2016 NBA Draft

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The day after being selected by the Raptors with the ninth pick in the draft, Jakob Poeltl got to check out his new practice facility for the first time. Poeltl worked out for Toronto prior to the draft, but his session took place in Buffalo. Although he hasn’t had time to actually explore the city yet, Poeltl’s former University of Utah teammate Delon Wright has told him plenty about his new home.

“I came pretty much straight from the airport to here, but it looks beautiful,” Poeltl said. “I’ve only heard good things about it. Obviously, Delon told me good things about it and he had a great time last year here and he said he loved the city. I’m looking forward to seeing more,”

When Poeltl’s name was called on Thursday night, he became the first Austrian player to be selected in the NBA Draft. When he was still available as the ninth pick rolled around, Masai Ujiri and his front office staff were elated. For all of the prepping and planning that goes into the night, the unexpected can always happen. Getting the guy you want can feel like you’ve won the lottery.

“Sometimes you are lucky,” Ujiri said. “And we feel we are very lucky that Jakob was there.”

Poeltl spent much of the postseason watching Toronto reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history. Raptors head coach Dwane Casey was impressed with his knowledge of the NBA when he met him prior to the draft.

“I’ve seen quite a bit of Raptors basketball last season, obviously with them making a deep push into the playoffs,” Poeltl said. “I saw a lot of these playoff games. I feel like I know the team, as well as you can get to know the team off of TV, but I feel like I’ve gotten to know it.”

It wasn’t always so easy for Poeltl to keep up with league action. Back home in Austria where NBA games often don’t tip off until 3 A.M. the easiest way to keep up with games can be waking up to watch recaps on NBA.com. It wasn’t until he came to Utah that he could begin to watch games nightly as they happened live.

Both of Poeltl’s parents have played for the Austrian national volleyball team. Growing up around athletes helped create the work ethic that coaches continue to rave about.

“It helped me out in the sense that even as a little kid I was always in the gym,” Poeltl said. “Even with them playing volleyball, I was the ball boy basically just running around. I was super active. I grew up in this family of athletes. We’re just a very active family. For me as a kid it was very logical that I wanted to play a sport. It just happened to be basketball. It was pretty random. I loved it and I never looked back.”

That work ethic, coupled with immense potential, is part of what captured Toronto’s attention. Poeltl acknowledged it will be head coach Dwane Casey’s decision whether he’s able to get an opportunity to play immediately, but made it clear he’ll be putting in work to do what he can to try to force his hand.

“I feel very confident about that,” Poeltl said. “Really, at the end of the day, it’s going to be up to me putting the work in in the gym and Coach making the decision on the sideline to put me on the court or not. I feel confident that I can contribute. I feel like I’m the kind of guy who can do a lot of different stuff, a lot of the little things. I know coming in as a rookie I’m going to be there for the the hustle plays, the rebounds, screens, whatever, they need me to do. That’s what I’m going to be looking for. Getting better every day in the gym and adding to my repertoire every day and getting better out there.”

Poeltl credited his coaches in youth basketball in Austria with helping him develop into a player that was recruited by American colleges. Like Wright who was drafted by the Raptors a year ago, he also praised the system at Utah with helping to prep him for what’s to come at the next level.

“We had a lot of different sets in Utah on offence and defence,” Poeltl said.  “Different coverages. We went through a variety of different styles over the two years also so I got to see a lot of different stuff, get to know a lot of different stuff, and get used to knowing a lot of different coverages at the same time. It’s not always easy to remember that stuff so I think it can definitely help me out next year.”

Ujiri smiled widely as he praised Poeltl’s love of the game multiple times.

“When you see a big guy that loves to play, let alone his parents were athletes and he grew up in a sports environment and loves the game of basketball and loves to be in the gym, just run, and hug him,” Ujiri said. “Take him and run. A lot of big guys are pushed to play. That’s the reality of life. You’re seven feet so go play basketball.

