What If: The Raptors Resigned Tracy McGrady?
By Chase Ruttig
For my first official post I would like to give you one of my favorite columns I have ever written, this article appeared on Oncourt Onslaught, please check them out.
Saturday while the Raptors were taking a 40 point thumping from Orlando my friend and I decided to have one of our depressing talks about Raptor history. As always it came back to the 2001 Playoffs, where as many people know, Vince Carter went to his college graduation before Game Seven and missed a buzzer beater to send the Raptors to the Eastern Conference Finals. If the Raptors won that game, they had a much easier match up against the Milwaukee Bucks and would have earned a Finals berth against the Lakers, which they likely would have lost, but would have been huge for the up and coming franchise.
So it begs the question, how good would the 2001 Toronto Raptors have been if they kept Tracy McGrady, and what would have changed if the Raptors kept him?
The 2000 Raptors Roster
Starters
- Antonio Davis
- Charles Oakley
- Vince Carter
- Tracy McGrady
- Doug Christie
Bench
- Kevin Willis
- Dell Curry
- Alvin Williams
- Dee Brown
- Muggsy Bogues
This much stronger team lost to the New York Knicks 3-0. Then decided to trade McGrady for a first round pick. Also Doug Christie, a solid defender and a huge part of the Sacramento Kings teams that gave the Lakers troubles, was traded for Corliss Williamson. Yes, Corliss Williamson.
The 2001 Raptors highest paid player. Was Charles Freaking Oakley. Now I love the Oak Man, but when your highest paid player is an again Charles Oakley, you probably can afford to resign McGrady and keep Christie in that spot.
So two of the Raptors starters on the first playoff team in franchise history were traded for a first round pick and Corliss Williamson. Hardly what anyone would consider an improvement headed into a season where they were expecting a deeper playoff run.
The Raptors could have had a rotation of McGrady, Davis, Oakley, Christie, The Williams, Carter, Curry, and Mo Pete in 2001. Which would have given them veteran leadership inside with two players who played for contenders in the 90s in Davis and Oakley, two young athletic swingmen with chemistry and swagger in Carter and McGrady, the defense and hustle of Christie, and the clutch shooting and leadership of Dell Curry and Alvin Williams.
That is a basketball team that is built for the playoffs from top to bottom, a perfect mixture of young hunger and veteran presence, shooting, inside presence, toughness, and outside shooting.
Instead the Raptors had a roster looking like this headed into the 2001 Playoffs:
Starters
- Antonio Davis
- Charles Oakley
- Morris Peterson
- Vince Carter
- Alvin Williams
Bench
- Keon Clark
- Jerome Williams
- Tracy Murray
- Dell Curry
- Chris Childs
Well it must be said this year marked the debut of two of my favorite Raptors, The Junkyard Dog Jerome Williams and Mo Pete, this roster would have by far been the most deep in the Eastern Conference with Christie and McGrady filling out two spots in the rotation.
That is a team that lacks depth that McGrady and to a slightly lesser extent Christie would have added. I am pretty sure if I asked you “Would a NBA Team with Keon Clark playing solid minutes off the bench be two points away from the Conference Finals” Everyone besides for Keon Clark would say no.
The 76ers, would have had serious problem matching up with a deep swingman rotation of Carter, McGrady, and Peterson. Also Christie would have been a vast improvement over whatever the Raptors were doing to stop Iverson, which was nothing.
With Iverson’s scoring kept in the thrity point range and the addition of McGrady’s scoring preventing the 76ers from focusing most of their attention on Carter, this is a completely different series.
The 2001 Raptors with Christie/McGrady would have beat the 76ers before Game Seven could have even happened. Vince Carter would have put on his cap and gown at Chapel Hill and all would have been fine. There is no way you can convince me otherwise.
Who knows about the Bucks series, but the Raptors would have been the favorite and once again would have had the advantage in nearly every aspect of the series. A six game series win for the Raptors would be a very safe bet, with Ray Allen keeping the Bucks in it for as long as possible.
But what about after the 2001 season you might ask? This is where it gets interesting, Vince Carter goes down with tendinitis during the second half of the 2002 season and lo and behold this is where T-Mac steps in, and develops as a first option like he did in Orlando. Taking the defending Eastern Conference Champions back to the playoffs on his own, without Carter’s help.
They don’t need to back door into the playoffs, and Ben Wallace doesn’t look like the next evolution of Dennis Rodman against them. Oh and Chris Childs doesn’t have to learn the difference between three and four. Even if T-Mac doesn’t take them deep into the playoffs they still have a solid core for years to come.
The Raptors would have been a playoff contender for the entire decade, and if McGrady did eventually want out, he would have been traded at a much higher price than at a sign and trade.
I am not saying McGrady would have ended up being the player he was, which was when healthy, one of the most dominant swingman scorers of the decade, but if you look at his stats in 2000 he was well on his way to becoming a elite second option and was worthy of a big contract to keep him.
But instead the Raptors decided to be cheap, then went and spent the money they could have given to McGrady on bringing Hakeem to Toronto, which was on MJ to the Wizards levels of depressing.
Not resigning McGrady is the biggest mistake management has ever made in the history of this franchise, and when you look at the errors and mistakes that have happened so far, that is no small statement.
So to answer the question; What would have happened if Tracy McGrady was resigned in that fateful summer of 2000?
Game Seven wouldn’t have happened, Chris Childs wouldn’t have happened, Rafa Arujo wouldn’t have happened, Kobe’s 81 Point Game would vanish, Rob Babcock would never have traded our franchise’s best player for a dude who is on “The Basketball Wives,” and maybe, just maybe we would have got to know what it is like to cheer for a contender.
I am headed to the Delorean, who is with me?