Who is Allen Graves? A closer look at the Raptors’ new draft pick

Graves has a lot going for him and is excited at going from a tiny town to the big city.

Published Jun 24, 2026  •  5 minute read

Allen Graves of the Santa Clara Broncos celebrates a basket against the Kentucky Wildcats during the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Getty Images

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A year after slightly surprising many by drafting Collin Murray-Boyles, the Toronto Raptors did it again in taking Allen Graves 19th overall on Tuesday night.

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Graves was a bit of a shock to some because he doesn’t fill Toronto’s biggest needs (size, a rim pressuring guard or wing, more pull-up shooting) and accentuates or duplicates some of the team’s strengths (creating turnovers on defence, making quick offensive decisions and being a high IQ player and good teammate).

Graves will be in Toronto and will meet the media in person on Thursday, but had a few things to say at the draft and in a video call with media afterward Tuesday, as did Raptors general manager Bobby Webster, who will speak again after Wednesday night’s second round.

Here’s more on the newest Raptor.

Get to know Allen Graves

Graves hails from Ponchatoula, La., a tiny town of about 7,000 people known as “America’s Antique City.”

Alijah Martin, last year’s second-round Raptors pick is the only player in recent memory to come from somewhere smaller (Summit Mississippi, a town of 1,500). Graves seems excited about landing in Canada’s biggest city, the fourth-largest in North America.

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“I come from Ponchatoula, Louisiana, so kind of a big support system there. It’s an everybody-knows-everybody town,” Graves said. “Just having that same feeling coming up north is going to be amazing, the family culture of it.

“That’s what I’m used to and that’s what I grew up in. Knowing that that same thing is in Toronto waiting for me is just an amazing feeling.”

A two-time Louisiana high school state champion, Graves was a point guard until a huge growth spurt turned him into a big man for his second year of high school. His pass-first style, floor vision and feel for the game are holdovers from his time at the position.

Self-described as “Chubby Allen” back then, Graves sat out Year 1 at Santa Clara to focus on getting in shape (there is still more growth expected in that department once he gets around an NBA environment) and largely came off the bench as a redshirt freshman this season.

The West Coast Conference freshman and sixth man of the year emerged as a draft riser later in the season and into the workout process, even though he isn’t the usual type of player that wows with athleticism.

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Where did he play?

At Santa Clara — the NCAA school that once gave Steve Nash his only Division 1 offer — Graves played for Herb Sendek, a coaching legend who most famously has coached James Harden, Jalen Williams, Wally Szczerbiak and Brandin Podziemski.

Sendek, on the short list of coaches with 600 D1 wins, runs an NBA-style system of position-less, quick-decision basketball which can help top prospects adjust to the professional game quickly.

Sendek is tight with Nash and that has helped connect a number of Canadian players with him over the years (including new recruit Eli Jolin, of Montreal via Fort Erie International Academy).

Sendek is clearly a big fan of Graves and even played down the “out of nowhere” narrative. “He was the player of the year in high school. He won multiple state championships. It’s not as if he was hiding under some rock,” Sendek recently told Ponchatoula’s WGNO.

“He’s a winner. You know, bottom line, I don’t know if there’s a greater compliment you can give a player,” Sendek told WGNO. “He’s a winner. He impacts winning. He impacts winning in the locker room. He impacts winning by his influence on culture. He impacts winning on both ends of the floor. He’s a leader. He’s a teammate.

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“As a player, he brings toughness. He brings unselfishness, a very high basketball IQ, and a tremendous skill set. So, he checks a lot of boxes.”

What do the Raptors think?

Webster agreed, saying: “High processor, two-way player wins a possession game, I think, on both ends of the floor, obviously developing player as well.

“He’ll have the usual typical adjustment to NBA pace, speed, quickness, but I think we’ve seen him level up as he’s gone on … We thought we got one of the better two-way players in the draft.”

Graves had an absurdly interesting analytics profile, much like Murray-Boyles last year (though Toronto had tracked Murray-Boyles through two NCAA seasons in which he played way more minutes a night than Graves), though Webster said the numbers weren’t everything.

“Sometimes the analytics pop in a certain way, but I think when you watch him play, it’s the sort of disruptiveness on the defensive end that really stood out,” Webster said.

What’s next for Toronto?

The draft concludes Wednesday night and Toronto headed in with the 50th pick after having secured solid backup point guard Jamal Shead at 45 two years ago.

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Webster addressed not drafting for need with Graves and mentioned there are other avenues to tinker with the roster.

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“The draft is one, free agency is the other and trades, and so now we’ll turn our attention, obviously, to day two of the draft, but then get to trades and free agency,” Webster said, noting that the Giannis Antetokunmpo saga was perhaps “holding up” the rest of the trade market somewhat but is now resolved.

“We’ve been stockpiling (assets), and what we’ve been patient on, you know, over the past couple years, having a lot of assets, having our first round picks, having players under rookie scale contracts, that’s allowed us to build and be the youngest team in the playoffs,” he said. “But at a certain point we want to be a participant in the trade market, and so, we’ll look to do that over the course of the summer and even into the trade deadline next season.”

As for free agency, Toronto’s most notable free agent is big man Sandro Mamukelashvili, who like Graves is a bit of an undersized centre who has the skills to play power forward as well.

Should Mamukelashvili command too much money (Toronto is close to the luxury tax) and leave, Graves could potentially fill some of that void while providing much more defensively.

@WolstatSun

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