This is moving FAST... Raptors Signing Incoming

On Wednesday, Jake Fisher reported the Raptors were interested in three different players for one of their final two-way spots. First, Dalton Knecht, Michael Peavy, as well as Sean Padula. Yesterday, within six hours, all three players were gone. Connect ended up on the Knicks, Padula ended up in Sacramento, and Peavy, who reportedly came down to Toronto and OKC, ended up going to the Thunder. And now there's a new name on that list, and honestly, it's the most Raptors name possible, and it is Rob Dillingham. And if you're not familiar, he was the number eight pick in the 2024 NBA draft, taken with the exact pick the Raptors traded away for Jakob Poeltl. And he's still only 21 years old. He's been on three different teams over the past two years, and he's been sitting in free agency for almost four weeks. So is he a steal for the Toronto Raptors, or is there a reason why no one has signed him? Because the area report has revealed that he is open to a two-way roster spot and the raptors are directly linked. The area report stated that one name to keep an eye on for the raptors final two-way roster spot is Rob Dillingham and just a few hours later he doubled down on it saying the raptors indeed considered rob dillingham sources say and dillingham and his camp are open to a two-way contract. So the details here are very important for the Toronto Raptors. The reason this matters so much we're looking at this is because a two-way contract is the only contract the Toronto Raptors can sign right now. The team is hard capped at the first apron and they're about $963,000 underneath it so minimum contract costs more than that. A two-way contract does not count against the cap at all and a player can be active for up to 50 games in a season. If the Raptors have some injuries that start to pile up, then these are the guys that are going to be counted on. And these spots are disappearing. On Tuesday, Hoops Rumors counted four teams with two-way spots open. Dallas filled theirs with Walter Clayton Jr. Sacramento just took Padula, and by my count, that leaves two, the Toronto Raptors and the Minnesota Timberwolves. It wasn't just the Raptors missing out on all these guys that we listed off early on in this video. Minnesota to chase Dalton Knecht as well. But the Knicks ended up cutting one of their own two-way guys, Kevin McCullough Jr., just to make room for him. Remember that name because we'll talk about him a little later in this video. And Minnesota is the team where Dillingham started. So that leaves two options left for Dillingham, the team that ended up drafting him and the team whose pick he was. So a quick thing before we dive into Dillingham is as a basketball player and how he'd actually fit into the Toronto Raptors. 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Minnesota wanted him so badly they traded up to draft him on draft night. They gave the San Antonio Spurs an unprotected pick in 2031 as well as a 20-30 pick swap just to get the number 8th overall selection. And then he barely played for the Minnesota Timberwolves. As a rookie he averaged 4.5 points per game in just 10 minutes a night. He shot 44% from 3 in college and over his NBA career that's gone down to 32%. last february minnesota gave up on him they traded him away to the chicago bulls in a package with leonard miller as well as a few first round second round picks in return for Ayo Dosunmu and in chicago he actually played he averaged 9.6 points per game in 21 minutes a night and at the end of the season it really started to click over his last five games he averaged 15.8 points per game on april 7th in washington he scored a career high 26 points and went five for eight from behind the three-point line. He followed that up with 25 points in a game versus Dallas in the last game of the season. And nine days after the season ended, he had surgery to remove a cyst from his right wrist, so that hot finish came right before wrist surgery. But then in September, Chicago traded him to Charlotte for Buddy Hield, and the next day, the Charlotte Hornets waived him. And they're still paying him $6.89 million just to not have him around. And to be fair to him, this is not about his game the Charlotte Hornets had a 9.6 million dollar trade exception and they did that deal to get Buddy Hield's contract off the books he was just the price of the deal not the point of it and think about what this means in 2024 the team was willing to give up two draft picks one unprotected pick and a swap in order to get him and in 2026 his contract was used as just a way to facilitate a deal to get Buddy Hield's contract off your books. Now, there's also that sentimental connection to Rob Dillingham as well, because he's a name that was floated around Raptors circles for a very long time because of this Jakob Poeltl trade. If you go back to February 2023, Masai Ujiri traded for Jakob Poeltl at the deadline, and Toronto sent San Antonio Spurs' Kemba Walker, two second-round picks and its 2024 first-round pick, which was top six protected. And the next season, the Toronto Raptors were really, really bad. They went into that draft lottery with the six best odds, and that fit right under that pick protection. So basically, they kept that pick if the lottery balls fell the right way and they were in the top six. But that did not happen. Two teams jumped them in the lottery, so the Raptors draft pick ended up being eighth overall. So it was officially traded to the San Antonio Spurs, which then got traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves. So a lot of people bring up, especially the year where Jakob Poeltl was really struggling with his injury issues, how the Raptors would have had the 8th overall pick. They would have had one of these top draft selections if they didn't make the move for Big Yak, which in theory would have led them to select Rob Dillingham. It should be noted the Raptors did end up with a pick that year in the Pascal Siakam trade. they ended up acquiring Jacoby Walter, or at least the pick that ended up becoming Jacoby Walter. And he is still here, Jakob Poeltl is still here, and now there's a chance Rob Dillingham is on his way as well. Okay, now we have to look at the fit of Rob Dillingham on this team, because I said some things about Padula, which apply to Rob Dillingham as well. The Toronto Raptors already have a lot of guards on this roster. Emmanuel Quickley, Jamal Shead, Jaden Bradley they all play the point guard spot. And you also have Elijah Martin and Malachi Smith as undersized combo guards out there at the back end of your roster. Dillingham would be in theory the sixth guy, the sixth man in the pecking order based off this group. But there's another side, Nate Biddle