Title: Draft prep: A look at Masai Ujiri’s draft history in the NBA
Date: May 8, 2020
Original Source: The Athletic
Synopsis: In my latest for The Athletic Toronto, I took a look back at the draft history of Masai Ujiri-led front offices to look for patterns and takeaways as I begin preparing for the 2020 draft.
Consider this the preparation before the preparation.
Eventually — and we don’t have an idea of when yet — the NBA will hold the draft. The Raptors will pick somewhere late in the first round and again somewhere late in the second round. If the season is over, they’ll pick 28th and 58th, and probably not much higher even if it’s not. We might as well use the extra time afforded by the league’s hiatus to start looking at potential draft picks.
And we’ll do that, soon. The extra downtime has allowed me, personally, to go a little deeper on draft prep than I was able to the last two years, when the Raptors either won a championship less than two weeks before the draft or didn’t have a pick to prep for at all. Before we get into individual players, though, it feels necessary to frame the process through the lens of the Raptors’ front office and general approach to roster building.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 