The Toronto Raptors have been around for less than three decades, but that doesn't mean they lack star power or notable names. Nine players in franchise history have made All-Star games, while a number of other players played key roles on good teams.
One way to evaluate players is to pick one objective standard and rank them accordingly. You could look at the top scorers by total points, for example; DeMar DeRozan easily sits atop that list. You could order players by the number of games they won with the Raptors' franchise; Kyle Lowry leads the way for total games won.
A more holistic approach would be to pick a statistic that combines multiple statistics from a player, positive and negative, to determine their overall impact on team success. One such statistic is called Player Efficiency Rating, or PER, developed by former Memphis Grizzlies VP John Hollinger. It measures a player's impact and assigns a score; the higher the score, the better a player's overall impact.
If we look at every player in Toronto Raptors history, which players are the best ever in terms of PER?
Markquis Nowell is the greatest Raptor ever?
We immediately come to the realization that some further fencing is required to properly use this metric to find the greatest players in franchise history. Going purely by best career PER in a Raptors uniform, the "best" player in franchise history becomes Markquis Nowell, a 5'7" point guard who was on a two-way contract with the Raptors just this year. He appeared in a single game, playing four minutes and logging two points, two assists, two points and a steal. Extrapolate that out to a full 36-minute night, and Nowell was on pace for an 18-18-18 triple-double with nine steals.
Nearly anything can happen in a small sample, and the more minutes a player is on the court the more their production will normalize to their career level of play. That is why for career statistics databases like Basketball Reference use a games played minimum; for PER that threshold is 100 games with the franchise.
That robust threshold knocks out Nowell's active four minutes, as well as a number of other players who played well in a handful of games. Interestingly enough it also eliminates Kawhi Leonard, who played just a single season in Toronto but would top the career leaderboard if we dropped the minimum to 60 games with a 25.8 PER in 2018-19 en route to leading the Raptors to the championship.
Now that we have set some ground rules, let's take a look at the history books and rank the 12 greatest Raptors according to Player Efficiency Rating, starting with a couple of well-known guards to Raptors fans.
No. 12: Jose Calderon, 17.5
In 2005 the Toronto Raptors' front office managed to entice EuroLeague star point guard Jose Calderon to sign a contract to join the NBA. The 24-year old Spaniard became one of the great undrafted free agent success stories, earning votes for Most Improved Player by his second season.
Calderon provided a steady hand as a passer, averaging 7.2 assists to just 1.7 turnovers in Toronto. Across eight seasons north of the border he racked up 3,770 assists, second only to Kyle Lowry in franchise history. He was a modest scorer, averaging just 10.0 points per game in his 525 games for the Raptors.
Where Calderon really stood out was as a shooter. He developed his 3-point shot over his early years in the NBA and by his third year he was hitting 42.9 percent from deep, and would eventually notch a 40.7 percent career mark from outside the arc. Even more impressive, Calderon was a deadeye free-throw shooter, once hitting 87-straight free throws, the second-longest streak in NBA history, and setting the NBA record for highest free-throw percentage in a season at 98.1 percent; he hit 151 of his 154 free throws that year.
Calderon just missed qualifying for the vaunted "50-40-90" shooting club, hitting the marks in his third season without hitting the volume of free-throw attempts required, then falling just a whisper short his fourth season shooting 49.7 percent from the field. His combination of efficiency and passing without turnovers boosted him up the ranks of the PER leaderboard and landed him 12th on this list.
No. 11: DeMar DeRozan, 17.7
Any list of the greatest players in Toronto Raptors franchise history would seem incomplete without DeMar DeRozan, yet he ended up outside of the Top 10 in the eyes of PER. Why would that be?
DeRozan's sheer volume is astounding, as he leads the team in a cornucopia of career statistics: games, minutes, field goals, free throws and points. He is even third in steals, fourth in assists and seventh in total rebounds. Specifically looking at points, DeRozan's 13,296 points is 2800 more than Lowry in second.
Why does DeRozan not rank higher in career PER, then? The answer is that Player Efficiency Rating values filling out a box score, and while DeRozan racked up strong career numbers because of how many games he palyed in a Toroton uniform, in any given day his contributions were largely as a scorer. Only once did he average more than five rebounds in a season, and similarly just once did he crack five assists.
