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[Toronto Raptors]

Have the Toronto Raptors finally repaid their karmic debt for the Kawhi shot?

John E. Sokolowski, USA TODAY Spo

On the anniversary of the best moment in Toronto history, will the Raptors be blessed yet again by the basketball gods at the NBA Draft Lottery?

6 years ago today, May 12 2019, Toronto experienced the greatest moment in the city’s history. Four bounces of a ball on a rim and the swoosh of a net not audible due to the chasmic uproar of screaming that started before the ball was fully through the nylon.

Kawhi Leonard made a buzzer-beater shot that changed the trajectory of sports culture in the city of Toronto. It seems like we’ve been paying for it ever since.

As the joy of the championship era settled and the reality of the next era of Raptors history set in, it felt more and more each day like we sold our soul to the basketball gods in exchange for that shot. Whether you believe in karma or not, the peak of that shot and the championship that followed led into an era more depressing than ever before. We had reached the mountain-top, breathed in the sweet air of success, and were now addicted. The basketball gods expected their payback, though.

6 years ago today… Kawhi hit the shot and sent the Sixers home #WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/qAPMte2pqm

— Raptors Republic (@raptorsrepublic) May 12, 2025​

A pandemic, the bubble season, the Tampa season, the short levity of drafted Scottie Barnes, followed by the return into the pits of tanking basketball. Six years of losing basketball — is that enough payback? Are the gods satisfied enough to let the Toronto Raptors off the hook and let them have a bit of success again?

I guess we will see tonight, as the NBA Draft Lottery and its four measly ping pong balls determine the immediate future of the Toronto Raptors franchise.

The Raptors have a 7.5% chance of pulling the No. 1 Overall pick in a year when Cooper Flagg is the presumed top prospect. They have a 31.9% chance of getting a top-four pick — the same fate that was given to them in 2021 when they were able to draft Scottie Barnes No. 4 overall. Right now, the odds have them at No. 7 overall after a season of questionable tanking methods.

A few rolls of the tankathon machine have the Raptors going both ways — sometimes they leap up, and other times they roll back in the draft. No one can accurately predict where those ping pong balls will land.

If the Toronto Raptors get the No. 1 pick, Cooper Flagg is the obvious answer. A generational talent who wowed the NCAA during one year with Duke would turn into a franchise-altering piece for whoever is lucky enough to get him. Getting the first pick would certainly feel like the karmic debt of the Kawhi shot is in the past, and the Raptors could sure use some good juju going into next season.

Masai Ujiri will represent the Toronto Raptors at the NBA draft lottery pic.twitter.com/lcIxebdHww

— Esfandiar Baraheni (@JustEsBaraheni) May 12, 2025​

Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster will be at the Draft Lottery tonight to represent the team. Last they spoke to the media after the NBA season, they were hopeful about the draft regardless of where the Raptors ended up. The Raptors’ decision-making duo has a pretty good history of scouting draft talent, especially this past year when they scooped five promising picks in Jamal Shead, Ja’Kobe Walter, Jonathan Mogbo, Ulrich Chomche and Jamison Battle.

The NBA Draft Lottery is Monday at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Source: https://www.raptorshq.com/2025/5/12/24428774/toronto-raptors-draft-lottery-nba-cooper-flagg

 

[Toronto Raptors]

The city of Dallas cannot keep getting away with this

Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

My reaction to being bamboozled by the city of Dallas on Draft Lottery night twice in sixth months.

Not to be overly dramatic, but the Draft Lottery could not have gone any worse for the Toronto Raptors. Like, what the actual [expletive] was that?

For my sanity and well-being, I did not watch the lottery live. Well, in all honesty, it was one of my best friends’ birthdays, and he planned a dinner, so I was occupied. I assumed the Raptors would hold par at pick No. 7 and be done with it, so there I was, sipping too much wine than is probably acceptable for a Monday night while other Raptors fans experienced the crash out of the century. At around 7:30, I assumed the entire ordeal would be over and decided to check on how the Raptors did. I shouldn’t have looked.

The first tweet I saw was a fake account telling me that the Raptors got the No. 1 overall pick, producing a gasp. It took me all of .2 seconds to realize I had been Centel’d, before continuing to scroll to the next tweet: Blake Murphy’s matter-of-fact declaration that Toronto had drawn the ninth pick. NINTH. Leave it to Blake to kill my buzz (kidding, hehe love ya Blake).

It took another few scrolls for my worst fears to be realized. Not only had Toronto fallen to the No. 9 pick, but the No. 1 pick went to DALLAS. The Dallas Mavericks. The “made the actual worst trade decision in sports history” Dallas Mavericks. Sickening. I felt like I was experiencing Deja Vu.

Dear reader, if you know me, you know I am a fan of a little basketball league called the Women’s National Basketball Association. A league in which one of the best basketball prospects of all time entered this season as the number one draft prospect — a player I had been following her entire college career, Paige Bueckers.

On a fateful December Night, I settled in to watch the WNBA Lottery. While my Toronto Tempo were not yet participating, I was hopeful Bueckers would end up in Los Angeles, personally. Yet, it was the Dallas Wings that snuck up in there and secured the No. 1 pick despite not having the largest odds to do so. Crushing, fr. A Bueckers jersey in the Sparks’ classic gold and purple????? Instant add to cart. It was not meant to be.

This time around, I had more skin in the game, as the Toronto Raptors were on the block. With the 7th-best odds, they only had about a 7.5% chance to get the No. 1 pick. Not nothing, but not the best either. Hell, I would have taken a top-four pick and been happy, or even just the 7th pick and been happy. After years of this team’s half-tank effort, I wasn’t expecting too much and knew Washington or Charlotte had a better shot at that coveted first pick.

