Players who were past-their-prime and/or broken down
Hakeem Olajuwon
Hakeem would go down as arguably the greatest big man to ever play the game. The Nigerian center was a revelation and would ball in any era, even today (see Joel Embiid).
Olajuwon was old and couldn’t cut it with the new-look Rockets. So he Dream Shook his way to Toronto, where he lasted one season before retiring. Raptors fans never got a taste of his Hall of Fame ability with his whopping 7.1 points and 6 rebounds per game.
Jermaine O’Neal
Continuing the trend of All-Star players who the Raptors acquired way too late, O’Neal was a desperate Colangelo trade that went awry (one of the first of his many experiments gone wrong).
Apparently never having played more than 69 games in the last four seasons wasn’t enough of a sign, O’Neal was a complete shell of himself with the Raptors, hitting the 20-point mark just twice in his first 23 games. Both Colangelo and the fans couldn’t endure the stink any longer and he was sent packing on Valentine’s Day.
DeMarre Carroll
Fans often cry “overpaid!” whenever the Raptors sign a coveted free agent. But that just goes to show how unlucky Toronto has been. Their big-time free agent signing was the “coveted” free agent DeMarre Carroll when he was really overpaid at $60 million over 4 years.
Instead of getting the bonafide “3-and-D” player he was supposed to be, the Raptors got a washed-up dude who limped his way off the team in 2017. He was so bad the Raptors had to trade both of their 2018 picks to Brooklyn just to get rid of him.