Toronto Raptors: 6 worst free agent signings in team history
5. Jason Kapono
Jason Kapono was a man ahead of his time. In today’s NBA, he would be worth every dollar of the contract he signed with the Raptors in 2007. That contract proved to be a faulty one for Toronto, though.
Throughout his career, Kapono was known as a 3-point specialist and nothing else. He won the 3-point Contest twice and at one point held the league record for 3-point accuracy.
His skills were on their best display during the 2006-07 season, which Kapono spent with the Miami Heat. In a career-high 35 starts, he averaged 10.9 points per game while shooting a mind-blowing 51.4 percent from three, which led the NBA. The Raptors, in turn, handed him a four-year, $24 million deal.
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Kapono provided some return on investment in his first year in Canada, leading the league in three-point shooting again at 48.3 percent. In the following season, however, he dropped to 42.8 percent from distance. His inability to contribute in any other fashion – during the 2008-09 season, he averaged a career-high 1.3 assists per game – made him expendable.
Following his second season in Toronto, the Raptors dealt him to the Philadelphia 76ers for Reggie Evans, who played just 58 games with the team. Kapono, meanwhile, saw a steady decline in his three-point shooting and was out of the NBA by the end of the 2011-12 season.