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How far would the Raptors have gotten in the 2001 playoffs if Tracy McGrady was added to the team?

Definitely exit the East. Wings probably heat up enough to take 2 games. Shaq overwhelms AD, JYD, Keon Clark and Chokely so badly that it doesnt matter in the end, though.

Likely bounce out in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Tracy Mcgrady paired with another 30%+ Usage Wing Scorer wouldn't work. Mcgrady really couldn't shoot at this point in his career & he would placed in more stationary C&S situations playing alongside Vince.

MiamiBulls wrote:Likely bounce out in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Tracy Mcgrady paired with another 30%+ Usage Wing Scorer wouldn't work. Mcgrady really couldn't shoot at this point in his career & he would placed in more stationary C&S situations playing alongside Vince.

McGrady was a 35.5% 3pt shooter in 01, and 42.5% from 16-23 feet on 28% of his shooting volume, so that was definitely not an issue for him.


Vince would... shoot less. He literally never wanted to be the focal star.

tsherkin wrote:Definitely exit the East. Wings probably heat up enough to take 2 games. Shaq overwhelms AD, JYD, Keon Clark and Chokely so badly that it doesnt matter in the end, though.

Tough to say what the roster would be if McGrady stays.

We likely don't trade for Christie for Corliss if McGrady is here. Not sure how damaged the relationship was with Christie and the organization because of Butch though so we might have had to trade him.

I think we used our cap space on Mark Jackson.

Davis/ Clark
Oakley/ Murray
McGrady/ Peterson
Carter/ Curry
Christie/ Williams/ Bogues

Optimistically the roster looks like that and honestly looks pretty good. Very strong perimeter play. Our main issue was Peterson and Williams were starters for us when at that point they were strong backups.

Going small with Davis/ McGrady/ Carter/ Christie/ Williams would have kind of been insane on both ends (assuming Williams develops like he did during the year). Williams was a very good defender and 6-5. Coaches other than Nelly back then would have never done it though. But that lineup would have given every team in the NBA problems including the Lakers but Shaq was Shaq.

Comfortably win the East and probably take a game or 2 off the Lakers. People don't like to say this but Lakers were shooting wayyyyy above expectation in that playoffs (I mean you need some favorability to have a run like that). Fisher had a flamethrower up his ass the entire playoffs. All it would take is some regression to the mean and it would have been a close series IMO.

tsherkin wrote:

MiamiBulls wrote:Likely bounce out in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Tracy Mcgrady paired with another 30%+ Usage Wing Scorer wouldn't work. Mcgrady really couldn't shoot at this point in his career & he would placed in more stationary C&S situations playing alongside Vince.

McGrady was a 35.5% 3pt shooter in 01, and 42.5% from 16-23 feet on 28% of his shooting volume, so that was definitely not an issue for him.


Vince would... shoot less. He literally never wanted to be the focal star.

Mcgrady shot 20% from 3 & 43% from 2 against the 13th Worst Defense in the NBA in 2001.

Why in the world would Vince Carter shoot less in favor for a sub 60% rim finisher who also shoots significantly worse from 15-23FT from the basket?

MiamiBulls wrote:

tsherkin wrote:

MiamiBulls wrote:Likely bounce out in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Tracy Mcgrady paired with another 30%+ Usage Wing Scorer wouldn't work. Mcgrady really couldn't shoot at this point in his career & he would placed in more stationary C&S situations playing alongside Vince.

McGrady was a 35.5% 3pt shooter in 01, and 42.5% from 16-23 feet on 28% of his shooting volume, so that was definitely not an issue for him.


Vince would... shoot less. He literally never wanted to be the focal star.

Mcgrady shot 20% from 3 & 43% from 2 against the 13th Worst Defense in the NBA in 2001.

Yeah, that 4-game series where he had no offensive support really overturned that whole RS...

Why in the world would Vince Carter shoot less in favor for a sub 60% rim finisher who also shoots significantly worse from 15-23FT from the basket?

Because he didnt want to be the focus. He never did.

Probably lose in 6 to the Lakers. The Sixers managed to get one fluky game in the Finals, mostly based on Kobe having a freakish off night.

I think between Carter and McGrady, who were both better than Iverson, they likely get two solid wins and make more of a series of it, but the final result would never be in doubt imo. Likely win games 3 and 5 sort of thing.

IDK man, I was always happy for T-Mac to leave T.O. even though I wanted him to stay. I don't think he blossoms into the T-Mac we saw playing with Vince. At the time, T-Mac was the (Pippen) and I do think it works out the way people think if you bring that version back. Too much overlap to me, but fun to watch.