Updates on the Toronto Raptors 2025 NBA Draft predictions.
“There’s definitely interest in people trying to get our pick,” said Dan Tolzman, Assistant General Manager and VP, Player Personnel for the Toronto Raptors on Monday.
The pick he’s talking about is the Raptors’ No. 9 overall lottery pick in Wednesday’s NBA Draft. A spot that the team fell to after being projected to draw the No. 7 pick at least in last month’s Draft Lottery. Still, if anyone knows how to pick a good player a little later in the draft, it’s this Toronto front office led by Masai Ujiri, General Manager Bobby Webster, and Tolzman.
In Tolzman’s Monday afternoon availability, he told the media that there is consensus around the league that the top 1-13 (the lottery) is a good batch of players. The team is planning to draft best available regardless of position, and have a pretty expansive group of players they are considering to pick at No. 9 should they be available.
In terms of the Raptors specific needs, there are a few things they could address in this draft. The highest area of need is their lack of dependable backup center, someone who can play under Jakob Poeltl, who the Raptors also happened to draft No.9 overall. Yet, if the player available at 9th isn’t a center, they will roll with it.
Of course Tolzman was not going to outright say who they were considered or even who they have worked out or met with. There is also a chance they pick someone who they haven’t worked out, like they did with Ja’Kobe Walter last year. The Raptors have a habit of going off-book with their picks sometimes.
Looking at Fanduel’s Draft Odds, Khaman Maluach of Duke is currently the player with the highest odds to be picked No. 9 overall (+250). After him is Noa Essengue (+470), someone who Raptors HQ’s JD Quirante says would fit great on a Masai-built Raptors team. Third in terms of odds is Carter Bryant (+490), followed by Derick Queen (+500).
Other prospects on our radar include Egor Demin out of BYU, who enters the conversation odds-wise at the No. 8 pick, where he is the 4th player most likely to get picked (+550) to the Brooklyn Nets. Another prospect the Raptors could look at? Collin Murry-Boyles out of South Carolina.
There is also the possibility that the Raptors make a late trade involving the No. 9 pick, which The Stein Line mentioned as a possibility weeks ago. In fact, in that drop, the Raptors pick was the “most likely to be traded ahead of the draft.” Of course, we’ve now seen the No. 10 pick be dealt in a trade, as it was a part of the deal to send Kevin Durant from Phoenix to Houston.
Personally, I don’t think the Raptors will trade for a higher pick in the draft. They seem to be happy with their prospects at No. 9, and the price seems too high to chance giving up some of their best assets just to move up a few spots. If the price is right, sure, but Masai’s price isn’t often the same as everyone else’s price.
As for the second round, Tolzman again seemed pleased with how the team was approaching the No. 39 pick. There was a discussion in the room about how NIL in college basketball has changed the landscape of picking players in the second round, and Tolzman commented on how they are seeing more older players and NBA-ready prospects. This is due to players’ decisions to stay in college longer to continue collecting NIL money, which can be higher than the base NBA salary at that point in the draft.
The Raptors know this experience well, after they traded for the 45th pick in the 2024 draft specifically to land Jamal Shead. Shead, who had played all four years of his college career at Houston, came to Toronto with a sense of maturity, heightened rookie skill, and the ability to take in information like a sponge. He flourished, becoming a fan favorite and solidfying his place on the team for this upcoming season as a back up point guard option behind Immanuel Quickley.
If the Raptors end up keeping the No. 39 pick, they will likely go that route again, picking someone who will fit in with the age group of the majority of the team. Especially given the guy they pick No. 9 overall will likely be younger.
As the seconds tick closer to the Dallas Mavericks being on the clock Wednesday night at 8 p.m., we will continue to track how the odds and rumors change around the Raptors’ lottery picks.