Who are the top shooters that the Raptors could target at NBA draft?

While assistant general manager Dan Tolzman said Tuesday the franchise usually leans to taking the best overall player and doesn’t like to draft for need, for this exercise, we’ll take a look at some players who might be in range at 19 or 50, where Toronto will pick, who can fill it up.

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Published Jun 18, 2026  •  4 minute read

Christian Anderson of the Texas Tech Red Raiders shoots a three-pointer over Baba Miller of the Cincinnati Bearcats earlier this year. Getty Images

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More than anything else, the Toronto Raptors need to get better at shooting the basketball.

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That wouldn’t solve everything, of course, but moving forward it’s the most obvious areas for improvement.

Toronto ranked 26th of 30 teams in three-point makes and attempts per game during the regular season, and 21st in accuracy.

Only two playoff teams shot worse. In the post-season itself, they ranked only 12th of the 16 teams in three-point makes, even though they shockingly hit at the sixth-highest rate (at just over 35% which was almost identical to their regular season percentage, which could indicate not many teams shot it well in the playoffs this year).

Quickley, Walter lead the way

Either way, the kindest evaluation of Toronto’s roster would detail there’s one elite shooter on the squad, Jamison Battle — who isn’t even a guaranteed rotation player — two above-average gunners — starting point guard Immanuel Quickley who missed the playoffs due to injury and rising young wing Ja’Kobe Walter, who led the NBA in accuracy after the all-star break — and another decent, though extremely reluctant outside shooter in scoring leader Brandon Ingram (also absent for much of the seven-game loss to Cleveland).

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The team’s three best big men — Scottie Barnes, Collin Murray-Boyles and Jason Poeltl — each are unreliable outside shooters at best (though Barnes can heat up at times, as he did against Cleveland).

Not a lot of shooters

RJ Barrett is inconsistent, same with Jamal Shead, Gradey Dick’s stellar shooting at Kansas hasn’t carried over at all to the NBA and free-agent revelation Sandro Mamukelashvili — who opened up so much for the team lineup-wise thanks to his ability to nail three-pointers at centre or power forward, is more likely to be playing for a new team than the Raptors next season given he’s due for a big raise and the team is nearly capped out.

Which leads us to next week’s NBA draft, which could give the Raptors at least a couple of cracks at adding some desperately needed shot-making

While assistant general manager Dan Tolzman said Tuesday the franchise usually leans to taking the best overall player and doesn’t like to draft for need, for this exercise, we’ll take a look at some players who might be in range at 19 or 50, where Toronto will pick, who can fill it up.

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Who are the cream of the crop?

We’re only going to focus on players expected to be in range at 19, not the high lottery talents who probably won’t be.

Christian Anderson, Texas Tech point guard: At worst, Anderson is going to be a dangerous weapon off the bench because he is a nearly flawless outside shooter (widely considered the best in the entire draft). He has plenty of weaknesses at this point, but he’s long and a solid athlete who might be able to figure some things out. If he’s still on the board, Anderson would be hard to look past.

Cameron Carr, Baylor wing: Rocketing up draft boards, but would be intriguing if he’s still around. There’s a chance Carr becomes a 20-point scorer one day.

Bennett Stirtz, Iowa point guard: Stirtz screams solid backup point guard. He’s a smart and effective offensive player. Does he defend enough to satisfy Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic though?

Isaiah Evans, Duke wing: Has more ‘3 and D’ (three-point shooting and defensive potential) than many of the pure shooters.

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Ebuka Okorie, Stanford point guard: Another riser, Okorie is a talented pull-up shooter who also attacks the rim relentlessly.

Allen Graves, Santa Clara forward: An interesting jack-of-all-trades type who feels like a winning type of player.

Henri Veesaar, North Carolina centre: A gigantic (close to 7-foot-1) floor spacer would address a need, but defence might be too lacking to warrant being picked at 19.

Who could appeal at 50?

An obvious candidate if still around at pick 50 would be Vanderbilt shooting guard Tyler Nickel.

An older prospect with some athletic limitations, Nickel could find a role as a Sam Merrill, Sam Hauser, Duncan Robinson type of flamethrower. Do the Raptors need something more (or a bigger player) since Battle is already around to fill that role on the wing? Maybe.

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Bruce Thornton, Ohio State point guard: The senior could provide another option beyond Quickley and Shead. He’s a great shooter who can also score in other ways and an aggressive defender, though not in Shead’s class there.

Tyler Bilodeau, UCLA power forward: A tremendous catch-and-shoot big man, Bilodeau could theoretically replace some of what Mamukelashvili brought.

Milos Uzan, Houston point guard: His shot is more of a work in progress, but he’s half Serbian, studied at the same program as Shead, can defend and has nice form so keep an eye on him at 50.

According to Hoops Hype, the Raptors have worked out Stirtz, Bilodeau and Thornton of the players listed above.

However, Toronto doesn’t only draft players it has seen in its own gym (Walter most recently didn’t workout or interview with the club because he was expected to go higher than 19), but having them in does give them better insight into the player so certainly doesn’t hurt.

@WolstatSun

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