think he can play the power forward position especially with Scotty Barnes on the lineup i think that’s Scotty Barnes’s long-term position you’d really need him to play at the five he also can’t shoot so this would exacerbate the Raptor shooting problems without providing the things that you need from the center position so I just I don’t like it from a talent perspective uh like a a fit perspective or from a uh value proposition i just I don’t think that that’s he’s the guy so let’s see where they have some other guys here so uh Gavon uh Houston Rockets has him them taking Yakonis uh Colin Murray Boils is uh Jeremy Woos pick and he’s a guy that I think that the Toronto Raptors should should really explore at uh number nine i really like him i think he’s a really good player so let’s hear what uh Jeremy Woo has to say about Colin Murray Boils uh the Rockets are in a fortunate position holding the Suns pick at number 10 with depth across the roster and without major personnel needs if anything there could be value in trading it to upgrade the team elsewhere but if we’re looking at this from a best available lens Murray Boils is a strong candidate bringing a diverse roleplayer toolkit that makes a lot of sense as a value ad for Houston an organization that will likely appreciate his strong analytic profile as it projects out when you look at kind of what he does on the court it makes complete sense he’s a very good defender good rebounder good passer can score around the rim i I like him as a prospect better than Derek Queen i think Derrick Queen’s upside is higher cuz his offensive game is a little bit better but just in terms of just getting a guy that I think will pan out I think Colin Murray Boils I think he’s going to be in the league for a long time um okay let’s talk about Jonathan Gavone because he’s he’s got another player that I like here um Edgar Demon and so these guys have both uh I mean the ESPN crew has been talking about Edgar Demon as you know a lottery pick for the the whole year they really like what he brings to the table let’s hear what uh Jonathan Gavon has to say the Trailblazers don’t appear to have any immediate needs that can be filled with a player drafted in this range but they might be intrigued by the idea of adding a big playmaking guard such as Demen who has the size and versatility to play on or off the ball can slide across different positions and can grow alongside Portland’s young core long term i think that that applies to the Raptors too raptors have a lot of players at different positions i think that if you wanted to develop a high upside draft pick I demon could be that guy you could bring him off of the bench you could play next to all the players on the Toronto Raptors bench uh you could blend him into certain lineups uh with the starters i think that he’d be a pretty good high up upside swing pick at number nine uh Yakonis is uh Jeremy Woo’s uh pick uh at 11 uh okay so and next another guy that I really like uh uh Jeremy Woo has going to the Bulls noah Sen’s uh so this is who he believes is the 12th best prospect in the draft si’s strong recent play has helped solidify him as a lottery candidate his size mobility and improving motor make him an intriguing bet in this range in the draft although there’s some developmental risk baked in his productivity this season has been a strong positive indicator adding an 18-year-old player with these type with his type of tools and valuable mold makes for a strong proposition in the late lottery for the Bulls this would be a valid upside play with the big swing on a versatile prospect making sense as they attempt to work their way out of the middle of the Eastern Conference pack i like this guy at number nine for the Raptors as well i’d be happy with him as uh at nine i think that he could be you know a really high upside guy he has new school wing forward written all over him there’s a ton of guys like him in the league i mean Pascal Seakum is a guy that that that comp there he’s got a burgeoning on ball uh dribble package he’s a rim runner he can play in transition he’s a good defender uh he he has like a an iffy jump shot i’m not like totally sold on his jump shot but it looks like he can do a little bit of that as well i just see a lot of upside here when you watch him play the guy really looks like an NBA player so I like him there and uh there’s a couple of other guys we won’t spend too much time carter Bryant’s another guy that you know has really moved up the draft board a lot of guys are really interested in him so that’s interesting so that is the uh ESPN mockdraft we’re not going to go into too much detail in the next one which is a CBS Sports uh mock draft because uh Gary Parish honestly I have not heard of him but let’s take a look at who he has drafting uh who he has the Raptors drafting at number nine um so uh his mock draft is is pretty basic here um Cooper Flag Dylan Harper Trey Johnson not a huge surprise VJ Edgecomb Ace Bailey going number five so he’s fallen quite a bit in a lot of projections jeremiah Fierce Coniple Common Malawatch going eight and then Derek Queen again going to the Toronto Raptors i’m I I get it a lot of teams are saying “Okay Jakob Purle is he going to be here longterm they that could be a hole they need a backup center.” I’m just not sold on him as a prospect so you know let’s hear what he has to say at least queen is a super interesting forward who offsets some of his physical limitations with incredible skill and above average smarts he hit the buzzer beater against Colorado State that sent Maryland to the Sweet 16 scored 27 against the eventual national champion Florida and solidified himself in the NCAA tournament as an intriguing lottery option so yeah uh I I saw something different in uh the tournament saw a guy with a lot of offensive upside with a lot of big flaws and he kind of hints towards this um offset some of his physical limitations he can’t really jump or move his feet very well so yeah not a huge fan here uh there’s a couple of guys okay Jace Richardson I liked him until I saw the uh