Over the last decade and half the Raptors have had arguably one of the best scouting and player drafting in the league.

Yes, there are busts (Bruno), and some players in question mark status waiting to see if they pan out (Flynn). However no NBA team is perfect and majority of teams get it wrong more often than the Raptors Scouts.

Few of the other top talent scouting organization according to rankings: https://braydengerrard.shinyapps.io/Draft_Scores/

From 2009-2021 the top drafting organizations:

• 1 TOR 0.21
• 2 LAL 0.19
• 3 SAS 0.1
• 4 MIA 0.1
• 5 PHI 0.08
• 6 HOU 0.06

Albeit, this is once persons methodology & it doesn't have 2022. However if it did, Scottie Barnes winning ROTY is gonna boost Toronto even higher. Looking at all the picks and scores and across other really good scouting organizations in the league: LA, MIA, SAS, OKC.

From 2009

Draft Year Pick Player Score Rating 2009 9 DeMar DeRozan 0.81 Good 2010 13 Ed Davis 0.48 Good 2010 50 Solomon Alabi 0 Average 2011 5 Jonas Valanciunas 0.56 Good 2012 8 Terrence Ross 0.2 Good 2012 37 Quincy Acy -0.17 Bad 2012 56 Tomislav Zubcic 0 Average 2014 20 Bruno Caboclo -0.42 Bad 2014 37 DeAndre Daniels -0.3 Bad 2015 20 Delon Wright 0.81 Good 2015 46 Norman Powell 0.93 Excellent 2016 9 Jakob Poeltl 0.47 Good 2016 27 Pascal Siakam 1 Excellent 2016 Undrafted Fred VanVleet 1 Excellent 2017 23 OG Anunoby 0.57 Good 2019 59 Dewan Hernandez 0 Average 2019 Undrafted Oshae Brissett 0.83 Good 2019 Undrafted Shamorie Ponds 0 Average 2019 Undrafted Terence Davis 0.9 Good 2020 29 Malachi Flynn -0.22 Bad 2020 59 Jalen Harris 0 Average 2021 4 Scottie Barnes 0.83 Good 2021 46 Dalano Banton 0 Average 2021 47 David Johnson -0.1 Average 2021 Undrafted Justin Champagnie 0 Average

This is the best results of any team in the league in that stretch. With a score of 0.33 and overall rank of 1/30 in the NBA.

The New Era

The 2023 draft was no different, Gradey was heralded as the best shooter in the class. With college stats, that is ELITE SHOOTER numbers. Check out the college shooting of these notable 3pt flamethrowers:

• Steph Curry - 41.2% on 9.7 attempts per game
• Gradey Dick - 40.3% on 5.7 attempts per game
• Klay Thompson - 39% on 6.3 attempts per game
• Luke Kennard - 38.2% on 5.1 attempts per game
• Buddy Hield - 39% on 6.8 attempts per game
• Damian Lillard - 39% on 6.1 attempts per game

The future looks bright and as much as you may dislike Masai and Bobby's decision to not trade Fred or Gary at the deadline, we have to herald them for trying to fix the ship.

Truth is the Raptors team is a very young. Without Otto Porter and Thad, they have the top 5 youngest average player age in the league. If our latest rounds of scouting post championship pan out, the Raptors should be in the position for contention with the top in the league in the next 5 years.

Rebuild or Not, the Raptors have a new Shooter, and future potential backup PG, with OPJ coming back, and a new player movement and team ball coach. The Front Office of the Toronto Raptors have done what they can to attempt to fix the 3 issues:

• spacing
• passing
• depth

The FO might prove haters wrong at the end of the 2024 season, perhaps indicating what we all know is true that Nurse lost the locker room and maybe Darko and the 2023-2024 Raptors Front Office might get back on track.