This morning we talked about Bryan Colangelo believing that guard Damian Lillard would be off the board by the time the Raptors were making their pick.
However nothing is set in stone at this point, as is evidenced by ESPN.com's Chad Ford, in his latest mock draft, version 8,0. (Remember the days when Ford did like four of these as an aside?)
Ford now has the Raptors drafting Damian Lillard after having Dion Waiters firmly entrenched in that spot in his previous mocks. From the post:
Analysis: The Raptors were high on Waiters early, but his stock has risen so rapidly that he could very well be off the board when they pick. If that's the case, Lillard may be the next best thing to Waiters as a dynamic backcourt scorer, which the team has lacked.
The Raptors are also open to trading their pick for a veteran wing, who would add some stability to their roster. If they keep the pick, Jeremy Lamb and Austin Rivers are also in the mix here.
So really, to no one's surprise, this pick comes down to who gets drafted before the Dinos make their selection. In Ford's mock he has the Blazers taking Andre Drummond, and the Warriors taking Waiters, thus pushing Lillard down to eight.
In many ways I think the draft starts at six in terms of what happens to Toronto, and Lillard fans are going to have to pray that someone like Drummond, Waiters, Sullinger or even one of the Joneses, gets picked to push the Weber State guard down.
Unfortunately this scenario is starting to remind me of the 2010 draft when I was praying the Dinos could grab Paul George. Unfortunately the Raps needed a number of dominoes to fall correctly for that to occur, and well...it didn't work.