Compare this year's team to the 2000-01 squad

[CGarbs]

Hi All! There's been a lot of talk of playoffs and 2nd rounds around these parts lately and I couldn't help but think of my favorite Raptors team of all time which was the last time we made it to the 2nd round, the 2000-2001 team(wow! has it really been 13 years? time where did you go....).

From my memory(and from checking the interwebs) I think the starting 5 back then was Alvin, MoPete, Vince, Oaks, and Davis with Childs being our bench primarily being Childs, Clark, Curry and JYD.

Starting 5:

The 2000-01 squad was very Vince focussed. They would throw it down to Davis once in awhile but generally speaking the offence ran through Vince with everyone chipping in now and again but mainly off of what Vince would create. Contrast that with our current squad which runs primarily through Demar and Lowry but shares the ball around way more. The Nice thing about the 2000-01 squad is with Carter's crazy talents they always had a good option when they needed a score whereas I feel our current squad doesn't have the same fallback(although Lowry is our default for this) and has to continue to move that ball knowing we will have our opportunities by continuing in it.

Bench:

This is where I see the biggest difference. That 2000-01 squad had Curry coming off the bench who is the best shooter we have ever had that was automatic when open and feet set(and had a crazy quick release!), They had Keon Clark who was an athletic freak who could iso facing up in the post and eat guys alive(and had crazy highlight dunks on the fast break!). On top of that we had Chris Childs who was an above average backup PG.

Compare that with our current squad: too my eyes I don't think I'd put vaquez in the same category as Childs in terms of backup PG(especially in terms of D), Patterson is our scorer of the bench but not nearly as much as a game changer as Keon(sad he couldn't have made better life choices...), and Curry is x10 better than Salmons on offence but Salmons is significantly better on D.

I think overall our current squad is better at defence, but the 2000-01 squad was quite a bit better at offence. While our current squad has a balanced attack where different guys contribute each night, the 2000-01 squad had elite scorers in Carter, Clark, and Curry and an elite bench which made them so dangerous.

I feel with 2Pat we get some scoring from the bench but thinking back to them good ol' days made me yearn for a better scoring wing option that we could lean on when our bench comes in.

That's how I remember things back then and compare them to now, what's all y'alls take on it?

[Puffer]

My recollection is that you are pretty much on. I think that was MoPete's first year and he became a dependable weapon on offense pretty early on. You could count on three pointers from Alvin, MoPete and Vince. Actually everybody in that starting five was pretty good at getting to the rack.

I would agree that the 2000 Raps had a better bench. 2000 raps against this years version? 2000 Raps take 4 out of 5.

[JawsGT]

My recollection is that you are pretty much on. I think that was MoPete's first year and he became a dependable weapon on offense pretty early on. You could count on three pointers from Alvin, MoPete and Vince. Actually everybody in that starting five was pretty good at getting to the rack.

I would agree that the 2000 Raps had a better bench. 2000 raps against this years version? 2000 Raps take 4 out of 5.

I don't know man, I think it might be closer than that. It would be epic though. Amir vs Oakley, JV vs Davis, and throw in JYD and Hans, somebody would get punched in the face for sure!! Vince was unstoppable then, so he is the major factor. Childs has the edge on Vasquez, but other than that it's pretty close IMO. Ross could probably play defense on Vince better than most. The present team has really great D overall and great ball movement, I think it would be a close series.

[psrs1]

Hi All! There's been a lot of talk of playoffs and 2nd rounds around these parts lately and I couldn't help but think of my favorite Raptors team of all time which was the last time we made it to the 2nd round, the 2000-2001 team(wow! has it really been 13 years? time where did you go....).

From my memory(and from checking the interwebs) I think the starting 5 back then was Alvin, MoPete, Vince, Oaks, and Davis with Childs being our bench primarily being Childs, Clark, Curry and JYD.

Starting 5:

The 2000-01 squad was very Vince focussed. They would throw it down to Davis once in awhile but generally speaking the offence ran through Vince with everyone chipping in now and again but mainly off of what Vince would create. Contrast that with our current squad which runs primarily through Demar and Lowry but shares the ball around way more. The Nice thing about the 2000-01 squad is with Carter's crazy talents they always had a good option when they needed a score whereas I feel our current squad doesn't have the same fallback(although Lowry is our default for this) and has to continue to move that ball knowing we will have our opportunities by continuing in it.

Bench:

This is where I see the biggest difference. That 2000-01 squad had Curry coming off the bench who is the best shooter we have ever had that was automatic when open and feet set(and had a crazy quick release!), They had Keon Clark who was an athletic freak who could iso facing up in the post and eat guys alive(and had crazy highlight dunks on the fast break!). On top of that we had Chris Childs who was an above average backup PG.

Compare that with our current squad: too my eyes I don't think I'd put vaquez in the same category as Childs in terms of backup PG(especially in terms of D), Patterson is our scorer of the bench but not nearly as much as a game changer as Keon(sad he couldn't have made better life choices...), and Curry is x10 better than Salmons on offence but Salmons is significantly better on D.

