The Toronto Raptors have drafted more than a handful of decent talent over the years, but which players went on to have great careers elsewhere in the NBA?
Since the turn of the decade, the Toronto Raptors have hit a different trajectory than their first 15 seasons in the NBA. The team hit turmoil in the first three years of the decade, sure enough, but after they traded for Kyle Lowry the Raptors found a winning combination.
The backcourt of DeMar DeRozan and Lowry led the Toronto Raptors to unparalleled success compared to anything the club had been used to. They made the playoffs for five successive seasons and won 50-plus games three seasons in a row. Things got better once DeRozan was traded away too.
The Raptors won their first-ever NBA title last season under the guidance of Nick Nurse and led by Kawhi Leonard. DeRozan went on to have semi-decent success with the Spurs while Leonard was aided by the likes of Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam.
Lowry has turned into a fixture for the Raptors and is, likely, the greatest player in Toronto Raptors history. But, things didn’t start as well for Lowry with the team that drafted him: the Memphis Grizzlies.
That’s sometimes the case in the NBA, the team you start with isn’t the team you’ll have the most success with, and that’s the case for a few Toronto Raptors players too. This list isn’t to say that these players didn’t have great tenures with the Raptors, but more to acknowledge that their success was maybe more prominent elsewhere.
These players all had successful stints with the Raptors to varying degrees but also found better or similarly successful roles elsewhere. This isn’t a definitive list or a top five, it’s just a nice list to appreciate basketball talent. It starts with a less than obvious choice, but away we go.
P.J. Tucker
Great might be a considerable stretch, but P.J. Tucker has really carved out a nice role for himself in the NBA as bruising undersized power forward and now, seemingly, the starting center for the Houston Rockets.
It didn’t start all that well for him back in 2006, though. Tucker was drafted with the 35th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, the same draft where the Raptors took Andrea Bargnani with the number one overall pick – so, yeah, it wasn’t the greatest draft for the Raptors, especially since the class featured the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy, and the Toronto Raptors own Kyle Lowry.
Tucker, like most second-round picks, didn’t pan out in his first stint in the NBA. In fact, he played just 17 games with the Toronto Raptors and split time with the Colorado 14ers – the team’s designated G-League affiliate for the season and was waived in March to facilitate a roster spot for Luke Jackson.
After five seasons in Europe, Tucker resurfaced with the Phoenix Suns and would become a key contributor while the Suns flirted with mediocrity for several years. In the 2017-18 season, Tucker would wind up back with the Raptors after the trade deadline and provided some much-needed defense and aggression off the bench.
It would be with the Rockets where Tucker earned – and continues to earn – the most success. He adjusted to life well as the teams starting power forward and meshed well with the perimeter centric style of play that has made Mike D’Antoni‘s roster successful.
Tucker has never averaged more than 9.4 points per game in his NBA career but his versatility saw himself back into the league and with two contenders and remain in that position. Now, he’s the starting center for the Houston Rockets and has averaged 37-percent from deep in his three seasons with the team.
Marcus Camby
The career of Marcus Camby was great. But, it always felt like, maybe, just maybe, he didn’t reach his full potential. His time with the Toronto Raptors was as brief as can be and while he made the All-NBA Rookie First Team and averaged a career-high 14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game in his debut season, he only lasted one more year north of the border.
However, Camby was still able to lead the league in blocks during the 1997-98 NBA season with a career-high 3.7 blocks per game. Following the ’97-98 season, Camby was traded to the New York Knicks in a deal that involved bruising power forward and Raptors fan favourite Charles Oakley and continued to impress in the Big Apple.
While initially backing up Knicks legend Patrick Ewing early on, Camby would step into the starting center role during the 1999 NBA Playoffs after Ewing went down with a season-ending Achilles injury. The Knicks defeated the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals as the eighth-seed and went on to lose to the San Antonio Spurs in five games.
The following year saw Camby win the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award as the Knicks made it to the Eastern Conference Finals yet again, only this time they would lose in six games. The next season saw Camby struggle with injuries and he was traded to the Denver Nuggets in the offseason.
He would go on to have more success, leading the league in blocks multiple times and would win the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award in 2006-07. With the Nuggets, Camby was able to become one of the league’s best centers and all-around defensive players.
