Toronto Raptors: Top 5 best individual seasons of all-time

Toronto Raptors best individual season No. 2: DeMar DeRozan 2016-17

This one is a toss-up between Carter’s third season, when he averaged 27.6 points and led Toronto to its first-ever playoff win against the Knicks. However, DeRozan’s 2016/17 season cannot be ignored for its importance to the Raptors franchise’s current state.

While his scoring exploits advanced the Raptors to the Eastern Conference the season before, it is in 2017 when he was simply dominant as a Raptor. He averaged 27.3 points, 3.9 assists, and 5.2 rebounds per game. It would be a season that ended as the second of three attempts by a DeRozan led Raptors’ team who could not get past a LeBron-led Cavs team.

Even so, DeRozan was great that season. It started with him exploding for 40 points on opening night when the Raptors beat Detroit. He would score 40 or more points seven times that season. DeRozan, who was in his sophomore season, once tweeted these famous words after the Raptors had lost Bosh in free agency in 2010.

He was responsible, along with Kyle Lowry, for the first five years of the Raptors seven-year run of playoff basketball and gave the first nine years of his career to the team that drafted him. Had Masai Ujiri not made the Leonard trade, it’s possible DeRozan would still be a Raptor.

His impact arguable is as almost important as Carter’s in Toronto. Carter left a legacy of putting basketball on the map as a sport for young Canadians to admire and play. DeRozan’s legacy was more about the franchise’s consistent success as a legitimate contender.