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[QUOTE="jncuse, post: 5432485, member: 1969"]
The reasons for not playing him much after that 1997/1998 were pretty clear if you followed the Raptors at the time.   The Raptors had huge positional upgrades at the 3/4 that offeason.  They didn't see Wallace as a core player because of his tweener status which made him a bad defender, when being a 3/4 tweener mattered more in the NBA.    The Raptors were also not at the same level of "bad" team in 1998/1999 like they were in 1997/1998 (they went from a 16-66 team to a team that was almost .500 in 1998/1999 and just missed the playoffs)    [B]They drafted SF Vince Carter that season.   Traded for PF/C Kevin Willis and PF Charles Oakley that offseason.  And they also were committed to playing Tracy McGrady more as a 19 year old in his second year in the NBA[/B].  [B]Wallace just got squeezed out.  And it was 100% fair.[/B]

He wasn't good enough to get more minutes on that 1998/1999 team.
- He couldn't get minutes over Vince and TMac at the 3, which was the "best" position for Wallace.  And Vince was really good much more quickly than expected.
- And he couldn't defend at the 4, and the Raptors brought in established vets like Oakley and Willis for a reason.  So he got blocked there.

I loved Wallace for his play at Syracuse --  and enjoyed his ability to score in his first season in Tornoto on a terrible team -- but he was not NBA starter material.   In Toronto, his rebounding was also closer to 6/36 not 8/36 over his full time there.
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