“We’ve done our homework on it,” Ujiri continued. “Great hands. Loves to run. Moves his feet well. He’s got a good sense and feel for the game. Coupled with two years of experience with college basketball, loves to roll hard to the basket. To me, big guys just continue to get better.”

Next up for Poeltl will be getting an opportunity to explore the city with his family. Then will be summer league where he’ll join fellow rookie Pascal Siakam and teammates Norman Powell, Delon Wright, and Bruno Caboclo in Las Vegas. It will be a busy summer of work for the 20-year-old. Luckily for him — and for the Raptors organization as well — the gym is exactly where he wants to be.

“This kid loves to play,” Ujiri continued. “He loves to play the game of basketball. Legit.

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Jakob Poeltl Introduced To Media In Toronto

The Toronto Raptors selected University of Utah forward-centre Jakob Poeltl (YAH-cub PUHR-tuhl) with the ninth overall pick and New Mexico State forward Pascal Siakam (Pass-CAL See-AH-kum) with the 27th overall selection in the 2016 NBA Draft.

Poeltl, 7-foot, 248 pounds, played two seasons at Utah and one season (2013-14) for the Arkadia Traiskirchen Lions in his native Austria. He was the 2016 Pac-12 Player of the Year, an AP second-team All-America and the recipient of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award for the nation's top centre. Poeltl averaged 17.2 points (second in the Pac-12), 9.1 rebounds (fourth in the conference) and 1.6 blocks (eighth in the Pac-12) in 36 games this past season. He ranked first in the Pac-12 and seventh in the nation in field goal percentage (.646). As a freshman, he contributed 9.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 34 contests. He earned Pac-12 All-Freshman team honours and was named to the CBSSports.com Freshman All-American team. He led the conference and ranked fourth in the nation in field goal percentage (.681).

This is the second season the Raptors have used a first-round selection on a player from Utah. Poeltl played the 2014-15 season with Delon Wright, the Raptors’ top pick (20th overall) in the 2015 NBA Draft.

Siakam, 6-foot-9, 230 pounds, played two seasons at New Mexico State. He averaged 20.3 points, 11.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 34 games in 2015-16 en route to unanimous Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year honours. He led the nation with 27 double-doubles. The native of Cameroon was the 2015 WAC Freshman of the Year, averaging 12.8 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 34 outings. He ranked first in the conference in field goal percentage (.572) and blocked shots.

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Raptors Take Poeltl With Ninth Pick, Siakam With 27th Pick At NBA Draft

The Raptors welcomed another University of Utah player to the team when they selected Jakob Poeltl with the ninth pick in the 2016 NBA Draft.

The seven-footer became the first Austrian to be selected in the draft, and was the first Utah player selected in the lottery since Andrew Bogut went first overall in 2005.

Poeltl was a college teammate of Delon Wright’s and the two remain close. Wright said he kept in touch with Poeltl throughout the pre-draft process, speaking with him six or seven times, and that he “screamed” when he heard the Raptors had selected him.

Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said the team was excited when it realized that Poeltl would be available when they were on the clock.

“Luckily, the guy we wanted was there,” Casey said. “I know Jeff [Weltman] and all the guys did a lot of work scouting this young man. They know a lot more about him than I do. I saw him work out in Buffalo and he had an excellent workout down there. His speed and agility around the cones was really impressive.”

Poeltl is coming off a sophomore season with the Utes where he was named to the First Team All-Pac 12 and Second Team All-American by the AP, NABC and USABWA. He also won the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, given to the nation’s top centre. He ranked first in the Pac-12 and seventh in the nation in field goal percentage (64.6 percent), and was one of 11 finalists for the USBWA Oscar Robertson Trophy for National Player of the Year. He was also a finalist for the Naismith and Wooden player of the year awards. Poeltl averaged 17.2 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.6 blocks per game in 2015-2016.

