NBA draft: Dalen Terry does it all, and brings Scottie Barnes vibes

Dalen Terry has potential to be one of the most recognizable names from the 2022 draft and has a personality similar to that of Scottie Barnes. Listen to the full episode on the best options for Toronto at No. 33 on the "Raptors Over Everything" podcast feed, or watch on YouTube.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: Speaking of great NBA careers, and this player will have a great NBA career-- he is underrated. He might not be a 33. Dalen Terry.

COREY TULABA: Yes. [CHUCKLES] Man, he's one of my favorite players in the draft. I can't even describe, if he ended up in Toronto, the vibes with him and Scottie. Last year, all you heard behind the scenes leading up to the draft is like, everybody loves Scottie Barnes. Like, Scottie Barnes is the man. Everybody wants to be friends with Scottie Barnes.

Like, the energy-- that's what he's about. And that-- this year, it's Dalen Terry. So, like, the vibes between those two guys would be immaculate. That would be so much fun. But as a player, he just-- there's so many, like, check-- so many boxes that he checks off for the Raptors. Like--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

COREY TULABA: --big, positionally, long, multi-position, versatile, and--

AMIT MANN: Defense.

COREY TULABA: Yeah, plays defense. You could throw him on multiple positions. He's-- again, maybe it's a reflection on the point guards in this draft-- I think he's one of the best passers in this draft. He perfectly times and hits guys in stride that are cutting backdoor or in alley-oops. It-- just so smoothly, such good timing. The shot is a little funky-looking, but he hits them at a good clip. The volume is not great, but it's certainly not broken.

And I think he's not going to be this guy who is shooting, like, off the bounce a ton, especially early on. So when I look at it from, like, is he gonna be able to catch and shoot on kickouts from, like, Scottie or OG or Fred VanVleet? Yeah. Is he gonna be able to put it up cleanly off of one more? Yeah, he is.

So I'm a buyer of his shot. I'm a buyer of his game. And probably in like-- it was probably early March, I texted a scout that I really trust in the league. And I was like, is Dalen Terry coming out, or is he staying? And he was like, I think that he's staying in. That's what we're hearing right n-- or we think that he's staying at college, but that's what we're hearing right now.

And again, this is back in March. He's like, but low-key, I think he's Arizona's best prospect. And I was like, I see it. That's why I'm asking about him because, like-- and once Kurt Christian went down, and he took the reins, the team just-- they looked like they were clicking on all cylinders.

So I agree with you. I don't think he's going to be there. But that's the fun of the draft. It's unpredictable. And he could be number two on the team that's picking [INAUDIBLE] board, and their number one guy's on the board. And then he go-- he drops. That's the way the draft works.

AMIT MANN: [INAUDIBLE] are gonna have to work their cut out for them because they're not going to be able to get those tweets up five minutes before the pick because I think teams are going to be like, hmm, what do we do?

COREY TULABA: [LAUGHS]

AMIT MANN: I'm not sure. They're gonna have their hands full, a lot of these teams. This is a really interesting draft in the sense that there may not be, like, the high-end talent, but there-- we may look back at this draft in, like, five years and think that, wow, there are a lot of players that actually have like roles in the NBA. And they're gonna be in the NBA for years to come. You know?

COREY TULABA: I agree. And I think that's what's fun about this class. And it's also what's-- it's been the most challenging class for me to, like, put together for like big boards and stuff because I think guys are so closely ranked talent-wise for me that it's like so much of it is gonna depend on the team context that they actually end up on. And you don't know the answer to that question until--

AMIT MANN: Sure.

COREY TULABA: --the draft, right? But I agree. I think-- and I also think it's like we're gonna start really seeing the turning point. And this could be the draft that we look back and see it, where it's like all the NBA teams realize, like, oh, we do need two-way players. We can't just draft the high-potential scorer.

We have to go get two-way guys. That's what wins in the playoffs. Oh, we actually need big, lengthy wings, like positional versatility. That's important. I think we could look back, like, five years from now and be like, oh, the 2022 draft is where that really started to shift.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. If they were to grab him and draft him-- not just, like, is he available? If they were to grab him, I think this would send a message with their intentions for the rest of the season or rest of, I guess, the 2022-2023 season because it is a big year.

For anyone who doesn't know, you mean, you got Fred VanVleet, who may get an extension, actually, this offseason. But he's got a player option after next season. Gary Trent, Jr., same deal. There's just gonna be a lot of movement within the Raptors organization because I'm not sure, unless they're willing to live in the luxury tax, like the Golden State Warriors-- which they could.

I mean, if you have that many good players, and you just decide that we're gonna live here, and that's how we're gonna proceed for the next five years, that could very well be it. MLSC could decide we're gonna give you the good gracious. Go ahead, do your thing.

But in the end, like, he could be a player that could spell the end for a few current Raptors. And they're preparing for that because they're not sure if those other guys are-- I'm not gonna get into too many of the names, but if you're a Raptor fan, you can probably figure out who I'm talking about. Their time may be coming to an end with the Toronto Raptors.

But Dalen Terry, if he's there and they draft him, it would be a great pickup. The vibes, like you said, are gonna be immaculate. I think he's gonna be one of the players that you're talking about and also the person that we're going to talk about in a second here-- I think these two guys are the ones that I trust the most to accept their roles and just relish it and dominate it and be impact players, like, next season. You know?

COREY TULABA: Yeah, for sure. For sure.