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He quit the team during his second season, joining the sports information team. That decision led him to where he is now: At just 33, he is the Toronto Raptors’ director of scouting. Starting this year, he is also the general manager of Raptors 905, the franchise’s new D-League team.

His day-to-day schedule will not change much. He will still travel the world scouting for the Raptors, prioritizing players that the franchise should target on draft night. In addition to their own picks, the Raptors are owed an extra first-round pick in each of the next two drafts. Now, he will scout with the D-League team in mind, knowing that the Raptors can take chances on more projects if they go undrafted.

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“He’s one of those guys that would direct traffic in his mind even if he wasn’t doing it,” Raptors president and general manager Masai Ujiri said of giving Tolzman the added responsibility. “He’s not going to tell anybody. But I just know (he’ll take care of it). … He likes it. He studies so many players.”

As long as he has loved basketball, Tolzman has loved the draft, calling it his favourite day of the year. Being able to work on the draft full-time is something of a dream job for him, although he did not have the traditional basketball background to get him into the field. In addition to working on the sports information side in Minnesota, he also minored in journalism, writing a sports column for the school newspaper.

As college wound down in 2004, Tolzman’s girlfriend (now his wife) was weighing graduate school options. Tolzman’s only request was that she choose a city that had professional sports teams, because he was looking for an internship. They settled on Denver, and Tolzman sent out applications en masse.