His scoring was also somewhat one-dimensional, built on a steady diet of mid-range shots and floaters. DeRozan shot just 28.8 percent from deep on modest volume in his nine seasons in Toronto and largely created his own shots. That left his efficiency much lower than it could otherwise have been; his ability to draw free throws and hit them certainly helped, but his efficiency from the field was a pedestrian; his 46.3 percent effective field goal percentage ranks only 59th out of 70 players who played at least 100 games for the Raptors.
DeRozan's ability to create his own shot was a major asset to the Raptors, and his volume matters to his standing with the franchise. PER, which doesn't factor in longevity, recognizes his impact while also penalizing him for a lack of other contributions and pedestrian efficiency numbers.
No. 10: Jakob Poeltl, 18.1
Occasionally a player will boomerang around the league, leaving a team and then making their way back. While that has happened with a number of notable names throughout league history, it happened quite recently for the Toronto Raptors, with center Jakob Poeltl coming back to the team after they initially traded him away as a part of the Kawhi Leonard trade.
Poeltl's statistics with the Raptors therefore have quite the dichotomy. He spent his first two years with the franchise as a raw big man just learning the ropes; his efficiency as a low-usage big man shines through, but he was a pure backup, starting just four games and averaging no more than 4.7 shots per game in his second season.
Now he is back, as an established veteran center walling off the paint and showing off a deeper bag of finishes around the basket. He dominates the glass and plays a much larger role, starting all but one of his 76 games since returning.
The result is a hyper-efficient average, 212 career games wherein he shot an elite 64.9 percent from the field. In his second stint he has averaged around 11.5 points per game and 8.8 rebounds, but for his full Toronto career he stands at 7.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. PER likes that combination of efficency and production, even at a low volume, and ranks him 10th all-time.
No. 9: Pascal Siakam, 18.2
Three players in the history of the Toronto Raptors have made two or more All-NBA teams: Vince Carter, DeMar DeRozan, and Pascal Siakam. Of the three it's without question that Siakam was the best defender, and he is also the only one of the group to win a title in Toronto. That's part of why we argued for Siakam one day getting a statue outside of Scotiabank Arena, even if the odds are very low that would ever happen.
Why does Siakam rank where he does on our list of the best players according to PER? The reason he doesn't rank higher is that he played real minutes early in his career as he was just getting his footing, so that pulls him down a bit. If you take out his first two seasons, Siakam's PER mark jumps to 19.1, and would rank fourth among eligible Raptors.
What about Siakam's game lends itself to strength in this metric? It's likely the way he contributes in every box score category. Unlike DeRozan, a one-trick scoring pony for most of his time in Toronto (his playmaking really picked up mid-career, to his credit) Siakam contributes in nearly every area. For example, in that year 3-7 range we looked at above, Siakam's per-game averages are stout: 21.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.7 blocks across five seasons.
PER doesn't do a great job of evaluating defense, but even so Siakam's defensive impact plus his versatile and wide-ranging offensive game propel him into the Top 10 on the Raptors' career PER rankings. He is now a member of the Indiana Pacers, but while he was in Toronto he was one of the best players they ever had and was integral to bringing home the 2019 championship.
No. 8: T.J. Ford, 19.0
We now come to the most surprising name on this list.
In the history of the Toronto Raptors the list of best guards is easy to compile: Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, Damon Stoudemire, Fred VanVleet. The name that will surely never come up is journeyman point guard T.J. Ford, but his level of play while with the Raptors was strong enough to land at eighth on this list.
Ford was drafted eighth overall in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, who traded him to the Toronto Raptors three years later for forward Charlie Villanueva. The 6'0" point guard played two seasons in Toronto, starting in 97 of his 126 games with the franchise.
The stats for Ford hardly scream "elite" but his sample size was small enough that there were no "bad" stats, either. In two seasons with the Raptors, he averaged 13.2 points, 7.2 assists and 1.2 steals, shooting 44.8 percent from the field (but just 30 percent from 3-point range). He also averaged just 27.3 minutes per game; if he had played 36 minutes per game at the same rate he would have averaged 17.4 points and 9.5 assists.
