Sacramento Kings’ Davion Mitchell drives to the hoop past Toronto Raptors’ Dennis Schroder and Jakob Poeltl during a pre-season game last year.
With plenty of time to strategize between rounds of the 2024 NBA draft, the Toronto Raptors came up with a way to pick up some assets before Round 2 even began on Thursday.
This is the first year the NBA made the draft a multi-day affair and the Raptors owned the first pick of Day 2, 31st overall.
But before the 4 p.m. ET start time, Toronto acquired defensive guard Davion Mitchell and former EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov from the Sacramento Kings, plus the 45th pick of the draft and Portland’s 2025 second-rounder for forward Jalen McDaniels, who failed to make Toronto’s rotation last season.
Mitchell, 26 in September, was the ninth pick of the 2021 draft and is an excellent defender, but his lack of progress on offence has led to a sharp decrease in his playing time in Sacramento. He played nearly twice as much per game as a rookie compared to Year 3.
Vezenkov, 29 in August, was the top player and scorer in Europe while with Olympiacos in Greece and shot 37.5% on three-point attempts in 42 NBA games as a rookie with Sacramento.
The Kings made the deal to save close to $9 million off the salary cap, potentially saving more when luxury tax concerns are factored in and adding increased flexibility.
Toronto used its cap space knowing it wasn’t going to be a player in free agency to take a flyer on trying to develop Mitchell behind Immanuel Quickley.
He is a Baylor product, like incoming rookie shooting guard/small forward Ja’Kobe Walter. The trade will become official whenever a trade call is made with the league, so for now, the 45th selection, Houston Cougars point guard Jamal Shead, is technically a member of the Kings. That’s why Raptors general manager Bobby Webster had to talk in generalities on Thursday night about what transpired during the day.
“I think it’s some of the things we’ve talked about over the last six months, maintain the flexibility for the summer, have the chance to be opportunistic with deals as they come up,” Webster said. Shead was the Big 12 player of the year and a first team All-American. Asked about players from that conference (Walter and Shead), Webster said of why Toronto likes them: “Same stuff that would apply to Ja’Kobe, winners, toughness, two-way guys that come from winning programs. So probably a lot of that applies to, you know, whoever we ended up with,” he said.
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