For more highlights of Poeltl’s college career with Utah, check out this highlight mix presented by NBA.com:

To learn a bit more about Poeltl’s personality, check out this prospect profile also from NBA.com. Check out Poeltl talk about his biggest strength, why Kevin Garnett inspires him and how to pronounce his name:

With the 27th pick, Toronto selected 6-foot-9 forward Pascal Siakam from New Mexico State.

In his sophomore season, Siakam was the unanimous choice for the 2016 Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year, averaging 20.3 points, 11.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. He led the nation in double-doubles as a sophomore and was a finalist for both the Lou Henson and Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year awards.

Siakam was the first New Mexico State men’s basketball player drafted in the first round in 46 years.

The 22-year-old is very long, athletic, and is known for being an active rebounder and shot-blocker. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress tweeted about a recurring comparison for Siakam leading up to the draft:

New Mexico State head coach Paul Weir welcomed his former player to Toronto after he was drafted. Weir made history in April, becoming the third Canadian men’s head coach at the D1 NCAA Level:

To learn more about Siakam, check out this prospect profile from NBA.com where Siakam talks about the importance of education, his basketball motor and energy, and soccer helping his defence:

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Raptors Select Jakob Poeltl & Pascal Siakam At NBA Draft

With 48 hours to go until the draft, Toronto’s front office is listing and ranking, and narrowing down its pool of prospects. Following a two-man session that saw Ivica Zubac (Croatia) and Diamond Stone (Maryland) face off against one another, Stone for his second workout with the Raptors, general manager Masai Ujiri addressed the media.

“It’s an interesting draft,” Ujiri said. “We’ve worked out quite a few guys and we like it. We like [having the] nine [pick]. My [front office] guys are all over the place [with their rankings]. I call it ‘All over the place Monday’, that was yesterday.”

Ujiri joked that Tuesday would be referred to as “Have all options on the board Tuesday” as he and his team sift through names and rankings, working to get their draft board ready for Thursday night.

With two picks in the first round (No. 9 and No. 27), the range of players the team has had to look at made for an interesting pre-draft preparation. Part of what makes the night so exciting is the element of the unknown. Preparing for the unexpected becomes as important as going in with a concrete game plan.

“Part of our jobs is to predict,” Ujiri said. “You have to think fast in this business and operate fast sometimes. And sometimes, you have to have patience.”

Despite the challenge of not knowing what’s going to happen as the night unfolds, Ujiri likes knowing that when you own picks, you also have options. Depending on what happens with the picks preceding Toronto’s selections, the prioritization of those options can change.

“To me it’s not difficult because you continue to narrow and narrow [down your list] and if you have a bunch of guys [you like], you can look at different options,” he said. “You can look at trading the pick, you can look at drafting a guy that doesn’t come right away, you can look at a player you can draft and develop slowly.”

Stone and Zubac were both excited to be days away from accomplishing a childhood dream. Zubac said he has been waiting for this moment since he was 11 years old. Stone said Tuesday’s workout was his best and he felt he’d gotten to show the organization his full skill set. Having been in to workout for Toronto before, Stone also had high praise for head coach Dwane Casey.

“He’s a great coach,” Stone said. “He’s a really, really good man and person, too. I can see him changing me into a better person, on and off the court.”

As players close out the days before the draft hoping they’ve shown enough in their workouts to get their names called on Thursday, teams are pulling late nights and early mornings as they discuss rankings as well as the potential fit of prospects. It isn’t  often that a team coming off a franchise-best season that ended in the Eastern Conference Finals also has a lottery pick. Ujiri says they are blessed to have the pick and that the team will “operate in the best way for the organization.”

"There's no pressure, to me,” Ujiri said. “I can never feel pressure because of a pick. We can't feel that way. We're just lucky to have it. You jump on that opportunity. I tell my guys, it better work out. That's the pressure. This is how I grew up in the league. There's so much pride in it. It's how my guys grew up, whether it's the [Dan] Tolzmans or [Jeff] Weltmans. It's such an exciting time for us. We don't look at it as pressure at all. We look at it as get it right."

One could assume the excitement of the draft would pale in comparison to reaching the conference finals. This assumption would be wrong.

