Toronto Raptors: 30 greatest players of all-time

14. T.J. Ford

In a post I wrote for this site a few months before the 2018-19 season started, I ranked T.J. Ford has the fifth-best point guard in Raptors history. Now, I’m ranking him as the fourteenth best player in Raptors history.

Ford arrived with a reputation full of injuries and question marks about his durability, hence the injuries.

Ford missed his sophomore year due to back injuries and was deemed fit to play in 2005. His time in Milwaukee was cut short as he was traded to the Raptors for the promising Charlie Villanueva the following season, Bryan Colangelo wanted a true point guard to lead the team and assist blooming big-man Chris Bosh.

Ford ranks second all-time in assists per-game for the Raptors with 7.2 per game and in the top ten for total assists with 908 in his Raptors career. One of the Raptors best all-around guards of all time, Ford had the ability to attack the rim with his unbelievable speed, something he started to lose as the injuries built up.

T.J. was averaging 7.9 assists in his first year in Toronto, but once Jose Calderon came into the fold Ford began to lose his place in the team, his alleged refusal to play second-fiddle all but sealed his fate.

Ford A fantastic player for one full season, and had T.J. Ford not suffered devastating injuries, we might have seen a lot more of him in the next few years.

Still, fans saw pretty cool moments, Ford dished out a career-high 18 assists against the Knicks, one short of the franchise record. He also took over in overtime against the Supersonics, scoring pretty much all of the teams points. Ford was fun, real fun.