The complex history of James Harden had a brief stop in Brooklyn, where as tumultuous as he might be, “The Beard” was still one of the top performers in Basketball.

After years of All-Star seasons, all with growing frustration that his Houston Rockets could not make the Finals, Harden asked for a trade in the 2020 off-season. Eight Games into the year, Harden obtained his wish, traded to the East with the Brooklyn Nets, who formed a new “Big Three” with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. The promise was there, but the results did not matriculate.

The trio were rarely on the floor together due to rotating injuries, but Harden always sparked for the Nets when he played.  An All-Star in 2021, Harden was still a potent scorer, averaging 24.4 Points per Game for Brooklyn over 36 Games.  The following year, Harden was still scoring well, with a 22.5 PPG in 44 Games, but Harden again was frustrated, and asked for a trade, with Philadelphia being his landing point.

Harden never had a full season for Brooklyn, but the game of Basketball is a star’s contest where the elite dominate. Even with under 100 Games as a Net, the numbers don’t lie, even though it was overall a failed experiment.

Kevin Durant went down with a torn Achilles in the 2019 Finals when Golden State lost to the Toronto Raptors.  He made his intent clear to leave GSW for the Nets, and a sign-and-trade was engineered though Durant had to sit out the entirety of the 2019-20 campaign during injury.  

Making his return to the court in December of 2020, Durant was joined by James Harden three weeks later and along with Kyrie Irving, this was the next “big three” that would win it all!  That didn’t happen, and Harden barely lasted a year, but the Nets problems can not be traced to Durant’s performance (when healthy).  Durant was a Second Team All-NBA Selection lin 2021-22, but the cracks around the bg three formed.  After Harden left, Kyrie had his issues with off-court comments and his refusal to get vaccinated.  Durant and Irving were both unhappy, but despite their frustrations, they were still elite players, especially Durant.  Irving and Durant both wanted out of Brooklyn, and they got it, with KD traded to Phoenix.

As tumultuous as his run in BRK was, Durant was still a top-tier player, averaging 29.0 Points per Game, which was higher than he did anywhere else.  This is why he is still ranked so high despite the expecations in a Championship not being met.

Jarrett Allen was a proven commodity in Brooklyn, but there were pieces that had to give to engineer the trade of James Harden to the Nets.  Allen was one of those components, and as part of a four-team trade, he was off to Cleveland.

The move seemed like a step down in terms of overall talent for Allen, but time is telling a different story.  Allen’s numbers in his first full season with the Cavaliers (2021-22) were the best of his career, where he added his first All-Star Game appearance, and posted career-highs in Points (16.1), Rebounds (10.8) and PER (23).  Allen slipped a bit the following season (14.3 PPG and 9,8 RPG), but came back with a double-double average last season (10.5 Rebounds & 16.5 Points).   More importantly, he anchored he Cavs to a decent playoff run, and is still a very young player.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our post 2021/22 revision of our top Toronto Raptors.

As for all of our top 50 players in basketball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Basketball Association. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, Toronto returned to the playoffs, but were bounced in the first round.  The impact of 2021-22 yielded three elevations and one new entrant.

As always, we present our top five, which was not affected by the last season:

1. Kyle Lowry

2. Chris Bosh

3. Vince Carter

4. DeMar DeRozan

5. Jose Calderon

You can find the entire list here.

Notably, last year’s All-NBA Third Team Selection, Pascal Siakim, was unable to advance from #7.

Last year’s first-time All-Star, Fred Van Vleet, advanced from #12 to #8.

Big man, Chris Boucher, continues his surprise ascendence on this list, moving three spots to #18.

Small Forward, O.G. Anunoby, moves to #20 from #23.

The only new entrant is Scottie Barnes, last season’s Rookie of the Year who debuts at #36.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.