Draft Day Diary: Day 2 Reaction — In Masai We Trust

Masai Ujiri rolled up his sleeves for Draft Day #2

The two-day draft format is amazing and confusing at the same time. First, and more importantly, Toronto Raptors President Masai Ujiri really had to roll up his sleeves and went to work. Just look at his Day 2 body of work:

• Trade: Jalen McDaniels for Davion Mitchell, Sasha Vezenkov, 45th pick, and Portland’s 2025 2nd round pick
• 31st pick: Jonathan Mogbo
• 45th pick: Jamal Shead
• 57th pick: Ulrich Chomche
• 2W: Branden Carlson

Not bad, Masai.

Before we look at the selections, let’s revisit Draft Day - Day 2:

Day 2 Diary

• Day 2. Here we go.
• We did what? We traded for Davion Mitchell and Sasha Vezenkov? I hope that’s not for the 31st pick. If that was the 31st pick, Masai’s washed. But hey, at least this means we don’t have to draft Bronny James, because we have the “Rich Man’s Bronny James” at home now, right? Right?
• Whaaaatttt??? We picked up Michell and Vezenkov, got another 2nd round pick today, got another 2nd round pick next year, AND we got rid of Jalen McDaniels? That’s a big flex, Masai

• Oh wow, sorry Jalen, this is funny and sad at the same time. But know that you are going to a team that’s trying to compete for a chip.

• Ok, the Raps are on the clock. My shortlist @ 31: Tyler Smith, Jonathan Mogbo, Bobi Klintman, Kyle Filpowski, and Juan Nunez, in that order.
• With the 31st pick of the 2024 NBA draft, the Toronto Raptors select Jonathan Mogbo!!!!! — I wrote about this earlier today; imagine Ja’Kobe Walter and Jonathan Mogbo as Agent of Chaos 2.0 for the bench mob. Now we have Davion in this group? Nick Nurse would want to coach this team back!

• I”m on a Twitter space with my Twitter friends and my buddy Je’RICO just said the funniest thing about Mogbo: He’s the tallest 6’6” guy I’ve ever seen!
• Ok, on to the 45th pick. Three picks before the Raps are on the clock, and the two best bigs are gone (Bona and Ighodaro). My shortlist: Cam Christie, Pelle Larsson, PJ Hall, Justin Edwards, Trentyn Flowers, Reece Ulrich Chomche.
• With the 45th pick of the 2024 NBA draft, the Toronto Raptors select Jamal Shead!!!! — Whoa. My initial reaction is to flip the table, but at the very least, we may have a reallly solid, MVP-type Raptors 905 point guard.
• Ok, this explains the reach

• Oh man, all of these draft pick trades are dizzying. I know know who’s picking what.
• Too much Bronny talk, let these other kids get their shine. For all we know, a future MVP’s draft day highlight’s gonna have an analyst talking about Bronny on the footage. It’s the modern-age Nikola Jokic Taco Bell commercial.
• Bronny went to the Lakers with the 55th pick. What a surprise. Rich Paul calling teams to discourage them from drafting Bronny’s one of the funniest jokes in this draft.
• Wait, what? The Raptors traded for Minnesota’s 57th pick?
• With the 57th pick of the 2024 NBA Draft, the Toronto Raptors select Ulrich Chomche!!! — ok, we got our mystery box and at this pick, that’s not bad at all.
• Shead and Ulrich are probably gonna be on 2W, right? Wow, we just picked up Branden Carlson, a name that I haven’t seen since I saw his team play Malachi Flynn’s San Diego State when I first did the Raptors draft watch :o

31st Pick - Jonathan Mogbo

Stats: 14.2 points, 10 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals

Age: 22 (NBA Age - 23)

School: San Francisco (Junior)

Position: PF

Height w/o shoes: 6’6.25”

Wingspan: 7’2”

Standing Reach: 9’0.5”

Mogbo first caught my eye during the NBA Combine. At first, his size and activity reminded me of Beef Stew (Isaiah Stewart), but after a closer look, I saw that he brings much more to the table. Despite playing undersized, he’s such a busybody that he’s hard to contain in the paint. Mogbo’s strength, athleticism, quickness for his size, and relentless effort are somewhat expected. But his passing chops and processing when it comes to playmaking would make Draymond Green proud.

Mogbo’s an intriguing prospect. With an NBA-ready body that can do everything except shoot the ball from the midrange and farther, he’s talented enough that teams are high on him. He got invited to the NBA Combine instead of going through the harder route, which is the NBA G League Elite Camp.

While Mogbo’s traditional role on the floor is TBD, you can expect him to be a really annoying player to opposing teams with his activity on both ends of the floor. While his offense is limited to trying to dunk the ball as much as possible, he’s fluid enough to face up and drive to the basket. What’s fascinating to me is his fluidity with the ball and playmaking with that size and power game. Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman said that Mogbo was a guard in high school before hitting a growth spurt. As a defender, I’m curious to see if he can become a switchable defender. At the very least, be able to guard bigger SF/PFs, as his size is identical with OG Anunoby’s per NBA.com.

Mogbo only attempted two perimeter shots at San Francisco. Now, imagine if this part of his game gets better:

45th Pick - Jamal Shead

Stats: 12.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 2.2 steals, 2.0 turnovers

Age: 21 (NBA Age - 22)

School: Houston (Senior)

Position: PG

Height w/o shoes: 6’0.25”

Wingspan: 6’3”

Standing Reach: 8’0”

On hindsight, it felt like the Raptors reached for Shead at #45. I had him as a potential 2-Way Contract target, and most mock drafts have him late in the draft to undrafted. However, upon hearing news that it was pretty much a bidding war, the Raptors had to step up and take him 45th and on a standard contract. At this point, the prospects at 45th pick onwards can be interchangeable, and if Shead’s their guy, they got a steal by getting their guy.

The knock on Shead is his size and perimeter shooting. Had Shead been two inches taller, he’s probably a consensus late 1st round pick. He’s one of the best PGs in the nation, and his game screams of “old school get on my back” excellent point guard play. He did everything for Houston, from table setting, facilitating, scoring, generating offense on the fly, and more importantly, play hard nosed defense. Defensively, Shead uses his strength, processing, anticipation, and will to be a disruptor. This might be blasphemous, but watching him gives me nostalgic feeling of watching shades of Kyle Lowry, GROAT.

Shead’s perimeter shooting is his swing skill. If he can hit at a decent clip (29.8% as a Senior) from the perimeter, he’s a lock as a backup point guard role. At the very least, if the Raptors bring another point guard in this coming free agency, Shead can be given the keys to the Raptors 905 team this coming season. Shead w/ the keys to a team is a NBA G League MVP season waiting to happen, and he’ll provide stability to the team where solid strong point guard play will be needed to aid the development of their other raw prospects.

57th Pick - Ulrich Chomche

Age: 18 (NBA Age - 19)

School: Basketball Africa League

Position: PF/C

Height w/o shoes: 6’10.25”

Wingspan: 7’4”

Standing Reach: 9’1”

The Raptors can’t let a draft cycle pass without getting a mystery box. Ulrich Chomche’s selection plays into all of the cliches of a “Raptors Draft Pick,” but at 18 years old showcasing those flashes, it’s hard to blame them for taking this really raw prospect. I don’t know if “two years away from being two years away” accurately describes where he is as an NBA player. Still, if anything, the Raptors should have a blueprint for dealing with this development situation after going through this with Bruno Caboclo. I’m not going to claim that I watched anything outside of his YouTube highlights, but what I can guarantee is we’ll be covering him when the RaptorsHQ’s “Dial 905” Raptors 905 coverage resumes this fall.