Young Raptors Ja'Kobe Walter, Chomche, Murray-Boyles coming along nicely in Vegas
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That's two straight close victories now after the opening night annihilation of Chicago.
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The play of second-year guard Ja'Kobe Walter really stood out against the Nuggets, but his fellow 2024 draft classmate Ulrich Chomche — the youngest player amongst that crop — continues to impress with how far he has come compared to last summer.
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This corner has repeated often the belief that Walter has a chance to be a really good NBA player and he has shown little in Vegas to disprove us of the notion.
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He has averaged 18 points in 24 minutes a game (he averaged 11.6 in 24 minutes last summer), had seven steals against Denver and has also been active on the glass. Walter has been strong defensively, like most of his teammates, and looks the part of a strong two-way player.
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About the only thing you could quibble with is that Walter hasn't shown much growth as a creator for others. He has only two assists and eight turnovers in the three games.
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But on a team with Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram and Jakob Poeltl all able to blend play-making and scoring, in addition to the guards who can do that, we're not sure Walter will really need to do much table-setting.
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They will need pull-up three-point shooters (Immanuel Quickley and Ingram will be keys, but they need more beyond that) and Walter was hot on those types of shots on Tuesday. He looked comfortable pulling up against Denver and that needs to continue.
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Ja'Kobe Walter did a little bit of everything in the @Raptors win tonight in Vegas!
🦖 26 points
🦖 7 steals
🦖 4 rebounds
🦖 4 triples pic.twitter.com/4Q6Zmgaw7S
— NBA (@NBA) July 16, 2025
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