2012 NBA Redraft: How wrong we were in real time
By Corey Rausch
#8 Pick: Jae Crowder (Originally: Terrence Ross)
This was a momentous summer for the Toronto Raptors for a number of reasons that do not involve the fact that they drafted Terrence Ross. Jonas Valanciunas was coming over after being drafted in 2011. The franchise also traded for Kyle Lowry this summer, setting up for the best run in the franchise’s history in unexpected ways.
Terrence Ross was actually a very solid pick for this range but to me Jae Crowder is a better version of what they ended up getting out of the position and after watching Dwane Casey coach a team for the better part of two seasons I know full well that Crowder would have gotten his chance much sooner under Casey than he did under Rick Carlisle.
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Crowder is an ideal three-and-D role player and would have fit well alongside the aforementioned trio of Valanciunas, Lowry and DeRozan. Furthermore, adding a more reliable small forward that the coach would have taken a liking to may have prevented the franchise from making the ill-advised Rudy Gay trade at the following trade deadline. The wings in this range of the draft are somewhat interchangeable and will go quickly over the next slew of picks. Crowder just seems to fit the North best.
With the ninth pick in the 2012 NBA Redraft the Detroit Pistons select…