This was supposed to be his season. The lockout presented a perfect opportunity for the unproven players to show they are worthy. Jerryd Bayless averaged 18ppg and 7apg when he started in 14 games in 2010-11, and it was assumed he would get a chance the following year. That didn’t happen as he only started 5 games at his rightful place at point guard–he started 11 games, but 6 came at shooting guard.
Bryan Colangelo and Dwane Casey blew a chance favoring Jose Calderon, who may not even be on the roster with interest being shown to Steve Nash and Jeremy Lin, and have wasted valuable evaluation of Bayless in a season that was by all means thrown away for player evaluation. Bayless has shown better capabilities of manning the point guard position than the consensus would believe, and it may be this belief that could have the Raptors missing out on a promising player. His future still has hope, though Colangelo and Casey seems intent on selling him short by making him nothing more than a sixth man, even if he’s earned his right as a starter. Continue reading →
Last week we had a look at Alvin Williams – who was our choice at #5. Alvin Williams was unquestionably one of the best Raptor point guards of all-time – and definitely gave more to the Raptors over the course of his career than Damon did. However, ‘Mighty Mouse’ was a better basketball player despite being here for less than three seasons.
Still, both Williams and Stoudamire can be interchangeable in these standings. Damon for his rookie of the year performance and raw talent; and Williams for his longevity and basketball IQ.
Stoudamire enjoyed a good stint with the Raptors – most notably in his first and second year with the team.
However, just as he left the Raptors, he started his career with the team on a similarly bitter note.
Stoudamire was the Raptors’ first ever draft pick during the expansion season. With celebrious players like Kevin Garnett, Antonio McDyess, Jerry Stackhouse, and Rasheed Wallace all being drafted already; the Raptors were on the clock with the 7th pick in front of their home town crowd.
As David Stern announced who Isiah Thomas had drafted, the Toronto fans started to boo mercilessly.
As they gave this relatively unknown kid a chance, they started to realize that Stoudamire was the real deal – and Mighty Mouse grew on them quicker than everyone had expected.
Everyone except for Isiah Thomas that is. If he ever made a right decision, it was to draft Damon Stoudamire.
Incredibly, Stoudamire went on and had a stellar rookie year – racking up 37 double-doubles. One of those double-doubles, came against the best NBA team of all-time – the Bulls of 95-96.
He also set a record at the time for most three-pointers for a rookie in NBA history. That year, he went on to outplay the stars of his draft class – KG, McDyess, Stack, ‘Sheed – and won the Rookie of the Year award.
He was the first, and one of only two Raptors to ever win the award.
16 years later, he’s still first in franchise history with 8.8 assists per game.
Remarkably, his best years in the NBA came while he was in Toronto – statistically speaking that is. Although he did achieve better things as a team in Portland (such as making the playoffs, of course), his numbers offensively took a huge dip after his departure from the Raptors.
Like all Raptor stars that have emerged since the inception of our franchise, Stoudamire left on a bitter note – forcing a trade.
The trade ended up working well for the Raptors, who sent Stoudamire, Walt Williams, and Carlos Rogers to the Portland Trailblazers in exchange for Alvin Williams, Kenny Anderson, Gary Trent, three draft picks, and cash considerations.
Ten months ago, The Score’s Raptor Blog started releasing a list of the top 30 Raptors of All Time in their Ultimate Raptor Rankings.
Upon seeing this list, the Raptors Watch Crew mediated to release a list of their own – comparing each selection with The Score’s list as it progresses.
And for the second consecutive time, we’ve agreed with the Score’s selection. Alvin Williams rolls in at #5 on our list.
‘Boogie’ was always one of those low-key players. He was never one to attract glamour and media the way Vince Cater and JYD did; he was humble, and widely loved by all Raptor fans.
And yet, despite being a fan favorite, I feel like his place in Raptor history is underrated – especially considering he was at worst the second best point guard this franchise has ever had.
To put things in perspective. Damon Stoudamire was drafted seventh overall by the Raptors in 1995 – winning the ROY in his first season.
Two years later, Alvin Williams was drafted 48th overall by the Portland Trailblazers. Then, in 1998 – Williams became Damon’s successor. For obvious reasons, no one thought that Boogie could fill in Mighty Mouse’s shoes; so expectations were low.
But boy did he raise the bar in his time in Toronto.
Williams is second in Raptor history when it comes to assists with 1791. Even though he was a good playmaker though; the great thing about Alvin Williams was that he was so good at other facets in the game like scoring and stealing.
Unlike so many other players in this countdown who only had but a brief stint with the Raps; Williams’ tenure in Toronto lasted 10 years – and now he’s back as the team’s director of player development.
An immortal Raptor.
His best season – statistically that is – was in 2002-2003 when he averaged 13.2 points, 5.3 assists, and 1.4 steals per game.
Not colossal numbers; But Williams was the type of point guard who kept things simple, and made everyone around him better.
Rewind another a year to the 2001-2002 season, and you’ll find that Williams was one of the instigators of that unforgettable Raptors’ run – the one that saw the Raps win 12 of their last 14 games of the season without Vince Carter to make the playoffs.
The year before that, Williams ran the point as the Raptors had their best season in franchise history – beating the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs and coming short one point of moving on to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Williams averaged 17 points in that series against New York – and hit a couple of clutch shots along the way.
From 2000-2002; Alvin Williams played all 164 games that were on the schedule.
