Columnist image

TSN Raptors Reporter

| Archive

With the Toronto Raptors celebrating their 20th anniversary season in 2014-15, Josh Lewenberg and TSN.ca take a look back at the franchise's first two decades with weekly Top Five lists, counting down the standout and signature players and moments in team history.

5. Jerome Williams (2001-03)

Raptor stats (4 seasons): 7.9 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.3 steal, 46% FG, 41% 3P, 180 games played/107 started

More so than the previous two instalments of Raptors Top Five (best point guards and wing players), the bottom half of this list is very much up for debate. You could make a legitimate case for five or six bigs in this fifth and final spot. Donyell Marshall put up big numbers in his brief tenure, but played for two 33-win clubs. Steady vets Rasho Nesterovic and Kevin Willis were two of the franchise's better seven-footers (and would have been the only ones on this list). Marcus Camby showed promise, particularly as a defender, in Toronto before being traded early in his career. Andrea Bargnani, well, I won't go there, but he's third on the team's all-time scoring list so there's a statistical argument to be made, I suppose.

Overwhelming popularity aside (that's a different list for another week), Jerome Williams gets the nod in this spot over the players listed above because of his understated impact on a couple winning Raptors teams. Williams came to Toronto via a mid-season trade in 2001, immediately complimenting the cast of characters in place, brining energy, toughness, defence and rebounding off the bench. He appeared in all but one of their playoff games that year, as the Raptors came up just shy of the Eastern Conference Finals. His role increased significantly in his second year, playing 10 additional minutes a night and logging nearly 30 in the playoffs as he helped spark a memorable late-season run in the absence of the injured Vince Carter. In his final full season with the Raps, he flirted with a double-double, averaging 9.7 points and 9.2 rebounds per contest. Best known as JYD, Williams embraced his role from the moment he arrived in Toronto to the day he was traded.

Did you know?: In 2003, Williams recorded 10 or more rebounds in 10 straight games, a franchise record at the time. He finished sixth in the NBA in steal-to-turnover ratio that year. 

4. Amir Johnson (2009-present)

Raptor stats (5 seasons): 8.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.1 blocks, 57% FG, 376 games played/212 started

Entering his sixth year in Toronto, Johnson - along with DeMar DeRozan - is currently the longest tenured Raptor. Since being acquired in what turned out to be a heist by former GM Bryan Colangelo during the summer of 2009, Johnson's role has grown each season and so has his performance. Despite his consistently efficient play on both ends of the floor, the Raptors forward is often overlooked as a role player. However, his teammates, coaches and most advanced metrics would tell you otherwise. He's far more valuable. A former second-round pick and the final player to enter the NBA straight of high school, Johnson is currently one of the better pick-and-roll bigs and help defenders in the Association. He's also been remarkably durable, missing just 18 games in five years, despite playing through a myriad of ankle injuries.

Did you know?: Johnson has shot over 54 per cent from the field in each of his nine NBA seasons. He's ranked in the NBA's top 10 in field goal percentage during each of the last two years.

3. Charles Oakley (1998-2001)

Raptor stats (3 seasons): 7.9 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.1 steals, 41% FG, 208 games played/207 started

The numbers don't do Oak justice. There's no statistic to quantify what he brought to the Raptors when they acquired him from New York ahead of the 1998-99 campaign, but there's only a handful of NBA players who have ever done it better and, perhaps, no one since. When teams talk about changing their culture, they usually have a player like Oakley in mind. Arriving in his mid-30s, nearing the end of a 19-year career, Oakley demanded toughness and professionalism from a young team that had never qualified for the playoffs. From day one, he mentored then rookie Vince Carter, teaching him the ways of the league and holding both him and Tracy McGrady accountable as the team turned a corner that season, ultimately making their playoff debut the next year. 

Did you know?: Oakley is one of just nine players to record a triple-double as a Raptor and one of just two Raptor bigs (Camby recorded two). 

2. Antonio Davis (1999-2003, 2006)

Raptor stats (6 seasons): 12.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.3 blocks, 43% FG, 310 games played/307 started

Like Oakley, Davis - acquired a year later - represented a turning point in the young franchise's fortunes. The perfect compliment to Oak and Willis in the frontcourt, Davis helped give Toronto the balance between experience and youth, toughness and athleticism that made them one of the NBA's most menacing, up and coming teams. Undersized for a centre, he played much bigger than his 6-foot-9 frame. In his first season, Davis put up then career-highs 11.5 points and 8.8 rebounds, vaulting Toronto into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. The sequel was even better. Davis averaged a double-double, made and started in his first and only All-Star Game and helped lead the Raptors to their first ever playoff-series victory over the Knicks that spring. Although his exit was not the smoothest and his brief eight-game return to end his career was less than memorable, Davis's best years were all spent in a Raptor uniform. He averaged at least 11 points and eight rebounds in each of his four full seasons in Toronto - he never accomplished either of those feats in any of his other NBA stops.

Did you know?: Davis is second on the Raptors' all-time rebounding list, trailing only Chris Bosh.

1. Chris Bosh (2003-10)

Raptor stats (7 seasons): 20.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.2 blocks, 49% FG, 509 games played/497started

Bosh's Raptor legacy will always be tainted to some degree. He was never able to get Toronto out of the first round, qualifying for the playoffs in just two of his seven seasons as a Raptor - although his supporting casts deserve some of the blame there. Then there's the way in which he left town - bolting after a half-hearted season to team up with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in Miami. Unfortunately, that's all some fans remember of the artist formally known as CB4. Bosh was a five-time All-Star in Toronto, a player that worked his tail off and gave everything he had for the team and the city throughout the bulk of his tenure. A raw prospect selected fourth overall in the loaded 2003 NBA Draft, Bosh developed into a well-rounded talent, one that still tops the Raptors' record book in most categories. Perhaps he was miscast as a franchise player, but the list of guys fitting of that criteria is as short as ever. At the very least, he's an excellent player, a star, and the second-best this franchise has seen in its first 20 years.

Did you know?: Bosh is the Raptors' all-time leader in points, rebounds, blocks and minutes played

Honourable mentions: Donyell Marshall (2003-05), Kevin Willis (1998-2001), Rasho Nesterovic (2006-08, 2009-10), Andrea Bargnani (2006-13), Marcus Camby (1996-98), Keon Clark (2001-02), Jorge Garbajosa (2006-08), Charlie Villaneuva (2005-06) and Matt Bonner (2004-06)

Expert picks:

Jack Armstrong

1. Chris Bosh

2. Antonio Davis

3. Charles Oakley

4. Kevin Willis

5. Marcus Camby