“This is (the most fun), to be honest,” Ujiri said. “This and the camps in August are my best times of the year. You just enjoy. It's different this year because we played so far. Now you gear up. Whether it's drafting or player development, the ultimate is putting a team together.”

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Masai Ujiri Speaks With Media Leading Up To Draft Day

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Notable Number 9 Picks in NBA Draft History

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Another day, another workout down. With the NBA Draft a week away, the Raptors held two more workouts this week in an attempt to narrow down potential selections on draft night.

Tuesday’s six-player workout included David Walker from Northeastern, Michael Gbinije from Syracuse, Alex Poythress from Kentucky, Troy Williams from Indiana, Daniel Ochefu from Villanova and AJ Hammons from Purdue.

"It was a really high-level workout,” Raptors VP of player personnel Dan Tolzman said. “There was a number of really interesting prospects out there today, at all different positions, so it was a good overall look at some of the players we're definitely going to be considering with our picks."

With guys coming in who have been on the pre-draft trail for the past month, Toronto’s front office is keeping fatigue in check. Some players have only had a handful of workouts while others have had four times that. The team has been mindful of this when designing workouts.

“It’s definitely something where we talk to the coaches every morning [about the number of workouts players have gone through], Tolzman said. “We want to see the guys get out there and play through fatigue, but at the same time we don't want to kill them and wear them out because it ruins the workout. We definitely want to pace them, and then towards the end of the workout, give them more conditioning to see how they fight through it.”

Tuesday’s workout was the sixth for Villanova’s Ochefu. It was workout #12 for Gbinije. Despite any physical or mental fatigue being felt, both wore large smiles when speaking with the media.

“I did a good job of taking a break in the middle [of scheduled workouts],” Gbinije said. “I have probably three or four left [to go]. I’m trusting the offseason conditioning I’ve been doing before these workouts and so far it’s getting me by.”

Gbinije said he comes to each workout with a specific goal or two to keep his focus on the task at hand.

“It’s all about finding new challenges,” he said. “Today it was defence and pick-and-roll, those were the two things I wanted to focus on.”

Ochefu is going through the pre-draft process after accomplishing the ultimate NCAA goal with the Wildcats.

“It’s definitely been a roller coaster ride,” he said. “The month of March was really fun for me. I’m just trying to get better every day. We were fortunate enough to win a national championship, but I can’t let that dawn on me too long because I have another job I have to secure.”

Despite the whirlwind of national championship into training for workouts and now auditioning for the next level, Ochefu is enjoying the experience. It helps knowing he’s got a pretty good NBA contact to call upon if he needs advice throughout the process.

“Kyle Lowry is a good mentor of mine that went to Villanova, “ he said. "If I need some advice I can definitely hit up Kyle. He'll be very open. I have his number. He's been very open at giving advice. That's how Villanova guys are. We take care of our own.

“I feel good,” he continued. “It’s not hard for me to be able to wake up early and play basketball. It’s the best thing in the world for me.”

One of the most important parts of workouts is the opportunity to see players in person and observe how they interact with team staff as well as their fellow competitors. Personality comes out in high-pressure situations being performed through fatigue.

“There’s always the grind that these guys go through, it’s as bad as it gets,” Tolzman said. “Some guys are doing as many as 21 workouts in a three, four-week period. That’s just unbelievable. It’s intense. They all know its part of the process and they’re pretty good troopers with it.”

For Gbinije, it’s helped to see familiar faces along the way.

“Troy [Williams] has been in 80 percent of my workouts so you start to see who you get compared with and who you’ve got to beat out for certain spots,” Gbinije said. “Troy is my guy. Being in so many of these workouts we’ve developed a relationship so it’s a good experience on and off the court.”

Most important when trying to make it through a month of gruelling travel and workouts is the work that took place leading up to it.

“That’s a major key coming into these,” Gbinije said. “That’s something I made sure I was prepared for. It’s basketball. Basketball’s a lot fun, so we had a lot of fun today.”

