The Toronto Raptors have discarded another center. It should come to no one’s surprise, as the man in the middle has always been the Achilles heel of the Raptors.
The Toronto Raptors needed just under 60 days to determine what any avid basketball fan could have told them. While he was signed go replace Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, Alex Len, who signed a one year, $2.3 million deal, according to nba.com, was not going to give them the same type of production.
Free agent center Alex Len has agreed to a deal with the Toronto Raptors, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 23, 2020
Len was never an adequate replacement for Gasol or Ibaka. A former fifth overall pick back in 2013, Len is the very definition of a bust. His best season was the 2018/19 season when he was in Atlanta, when he averaged 11.1 points and 5.5 rebounds in 20.1 minutes per game. Since being waived by the Raptors, Len has signed on with the Washington Wizards, his fifth team in just eight years.
Free agent center Alex Len has agreed to a one-year deal with the Washington Wizards, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. After clearing waivers, Len had multiple suitors and chose opportunity with Wizards, who needed depth in frontcourt.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 22, 2021
Len played in just 7 of 13 games he was eligible to appear as a Raptor. In that brief stint, he averaged 2.3 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 10.9 minutes per game.
Based on the offensive scheme that head coach Nick Nurse prefers to implement, Len was never really going to fit in. He is best used in the post, and the Raptors are a perimeter-oriented offensive team. Len is not a three-point shooter.
The expectation is that the Raptors will try to sign someone to help an undersized but productive Chris Boucher at the five spot as Aron Baynes’ usefulness has not been much better than Len was.
No one should really be surprised, as, for some reason, the Raptors are notoriously bad at figuring out who the man in the middle of their team should be. For every Antonio Davis or Jonas Valanciunas, there have been many bad choices made by this franchise concerning the center position. The following is a list of six of the worst transactions the Raptors have made concerning the center position in their franchise history.
Glen Grundwald’s 2001 grand move backfires
Grunwald then reassembled the cast of characters that created a successful 47-35 season in 2000-01 by re-signing Vince Carter, Jerome Williams, Antonio Davis, and Alvin Williams. However, realizing that Davis excelled as an undersized power forward playing center, Grunwald had a grand plan to put the Toronto Raptors franchise over the top in 2001-02.
Grunwald sent a first and second-round pick to the Houston Rockets to make the dream of moving the Raptors into elite status for the legendary Hakeem Olajuwon. Olajuwon would eventually become a Hall-of-Fame center, but Grunwald’s grand plan came at the wrong time. “The Dream” had managed to play only 199 games the previous four seasons and was 38 years old when the Raptors’ general manager signed off on this trade.
Olajuwon would play 61 regular-season games in his final year for Toronto in 2001-02, averaging just 7.1 points a game despite playing in all five 2002 playoff games against Detroit, a series Toronto would lose. Grunwald’s dream turned into a nightmare in less than a season.
After a series of great picks, 1999 is a bust for the Toronto Raptors.
Perhaps Glen Grunwald felt he needed to acquire a 38-year-old center long past his prime in Hakeem Olajuwon in 2001 because of his draft selection in 1999. The Toronto Raptors had drafted gems like Carter, Damon Stoudemire, Marcus Camby, and Tracy McGrady in each of their first four seasons in the NBA.
However, in 1999 armed with the 12th pick at the NBA Draft, Grunwald settled on Aleksandar Radojevic. Radojevic was a seven-foot-three 250 pound center from Bosnia. Radojevic wound up with a thirteen-year pro career, 11 of which were spent in Europe. The one season he did play for the Raptors, it was unremarkable at best.
During his one season in Toronto, Radojevic played in just three games, averaged 2.3 points, and 2.7 rebounds, with a field goal percentage of 28.6 percent. After this one season with the Raptors 1999-2000, he split the next season between Atlanta and Denver, but did not get any playing time. Radojevic then spent the next three seasons playing in Europe before making his way back to the NBA for the 2004-2005 season.
He played 12 games for the Utah Jazz, averaging 1.8 points per game.
Bryan Colangelo’s 2008 trade is a bust.
After two consecutive first-round flame-outs in the NBA playoffs, Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo was looking to shake up the Toronto roster. The Raptors had an issue with point guard T.J. Ford unhappy platooning and playing second fiddle to Jose Calderon in addition to being bested by the New Jersey Nets in consecutive playoff seasons.
In the 2008 offseason, Colangelo swung a deal with the Indiana Pacers for a former lottery pick straight out of high school in Jermaine O’Neal. However, once again, a Toronto general manager bet the team’s fortunes on a player with health issues. O’Neal’s injury problem was referenced in an espn.com article.
