Post#5 » by HeartBreakKid » Mon Jun 7, 2021 3:35 pm
1)2019 Kawhi Leonard - Best scorer in their history by a large margin I think. At least most playoff resilient. Wasn't playing much defense but his scoring alone is enough to beat the other players in this relatively weak franchise. His defense still popped up in spot situations also.
2)2001 Vince Carter - Incredibly well rounded player. Can do it all, but wasn't as dominant in any of them as much as Kawhi was at scoring (and Kawhi is still a fairly well rounded player, albeit nowhere near as good of a jack of all trades as many other all time greats).
3)2018 Kyle Lowry - One thing I love about Lowry is how efficient he is. His lack of turnovers have always been the most impressive thing about his game to me. He's not an overly ball dominant player, but a very good handler with good shooting. He strikes me as a player who is not a particularity great passer, but IS a great floor general/manager. Defense is there too. He's not dynamic enough for me to rank him above Vince Carter (he doesn't shoot well outside of this season in the post season), but he does all of the "winning" things a PG should do. Due to Lowry's useful skill set and ability to synergize with other teammates, he seems like a more useful player than Bosh who I thought was a more of a empty stats type of guy in Toronto.
4)1998 Doug Christie - The only thing that was lacking from his Toronto days that he got in his Sac days was probably better spot up shooting. He was already a lockdown defender in Toronto and a good playmaker. Very additive skill set, and is dominant at an important aspect of basketball (Defense, particularly man to man perimeter). He generated no lift for the 90s Raptors as he is a roleplayer, but neither has any of the remaining Raptors even the volume scorers. Christie along with McGrady and Camby were examples of trades the Raptors made that shorted lack of long term planning. I'm guessing most people are not familiar with Pre Vinsanity Raptors.
5)2010 Chris Bosh - Chris Bosh was overrated back in the day. He had a fan friendly style with his iso ball from the high post and scored a lot of points and grabbed boards. A lot of it came off as a guy putting up numbers on a bad team to me. I think his role in Miami, while less heroic looking was more useful. Bosh didn't play much defense back in the day, and probably only grabbed the rebounds he did because he was playing with Andrei Bargnani who is a terrible rebounder. Doesn't seem like Bosh could lift his Toronto teams in a weak Eastern Conference, and was best served as a complimentary player to a championship anchor (making him like Lowry, but at this point he didn't have the skills developed for that role). However, I can't really think of anyone in Toronto who was better.
Opinions on the remaining guys
19 Marc Gasol (even though he was a trade deadline guy) was a serious contender to make it. Very impactful player even though he was a bit past it. I'll give Bosh some benefit of the doubt though, not like he was a bum - just was a bit overrated at the time.
Amir Johnson and Charles Oakley were all guys who I thought helped shape the Raptor's culture. Guys who played good defense, hustled, leadership. Antonio Davis was not too bad either.
DeMar DeRozan - One dimensional, and was very mediocre at the one thing he was good at (volume scoring). He could only volume score on league average, so it's not a surprise that in the post season he was well below it. He was worse than the player he was traded for in Danny Green (much less Kawhi, who was the main package). Not a surprise the Raptors won the East after that one. Even 20 year old McGrady may have been better.
Danny Green - Worse version of Doug Christie at that point (and even in his prime).
Pascal Siakham - I expect out of all my snubs, he might be the guy who gets the most votes. Big TS% guy and versatility in his defense, two things that get the Player Comparison board going. I've never really been convinced that he was a real genuine all-star, and was not surprised that even in the championship season his scoring fell off a rock. Not surprised he hasn't been very good since then either. His go to moves are very predictable and limited, he can get away with his natural athletic gifts, but Bosh and Christie are just more technically sound basketball players and it shows - makes sense considering Pascal started playing at 18.