measurements he’s a smaller guard here um and not as big a fan there colin Murray Boils a little bit further down no huge surprises i mean Kasparus Yakonas has really fallen in most uh mock drafts uh he didn’t have a very good end to the year but anyway those are two of the draft uh mock drafts that I wanted to look at we are going to be jumping into the next section where I talk about the Toronto Raptors and their potential interest in the big fish so let’s hop over there hello welcome back to the second half of this video we are going to be delving into the uh quote big fish that the Toronto Raptors are apparently interested in in uh the trade market uh and there have been a lot of rumors that have been floating around from reputable sources uh beat writers in Toronto as well as you know national media people credible people like Brian Windhorse Shams Trannia so let’s talk about that uh so first of all Giannis Giannis akmpo um there has been trade buzz surrounding him it really looks as though the Milwaukee Bucks are aging out uh they had to trade off um Chris Middleton that trade did not work out for them uh Kyle Kosma was horrible I mean they probably were better off keeping um Chris Middleton or finding another trade cuz that one just really didn’t look very good for them and uh Damen Lillard has been injured so there’s a lot of question marks there is he going to be able to come back at 100% is he going to be a diminished player uh is he going to be healthy that’s a big thing too so Giannis Atenako still in his prime he is still right in the meat of his prime and it he’s such a good player that he will be a very good player for a much longer time and he’s very big bigs generally tend to last longer in the league as well uh so he is still a hot commodity he is still one of the best players in the league top three at the very least maybe top two i mean it depends on where you have you know Lugodonic Sha Gilchis Alexander i still have Yokic at number one although obviously you could make the case for a couple of guys being over him sheljis Alexander especially just based on how amazing he has been this playoffs regardless Giannis Atenkmpo is one of the best players of all time in my opinion he will be a first ballot hall of famer he’s already a top 20 player of all time in my opinion he like carried the Bucks to a championship by himself he is a force on both ends uh the Toronto Raptors have been linked to him for a long time sajiri and him have a very strong connection and obviously the Raptors are interested as are a lot of teams but the Raptors are unlike a lot of teams in that they have quite a few assets and there’s mutual interest doug Smith of the Toronto Star uh beat reporter for the Toronto Raptors said that the Raptors were interested in Giannis and vice versa uh Brian Windhorse uh went on his podcast and said that the Raptors he he had heard buzz around the league that the Raptors are trying to land a quote big fish and there’s really no bigger fish that’s on the market currently than Giannis Atenagmpo so you do the math the Raptors are definitely interested in Giannis Atenagmpo uh there are some other big fish as well we’ll get into that a little bit later but Giannis is the A number one guy that the Toronto Raptors are probably interested in so a lot of trade proposals have been floated around but the most likely in my opinion uh would center around RJ Barrett and probably Yaka Purle um those are two big contracts you add those two together it works straight up for Giannis he could trade you know in terms of salary let’s put it that way rj Barrett and Yaka Purle could be traded straight up for Giannis Attenakmpo uh obviously it would take a lot more to make that work uh that would be the framework of the deal those two players going out you’d obviously add lots of picks lots of prospects lots of pick swaps the Raptors would have to you know sell a good amount of the farm a lot of promising prospects and a lot of first round draft capital uh for Jana Satennako and that it would be just completely worth it the there’s no question about it if you get Jiannis Atenkuno you go and do it uh the other trade package that has generated a lot of buzz on social media um a lot of people you know really for it some people very against it would be obviously Scotty Barnes being traded for Janis Atenkmpo i think the front office isn’t as keen on that they’d want to keep Scotty to pair him with Giannis um and that would be a less preferable option of course in my opinion scotty Barnes young player huge upside lots of defensive potential great playmaker i believe in him as a player with that said it’s still like worth it um I I know that a lot of people very attached to Scotty Barnes i am too i think he has a lot of star potential with that said this is Giannis Attenako he is in the prime of his career he’s still under contract for a number of years you would become a contender if you acquired um uh Giannis so obviously wouldn’t be my first choice but if it came down to it I would probably make that trade uh in my opinion as I’ve said Giannis is one of the best players of all time this is not a slight on Scotty Barnes scotty Barnes I definitely believe in him uh with that said the the newest news the updated news that come came out like a day or two ago was that the Bucks are um they’re not interested they’re going to try and make it work they’re going to try and make deals around Giannis to try and keep him and build another contender around him and the the big thing here is that that may be true i wouldn’t doubt it that they want to keep Giannis that they’re going to find some way by hook or by crook to get a better team around him but with that said they would be saying this even if they were looking to trade Giannis for the best return possible it’s like saying you’re going to be selling your car you know you’re not going to be going around saying “I want to give this away god I have I I have this car on my hands i got to get rid of it.” Well guess what like nobody bargains like that it’s a dumb way to to contextualize