Since the team’s birth in 1995, the Toronto Raptors have sent five different players to All-Star Weekend: Vince Carter (five times), Antonio Davis (one time), Chris Bosh (five times), DeMar DeRozan (one time), and Kyle Lowry (one time). The only time two Raptors made the same All-Star team was in 2001, when Davis was selected to replace an injured Grant Hill along with Carter’s selection by fans.
It’s interesting.
The Raptors haven’t had many good teams over the years, and their inability to acquire, develop, or retain star-level talent is a major reason why. In fact, once you go beyond the Raptors’ All-Stars, there’s a significant drop in talent.
Damon Stoudamire? Too young. Tracy McGrady? Also too young. Morris Peterson never had a PER of better than 15.3. Doug Christie’s best years were in Toronto, but he was never good enough to make an All-Star team. Andrea Bargnani? Hedo Turkoglu? There’s not much to choose from.
That puts this year’s Raptors squad in a unique position. For the first time, it’s possible — likely, even — that the Raptors end up with two players in the same All-Star Game without one of them being a replacement player. With all due respect to Antonio Davis, there was no way he’d have played in an All-Star Game had Hill and/or Shaquille O’Neal been healthy that year. This is new territory for the Raptors.
Yes, DeRozan and Lowry have each made an All-Star team before, but it was separately. In each of their respective All-Star seasons, both players put up career highs across the board. This season, they’re both putting in seasons far better than those. Check it out:
| Points per game | Assists per game | Rebounds per game | True shooting percentage | Usage percentage | Net rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeRozan (2014) | 22.7 | 4.0 | 4.3 | 53.2% | 28.2 | +3.4 |
| DeRozan (2016) | 22.6 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 54.7% | 28.8 | +3.6 |
| Lowry (2015) | 17.8 | 6.8 | 4.7 | 52.7% | 25.4 | +3.0 |
| Lowry (2016) | 20.9 | 6.2 | 4.9 | 57.1% | 26.6 | +6.5 |
Unfortunately, neither player is likely to be voted a starter. As things currently stand, Lowry is third in votes while DeRozan is seventh. While Lowry’s only about 10,000 votes behind Kyrie Irving (yes, the Kyrie Irving that’s played a grand total of 86 minutes this season), unless Raptors fans make a serious push, that gap should continue to grow as Irving plays more games and puts in better performances. DeRozan, barring some sort of miracle, is out of the picture as a starter.
That means Raptors fans will need to rely on the NBA’s coaches to usher in both Lowry and DeRozan. That’s asking a lot, even with how well Lowry, DeRozan and the Raptors as a whole are playing.
The Raptors currently have the fifth best record in the Eastern Conference and the sixth best net rating in the NBA. But with how much teams slide around in the standings (the Raptors alone have gone from two to five this week), the coaches might need to catch the Raptors when they’re on a hot streak relative to the top half of the Eastern Conference. If the Raptors are to get two players into the All-Star Game, the team as a whole needs to look very, very good.
Beyond that, Lowry and DeRozan will need to keep up this level of play. That won’t be easy for two reasons, and they’re related. The first is that Lowry and DeRozan shouldered the Raptors with Jonas Valanciunas and DeMarre Carroll out. Now that they’re back, Lowry and DeRozan can rely on their teammates more and their numbers could decline accordingly. The second reason is that Lowry and DeRozan are both in the top-10 in minutes played this season. They regularly play north of 36 minutes a night and quite frankly, it’s astonishing that neither’s shown much in the way of fatigue or disillusionment to this point. If those heavy minutes catch up to them, though, watch out.
Look, it sucks that we’ll be relying on the coaches to get Lowry and DeRozan into the All-Star Game. However, that doesn’t mean we should stop voting. In fact, we should probably vote more. Even if we’re unable to get either in as a starter, a huge vote total will catch the eye of coaches and the NBA blogosphere, and perhaps influence what decisions the coaches eventually make. And more importantly, Lowry and DeRozan will see those vote totals. Show them support! Raptors Republic and Raptors HQ have already begun to up their #NBAVote tweet game, and you should too.
The Raptors are on the verge of doing something they’ve never really done before (love you, Antonio). With this year’s All-Star festivities in Toronto, there’d be no greater feeling than seeing two of our own on the floor in February. There’s not a whole lot we can do. But in a weird way, we can do a hell of a lot at the same time.
Go vote. Go yell at other teams’ beat writers about the Raptors. Tell your mother about how Lowry and DeRozan are loving, involved parents. Buy tickets to a game against a crappy team. Wear a jersey in public for the first time in a decade. There are a lot of little things we can do that might come off as insignificant individually, but together and on a large scale, they really add up.
Not to sound like your local MP, but your vote really can make a difference.
