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If you have been listening to the Raptors brass and watching their moves over the past year, it should be obvious this team has been looking for improved rebounding and defense.  If you watched the team last season, you’ll know that they are still looking to improve.

Almost the first words from Raptors President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo after announcing that head coach Jay Triano’s option would not be picked up was confirmation of his team’s renewed focus on defense.

“Clearly someone who has somewhat of a defensive minded perspective, someone who has had success putting solid defensive units out there on the floor and has had success limiting points while still having some flow to the offense,” said Colangelo describing the attributes desired in a new head coach.

While Colangelo has number of defensive minded coaches to choose from, teams cannot always get what they need through the draft and usually the best strategy is to just take the best player left on the board.

So who are the Toronto Raptors going to draft?

“That’s a good question,” said Jim Kelly Raptors Senior Director, Scouting after the work out on Wednesday.  “I’d say not decided for sure, but today was by far our best workout, our most competitive, and highest level of skill.  We had some very interesting players.

“We had two names that have been bound about at the top of the draft in Kawhi Leonard and Marcus Morris.”

Most mock drafts have the San Diego State sophomore Leonard ranked just ahead of the Kansas junior Morris.

The knock on Leonard’s game has been his scoring.  The 6′ 7″ small forward has a 7′ 3″ wingspan and a freakish 11.25″ hand width, a very active defender who averaged an impressive 10.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals last year.  Unfortunately, Leonard’s jump shot was highly suspect in college and he averaged just 44.4 percent shooting from the field and 29.1 percent from three-point range.

The Raptors tried this experiment out of necessity last season with Julian Wright.  Wright, drafted thirteenth by the Hornets 2007, did provide the Raptors a solid defensive spark, but his lack of a consistent jump shot and 20 percent three-point shooting limited his overall usefulness.

After the college season ended, Leonard started working out at Joe Abunassar’s Impact Basketball, and at the work out in Toronto, the results were evident.

“I have been working on catch and shoot from the three-point line as that would be my weakness in college,” said Leonard.  “Since I have been working on it for about three and a half weeks, I have been feeling more comfortable and shooting it without thinking about it.

“Nobody sees me work out from the public, but the coaches I work out with said they could see the development in my shot and how hard I have been working and how my release point is coming off.  It feels good right now and I have confidence in it.”

From what was witnessed on Wednesday, Leonard is understating the change in his shooting.  At the end of the workout as a completely gassed Leonard was running catch and shoot three point shooting drills, he was hitting on better than half of his attempts.  There is no way Leonard would have been expected to hit that many NBA three-pointers based on this past college season.

“Kawhi, I have seen quite a bit as I am based on the west coast and I’ve been watching him for a number of years,” said Kelly.  “But today he really shot the ball well.

“His shooting touch has definitely improved since later in the season.  I think his proficiency at three-point shooting was as good as anyone here.”

If the top ranked defender in this draft class has found his jump shot, his draft value has just gone up considerably.  Of course, Leonard has been working on much more than just his shooting at Impact Basketball.

“(I have been working on) back down, two dribble pull-up, just getting my touch right, shooting form, just the basic things,” said Leonard.  “I am trying to develop my overall game, not just working on one area like shooting.  I am going in the post, coming off pin downs, catch and shoot.  I am trying to work on my overall game so I can be effective at all times.

“The biggest (change) is my overall game.  There were certain things in San Diego State that I couldn’t showcase.  My hard work is paying off I guess.”

The Toronto Raptors have canceled their final two scheduled pre-draft work outs which probably indicates that their draft board has been finalized.  After Wednesday, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if Leonard has worked himself to the top of Toronto’s board.

{AUTHOR_BOX}Toronto’s Draft Board

Last week, Kemba Walker and Brandon Knight worked out separately in Toronto.  Kelly was obviously enamored with Knight’s athleticism and Walker’s experience.  These two players are getting a lot of consideration by the Raptors.

The Raptors brass was recently in Europe to watch the top ranked prospects in action.  If the Raptors are looking for players with more experience and who are likely more NBA ready, the Europeans will be further down their draft board.

“The international players this year don’t have as much game experience probably as we seen here with these players,” said Kelly.  “Maybe I am misstating it, maybe we haven’t seen them as many times, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort, they haven’t been on the scene as much – sort of late risers.  We are trying to get as much information (as possible) and that’s why we were over there.”

The Raptors have shown a willingness to acquire non-American college trained players in the past, but unless the team is playing their cards extremely close to the vest, this doesn’t seem like the year they will draft a European.

More Notes from Wednesday’s Workout in Toronto

It was a big day in Toronto as two Canadian draft prospects worked out at the Air Canada Center.  Both played for Texas last season.  Tristan Thompson is a freshman power forward who is expected to be taken late in the lottery and Cory Joseph is a freshman point guard who is hoping to be picked up in the second round.

“Two local players who have brought a lot of local media here and welcome media too,” said Kelly.  “I think they displayed themselves very well, both Tristan and Cory played well today.”

The fast rising Tennessee freshman forward Tobias Harris was also invited.

“Tobias is a first year player from Tennessee,” said Kelly.  “He changed his body a bit, he has lost some weight since the end of the season.  He is very mobile, very athletic, has good ball skills and I think that is why you hear his name as one that is rising up the draft board.  He is probably one of the hottest names out there right now, a guy who is moving up on the board.  You can’t always pin yourself that you are going to be number five, who knows what is going to happen if we get another pick and he is just an interesting player.”

Marcus Morris let us know that he is a versatile player.

“Basically I am a versatile forward,” said Morris.  “I can play the three and the four and can guard both positions.  I feel that I am one of those players you can put anywhere on the court because I know the game so well.”

There should be no doubt however, that on Wednesday in Toronto, it was Leonard who made the biggest impression.

Send me your comments or questions about the NBA draft, the Toronto Raptors, or anything else in the NBA to my weekly NBA chat and check back on Thursday at noon ET for a response.