In the 2014 NBA Draft, Masai Ujiri and the Toronto Raptors made the ultimate swing for the fences pick. selecting Bruno Caboclo, famously described by ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla as being “two years away from being two years away”, with the 20th overall pick. Just three picks later, the Utah Jazz selected a 22-year-old from Duke named Rodney Hood.
Now, it’s hard to fault Ujiri for selecting Caboclo. He had missed out on a similarly built Giannis Antetokounmpo just a year prior. Yet, his selection was integral to the development of the Raptors 905, where future Raptors Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet made a name for themselves.