At 7:18 pm on Monday, May 12th, the Toronto Raptors’ lottery hopes went up in flames. The Raptors’ front office and fans hoped they wouldn’t hear their name until the very end. But it looked less and less likely as the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs moved up. Then, as the 9th overall card was flipped, Masai Ujiri’s worst nightmare came true; the Toronto Raptors logo popped up and cemented their spot in the NBA Draft.<\/p>\n
This is the fourth time in Raptors history that they will choose ninth in the NBA Draft. The first three ninth overall picks were Tracy McGrady<\/a> in 1996, DeMar DeRozan<\/a> in 2009, and Jakob Poeltl<\/a> in 2016. Now we have to consider some targets the Toronto Raptors may have in this NBA Draft.<\/p>\n For many NBA fans, this is the part of the season when they look at the college basketball players who will be moving on to the NBA<\/a>. What a lot of these fans will start to notice is how close these prospects 5-13 are. So for the Toronto Raptors<\/a>, there isn’t a clear pick at number nine; they will have to believe in their scouting. Some of the more likely players include Kasparas Jakucionis<\/a>, a 6’6″ freshman point guard who fits the way the Raptors play cause he can share the ball well. Another name that has shown up a lot is Maryland center Derik Queen<\/a>. Queen’s<\/a> upside is what lands him projected 8th overall on most big boards. With the Raptors<\/a> needing a young center, he could fit in nicely as he develops defensively.<\/p>\n We talked about how 5-13 is so close, and if your GM believes in whoever they draft in that range, it’s not a bad pick. But if somehow any of these players fall out of the top four, whether it is due to the combine or just teams having their guys, you pick them immediately. It’s all but confirmed that Cooper Flagg<\/a> will go first overall, and there is no expectation for that to change. As for the other three in Dylan Harper<\/a>, Ace Bailiey<\/a>, and VJ Edgecombe<\/a>, we would expect them to stay put also, but things change quickly. In the scenario that things change and they begin falling out of the top four, the Raptors should consider moving up in the draft to acquire one of these players.<\/p>\n Ultimately, this usually isn’t a good idea, but with how much the Raptors trust themselves, it wouldn’t surprise me. If Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster love a player, they will choose them regardless of any big board. With some intriguing young players in this draft, like French forward Noa Essengue<\/a>, there is always a chance the Raptors don’t want to pass up on him. Although many don’t agree with this as opposed to trading down, if there is a chance you miss out on the player you want, it’s not worth the risk.<\/p>\n If the Toronto Raptors can land any of these five players in the 2025 NBA draft, fans should be excited for the future and how they fit into the team. Guards like Jakucionis, Fears, and Johnson can grow into stars at that position. Centers Queen and Maluach are very different players who, in their own way, can elevate this team to another level.<\/p>\n \u00a9 John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At 7:18 pm on Monday, May 12th, the Toronto Raptors’ lottery hopes went up in flames. The Raptors’ front office and fans hoped they wouldn’t hear their name until the very end. But it looked less and less likely as the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs moved up. Then, as the 9th overall card […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5528,"featured_media":139618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,556,14],"tags":[49399,48964,49871,49668,49956,49955,49403,49827,50100],"class_list":["post-139474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-raptors","tag-ace-bailey","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-derik-queen","tag-dylan-harper","tag-jeremiah-fears","tag-kasparas-jakucionis","tag-khaman-maluach","tag-tre-johnson","tag-v-j-edgecombe"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139474"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139619,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139474\/revisions\/139619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2025 NBA Draft: Toronto Raptors Targets At No. 9<\/h2>\n
Most Likely Outcomes<\/h3>\n
If They Fall<\/h3>\n
Consider Reaching<\/h3>\n
Top 5 Targets<\/h3>\n
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