Okay, so today I’m gonna talk about something kinda random – the 2016 Toronto Raptors roster. Yeah, I know, it’s been a while, but I was digging through some old files and this popped up, and I thought, “Why not share?” It was a fun team, and I actually learned a few things putting this together.
It all started when I was trying to remember who exactly was on that team. You know how it is, you remember the big names like DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, but the rest get a little fuzzy. So, first thing I did was hit up Google. Just a simple search for “Toronto Raptors 2016 roster” did the trick.
I found a bunch of different sites listing the team, but I wanted to make sure I got it right, you know? So I cross-referenced a couple of them – ESPN, Basketball-Reference, that kinda stuff. I started jotting down names in a simple text file. Nothing fancy, just name after name.
Here’s where it got a little more interesting. I didn’t just want a list of names. I wanted to know, like, what their roles were on the team. Were they starters? Bench guys? Did they even play much? So, back to the search engine I went.
I started looking for game logs and player stats from that season. Basketball-Reference was super helpful here. I could see how many minutes each player averaged, their points, rebounds, assists, all that good stuff. It took a bit of digging, jumping from player to player, but I started to get a clearer picture.
I realized Cory Joseph was a key backup point guard, and that Bismack Biyombo was a beast on defense. I’d kinda forgotten how important those guys were. And then there were guys like Norman Powell who were just starting to emerge. It was cool seeing how the pieces fit together.
I even watched some old highlights on YouTube. Seeing DeRozan and Lowry in their prime again was awesome. It brought back a lot of memories from that playoff run.
Finally, I decided to organize all this into a simple table. I used markdown, because that’s just how I roll. I listed each player, their position, their average minutes played, and a quick note about their role on the team. It wasn’t super detailed, but it was enough to give you a good overview of the roster.
- DeMar DeRozan: Shooting Guard, All-Star.
- Kyle Lowry: Point Guard, the engine.
- Jonas Valanciunas: Center, solid inside presence.
- Cory Joseph: Point Guard, reliable backup.
- Bismack Biyombo: Center, defensive anchor off the bench.
- Terrence Ross: Shooting Guard, streaky scorer.
- Norman Powell: Shooting Guard/Small Forward, promising young player.
- Luis Scola: Power Forward, veteran presence.
- Patrick Patterson: Power Forward, stretch four.
- James Johnson: Small Forward/Power Forward, versatile defender.
- Delon Wright: Point Guard, developing guard.
- Lucas Nogueira: Center, shot-blocking specialist.
- Jason Thompson: Power Forward, late-season addition.
Lessons learned? Well, it’s easy to forget the details as time goes on. Taking the time to really dig into the data and watch some old highlights helped me appreciate that team even more. It also reminded me how much I enjoy basketball history. Maybe I’ll do another one of these for a different team sometime. Who knows?
