As Raptors’ fans we’re probably gonna have an adverse reaction to this take, and while I don’t agree with it, I think it’s worth having some light hearted conversation and breakdowns about it
Have the Nuggets had too easy of a path to the finals? Kinda the benefits of being first in the regular season, so they earned it.
I think the only way to analyze this is to assume everyone is healthy.
How much impact does Marc Gasol have on Jokic?
Who on Denver stops Kawhi? Aaron Gordon?
Lowry is still influential in the finals right now, and we all saw what a younger healthier Lowry can do. I don’t know if the Nuggets have that kinda leadership on the court.
I’m taking Lowry of Jeff Green any day, lol.
OG would also have to be healthy for that match up, because it’s simply about the teams, but if you prefer to leave him out you can.
It would also be interesting to see who you guys would rank as the top 5 of these 9 teams in the pic above.
Is Denver actually the best on this list? Does anyone, including us, beat a healthy 2019 Warriors?
Picture source: https://youtu.be/x52YMtVDAAM (start at 4:09 min mark for Bill Simmons quote).
by AHImusic
29 Comments
Idk with these theoretical questions. But I would say we faced stronger competition than the Nuggets have.
It would be close with the size, length, and depth we had.
Bill Simmons said this to create an excuse for Boston losing. He’s also permanently afflicted with recency bias. Denver is great but not that great, and when this is all over people will get better perspective again.
Kawhi
He was talking about the teams as they appeared in reality.
If we’re talking everyone at full hypothetical strength the answer is the Warriors with healthy KD – ain’t nobody beating that team.
He didn’t see the Raptors in person in 2018-2019 lol.
He’s from Bean town, dudes a born hater and thrower of shade
With everyone healthy it’s obviously the 2019 warriors.
That raps team imo is better than anyone except the kd warriors obviously.
ehh im leaning towards the nuggets beating us to. They have a player in jokic thats on kawhi tier plus murray who is obviously better than 2019 version of siakam. I think it would be close though
Denver gets tied up in knots by 39yo Kyle, prime Kyle would be a menace
everyone healthy? who’s beating prime KD, Curry, and Klay?
2019 Gasol crashing the whole Jokic show would be a vibe
He didn’t watch the Raptors in person that run. He told Masai if they made the finals he would go to Toronto (he has never been to Toronto which is crazy). But didn’t come through when they actually made the finals.
I feel like the 19 raps beat every title team that’s won since in a series. Am I just being a homer?
This nuggets team is really good, what Jokic has done is on par if not more impressive than what kawhi did until this point during his run in the playoffs.
Leading in points, rebounds and assists is insane. It doesn’t take anything away from the kawhi raptors to say Jokic and his team are incredibly good.
Would these nuggets beat those raps though? Doubt it
Kawhi was basically Playoff Jimmy but better in every way, you add that deep bench and a rising Siakam and Fred yea nah, raptors in 6ix.
Does he make a list of all the teams he’s seen in person?
And I don’t know how wild a take that is, we won our championship in the first year we had Kawhi. They’ve been together for years, they’re more cohesive.
If Kawhi stayed, and Siakam gets to be his #2 we would have been multiple ring holders. The team that we had would have been perfectly structured if he re-signed
The synergy between Jokic and Murray is pretty crazy, but I’d still put the 2019 Raps over them.
Healthy and prime are two different things, but healthy KD was still one of the best in the world.
Jokic is unguardable but if there were a team to defend him it’s the 2018-19 Raptors. I also just don’t think the Nuggets are as much of a juggernaut as made out to be due to their questionable defense.
Defensively, Gasol on Jokic is about as good as you can get for a primary matchup. Fred in his 2019 defensive form would help mitigate the hand-off action. I know Murray is bigger but Fred did about as well as you can do on Steph chasing him around. Their help defense is also stellar and they aren’t susceptible to being bullied by size, unless the Nuggets thought Kyle Lowry was an easy post up back then for some reason. Ideally the Raptors could bump the Nuggets down from the greatest offense ever to a great offense.
Offensively, I don’t see how the Nuggets have an answer.
In my biased view, I think the Raptors have them.
Tough question.
The Raptors championship team had better depth than this current Nuggets squad once you get down to the #7-8 guy. Both teams essentially ran an 8 man rotation in the playoffs.
However, Jokic and Kawhi are a wash at best, and probably Jokic has the slight edge if I’m being honest.
Second best player on that TO squad was probably Siakam, right? I’ll take Murray on this run over him.
Lowry > Aaron Gordon/MPJ/KCP, whomever you had third.
Jeff Green is by far the worst player on either roster, but Danny Green played like shit.
FVV/Norm are stronger players than Braun/Brown.
One thing that’s important to consider is how effective would Ibaka/Gasol be against Jokic. On defense I think they would have no chance, and I’m not sure how much either can do against the Nuggets D either.
Another thing to consider is, assuming Kawhi marked Murray, how Murray would fare. Gordon would probably mark Kawhi, and Kawhi wins that one convincingly.
Coaching wise, I don’t know. I like both coaches and I’ll probably call it a wash.
What bothers me is that we were definitely better than the 2020 lakers
lmao we would destroy that team seriously. they are still weak defensively and we played both sides of the ball
The 2019 Warriors would have beat the absolute shit out of Denver, lol. Simmons is such a prisoner of the moment that I don’t know how anyone takes him seriously.
Idk, we were definitely more stacked overall… it would be a good matchup for sure.
This Denver offense is just as good as our defense was back then.
I think it would hinge on whoever has homecourt winning in 7.
2019 playoff Raps are way better than the 2023 playoff nuggets. With a healthy OG even more so
Everyone at full strength? Imagine we had OG healthy during that run as well?
If Klay didn’t go down, Warriors would have won the series.