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The 2010/11 season was not a good one for the Toronto Raptors. It began in the 2010 offseason with Chris Bosh, formerly the Raptors second most significant player, leaving Toronto for Miami to win championships with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.
It was also the worst of a five-year stretch from 2008/09-2012/13 in which the Raptors failed to make the playoffs with just 22 regular-season wins that season.
Those days are long forgotten at the moment as the past six years have been a treat for Raptors’ fans to live through culminating in the Toronto franchise winning its first-ever NBA title in 2019 just two months ago.
There have been a few players who have been key factors in lifting the Toronto franchise out of the pathetic state it once was into and making them the reigning and defending NBA Champions. This list focuses on the five greatest Raptors’ players since 2010.
#5 Jonas Valanciunas (Center)
This Lithuanian center was drafted fifth overall by the Toronto Raptors in 2011. He spent one more year after that in Europe before joining the Raptors for the 2012/13 NBA season. His career as a Raptor was rocky not because of off-court behavior. In a changing game, Valanciunas was deemed too slow, a defensive liability and he didn’t have a good enough outside/long-range shot.
However, right up until he was part of the trade for Marc Gasol, Valanciunas was not only part of a young nucleus of players for an improving Toronto franchise which included players like DeMar DeRozan, Pascal Siakam, and O.G. Anunoby, but it could be argued he was the Raptors best Playoff performer (most consistent) between 2014-2018.
Unless the franchise makes a deal to bring him back to the roster, the one-time Raptors’ center is ranked second in total rebounds with 3961 and 2752 defensive boards. He is third in terms of blocked shots with 479 to his name.
Valanciunas is also second all-time as a Raptor in field goal percentage at 55.9%. He was a significant contributor to the Raptors’ fortunes and was their starting center in three of the last four seasons in which Toronto has won 50 plus games each year.
#4 Pascal Siakam (Power Forward)
Pascal Siakam was a late first-round pick by the Toronto Raptors in the 2016 NBA Draft. His status now as 2019’s Most Improved Player in the NBA and his ascendancy to the franchise's No.2 scoring option behind Kawhi Leonard was not expected. With last season's Finals MVP now moving to the Los Angeles Clippers, Siakam is the most exciting Raptors player to watch out for in the upcoming season.
For a power forward, he has great speed, ball-handling capabilities, a back to the basket and wing game, and this past season started to show consistency shooting from the three-point arc.
Siakam did start 38 games in his rookie season averaging 4.2ppg and 3.4rpg in just over 15mpg. In his sophomore season, while he only started five games, his numbers improved averaging 7.3ppg and 4.5rpg in just over 20mpg.
However, his third season not only ended with him and the team winning the NBA Championship, but Siakam also played a significant role all season in 2018/19 as Kawhi Leonard’s offensive support. Siakam, this past season, averaged 16.9ppg and 6.9rpg.
During Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Siakam scored 32 points in what was a surprise victory for the Toronto Raptors. With his game improving by leaps and bounds, Siakam now enters his fourth season (the last of his rookie deal) in 2019/20 fresh off of being named the NBA’s MIP and a champion.
At 24 years of age, his bargaining power for a new rich contract is at an all-time high and he deserves to be rewarded.
#3 Kyle Lowry (Point Guard)
It has been a somewhat rocky road for the Toronto Raptors and their point guard Kyle Lowry. He is a hardnosed player who since his arrival in 2012 has been a team leader offensively. In fact, he has been the heart and soul of this franchise.
This is why it's been a rocky relationship. During Playoff runs from 2014-2018, while Lowry and DeRozan were both All-Stars representing the Toronto Raptors, you would be shocked to realize that neither was consistently the best Playoff performer for the franchise.
In Lowry’s case, the spring of 2016 was atrocious for him shooting wise. In 20 games he shot just 39% from the field, 30% from 3-point range while managing to average 19.6ppg and 6apg.
In 2019 the Playoffs started horribly for Lowry, when he managed to score 0 points in Game 1 of the first round against Orlando Magic. The Raptors did lose that contest.
However, in 2019, perhaps because head coach Nick Nurse needed Lowry to do less scoring during the Playoffs and relied more on Siakam and Leonard. Lowry seemed to manage the peaks and valleys in his game much better because of this.
Regardless of the inconsistencies in the 33-year-old guard’s game, the Toronto fans love him especially now that he was a key contributor to the 2019 Championship triumph. It's also been eight years of ups and downs and Lowry has been there fighting for what the Toronto fans wanted the most.
During his eight years with the franchise, Lowry is third in minutes played all-time as a Raptor at 17114, 5th in games played at 497 and he is 3rd in steals per game at 1.5spg.
As a Raptor, Kyle Lowry has also made 3234 3-point shots, the best for a Raptors' player. Lowry has also played 73 Playoff games as a member of the Raptors and has represented the team five times as an All-Star.
#2 DeMar DeRozan (Small Forward/Shooting Guard)
His tenure as a Raptors' star ended unceremoniously. The fans will recall his late third quarter benching in Game 3 of the 2nd round 2018 NBA playoffs series sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It ultimately cost Dwane Casey his head coaching job with the Raptors and it meant when a star like Kawhi Leonard became available in the off-season, DeRozan was sacrificed to improve the team.
Up until DeRozan’s departure via trade, he was unquestionably the second or third best player the Raptors had behind the likes of Vince Carter and Chris Bosh. DeRozan represented the Raptors four times at the All-Star game and to this day is the team’s leader in games played (675), minutes (22,986), field goal attempts and makes, as well as free-throw attempts and makes. He is third all-time as a Raptor with 19.7ppg.
The Raptors offense was a one-two punch combination of isolation plays featuring DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry until the end of the 2018 season.
The two players were best friends and that chemistry translated in the Raptors being an Eastern Conference Championship contender for five straight years.
#1 Kawhi Leonard (Small Forward)
Kawhi Leonard tops this list even though his time in Toronto was short (less than one year). However, what an electric year it was. The Toronto faithful raised concerns that the team had traded its star player in DeRozan for a guy who seemed injury-prone in Leonard. But, after missing 73 games the previous season, Leonard quickly re-established himself as an elite NBA talent.
In 60 regular-season games, he averaged 26.6ppg, 7.3rpg, and 3.3apg. Leonard also spearheaded the Raptors defense that was aggressive and tough to play against. He was also Toronto’s top Playoff performer averaging 30.5ppg, 9.1rpg and nearly 4apg in 24 contests. His 732 total points in the 2019 Playoffs rank third highest in NBA history.
Not only was Leonard an NBA All-star in 2019 (his third time), he was the NBA Finals MVP for the second time in his career each time with a different team and in a different conference.
Other than the fact that he now is a member of the Los Angeles Clippers (as he signed there as a free agent this summer) his short tenure in Toronto was not disappointing in any way.
Guess the Lakers players!
