Toronto Raptors Draft SDSU’s Malachi Flynn

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

It’s the motto the Toronto Raptors appeared to go with Wednesday night, selecting Malachi Flynn with the 29th pick in the NBA Draft.

After finding success with older, undersized guards in the past, the Raptors went right back to the well, taking the 22-year-old, 6-foot-1 prospect from San Diego State.

“He’s a serious kid, he’s professional, he’s about the hard work, he’s about winning, so I think those would be the national comparisons,” Toronto Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said of the comparisons to Fred VanVleet and Kyle Lowry. “I think, obviously, even he’ll probably say he’ll have a long way to go to do what those guys have done, but clearly, things that we value in guys that we’re bringing in.”

Flynn averaged a team-leading 17.6 points on 44% shooting and 37.3% 3-point shooting with 5.1 assists.

“I think Toronto would be a great fit for a guy like him,” said SDSU assistant coach Chris Acker. “He’s a blue-collar guy, so like I said, I think people are gonna really really fall in love with him.”

Flynn spent his first two college seasons at Washington State before transferring to San Diego where he led the Aztec’s three-guard offence.

“The ball was in his hands 90% of the time and for him, it was just about making the right play and the right read,” Acker said. “He began to evolve into that guy that would always make the right decision.”

On the defensive end, Flynn was equally impressive, earning the Mountain West’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

“Malachi is the kind of guy who could have averaged 30 points a game in college,” Acker said. “So the fact that he understood that making others better on the court and that he needed to make winning plays for us to be successful and then the willingness to lock in on scouting reports and lock in on utilizing his quickness and his God-given talents to really cause havoc on the defensive end, I think was just unbelievable to watch him do that last year.”

Flynn was the Raptors first first round pick since 2017 when Toronto drafted OG Anunoby with the 23rd pick.

More to come.