things they’re going to be saying “He’s not available we want to keep him unless you know you blow us away.” and they’ll obviously pick up the phone and and hear what teams have to say in my opinion um I think you as a general manager you’ve got to kind of do your due diligence and unless you know you have you know Sha Gil just Alexander in his prime with a team that is you know ready to go to the finals you would consider trading even a player as good as Giannis for the right trade package so let’s think about that um but the reports are that the talks have stalled at least and that might be true uh it might be that the the Bucks are just waiting for the other shoe to drop maybe they’re looking around the league waiting for another team to make a move first or maybe they’re waiting for teams to sweeten the pot maybe where they are at right now isn’t where the Bucks need them to be in order to trade him so it’s something to keep an eye on um I obviously would love it if Giannis Aenkakumbo could become a Raptor he is really that good i mean uh I’m sure you know that but it’s worth repeating um next up the other possible big fish here and this is a smaller fish but this is another you know one of the best players of all time we’re talking about here but it’s a different situation the other big fish on the market apparently is Kevin Durant kevin Durant is an older player he will be 37 next season and he is on the final year of his deal uh the Suns tried to make it work they tried to put a team around him uh Devin Booker it didn’t work they didn’t make the playoffs it was a disaster and now they’re looking to get a return on their investment they’re trying to recoup the investment that they made yeah he’s he’s he’s not worth as much as he used to be uh so teams will be nibbling around i think that there are probably teams who are further along in their uh you know development process where he would make more sense so I think that if you were to add Kevin Durant you have to be a team that is on the cusp of winning the championship you have to have a core in their prime who has proven that they just need one more player to take the next step and um Durant and the Raptors have had mutual uh interest this has been reported for many years now um Durant likes Toronto he’s a fan of Drake they hang out all the time he’s been in Toronto a lot of the time he likes Toronto they were one of his favorite teams growing up he would be a player that I think would be very comfortable playing here so that’s something to consider um if it came down to it I think that the Toronto Raptors if the price was cheap enough and the other teams just weren’t willing to pony up I could see the Raptors going and getting him um with that said uh I think that there are some other ways that the Raptors could be involved in this and as you know the Toronto Raptors they were involved in that huge swirling trade where at the trade deadline everybody went one way and another and the Raptors managed to get in on that trade for uh Brandon Ingram they sent out a whole bunch of stuff it was a very complicated trade i think that the Raptors could become involved in that kind of trade uh with Kevin Durant maybe not as complicated because I think that there is one team that makes a lot of sense where he could go and apparently there’s uh there’s some smoke there too there’s been some people in the media who have mentioned their interest that is the New York Knicks james Dolan is the owner of the New York Knicks and he is a meddler and while it looks like he has been hands off for the past couple of years now when they’ve had a ton of success it looks like his fingerprints are on the uh Tibido firing um Tibido was obviously fired at the end of the season and they didn’t have a replacement for him and they’re kind of like poking around asking if they can interview Kid and like it’s all very sloppy very James Dolanesque so he might be back in the driver’s seat he might have more of a say now leon Rose I think has done a solid job with that roster he has made them into a contender and he should be given credit i think that they could be interested in Kevin Durant with that said I don’t think that they’re going to be interested in the way that you might expect so uh Cat uh Carl Anthony Towns I think that they’re going to try and keep him i think that they want to pair Kevin Durant alongside him and Brunson i think Cat is very a very good player he’s shown it as maybe not in the end of the last series but he’s shown that he can have big moments in the playoffs and he did uh I think that adding Kevin Durant to that core would make them a stronger team and it would be trying to kind of maximize their window and just push them over the hump they stalled out in the conference finals against the Pacers this would give them another shot maker so it makes sense for them i think the Raptors could get in on that um so ML Bridges is a player that I kind of have my eye on he had a down season last year um he wasn’t given the opportunity to be the type of player that he has been in the past especially in the Brooklyn Nets when he was a higher usage player he was involved more and he could shoot the ball a little bit more uh so he had he had fewer points even though he played way more minutes so he didn’t like how many minutes he was playing A and B he didn’t get as many shots as he would like so I think the Knicks uh he’s also on the final year of his contract so this is a guy that maybe the Knicks aren’t going to be trying to invest in in the future and I think the Raptors could jump in and become involved in uh that kind of trade so I have two trades here uh the first of which is a trade straight up for Kevin Durant and that trade um would just simply be the Toronto Raptors trading uh RJ Barrett Yaka Purle and you know somebody like Grady Dick uh for Kevin Durant and you know I mean you’d have to consider that Jakoba Purle as a position player the Raptors don’t really have a center uh waiting in the wings maybe if they drafted some guy or they traded the ninth overall pick for a