Toronto Raptors: Top 5 players who played for both Raptors and Nets
By Mike Luciano
2. PF Andrea Bargnani: TOR 2006-2013, BKN 2015-16
The fact that Bargnani didn’t live up to expectations after the Raptors burned the top pick in the 2006 NBA Draft on him instead of LaMarcus Aldridge has been discussed to death, but it’s easy to forget that he averaged 15.2 points per game in his seven years with Toronto, and that doesn’t happen by accident.
Bargnani proved during his Raptors tenure that while he was a capable scorer and shooter, he was never going to develop into a franchise cornerstone. After realizing this (and robbing the Knicks blind in a trade that got them three players and the No. 9 pick that became Jakob Poeltl), Toronto watched him play his final NBA season with the Nets.
Andrea Bargnani is still a controversial figure in Raptors history.
Bargnani’s 6.6 points per game in what was a wretched season for a Brooklyn team starting to feel the sting of that ill-fated Boston trade will hardly could as memorable, but his body of work with Toronto was strong enough to put him at No. 2 in this ranking.
His Nets career was so forgettable that it’s possible even some Nets fans couldn’t recall the fact he played for them, and he didn’t always play like a No. 1 overall pick for the Raptors, but he was an above-average scorer for the bulk of his career, and his body of work in Toronto is good enough for second place here.