and one of the two-way contract guys out there on this roster has a fractured right foot. So right now the two-way group is thin and whoever gets the spot could actually play early. And what this team needs most is shooting. Even in a 43 point win on opening night, the Toronto Raptors went 10 for 31 from three and Dillingham shot 31.6% from three last season. So he's not really going to fix that problem. So why would the Toronto Raptors go after Rob Dillingham? Well, there's three reasons that I can specifically point to. First, the guy's still only 21 years old. He's younger than Jacoby Walters, younger than the other guys who were looking at that two-way position. Dalton Connect, Peavy, Padula, all these different players. Second, there's no doubt that this man can definitely playmake. He ran the pick and roll on 28% of his plays last season. And in Chicago, when he finally got real minutes, the scoring showed up. And third, it's a player with high upside that is completely free. Charlotte is paying him $6.89 million. A two-way contract doesn't touch the hard cap. And the worst case is you get a 21-year-old point guard who's getting reps for the Raptors 905 of course with smaller guards a lot of them are in theory better players than a lot of role players that are out there still available for two-way contracts but they need to be in a system that makes sense if they don't complement your guys very well even if they are more talented even if they are better basketball players they have a better bag whatever you want to call it NBA teams are just going to go in a different direction so the Toronto Raptors are going to look at this right now and say hey do we need more shot creation if Emmanuel quickly Jamal Shep one of these guys go down what is it that this team actually needs if they need a guy that has some high upside you know in terms of creation in terms of playmaking in terms of all these different things Rob Dillingham is the perfect pick because he's young he's moldable he still has high upside and he's shown at the NBA level that he can score and he can facilitate But if you're more so looking at it as a guy that can insert himself in there with Kawhi, with Scottie, that doesn't need the ball in their hands to be effective, all these different things, then Dillingham is a harder sell in that decision. And the thing about it is, he's not the only guy left. If the Raptors want to move in a different direction than Dillingham, there are a bunch of guys that are out there, and there's one player who fixes their shooting problem tomorrow, and that is Blake Hinson. A 6'8 forward who's 26 and undrafted out of Pitt, Utah gave him a two-way contract in February and in 14 games he averaged 12 points per night and shot 46.8 percent from three in fact he scored 30 points against Memphis in April and in the G League with Santa Cruz he once scored 44 points with 10 threes in just one game Utah ended up cutting him on Wednesday just to make room for Kobe Bufkin so this guy he's a wing who can shoot the basketball which is something we talked about in the Dalton Connect video and he fits this exact need on this roster. Of course, 14 games is a tiny sample size on a really, really bad Utah Jazz team, and of course, there has to be a reason he has been cut three different times. Then there's also Kevin McCullough Jr., who the Knicks just cut him yesterday to make room for Dalton Connect. He's a 6'6 wing, 25 years old, a third-team All-American at Kansas, and a defender. He's got a championship ring from last season and fits kind of the archetype the Toronto Raptors really like. Finally, I want to touch on one name because I've seen some people throw him out there every now and then, but Kevin Porter Jr. is a guy that isn't actually an option for the Toronto Raptors right now, despite how many people have brought him up in different discussions. The guy has been in the NBA for too long to sign a two-way contract, and the Toronto Raptors cannot fit him in on a minimum salary. So really, this choice ends up being between two kinds of players. The safe fit integrates smoothly out there into your organization, or someone that's younger and is a swing the last time I picked Dalton Connect for that final roster spot and now he's in New York Knicks so I'm over one on that I would have liked for that to go down but unfortunately we're looking in a different direction logically I'd probably take someone like Hinson a better fit better shooter all these things that we've talked about out there in recent weeks but the bias is getting to me the story is getting to me the guy that we could have had for that number eight pick I mean during that tanking year where there was not a lot of stuff going on the number one piece of discussion and discourse for it felt like a full season was how the Toronto Raptors are going to keep that pick tank for that pick and it ended up being Rob Dillingham which felt like a prized piece especially with how sweet his high school mixtapes were it felt like we really missed out on something now of course you have the opportunity to get him for free now in 2026 and you see how his career trajectory went people say what you want about the Jakob Poeltl specifically the extension But I'm not losing sleep over missing out on that pick, especially where the year after we ended up having, you know, Colin Murray Bulls available, which would have been devastating to miss out on. But Dillingham's a young player. He's proven he can command an offense, run the show out there at that guard position for different teams was really effective for the Bulls at the end of last year. And if we have a night, because I don't have full faith in Jaden Bradley at all to really run the offense in the games where we're trying to be competitive. Jamal Shead of course certain nights is definitely ice cold on the offensive end even though he's a great playmaker and one of the best defensive guards in the league if we have a moment where we need more playmaking more shot creation more stuff off the bench Rob Dillingham can provide that and of course you know going to the center route it's not the positional fit it's not the biggest need but it is still a two-way contract and you want to draft high potential upside and stuff there I don't know it's probably not logically the right move probably you should go out and get you a better shooter but I just love the story so I want to know what you guys would do would you want Dillingham or Henson or someone else let me know in the comment section down below if you missed the game yesterday we have a crazy recap for it right here and you know the Raptors are back rolling so definitely check out that video if you want to see a full breakdown on the Raptors win versus the Wizards