NBA Draft 2020: Top 3 options for Toronto Raptors with the No. 29 pick

Possible NBA Draft target for Toronto Raptors — Malachi Flynn

Guard | San Diego State | 6’1 | 185 lbs | 22 years old

The current backcourt situation in Toronto is one that deserves attention and speculation. Kyle Lowry turns 35 next season and isn’t getting any younger, though he’s still playing at an elite level on both ends. Fred VanVleet is headed toward receiving a four-year contract offer in the range of $80 to $100 million, making him a real flight risk.

There’s no replacing these two players in the event that one or both of them are no longer on the team this time next year, not through free agency and especially not through the draft with a late first-round pick, but finding someone capable of both minimizing the effects felt from a VanVleet departure while also blending in with the current core as an immediate contributor is possible, if not outright probable.

If Masai Ujiri is looking for a supplemental talent who can play off the bench and fit into Nick Nurse’s plug-and-play system as a complementary playmaker and competent defender, then San Diego State’s Malachi Flynn is one of the best guard options available at the end of the first round.

A crafty maestro in the pick-and-roll and a ball hawk on defense, Flynn was a two-way force to be reckoned with in his first season in the Mountain West Conference, leading the Aztecs to a 30-2 record and earning himself All-Defense and All-Conference honors with averages of 17.6 points, 5.1 assists, and 1.8 steals on .441/.373/.857 shooting.

He was an advanced stats darling, accumulating an 11.6 Box Plus-Minus and a plus-6.65 Player Impact Plus-Minus, both of which ranked near the top of the country. His patience and craft in the pick-and-roll — incorporating a bag full of hesitations, “Smitty” half-spins, manipulative in-and-outs, up-fakes, snakes, and goofy-footed finishes — made him one of the more potent orchestrators last year (96th percentile).

Scoring efficiently wasn’t a problem for the 6’1 guard, whether he was creating off the bounce or operating as an off-ball scorer on cuts and spot-ups. He finished 68.2% of his shots at the rim (per barttorvik.com), 38% of his shots off the catch (83rd percentile), 38.6% of his shots off the dribble (81st percentile), and 43.5% of his floaters (74th percentile).

Getting all the way to the basket will likely be a challenge in the NBA (which makes him rather comparable to VanVleet in this regard, who struggled mightily this postseason), but his craft and touch do give him added leeway as a scorer.

He’s no slouch on the defensive end, either, where he regularly punches above his weight class, beating guys to spots on-ball and impacting the game as a team defender (3.2 STL% in 2019-20).

Flynn shouldn’t be tasked with defending NBA-caliber lead creators, but he wouldn’t have to when playing within Nick Nurse’s defensive system where his quick processing and playmaking instincts could bloom as a roamer off-ball. Guards can only impact the game so much on defense, but he’d be landing in an ideal system in Toronto to maximize his strengths while minimizing his size/length limitations.

Malachi Flynn was pretty, pretty good as an offensive engine and impact defender at the college level and should be more than capable of handling reserve duties in the NBA, with reachable upside as a spot starter, too. Whether he’s backing up Kyle Lowry and/or Fred VanVleet, or spending significant time on the floor with them, he does everything the Raptors could want from a guard with this pick.