What are the Raptors getting in Alijah Martin?

What are the Raptors getting in Alijah Martin?

toronto Raptors drafted Elijah Martin 39th overall with their second round pick martin along with the Raptors first round pick Colin Murray Boils are both known for their defense the 23-year-old guard played five seasons of college ball transferred to Florida in his final year averaged 14 points four rebounds helping the Florida Gator win the US College National Championship and now we are joined by Jack Armstrong jack two days of draft watching how exciting was that for you well tonight quite frankly was pretty boring yeah I would like to see the NBA go back to having the draft all in one night i would agree with you but that being said well let’s talk about this Raptors pick Elijah Martin so as I alluded to uh defense seems to be on the mind of Bobby Webster and Messiah Jury right now no doubt and Elijah Martin uh definitely you know is another key ingredient to that based upon their pick from last night and uh he’s someone that I’m really excited about uh look he was a a terrific player at Florida Atlantic then transferred won an NCA championship at Florida uh he defines that grit that toughness he’s super explosive uh solid three-point shooter and uh a little undersized for a guard about 6’2 kind of reminds me a little bit of a guy that the Raptors got late out of UCLA named Norm Powell and and brings that kind of grit and that toughness and that explosiveness and compete level and look you know I think when you look at these transactions by the Raptors uh clearly they made uh nice strides at the end of the season last year in terms of how they were guarding and I think you you you make these moves i think it it just amplifies what you’re trying to do in terms of not only uh improving your defense but I think it makes your team internally that much more competitive that much tougher uh playing with a little bit more of an edge and I fully expect that to to carry over to training camp and you’ll see it next season and further to what your point there Jack you know they take these two players that are defensive-minded then they sign undrafted free agent Chucky Heppern he was the ACC defensive player of the year like they’re really all in on defense right now are you at all surprised that this is the direction they’re taking well you know they have they have a you know you add a guy like Brandon Ingram uh and if you have a a quick lead that’s healthy and a Scotty Barnes and an RJ Barrett and Purle and guys like that I think there’s enough offense there i just think that you need to be a steady consistent team so uh you look at at what they’ve done here in the last 28 hours or so and clearly they felt there was a significant need to improve on that end and and to that point uh here you are now with with a kind of a different looking roster now I’ll say this obviously early next week you have free agency yeah and on top of free agency you’ll have some trade activity and it wouldn’t surprise me uh that the Raptors are heavily involved in discussions and potentially make a move uh to me I think right now you look at Atlanta got better Orlando got better in terms of the trades that they made and as we talked about last night Jay uh you look at the injuries in Boston to Tatum Lilid in Milwaukee and obviously Hallebertton in Indiana it changes the complexion of the Eastern Conference and to me it’s a little bit more wide open uh by the day and I think for the Raptors we’ll see in the next five days or so whether they decide to go a little further all in it will be very interesting to see if they start the season with or without one RJ Barrett we talked about him yesterday next stop for Toronto’s rookies Las Vegas baby it’s summer league it’s summer league and it begins July the 10th i can have a few Harveies out there i wish I uh I wish I had put some Harvey’s there you go into your cup i wish I had Vegas

What are the Raptors getting in Alijah Martin? Are the Raptors trying to re-establish their defensive identity? TSN Basketball analyst Jack Armstrong joins SC with Jay Onrait to discuss the Raptors selecting Alijah Martin with the 39th overall pick.