I think overall our current squad is better at defence, but the 2000-01 squad was quite a bit better at offence. While our current squad has a balanced attack where different guys contribute each night, the 2000-01 squad had elite scorers in Carter, Clark, and Curry and an elite bench which made them so dangerous.

I feel with 2Pat we get some scoring from the bench but thinking back to them good ol' days made me yearn for a better scoring wing option that we could lean on when our bench comes in.

That's how I remember things back then and compare them to now, what's all y'alls take on it?

Good post. Let's hope we can recapture the energy and excitement of that 2000-2001 squad. Also the ACC was electric that year.

[yertu damkule]

the team dynamic is different, but there's probably more in common with the 2006 team in terms of the overall state of both the league & where they figure in it than there is with the 2000 team.

[KeonClark]

Even though this team is not as talented, the NBA is in a FAAAR different place, and we could probably beat that brand of "Allan Iso-verson ball" in a best of 7.

[Nilanka]

Carter in his prime was arguably a top 5 player in the league. That's the biggest difference between 2001 and now.

[KeonClark]

Carter in his prime was arguably a top 5 player in the league. That's the biggest difference between 2001 and now.

What???

Iverson
Shaq
Duncan
Garnett
Kidd
Bryant
Malone
Webber
McGrady

Carter MAYBE sniffed the top 10 for like a year. He was NEVER top 5, and no arguably about it.

[Nilanka]

What???

Iverson
Shaq
Duncan
Garnett
Kidd
Bryant
Malone
Webber
McGrady

Carter MAYBE sniffed the top 10 for like a year. He was NEVER top 5, and no arguably about it.

Ummm, Kidd, Webber, TMac, Malone??? I think you're underestimating just how dominant Carter was for a 2-3 year span.

Regardless, the point still remains. We don't have anything close to Carter's talent on this current roster.

[Axel]

My recollection is that you are pretty much on. I think that was MoPete's first year and he became a dependable weapon on offense pretty early on. You could count on three pointers from Alvin, MoPete and Vince. Actually everybody in that starting five was pretty good at getting to the rack.

I would agree that the 2000 Raps had a better bench. 2000 raps against this years version? 2000 Raps take 4 out of 5.

I think it would be a clean sweep in 4.

Alvin and Lowry would be physical.
Mo Pete and Ross are kinda a wash as 3 and D youngsters.
VC would destroy DD.

The battle down low would be epic. Oakley, Davis and JYD vs Amir, JV and Hansbrough is more of a street fight than a basketball game.

[Puffer]

...The battle down low would be epic. Oakley, Davis and JYD vs Amir, JV and Hansbrough is more of a street fight than a basketball game.

I think Oakley would wind up killing Hansbrough. I mean the refs would be struggling to pull them apart.

[CGarbs]

the team dynamic is different, but there's probably more in common with the 2006 team in terms of the overall state of both the league & where they figure in it than there is with the 2000 team.

I have heard this a lot but just don't see it. Especially in terms of two things: age and defence.

Let's start with defence. Back then we had Chris Bosh as our elite offensive option and Jose Calderon as our starting PG. Chris Bosh could score at will at times but I would say that, overall, he was a below average defender. When you have a below average defender at the rim which is the most efficient place to score from, this is not a good thing. Jose's defence has already been talked about tons and how his lack of defence constantly put the team in positions where they would have to make defensive rotations and teams can find gaps more easily that way.

Contrast then with now. Our PG is Lowry who is a very strong defender and helps our D a lot by limiting penetration. Our elite offensive option in Derozan(less dominant than Bosh was as a scorer for sure) isn't strong defensively but at least its not at the rim and it has less of an overall impact to keep him on the floor as long as we have the guys down low to hold things down.

That team back then had enough D to keep them in games(good ol' Garbo and Parker helped there) but won with their offence. Whereas, overall, our current team knows how to defend and it isn't so reliant on one or two key pieces coming up big at big moments.

Next let's talk about Age/upside. The difference makers we brought in that year were Nesterovic, Parker, and Garbo. Alongside those Jose also showed great growth and skill. The problem with those first three especially is they were already at or past their prime. You knew what Parker and Nesterovic gave you wouldn't be around too much longer. On top of that you knew that with all of these players(outside the emergence of Bargnani and Calderon) what you saw, was what you got.

Contrast that with now. TRoss is our Parker(both for shooting and defence) except with way more athleticism and upside due to his youth. Similarly Jonas has a similar impact to Rasho but again with more athleticism and upside due to youth. Even Amir(our teams version of GArbo) is younger although both are pretty much the same player in their respective years(both are dirty work players who are who they are by now). So with these comparisons, all that's left is Derozan and Lowry matching up against Bosh and Calderon and for me that's an overall wash.

The big difference and hope for that 2006 team was the emergence of our #1 pick Bargnani, He alone was our hope for internal growth. Our team now has that developmental hope for Ross AND Jonas and knows that even our "they are what they are" players are young enough and talented enough that we can move forward with this group(you know that you don't need to worry about replacing guys like DD,Lowry, and Amir as they have lots of game left in them).

Also, back then(or was it soon after?) we commited max dollars for a non-max player in Bosh which made our cap situation tougher whereas we don't have those same problems with our current team.

Anyways, this is how I see it, would love to hear how you guys view things differently!