Founded in 1995 as one of the first NBA expansion teams in Canada, the Toronto Raptors are a relatively young franchise. Despite this fact, the team has employed several great point guards over the years.

In this piece, we’ll take a look at the five best ball handlers in Raptors history.

5: T.J. Ford

The Raptors acquired Ford from the Bucks in 2006. As part of the deal, Toronto sent Charlie Villanueva to Milwaukee — a move that rubbed many fans in Toronto the wrong way.

Ford was meant to serve as the Raptors’ starting point guard. However, he wound up playing in a tandem role alongside Jose Calderon (more on him later).

As a Raptor, Ford averaged 13.2 points and 7.1 assists per game and led the team to its first Atlantic Division title. With 908 dimes to his credit, he is ranked 10th on the team’s all-time leaderboard for assists.

Ultimately, there wasn’t enough playing time for both Ford and Calderon. As a result, Ford was traded to the Indiana Pacers in 2008.

4: Alvin Williams

Williams joined the Raptors in 1998 and was a member of one of the greatest eras in the team’s history. Remarkably, he played in all 82 regular season games in each of his first two campaigns with the team. His contributions to the squad were a bit overlooked, however, as stars like Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady were also on the roster.

Unfortunately, Williams’ career was cut a bit short due to a knee injury. Despite this fact, the former Villanova Wildcat remained with the team in a series of roles until 2013, including assistant coach and Director of Player Development.

With 1,791 assists, Williams is still ranked 4th on the Raptor’s all-time list.

3: Jose Calderon

Calderon, who hails from Spain, was already enjoying a fine basketball career overseas before being persuaded to join the Raptors in 2005. Though he struggled with his shooting stroke in his first season with the team, he ranked third among all rookies in assists with 4.5 per game.

Several elements of Calderon’s game stood out right away, including his court vision, ball handling skills and outstanding free-throw shooting. In fact, he set an all-time NBA record for free-throw percentage during the 2008-09 season, as he made 98.05 percent of his shots at the line. And yes, he is still the team’s all-time leader from the charity stripe. Furthermore, he holds Toronto’s record for most assists in a game (19 twice, once vs. Chicago and once vs. Minnesota).

2: Damon Stoudamire

Ah, yes… “Mighty Mouse,” as he was known. As the Raptors’ first ever draft pick (No. 7 overall in 1995), Stoudamire is still a beloved member of the team’s extended family. He would go on to win Rookie of the Year honors and become the first face of the franchise.

Stoudamire had a breakout rookie campaign, racking up averages of 19.0 points on 42.6 percent shooting from the field (39.5 percent from beyond the arc), 9.3 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.4 steals. As a testament to his accuracy at range, he knocked down an NBA record 133 three-point field goals in his rookie campaign, breaking a record that was previously held by Dennis Scott. However, Damon’s rookie mark of 133 threes has been surpassed several times over since.

Stoudamire previously held Toronto’s record for most triple-doubles, but that mark was broken by Kyle Lowry in 2014. He also holds the team’s all-time record for assists per game (8.8). Ultimately, though, he was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in February of 1998.

1: Kyle Lowry

There can really be no other option for the No. 1 point guard in Raptors history. With Kyle Lowry running the point, Toronto claimed its first NBA championship in 2019, defeating the Golden State Warriors in 4-2 fashion.

Lowry was traded to the Raptors in exchange for Gary Forbes and a future first round pick in July of 2012. It wasn’t long until the team recognized his potential on both ends of the floor. In fact, he averaged 23 points and seven assists through his first three games with Toronto, but an injury forced him to the sidelines in just his fourth outing.

Lowry would go on to recover and play a reserve role behind Jose Calderon. However, Kyle regained his starting position after Calderon was traded. From there, the former Villanova standout would lead his team to prominence in the Eastern Conference.

To this day, Lowry holds several records with the Raptors, including those for total assists (3,905), steals (816) and three-point field goals (1,376). He also holds the No. 1 marks for offensive and defensive win shares with the team.

Let’s see where Kyle leads the Raptors in the coming seasons.