As front offices are watching players to learn who they are through workouts, the workouts can also be illuminating for the players themselves.

“It’s been a long journey,” Gbinije said. “I’ve learned so many things throughout this whole process and it’s helped me get better each and every time. I’m appreciating the whole thing.”

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Raptors Narrowing Down Options As Draft Day Quickly Approaches

Toronto’s season may have ended a couple of weeks ago, but BioSteel Centre has still been buzzing. With the Raptors holding the No. 9 and No. 27 picks in the NBA draft that is less than three weeks away, the front office has been busy hosting pre-draft workouts.

Wednesday’s session brought six players in to BioSteel Centre to workout: Perry Ellis from Kansas, Chinanu Onuaku from Louisville, Guerschon Yabusele from Rouen-France, James Webb from Boise State, Kyle Collinsworth from BYU, and Daniel Hamilton from Connecticut.

“It was a high level of playmaking in this group,” Dan Tolzman, Raptors director of player personnel said. “We knew coming in it wouldn’t be the sharpest shooting bunch so we didn't really tailor the workout to try to show much [of that]. It was a lot of three-on-three and a lot of different three-on-two scenarios where you see the defensive rotations, who can make plays on the fly and create out of that. It turned out to be a well balanced and competitive workout.”

Onuaku said the workout suited him because he’s eager to show teams what he can do as a defensive player. Despite the quick trip to and from the airport as he goes from workout to workout, he enjoyed getting to see Toronto for the first time since a family trip when he was a small child.

“I like the city,” Onuaku said. “The city’s a beautiful place. I love the fans. I see how they are. They love the game of basketball. I just want to play for a team that wants me to play.”

After spending four years at Kansas, Ellis kept a close eye on the camaraderie of the Raptors squad this season. When he was asked what intrigued him about Toronto, his answer included a mention of the team’s off-court chemistry.

“I feel like they had a great season,” Ellis said. “A great, great team. I love the way they play as a team together,” Ellis said. “Playing four years at Kansas, I’ve gained so much confidence as a player. [I] learned so much under Coach [Bill] Self. I feel like it benefited me a lot.”

For the Raptors staff, the success of this season has provided a new challenge: fitting in a bunch of workouts after a 20-game playoff run that had the franchise playing in the Conference Finals through May for the first time.

“We kind of have been cramming a lot of workouts into a much shorter window than we normally do,” Tolzman said. “It’s been kind of nice that everyone knew this was what we were going to be dealing with. It’s honestly a really good problem to have. It means you’re playing longer than you’re used to.”

The Raptors had four players splitting time between Toronto and Mississauga in 2015-16. Norman Powell, Delon Wright, Lucas Nogueira and Bruno Caboclo each did stints with Raptors 905 and the staff will now assess the development of those players as well as decide how many spots on next year’s roster will be open for players they’ll be developing to contribute at a later time.

Having a group of younger guys already committed to can make more experienced players particularly appealing when looking at potential add-ons to the roster. It doesn’t outweigh talent or potential, of course, but it’s something that will be taken into consideration.

“Last year we essentially had a rotation of four or five players that spent time in the D-League and we kind of had them as our developmental guys,” Tolzman said. “We probably want to keep that going forward, so we kind of need to look at our roster and see which guys are graduating to the next level out of that rotation [as well as] how many spots do we have to fill in on the back end of our roster.”

Raptors 905 is another reason why the Raptors staff has been working out so many players, as well as attending other workouts and camps this year. With 905 having a hugely successful first season, the team is also keeping an eye on potential players down the road.

“You see guys and you’re like, alright they may not be on the level of where our draft picks are but we really like this kid, and [905] gives you a whole other group of players to stay interested in for summer league or training camp or 905,” Tolzman said. “All of those different types of things where you broaden your view as far as who could be in the Raptors system.”

Coming off a franchise-best season, the focus shifts to improving the team for next year. As draft night creeps closer, Toronto’s staff will continue to work.