Rise Together: The Story so Far- Part 2
Over the next two seasons, Toronto underwent a massive rebuild that saw numerous veterans join the club. With Carter and McGrady on the roster, Butch Carter and Grunwald had a plan for rebuilding around their two pillars.
"The previous season Toronto was extremely deficient in defensive field-goal percentage, and if you lower your defensive field-goal percentage, you have to rebound those missed shots," said Carter, who was promoted to head coach. "I had built an analytical model to determine the players in the NBA on winning teams that give the largest amount of energy that was measurable in areas that would make [a team] a success."
Through that analytical model, the Raptors targeted elite offensive rebounders Charles Oakley, Kevin Willis, Antonio Davis and Dale Davis. In a one-year span, Toronto acquired three of the four, headlined by Oakley.
"Well, my goal was when I got there, I told them I'm going to bring a whole different attitude to Toronto that they never saw before," Oakley said. "It was a hockey town, so I told them every year the team will get better."
Other veterans like Muggsy Bogues and Dell Curry joined on as well. By the 1999-2000 campaign, Toronto had five players over the age of 30 who played 1,000 minutes or more. The previous season they had none.
"I think teams need a veteran presence to be successful in the NBA," Grunwald said. "I think that's forever true and still true to this day. We were trying to be successful. We had some issues in terms of retaining players in Toronto, and we wanted to make sure that Vince could be retained. And one of the ways, or factors, of that was the team needed to be successful."
As the veterans arrived, they all accepted roles as supporting cast members, allowing McGrady and Carter to incubate. During the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, Toronto nearly made the playoffs, but a late-season swoon caused the team to fall just four games short of the postseason. Carter wowed with a yearlong dunk showcase that ended with his being named the 1999 Rookie of the Year.
McGrady, who was building a highlight reel of his own, took a modest step forward in his sophomore campaign. Surrounding Carter and McGrady was simple. Oakley, Willis and Davis played the roles of veterans who provided a physical presence in the paint. Christie was a defensive ace on the perimeter. Curry and Dee Brown provided the three-point shooting necessary to space the floor when Carter and McGrady faced double-teams.
Bogues was a steady presence at point guard, and youngsters Michael Stewart, John Thomas and Alvin Williams filled out the main roster. "Players had roles to play. It's like a music group," Oakley said. "We were like Earth, Wind & Fire. Vince and Tracy were bassist Verdine White and lead singer Philip Bailey."
When Bogues arrived in Toronto, he had an instant comparison for what he saw in McGrady and Carter. "Once we got there, we saw the ability that Tracy McGrady had and what Vince was doing and continued to do," Bogues said. "They were the two closest to Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in terms of physicality, in terms of their game and what they brought to the game."
Indeed, everyone saw what the Raptors had in their two young stars.
"The veteran guys made a pact that we're going to do all the dirty work and everything we need to do to protect these young guys because they're so talented," Brown said.
But with veteran status also came the leeway to establish how the team operated. "We had to make a rule in practice that you couldn't dunk, because Vince and Tracy would try some crazy stuff in practice,” Brown said. "Now you messing with the wrong people because if you dunk on Charles Oakley, Antonio Davis and Kevin Willis, you might get hurt."
They also established a culture for the team. "We were pretty strong in our leadership in terms of what we expected," Bogues said. "We wanted to make sure that they understood professionalism, not just on the court but off the court. How to come to the game properly dressed, how we unified with one another on what we was capable of doing. We knew we had a lot of talent, especially young talent."
The team eventually saw Carter settle into the role of superhero and McGrady as his sidekick. The cousins were close and spent much of their time together, but they were also extremely competitive. "They tried to outdo each other," said Brown. "If Vince dunked on somebody during the game, Tracy's like, 'OK, I got one better than you.' Then he would try to dunk on somebody during the game."