Toronto Raptors: Grading The Offseason

The Draft

In the first draft-day trade of the 2015 NBA Draft, the Raptors dealt backup point guard Greivis Vasquez to the Milwaukee Bucks for their second round pick (No. 46) and a 2017 protected first round pick from the Los Angeles Clippers. With only one year left on his contract, Toronto was able to sell high on Vasquez and net a considerable return.

However, with Vasquez (and eventually Lou Williams) gone, the Raptors had a definite hole in the rotation that needed to be filled. With their first round pick at No. 20, they selected a guard with great size to potentially replace him in Utah’s Delon Wright. At 6’5″, Wright will have an advantage over most point guards — even at the NBA level — and he’s got great wingspan to help him become a solid defender in time.

Wright is considered one of the more NBA-ready prospects in this year’s draft class and although he doesn’t exactly have star potential, he could be a serviceable backup in this league while representing a much cheaper option to fill that position than Vasquez. In his two NBA Summer League games, Wright averaged 9.5 points and 5.5 assists per game on 37.5 percent shooting.

With that newly acquired second round pick, Toronto selected UCLA’s Norman Powell, a solid athlete and another terrific defender. He’ll need to work on his perimeter shot, but Powell is tough defensively and athletic enough to take a second round gamble on.

In four Summer League games, Powell averaged an impressive 18.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game on 50.9 percent shooting (44.4 percent from three-point range). And, again, this kid is one heck of an athlete:

Both players will need to work on consistently spreading the floor with a perimeter jump shot, but they fit the defensive theme that would be consistently reinforced over the rest of the summer.

Grade: B-

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