Title: So the Raptors get No. 1 pick in the lottery, what comes next with Cade Cunningham in the mix?
Date: June 8, 2021
Original Source: The Athletic
Synopsis: In my latest for The Athletic Toronto, I broke down the decisions that would flow from the Raptors winning the NBA Draft Lottery and selecting Cade Cunningham at No. 1.
Congratulations! On the power of your tweets and comments, the Toronto Raptors’ lottery cup overflowed with good karma and even better vibes. As a result, they landed the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. Hey, you deserve it.
If that is the outcome on June 22, there are a hundred questions that could come from that good fortune. Luckily, “Who should they pick?” is not one of them.
Cade Cunningham, the 6-foot-8 freshman guard out of Oklahoma State, is as close as you can get to a consensus No. 1. I’ve yet to see a serious draft board that doesn’t list him atop it, and not a single person in our reader poll dropped him below No. 2. I had him at No. 1 on my early Raptors draft board, and I like Sam Vecenie’s framing of Cunningham being “a half-tier ahead of everyone else.” Cunningham is a potentially franchise-altering offensive player, with elite size, the playmaking profile to build an offence around, an elite two-way feel and a solid defensive foundation to build from. If the Raptors land the No. 1 pick, it would be pretty shocking for them to go any other direction.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 