Raptors Draft History – Riley Haas' Blog

Good game last night. Actually saw some D. That was great. Yeah, they still can’t rebound. Oh well.

Nonetheless, I will complain.

1995:

Stoudamire: I guess Stoudamire was the best available player. I don’t know enough about back then. I didn’t really watch. At least they got Williams for him.
King: Who?

1996:

Camby: This one hurts, if only in retrospect. There were a lot of great players after him. He is a rebounding machine, but that’s about it (far as I can figure). I guess nobody knew what Nash would become, and they all would have thought the Raps were crazy, but wouldn’t it have been nice? Canadian team drafts Canadian star point guard…

1997:

McGrady: They had him and they let him go. I don’t care about the injuries. The trade is up there with the worst in franchise history (i.e., the deal for his cousin). Seriously, it was stupid. There’s no way around it. They should have made the effort to keep him. I know, you could argue they got something back when otherwise he just would have left for nothing, but the team should have made the effort. It’s ridiculous that between Carter and McGrady they chose Carter.

1998:

Jamison: I don’t get deals like this, really. Just draft the guy you want. Ooh, they got money out of it. Hooray! Seems kind of silly. Just because of what happened with Vince, one kind of wishes they kept Jamison instead. Whatever.
Wheeler: Who?

1999:

Bender: Who? Seriously, the best part about this is that they got Davis for him. The worst part is all the other players they passed up.
Radojevic: Ditto. But in this case it’s just so much worse.
Two first round picks in a draft with Szcerbiak, Hamilton, Miller, Marion, Terry, Maggette, Artest (not that I’d want him), Posey, Foster, Kirilenko and Ginobli all drafted after the Raps’ first pick. Makes you want to scream…or something.

2000:

Mo-Pete: Nothing wrong with this, I guess. He was inconsistent, but it was a bad year.
Hulett: Who?

2001:

Bradley: Who? Oh right, a bench player…who’s not in the NBA any more. Nice. I don’t like Randolph, so let’s forget about him. But: Wallace, Dalembert, Tinsley, Parker (!!!), Arenas, and Okur were all drafted later.

2002:

Rush: First, they could have drafted Prince, which is the real killer. And Salmons is starting to look good. And then there’s Boozer. Then they traded him for Hunter, who is a decent backup, and some other guy I don’t know. When you could have drafted Prince, this looks bad.

2003:

Bosh: I like this. I know, they could have drafted Wade, but did anyone really know how good Wade would be at getting to the line? Also, Wade’s championship came with Shaq (and some stupid refs) so it’s unlikely that he would have brought one to TO as quickly (or at all). I like it.
Van de Hare: Who?

2004:

Worst…draft…ever?

Araujo: Has entered Toronto sports folklore as one of the worst top ten draft picks in the city’s history in any sport. That’s not to say he didn’t work hard much of the time, as he did. But you don’t waste a #8 on a hard worker. You don’t draft off the board for one. Especially when the next available guy is Iguodala. Now, I’m not sure Iguodala is the kind of player Toronto likes to have, but he would have been worth something anyway. There is no defending this move.
Miralles: Who?

2005:

Four picks. Four picks!!! And yet:

Villanueva: I defended this at the time. I watched him play in The Madness and I liked him. Looking back, there were clearly better players available. However, this isn’t the mistake of the draft. That came later. I don’t have a particularly big problem with this pick except for that the Raps had a PF already. Since we got Ford for him, that was okay. Of course, Ford didn’t work out. But, briefly, this draft eventually gave the Raps the best PG tandem in the league, if only for a season.
Graham: This is the one that hurts. Yes, he is showing signs of life right now. He’s done that before. The guy can’t seem to be consistent. He can’t seem to recognize that he is a bench player and, as a bench player, he needs to play hard when he’s called upon, and accept going in and out of the game all the time. But the worst thing about it is that the Raps need a second, consistent scoring option right now, and they are weak at SF (Bargnani plays out of position or Moon is a starter, neither a great option) and the very next player in the draft was Granger. Now, I remember the debate. Nobody could make their minds up between the two players. But a lot of the experts I tend to agree with were hyping Granger over Graham. They were right. By a lot.
Ukic: Solid pick, so far. I like him. He is raw but so was Jose when he started out. Good choice for once.
Slokar: Didn’t work out but he was a low pick so whatever.

2006:

Bargnani: A lot of people had him ranked 1. A lot of people called him the next Dirk. So I guess it’s forgivable. The thing that really makes me feel better about it is that 4 other teams also missed Roy (3 by not drafting him and 1 by trading him away). So I feel somewhat consoled. It was a bad year, anyway. Time will tell whether Aldridge was the better pick, but Roy definitely was. Colangelo wasn’t the only one who missed him, though.
Tucker: Nothing doing here, oh well. They could have had some role player instead. Too bad.
Bavcic: Well, at least they got paid…

2007:

One thing I never like about GMs is the trading of picks. However, there was reason to be optimistic at this time. So I guess they figured they could buy and trade their way farther into the playoffs. Still don’t like it.

2008:

Hibbert: Part of the O’Neal deal, which I still like at this point, though we have yet to see if Jawai turns into anything. I liked Hibbert in College but I think he’s probably too fat for the NBA (unless he’s got in better shape in the interim).

The point of all this? Not much of a history, is it? I mean, beyond Bosh, have the Raps ever drafted and then kept a star? Given that they sucked off and on for quite some time, isn’t it reasonable to expect more from the draft than what they got? Ah well. At least .500 isn’t a total dream this season, if they keep playing D.