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Christopher Boan is a writer at OntarioBets.com. He's covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
Summer means many things to sports fans, from the arrival of the postseason in the NHL and NBA to the mercury rising ever higher across Canada.
Sadly for Toronto Raptors fans, and their Ontario sports betting backers, the team was nowhere to be found on the NBA’s postseason bracket. The Raptors missed the field for a second straight season after making the playoffs eight out of nine seasons between 2014 and 2022, including the franchise’s lone NBA championship in 2019.
So now they have the NBA Draft this week to look forward to.
As if the team’s 25-57 season was not bad enough for Toronto NBA fans, the team also lost out on its lottery pick. The Raptors fell out of the top six in the NBA Draft lottery, which was held on May 12. That meant that their first-round selection went to the San Antonio Spurs as part of a deal for Jakob Poeltl in 2023.
As a result, now Toronto has one first-round pick that they acquired via the Indiana Pacers, at No. 19 overall – we will see how their futures odds at Ontario sportsbook apps are affected. The Raptors also have the first pick in the second round, No. 31 overall, which they got from the Detroit Pistons. The Raptors have none of their own draft picks in 2024; both were acquired by trade.
For a club that has gone 66-98 (.402) in the last two years, that lack of draft picks could ultimately come back to haunt the Raptors. Still, general manager Bobby Webster and team president Masai Ujiri will look to find a few gems in the rough during next month’s draft. At the start of the season in late October, Toronto had +10000 odds at BetMGM Ontario Sportsbook to win the NBA title. And in the first half of the season, the Raptors were on the edge of playoff contention (or at least play-in contention) at 16-25 before the wheels came off.
With that in mind, OntarioBets.com broke down where Toronto could go in the 2024 NBA Draft, the made-for-TV, two-round spectacle in Brooklyn:
Barring any more trades, the Raptors own the No. 19 overall pick, acquired from the Pacers in exchange for Pascal Siakam, who was dealt to Indiana in January. The other Raptors pick is at No. 31, as part of deal made with the Detroit Pistons. That selection came to Toronto as part of the OG Anunoby deal at the deadline that sent the star to the New York Knicks.
As you might expect from a team that was 32 games under .500 this season, Toronto’s needs are vast in the near-distant future. Leading scorers RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley all stand a chance of being dealt this offseason (see our Immanuel Quickley trade odds for more).
That’s why we see the guard position (both PG and SG) being the top needs for the Raptors in the offseason, with backcourt prowess being a glaring deficiency for Canada’s lone NBA franchise.
Player | Odds | Percent Chance |
Purdue C Zach Edey | +450 | 18.2% |
Indiana C Kel’el Ware | +600 | 14.3% |
Colorado F Tristan da Silva | +600 | 14.3% |
Baylor C Yves Missi | +700 | 12.5% |
USC G Isaiah Collier | +700 | 12.5% |
Pittsburgh G Carlton Carrington | +800 | 11.1% |
Other | +500 | 16.7% |
These Raptors draft pick odds are exclusive to OntarioBets.com. Our odds-on favorites to land in Toronto in 2024 with the No. 19 overall pick are center Zach Edey of Purdue (+450), Kel’el Ware of Indiana and Tristan da Silva of Colorado (+600 each).
See our Zach Edey NBA Draft projection story for a list of teams that might be most interested in drafting the 7-foot-4 center.
Draft Position | Player | College | PER in 2023-24 |
1.13 | Gradey Dick | Kansas | 8.9 |
Last year’s first-round pick for the Raptors has shown signs of progress interspersed with growing pains. Guard Gradey Dick out of Kansas posted 0.3 win shares and a player efficiency rating of 8.9 in 60 games as a rookie. He averaged 8.5 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game on 52.4% shooting (and 36.5% shooting from 3-point range).
Draft Position | Player | College | PER in 2022-23 |
2.33 | Christian Koloko | Arizona | 11.4 |
Former Arizona Wildcats star big man Christian Koloko was Toronto’s top pick in 2022. The 7-foot forward out of Cameroon averaged 3.1 PPG with a PER of 11.4 and 1.7 win shares in 58 NBA games. Koloko did not appear in any games for Toronto last season due to career-threatening blood clots and he was waived on Jan. 17, 2024. He cannot play in the league until he’s cleared to return by the NBA’s medical team, throwing into question the 23-year-old’s playing career.
The Toronto Raptors will have two draft picks in the 2024 NBA Draft, one in the first round and one in the second round. The Raptors had to give up the No. 8 overall pick, where they would have slotted in after the NBA Draft lottery was held on May 12. That selection instead goes to the San Antonio Spurs as part of the Jakob Poeltl trade.
Barring any further trades, the Toronto Raptors will select in the first round at No. 19 overall (acquired from the Indiana Pacers) and in the second round at No. 31 overall (from the Detroit Pistons via the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers).
The Raptors will be looking to select best player available in the 2024 NBA Draft, which leads to the favorites being Purdue’s Zach Edey (+450), Indiana’s Kel’el Ware (+600) and Colorado’s Tristan da Silva (+600).
The Spurs own what would have been the Raptors’ 2024 first-round pick based on where Toronto finished, as a result of the NBA Draft lottery on May 12. The Spurs received the No. 8 overall selection as part of the trade in which Toronto acquired center Jakob Poeltl from San Antonio in February 2023.
Author
Christopher Boan is a writer at OntarioBets.com. He's covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
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