cheaper you know good center um that could be an option nick Richards is on the Suns and I wouldn’t mind him as a stop gap center option i think he’s a decent player but the Suns are over the second apron and what that means is that they can’t aggregate players in a trade so they couldn’t trade Kevin Durant and Nick Richards for uh to the Toronto Raptor it’s just not a possibility so Yaka Purle going out would be you know a tough pill to swallow it wouldn’t make total sense which is why I’m kind of more of the opinion that the Toronto Raptors should try and make a trade that involves getting Mal Bridges and so take a look at this trade that I’ve proposed would be sending out RJ Barrett and Grady Dick they would be getting back uh Muel Bridges and Mitchell Robinson and then the Knicks would be getting uh Kevin Durant and this would be kind of a win-winwin uh the Suns would be getting some younger players to play alongside Devin Booker it wouldn’t be a full rebuild i think they want to keep Booker and they just know that Kevin Durant is kind of on the way out anyway so they want to get a good return for him they’d be getting RJ Barrett and Grady Dick and Josh Hart who’s a really good role player that he could fit into that team very well give them a bunch of depth i think they’d be a better team honestly kevin Durant would go to the Knicks and then the Raptors would be getting uh Muel Bridges and Mitchell Robinson uh Mitchell Robinson as you may have seen in the last round uh that they played at the conference finals he was really good uh he was great for them and listen I think that they wouldn’t want to give him up but if you look at their team and the way that they’re constructed and what contracts that the Knicks have they really if they if they don’t want to part with OG Anobi or Cat they have to trade Muel Bridges and Mitchell Robinson for Kevin Durant and Josh Hart they’d have to put all those players together unless they want to move off of OG Anobi but as we saw OG Anobi is just a tier above Josh Hart and he is such an important player with the three and the D and like the one of the best defenders in the entire league and a very good three-point shooter and he really showed out in the final uh round of the uh that they were involved in in the conference finals so I think that they’re going to be trying to trade Muel Bridges in this proposed trade the Raptors would be getting older they’d be trading for two veterans uh Muel Bridges is 28 i think uh Mitchell Robinson he’s around the same age i like Muel Bridges i like his fit on the Raptors too i think RJ Barrett I he really impressed me he he was a lot better than I thought he would be for the Toronto Raptors but here’s the thing he’s not a plus three-point shooter i know that he did do a good job playing as a catch and shoot three-point shooter muel Bridges is not that type of shooter he is a guy that can make hard shots and you can run him off of screens and you can use him as an offball threat in a way that RJ Barrett really cannot mitchell Robinson is they did it like look at how good the Knicks were with him as the backup center with him and Isaiah Hartenshine as their two centers that was just it worked so well he is a really quality player and you wouldn’t have to rely on him being healthy cuz he’s had health issues he’s in the final year of his deal too so and and obviously Grady Dick is a guy who could break out he has potential but this would be kind of selling high i’m not as big a fan of him i I know there are a lot of people who cover the team are a lot higher on him than I am um I think that this would be getting good value for him muel Bridges Mitchell Robinson this would give the Toronto Raptors a really strong core and probably propel them into the playoffs so that’s a little food for thought there but obviously uh there’s some downside here uh Bridges Robinson on the final years of their contracts uh I think that Bridges is a guy that if he you know impresses he could be looking at a payday that the Raptors could be interested in signing him at so that is my proposed trade for that and uh I’d be interested to know what you guys think about both Giannis Durant maybe Muel Bridges my trade proposal with the New York Knicks let me know what you think because this is the end of the episode you can let me know what you think in the comments on Twitter on Blue Sky you can reach me there at Rapsreport i love talking to Toronto Raptors fans we are the best don’t let anyone tell you differently and if you haven’t already please like the video and subscribe because that really helps the channel grow helps the algorithm know that this is content that other Raptors fans should take a look at and as always thank you for tuning in to Raptors Report your source for in-depth Raptors content

Taking a look at the newest ESPN and CBS mock drafts as well as examining the Raptor’s quest to land a “Big Fish”.

Prior Draft Episodes:

Jase Richardson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE14jHPMA64
Derik Queen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG2enV-emmo
Collin Murray-Boyles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edCVh1QgMbI
Jeremiah Fears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXQgRJZ2bwo
Danny Wolf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et6zjmfYlOc
Kon Knueppel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQn-mZ3yT0w
Rasheer Fleming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-Rhjdk-KMo
Noa Essengue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hMb-j-tpiY
Tre Johnson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoTFVGs3_pM
Khaman Maluach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LxbcdoH-XE
Kasparas Jakucionis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy3yrMqqOGk
V.J. Edgecomb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEUKo5OLtpE
Dylan Harper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnNArfmhVbQ
Ace Bailey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuDV5xyDQAg
Cooper Flagg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUHt8k87dYk