2025 NBA draft primer: Raptors targets, top prospects and a Canadian first-rounder

Hamilton Spectator

3 days ago

Over the last couple of months, the Star has profiled
2025 NBA draft prospects
, including some who the
Raptors
could target Wednesday.
About halfway through our series, the
NBA draft lottery
ping pong balls determined that the Raptors would be drafting ninth, giving us a better picture of who the Raptors might take a look at.
Below is an overview of the players we've covered, what makes some a potential fit for the Raptors, and links to the full profiles.
With the Raptors falling down instead of winning the draft lottery, these players are no longer in reach, but they're certainly worth taking note of.
Cooper Flagg
— NBA teams seek shooting and offensive intelligence. They want to find willing and versatile defenders. They are always searching for a mentality and a drive that separates prospects from suspects.
It's good if they can find one quality, great if they can find two. Three is the kind of discovery that keeps general managers and team presidents employed.
Find them all? They've found Flagg.
Read the full profile here:
Dylan Harper
— The son of ex-NBAer Ron Harper and brother of the Detroit Pistons' Ron. Jr., a former Raptors prospect, has all the skills that could have landed him atop the draft class had Flagg not existed.
He's a six-foot-six lefty guard with smarts and instincts that belie his 19-year-old self, and it's hard to find a major flaw in his game that can't be worked on and improved.
In one season at Rutgers, Harper finished with a 70 per cent success rate at the rim, he's got a deep bag of floaters and drives, and he has found a way to dictate the tempo to the game.
Read the full profile here:
VJ Edgecombe
— Jaw-dropping athleticism and defensive instincts, which make Edgecombe a surefire NBA lottery draft pick, are also what make him a somewhat longer-term selection.
There are no questions about the raw skills of the six-foot-five Baylor University wing, just as there is no doubt that there are aspects he'll have to improve once his NBA career begins.
Edgecombe, a 19-year-old from Bahamas, is highly touted, thought by many experts to be the third selection in June's draft behind Flagg and Harper.
Read the full profile here:
Their prospect stock is rising, but what if they fall to Toronto at No. 9?
Tre Johnson
—
There are NBA draft picks who have immediate impact because their already-developed skills prepared them for handling the league.
And then there are the prospects that teams are willing to wait for, players with an abundance of promise to be mined like minerals.
Johnson, a six-foot-five point guard seen as a pick anywhere from third to 10th in the draft, certainly fits in the second category, but is someone most experts believe is worth waiting for.
Read the full profile here:
Khaman Maluach
— It's such a logical fit on so many levels that the music is building to a draft-night crescendo for Toronto to draft the Duke centre because he ticks every Raptors box.
He's an 18-year-old born in South Sudan and raised in Uganda, and everyone knows Raptors president Masai Ujiri sees Africa as fertile ground to unearth basketball treasures. Maluach has only been playing basketball since 2019, and there's nothing like raw talent to mould and fit the Raptors development program. He's also a seven-foot-two centre, addressing Toronto's glaring size deficiency.
The question is, will he be available at No. 9?
Read the full profile here:
Kon Knueppel
—
Knueppel possesses one undeniable NBA skill, and it guarantees he is a virtual lock to go in the first 10 picks in the draft.
The Duke University wing is a proven shooter — 40.6 per cent efficiency from three-point range, 47.9 per cent from the floor overall, 91.4 per cent from the free-throw line in one collegiate season — and that skill is in heavy demand throughout the league.
Scouts know it, general managers know it, his much-ballyhooed Blue Devils teammate knows it.
'I know he's going to be great. He's solid in so many different ways,' Flagg said at the NBA draft combine last month.
Read the full profile here:
Any of these players could be available when the Raptors pick, but who would be the right fit?
Derik Queen
— When the Maryland freshman big hit a buzzer-beating basket to win a March Madness game, it vaulted him up the consciousness of many casual college basketball fans.
To NBA talent evaluators, the shot was in keeping with Queen's offensive skills and shot-making ability, but it did not answer the major questions about the six-foot-10 centre and those will dog him throughout workout sessions in the pre-draft process.
Can the 20-year-old Queen disprove the feelings that this consistent work ethic is enough to carry him to the upper echelon of the NBA?
Read the full profile here:
Collin Murray-Boyles
—
There are so many things that Murray-Boyles brings to the NBA draft that are impossible to ignore.
He was a defensive star in the NCAA — he can switch coverages, blow up screen-roll actions and get his hands on passes — and any team looking for a young stopper to groom has to be enthralled with the 19-year-old South Carolina sophomore.
His size is impressive — six-foot-seven, 240 pounds — and there have already been comparisons to Golden State's Draymond Green. That's unfair to put on a kid who just turned 20 years old this month and hasn't even taken part in an NBA practice, but it is the kind of comp he's getting.
Read the full profile here:
Noa Essengue
—
It's hard to imagine many NBA fans spent the winter wondering how Essengue's season was going and what his skills might do to enhance the chances of a team here.
Now they probably are.
The 18-year-old Frenchman who plays for Ratiopharm Ulm in the top German league, has become one of the darlings of recent mock drafts, leaping up to the top 10 heading into the festivities.
The six-foot-10, 200-pounder is a quick, rangy big man with three-point shooting ability and what appears to be a promising future as he matures.
Read the full profile here:
Kasparas Jakucionis
—
One of the difficulties of nailing NBA draft picks is each teenage prospect's lack of experience limits the information available. A season, maybe two, at an American college hardly provides a long and detailed baseline, leaving teams to work mainly off their own projections.
That's not the case with guard Jakucionis, who brings more experience to the process than anyone else touted as a top-10 selection.
He has an impressive resumé for a youngster sure to be on Toronto's radar heading into Wednesday's first round of the NBA draft.
Read the full profile here:
Get to know the only Canadian expected to hear his name called in the first round of the NBA draft.
Will Riley
—
ESPN has the Canadian pencilled in as the 22nd pick in a recent mock draft, though the Star has learned that some teams drafting in the lottery range have considered Riley. His scoring instincts and ability to create his own shot have caught the attention of NBA executives and scouts.
At the draft combine in Chicago in May, Riley met and interviewed with 12 teams. He will become the second player from Kitchener to be drafted since Jamal Murray went seventh to the Denver Nuggets in 2016.
He's also gotten plenty of love from the Durant family.
Read the full profile here: