Bill on why the 2019 Raptors are a legitimate title winner, but also an incredible outlier.
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33 Comments
7 guys? 8th man Norm Powell just made an Allstar team. Og was out for the whole playoffs as their 9th guy. Vanvleet went on to make an allstar team. Siakam multiple allstars. Lowry, Gasol former allstars. Ibaka as their 3rd big was insane depth. Green arguably the best pure 3 and D guy of the 2010's. This roster was so stacked looking back with either former, current or future allstars and killer role players. Everyone could defend and shoot the 3 at a good to great level. Add Kawhi to the 2020 Raptors and tell me how they dont repeat that year.
Remember when Zaza injured Kawhi during the Spur series where they were beating that amazing Golden State team? That Raptors run was karma for that Spurs vs Golden State series when they injured Kawhi. The basketball gods sometimes find balance.
If people want to drop an asterisk on any titles, 2019 Raptors and 2024 Celtics are the most deserving. Without devastating injuries neither of those teams win.
Giannis won MVP & was not a year away. neither were the Bucks.. who blew a 2-0 ECF lead & pretty clearly win the title if not. that was the true window
You can literally do this for every winning team in NBA history lmfao
If only KD didn’t get hurt. Biggest what If in finals history
Kawhi was a new addition and missed a lot of time in the regular season.
Raptors didn't really find their chemistry until the playoffs.
Down 2-0 to the Bucks, they win 5 in a row and 7 of 8 against the Giannis Bucks and Warriors dynasty.
Just takes getting hot at the right time.
It’s funny how people can understand Curry being exhausted in the 2019 finals but not LeBron without both of his scorers for basically the whole series against the best team in the league in 2015.
It was true justice for Warriors to lose against Kawhi and the Raptors. Regardless of Kd klay getting hurt. Given how warriors beat Spurs through dirty play hurting Kawhi who was wrecking them in 2017
Lots of luck, a ton of luck, a lot a lot of luck. You need that tho, Kawhi was unstoppable but if KD is there it’s just game over in 4-5 games max
Those injuries were due. Klay is playing 100+ games per season for five straight years at that point. And KD had 3 intense seasons like that. All that being said, warriors were legitimately two Lebron balls and one ACL and Achilles away from winning five years straight on paper. And all this are built on Curry miraculously fixed his ankle with that 4/44 mil low ball offer.
Giannis was up 3-2 heading back home but his supporting cast absolutely disappeared in games 6&7. If he doesn’t foul out in game 6 double OT to a phantom call the raptors never win the title
No mention of the Kawhi shot against the Sixers
Beating prime 76ers and MVP Giannis is enough to say that raptors team legitimately won the title
Didn't even mention Kawhi lucky bounce in gm 7 vs philly
Why are Bills eyes so red like that? He’s either not sleeping at all or he’s high on some pain pills constantly like an addict
2 things are true
The winning team is not always the best team
The winning team deserves the title. Luck, skill, timing all play a part in it but it is a 4 round gauntlet so not a fluke
LMFAO only with Steph Curry and pretty much everybody but LeBron James do people get to say “yeah but the entire team threw the kitchen sink at him” well then what the fuck have defense has been trying to do with LeBron for 20 years?? 😂😂😂😂
Peeps also seem to forget that Kawhi played those finals on one leg and was still the best player on the floor (other than when KD was hitting everything for a quarter in game 5), while Lowry was playing with one hand. And OG Anonuby (who was already a brilliant defender at this stage) never got to play at all from about February on.
The Raptors were also one of two teams that had a top five ranking in both offensive and defensive team ranking. The Warriors I believe were 16th in defense that year…and while I'm sure much of that was due to them being bored plus wanting to conserve their energy, the fact remains that teams with defensive rankings that low rarely win the title.
So while the Dubs were beyond unlucky with their injuries, I still think the Raps were better that season (they did sweep the Warriors during the season, with the game at the Oracle being a massive blowout…albeit with key players on both sides missing out). I don't think Houston does much against them, or a healthy Celtics either.
I will say that the Sixers wound up being scary as hell…it remains wild to me that they let Butler go when he was pretty clearly their best closer. And forget the four bounce shot from Kawhi to close the series…it doesn't get there if Kawhi doesn't hit a ridiculous iso three late on Embiid in Philly to tie the series 2-2. That for me is the biggest shot in Raptors history.
I was never mad about Kawhi leaving though…cause everybody with a brain knew he wanted to be a Clipper. The dude likes wearing shorts all day, that's hard to do here with our five month winters. 😂
So the lakers in 2020 aren’t legit but the raptors are lol got it lol
Like golden state winning when Kyrie and Kevin love went out.
What giveth cometh
OG missed the entire playoffs. Lowry had a broken thumb on his shooting hand. Kawhi was dragging his leg behind him for the entire final.
Now – people looking back remember that as a competitive final. It was not. Raps blew out the Warriors 3 times. And blew game 5 in the last minute. The Raps were the right team to win.
I think the year celtics won had more injuries of star players…😅
Dude they won the title cause the other team broke down in injuries. They don't even have a chance against the full warriors
The Raptors got lucky and needed LeBron to leave the East.
The Netflix and Spotify deals really suck man. Kinda forgot this show existed until I saw this short. Really wish I could at least listen on Apple.
You can make all these same excuses for why the OKC title last year was kind of meh. Really, except for those years where you get amazing 7 game conf championships with the best 2 teams, you can make this kind of excuse.
They just beat a greatly diminished Warriors. Literally Steph and Looney everyone else was on their deathbed
They were one bounce away from not making it out of the first round…team of destiny for sure.
Now go through the warriors titles wins and how many breaks they got that no one talks about
People HATED that Raptors team, calling them frauds at the time. After a few years of seeing what rando's off the bench (Norm Powell, FVV, Siakam, OG Anunoby) were able to do for other teams, people started giving that 2019 team a lot more credit.
As a Warrior fan, I still thought we were gonna win after KD went down. Once Klay went down I knew it was over. We also lost Demarcus Cousins too
The Raptors got VERY lucky. Cousins was badly hobbled and limping from a series of injuries earlier in the postseason and could move out there; KD played only in Game 5 and less than one quarter of that before shredding his Achilles; and Klay Thompson, who was having a great series, was torching the hell out of them in Game 6 but got fouled on what was flatly a dirty play and tore his ACL, and he was done. Klay was famous for his Game 6's and this one was no different until the injury as he had 30 by the time of his injury and the Warriors had a good lead. I have little doubt the Warriors would have won that game, and then a game 7 in Toronto with the Raptors against the Splash Brothers would have been anyone's game. Instead Curry was on his own and Toronto was able to double and triple him in the 4th quarter of Game 6 and the Raps squeaked by by four points. Yeah, every title can be seen as a "legitimate" title but some are more legit than others.