Camby would return to the Raptors in exchange for Andrea Bargnani in 2012, but the team would buy out his contract shortly after. By then, his time in the NBA was drawing to a close – however, Camby had one hell of a career.
Vince Carter
Now, I know what you’re thinking: Vince Carter technically wasn’t drafted by the Toronto Raptors. The team took Antawn Jamison with the fourth overall pick before trading him to the Golden State Warriors for Vince Carter and cash considerations.
So, yes, you are right, but Carter ended up wearing a Raptors hat on the draft night so that’s good enough for us. Carter spent a successful seven seasons with the Toronto Raptors where he was voted as a five-time NBA All-Star, the 1999 Rookie of the Year, and a two-time All-NBA selection.
In a nutshell, Carter put the Toronto Raptors on the map and then some. But that wasn’t enough to keep him around – Carter wanted postseason success and that wasn’t assured in Toronto and he was traded to the New Jersey Nets.
By then, Carter was already 28 years old and had a string of knee and hamstring injuries that would label him a fragile player but would still be a three-time NBA All-Star with the Nets and would form a formidable partnership with Jason Kidd. Following his tenure with the Nets, Carter would reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in his career with the Orlando Magic.
While Carter never reached the NBA Finals, his career has spanned four decades and he’s played until the age of 43. The 2019-20 NBA season looks to be his last, but looking back, Carter has had one of the all-time great careers and will certainly enter the Hall of Fame once his playing days are done.
Tracy McGrady
Unlike his cousin, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady‘s tenure in Toronto would be short-lived. After the Raptors were swept by the New York Knicks in their first-ever playoff appearance, McGrady entered the offseason as a free agent having averaged 15.4 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game while playing second-fiddle to Carter.
That was partly his reason for leaving the team: McGrady wanted to be the leader of his team, so he wound up with the Orlando Magic. To be fair, as the best player on the Orlando Magic, McGrady was voted as the NBA’s Most Improved Player, averaging 26.8 points in his first season with the team. That would start a run of seven consecutive seasons where McGrady was named as an NBA All-Star, adding seven All-NBA selections to his resume at the same time.
In the 2002-03 NBA season, McGrady would win his first scoring title, averaging 32.1 points per game and would finish fourth in MVP voting. One year later, McGrady would win his second consecutive scoring title while averaging 28 points per game.
After being traded to the Houston Rockets, McGrady had one of the most memorable moments in NBA history, scoring 13 points in the final 35 seconds of a game against the San Antonio Spurs as the team came back to win.
He would continue to perform as one of the NBA’s best scorers for the next few seasons before featuring in just 35 games during the 2008-09 NBA season due to injuries and the resulting surgeries before being traded to the New York Knicks before the 2010 NBA trade deadline.
One of the greatest scorers of all-time, it’s fair to say that McGrady had quite the career after leaving the Toronto Raptors and was voted into the Hall of Fame in 2017.
Chris Bosh
If McGrady had quite the career, who would one begin to quantify Chris Bosh‘s career after departing the Toronto Raptors in 2010 after seven successful seasons with the team. In his seven seasons with the team, Bosh was a five-time NBA All-Star and a one-time All-NBA Second Team selectee.
However, his tenure with the Miami Heat surpassed just about everything he did with the Raptors, even if he was the face of the franchise in Toronto. When Bosh joined the Heat in 2010 along with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, the Heatles were born.
Bosh started as a stretch-four for the Heat before upping himself to the starting center role and that’s where he found the most success with the team. His points per game went down but Bosh saw his shooting percentages rise and averaged a career-high 1.4 blocks per game in the 2012-13 NBA season.
After losing three consecutive games to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals, Bosh and the Heat bounced back and won back-to-back NBA championships in 2012 and 2013. Bosh was a key contributor throughout, and his rebound in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals set up Ray Allen for, maybe, the most historic shot in NBA history to force overtime against the San Antonio Spurs.
Winning two titles is no easy feat and Bosh did it as part of one of the NBA’s best big three in history. To say he had a great career is an understatement – Bosh will certainly wind up in the Hall of Fame.