Even though things aren’t exactly back to normal, you can see the outline of it, and no one is happier about it than Dan Tolzman. The Toronto Raptors assistant general manager and vice president of player personnel is digging deep on their preparations for the 2022 NBA draft on June 23.
For the first time since the summer of 2019 Tolzman and his staff can bring players into the country freely (more or less) and work out of the OVO Athletic Centre. As players work out, they evaluate draft prospects, with the added bonus of being able to have them get a first-hand feel for the city and the organization they could conceivably be working in.
“Oh, man, being back here with you guys is a good time,” said Tolzman, speaking to a group of reporters as the Raptors — who hold the 33rd pick — finished workout out some prospects, including Julian Champagnie, twin brother of the Raptors Justin Champagnie, who was in the gym as well.
“Honestly, the last couple of years have been a challenge. The first year of the pandemic was a challenge for every team and then last year I think, us — more than most teams — were continuing to deal with these challenges."
“So to have some sense of normalcy and back to our usual operations of the pre-draft process makes everything a little bit more comfortable and -- I don't really know how to describe it -- just from a from a staff morale standpoint of like, we're in our usual way of doing things. It makes things a little bit easier and smoother to go through.”
And the Raptors have plenty to go through. A season ago Toronto was choosing fourth overall and the list of possible players that they were considering was exceedingly tight in a draft. The top three were widely projected to be Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, and Evan Mobley, in some order, with Jalen Suggs and Scottie Barnes toggling between the four and five spots.
In a mild surprise the Raptors took Barnes fourth and were rewarded as the Florida State product turned in one of the best first-year seasons in franchise history and was named NBA rookie of the year.
It’s unlikely whoever the Raptors take later this month will work out nearly as well, but a team can always hope. Two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic was – after all – taken 41st in the 2014 draft.
This year the Raptors moved down in the draft thanks to the deal they struck to acquire Thad Young at the trade deadline. The Raptors gave up what turned out to be the 20th pick in the draft to San Antonio for what turnout out to be the third pick in the second round. Part of the thinking was that in addition to gaining the rights to the versatile veteran, the quality of prospects that would be available at No. 20 compared with No.33 wouldn’t be vastly different.
That thinking holds true, for the most part, it’s just that the pool of players who might be available when the 33rd selection comes up is vast. The Raptors have to dial in on prospects projected to go anywhere from 20th to 40th to make sure they aren’t missing anything.
“Who are we drafting? Listen, I wish I knew, I’ll take any suggestions,” joked Tolzman.
Instead of a list of four or five players as they had the luxury of doing a year ago, the Raptors will be looking at dozens of possibilities.
“It's one of these like there's a lot of really good positives being in that spot because you're just outside the first round so you have a lot of flexibility with the contract itself (unlike players taken in the first round, second round picks don’t get guaranteed contract and a roster spot) and you're kind of getting the pick of the litter outside of the first-round guys,” said Tolzman. “But it's also who is in that group is kind of up in the air until 10 minutes before your picking."
“So we know we're working really hard trying to narrow down the group of guys that we think we're going to be looking at and then trying to fine tune who we like in that group. But then you also have to kind of prepare for five to 10 guys that might drop to you just in case and then how do they compare against the guys that were preparing for that we expect to be there?”
As part of that process the Toronto is beginning to hold workouts at the OVO Athletic Centre.
The Raptors held a workout Wednesday that included Julian Champagnie, the twin brother of Justin Champagnie, who competed his rookie season with the team on two-way contract.
Similar to Justin – who went undrafted in 2021 – Julian is projected to be taken towards the end of the second round, which likely means the Raptors would have other prospects ranked ahead of him.
But Toronto has always been aggressive in terms of identifying talent that has been over-looked, underrated or that went undrafted. Champagnie – who has worked out for six teams and has plans to work out for eight more – is someone on their radar. At 6-foot-7 he’s more of a finesse player with an all-round offensive package compared to Justin, who made his mark for his ability to attack the offensive glass and stir up loose balls but needs to develop a reliable three-point shot to find an NBA niche in Toronto or elsewhere.
Another wrinkle the Raptors do have to consider, says Tolzman, is a player’s vaccination status. Those that come to Toronto to work out need to have been vaccinated against COVID, but in a bigger picture, determining that a prospect is open to being vaccinated – a requirement for cross-border travel – is one element of the draft process that remains different than in the past.
“I wouldn't say we've discussed it too much,” said Tolzman. “… but definitely [if] the time were to come like yeah, those questions have been asked because as of right now, it is something that we need to take into account.”
