Raptors' roster holds the lowest-average draft position among NBA teams
When the Raptors won the title in 2019, it was the only time that the NBA champions did not have a lottery pick on their roster since the league changed to a weighted lotto system in 1990.
In fact, the 2019 Raptors had the lowest drafted players among NBA champions since the Houston Rockets in 1993-94. (Although those numbers were a bit impacted by the fact that Mario Elie was selected at No. 160 overall, fully one hundred spots later than the final selection eligible in the modern draft).
This year, the only Toronto player selected in the lottery was Stanley Johnson. The former University of Arizona forward was picked at No. 8 overall in 2015. But he averaged just 4.8 minutes per game in 2019-20, making zero appearances in the starting lineup.
The only first-rounders on the team are OG Anunoby (No. 23 overall), Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (No. 23 overall), Kyle Lowry (No. 24 overall), Serge Ibaka (No. 24 overall) and Pascal Siakam (No. 27 overall). All of these players were taken in the second half of the first round.
Among NBA teams, the Raptors currently have the roster with the lowest average draft positions.
One interesting observation: the rosters with higher draft positions are not doing that well. The six NBA teams that have the lowest draft position all have winning records this season. Meanwhile, 10 of the eleven teams with the highest-drafted players have losing records.
HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report