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

Possible NBA Draft target for Toronto Raptors — Grant Riller

Guard | College of Charleston | 6’3 | 190 lbs | 23 years old

Grant Riller’s inclusion here as a Raptors target with the 29th overall pick may come as a surprise to some people, for reasons that are admittedly valid and based in fact.

Riller is quite old for an incoming rookie with a February 1997 birthdate, meaning he’ll be 24 for a large chunk of his inaugural professional season. For a point of reference, Florida State’s Patrick Williams, a projected lottery pick and the youngest American in this draft class (August 2001), is just over 4.5 years younger than Riller, underscoring just how old Riller is compared to his class.

He’s also coming from the Colonial Athletic Association, which isn’t exactly a powerhouse conference in terms of NCAA bids and overall talent level, meaning Riller’s collegiate production and advantage creation may not translate to the NBA.

And of course, Riller appearing as a target with the 29th pick despite being mocked much later by mainstream publications like ESPN (39) and The Athletic (51) is quite a difference from the norm, which may make him seem like a reach in the first round.

But disregard the age, the previous competition level, and where draft evaluators currently project him to go — Grant Riller is one of the best scorers that the college game has seen in years, in terms of versatility and usage and efficiency, and offers a package of downhill slashing and quick-twitch off-the-bounce creation that some 2020 guard prospects will likely never develop, even when factoring in age.

Riller finished his college career with averages of 18.7 points and 2.8 assists on .616 true shooting (.519/.356/.796) while carrying an enormous 29.0 usage rate, underscoring his talents as a three-level scorer.

Riller possesses a gear shift as a driver, exploding from a standstill before downshifting with crafty footwork to evade rotating rim protectors, finishing at the rim with an unparalleled level of midair strength, body control, and touch. Across four seasons with Charleston, the 6’3 guard finished 69.7% of his shots at the basket (451/647), a bizarre figure that’s reserved for frontcourt players who live and breathe at the basket.

Riller ranked in the 97th percentile scoring out of the pick-and-roll as a senior, pressuring the rim like few other guards, leaving opposing teams helpless once he penetrated the shell of the defense.

His handle and space creation is truly special, winning with a lethal first step, sudden movement, sharp change of direction, and a deep bag of crossovers and stop-start hesitations. He’s also a master at setting up pull-ups, fade-aways, and step-back jumpers, ranking in the 88th percentile as an isolation scorer and in the 83rd percentile (0.978 PPP) as a pull-up shooter this past season.

With his ability to both burn a defense as a slasher and his versatility as a shot-maker, it’s difficult to imagine Riller being, at worst, a dynamic bench sparkplug at the next level. Passing isn’t a strength of his, but he’s capable of making dump-offs and simple kickouts when collapsing a defense, which is all you can ask for considering his role projection.

Where Riller lags behind the most as a player is his defense, both as an unimposing deterrent at the point-of-attack and a rather lackadaisical and disengaged contributor away from the ball. Riller’s defense was bad in college, and that’s even with accounting for the poor competition level of the CAA.

He’s a hit-or-miss defender with far more misses, as he struggles staying attached to shooters off-ball, monitoring and preventing backdoor cuts, and defending in his stance when assigned to opposing ball-handlers.

There isn’t a world where he is anything but a negative on defense in the NBA, though there are some signals — a career 2.3 steal percentage, a stocky frame, and decent playmaking instincts when engaged — that hint at some future aptitude on that end if he were to handle a lessened creation load and play for a team with an established defensive identity, like, say, the Toronto Raptors, where he could be forced into a role and where his strong hands could prove helpful when stunting/digging on ball-handlers at the nail.

He’s old and imperfect, but Grant Riller would be a bang-for-your-buck pick in his current draft range and well worth a selection at the end of the first round, where ending up with an NBA-caliber rotation player is far from a guarantee.

Few prospects match his level of scoring dynamism, making him one of the obvious bets to become a draft day steal. Toronto rarely drafts players who project to be clear negatives on defense, but he’d be an understandable and worthy exception with the 29th pick.