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Bleacher Report says Jan Vesely:
NBA Comparison: Hakim Warrick
Jonas V's contract issues scared off the Raptors, and Toronto felt like they're set at point guard with Jerryd Bayless, so they passed up on Kemba Walker.
Vesely is selected fifth overall, and he fills a need for the Raptor's at the small forward position.
His athleticism fits perfectly into Toronto's fast paced system, and his above average outside game compliments Demar DeRozan's game.
Vesely also has tons of potential. Being compared to Warrick isn't a bad thing. Warrick also had a promising game coming into the league, but his work ethic held him back.
That's what it ultimately comes down to for Vesely, is he willing enough to put the work and practice in to become great? If so, the Raptor's get a steal of a pick at the fifth overall.
Raptors HQ says:
Right now we've got Kawhi Leonard as our number two choice on the draft board after Brandon Knight, but I'm not so sure the Raps have him there. Based on Jim Kelly's comments yesterday, it sounds like Toronto has its list of options for the fifth pick narrowed down to about five or six main players, and the recent announcement that the team is cancelling Monday's planned workout may further solidify this idea.
I'd hazard a guess and say that the list includes:
-Brandon Knight
-Kemba Walker
-Jonas Valanciunas
-Kawhi Leonard
-Enes Kanter
-Jan Vesely
Knight I maintain is their top choice, but it seems more and more likely to me that he'll be gone by the time Toronto picks. I'm not sure the team is that sold on Kanter or Vesely truthfully, so that leaves Leonard and Walker.
Leonard should have the edge but as Ryan Wolstat pointed out via Twitter yesterday, Raptors scouting guru Jim Kelly operates on the West Coast and therefore has seen Kawhi possibly more than any other prospect. That sometimes hurts a player's chances as he becomes over-analyzed to death, and in fact Kelly's comment about Leonard shooting the ball yesterday better than expected, felt a bit to me like "been there, done that."
As well, drafting Leonard causes a few problems roster-wise.
First, he's not a great shooter, especially from long-range, so unless DeMar DeRozan transforms into Ray Allen this off-season, the two aren't a great fit together I'd argue.
Second, as we noted in his breakdown, Kawhi does have some similarities to James Johnson, the player Toronto basically selected late in the upcoming draft, via last year's trade, so will the team take another SF?
yeah leonard doesn't appear to be athletic enough to be worth a 5th with jj here. he'll probably be a better player than jj as he is going to make the nba about 2 years earlier age wise but i doubt either of them will ever be better than solid. Leonard would need to show serious amounts of statue of liberty dunks to change my opinion on the matter
On my end, right now we desperately need to fill two holes on our roster. Yes, we can debate about whether or not Poon Machine can ever be our starting Center or if Amir and Davis aren't going to get enough minutes, but at the end of the day, we gotta address some of our biggest concerns in this draft before it's too late. And right now, the PG position and the SF position are the biggest areas we need to address. Knight is going to be gone, but I think Kemba Walker would be a great backup PG to Jose (with our new coach easing Kemba into the starting job next season) or a SF like Kawhi Leonard who is supposed to be the next coming of Gerald Wallace. That one article makes a good point thought. As both Kawhi and Brozan aren't great from long-range, this does limit our offense a lot coming into the next season.