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Toronto Raptors 2020 NBA Draft Summary

The Toronto Raptors had two draft picks in 2020. They selected 29th and 59th overall in the 2020 NBA Draft. Their first-round draft pick was Malachi Flynn from San Diego State University and the second-round pick was Jalen Harris from the University of Nevada.

The Toronto Raptors Draft Review

Malachi Flynn

Flynn’s first team will be the 2019 NBA Champions, the Raptors. He is a 6’1″ point guard drafted out of San Diego State. In the 2019-20 NCAA season, he averaged 17.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.8 steals per game.

As a result, he won the Consensus second-team All-American honors, Mountain West Player of the Year, and First-team All-Mountain West in 2020. In the same year, he also won the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year.

This is what Bobby Webster, general manager of the Raptors, said according to Steven Loung of Sportsnet.

“He’s a modern NBA point guard,” said Webster. “I think he can do it all on the offensive end. A lot of people are going to talk about the pick-and-roll, shooting off the dribble, shoots the three-ball well, obviously defends at a high level as well.”

What also might have played a role is how similar he is to Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet in terms of height. There are also other similarities like making opposing players uncomfortable, and playing well on the defensive end.

It is no wonder the Raptors took interest in drafting Flynn. According to NBA.com/stats, the Raptors had the second-best defensive rating in the 2019-20 NBA season. So, his defense will be a great complement to the Raptors organization.

Grade: A-

Jalen Harris

Harris is a combo guard, who’s listed height is 6’5″. He last played for the Nevada Wolfpack in the 2019-20 NCAA season. There he averaged 21.6 points, 6.40 rebounds, and 3.93 assists, and 1.13 steals per game. This is what Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman said of Harris according to Aaron Rose of Sports Illustrated:

“He is a big-time athlete who does a lot of different types of play-making, whether it’s attacking, he’s really comfortable with the ball in his hands,” Tolzman said of Harris on Wednesday night.

Harris is a scoring machine who had an incredible 32.7 percent usage rate. This could be a plus for the Raptors. According to NBA Advanced Stats, the Raptors were 13th in the NBA as they scored 112.8 points per game. If the Raptors want to win the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, their offense needs to improve.

Maybe the addition of Harris will help that. He was part of the Conference USA All-Freshman in 2017. He also made it to the First-team All-Mountain West and won the Mountain West Newcomer of the Year. Both of those honors took place in 2020.

Grade: B+

Toronto Raptors 2020 NBA Draft Overview and Grade

The Raptors are pleased to get both Harris and Flynn. According to Jump View, Tolzman said they did not expect to get both players. Both were rated higher on the Raptors’ draft board.

The problem though is the competition both players will likely face. Lowry and VanVleet are two of the Raptors’ three-best players. Lastly, shooting guard Norman Powell is one of the best bench players in the NBA.

However, shooting guard Terence Davis is unlikely to be signed by the Raptors. This is because of charges laid against him for assaulting his girlfriend in October according to Kerrisa Wilson, a Web Content Writer for CP24. Expect Harris to replace Davis as a backup shooting guard. It would also not be surprising if Flynn could also play the shooting guard position as both the point guard and shooting guard positions are similar.

There is a question of Lowry’s age. He is 34-years-old and was one of the oldest NBA All-Stars in 2020. How many more years can he produce at an NBA All-Star level? These are the questions they need to answer. From what Tolzman said, these players were steals in the draft.

So, taking all into consideration, the Raptors got high grades. They were not going to get a player who could play straight away in the NBA in a starting role. However, from the choices the Raptors had, they so far seemed to be very good draft picks.

Overall Grade: A-

Main Image: Embed from Getty Images

Raheem Bashir, Site Manager

Raheem Bashir, Site Manager

Raheem Bashir started blogging on a Gmail site called Blogger and has covered sporting events in rugby union/league and soccer. Since then he has become the Last Word on Sports writer for rugby, soccer, and previously basketball. He is also a member of the North American Soccer Reporters and The Rugby Union Writers’ Club. Raheem graduated from George Brown College with a Digital Media Marketing Post-Grad Certificate in 2019. From the same college, Raheem also did a post-grad certificate in Sport and Event Marketing in 2017. Lastly, he did an undergrad Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 2016.

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