After tonight’s 26-point performance, Serge Ibaka is officially averaging the most points he ever has in his career. 15.2, beating out the 15.1 he had in the 2013-14 season as well as the 15.0 he had last year. He’s been in the league for over a decade, and someone with his longevity averaging a career-high in points is impressive. Then again, he’s also (depending on whether you view his listed age as legitimate) only 30, which is still prime-years territory for a lot of players. So maybe it’s not so impressive. But it also is.
I don’t know what I’m getting at here, other than that since Ibaka has been such a nice pickup for the Raptors over the last couple seasons, they should probably think about retiring his number when he finally hangs it up. If you think that’s stupid, remember: he won a championship for them. Maybe not because of any supreme individual performances, but because of how SOLID he is. The ESPN body issue from a few years ago really clued me in to how SOLID he his, and he has only solidified his solidness since then.
The Raptors organization would also do well to retire Fred VanVleet’s number. Heck, just retire all the numbers of the entire team that won the chip. There might not be many of the most commonly-used numbers left after that, but the NBA allows you to go up to 99 and I never see anyone take advantage of it.