Toronto Raptors Draft History

Toronto Raptors Draft History

The Toronto Raptors have made 25 National Basketball Association (NBA) Draft selections during their draft history. The Raptors began as an expansion team in 1995 and first participated in the NBA Draft on June 28, 1995 at the SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 1989, the NBA agreed with the National Basketball Players' Association to limit drafts to two rounds, an arrangement that has remained the same up the present time. Before each draft, an NBA Draft Lottery determines the first round selection order for the teams that missed the playoffs during the prior season. Teams can also trade their picks, which means that in some drafts teams may have more or less than two draft picks, although they must have at least one first-round pick every other year.

The first pick in Toronto Raptors' history was Damon Stoudamire, a point guard from the University of Arizona, who was the seventh overall pick in the 1995 NBA Draft. People in the crowd were surprised by this pick because they expected the Raptors to pick Ed O'Bannon from UCLA. In their second pick of the same draft, Fab Five member Jimmy King from Michigan was drafted in the second round. The Raptors won the first overall pick in 1996, but they had to give that up due to the expansion agreement with the league. Chris Bosh was selected by the Raptors as the fourth pick overall in the 2003 NBA Draft, and he went on to play in three all-star games, while starting in two. Andrea Bargnani, who was selected by the Raptors with the first overall pick of the 2006 NBA Draft, became the first European to be picked first overall in the NBA Draft.

Six of the players that the Raptors have drafted were named to the NBA All-Rookie Team first team in their respective rookie seasons—Damon Stoudamire in 1996, Marcus Camby in 1997, Morris Peterson in 2001, Chris Bosh in 2004, Charlie Villanueva in 2006, and Andrea Bargnani in 2007—and Stoudamire was named the Rookie of the Year in 1996.