"One of those concerns appears to be knee arthritis, a degenerative condition any NBA player is subject to from the wear-and-tear of the sport. But O’Neal also underwent surgery to repair torn meniscus cartilage in his left knee in April 2007 and missed 42 games the following season due to pain and swelling, making him somewhat more susceptible to the condition."
Furthermore, the Raptors had three All-Star caliber center/power forwards on the roster after this deal, with Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani members of the Raptors frontcourt. In the end, Jermaine O’Neal’s time in Toronto was short. He lasted 41 games, in which he started 34, averaging 13.5 points per game before getting traded to Miami for Shawn Marion. The Raptors also failed to make the playoffs in 2009.
One of the worst contract signings in Toronto Raptors history
Grunwald really struggled to try to figure out the Raptors frontcourt. In addition to the failed Hakeem Olajuwon deal, the drafting of Aleksandar Radojevic, there is the free-agent signing of Michael “Yogi” Stewart.
Stewart was a six-foot ten-inch center who was signed by the Sacramento Kings in 1997. As a rookie, he led the Sacramento Kings in blocked shots with 195, or an average of 2.4 per game. In January of 1998, the Toronto Raptors signed Stewart as a free agent, and in the 1999 off-season, he was re-signed to a six-year, $24 million contract as recounted in a Torontostar.com article by Doug Smith.
Stewart is the epitome of how sports franchises have way too much money on their payroll because they spend it so carelessly. In three and a half seasons, he played a total of 121 games in a Raptors uniform, never averaging more than two points or 10 minutes per game.
In 2002, the Raptors traded Stewart, and a first-round draft pick, to acquire Lamond Murray from the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Raptors saving grace between the botched Radojevic drafting and the Stewart signing was 1999 trade to acquire power forward Antonio Davis who wound up playing center for the Toronto Raptors until he was traded in 2003.
Another international flop
The 2002-03 season was miserable for the Raptors. After appearing in the NBA Playoffs for three consecutive years, the Raptors would win just 24 games in 2003. Team superstar Vince Carter only played in 43 games due to injuries. Free-agent signing Voshon Leonard who played in 63 games, averaging over 14 points per game, was not enough to help the team continue its playoff streak.
Another free agent signing meant to help was the signing of free agent and international star center Nate Huffman. Huffman had played for Tel Aviv Maccabi from 1999-2002, helping the team win three Israeli Premier League titles. Unfortunately, Huffman passed away in 2015 due to a battle with bladder cancer.
He was signed in July 2002 to a three-year, $5.2 million contract. As seems to be the case with the Toronto Raptors regularly when signing centers, he played in seven games and averaged 3,3 points per game and 3.3 rebounds per game.
Knee problems were the issue, and by January 17th, 2003, the team canceled his contract. In a theglobeandmail.com article, the Toronto Raptors released a statement claiming that Nate Huffman:
"“materially breached [his]contract by failing to disclose material facts regarding his medical condition. Huffman failed to disclose his history of knee problems. Had those injuries been disclosed as required, the club would not have entered into the contract.”"
In the end, Huffman would sue the Raptors and an arbitrator a year later ruled that the Raptors were responsible for his contract. It’s standard practice in the NBA to put a player you are signing or trading for through a physical, making the Raptors position unbelievable.
This is yet another poor contract signing by Grunwald as general manager of the Raptors.
The Biggest bust in Toronto Raptors History
At the 2004 NBA Draft, the Raptors had a chance to add new talent to their roster with a lottery pick as they held the rights to the eighth overall selection. However, they were a franchise in turmoil, having missed the playoffs for two consecutive seasons.
General manager Glen Grunwald was fired in 2004 before the 2003-04 season was completed, and a search was conducted for his replacement. The search dragged on for several weeks at a time when most teams are busy working out draft-eligible prospects.
Finally, on June 7th, 2004, Rob Babcock was announced as the Raptors’ new general manager with the draft to be held 17 days later.
At the draft, the Raptors selected Rafael Araujo, a 6-11 center. While the team needed a center, Araujo was not a good one. In hindsight, the very next player drafted was Andre Iguodala, who went to the Philadelphia 76ers. Iguodala is a three-time NBA champion, an NBA Finals MVP, and is still playing today for the Miami Heat.
Araujo made the situation worse as he played 111 games as a Raptor over two years, starting in 75 of them. However, he averaged about 12 minutes a game with a scoring average of 2.8 points and about three rebounds per game.
On June 8th, 2006, Araujo was traded to Utah, where he played just one season. Araujo tried out for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2008 but was waived before the 2008/09 season began.
It’s a recurring theme with Toronto. When they get it right, they have employed great centers like Antonio Davis, Chris Bosh, and Jonas Valanciunas. When they get it wrong, it’s a parade of Araujos, Alex Lens, and Aleksandar Radojevics in a revolving door of mediocrity.