DeMar will be practicing against Wade - definitely a positive
Earlier last night it was reported that DeMar DeRozan had been invited to tryout for the USA Olympic team; but that was cleared up by Jerry Colangelo on the FAN590 within the hour.
Colangelo told Bob McCown on the show that DeMar had been added to the USA select team that will practice against the Olympic team prior to the Olympics.
DeRozan will be training alongside players like Kyrie Irving, DeMarcus Cousins, and John Wall. More importantly though, he will be playing against players such as Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Dywane Wade, Eric Gordon, and James Harden – which can only Continue reading →
Game Entertainment has a knack for making the best Raptor mixes out there. We’ve posted his videos before, and today we’re posting his latest work – a video recap of DeMar DeRozan’s third season in the NBA.
Ten months ago, The Score’s Raptor Blog started releasing a list of the top 30 Raptors of All Time in their Ultimate Raptor Rankings.
Upon seeing this list, the Raptors Watch Crew mediated to release a list of their own – comparing each selection with The Score’s list as it progresses. Our last entry was in February; and now that the season is over, we have the time to finish the list.
Some of our choices were the same as The Score’s, and some were way off – no, we would never include Joey Graham in a top 30 Raptor list in the manner The Score did; but to each his own.
This time we agree. #6 on our list is the timeless Morris Peterson – just as it is on the Raptor Blog’s list.
Morris Peterson will be remembered for four things.
Every single “Raptor of the Week” has been leading up to this. The most prestigious award never given or heard of. The “Raptor of the Year”. This award is given to the Raptor who played consistently, played in at least half of the games and who stepped it up another level over the course of the season. It is sort of like an MVP but only Raptors are eligible.
This year, it is hard to pick just one or anyone, really. The Raps have had a season full of injuries, ups and downs and roster changing moves. But this award is not for sharing and thus we will have to break it down.
Here are the candidates:
Jose Calderon:
Jose has a lot going for him to win this honor. He has been injured, but not for as long as Bargnani or Bayless were (Thus Bayless is not a candidate). Despite missing the last half of April and a few games in March, Calderon has done another great job with a young Raptors team this year. He’s continued to add to his lead as the all time assist leader for the Raps and averaged 8.8apg this season. As we all know, Jose is a pass first point guard and that means he usually does not go out and try to score for himself, so the fact that he
averaged 10.5ppg is no surprise. However, he did manage to score a career high 30 points this season against the Los Angeles Lakers back on February 12th, while nailing 4-4 from downtown.
The 2011 – 2012 Regular season came to a close last Thursday night and Raptor fans were treated to a summer league game held early and in Toronto on the same night. The Raptors took the floor with key injuries to Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani, Jarryd Bayless, Demar Derozen and Aaron Gray, and Linas Kleiza with a DNP meant we saw a very different looking Raptor team than the one which began the season. We had some highs, mediums and lows this season which I’ll get to down below, but for now let’s see how the players who finished this season in a Raptor uniform fared this year. After the individual player assessments, a team assessment follows. Enjoy! Guards:
Ben Uzoh
Highs:
Triple – Double in final game of season(first Raptor in 11 years).
8 asts, 10 rebs, 2 tos, 4 pts vs ATL, April 16.
Season Averages:
4.5ppg. 3.4apg, 3.7rpg = PER 10.92
Notes*
Ben has come along at a time where we needed someone to come in and provide support to our ailing backcourt. He’s filled this Continue reading →
This hectic season is now complete and it was full of injuries, painful losses, surprising wins and renewed hope from a defensive-minded coach. The Raps have made their way through the condensed season and are now finally able to look forward to the draft and likely, a complete roster change as well as the arrival of Jonas V.
The Raps played a total of three games in their final week. Two of them were losses to Detroit and Milwaukee. Both of them were rather close as they lost to the Pistons 76-73 and 92-86 to the Bucks. But amazingly, they managed to pull out a big win over the Nets in their final game of the season; defeating them 98-67.
That game was played without Andrea Bargnani, Jose Calderon, Aaron Grey and DeMar DeRozan.
The Raps came out with heart that game and none more so than Ben Uzoh.
It seems to have been the time of the D-Leaguers ever since Uzoh and Anderson were brought in to fill space and both have done an excellent job. Uzoh was the star against the Nets though, as he managed to pull off a triple-double. He scored 12 points, dished out 12 dimes and grabbed 11 boards. Not to mention he also had 4 steals and 1 block.
This was the first time in 11 years a Raptor has recorded a triple-double. The last to do it was Alvin Williams back in 2001.
“We were kind of looking at two scoreboards tonight, ours and the Philadelphia and New Jersey game,” Bucks center Drew Gooden said. ”We were rooting for Jersey, but it didn’t work out in our favor.”
What started off as a must-win game for Milwaukee, ended up in complete failure.
To keep their very slim playoff hopes alive, the Bucks needed to beat the Raptors; and hope that the lowly Nets could take down the 76ers.
Clearly, Milwaukee did their job.
However, Philadelphia disposed of New Jersey with ease: 105-87; and with the win over the Raptors, the Bucks put a huge incision in their draft hopes.
Now the Bucks will finish ninth in the East for the second year running; and that’s probably the worst case scenario at this point.
Neither here nor there. Milwaukee is all but a treadmill these Continue reading →
Ten months ago, The Score’s 