Playing alongside Chris Bosh, Ford and the Raptors made it to the playoffs in both of his seasons. He certainly wouldn't show up on any list of the best Raptors of all time viewed wholistically, but something about his combination of stats and success land him here at No. 8 on our PER list.
No. 7: Chris Boucher, 19.1
Our list continues with another role player at No. 7, although this player's path to landing on this list is a bit easier to track. The 6'9" Chris Boucher was a defensive monster at Oregon, making a Final Four in his senior season before he went undrafted in 2017 and signed a two-way contract with the Golden State Warriors.
He played one single minute as a rookie for the Warriors and was waived the following summer, when he caught on with the Toronto Raptors on a training camp deal. He parlayed that into a two-way contract, that dominated in the G League and earned a full contract by the end of that season, and has been with the Raptors for the five years since.
Nicknamed the "Tre-Boucher" for his long-limbed shot release, the theory of the case for Chris Boucher is simple: he is an elite weakside shot-blocker, an excellent rebounder and a decent-enough 3-point shooter to spot-up outside of the arc. PER tends to over-index on "big man" stats like rebounds and blocks, which benefits a player like Boucher.
Boucher saw his role expand in the Tampa season of 2020-21 in the absence of other big men on the team, nearly doubling his minutes from the year before and averaging 13.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. His role has decreased slowly ever since, and his time with the team may be close to over, but his spot on this list is likely to stay.
No. 6: Kyle Lowry, 19.4
Thought by many to be the best player in franchise history, Kyle Lowry checks onto our list of the best Raptors of all time ranked by PER at No. 6.
The 6'0" point guard entered the league with the Memphis Grizzlies and played six seasons with the Grizzlies and Houston Rockets, proving himself as one of the better defensive guards from early on but taking a long time to develop as a shooter and scorer to earn a larger role. He did toward the end of his time in Houston and it convinced the Raptors to invest a first-round pick in him in 2012.
The rest, as they say, is franchise history. Lowry became a full-time starter early on, in his second season in Toronto finished sixth in Most Improved Player, and in year three made his first of six-consecutive All-Star appearances. His best season came in 2015-16 when he finished All-NBA, 10th in MVP voting and also received Defensive Player of the Year votes.
In total, Lowry played in 601 regular season games and another 84 playoff games, including a run to the championship in 2019. He averaged 17.5 points, 7.1 assists, 1.5 steals and 2.5 3-pointers per game. The reason he is not higher on this list is that his contributions were often beyond the box score, in his leadership, hustle, basketball intelligence and overall emotional drive. Even still, his presence on this list as a small guard testifies to the impact he had while on the court.
No. 5: Tracy McGrady, 19.5
Most basketball fans associate Tracy McGrady with the Houston Rockets, where he starred with Yao Ming; many others associate him with his time on the Orlando Magic, where he finished Top-6 in MVP voting three times and led the league in scoring twice. Only the long-time NBA fans (and somewhat embittered Toronto fans) will remember McGrady's time on the Raptors.
One of the players to leap directly from high school to the pros in 1997, McGrady was drafted ninth overall and joined a team with Damon Stoudemire and Marcus Camby. The team went through significant transitions over the next year, however, and even as McGrady was finding his footing and developing into a future star the team drafted Vince Carter and he became the signature star.
McGrady could have stayed with the Raptors and the two could have starred on the wing together for many years. His third (and final) season with the Raptors showed incredible potential, with McGrady averaged 15.4 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.9 blocks per game; that last number was unheard of for a wing like McGrady.
Instead of sticking around, McGrady left in free agency for Orlando, and what could have been was snuffed out. That's why McGrady checked in at No. 2 on our list of Raptors who turned their backs on the franchise. He wanted to be the man, and he was in Orlando, but he never won anything of note on the team level. Individually, however, even as a young player in Toronto his impact was enough to land him No. 5 on our list.
No. 4: Jonas Valanciunas, 19.7
It seemed inevitable for those familiar with the statistic PER that Jonas Valanciunas would rank highly on this list. His game seems perfectly designed for a statistic that loves efficient scoring, rebounds and blocks. That's why a player who never ranked Top-10 at his position in the NBA can rank fourth all-time in a franchise ranking of PER.
The Raptors drafted the Lithuanian center with the fifth overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, and he would play his first seven seasons with Toronto, becoming a starter within weeks of his debut as a rookie and never looking back. He manned the middle for a number of very good Toronto teams, forming something of a stout third leg along with Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.