What I certainly was not expecting was to be BAMBOOZLED by the city of Dallas a SECOND TIME in six months. Tell me how the Mavericks franchise completes the world’s most EGREGIOUSLY DUMB TRADE, tries to gaslight their fanbase into thinking it was the right thing to do, and gets rewarded IMMEDIATELY with Cooper Flagg. After they JUST got Paige Bueckers?!?!?!? Make it make sense, because it doesn't.

The Mavericks only had a 1.5% chance at drawing No. 1, on top of it. That makes the Raptors’ 7.5% odds look AMAZING. The Mavericks didn’t even have a chance to tank before being rewarded with the No. 1 pick in a year with Cooper Flagg as a prospect. It’s infuriating.

I’m a conspiracy theorist about two things in this world: All-Star Voting and Draft Lotteries. There’s no way the All-Star voting process is not rigged to benefit the league’s most profitable players. In the same vein, there is something SO fishy about Dallas getting both Bueckers and Flagg in the same year. Different team ownership aside, just generally WTF.

What does Toronto need to do to get some good juju? Are we literally in basketball purgatory until we get graced with Juju Watkins on the Toronto Tempo? That has to be the endgame, right? Why do the Raptors keep getting the most terrible luck? I mean, all it took Dallas was trading Luka Doncic, meanwhile the Raptors have dealt with a relocation to Tampa Bay, being sued by the Knicks, a betting investigation, too many injuries to list, and the Drake/Kendrick fallout. WE DESERVED a top-four pick! Certainly more than Dallas did!

Give me a few weeks to crash out about the No. 9 pick, and I will be fine, but I will not get over the Mavericks getting the top pick. I would be less mad about the 76ers getting it, and that’s saying a lot. They can’t keep getting away with this.

If I had a nickel every time the city of Dallas was awarded a generational No. 1 draft pick, despite fraudulent team decisions, I’d only have two nickels — but it’s weird it happened twice, right?

Source: https://www.raptorshq.com/2025/5/13...avericks-wings-bueckers-flagg-toronto-raptors

 

[Toronto Raptors]

Raptors still paying karmic price for Kawhi shot as they fall in 2025 Draft

Lottery dreams crushed: Instead of moving into the top-four range, the NBA gods punished the Raptors by bumping them to the 9th pick.

The Toronto Raptors fanbase tuned in to the NBA lottery “show,” filled with hope, but the dream quickly turned into a nightmare. Raptors’ President Masai Ujiri was in attendance to represent the team for the festivities, hoping to bring some good luck charm and potentially bring home a top-four pick. The Raptors have a 31.9% chance of landing a coveted top-four pick. Instead, the NBA gods punished them by bumping them not one, but two spots back with the 9th pick overall.

The Raptors get the 9th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Not much of a reaction from Masai Ujiri. pic.twitter.com/oxWoiiIm0c

— Libaan Osman (@libaanstar1) May 12, 2025​

The Raptors entered the draw with a modest 7.5% chance of landing Cooper Flagg and a 7.8% chance of getting Dylan Harper. These two prospects could significantly alter any team’s timeline, and in the Raptors’ case, allow Ujiri, who likes to play “the middle,” the opportunity to split the difference between “competing” and “roster building.” They also have an 8.1% and 8.5% of landing either the 3rd or the 4th overall pick, and Ace Bailey, Tre Johnson, and VJ Edgecombe would be a significant bench upgrade.

It probably would have been fine had the Raptors stayed at 7th overall since they have the 7th-worst record—a 19.7% chance of happening. It’s already infuriating for the fanbase to move back one spot—a 34.1% chance of moving back to the 8th pick overall—but dropping two spots to 9th? But at least we’re not conveying the pick to the San Antonio Spurs.

I guess if there’s any consolation, the Raptors have had success picking 9th — Isaiah Thomas selected Tracy McGrady back in ‘97, Bryan Colangelo picked DeMar DeRozan in ‘09, and Ujiri tabbed Jakob Poeltl back in ‘16.

Masai Ujiri on the Toronto Raptors getting the 9th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft:

“Tracy McGrady. DeMar DeRozan. Jakob Poeltl. We’ll be fine. I guarantee you we’ll be fine.”

— Libaan Osman (@libaanstar1) May 13, 2025​

The biggest winner of the night was the Dallas Mavericks, who defied all odds by taking the #1 overall pick despite a meagre 1.8% chance of moving to the top. This fete also marks the first time Dallas has won the lottery in their franchise history. The rich got richer, too, with the Spurs moving up six spots to take the 2nd overall pick. San Antonio will likely be Dylan Harper’s potential new city.

While the Raptors’ night was disappointing, it wasn’t as bad as the Utah Jazz and the Washington Wizards’. Both teams fell outside the top four and ended up with the 5th and 6th overall picks, respectively.

Here’s how the “lottery” went down:

The full 2025 NBA draft Lottery results

Where did your team land? pic.twitter.com/UjRZDQYF3I

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) May 12, 2025​

For the second straight season, the Raptors had a chance to commit fully to the tank but, confusingly, went against the grain just enough to be a treadmill mediocre team. The result? The Raptors were not being bad enough that they had to cough up their 2024 lottery pick to the Spurs, and this time, the Raptors failed to secure enough ping pong balls to get into the top-four range. Could the Raptors still be paying off their karmic debt in exchange for Kawhi’s magnetic four-bouncers six years ago?

Masai Ujiri, GM Bobby Webster, and the entire draft evaluation team will now focus on finding gems with the 9th and 39th picks in this coming draft.

This year’s picks.

Presented by @TorontoStar pic.twitter.com/olBPb295ON

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) May 12, 2025​

Source: https://www.raptorshq.com/2025/5/13...flagg-dylan-harper-karmic-price-kawhi-leonard