NBA: Ranking every team based off draft success over the last 20 years

17. Toronto Raptors: 22.5 points 

• 2000: Morris Peterson: 0.5
• 2003: Chris Bosh: 14 (11x all-star, 1x 2nd team)
• 2006: P.J. Tucker: 0 (Doesn’t count because he was waived by the Raptors before the end of his rookie season and then played in Europe for 5 years. No one gets credit for P.J. Tucker. P.J. Tuckers are wild cards in the formula.)
• 2006: Andrea Bargnani: -3 (bust with #1 pick)
• 2009: DeMar DeRozan: 9 (4x all-star, 1x 2nd team, 1x 3rd team)
• 2011: Jonas Valanciunas: 0.5
• 2016: Pascal Siakam: 1.5 (1x all-star, 1.5x multiplier for pick outside of lottery)

The Raptors might be the best example of a team that has used the draft to build a solid foundation, and then aggressively used trades to cash in and put themselves over the top. The trade with the Spurs that brought Kawhi Leonard to Toronto is the most noteworthy, but they started doing this long before he ever got to town.

After trading for Kyle Lowry in 2012 and pairing him with DeMar DeRozan, the Raptors quickly became a competitive team. Not yet good enough to compete for a title, but the foundation was in a place that allowed them to get more aggressive over the next few seasons.

They made a couple of quiet trades to acquire Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol for 50 cents on the dollar, and finished it all off by flipping DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green – a steal at the time and even more egregious now.

Toronto isn’t exactly a small market, but they don’t traditionally attract big-time free agents and should be an example for other teams in a similar situation. They are proof that the draft isn’t about hitting a home run every time, but about hitting enough singles/doubles to set yourself up for when you’re ready to swing for the fences.