For his career, Valanciunas averaged 11.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game on an efficient 55.9 percent shooting from the field. He was (and is) a freight train down low, bullying opposing bigs and clearing space for himself and his teammates to rebound the ball. He particularly excelled on the offensive glass and served to put an enormous amount of pressure on opponents.
Valanciunas was never an elite rim protector, nor was he skilled enough on offense to unlock scheme versatility for the team. They got better when they replaced him with Marc Gasol, at least in the context of their championship run in 2019. Even so, he was a bruiser down low and proved himself in all of the ways that PER loves, landing him fourth on the list.
No. 3: Donyell Marshall, 19.8
Our final unexpected entrant on this list is Donyell Marshall, a 6'9" forward who carved out an exceptionally long career in the league purely as a role player. The UConn star went fourth overall in the 1994 NBA Draft but never averaged more than 15.4 points per game in a season, and for his career averaged just 11.2.
Marshall was a streaky shooter and a rugged defender, the kind of player that head coaches tended to fall in love with, earning him plenty of minutes at a variety of stops. He would play for eight different franchises in a 15-year career, including a brief stop on the Toronto Raptors from 2003-2005.
The Raptors traded for Marshall in a six-player deal with the Chicago Bulls, joining a bad Toronto team rebuilding in the wake of losing Vince Carter. He just barely cleared the minimum games threshold for this list, playing 131 games for the Raptors. He averaged 13.8 points per game and a robust 8.7 rebounds, his most with any franchise.
What's more, Marshall got hot while in Toronto, hitting 41 percent of his 3-pointers (compared to a career mark of 35 percent). Add in his always-solid defensive numbers, including a steal and a block per game, and his cocktail of stats worked perfectly for PER. It also served to entice the Cleveland Cavaliers who signed him to a lucrative contract in the summer of 2005, thus ending his brief tenure north of the border.
No. 2: Chris Bosh, 21.3
Our final two entrants on this list are likely the ones you would have expected, two of the greatest players to ever don a Raptors uniform. Chris Bosh checks in at second on this list with a positively dominant PER number of 21.3.
The fourth pick of the 2003 NBA Draft, Chris Bosh quickly became a fan favorite before of his dinosaur-like profile and his passion while on the basketball court. He also earned it with his play, improving quickly and making his first All-Star team in his third season; he would never miss another one the remainder of his career.
Bosh played seven seasons with the Raptors as the star of the franchise before leaving to join LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in Miami in 2010. For his Raptors career he averaged 20.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, 1.2 steals and shot 49.2 percent from the field, an impressive number given his large role.
The career totals also support this ranking in Toronto history. Bosh ranks second in franchise history in made field goals, first in rebounds and first in blocks; Kyle Lowry just barely passed him in career scoring to push him to third. He meant a lot to the franchise during a difficult stretch and led them back to the playoffs in the wake of Vince Carter's departure, and no one is questioning his No. 2 ranking on this list.
No. 1: Vince Carter, 21.8
Checking in at No. 1 on this list is the "best" player to ever play for the Toronto Raptors; he may not have stuck around long enough to rank No. 1 in a list of greatest Raptors, but his level of play reached a height no other Toronto player ever ascended to.
The North Carolina star was drafted fifth overall in the 1998 NBA Draft and immediately sent to the Toronto Raptors in a draft night trade. He exploded onto the scene, earning MVP votes as a rookie and easily winning Rookie of the Year. He followed that up with his first All-Star season as a sophomore and an All-NBA nod, averaging 25.7 points and absolutely stuffing the stat sheet.
Carter's thunderous dunks don't help him out in a PER ranking, but his combination of rebounding, assists, steals and blocks certainly do. Add in high-volume scoring at decent efficiency and it's no wonder he leads the way on this list. Carter also added deadly accuracy from deep on strong volume; he could quite literally do it all with Toronto.
In seven seasons with the franchise he averaged 23.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.3 steals, 1.0 blocks and 1.4 3-pointers at 38.3 percent from deep. He ranks first in franchise history in points per game and fourth in total points, and he without a doubt ranks first in highlight plays. He is the obvious No. 1 player for the Toronto Raptors in terms of PER.