Raptors Share Optimism About Ulrich Chomche as Big Summer Looms

The 57th pick in the NBA Draft is rarely expected to amount to much.

That’s not to say there haven’t been exceptions. Manu Ginóbili turned it into a Hall of Fame career, and Marcin Gortat spent a decade as a dependable starting center. But generally speaking, nobody expected much when the Toronto Raptors selected Ulrich Chomche with the second-last pick in the 2024 draft.

It would have been perfectly reasonable to assume Chomche would spend his rookie year in the G League before quietly fading into obscurity. He might have ended up as the kind of name you only mention in a trivia question about the Raptors’ 2024 draft class.

But despite an MCL injury that cut his season short, Toronto isn’t ready to move on from the Cameroonian big man just yet.

“He’s doing great. He did a full recovery. He’s cleared to start doing contact and everything else,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said Tuesday, confirming Chomche will be ready for a full offseason, including a stint at Summer League later this year.

It’s going to be a big summer for Chomche.

He spent much of the past year adjusting to life in North America and learning the finer points of NBA basketball. At times, it wasn’t pretty. He looked raw at Summer League, and his brief seven-game stint with the Raptors didn’t exactly scream future rotation player.

Still, there were real strides.

Chomche averaged 7.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.9 blocks across 33 games with Raptors 905, Toronto’s G League affiliate. Over his final 16 appearances before the injury, he blocked 51 shots, averaging 3.2 per game and flashing the kind of rim protection that gives him a path to a role. He also became more comfortable on the glass, finishing the season with several double-digit rebounding performances.

“We saw in the workouts and the games that he played with 905, that he made huge strides this year,” Rajaković said. “Really proud of the work that he was putting in. And we’re going to continue to develop him as a very young player that I think has a lot of potential and a lot of growth.”

This year’s Summer League won’t define Chomche’s trajectory, but it should offer a clearer picture of how far he’s come since last July, when he looked overwhelmed by the speed and spacing of the NBA game. It will also be an opportunity to see how he stacks up against peers closer to his age and experience level.

The Raptors are already encouraged by what they’ve seen from their 2024 draft class. First-round pick Ja’Kobe Walter had an impressive second half of the year, Jamal Shead looks like a second-round steal, and both Jonathan Mogbo and Jamison Battle have shown real potential. If Chomche develops into a serviceable rim protector and energy big off the bench, he becomes a valuable bonus in what is shaping up to be one of the franchise’s most promising draft hauls in years.

That outcome is still a long way off. But year one gave the Raptors reason to keep going. And for the 57th pick, that’s more than most ever get.

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