Raptors acquire next building block in Ja'Kobe Walter

Ja’Kobe Walter is the next Toronto Raptors building block. 

Whether he proves to be a foundation piece or simply another piece of the puzzle will depend largely on whether or not the six-foot-five Baylor star can demonstrate that his ability to hunt and hit three-point shots at high volume will transfer to the NBA and if he can hold his own defensively. His six-foot-10 wingspan should help with the latter, at least. 

The 19-year-old averaged 14.5 points per game for Baylor and although he connected on just 34.1 per cent of his three-point shots, the thinking is that when playing with better spacing and a more limited variety of shots to choose from, his efficiency should improve. His technique is good.

On paper, Walter projects to be some combination of Gary Trent Jr. and Ochai Agbaji — if he can combine the latter’s shooting with the former’s defensive energy, Toronto might have a steal with the 19^th overall pick. He could conceivably make one of them redundant. 

Walter was expected to go a little bit higher in the draft — the consensus was somewhere at the tail end of the lottery. He never had a pre-draft workout with the Raptors and had no indication Toronto was going to take him. He’s never been to Canada, but he’s got no complaints. 

“Getting drafted means the world to me,” he said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday night. “Me and my family have been talking about this for a long time. I prayed so many times for just this moment right here and that now that it’s here, it’s dreams to reality, and I’m really grateful.”

Walter played football until high school when he was growing up in McKinney, Texas, putting in time at running back, wide receiver and quarterback before focusing on basketball through his high school years. 

His physicality helped him get to the free throw line more than five times per game at Baylor, an impressive total considering he was also getting up six threes per game. He’s confident there is more to his game he’ll be able to show as a pro. 

“I’m a competitor, a scorer, a two-way player, someone who will sacrifice their body on the defensive end and just do whatever it takes to win,” Walter said. “… (but) I hope to show more of my shot creation. I think a lot of people forget that I can score the ball really well, so I’d say that’s the part of my game I’m trying to show more.”

The Raptors are happy to give him the chance. They didn’t think he would fall to them and were happy to grab him when he did. 

“Obviously feel fortunate to get Ja’Kobe at this spot,” said Raptors general manager Bobby Webster. “Maybe he thought he was going earlier (which is why he didn’t work out for them in Toronto), the mocks had him going earlier but (he’s) a kid we’ve followed since high school.

Always been a winner, tough, kind of fits the mould of a two-way Raptor way of player, can make a shot, play defence. Somebody we followed for a while and didn’t initially think he’d be there at 19 so (we) feel good.”

And as for drafting a three-point shooter who shot just 34.5 per cent from three, and 37 per cent from the floor overall, Webster’s not concerned. 

“I think maybe if you look at the splits, it's a little bit different early in the season,” said Webster. “And he may have been dealing with some knee stuff (but) you gotta make shots in this league. You can't just (survive on) the reputation of a shooter. You have to do it. So, I think obviously that's our bet with him.”

On a side note, there has still been no indication if the Raptors intend to sign Trent Jr., who is a pending free agent, or if Trent wants to return. Similarly, the Raptors have until Friday to decide whether they are going to pick up the $23-million option on Bruce Brown’s contract for 2024-25, otherwise, he becomes a free agent. 

Elsewhere in the draft, one of the biggest movers of the night was Toronto’s Zach Edey, as the giant Purdue centre and two-time NCAA player-of-the-year who was projected to go in the middle of the first round zoomed all the way to ninth when he was taken by the Memphis Grizzlies. For Edey, it completes a remarkable rise from a raw basketball beginner starting high school, to a project as a freshman last season, to a college basketball star who removed his name from draft consideration a year ago because there was no guarantee he’d be a first-round pick. 

With the Grizzlies, he gets to join a team that should rebound strongly from a 23-24 season that was undone by injuries and suspensions. He should get a chance for considerable playing time and possibly even start thanks to his ability to set massive screens for Grizzlies speedster Ja Morant — an obvious area where he could contribute right away. 

The very top of the draft had a French flavour, as the Atlanta Hawks selected Zaccharie Risacher first overall and the Washington Wizards chose Alex Sarr second overall. Both players are part of a growing wave of elite talent from France in recent years, following Victor Wembanyama who was taken first overall by the San Antonio Spurs, and Bilal Coulibaly who was taken seventh last year, also by the Wizards. Tidjane Salaun made it three French players taken in the top six when Charlotte chose him. 

In some ways, the draft was the least interesting thing about the first week of the NBA off-season. Late Tuesday night events kicked off in earnest when the New York Knicks bolstered their title hopes with the acquisition of Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets, the Knicks giving up the rights to six first-round picks as part of the package. On Wednesday the Knicks took another step towards securing their future by signing OG Anunoby to a five-year contract worth $212.5 million. The San Antonio Spurs ended up trading the player they used the eighth pick — the one they acquired from Toronto in the Jakob Poeltl deal — to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who gave the Spurs their unprotected first-round pick in 2031 and pick swap in 2030 for the draft rights to Kentucky guard Rob Dillingham

The Raptors stayed mostly on the sidelines, at least for now. They have the 31^st pick in the second round, but this year for the first time the second round of the draft will take place on Thursday.

Instead of having only a couple of minutes to decide what to do with the pick, they can sleep on it, while also having the luxury of time to sift through any trade offers that might come their way. 

“We had some long debates in there. We’re like, ‘should we trade to get into the late 20s or should we have a little fun with 31?’” said Webster. “… We knew that this was sort of a benefit of having 31, was to be able to have these next 18 hours to field calls. I think what typically happens in the draft is it very quickly turns to Round 2 and you have two minutes. Logistically you can’t take all the calls you’d want to, so now we have some time. We also have some time to sort of reconsider our list as we think about 31 … So we’ll probably have some pretty big fights tomorrow in the morning about who we would take and then simultaneously take these calls and say, ‘OK, could we get multiple picks? Could we move back a little bit and still get the same guy?’ But yeah, I don’t know, it’s a first. It’s a bit of a novelty for all of us here to have two days of the draft, so let’s see what happens.”

The Raptors 2024 draft — to be continued.